Handmaid's
Tale: The Complete Series
(2017 - 2025/MGM/Warner DVD Set)/No
Chains No Masters
(2023/Distrib/Icarus DVD)/Splendid
Outing (1978/MVD/Radiance
Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C/B Sound: C+/C/B- Extras: C+/C-/B Main Programs:
B/B-/B-
Now
for some dramas with real world implications...
The
Handmaid's Tale: The Complete Series
(2017 - 2025) finally ended its six season run and it has been one of
the better TV series of the last ten years. Here is our coverage of
the first four seasons:
One
Blu-ray
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15140/The+Handmaid's+Tale:+Season+One+(2017/MGM+Blu
Two
Blu-ray
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15354/Crackdown:+Big+City+Blues+(1990/Film+Detective+Bl
Three
Blu-ray
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15616/Game+Of+Thrones:+The+Complete+Eighth+Season+4
Four
DVD
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16113/Handmaid's+Tale:+Season+Four+(2021/MGM/Warner
Though
we did not cover them, I did catch the last two seasons on and off
and filling in the blanks with this set, can say the makers kept this
going as long as possible without the weekly TV grind ruining the
show outright. Of course, with the spinoff show, you know the evil
authoritarian police state was not quite overthrown, but the
storytelling is pretty consistent on the most part and the show never
sold its audience out. Now you can see for yourself in one place,
though note the latter half of the series is still
not on Blu-ray for some odd reason.
Extras
repeat the first four sets, Season
Five
adds One
Burning Question
segments for each episode and Season
Six
adds Inside
The Episode
pieces for all of its episodes.
Simon
Moutairou's No
Chains No Masters
(2023) is a different type of slavery story, this time taking place
in the sugar cane plantations of on the island of Mauritius in 1759,
one of many under told tales. Mati (Anna Diakhere Thiandoum) is only
16 years old, but refuses to accept things as they are, while too
many of the adults around her have given up years ago including her
dad (Ibrahima Mbaye). When she escapes, the hunt gets vicious
quickly.
Benoit
Magimel is the plantation owner who hires a vicious woman named
Madame La Victorie (Camille Cottin) to get her, but things will not
go as planed for anyone. The film does not hold back on brutality,
but never wallows in it, making it a way to punctuate how ugly this
all is.
Though
I did not expect another film on slavery, this was not cliched,
formulaic or badly done. Well shot, acted, edited and intelligent in
handling its mature subject matter, it is worth seeing if you can
handle it and want to see it. We've seen some of this before, sadly
and unfortunately, but it has to show what it has to show to be
honest and truthful and should be commended for that.
Trailers
for other releases are the only extras.
Kim
Soo-yong's Splendid
Outing
(1978) was a big hit in its time about a highly successful woman in a
big money, big time corporation (Yoon Jeong-hee) has a bad dream
about her dead twin sister, she thinks nothing of it and takes a
vacation break. Then, she gets kidnapped by a bitter fisherman who
says she is his runaway bride!
Was
it an ignored omen or something else? From there, it is an awful
experience the absolute opposite of her safe success, by a man she
has never met. Meant in part as a political film, even without
knowing that, it is interesting at first, shades of Swept
Away
among other films, but it also runs into narrative issues as it goes
along and that is all I can say about it without spoilers and the
like.
It
is well photographed and acted, so I can see its further appeal and
why Radiance was ready to get the rights and issue it restored with
their usual strong group of extras. I will say no more, except that
if you are interested, it is worth a look.
Extras
include a
Feature Length Audio Commentary by Ariel Schudson (2025)
Interview
with filmmaker Lee Chang-dong (2025)
Interview
with assistant director Chung Ji-young (2025)
Stranded
but Not Afraid: The Island Women of Classic Korean Cinema - a
visual essay by Pierce Conran
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time
Tomorrow
Limited
Edition booklet featuring new writing by Chung Chong-hwa and Pierce
Conran and archival writing by Director Kim Soo-yong
and
Limited Edition of 2,500 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo
packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of
certificates and markings.
Now
for
playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on Splendid
Outing
can show the age of the materials used in parts, but has a fine scope
look and some nice compositions to go with them. Color is also
consistent and decent, but the credits for what widescreen format
this was shot in is nothing we've seen before. It is listed as
TaichangScope and the studio is Taechang, so it also turns up as
TaechangScope. Like ShawScope, it is just a renamed hype and the
actual lenses used are older, cheap and uncredited. However,
whatever lenses they used, they used them well enough here to their
credit. The
Korean PCM 2.0 Mono is as good as the older theatrical sound will
likely ever get.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Tales episodes
look about as good as they can in the old DVD format, but I really
liked them on Blu-ray and hoped we might get a 4K release. The lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 is similar to the Season Four set we covered
a few years ago and is passable at best. I never expected DTS: X or
Dolby Atmos upgrades either.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image and lossy French and Wolof
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix on Chains are both a little
weaker and softer than I liked, but you can tell this would likely be
more impressive in 1080p and still looks good and consistent.
Sometimes, I really needed the subtitles.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
