The Criterion Collection

[The Sovereign]

Mona Lisa instantly goes on my November sale list.

[cheez avenger]

Throw Down was released in the UK as part of the Eureka! Masters of Cinema series. I would not be surprised if CC is licensing that same transfer from them. It's an excellent disc but I was not impressed by the film.

[dkelly26666]

Already pre-ordered the Melvin van Peebles set, and The Damned has been a wish list item for years. That artwork is beautiful, too.

I don't know much about "Throw Down", but will look into it.

The other two are good but I already have blu rays of them.

[dkelly26666]

Originally Posted by guizhang

is the damned a pretty safe blind buy? i liked salon kitty and serpent's egg if it's similar to those?

Yes. It was X rated when first released, too.

It's bold stuff.

[cgpublic]

The Dammed and Mona Lisa for me, and for those who chide Criterion for creating original artwork, here’s your answer!

[jjlikesonions]

Originally Posted by Dankk

Woah, I was not expecting a Johnnie To movie to appear in the announcement.

I already imported the older Hong Kong blu-ray of Throw Down, so I probably won't double-dip, unless the PQ is somehow much better or the subtitles are better.

The Criterion will have a newer English translation. Better? Probably yeah.

If your HK BD looks like this, then the Criterion PQ will be similar (same scan, different encode).

If you have this one, its the old scan (probably 1080p scan). The Criterion will look mich better since its from a 4k scan.

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Throw Down was released in the UK as part of the Eureka! Masters of Cinema series. I would not be surprised if CC is licensing that same transfer from them. It's an excellent disc but I was not impressed by the film.

Why would Criterion be licensing it from them when they don't own the rights to it?

[Dankk]

Originally Posted by jjlikesonions

The Criterion will have a newer English translation. Better? Probably yeah.

If your HK BD looks like this, then the Criterion PQ will be similar (same scan, different encode).

If you have this one, its the old scan (probably 1080p scan). The Criterion will look mich better since its from a 4k scan.

To clarify: I own the one on the bottom (the non "4K Ultra HD Remastered" version).

Both releases were already available when I purchased, and I deliberately picked the older one, for good reason. That reason being because Fortune Star's line of "4K ULTRA HD REMASTERED" releases are famously terrible, because they insist on applying this horrid yellow color grading to everything, and they also insist on mucking up the soundtrack and remixing them for surround with a bunch of fake sound effects added. Ask anyone over on the Asian blu-ray forum and they can confirm this.

Meanwhile, the older non-4K master is actually quite good, and un-mucked with. So I will probably just keep that one.

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

Why would Criterion be licensing it from them when they don't own the rights to it?

I think there's a misunderstanding here - Eureka did not create the 4K master, but rather, Fortune Star did (the main license holder in Hong Kong). Fortune Star is then probably handing over that master to both Eureka and Criterion.

Criterion will probably take that 4K master, remove the piss color from the image, and then add back the original unadulterated soundtrack. Same thing they did with the Police Story set and the Bruce Lee set. (both examples of movies that are owned by Fortune Star, had terrible 4K "restorations" done, and then had that same terrible-ness undone by Criterion for their release.)

It's sad that these Hong Kong movie companies treat their classic titles so poorly, but hey, that's the situation we're in I guess.

[MifuneFan]

Speaking of licensing transfers from other labels, I do wonder if they licensed the transfer for Mona Lisa from Arrow?
Arrow said their transfer was exclusively restored by them.

[Vigojean]

Originally Posted by DreadStare

I'm buying The Damned for that cover art alone.

Me with Mona Lisa

[hinterkaifeck]

oh sweet lord Johnny To, my hype is immeasurable

[jjlikesonions]

Originally Posted by Dankk

To clarify: I own the one on the bottom (the non "4K Ultra HD Remastered" version).

Both releases were already available when I purchased, and I deliberately picked the older one, for good reason. That reason being because Fortune Star's line of "4K ULTRA HD REMASTERED" releases are famously terrible, because they insist on applying this horrid yellow color grading to everything, and they also insist on mucking up the soundtrack and remixing them for surround with a bunch of fake sound effects added. Ask anyone over on the Asian blu-ray forum and they can confirm this.

Meanwhile, the older non-4K master is actually quite good, and un-mucked with. So I will probably just keep that one.

It's sad that these Hong Kong movie companies treat their classic titles so poorly, but hey, that's the situation we're in I guess.

This is absolutely true with so many older HK and Asian films (pre-2000) that get restored. I know the "A Better Tomorrow" release was yellow tinted and remixed. But this isn't happening with modern HK films. The HK BD 4k restored version of Throw Down isn't yellow tinted.

The Ritrovata lab in HK is the main culprit of this yellow tinting on older films. They like to use LUTs/filters that they think emulate an old film experience.

I'm sure the older BD looks good and is serviceable. The Eureka and Criterion discs will be a definite improvement. It's just a matter of whether you care enough about the small / moderate improvement.

[SpiderBaby]

The Damned is so damn good. Got the old WB dvd, can't wait for this!

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Speaking of licensing transfers from other labels, I do wonder if they licensed the transfer for Mona Lisa from Arrow?
Arrow said their transfer was exclusively restored by them.

Criterion will definitely be using the Arrow restoration, since both companies are licensing it from HandMade Films. Criterion also used Arrow's restoration for 'Time Bandits' for their release, and they have the rights to the other HandMade titles that Arrow has done restorations for, such as 'Withnail and I' and 'The Long Good Friday'.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

Why would Criterion be licensing it from them when they don't own the rights to it?

Or from whomever. They did the same thing with Police Story. I'm sure CC will use whatever transfer Eureka used. They've done it before.

[kvnbhovis]

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

Criterion will definitely be using the Arrow restoration, since both companies are licensing it from HandMade Films. Criterion also used Arrow's restoration for 'Time Bandits' for their release, and they have the rights to the other HandMade titles that Arrow has done restorations for, such as 'Withnail and I' and 'The Long Good Friday'.

Can't wait for Nuns on the Run.

Not super excited about this months choices but I will probably get 2 (Mona Lisa and the Damned) of the 4 announced today and probably eventually the Peebles boxset. I just bought the Vinegar Syndrome release of Sweet Badass....so I'm a bit annoyed.

[acroyear2]

Interesting that Mona Lisa is being released on blu-ray only. Not sure what's going on there.

[Nocheduro]

Originally Posted by Dankk

I think there's a misunderstanding here - Eureka did not create the 4K master, but rather, Fortune Star did (the main license holder in Hong Kong). Fortune Star is then probably handing over that master to both Eureka and Criterion.

Criterion will probably take that 4K master, remove the piss color from the image, and then add back the original unadulterated soundtrack. Same thing they did with the Police Story set and the Bruce Lee set. (both examples of movies that are owned by Fortune Star, had terrible 4K "restorations" done, and then had that same terrible-ness undone by Criterion for their release.)

It's sad that these Hong Kong movie companies treat their classic titles so poorly, but hey, that's the situation we're in I guess.

Criterion didn’t change the color timing on the Police Story films, nor the King Hu films for that matter.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by Shanghai Express

Love & Basketball

Criterion has released other coming of age or romance films, and they released a very notable basketball film, Hoop Dreams. What's there to complain about? All I'll complain about is putting The Old Guard in parentheses, people know the film as Netflix streams it as an Original but it doesn't have the best reviews.

Had a WB Blu-ray previously but as a 4K remaster, it makes sense to reissue it.

The film has a 7.1 on the site, and the reviewer Michael Reuben gives it a 4/5. On Letterboxd it's pretty positive, with a 3.7 average.

Sounds like a great choice to me, especially as Criterion has gone to the New Line catalogue before when no other studio besides Shout is really able to license from it.

[BunyipPouch]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Criterion has released other coming of age or romance films, and they released a very notable basketball film, Hoop Dreams. What's there to complain about? All I'll complain about is putting The Old Guard in parentheses, people know the film as Netflix streams it as an Original but it doesn't have the best reviews.

Had a WB Blu-ray previously but as a 4K remaster, it makes sense to reissue it.

The film has a 7.1 on the site, and the reviewer Michael Reuben gives it a 4/5. On Letterboxd it's pretty positive, with a 3.7 average.

Sounds like a great choice to me, especially as Criterion has gone to the New Line catalogue before when no other studio besides Shout is really able to license from it.

For me it's just that it already has a great (and cheap, it's at Dollar Tree) blu ray release from Warner Bros so it seems like a bit of a waste. Not a movie I'd ever double-dip on.

It's a good and popular movie, and I'm sure sales will be good, but I'm okay with sticking to my great $1 blu ray version.