Wong Kar-Wai's Love Odysseys: 2010

2010-10-10

Fallen Angels: Angel Talk

In 1996, Christopher Doyle released his first book about the production of a movie directed by Wong Kar-Wai. The version I own is the hardcover version. The paperback version is said to contain some postcards as an extra, but I've never seen pictures of these.
The book itself is divided into four sections:

SMILE provides information about the locations where Fallen Angels was shot and it also introduces us to the cast and some important members of the crew. (The text is always provided in English as well as in Japanese.) On the fourth page you see below, Doyle complains about the fact that a scene they shot at Petticoat Lane ended up on the cutting room floor. Luckily, it turned up as an extra on the US BD release for example!

SIGH deals with further aspects of a movie like script, music, make-up. We also get a few strange photographs which don't really remind one of Fallen Angels, just like the picture on the front cover.

EMBRACE consists of nice collages of stills and quotes from the movie. There are even lyrics of the songs of the soundtrack! Funnily, we also get the lyrics of a song named "Go Away From My World", which wasn't even used in the end. And although we are all so familiar with the movie's images, these collages are extremely beautiful to look at!

KISS, the final chapter, shows shots of Hong Kong how it looked back then in the mid-90s.

Personally, I don't like the photographs as much as I like the ones in Doyle's following book Buenos Aires. But this is only a matter of personal taste, both books are great releases I'm proud to own!

2010-09-12

Happy Together: Buenos Aires

This is a journal written by Christopher Doyle during the months Happy Together was shot! Actually, it's the version released in Japan in September 1997. The original HK edition was released a few months earlier, titled "Don't try for me Argentina". According to a fanpage dedicated to Happy Together, the journal is the same, but most of the photographs are different. So both of them are essential! Unfortunately, I only own the Japanese version, which will be discussed here. [EDIT: I managed to get hold of the version released in HK, a review will follow.]

This journal is very different to the official photobook! Despite the fact that it's a journal, the photographs are more important to me. Here, we get raw snapshots that don't look as stylized as the collages presented in the official photobook. Most of the photos are grainy and blurred. Then again, this is also kind of a style, isn't it? At first, I wasn't so happy about these "simple" photographs, yet after a while, I came to admire the beautiful colors and also their muddiness.

Mostly, the layout looks like on the two pictures on the right. The text is presented in both English and Japanese! It features some interesting and also funny anecdotes of the troubles the crew had to face in Argentina. But don't be dissappointed, there could have certainly been more information about shooting details! WKW geeks might not get enough information! Anyway, one thing becomes clear: WKW's movies really are created at the editing table! There are descriptions of scenes we know, but they were shot in a completely different context. Quote from the book: "Wong says that it's only as he edits the film that he finds the meaning of much of what we have shot. We didn't really know what certain details or colours or actions meant at the time. They anticipated where the film would take us. They were images from the future at that time that we've only just arrived at now." Without the voice-overs that are used so heavily in WKW's movies (which are added in post-production), some scenes might have a completely different meaning!

So all in all, this book is just as good as the official photobook, it's simply very different. The photographs are presented in a simpler way, which is just as good. They get the chance to speak for themselves, they're not just part of a work of art, they ARE THE work of art.
It bugs me that I can't compare this Japanese version to the one released in HK, maybe someday I will be able to! It would be so exciting to compare the photographs!

2010-06-19

2010-05-29

Happy Together: US BluRay by Kino International

I had this BD in the mail today, although it won't be released until Tuesday next week. In March we already got Fallen Angels on BD from Kino International, three months later, they give us Happy Together. Judging from the quality of the trailer for Happy Together on the Fallen Angels BD, I anticipated a great disc.
As expected, the HD transfer contains the remastered version that was published on DVD in 2009 (I blogged about the differences between the versions here). Fortunately, the disc is region-free and it is also double-layered (BD-50).

PACKAGING AND MENU
Many aspects of this release mimick the Fallen Angels BD. That's why it's no surprise that the amaray case is once again stored in a cardboard slipcase. It basically looks just like the DVD release from 2009, but this time, they managed to make the back cover look fine instead of cheap. It's no revelation, though. One thing I absolutely disliked about 2009's DVD release was the ugly menu. Whereas they managed to get it right on the BD of Fallen Angels, they fail this time. You can see the ugly background below. The Java animations are fine as always, Kino International actually put the same animations on all of their releases. They're simple and they work. Unfortunately, I can't take screencaps of these.

Turqouis? Why???
(Blu-Ray.com provides a better screenshot with the menu animations)

IMAGE AND SOUND

We get more detail here than on the Fallen Angels BluRay. Although Happy Together is also rather soft, it doesn't have that "nebulous" look that Fallen Angels has. Well, everything looks pretty well here, there are no damages and the new colors are nice. The only thing one could complain about is the fact that blacks sometimes appear rather greenish due to the new color palette. Still, the new color palette gives the movie more plasticity - therefore it was a good choice to change the movie in that way. Doyle's marvellous cinematography shines even more! The movie is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1,85:1, of course.

The sound is a pleasure too. The soundtrack of the remastered edition gives the impression that WKW recompiled it, that's also what he did with the soundtracks for Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. This time, WKW didn't change much. I have to confess that I didn't notice any changes (new sound effects for example) - except for the new 5.1 mix, of course.
Additionally, here are some technical aspects about image and sound:
Feature Size: 25,573,797,888 bytes
Length: 1:35:56.792

Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 29841 kbps / 1080p / 23,976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Chinese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3831 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitle: English / 20,158 kbps

BONUS FEATURES
First of all, there are 2 HD trailers for Fallen Angels and Happy Together (AVC, 1080p). We've already got those on the Fallen Angels BD and at first I thought the new HD trailer for Happy Together was recompiled from the remastered movie, but it actually wasn't. The trailer's color palette was definitely adjusted, but in comparison with the main feature, it looks inferior (higher contrast, more grain):

trailer vs. main feature

Just like on the Fallen Angels BD, there's also a collection of stills. You can't see the Java menu animations on this screencap, but this is one of the stills - they're not too interesting:

Additionally, we also get the documentary Buenos Aires Zero Degree (AVC, 1080i). It's kind of a making of and contains lots of deleted scenes. Unfortunately, the quality still sucks as it sucked on previous releases. I really hope to see a remastered version someday... And Kino International certainly don't improve the image by upscaling it to HD. Then again, they did a good job by inserting chapter marks here.

There's also an interview with WKW (AVC, 1080i): "In April 2008, Wong Kar-Wai sat down with David Schwartz at New York's Museum of the Moving Image to discuss his career. Director Ang Lee introduced the evening." The interview looks upscaled as well.

CONCLUSION
Great release for WKW fans! The main feature is presented in better quality than ever before and the selection of bonus features is pleasing. All that's left to hope is that we will get "Buenos Aires Zero Degree" in better quality one day...