Flower Drum Song coming from Kino

[Robert Siegel]

It has not been posted in the news unfortunately, but Kino announced on Facebook last weekend that they are releasing Universal's great musical Flower Drum Song, from a 2k scan of the interpositive.

This is one of my most awaited titles along with Thoroughly Modern Millie, which they already announced. I am so excited. The movie has been shown recently on TCM and there is a brand new transfer, and the sound has been remastered and all I can say is this will be a very high quality release. One of the best sounding soundtracks of the 60's.

[quickdraw]

This news makes my year!!

[GregBlu5]

Awesome. It even looked good in DVD. Blu-ray should be remarkable. One of my favorite musicals.

[bergman864]

This is a film I'm not familiar with but, after reading up on it, I'm very interested.

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by bergman864

This is a film I'm not familiar with but, after reading up on it, I'm very interested.

Bergman,

This is a wonderful film, one of my all time favorites. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote a fantastic musical score, and in a rare occasion, only one song was cut for the film, everything else was retained. Universal allowed a beautiful and exotic production, and I give a hats off to the recording and sound engineers for producing a soundtrack and mag stereo sound that is really incredible for 1961. This will have your sub-woofer busy during some of the musical numbers. The movie retains many of the Broadway cast and the casting is excellent. It's got great humor, several great love stories, and it mixes traditional China with the 50's and 60's beautifully. It is also very colorful so the high definition blu-ray should be just beautiful as costumes are gorgeous, and the Chinese parade and nightclub scenes really stand out.

I have shown this film to many people, some who never heard of it and they absolutely loved it. 20th Century Fox had exclusive first choice on all of the R&H properties, and I am guessing they chose to bypass this film, so it is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein film released by any other studio than Fox. I think Universal did a beautiful job with it. If you are a fan of musicals, this one has got to be sitting on your shelf next to the other big musical productions of the 60's and 70's. As you can tell, there are quite a few people on all of the forums celebrating the announcement.

As I previously stated, this film has been shown recently on Turner Classic Movies, and you can tell it is the new remaster because it has the Samuel Goldwyn rights, they obtained the television rights, but Universal retained the home video rights. I was so I used to the older transfer having seen it dozens of times, that includes all the showings on cable channels and also the previous DVD. That DVD was quite impressive, but now we have a brand new 2k transfer from the interpositive. Not sure why they didn't use the camera negative..was it destroyed in their fire, or was it in such bad shape they couldn't use it, or maybe they didn't want to spend the additional money if it cost more. And why wouldn't they do a 4k scan of a Rodgers and Hammerstein property when they did one for Thoroughly Modern Millie. Of course, Millie made much more money for Universal..it was their top grossing film of all time for a few years. There was no overture, intermission or exit music as far as I know.

If anyone can add any info on this film, we would be grateful.




.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by Robert Siegel

Bergman,

This is a wonderful film, one of my all time favorites. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote a fantastic musical score, and in a rare occasion, only one song was cut for the film, everything else was retained. Universal allowed a beautiful and exotic production, and I give a hats off to the recording and sound engineers for producing a soundtrack and mag stereo sound that is really incredible for 1961. This will have your sub-woofer busy during some of the musical numbers. The movie retains many of the Broadway cast and the casting is excellent. It's got great humor, several great love stories, and it mixes traditional China with the 50's and 60's beautifully. It is also very colorful so the high definition blu-ray should be just beautiful as costumes are gorgeous, and the Chinese parade and nightclub scenes really stand out.

I have shown this film to many people, some who never heard of it and they absolutely loved it. 20th Century Fox had exclusive first choice on all of the R&H properties, and I am guessing they chose to bypass this film, so it is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein film released by any other studio than Fox. I think Universal did a beautiful job with it. If you are a fan of musicals, this one has got to be sitting on your shelf next to the other big musical productions of the 60's and 70's. As you can tell, there are quite a few people on all of the forums celebrating the announcement.

As I previously stated, this film has been shown recently on Turner Classic Movies, and you can tell it is the new remaster because it has the Samuel Goldwyn rights, they obtained the television rights, but Universal retained the home video rights. I was so I used to the older transfer having seen it dozens of times, that includes all the showings on cable channels and also the previous DVD. That DVD was quite impressive, but now we have a brand new 2k transfer from the interpositive. Not sure why they didn't use the camera negative..was it destroyed in their fire, or was it in such bad shape they couldn't use it, or maybe they didn't want to spend the additional money if it cost more. And why wouldn't they do a 4k scan of a Rodgers and Hammerstein property when they did one for Thoroughly Modern Millie. Of course, Millie made much more money for Universal..it was their top grossing film of all time for a few years. There was no overture, intermission or exit music as far as I know.

If anyone can add any info on this film, we would be grateful.




.

I checked out the trailer on Youtube. Looks good.

[unjichan]

Loving Kino for releasing these obscure movie musicals!! With Flower Drum Song and Thoroughly Modern Millie coming this year, I'm so happy about this!

[50strat54]

Good news just bought the HD digital from itunes.

Seems everytime I buy a HD digital movie of a film that's not out on bluray a few months later a bluray release is announced!

So i definitely want this one!

The great thing about this film is it shows the Chinese kids digging rock and roll, speaking perfect English and the slang of the time. Some of the older people had accents but so do many immigrants but their kids never did.

Some of the major parts were also played by Japanese, Filipino and Juanita Hall wasn't even Asian! Not a big deal in my opinion. She played an Asian in South Pacific too.

Also Nancy Kwan! can I say that again? NANCY KWAN!

Jack Soo was also great. and what a difference for Victor Sen Yung who went from the hip nightclub comedian/MC to playing Hop Sing in Bonanza!

[DaViD Boulet]

Count me as another cinephile so excited that having this and Millie on blu (can we dream 4K UHD?) will close the gap a bit tighter on classic musicals that still deserve a proper HD-Disc delivery.

Woohoo!

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Count me as another cinephile so excited that having this and Millie on blu (can we dream 4K UHD?) will close the gap a bit tighter on classic musicals that still deserve a proper HD-Disc delivery.

Woohoo!

David, as the years have gone by on these forums, i noticed you and i have such similar tastes when it comes to movies. I think having these 2 absolute gems on blu-ray is a dream come true for me...i mean a 4k restoration of Millie, WOW, i really hope they remaster the sound, Julie's voice in the title song just didn't seem to have any good frequency to it, her voice kind of sounds like AM radio. Now if they went to the original music masters, i will be so happy. Flower Drum is going to look and sound so good, i can't wait to hear it in lossless, it is a great sound recording even on compressed DVD, but after seeing the film on TCM over the last few months, the sound has definately been remastered. The dance during Chop Suey and the Grant Avenue parade had my subwoofer working out. And that's just on compressed Dish Network TCM.

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by Robert Siegel

David, as the years have gone by on these forums, i noticed you and i have such similar tastes when it comes to movies. I think having these 2 absolute gems on blu-ray is a dream come true for me...i mean a 4k restoration of Millie, WOW, i really hope they remaster the sound, Julie's voice in the title song just didn't seem to have any good frequency to it, her voice kind of sounds like AM radio. Now if they went to the original music masters, i will be so happy. Flower Drum is going to look and sound so good, i can't wait to hear it in lossless, it is a great sound recording even on compressed DVD, but after seeing the film on TCM over the last few months, the sound has definately been remastered. The dance during Chop Suey and the Grant Avenue parade had my subwoofer working out. And that's just on compressed Dish Network TCM.

Agreed! One of these days post-COVID we'll need to hang out and do a musical movie festival

BTW any news on a release date for FDS?

[Robert Siegel]

[QUOTE=DaViD Boulet;19216437]Agreed! One of these days post-COVID we'll need to hang out and do a musical movie festival

BTW any news on a release date for FDS?[/QUOTE

David, no release date announced that I know of yet but it has got to be coming soon! After what happened with Sweet Charity and now the mono overture, intermission and exit music of Millie, I hope they don't screw up Flower Drum Song. I blame Universal for this, not Kino, but someone at Kino should have caught these things. There's no overture or anything so maybe this one will be the one without any errors. They should be ashamed of Millie, a 4k scan and a restored "roadshow" version with mono breaks. Yet the showings on Turner Classic Movies lately and Reteroplex all have stereo, as does the laserdisc, DVD, download and streaming versions. SINFUL! Julie Andrews Po-He!!!!

I'd be glad to accept the movie night anytime. We could do a 60's Universal movie night triple feature. Or a Rodgers and Hammerstein. But I am so dismayed by The Sound of Music's color scheme. Have you re-watched the 40th anniversary disc, look at the bright colors in that opening scene, bright mint colored grass, color to her skin, they changed the entire color pallette and it totally pisses me off because it's my favorite movie, and now Disney owns it. Oh ding fu!

[Dubstar]

a movie that is high on my 'must see' list - well a bluray, um, okay now's the appropriate time.

[Robert Siegel]

I wonder what happened to this release? Kino announced it some time ago, but no news has come. I am so excited for it, as are many others.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by Robert Siegel

I wonder what happened to this release? Kino announced it some time ago, but no news has come. I am so excited for it, as are many others.

Answered recently in the Kino Lorber thread.

Originally Posted by hurm

Any word on when Flower Drum Song is coming?

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Insider

Spring or Summer of 2022.

[Robert Siegel]

Thank you Bergman864, I really appreciate that. Counting down the days :-)

[Jackcol]

Believe Flower Drum Song will be released in May, finally,
However Australian release through Umbrella will be April 6 doubled up with Thoroughly Modern Millie

[Dsneybuf]

Originally Posted by Jackcol

Believe Flower Drum Song will be released in May, finally

AAPI Heritage Month; I wonder if Kino planned it, for people who want to see how movie portrayals of Asian-Americans have changed over the years.

[Mister VistaVision]

Even though the posters just say "in COLOR", the 35mm prints were actually printed in Technicolor. Watched the 35mm IB-Tech 4-track Mag print that my friend has about 15 years ago and it looked and sounded phenomenal. Hope the Blu-ray turns out great for you guys.

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by Dsneybuf

AAPI Heritage Month; I wonder if Kino planned it, for people who want to see how movie portrayals of Asian-Americans have changed over the years.

This movie showed many of the Asians speaking in perfect Unaccented English, loving rock n roll, speaking the slang of the day.

The film was a very positive portrayal of Asians in the US at the time.

It drove me a little crazy when people were praising Crazy Rich Asians for its full Asian cast, it’s as if they completely forgot about this film.

Also Bruce Lee as Kato was the first Asian superhero. When the action started we all watched Kato, not the Green Hornet. He was a super positive role model in the sixties even though his secret identity was as a houseboy, we all knew it was the perfect disguise for this tough guy.