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 Uncut US Blu-ray
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Comparison between the German language DVD from XT Video and the American Blu-ray from Unearthed Records.
Dr. Lamb from 1992 is one of the most notorious Cat.III shockers. As with Ebola Syndrome and The Untold Story, only a censored version was initially circulated in the country of production, Hongkong. As with the other two Sicko films, there was not only an uncut DVD release of Dr. Lamb available in German-speaking countries, but now surprisingly even an uncensored HD master is available.
On 09 August 2022, the probably worldwide Blu-ray premiere has been released in the USA by Unearthed Films. Fortunately, the film is available uncut and in uniformly good quality. To be on the safe side, we have once again consulted the old DVD from Austria. Once again, this comparison is not a "classic" report, because basically the DVD was already uncut and the new Blu-ray is as well. In detail, a few spots with different image aspect ratio, master errors of the old DVD and strange alternative material reveal themselves. Absolutely nothing spectacular, yet curious.
Note: The US Blu-ray is codefree despite "Code A" notation, or at least playable on players with Code B common in Europe. There is an audio commentary and exclusively produced bonus material, so the release can only be recommended to every Hong Kong fan.
Running time information is arranged according to the scheme
DVD from Austria and Germany in PAL / US-Blu-ray
The US Blu-ray still has company logos to get you started.
23.5 sec
By way of introduction, a few comparison pictures. The German DVD in 1.85:1 has a slightly different picture frame, which is cut off a bit especially at the top. The US Blu-ray in 1.78:1 looks more harmonious - and is miles superior in picture quality to the German DVD with double contours and weird colors. In addition, especially in scenes that were censored in the old Hong Kong version, the German DVD has been zoomed even a bit more on all sides - see last comparison picture of the breast / scalpel scene in the 64th minute.
09:21 / 10:09 The first small master error: Fat Bing (Kent Cheng) turns sideways a moment longer and the follow-up shot of Lam's (Simon Yam) red car starts a few frames earlier. 0.3 sec
46:56 / 49:19-49:20 The dead prostitute is seen a few frames longer. The follow-up shot of Lam outside (on his way to buy the circular saw) also starts a moment earlier. Obviously a reel change. 0.8 sec
Alternativ 68:52-68:57 / 72:11-72:16 In the American Blu-ray, which is probably the original version, you can see Lam here for a much longer time, when it thunders off-screen and he is thus probably pulled out of his madness. This is followed by a cut to the panic-stricken woman looking around. The German DVD changes, matching the thunder on the soundtrack, in the middle of the shot of Lam instead to another view of him. However, this exact shot comes up again just a few seconds later in both versions, so it seems to have just been recycled unintentionally at this point on the DVD. This is followed by a side shot of the woman with a tear rolling down her face. This shot comes again about 20 seconds later in both versions, so that this was obviously just a stopgap. No runtime difference
74:08 / 77:41-77:42 At the end of the scene (after Lam has carried the dead prostitute away through the rain), the black screen is a bit longer. 1.4 sec Alternativ 75:12-75:15 / 78:49-78:52 In the retrospect of the scalpel scene that can be seen on a TV, two shots (cutting into the chest / shot of Lam) were swapped. Again, the downright drastically improved picture quality of the Blu-ray is obvious even with our small screenshot size. No runtime difference
After identical credits, the Blu-ray still has a copyright notice.
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