A Taste of Chuuk
Beginning with a basic overview of the history of Chuuk, this film is the longer of the two with a running time of 34 minutes. The film covers some basics above the water and then delves into footage of several wrecks that can be dived in Chuuk (Truk) along with footage of a shark feed (which you may or may not enjoy depending on how you feel about shark feeds).
I found it to be quite informative from a historical point of view and well structured to explore the diving on offer in Chuuk, which I have absolutely no doubt is spectacular and second to none for wreck diving. However, the quality of the footage really let the film down and I felt at many points that I was watching an amateur's vacation video rather than a professionally produced documentary. There certainly are rare moments of lovely videography but in general, colors were washed out, camera work was shaky, and there were distracting shots of a diver with a camera that added nothing to the film.
As I've mentioned, the historical information was informative and interesting but occasionally strayed into the territory of dive instruction which I found to be out of place in a documentary.
A Taste of Palau
This film spends the first 4 minutes of its very brief 19 minute running time on an introduction that includes such out of context information as 'Storyboard Carving'. In a longer film this would be fine, but it seems completely out of place here.
Just like Chuuk, I'm sure Palau truly is an amazing place with an amazing variety of marine life, however I really don't feel that this film showed that to me. The marine life featured included Sea Anenomes, Crinoids, Giant Clams, Soft Corals, Hard Corals, Fire Corals, Sea Stars, and Sea Whips, all of which can be found in many other places. This marine life was a major focus of the film and I was left wondering why the marine life was only identified by its most basic classification.
Again the commentary tended to occasionally drift off into dive instruction mode and I again found this to be out of place. I also found the voice-over commentary to be stilted and distracting.
Conclusion
With such short running times and less than decent video footage, I'd only recommend this DVD to those who are keen to get a rough idea of what to expect in Chuuk and Palau. The Chuuk film definitely gives a good idea of the variety of wrecks available but I wouldn't be inspired to visit Palau if I didn't already know a fair amount about the quality of diving on offer there.
