Eastern Promises 4K UHD Screenshots (Patreon)

Video

Wonderfully saturated, Eastern Promises makes an immediate impact through vivid, bright color. Flesh tones pop from the surrounding primaries. The intensity is marvelous, making mammoth gains over previous Blu-ray/HD DVD releases.

The film stock sports a hefty grain structure, resolved well enough if not perfectly. Whatever the faults, this isn't enough to dim the stellar resolution that pulls out superlative definition. Eastern Promises looks great in close or at distance. However, some fringing/ringing remains, causing not only the minor halos on high contrast edges (the pharmacist's coat in an early shot), but also adds a roughened aesthetic to the presentation, diluting the natural filmic appearance.

Occasional dirt/dust sticks around on the print, but barely worth mentioning; it's otherwise spotless. Generous black levels add tremendous dimensionality to the frame. Black suits and coats worn by numerous characters won't lose details as the image pushes toward pure, dense shadows. There's an equally healthy jolt to the contrast, vivid at its peaks, nuanced elsewhere.

For a bit of "inside Hollywood" fun, look at Watts around 42-minutes. The area next to her lips is clearly smoothed over, and the blotches color don't match her skin tone. Other instances of Watts' digital smoothing (49:49) at least find the proper color.

Audio

DTS-HD heightens ambiance on city streets. Far off sirens and traffic fills the surrounds. This is likewise true inside restaurants, whether it's music or the crowd. Rain fills the rears aggressively as water drips around the characters.

Eastern Promises is an otherwise quiet drama. Expect no low-end support, even during a bathhouse brawl, which keeps the sound natural via fleshy punches. There's little directionality, even here. The design is purely supportive, not a focus.