Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar Wai)

[pro-bassoonist]

Just released in HK. We hope to have a review very soon.

1920 x 1080p FULL HD
WIDESCREEN 1.85:1
Cantonese dts-HD Master Audio 7.1、
Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles： Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Malay, India, Thai & Vietnamese.

The Village Voice:

Days of Being Wild is the movie with which Wong Kar-wai became Wong Kar-wai—the most influential, passionate, and romantic of neo-new-wave directors. Wong called his second feature "a reinvention of the disappeared world." Like most of his films, Days of Being Wild might be called In Search of Lost Time; in a sense, its belated New York theatrical premiere is time regained.

Arguably this is the key movie in Wong's oeuvre, as startling in its context as Hiroshima Mon Amour and Breathless were in theirs. Revived (with vastly improved subtitles) some 14 years after it first stunned Hong Kong critics, Days of Being Wild is a sort of meta-reverie populated by a cast of beautiful young pop icons—Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Andy Lau, and briefly, Tony Leung—acting like movie stars. Days is also Wong's first film to have been shot by Chris Doyle, and the voluptuous shadows, neon color schemes, and underwater atmosphere of Doyle's cinematography would define Wong's elusive Hong Kong forever after.

Set around the same period as American Graffiti (or Edward Yang's retro youth epic A Brighter Summer Day, made in Taiwan the next year), Days of Being Wild makes similar use of dated cool and old cars. The very first shot smacks your eye with a redder-than-red Coca-Cola cooler. The title evokes the one under which Rebel Without a Cause was released in Hong Kong. But this is an unfamiliar and perhaps imaginary nostalgia. In his film notes, Wong reminisces about 1960: "I used to recall, back in those days, the sun was brighter, the air fresher, with distant noises from wireless sets flowing down the streets. . . . One felt so good it was almost like a dream." For him it was: He was born in Shanghai in 1958 and moved to H.K. with his family at age five.

Suavely achronological, Days opens with a tracking shot through some verdant jungle that cannot be temporally identified until the movie's gangster-flick finale. Everything else is flashback. Moving from small, humid rooms to rigorously controlled exteriors, the principals suggest a group of time travelers transported into a past that can't be inhabited. The empty stadium where Maggie Cheung works the concession counter might be ruins. The youthful demographic further abstracts the universal obsession with personal history. Leslie Cheung's character, a pomaded lady-killer and underworld tough, is the only one with a parent; that she is his adoptive mother only serves to render him more a little boy lost.

Leslie Cheung's character is searching for something unknown left behind in an unknowable time. But those familiar with Wong's subsequent films will find that his preoccupations are all in place—veiled by a delicate fog of fleeting relationships, unfulfilled longings, and missed opportunities. Here too are his characteristic strategies—the cast of beautiful loners, the memories delivered in voice-over, the abstractly exotic music. (Save for one Django Reinhardt piece, the Hawaiian cha-cha score comes from a compilation album by Xavier Cugat.) In the Mood for Love very nearly remakes Days of Being Wild—and the as yet unreleased 2046 even more so. In some respects, however, Days is a more radical achievement than those that would come later.

For one thing, there's a headier sense of simultaneity. Difficult to follow on a first viewing (although not thereafter), the movie may feel shifty as smoke, but it's composed entirely of straight cuts. The various flashbacks and flash-forwards are marked by abrupt transitions that give no indication of elapsed time. This succession of privileged moments is less evocation of the past than nostalgia for the present. Time is fragmented in the service of an Eternal Now, and yet there's a Zeno's paradox effect in which that Now instantly evaporates. Clocks are ubiquitous, and the key scene has Leslie Cheung's character seduce Maggie Cheung's by tricking her into spending a minute constructing a memory of those 60 seconds.

Wong originally wanted a Days of Being Wild sequel haunted by its dead protagonist. Leslie Cheung's untimely passing renders that ambition additionally poignant. But as in all of Wong's movies, you can't go home again.

Pro-B

[Konrad]

Thank you for the information, that's good news! Just ordered it together with 'Exiled'.

I hope '2046' will come to blu soon, too! It's great that Wong's films are getting released one by one now. 'Chungking Express' and 'Fallen Angels' have already been announced for the US.

[pro-bassoonist]

You are welcome. Hopefully we will have a review for it shortly.

Pro-B

[kono]

Originally Posted by Konrad

Thank you for the information, that's good news! Just ordered it together with 'Exiled'.

I hope '2046' will come to blu soon, too! It's great that Wong's films are getting released one by one now. 'Chungking Express' and 'Fallen Angels' have already been announced for the US.

Please keep us update on the PQ. Thanks!!

[macintoshed]

I love this movie. I've watched it at least 50 times on VHS, LD and DVD. When I knew this was being remastered and released on Blu-ray, I immediately ordered it with great anticipation of re-watching this again in 1080p. To everyone who felt the same - don't. Received my copy and the minute I put it in, I was disappointed. Visuals are grainy and soft. At best, it looks like an upscaled version from a DVD. If you just want to add a Blu-ray version of this movie to your collection, go ahead. But if you are hoping for a better visual - stop. You ain't getting it on this release.

[onceachilde]

I'm interested to see what the reviewer's take on it is.

Honestly, I don't think this movie will ever look much better. About the only thing that could be improved is a little bit of dirt removal. Most of the movie was shot in very low light with a stock that is super grainy to begin with, focus is never very sharp, etc. Although it works for the film, overall its a much lower quality visual experience compared to other Wong/Doyle collaborations. Compared to the DVD versions I've seen, there is improved detail (however marginal) and it looks like you are viewing film.

At least this transfer retains the green tint that Doyle intended.

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by macintoshed

I love this movie. I've watched it at least 50 times on VHS, LD and DVD. When I knew this was being remastered and released on Blu-ray, I immediately ordered it with great anticipation of re-watching this again in 1080p. To everyone who felt the same - don't. Received my copy and the minute I put it in, I was disappointed. Visuals are grainy and soft. At best, it looks like an upscaled version from a DVD. If you just want to add a Blu-ray version of this movie to your collection, go ahead. But if you are hoping for a better visual - stop. You ain't getting it on this release.

The original elements are grainy and soft. So, unless you are looking for DNR-ed image processing to bring it closer to what you believe HD entails then I think that the BR treatment is more than accurate.

Pro-B

Originally Posted by macintoshed

I love this movie. I've watched it at least 50 times on VHS, LD and DVD. When I knew this was being remastered and released on Blu-ray, I immediately ordered it with great anticipation of re-watching this again in 1080p. To everyone who felt the same - don't. Received my copy and the minute I put it in, I was disappointed. Visuals are grainy and soft. At best, it looks like an upscaled version from a DVD. If you just want to add a Blu-ray version of this movie to your collection, go ahead. But if you are hoping for a better visual - stop. You ain't getting it on this release.

I'm not particularly worried about it being soft and grainy, but more concerned about the subtitles. Mega Star's DVD has just awful subtitles, nowhere near the quality of the updated Kino ones. I was wondering if you could tell me how those are. For example, there is a line, around 15:30, that goes:

Mega Star: "Do you bring girls home oftenly?"
Kino: "You bring girls home often?"

As you can tell, the latter is definitely more fluid.

Thanks.

[RainyDog]

Originally Posted by dequinix

I'm not particularly worried about it being soft and grainy, but more concerned about the subtitles. Mega Star's DVD has just awful subtitles, nowhere near the quality of the updated Kino ones. I was wondering if you could tell me how those are. For example, there is a line, around 15:30, that goes:

Mega Star: "Do you bring girls home oftenly?"
Kino: "You bring girls home often?"

As you can tell, the latter is definitely more fluid.

Thanks.

I'd held off buying for exactly the same reason, dequinix. Sadly, I'd be surprised if they're revised from the Mega-Star DVD because the subtitle language options of Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Malay, India, Thai & Vietnamese is exactly the same as the DVD.

I'm hoping Kino might put out a US version in the not too distant future as I believe they've confirmed a Fallen Angels Blu-Ray is in the works.

[andre234]

Just got a copy.
I keep wondering how to get the audio MA 7.1.
What I can see is only Audio 1: Chinese DTS 3/2.1 48kHz and 2: Chinese Dolby Digital 3/2.1 48kHz.

I've other title such as "WAR" and have no problem on MA 7.1 output.

Anybody there can help me?

[pro-bassoonist]

What receiver do you have Andre and what player?

Pro-B

[andre234]

thanks for your reply.

my bd player is sony bdp-s350
the receiver is sony STR-DA4400ES

I don't think there is something wrong with my setup or equipment because only "Days Of Being Wild" can't output MA7.1 audio.

Same setup and equipment playback very well on "WAR" and I can get PCM 3/4.1 (which is MA7.1).

Maybe there is a trick/method on how to get the MA7.1 audio out from "Days Of Being Wild".

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by andre234

Maybe there is a trick/method on how to get the MA7.1 audio out from "Days Of Being Wild".

I don't think there is a trick here...rather what I am thinking...some receivers (Marantz for example) simply do not display MA 7.1.

Did you try switching after the main feature is on? Also, other the NL disc, what other 7.1 releases have you tested on your set-up?

Pro-B

[andre234]

ok . I've got it.

The reason why is S350 not capable to decode HD-MA 7.1. Hence, it automatically downgrade to dts 5.1 if your amp/receiver is not supporting HD signal.
My previous amplifier also is not capable too.
I just upgrade my amplifier to another sony std-da which capable to full support HD signal (my amp is just a few days old so I can get exchange).
Now, I can get the DTS HD-MA 7.1 audio.

Why my "WAR" is 7.1? Because it's in PCM7.1.

Now I know why S550 is a bit higher price. The sales people didn't give me details on this.

[stobbart]

How bad are the subs on this release? I mean the example given above is not that bad. I am familiar with grammar mistakes and such in subs that I can tell when there is a poor translation, but I can still easily get out the intended meaning.

But are there any hints as to an upcoming Kino release?