Happy Together (1997) 4K UHD

[DutchSchaefer]

https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme...uhd_bluray_dvd

[rolf2056]

Preorder:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09DMTZJSG/

[cirik]

Today I have received German UHD disc and looked at it briefly.
Overall it looks all right, HDR also brings some details in highlights here and there compared to SDR, but first few minutes of chapter #1, especially road sequence, is smeary mess + blown out whites to hell. One of the worst things I have ever seen on this format, and I don't think that it has anything to do with compression because bitrate never drops below ~50-60 Mb/s in that shots.
Also beginning of chapter #4 looks very funky.

Funny thing is that included Blu-ray (same restoration) looks much better in that problematic sequences - I didn't tried DVD but I wont be surprised if image quality on it is also superior to UHD.
Currently I cannot unlock a disc to make screencaps, but I will do it when I have such opportunity.

[stn1]

No go unless it's supervised by Kar-Wai. He is one of the very few filmmakers who are clear about "enhancing" their art. The look of his films changes overtime as new editions and releases come out. I believe that his films are to be enjoyed on various formats: DVD and Bluray and the recent Criterion Collection all look VERY different and that is one of the signature things about Kar-Wai - whenever he allows a release of the version it is different to the previous one in some regard (color timing in the very least).


So unless this 4K transfer was made on his watch, this version is a crime.

[cirik]

For the most part UHD disc looks quite similar to recent Criterion in regard to resolution, color timing, etc. of course except HDR.
But as I said before, some b&w scenes in chapter 1 & 4 (maybe there is more) are weird - for me it looks like for some of these shots they took SDR master and converted it to HDR in a simple manner, with additional huge DNR.
They lost some of the original negative during a fire incident, so it might be a reason for that, but I don't get why they so much smoothed image in those shots compared to recent Blu-ray editions.

[andreasy969]

Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with Wong Kar-Wai movies at all, so don't ask me anything, but I have an open mind and grabbed these at a good price.

Here's just what cirik is talking about:

BD upscaled | UHD

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[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by stn1

No go unless it's supervised by Kar-Wai. He is one of the very few filmmakers who are clear about "enhancing" their art. The look of his films changes overtime as new editions and releases come out. I believe that his films are to be enjoyed on various formats: DVD and Bluray and the recent Criterion Collection all look VERY different and that is one of the signature things about Kar-Wai - whenever he allows a release of the version it is different to the previous one in some regard (color timing in the very least).


So unless this 4K transfer was made on his watch, this version is a crime.

Just a quick note. In much of Asia, the family name comes first.

Wong Kar-Wai's family name is Wong. Saying "Kar-Wai" is like saying Steven when referring to Steven Spielberg.

[kmhofmann]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with Wong Kar-Wai movies at all, so don't ask me anything, but I have an open mind and grabbed these at a good price.

Here's just what cirik is talking about:

BD upscaled | UHD

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

That looks... truly awful. The new Blu-ray transfers (Criterion, Koch) were already quite heavily filtered (for my taste), but this UHD seems to take the watercolor cake.