A number of us around here are waiting to get our grubbly little paws on the Criterion release of Wong Kar Wai’s 1994 classic Chungking Express. The film has long been plagued with numerous inferior releases, alternate versions and bad transfers, and while there is are recent remastered discs in Japan (R3) (although both over-priced and out of stock already) and Hong Kong (Region Free). It is nice to see a solid domestic disc of the film.
And that cover art-work: Gorgeous. Nice to see a hint of red in the corner. I always associate the movie with red. It is probably the opening half.
Over at The Storyboard blog, Guo Shao-Hua notes that this is hardly the deluxe Criterion package, merely a remastered single-disc edition (both video and soundtrack) with a sprinkling of extras and a small booklet. This doesn’t overly concern me however, I have little interest in the extras on this film, the film speaks volumes by itself. It plays with genre emotion and is one of the most raw and playful takes on the filmmakers stock themes and styles. Yet Guo mulls the myriad editions that the film could be based on the Criterion Website’s 102 minute run time.
It is notable that the film will be released on standard DVD and Blu-Ray, and while this would be an interesting title to prompt an upgrade (for one, how are they going to handle the misty-grainy step-printing cinematography in hi-def), the chief title to prompt a blu-ray upgrade remains Satoshi Kon’s Paprika. (And I have not upgraded yet)
Criterion Synopsis:
The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of nineties cinema and the film that made Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing.
I am migrating to blu-ray in November, and this will be the first disc I buy.
I currently own the Quentin Tarantino “Rolling Thunder” release of Chungking Express, but will be upgrading as soon as this becomes available. I can’t wait for November.
And it looks like Criterion has two great titles for December as well: Samuel Fuller’s White Dog (a film the studio withheld from general release due it’s harsh dealings with racism, but a work that Fuller was extremely proud of) and Lars von Trier’s Europa.
I’ve been waiting on a good domestic release of EUROPA for ages, that film circulated around Toronto on ratty VHS tapes before Breaking The Waves and The Kingdom started to get LvT notice on this side of the pond.
I need to watch More Fuller as well, I really, really, really dig his war flick, The Big Red One.
The Big Red One is a good movie, and one that Fuller had been trying to make for 30 years before finally getting his chance to do so (in the early days, John Wayne was attached to the project). Fuller himself was part of the Big Red One in World War II, and many of the events in the film were lifted from his actual experiences.
Some other excellent Samuel Fuller films to check out would be Pickup on South Street, House of Bamboo, The Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor.
More from Glenn: http://tiny.cc/8Kws5
Nice.
wait a second, the Chungking blu-ray is out in Canada now?!!!
I thought the pushed it until december?
Amazon.ca says Dec 16 2008. Glenn Kenny probably has an advanced copy of the Disc.
There are a number of compelling reasons to maybe, sorta, possibly upgrade to Blu:
Chungking, Paprika, Zodiac, WallE…
Europa rules for the most part. I have been becoming more and more of a Von Trier fan, what I saw from him initially was shitty (Dancer in the Dark, Dogville), but Europa, The Boss of it All and The Kingdom is good stuff. And the five obstructions proves that he is a person worth spending time on, even when he fails artistically.
can’t wait for Zodiac on blu-ray, have not watched it since the theatre.
I’m loving blu-ray, but I am not loving the selection. Is there really a demand for Run Fatboy Run on blu-ray?
To date I have only seen one Wong Kar Wai film: 2046, and I loathed it. Specifically, the dialogue drove me off the wall with how overly poetic it was trying to be vs. how terrible it was at being so.
But I still here so much about this director I want to grab another chance, and don’t know where to start. Is this it?
Only this morning I found out that Tony Rayns’ has a commentary on the Criterion disk. I’m tempted to buy it just for that…
Goon: This is most definitely it. Where 2046 was heavy handed and plodding (I still like that movie a lot), Chungking Express is light on its feet, warm, charming and has heavy genre-influences to go along with wkw’s auteurist stylings. I’d watch this then move to something like Days of Being Wild or As Tears Go By, or heck, My Blueberry Nights. (I’ve not seen Happy Together)
The more ‘heavy’ plodding stuff: Ashes of Time, 2046, and In the Mood for Love you may want to pass on.
2046 is widely regarded as wkws worst film (Again, I still like that one a lot), so as majority opinion goes, you’ve nowhere to go but up!