Damo (2003) DVD - YA Entertainment

Last edited by pokute on Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

Product Title: Damo Box Set (MBC TV Series)
DramaWiki Entry: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Damo
External Review: http://dvdreviews.suite101.com/article.cfm/damo_the_undercover_lady_detective
Region Code: DVD Region Code 1 - USA, Canada, U.S. Territories
Picture Format: NTSC 4:3 Letterboxed (16:9 content in 4:3)
Original Broadcast Date: 2003
DVD Release Date: 2004
Contents: 14 Episodes (7 dvd's)
Video Quality: Pretty good, but since it's letterboxed the resolution is reduced. It could certainly be better.
Audio Quality: Excellent (However, the menu music is about 8 times louder than the episode audio, so you have to be quick on the remote to avoid waking the neighbors.)
Subtitle Quality: Excellent (But some problems with technical language related to forensic investigation, and, as always with YAE, class-signifying idioms are flattened or bungled.)

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

This is a surprisingly screwball series considering the subject matter... I often find myself going "WTF?!" over bizarre anachronisms and slaptstick elements. In spite of the strangeness of it all, it's definitely worth watching. Though I hesitate to recommend that folks spend 70-100 bucks to get video that looks like single-pass TV capture at moderate bitrate. That and the problems with the audio level between the menus and feature make me really wonder what YAE think they are doing. Many of the fansub groups in this forum could do a much better job of it.
The more of these boxsets I buy, the more I find myself wishing I could download high-quality hdtv rips and fan produced subs. YAE is defending incompetence with intimidation.

Do I sound upset? I've spent $1000 so far buying commercial dvd's that are generally inferior to tv rips with fansubs. If somebody else tries to explain it away with "oh well, no doubt they are getting inferior raws" I will burst a blood vessel. If they put no more care into acquiring raws than they do into their subtitles then I have no doubt they are getting inferior raws.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:14 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I too have spent alot of money on Kdrama's from YAE lately and I have been underwhelmed to say the least. Oh and EVERY set has that weird Menu music super loud actual show very quite thing. What's up with that. I am not seriously starting to consider abandoning my buy if I can rule, but if they don't show some improvement I just mght.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Yeah, I'm enjoying Sandglass immensely, but when I put a new disc into the player and that YAE logo (on a stark white background, so not only does it assault the ears, but the eyes as well - guess it's their equivalent of "always watch in a well-lighted room") pops up and that ear-splitting noise screams out... All the outrage over the horrible actions of the Korean dictatorship shifts rapidly onto YA, dictators of Asian pop culture.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Alright, updated review of Damo time, now that I've watched 6 episodes:

This show is really pretty juvenile. It's like a show for twelve year olds, but with pictures of a dead woman with a big blob of semen on her thigh. Who knows what the target audience was... How many five minute long takes of the female lead trying to look pensive or weepy and failing to convey any emotion at all is the audience supposed to sit through? Sometimes the other characters are plainly in the scene with no instructions to do anything at all, so they just stand there, looking confused, or blank, or bored silly. And the police are a bunch of clothes-horses... They have more changes of clothes than the queen mother in Dae Jang Geum. And even the poorest villager, who probably never washed once in his life IRL, is always dressed in spotless rags. Also, they seem to have had only one rubber stick-on scar, which they pass around from one actor to another.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:29 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Final review of Damo

This series is damn stupid. If you liked Shinobi, run out and buy Damo... It's more of the same crap. Kamen Rider Den-O has ten times the humor and bigger explosions, I'm sticking with that.