Urga / Close to Eden [English, Subtitles]

Excellent product

One of the best copy of this wonderful movie I've sen so far, indeed..

Service was fast.I have waited a long time to find this movie on dvd with english subtitles and as promised this dvd has English subtitles. Unfortunately this version of Urga also has a Russian overdub with no separate audiotrack. It was a trilingual experience listening the the mongolian, russian and reading the english subtitles. It detracted from what is a really great movie.

The life of the Mongolian people is a world apart from ours. For a start they LIVE on horseback. Their horses are smaller than ours but they certainly can move.This film, in Russian, Chinese and Mongolian shows an aspect of life utterly different from ours and is worth viewing for that reason alone. It shows the reaction of a stranded Russian lorry driver who finds himself unable to drive his vehicle which is stuck in the mud and how the locals befriend him and ultimately rescue his vehicle.An unusual and very worth while film.Recommended.

Many thanks.

இ Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:ѾѾѾѾѾ Highly recommended with warm fuzzies!I watched this lyrical movie at a local independent film movie theater in 1992 and there is something about this film that still draws me back to watch it sometimes. This movie portrays a lifestyle from a time when more of the world lived a life that was more rural, idyllic, rustic, simple, and uncomplicated.A traditional simple-minded Mongolian man, Gombo, marries a more sophisticated Mongolian city girl, Pagma, but continues his traditional shepherd life out on the sweeping steppes of Inner Mongolia in China. Their family meets a Russian truck driver, Sergei, after Sergei accidentally drives his truck into a creek. Sergei stays with the family at their ger (yurt) for awhile before he and Gombo drive into town because Gombo has been instructed by his wife to buy condoms (to prevent them from having more children due to China laws) and a television (to become more informed and less of a "barbarian", as his wife refers to him).Fantasy and surrealism interplay with stark realism in this film. Comedy contrasts with introspection. While sitting outside ignorantly staring at a newly-purchased television that is unwrapped and placed in the middle of the steppe fields without any source of electrical power, Gombo has a dream that his relative, Uncle Bayartou, has become Genghis (Chinggis) Khan and his wife has become Genghis' wife. Uncle Bayartou weaves in and out of this movie as a drunken happy-go-lucky nomad, riding his likewise seemingly drunken horse both outside and through indoor hallways. Bayartou seems to not have any permanent home or occupation, perhaps a symbol of the Mongolian culture's nomadic past, and yet he rides all over the place giving out little gifts to everyone. He gives Gombo a movie poster that advertises Sylvester Stallone in the 1986 action film, "Cobra", and tells them that the poster is a photograph of his brother in the U.S. On the screen of the unplugged television sitting in the middle of the field, Sylvester Stallone's Rambo character is overlaid onto images of Chinggis Khan, a juxtaposition of the old and the new, the past and the present.A scene that shows Gombo humanely slaughtering a sheep for the evening supper meal looks like a you-are-there documentary with the way it was filmed, depicting the traditional ways of the Mongols out on the steppes, as Sergei purposely sits facing away from the butchering and cooking that is going on. The sheep is really killed, cut up, and cooked in the movie, but the animal's death is surprisingly quick, peaceful, and quiet, with a minimal amount of blood and mess. The entire family helps to slaughter and cook the sheep for dinner in honor of their unexpected Russian guest. Even though Sergei later enjoys eating the cooked sheep, as a city-dweller, he is likely more accustomed to seeing his meats already butchered, cleaned, and packaged. This scene had me wondering how many of us can really stomach the sight of our cows, pigs, and chickens being slaughtered and how they are processed before the meats are displayed in our grocery stores all hermetically sealed inside styrofoam and plastic wrap.Gombo's young daughter, Bourma, is adept at playing accordion, while her grandmother quietly sits in the ger squeezing and popping bubble wrap. The traditional clashes with the modern when Gombo rides into the bustling town on his horse, surrounded by bicycles and cars. Sergei feels like a stranger in Gombo's primitive and simplistic life, and when Gombo rides into the city on his horse, he feels like a stranger in a foreign land, especially while perusing the condoms at the pharmacy counter. This movie's title is called both "Urga" and "Close To Eden" as there are various symbolisms at play with the Eden reference. Gombo is like Adam and Pagma is like Eve in their Mongolian Eden. Uncle Bayartou even rides by and gives them an apple. Sergei bemoans the loss of Russian soul and traditions and his inability to remember and appreciate the past. By contrast, even though Gombo tells stories of Genghis Khan to his son and teaches his son to appreciate the simple beauties of watching a dragonfly and looking at rainbows, he feels compelled to join the 20th century and trade his traditions for some comforts of modern life.The movie ends with a voiceover by Gombo and Pagma's fourth son. Although Gombo buys a television when he and Sergei drive into town, he never does buy the condoms, perhaps because he felt embarrassed that the pharmacy's counter was entirely staffed by women. In spite of lacking birth control, the couple decides to engage in physical intimacy anyway. The location where Gombo once placed his urga (lasso) as a do-not-disturb sign to alert other passersby to not intrude upon their physical intimacy, which resulted in their fourth son, has been replaced by a smokestack chimney spewing black smoke into the sky. "The smokestack can be seen very well from the window in the big house where I now live." says Gombo's son. So even though Gombo's son can now, unlike his father, afford to live more comfortably in his "big house" instead of living in a ger yurt, the beautiful steppe scenery with its rolling hills has been blemished by the pollution that accompanies modern life.Prior to acting in this film, the actor who plays Gombo, "Bayaertu", had never performed in any movies before, and the actress who plays Pagma, "Badema", had only performed in one previous film. But both Bayaertu and Badema performed very well in this movie, with their acting and subtle nuances of facial expressions, like more professional method actors who are immersing themselves in their roles of Mongols still living the traditional Mongolian life out on the steppes while becoming aware of the need to modernize with the 20th century way of life in the cities. Although this may seem like an obscure foreign art film to Westerners, the Russian movie director Nikita Mikhalkov is very well-known in Russia. The actor who plays the Russian truck driver Sergei, Vladimir Gostyukhin, is also very well-known in Russia as he has acted in numerous television roles. Sergei has the sheet music to a popular Russian war song, "On the Hills of Manchuria", tattooed on his back. This song is a haunting waltz with sad patriotic lyrics about the battle of Mukden during the Russian-Japanese war of 1904 when the Russians were defeated by the Japanese. Sergei also sings the song twice, once in a Chinese club and again with Bourma playing accordion.Unlike many movies where the director may demand numerous retakes to perfect a scene, this movie has a certain unpolished raw feel to it. I imagine that the director filmed only a single shoot of the sheep being really killed, instead of filming that scene again with another live sheep. While Sergei is dining with the Mongolian family after they cook the sheep, a fly actually lands inside Sergei's bowl of soup and dies. Sergei grumbles a bit, picks the fly out of his soup, and continues eating the soup. This scene would not have been included in most Hollywood movies because the director would have considered that to be a blooper outtake and reshot the scene, or the actor would have refused to continue eating the soup after a fly had died inside his soup bowl. In contrast to Hollywood movies that rely on action, car chases, guns, and explosions, this movie is much more quiet, contemplative, and slow in its pacing. But the sparseness of this movie still speaks volumes about both the good and bad aspects of modern life.Since this movie is a trilingual experience with Russian, Mongolian, and Mandarin Chinese being spoken, I must comment on the availability of this movie on DVD with English subtitles since there are various confusing versions of this DVD out there, and there is currently only ONE version of this movie worth buying on DVD if you need English subtitles (and you will need subtitles unless you can understand Mongolian, Russian, and Mandarin).Originally, there was just the VHS tape version available on Amazon:  Close to Eden [VHS ], showing a woman standing in a red dress. This VHS version does have English subtitles, and although this is a VHS tape that is not as durable as the DVD media, this version is a faithful reproduction of the original theatrical release, with accurate English translations.There is a version of this movie that displays no subtitles,  Urga / Close to Eden [NO ENGLISH ]. The DVD box cover shows Gombo and Pagma looking out with their yurt and horses in the background. So if you need to view this movie with English subtitles, avoid this version.There is a DVD version that has English subtitles, but the "Ruscico" Russian film distributor totally ruined the movie by overdubbing Russian speech onto both the Mongolian and the Mandarin speech:  Urga / Close to Eden [English, Subtitles ]. The DVD box cover for this version shows the mustached director Nikita Mikhalkov standing next to a camera. When I watch a foreign film, I would MUCH rather listen to the original speech and read subtitles instead of listening to speech that has been overdubbed just for the convenience of not having to read subtitles. On top of the poor job of overdubbing the speech, the English subtitle translation has been mangled in this version of the DVD and the sound quality is very poor. Avoid this DVD version.Since this movie was a joint collaboration between French and Russian crews, on the Amazon France Web site, there is also a French version of this DVD in PAL Region 2 format; that DVD box cover shows the urga lasso stick planted into the ground with the fields of the Mongolian steppes in the background. I do not know if that version has English subtitles.Since I wanted to add this movie to my DVD collection, I managed to find a DVD that does have accurate English subtitles matching the subtitles used during the theatrical release, and NO OVERDUBS! On the Amazon U.K. Web site, there is an all-regions compatible DVD being offered that has both Korean and English subtitles. The box cover for this DVD shows Gombo riding his white horse and holding his urga lasso stick. The Amazon U.S. Web site also currently stocks this Korean-version import here:  Urga DVD Import Korea . This Korean version has both optional Korean and English subtitles, and, most importantly, the original Russian, Mongolian, and Mandarin audio is preserved and retained. I received a 4:3 full-screen (cropped) version. Unfortunately, a wide-screen version of this movie is not available, which would have been better in showing the wide open spaces of the Mongolian steppes. The DVD transfer quality on this Korean version is not that good, but not terrible either, with subpar sound quality for a DVD, looking like it was just a transfer from the VHS tape version of the movie. The two-hour movie is divided into just four chapters on the DVD, and there are no other "Extra Features" on this DVD. But I am glad that I found this Korean version! Unless another better DVD version of this movie is later released, this Korean version is currently the best version of this movie and the video, audio, and subtitles are identical to the original U.S. theatrical release. This movie's director is still very active in Russia, both with directing and acting roles, but I doubt that a Blu-ray version of this movie will ever be released. A Blu-ray 1080P DTS-HD MA 5.1-channel wide-screen release of this movie, along with subtitled commentary by the director and actors, would be awesome and I would buy it, but this will likely never happen.

there was no mention of the fact that it is dubbed in Russian and I can't figure out how to make that go away. I've always loved the film, but in Mongolian with English subtitles, not in Mongolian and dubbed into Russian... not one of my languages

A truly beautiful film that captures the simple but harmonious life of a nomadic family on the steppes of Mongolia, and the incursions of the modern world. Gombo and Pagma are raising their two children in their yurt which they share with two children and their grandmother. Pagma, realizing that a third child to her amorous husband would be disadvantaged by China's policy of limiting family size, tries to persuade Gombo to use condoms - a bit difficult when the closest town is way over the horizon! When an amiable Russian truck driver crashes into their local river Gombo brings him home. The film presents a delightful and subtle social comment on these ordinary people and the way the world around them is impinging on their ages old patterns of life. Nikita Mikhalkov's poetic film is probably a bit slow for US audiences, but I found it totally engrossing. Mikhalkov was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1991, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1993. It was shown with subtitles on SBS television in Australia, but regrettably there does not appear to be a subtitled DVD available - a great pity as this film deserves a wider audience.