Chungking Express (1994) 4K UHD (Criterion Collection)

[5meohd]

Originally Posted by flyry

sigh. so annoying their 2021 WKW set was standard blu-ray.

Thanks for saying this. I fully agree. This is right in line with why I'm open to admitting I don't pay retail price very often. Had I paid retail price for the WKW box, I'd be even more frustrated.

CC had the means to release any WKW film that they put out on 4K, as 4K in that set. Prove me wrong, I'm open to hearing details I'm missing... But In the Mood For Love certainly came out close enough to the box release.

For the record, I'm open to hybrid boxes. If you only want to release a couple of films in 4K, fine. But this whole double dipping of modern identical transfers from the same label is VERY frustrating. Curzon is really ticking me off with those director boxes...

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by 5meohd

Prove me wrong, I'm open to hearing details I'm missing... But In the Mood For Love certainly came out close enough to the box release.

WoWKW Set: March 23, 2021

ITMFL 4K: November 1, 2022

[5meohd]

Originally Posted by professorwho

WoWKW Set: March 23, 2021

ITMFL 4K: November 1, 2022

For me, that is highly suspect of them knowing exactly what they were doing.

And I'm not mad at them for trying to keep themselves profitable. I'm just frustrated at the overall structure we exist in. Where it is somehow less profitable to just give the best edition in the pipeline WHEN it's THE BEST EDITION. Not sooner, not later.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by OSHAN

What's changed?

223's password went from "Love You for 10,000 Years" to "Undying Love."

"Love You for 10,000 Years" was such an iconic line, setting the tone for the entire movie.

[OSHAN]

Originally Posted by Scottie

223's password went from "Love You for 10,000 Years" to "Undying Love."

"Love You for 10,000 Years" was such an iconic line, setting the tone for the entire movie.

Damn I don't care for that change at all. No clue if it is more accurate but I'm so used to "10,000 years" I'm not sure if I can get past it.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by OSHAN

Damn I don't care for that change at all. No clue if it is more accurate but I'm so used to "10,000 years" I'm not sure if I can get past it.

I'm a pretty simple film viewer and usually don't care about changes, but this is one I refuse to live down.

[PullBackCamera]

Originally Posted by 5meohd

Someone may educate me, but afaik HDR is an additive process altering most films that pre-date digital HDR capture. And in that case, it would actually be logically objectively worse to mandate across all UHD releases.

HDR is simply a different curve, which is actually much closer to the curve of analogue film. The SDR curve was designed in the days of 8-bit equivalent video images to push the majority of available colour bandwidth towards the skin tones in the middle of our visual range at the expense of detail in the shadows and, especially, the highlights. Quite simply, it is an outdated video technology which offers no benefits beyond the financial. That said, HDR being the newer technology and without as yet a consensus on how it should be implemented, you will get some dodgy grades from time to time and I do agree it should be implemented with restraint when it comes to a 35mm source.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

I may pick this up, was this one of the few that WKW didn’t ruin?

I think that the color grading was significantly altered, wasn’t it?

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

WKW did all of the restorations already and the SDR grade is exactly what he intends the film to look like (now at least, given the revisionist changes he did). There is a German release that applies HDR/DV to the SDR master, and it completely changes the colors/grading of the film. Some may prefer the richer colors of that grade but it's not what WKW approved.

Yeah, what he wants the film to look like appears to have changed like his shirt .

Originally Posted by mattaaron2112

I agree, the director should do what you want.

I’m at a point where so many directors are doing this Lucas-Cameron revisionism that I’m less inclined to trust them. I used to totally buy into the “director as auteur with absolute final say” mindset, but in the age of AI, I’ve become a major skeptic.

[FlamedLiquid]

I missed out on the bluray. Hopefully the 4k disc will stay in print for a while.

[punisher]

Very happy with my Criterion bluray with cardboard slip case....

[Yiddo1981]

Originally Posted by Cremildo

Dated master and incorrect aspect ratio.

Looks amazing on my 65 inch Sony mini led.

[blse59]

Lemme guess, Fallen Angels is going to be SDR too? Love the trilogy but I don't own any of them on 4k yet.

[professorwho]

They were all finished in SDR, so Criterion will present them as-is, per their standard policy.

On the topic of that, paging nicwood: was the French UHD of Chungking the same encode, or at least master, as the German UHD? It seems like most of The Jokers' WKW releases used Plaion and LSP's HDR re-grades, so if they did here (especially if the encode is the same), it would be a great savings vs the OOP Plaion UHD.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by professorwho

They were all finished in SDR, so Criterion will present them as-is, per their standard policy.

On the topic of that, paging nicwood: was the French UHD of Chungking the same encode, or at least master, as the German UHD? It seems like most of The Jokers' WKW releases used Plaion and LSP's HDR re-grades, so if they did here (especially if the encode is the same), it would be a great savings vs the OOP Plaion UHD.

For whatever reason, The Jokers either cancelled or delayed their 4K of Chungking Express indefinitely. It was initially slated to come out together with the others (Fallen Angels, Happy Together and the BDs of Ashes of Time and Eros: The Hand) but it’s radio silence on that front. I have no idea and there’s been no mentioning of any of that on their website. Their online shop also appears to be offline with no items available.

This is purely speculation but I’m certain that it would’ve been the same WKW-restored master we’ve gotten from Plaion and Criterion but with subtly added HDR / DV. Encoding-wise, Fallen Angels and Happy Together look great but these are difficult to analyze due to the masters. I’ve picked out a couple of moments where grain is relatively normal in the latter and couldn’t detect any issues.

My order at Fnac still stands, so if / when they eventually put it out (maybe with 2046, which they released in French theaters in December) I’ll get it and will take a look.

[kashif]

I don't know why but I missed this movie even after being a big fan of Wong Kar Wai. I thought to buy the OOP blu ray after reading how badly the new remastered version was received from hardcore fans but I was waiting for an imminent 4k release and glad to see it's here. I hope its not a major change in the aspect ratio.

And reading some pages about lack of HDR. Guys you need to see how a movie looks on screen than on paper. There are several 4k titles that are SDR but looks absolutely stunning. For me what I see on screen is what matters HDR or SDR.

[slask]

Problem is, their 4K release of ITMFL didn't show much of a difference resolution-wise (or grain) neither... so without HDR what's there to improve over the blu-ray?

Originally Posted by Scottie

I'm still not going to get over the subtitle changes.

So other scenes have been affected? Were these changed for better accuracy or..?

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by slask

So other scenes have been affected? Were these changed for better accuracy or..?

There are some other changes to the subtitles throughout, but they weren't quite as noticeable as this particular one.

Here's a Reddit thread discussing some of the changes besides the iconic passphrase:

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/c...estoration_of/

[lilboyblu]

Originally Posted by slask

So other scenes have been affected? Were these changed for better accuracy or..?

If you scroll back to the first page, I also linked some posts that went over some of the changes.

[MovieBuff647]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

I think there was less tinkering here than on the others. For me though, it's the altered color and sped up audio.

Member jjlikesonions did more detailed comparisons in the World of Wong Kar Wai Blu-ray thread.

Post 1


Post 2

Speaking as someone who has the WKW set on my shelf but has not watched any of the new restorations yet (only the previous): Unlike IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE—which prompted me to buy the 2012 Criterion, swap the discs, and resell the 2021 disc—have to say I actually prefer the 4K restoration here! Looks noticeably more filmic IMO.

[shy86]

UK pre-order is up:

Release date: 21 April

Amazon UK