Remastered: Happy Together - Part I

With the advent of the new 4K restorations of WKW's movies, I've decided to give this neglected blog some attention once again. But where do I start? I can't feel I can comment on the new 4K restorations yet since I haven't watched any of them yet. (However, I'll try to collect some of the information that's available online so far in a post in the near future.)

Very well then. In order to get myself ready for the new 4K versions, I've decided to start by taking another look at the previous remasters of WKW's movies. I've done this before in a rather brief manner, so I will probably update and expand my posts about the HD remasters of Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. For Happy Together, I decided to start from scratch as there are lots of things I neglected or missed when I first wrote about it in 2010.

Let's take a look at what's available first. Here's a list of the official remasters of Happy Together that we've had so far:

1) The first proper remaster made its debut on DVD in 2004, released by Kino International (US).In this incarnation, the film had a 2.0 dual mono soundtrack. Two years later, the same remaster could be found on the 10th Anniversary Edition DVD/CD box set by Kam&Ronson from Hong Kong. There, it was labelled the "International Version" and had a new 5.1 soundmix. Interestingly, the accompanying booklet called it a "high definition remaster"; so I suspect that it was created from an HD scan, although it has only ever been released in standard definition.

2) The second remaster arrived in standard definition in 2009 on DVDs by Kino International (US) and Artificial Eye (US). It got its first release in HD in 2010 on Bluray by Kino International (US). This one was accompanied by a 5.1 soundmix from the start, the mix being different to the one from the first remaster.

3) The third remaster is the one carried out in 4K that will receive its first release on physical media in March by Criterion (US). It has already been reviewed by DVD Beaver.

(Notable mention: A Bluray from Japan by Kadowaka Entertainment contains the original Japanese theatrical version of Happy Together. There are some differences between that and the international version that I've discussed here. Aside from that, the Japanese theatrical is a good opportunity to watch Happy Together in its unaltered, "unremastered"form.)

I'll now take a look at the differences between the first and second remaster. I will write a follow up post once I've received the 4K version.

 

Credit sequences

Originally, the opening credits, title card and end credits were white text on red background. This was kept for the first remaster, although the background for the end credits looks more orangey now. For the second remaster, the text appears in white before a black background.

title card - Japanese theatrical version

tite card - first remaster

title card - second remaster

 

end credits - Japanese theatrical version

end credits - first remaster

end credits - second remaster

Cut

In terms of video, there are no differences in editing between the first and second remaster. Yet there is one missing piece of monologue in the second remaster. By the end of the movie, Chang has a drink at the 3 Amigos bar before he departs for Taiwan. There, he hopes to meet Lai Yiu Fai.

"I want to say goodbye to Fai, but nobody knows where he is. I thought  I'd hear his voice here. Maybe the music's too loud, I can't hear anything."

While this monologue appears in full in the Japanese theatrical version as well as in the first remaster (despite subtitle differences on the two DVDs, see below), the second remaster omits the last two sentences from Chang's narration.

first remaster - DVD by Kino International (2004)

first remaster - DVD by Kam&Ronson (2006)

Japanese theatrical version - BD by Kadowaka Entertainment (2012)

 

second remaster - BD by Kino International (2010)

Picture 

Happy Together's visual appearance changed dramatically with the second remaster. In terms of visual quality, it's clearly the superior version. After all, the first remaster still contained instances of dirt and damage. Contrast was bad, especially in shadowy, darker scenes where details were swallowed by black areas. The standard resolution of 720x480 pixels (NTSC) didn't help either.

All this certainly improved with the second remaster! But one thing was very obvious: The color scheme of the movie had been changed dramatically. It seemed as if the saturation of colors had been increased and the yellows were now much more pronounced than before. Take a look at the shot above of Chan in the bar and you'll see what I mean. (The look reminds me of the desert scenes in Ashes Of Time Redux.) Even less yellow scenes received a yellow tint.

UPDATE (2020-02-07): Contributor Benjamin has shared some very interesting information about the sources for the 2004 DVD (first remaster) and the newer remasters in the comments. With his insights, it can also be explained why the visuals of Happy Together went through such a drastic change:

What you see on the old DVD version was a scan of a POSITIVE PRINT. Doyle – as he had done previously with Fallen Angels & Chungking Express – made use of photochemical processes to achieve the result. I can't remember anymore what he used exactly, but it looks like a combination of push-processing (overdeveloping the film stock that you have underexposed, producing more grain and saturation) with one of the bleach-bypass inspired silver-retention techniques which were very fashionable in the mid-to-late 1990s. […] In addition, Doyle deliberately dragged the film (I'm guessing internegative or interpositive) over the ground to pick up dust and other artifacts. He then printed with certain interpositive/neg approaches, including the scenes shot in colour but printed (converted to) black and white, and the first clip of Iguazu in the film which was printed into a cyan/blue duotone. It also looks like he deliberately made use of "flashing"/fogging during the development process, and I even think he deliberately screwed with the printing lights or something because if you notice in the black & white scenes in the original DVD, there is a reverse vignette effect going on in many of the shots - instead of the luminosity/exposure of the image dropping off at the edges of the frame as you normally encounter with lens vignetting, the center of the image is darker and the edges are lighter. You only get this with a negative-to-positive conversion somewhere.

The "remaster" is clearly a scan from the negative, and digital colour correction applied to approximate the original look (and in some cases, "revise"). […] It's not possibe for a digital telecine, irrespective of what resolution it is capable of scanning in, to replicate photochemical looks. You can approximate, or you can go in a different direction (as they clearly did in a lot of shots), but you cannot properly replicate it. Being a scan from negative, this is why, unsurprisingly, there is no dust and the image is sharper. But, as I have explained above, the softness and dirt/dust specks you see on the "old dvd" weren't an accident or mistake, they were an intentional aesthetic choice and look.

(For more information, please read his full words in the comment section.)

first remaster

second remaster

first remaster

second remaster

Japanese theatrical version

first remaster

second remaster

 

Additionally, the scenes of Lai Yu Fai and Chan playing football in the street were changed to appear in yellow light now, whereas they had been drenched in blue light before. 

Japanese theatrical version

first remaster

second remaster

As a sidenote, the shot you see below appears in black and white in the first remaster while it appears in color in the other versions. If this was an accident or intentional, I don't know.

Japanese theatrical version

 

first remaster

second remaster

 

Sound and soundmix

I'm more prone to notice changes in the visuals of a movie than I do notice changes in the sound mix but I'll say a few words anyway. The 5.1 mix of the second remaster sounds fuller than the previous mixes. The 5.1 mix on the Kam&Ronson DVD (first remaster) sounds similar in quality to the dual mono soundtrack of the Kino DVD (first remaster as well), so maybe it is just an upmix.

I suspect that the 5.1 soundmix for the second remaster was done from scratch, as it was done for Chungking Express and Fallen Angels around the same time. For those two, I think the changes were more obvious than for Happy Together. One thing I noticed upon comparing the scene with Chang in the bar is how different his voice sounds in the second remaster. It is much deeper there. I don't have an explanation as to why that is. (The one thing I realised as I heard Chang's voice in the other versions is that the way it sounded originally resonated with me much more as that's the way I first heard it.)

Happy Together - International Version vs. Japanese Version (updated)

I recently acquired the Japanese Collector's Edition BluRay of Happy Together, which was released in 2012 but has since gone out of print. There's a new 2 disc edition which now also includes Buenos Aires Zero Degree but - as far as I know - lacks the Japanese Theatrical version of the main feature which was sourced from a 35mm print. I will provide a thorough review soon.

Upon comparing lengths, I discovered that the Japanese theatrical version runs longer than the current remaster which I have already talked about here. So I did a side-by-side comparison of both versions and discovered differences between the two, which you will find below. (In this article, I will not talk about the differences in the color scheme nor about the differing titles between old and new versions, as I already have done that in the old article).

In fact, the differences I talk about here are found the between Japanese version and all the other versions I have, including the remasters from the early 2000s and later 2000s as well as the German DVD which is sourced from a (German?) theatrical print. I call these other versions the "International cut", as this is how this cut is labeled in the 10th Anniversary Edition from Hongkong.

International Cut

In the International Cut, the shot of Tony Leung standing outside of the Bar Sur and watching Leslie and his friends is directly followed by Tony standing on the opposite side of the street, eating a sandwich and eventually noticing that Leslie and his company leave the bar. [This happens around the 9 minute mark in the current remastered version, available on BluRay from Kino International.]

 

 

Shortly after, Tony is in his bathroom at home, pondering about what he has witnessed earlier that night and eventually punches his mirror. During that scene, we get a voice-over containing his thoughts. [Begins 10:07 on said source.]

 

Japanese Cut

In the Japanese version, there's a bunch of additional stuff between the shot of Tony outside of Bar Sur and him eating the sandwich.

First, we see him entering a shop, talking to the vender in Spanish. Then he grabs a beer, but goes back to the fridge, puts back the beer and goes for a pineapple juice instead [Pineapples? Chungking Express?], while we get a voice-over which ends with "I just wanted to return to Hong Kong". This part of the voice-over is identical to the one in the international version (see above), but the beginning is different, unfortunately, I don't speak Cantonese, so I don't have a clue what he says.

 

UPDATE (2021-02-02): A very kind member of the forum at bluray.com has translated Lai Yu Fai's monologue for me: "When I first got here, I thought Argentina was really big. But it's actually really small. I ran into him again that night. But I didn't even think about starting over with him. I just wanted to go back to Hong Kong." Thank you very much, Dylan!

 

After that, there is one shot of him eating his sandwich.

 

  

Then we cut back to the bar, where the couple is still dancing and Leslie and his friends cheer for them. What follows afterwards is identical to the International version, it's the same shot of Tony eating and watching Leslie and his friends leave. 

 

 

The scene with Tony in the bathroom doesn't contain a voice over, it remains completely silent.

 

 

Conclusion

While the extra material we get in the Japanese version isn't all that essential, it's been great fun to discover these differences in the two cuts. I would really like to know what Tony says in the Japanese version. If anyone reads this who is capable of speaking Cantonese, please comment and I will provide you with a sound sample or video of that scene!

An elusive short film: In The Mood For Love 2001

Today I want to talk about one particular short film by Wong Kar-Wai. While he is certainly best known for his feature films, Kar-Wai has directed a fair number of short films during his career. The one that is probably most familiar to audiences is the first segment from 2004’s Eros called The Hand. But there are also other, less known shorts, like 2000’s Hua Yang De Nian Hua. It is basically a montage of clips from vintage Chinese films which had been thought to be lost before nitrate prints were discovered in a California warehouse in the 1990s. Both The Hand, Hua Yang De Nian Hua and other shorts (The Follow, I Travelled 9000km To Give It To You) are easily available for fans to watch, either on home video or on the internet. But there is one that is more elusive. It is called In The Mood For Love 2001.

To illuminate the origins of In The Mood For Love 2001, we have to travel back to 1997. In an interview with Wong Kar-Wai published in the Hong Kong paper City Entertainment in April 1997, he mentions a new project called Summer In Beijing and also mentions that he had wanted to finish it until the July 1 deadline, on which Hong Kong would be handed over to China. But he also makes it clear during the interview that the deadline was unlikely, making Summer In Beijing his first post-handover film. (1)

There are conflicting stories as to what Summer In Beijing was supposed to be about. Tony Rayns claims that it was planned in conjunction with Happy Together. As such, it was supposed to form a diptych much like Chungking Express and Fallen Angels had turned out to be. While Happy Together was about going to Argentina, Summer In Beijing would be the lighthearted second part of the diptych and would be set in the heart of the motherland. (2) Stephen Teo sees the roots of Wong’s later film 2046 in Summer In Beijing and writes that at “some point during the process, the project transmuted into a futuristic story about Beijing and was given a new title, 2046.” (3)

And while the origins and the evolution of Summer In Beijing’s story aren’t quite clear, the fate of its original, non-futuristic incarnation certainly is. As it turned out, things didn’t go quite as planned. While it hadn’t been a problem for Wong to shoot Chungking Express and Fallen Angels in Hong Kong without a script and even without filming permissions, his way of working wasn’t welcome in the mainland. The Film Bureau responsible for permitting a film to go into production didn’t pre-approve any film that didn’t even have a script. (4) In the end, the project was abandoned and moved back to Hong Kong. All that remains of Summer In Beijing now are some posters that show Tony Leung in front of the National Museum of China at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Interestingly, not only him and Maggie Cheung were announced to star in the upcoming film, but also Takeshi Kaneshiro, whom - as we know - hasn’t starred in a Wong Kar-Wai feature film since 1995’s Fallen Angels.

Summer In Beijing promotional posters

 At this point you may ask yourself what all this has to do with In The Mood For Love 2001. Don’t worry, we’re almost there. Unable to further develop Summer in Beijing as he had wanted to do, Wong crafted some new ideas. Eventually and apparently with the help of Maggie Cheung, he came up with a project called Three Stories About Food:

“I was in Paris doing promotion for Happy Together and had dinner with Maggie [Cheung]. […] We hadn’t worked together since Ashes Of Time and she hadn’t worked in Hong Kong in a while. Over dinner, she said ‘We should do a film together.’ She wanted to work with Tony [Leung], who was her first partner from her TV debut.
I said, ‘Why don’t we do a collection of stories, and both of you will play all the characters.’ ‘And what would be the topic?’ she asked. ‘How about food?’ I was reading a book The Physiology of Taste by the French gastronome, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, whose famous quote was, ‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.’ There was also a quote that said, ‘The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas: it mingles with all other pleasures and remains at last to console us for their departures.’ It was a perfect theme for our project, which had the working title Three Stories About Food.” (5)

In an interview at Cannes 2001 with Gilles Ciment, Wong Kar-Wai elaborates further on the historical and cultural background of the project:

“The idea was to have three stories which described the way food affects people. The story happened in Chinese communities and was about Chinese people. Since the 1970s, I think there have been two inventions which have changed Chinese and Asian life in general. One is the rice cooker; the second one is instant noodles. It used to be that women would have to spend lots of time at home cooking for their families. Without the rice cooker you have to spend hours in the kitchen. After we got rice cookers, the women had more time for themselves.
And then, as in In the Mood for Love, people used to go out for noodles. It was like a family outing, because they lived in a very small space. So they needed an excuse to go out at night to have a cup of noodles. Actually, it wasn’t the noodles, but they wanted to get some air. After we got instant noodles, people didn’t go out for noodles anymore. And so the last story is about fast-food shops. We can see that a lot of people now, especially the young people, don’t care about cooking. They prefer to go out.
The three stories are from different periods in Hong Kong, and we can see that the roles of men and women have changed a lot because of the habit of eating.” (6)

Had the project been completed, the film’s three stories would have been about (a) a kidnapper and the person being kidnapped, (b) a man and a woman, neighbours, whose spouses are having an affair and (c) a fast food shop owner and his customers. (7) If the second story sounds familiar to you, well, that’s no surprise. This is the story that eventually became In The Mood For Love. While filming that one, the “film got longer and longer and eventually we decided to forget about the idea of having three stories and just focused on the one.”, says Wong Kar-Wai. (8) But as it happened, Wong had already completed the third episode by the time he decided to expand the second story to a feature film. Eventually, it is this episode that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 under the title In The Mood For Love 2001. Wong Kar-Wai goes into further detail about the genesis and story of the episode in the aforementioned interview from 2001 as well as in an interview with John Powers from 2016:

“[…] the short film we’ve just seen is supposed to be the last [episode]. It’s like a dessert. We shot this short film in the first two days when we started our production. So it took only two nights, then we finished it, and then we worked on the main course, which is In the Mood for Love. But somehow In the Mood for Love became longer and longer, it has noodles and it has a rice cooker in it, but it became a film in itself. Actually, when the [Cannes] festival told me that I had to give a lesson here, I didn’t have any lessons. I don’t have anything to teach people because I don’t think I’m a good example. We made a lot of mistakes. So I want to share my experience with you, and I think it’s better to show you the way we make films and the process we have to go through. So we showed the short film in the festival.” (9)

“We shot the first story in an all-night convenience store in Central. Late at night, it was a natural stopping place for broken hearts and lost souls. The place reminded me of Edward Hopper’s painting, ‘Nighthawks’. Tony played the owner who had a hobby, which was collecting the keys customers would leave behind, the remnants of broken promises. Maggie played a woman who’d left her key before, but then comes back, very upset. She gets drunk and wants to eat whatever food he has. He’s only got cakes left and she eats them, one after the other. After the last piece, she passes out with a bit of frosting on her lip. This bothers the owner, who is very tidy and keeps an immaculate restaurant. He wants to clean it off of her, but instead of a napkin, he uses a personal touch. We shot the whole story in 10 days and started prepping for the next one. […] The first story that we shot eventually was shown as a short film at my master class in 2003 [sic!] under the title In The Mood For Love 2001, which a few years later was developed and became My Blueberry Nights.”  (10)

Wong’s two reports obviously differ in detail: Two days vs. ten days of shooting and first vs. last episode. I would conclude that he simply meant that the fast food shop episode was the first one to be filmed, although it was always meant to be the dessert that ends the film.

All in all, with the materials available, the genesis and content of In The Mood For Love 2001 can be reconstructed quite accurately. There is one question that remains: Why hasn’t Wong made this film more available to the public eye? Obviously, it would have been a nice bonus feature on home video editions of In The Mood For Love or even My Blueberry Nights, which it was the inspiration for. There is no definite answer, but there are two guesses. The first one comes from Tony Rayns who attended the screening at Cannes. He suspects that Wong never cleared the rights to use Bryan Ferry’s cover version of the song In The Mood For Love (which apparently is heard during the short film). (11) I doubt that this is the case, since that recording was a big part of the promotion of In The Mood For Love (the feature film) and was part of the trailers and the soundtrack albums. My guess would be that Wong Kar-Wai considers In The Mood For Love 2001 an unfinished project. One that probably pales in comparison to its bigger sibling, In The Mood For Love, the feature film. That’s how I take his comment during the 2001 interview, that in filmmaking, he makes a lot of mistakes. Maybe he only presented the short film in order to discuss the process of filmmaking, to give the audience a glimpse of a project that was completed but then discarded and turned out to be just one step along the way.

I will leave you now with three film strips from In The Mood For Love 2001 that appear in the book The Cinema Of Wong Kar-Wai. They are the only visual material from the short that I know.

three film strips from In The Mood For Love 2001

(1) Teo, Stephen (2005). Wong Kar-Wai. World Directors. p. 114.
(2) Rayns, Tony (2015). In The Mood For Love. BFI Film Classics. p. 58.
(3) Teo, Stephen (2005). Wong Kar-Wai. World Directors. p. 114.
(4) Rayns, Tony (2015). In The Mood For Love. BFI Film Classics. p. 58.
(5) Kar-Wai, Wong; Powers, John (2016). The Cinema Of Wong Kar-Wai. p. 155.
(6) Brunette, Peter (2005). Wong Kar-Wai. Contemporary Film Directors. p. 124.
(7) Kar-Wai, Wong; Powers, John (2016). The Cinema Of Wong Kar-Wai. p. 155 and Lee, Wai-Ming; Lee, Micky (2017). Wong Kar-Wai. Interviews. p. 125.
(8) Kar-Wai, Wong; Powers, John (2016). The Cinema Of Wong Kar-Wai. p. 156.
(9) Brunette, Peter (2005). Wong Kar-Wai. Contemporary Film Directors. p. 124.
(10) Kar-Wai, Wong; Powers, John (2016). The Cinema Of Wong Kar-Wai. p. 155f.
(11) Rayns, Tony (2015). In The Mood For Love. BFI Film Classics. p. 93.

2046's deleted scenes #1: 'M. Chow quitte 2046'

In this new series of blog entries I want to describe and comment on the various deleted scenes from 2004's '2046'. When I pondered on how to begin this series, I eventually thought to myself: "Why not start at the very end?" So here it is, the alternate ending of 2046. This scene appears on the US DVD by Sony as well as on the French DVD by TF1, albeit in two versions. Let's take a look at the US DVD first.

On the US DVD, the scene is called 'The writer visits the future bar'. There, the whole scene is completely silent. No music, no dialogue whatsoever. The scene consists of one single shot only. First, we see lights from the sci-fi train flash up. The camera pans from right to left, as an android walks into the frame in the same direction. We eventually see Chow from behind, sitting at the future bar, drinking and smoking. As he puts his glass down, he turns around, looking straight into the camera. After several seconds, the shot turns bright and cuts off.

 

On the French TF1 DVD, the scene is called 'M. Chow quitte 2046' ('Mister Chow leaves 2046'). It starts with a black screen. We hear Nat King Cole's 'Christmas Song' and Chow via voiceover: "One who goes to 2046 has only one intention: Recapturing lost memories. Because in 2046 nothing ever changes, they say." Then, the shot from the future bar begins, albeit a bit later than in the version on the US DVD. The android waiter has already entered the frame as the shot begins in the TF1 version. The music and Chow's voiceover continue:  "Nobody knows if that's the case, because no-one has ever come back." Chow turns around. "But me. I want to change." Chow takes a long stare into the camera. And without turning bright, the scene cuts to a zoom-in on the futuristic hole in the wall. Nat King Cole's song continues until the very end.

Let's discuss the scene as it appears on the French DVD. I guess the most apparent thing is the voiceover. It's the same voiceover that accompanies the final shot of the common theatrical version - except for a crucial change. While the theatrical version ends with "...because no-one has ever come back.", the deleted scene adds: "But me. I want to change." His statement is however contradicted by his very presence at the future bar. Maybe that's why he looks at the camera so intensively - so we can actually see his pain.
I have long suspected that the deleted scenes from the TF1 DVD stem from the unfinished version of 2046 which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. An article by Tony Rayns from 'Sight and Sound' (2008, No. 18 no. 3) confirms this:

One recurrent voiceover heard in the Cannes version of 2046 had disappeared by the time the film reached release. That version opened and closed with the writer’s reflections on his own relationship with 2046, and the same words also popped up in the middle of the film. They went something like this: “Those who go to 2046 never come back. But I’m the exception. I went to 2046, and I have come back. Because I want to change …”
I once asked Wong Kar-wai why he had rewritten that voiceover, and he told me he did so because he thought the original was too obvious. What he meant, I think, was that his own relationship with his writer character too closely mirrored the writer’s relationship with his Japanese surrogate. He feared that audiences would take the voiceover as an autobiographical mission statement. 2046 felt like some kind of summation of Wong’s themes and motifs. This voiceover gave the whole thing an air of valediction; it suggested a director who was feeling an urgent need to move into entirely new areas. I was reminded of an earlier conversation with Wong in which he wryly commented, “Too many people are ‘doing’ Wong Kar-wai these days, so I have to do something else.”

So what do you think about this alternate ending? Tell me in the comments.

Chungking Express: HK Cut vs. International Cut

Every Wong Kar-Wai movie exists in multiple versions. That's a fact.  Take 2013's 'The Grandmaster' as an example. It was screened in at least four versions and three of them are available on BluRay and DVD. That makes this movie a rare case, since most of the director's other movies are available on home video in one particular cut only. That's understandable, since most of the alternate cuts are premiere versions which Wong Kar-Wai refined further until he presented them to a more general audience. This was the case for 'In The Mood For Love', '2046' and 'My Blueberry Nights', whose Cannes premiere versions were all reportedly different from the versions we know so well.

One alternate version I've always wanted to see is the obscure 'Hong Kong version' of 'Chungking Express'. I think I first read about it in Stephen Teo's 'Wong Kar-Wai: Auteur of Time'. There he discusses some of the differences between that versions and the better known 'international version' and argues that the version shown to international audiences has a more abstract sense of Hong Kong space compared to the version presented to the Hong Kong audience. In order to get to know more about Teo's great analysis, you should probably read his book. The point is, ever since I read those comments, I wanted to see the Hong Kong version. But the sad fact is: All the common DVD and BluRay releases contain 'the international version' only. So I did some research and found out that in the 1990s, the label Ocean Shores released the Hong Kong version on VCD and DVD. You can even find a short review of the latter on DVD Beaver. So I turned to Ebay and was able to get the VCD, but not the DVD.

Chungking Express VCD by Ocean Shores

And I have to tell you, it's an usual experience to watch a VCD nowadays. In the world of HD and 4K, a VCD seems ancient. While it's still compatible with my equipment, the resolution of 352x240 pixels (plus the MPEG-1 codec and the constant bitrate) is quite... something.
So, in order to sport all the differences between the two versions, I let the VCD (Hong Kong version) and the BluRay by the Criterion Collection (international version) run side by side and created this little report about their differences. I should however make some comments about my approach beforehand:
- I didn't document very minor differences, like shots that run 1-2 seconds longer in either version.
- The voiceovers are placed a bit differently in both versions. Usually, there's a 1-2 seconds time difference between both versions. I don't mention that below, otherwise I would have had to comment on each and every voiceover of the movie.
- I tried to comment on differences in the soundtrack. However, the VCD contains a mono soundtrack, while the Criterion BluRay has a remastered 5.1 mix. Needless to say that this makes the overall sound atmosphere completely different. So I only comment on the sound when the differences are severe, like different or missing music cues.

So here it is, my comparison of both versions of 'Chungking Express'.

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HK version 0:00:00 - 0:00:02 (VCD #1) / International version 0:00:00 - 0:00:45
There is a black-on-white Jet Tone Logo in the HK version, while there appear several logos in the international version, including a white-on-black Jet Tone Logo.

Hong Kong version

International version

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HK version 0:00:42 (VCD #1) / International version 0:01:22
The title card contains an English translation in the Int. Cut.

Hong Kong version

 

International version

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HK version 0:05:22 - 0:05:37 (VCD #1)
The scene with Cop 223 loitering in front of May's window is seen earlier in the HK version.

Hong Kong version

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HK version 0:06:27 - 0:07:37 (VCD #1)
In the Hong Kong version, we only get one short montage sequence with the Indians and the Blonde during which they prepare the drug smuggling. We see the Indians getting paid as well as the drugs being hidden in clothes, shoes and even in people! The Baroque theme is heard during the scene.

International version 0:06:63 - 0:11:33
In the International version, there are two longer montage sequences involving the Indians and the drug smuggling. Instead of the Baroque theme, we get to hear different folk tunes. Between the montage sequences we get the scene with Cop 223 loitering in front of May's window that appeared earlier in the Hong Kong Cut.

International version, 0:06:53 - 0:08:53
First, the Indians get paid, then the Blonde takes them shopping and eating.

International version, 0:08:53 - 0:09:12
This scene is the same as in the HK Cut, except that it's followed by an additional shot of the clock.

International version, 0:09:13 - 0:11:33
The Blonde and the Indians shop a little bit more before they prepare the drug smuggling.

The respective music from the montage sequence continues until the first part of the airport scene, which follows in both versions. After the intercut to the stewardess from Episode #2, we get to hear frantic drums in the HK version. The international version replaces the drum music with announcements from the airport personnel that luggage is not supposed to be left unattended.

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International version 0:13:19 - 0:13:53
The international version has an additional scene with Cop 223 who steps out of McDonalds and then calls his paging service from a supermarket to ask whether he has any new messages. Subsequently, we hear Cop 223 via voiceover:

"We broke up on April Fool's Day, so I took it as a joke. I'm willing to humor her for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1, because May loves pineapple and May 1 is my birthday. I tell myself, that if May hasn't come back by the time I've bought 30 cans, then our love will expire too."

The HK version begins the scene in the supermarket with the close up of the cans of pineapple. From that point on, the scene is the same in both cuts, except that the international version continues the voiceover until shortly before Cop 223 talks to the salesclerk. The HK version has no voiceover at that point.

International version

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HK version 0:09:58 - 0:10:30 (VCD #1)
This additional scene from the HK version is an alternative to the scene described before and has the same voiceover. It appears after Cop 223 has left the store.

Hong Kong version

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HK version 0:11:09 - 0:11:51 (VCD #1) / International version 0:14:55 - 0:17:19
The Blonde questions several people whether they know the Indians whom she has hired. The order of the people she asks is different in each version. Additionally, the international version contains a small subplot during which the Blonde kidnaps a little girl in order to get information about the Indians from her father. Her scheme is not successful however and she returns the girl. Via voiceover, she tells us: "Some men might sacrifice their own kid for money, but he wasn't one of them. One hour later, I left."

International version

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HK version 0:14:34 - 0:14:36 (VCD #1)
An additional shot in the HK version which zooms in on the clock when it turns from April 30 to May 1.

Hong Kong version

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HK version 0:14:37 - 0:16:59 (VCD #1) / International version 0:19:55 - 0:22:15
The scene in which the Blonde enters Garden Hostel, is subsequently attacked by hitmen and flees is cut a little bit differently in the end. But the changes in music are more important here. In the HK version, a folk song can be heard until the Blonde smokes a cigarette. In the international version, a different folk song fades in slowly as she smokes. The 'action music' at the beginning of the subsequent attack is also different in both versions. Also, the folk song from the international version continues to be heard during the first part of the action sequence.

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HK version ~28min. VCD #1) / International version ~33min.
The beginning of the scene with Cop 223 and the Blonde in the hotel is cut exactly the same in both versions, but we hear the cop's voiceover quite a bit later in the international version.

Hong Kong version

International version

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HK version 0:29:50 - 0:29:54 (VCD #1)
The HK version contains an additional shot of Cop 223 cleaning his teeth.

Hong Kong version

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International version 0:39:01 - 0:39:22
There's an additional shot in the international version.

International version

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HK version 0:02:23 - 0:03:40 (VCD #2)
During this famous scene with Cop 663 and Faye, Faye Wong's cover of 'Dreams' can be heard in the HK version. It even continues until the next scene with the cop's colleague. In the international version, the scene is silent.

Hong Kong version

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HK version 0:04:59 - 0:05:02 (VCD #2) / International version 0:57:25 - 0:57:33
This shot outside of Cop 663's appartement is different in each version. In the HK version, the lights flash up twice, in the international version, the interiors remain in the dark.

HK version

International version

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HK version 0:04:59 - 0:05:02 (VCD #2)
The HK version adds a shot of Cop 663 getting up from his couch.

HK version

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HK version 0:05:09 - 0:06:18 (VCD #2)
This scene is exclusive to the HK version. Please click on the picture below to read Cop 663's voiceover.

HK version

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International version ~1h4m
This scene is almost the same in both cuts. But the international version adds Tony's voiceover from the aforementioned extra scene from the HK version. In the HK version, there's no voiceover heard during the scene.

International version

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HK version ~28min (VCD #2) / International version ~1h20m
Before the electricity is cut from the Midnight Express imbiss, a song plays through the speakers in the HK version. This is not the case in the international version.

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HK version ~29min (VCD #2) / International version ~1h22m
As Cop 663 begins to notice the changes in his appartement, he discovers the picture attached to his mirror first and then eats the canned food in the HK version. It's the other way round in the international version. I also had the impression that the shots differed in length from version to version, but it's just minor.

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HK version ~32min (VCD #2)
The following shot lasts longer in the HK version. In the international version, a part of its dialogue is heard over the next shot.

HK version

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HK version ~35min (VCD #2)
The scene in which Faye interacts enthusiastically with her customers is a few seconds longer in the HK version. There might be some extended or additional shots in there.

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Last but not least, the credits are once again different in each version.

HK version

International version