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The World of Wong Kar-Wai Retrospective

 
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:41 am    Post subject: The World of Wong Kar-Wai Retrospective Reply with quote

‘The World of Wong Kar-Wai’ Retrospective Hits Film At Lincoln Center In June
Posted on January 14, 2020 by Greg Srisavasdi
https://deepestdream.com/the-world-of-wong-kar-wai-retrospective-hits-film-at-lincoln-center/

The World of Wong Kar-Wai, a touring retrospective that celebrates the 20th anniversary of his seminal feature In the Mood for Love, premieres June 5 at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center. If you’re not a Big Apple resident, no need to worry as a national rollout will follow.

The retrospective will feature 4K Restorations of Wong Kar-wai’s films As Tears Go By (1988), Days of Being Wild (1990), Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), and In the Mood for Love (2000).

Also included is the director’s cut of The Hand, a short film that was part of the 2004 project Eros (Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni helmed the other two shorts).

“It has been a wonderful and personal experience for me to collaborate with Janus Films and Criterion Collection on the restoration of my films,” said Wong Kar-Wai. “With their impeccable expertise and passions towards cinema, I look forward to the launch of my titles in June 2020 in theaters and celebrating the 20th anniversary of In the Mood for Love.”

Criterion Collection and Janus Films president Peter Becker that the director “combines a passionate, romantic sensibility with brilliant formal innovations that made his themes of love and longing all the more affecting.”

Like countless other cinephiles, I’ve been profoundly affected by Wong Kar-wai’s work, and I’m looking forward to attending the retrospective. Along with In the Mood for Love, I’m excited to see the restoration for Chungking Express and see how Wong Kar-wai director’s cut of The Hand (along with The Grandmaster, it’s probably his most underrated work).
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

‘World of Wong Kar Wai’ Exclusive: Watch Footage from 7 Dazzling New 4K Restorations
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of "In the Mood for Love" with a dazzling 4K restoration.
Zack Sharf
Nov 16, 2020 9:50 am
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/11/wong-kar-wai-4k-restorations-trailer-1234598996/



It’s a great time to be a Wong Kar Wai fan. Not only is the Hong Kong auteur at work on a new directorial project (“Blossoms,” see more information about the dramatic series here) and planning a mysterious sequel to his 1994 classic “Chungking Express,” but seven of Wong’s best films have gotten brand new 4K restorations courtesy of The Criterion Collection and L’immagine Rtrovata. Janus Films will be rolling out the restorations later this year in a package titled “The World of Wong Kar Wai.”

The official “World of Wong Kar Wai” synopsis from Janus Films reads: “Films you’ll love for 10,000 years, the cinema of Wong Kar Wai is steeped in sensual colors, groundbreaking editing, and heart-wrenching drama. Janus Films is proud to present a touring retrospective that includes brand-new restorations of seven of the master’s most dazzling films, including the US premiere of ‘Chungking Express’ and the world premiere of newly restored films ‘As Tears Go By,’ ‘Days of Being Wild,’ ‘Fallen Angels,’ ‘Happy Together,’ a director’s cut of ‘The Hand,’ and on the occasion of it’s twentieth anniversary, a newly restored ‘In the Mood for Love.’ The retrospective will debut November 25 at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, to be followed by a nationwide rollout.”

The 4K restoration of “In the Mood for Love” world premiered at the New York Film Festival. The entire retrospective event was originally set to kick off over the summer but was delayed in the midst of the pandemic. The restorations will be available in the Film at Lincoln Center virtual cinema, giving cinephiles across the country the chance to watch the restorations from the comfort of their own homes. Tickets are now on sale at the Film at Lincoln Center website.

“Wong Kar-wai’s films are simply intoxicating, both in their visual splendor and in the delicate way he plays with time, structure, and memory,” said Florence Almozini, FLC’s Associate Director of Programming, in a statement. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Janus Films on this landmark retrospective, and to give New York audiences a chance to revisit Wong’s masterpieces in new restorations.”

Janus Films’ Wong Kar Wai retrospective will open December 11 in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and more. Watch an exclusive trailer for the 4K restorations in the video below.

https://vimeo.com/478221937
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

FINALLY Exclamation Exclamation Exclamation Applause love In Love
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

World of Wong Kar Wai, A Career Retrospective, Opens November 25 in the FLC Virtual Cinema!
By Film at Lincoln Center on November 13, 2020 in Retrospective
https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/world-of-wong-kar-wai-a-career-retrospective-opening-november-25-in-the-flc-virtual-cinema/


Film at Lincoln Center and Janus Films present World of Wong Kar Wai, a retrospective of the Hong Kong master, rescheduled from its original dates in June and opening November 25 as this year’s FLC holiday series.

Contemporary cinema’s supreme rhapsodist of romantic longing, Wong Kar Wai makes mesmerizing mood pieces that swirl around themes of time, dislocation, and the yearning for human connection. Ever since exploding onto the international scene in 1994 with his third feature, Chungking Express—an art-house sensation that would become one of the defining works of the Hong Kong New Wave—Wong has been refining his signature style, marked by woozy, hallucinatory visuals (often shot in sumptuous color by frequent cinematographer Christopher Doyle); the indelible use of pop music; and elliptical editing that evokes the impressionistic haze of memory. Though he’s renowned for his sublime studies of love and its absence, Wong’s small but exquisite filmography encompasses idiosyncratic forays into science fiction, crime thrillers, and the martial arts epic, all infused with his trademark motifs and swooning style.

FLC is honored to present this career-spanning retrospective of one of the greatest auteurs working in world cinema today, with brand new restorations of some of Wong’s most dazzling films including Chungking Express, Happy Together, Fallen Angels, Ashes of Time Redux, Days of Being Wild, 2046, As Tears Go By, and a never-before-seen extended cut of The Hand, plus an expanded run of In the Mood for Love commemorating its 20th anniversary. The films open in the FLC Virtual Cinema, accessible to audiences nationwide—exact dates listed below.

“Wong Kar Wai’s films are simply intoxicating, both in their visual splendor and in the delicate way he plays with time, structure, and memory,” said Florence Almozini, FLC’s Associate Director of Programming. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Janus Films on this landmark retrospective, and to give New York audiences a chance to revisit Wong’s masterpieces in new restorations.”

Wong made his debut at Film at Lincoln Center in 1991, when his second feature, Days of Being Wild, premiered at the 20th edition of New Directors/New Films. Since then, five of his films have screened in the New York Film Festival: Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000), and Ashes of Time Redux (2008).

Organized by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson.

Individual rentals range from $10 to $12, and will be available for pre-order the week of November 16. See more and save with a discounted 7-film Janus bundle for just $70. Film at Lincoln Center members save an additional 20% on individual rentals and the 7-film bundle. Plus, as a special FLC membership benefit, members receive complimentary access to My Blueberry Nights and The Grandmaster (U.S.). To access Film at Lincoln Center Member benefits, please visit filmlinc.org.

Acknowledgments:

Mireille van Helm, Jet Tone Films; Emily Woodburne, Brian Belovarac, and Benjamin Crossley-Marra, Janus Films; Fumiko Takagi, The Criterion Collection



FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS

Films are scheduled in open-ended runs except where otherwise noted.

Opens November 25
In the Mood for Love – New Restoration!
2000, Hong Kong, 98m
Cantonese and Shanghainese with English subtitles

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic yearning and its fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past decade of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career. An NYFF38 Main Slate selection and an NYFF58 Revivals selection. This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with Jet Tone Films, L’Immagine Ritrovata, One Cool, and Robert Mackenzie Sound. Supervised and approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Janus Films release.



Opens December 4
As Tears Go By – New Restoration!
1988, Hong Kong, 102m
Cantonese with English subtitles

Wong’s scintillating debut feature is a hyper-cool crime thriller with flashes of the impressionistic, daydream visual style for which he would become renowned. Set amid Hong Kong’s neon-lit gangland underworld, this operatic saga of ambition, honor, and revenge stars Andy Lau as a small-time mob enforcer who finds himself torn between a burgeoning romance with his ailing cousin (Maggie Cheung, in the first of her iconic collaborations with Wong) and his loyalty to his loose-cannon partner in crime (Jacky Cheung) whose reckless attempts to make a name for himself unleash a spiral of violence. Marrying the pulp pleasures of the gritty Hong Kong action drama with hints of the head-rush romanticism Wong would push to intoxicating heights throughout the 1990s, As Tears Go By was a box office smash that heralded the arrival of one of contemporary cinema’s most electrifying talents. This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata and One Cool. A Janus Films release.

Opens December 4
Days of Being Wild – New Restoration!
1990, Hong Kong, 94m
Cantonese, Shanghainese, Tagalog, and Mandarin with English subtitles

Wong Kar Wai’s breakthrough sophomore feature represents the first full flowering of his signature swooning style. The first film in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle that includes In the Mood for Love and 2046, this ravishing existential reverie drifts through the Hong Kong of the 1960s with a band of wayward twenty-somethings—including a disaffected playboy (Leslie Cheung) searching for his birth mother, a lovelorn woman (Maggie Cheung) hopelessly enamored with him, and a policeman (Andy Lau) caught in the middle of their turbulent relationship—who pull together and push apart in a cycle of frustrated desire. The director’s inaugural collaboration with both cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who lends the film its gorgeously gauzy texture, and actor Tony Leung, who appears briefly in a tantalizing teaser for a never-realized sequel, Days of Being Wild is an exhilarating expression of Wong’s trademark themes of time, dislocation, and restless yearning. This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata and One Cool. A Janus Films release.



Opens December 4
Chungking Express – New Restoration!
1994, Hong Kong, 102m
Cantonese and Mandarinwith English subtitles

The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of ’90s cinema and the film that made Wong an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express takeout restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in the filmmaker’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 longing. An NYFF32 selection. This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata, Jet Tone, One Cool, and 3H Sound Studio. It was supervised and approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Janus Films release.

Opens December 4
Fallen Angels – New Restoration!
1995, Hong Kong, 99m
Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles

Lost souls reach for human connection amid the glimmering nighttime world of Hong Kong in Wong’s neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of Chungking Express only to spin off on its own woozy axis, Fallen Angels plays like the dark, moody flip side to Wong’s breakout feature as it charts the subtly interlacing fates of a handful of urban loners, including a coolly detached hitman (Leon Lai) looking to go straight, his business partner (Michelle Reis) who secretly yearns for him, and a mute delinquent (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who wreaks mischief by night. Swinging between hard-boiled noir and slapstick lunacy with giddy abandon, Wong’s fifth feature is both a dizzying city symphony and a poignant meditation on love, loss, and longing in a metropolis that never sleeps. An NYFF35 selection. This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata, Jet Tone, and One Cool. It was supervised and approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Janus Films release.

Opens December 4
Happy Together – New Restoration!
1997, Hong Kong, 96m
Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish with English subtitles

One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong’s raw, lushly stylized portrayal of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung as a couple traveling through Argentina and locked in a turbulent pattern of infatuation and destructive jealousy. Capturing the dynamics of a queer relationship with empathy and complexity on the cusp of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong—when the country’s LGBTQ community suddenly faced an uncertain future—Wong crafts a feverish portrait of the life cycle of a love affair that’s by turns devastating and delirious. Shot by Christopher Doyle in both luminous monochrome and saturated color, Happy Together is an intoxicating exploration of displacement and desire. An NYFF35 selection. This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata, Jet Tone, and One Cool. It was supervised and approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Janus Films release.



Opens December 4
The Hand [Extended Cut]
2004, Hong Kong, 56m
Mandarin with English subtitles

Like In the Mood for Love, The Hand is set in the hazy Hong Kong of the 1960s, but its characters couldn’t be more different from the earlier film’s restrained, haunted lovers. Originally produced as part of the omnibus film Eros, The Hand—presented here in its extended cut for the first time—tells the tale of Zhang (Chang Chen), a shy tailor’s assistant enraptured by a mysterious client, Miss Hua (Gong Li). A hypnotic tale of obsession, repression, and class divisions, The Hand finds Wong continuing his transition from the frenetic, energized style of his earlier films into a register that is lush with emotional grandeur. A Janus Films release.
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

MORE Very Happy

Opens December 18
2046 – New Restoration!
2004, Hong Kong, 129m
Cantonese, Japanese, and Mandarin with English subtitles

In Wong’s future-set 2046 (a loose continuation of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love), the titular number is many things at once—the year when mainland China assumes absolute control of Hong Kong; the number of the hotel room across from that of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung), inhabited by a parade of women he pursues and abandons; and the name of the mysterious place where disappointed lovers escape to in Chow’s erotic science-fiction novel. Wong’s concentration and control—of the Cinemascope frame, light, color, and the most minute gestures—are at their most accomplished in a work enamored of the limitless expanse of memory and imagination, where reality and fiction dissolve into regret and yearning. Leung’s reprisal of the affable, self-mocking Chow, this time with a bitter edge, is extraordinary. Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, and an electrifying Ziyi Zhang are the women in his life, indelible as ghosts from a forgotten past. The 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the original 35mm elements by Sony Pictures Classics, in collaboration with Jet Tone Films, L’Immagine Ritrovata, One Cool, and Robert Mackenzie Sound. The restoration was approved by Wong Kar Wai. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

December 18 – January 1
Ashes of Time Redux
1994/2008, Hong Kong, 93m
Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles

A film whose complicated production took such a toll on Wong that he wrote and shot Chungking Express during its editing process, Ashes of Time Redux is a hallucinatory wuxia like no other. First released in 1994 and then re-edited and re-scored in 2008, Wong’s time-slipping picaresque takes loose inspiration from Jin Yong’s novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes, focusing on a lovesick, embittered mercenary (Leslie Cheung), who acts as an agent for other swordsmen of fortune. Working with regular production designer William Chang, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and a superb ensemble (Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, and Jacky Cheung), Wong constructs an intricate, enigmatic vision of ancient warriors ensnared by the play of time and memory. An NYFF46 selection.



December 18 – January 1
My Blueberry Nights
2007, China/France/USA/Hong Kong, 90m

Though it was Wong’s first English-language film, My Blueberry Nights is in many ways an extension of his previous work: it began as a short film, originally meant to be part of the In the Mood for Love timeline, and is marked by the director’s typically romantic sensibility and dynamic manipulation of color (regular collaborator William Chang serves again as production designer and editor). Pop star Norah Jones makes her film debut as a heartbroken New Yorker who takes to the road after meeting a café owner (Jude Law), and along the way encounters others as lovesick and lonely as herself, including a down-on-her-luck gambler (Natalie Portman), a troubled cop (David Strathairn), and his estranged wife (Rachel Weisz). A free-flowing romance spanning New York, Memphis, and Las Vegas, My Blueberry Nights explores, with Wong’s charged affection, the suffering of heartbreak and the restorative vitality of the American landscape.

December 18 – January 1
The Grandmaster
2013, Hong Kong/China, 108m (USA)
Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles

Nearly 10 years in the making, Wong’s latest feature to date is perhaps his most ambitious project, a propulsive action epic inspired by the life and times of the legendary kung fu master, Ip Man (played by Tony Leung with effortless precision and cool). The story spans the tumultuous Republican era that followed the fall of China’s last dynasty: a time of chaos, divided loyalties, and war, but also the golden age of Chinese martial arts. Filmed in a range of stunning locations that include the snow-swept landscapes of Northeast China and the country’s subtropical South, The Grandmaster features exquisitely staged action and virtuosic performances by Leung and Ziyi Zhang, who lends a transfixing allure to the fictional Gong Er, Ip’s friend and fellow martial artist.



THE HK VERSION WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE TO WATCH love , SEE BELOW Arrow
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

World of Wong Kar Wai
https://virtual.filmlinc.org/page/world-of-wong-kar-wai/

Contemporary cinema’s supreme rhapsodist of romantic longing, Wong Kar Wai makes mesmerizing mood pieces that swirl around themes of time, dislocation, and the yearning for human connection. Opening November 25 as this year’s FLC holiday series and available nationwide.

Presented in partnership with Janus Films.


This is a screen shot of this webpage. Go to the link in this post for access of each film Very Happy.
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Safran



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PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 6:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://thefilmstage.com/wong-kar-wai-discusses-the-editing-changes-he-made-while-restoring-his-films/ Smile
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This one is really interesting, I wonder what was cut / lost in HT Think Crying or Very sad .

I copy the article below for easy reading ...

Wong Kar Wai Discusses the Editing Changes He Made While Restoring His Films
Leonard Pearce○December 7, 2020
https://thefilmstage.com/wong-kar-wai-discusses-the-editing-changes-he-made-while-restoring-his-films/



George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Soderbergh, Ridley Scott, and the list goes on when it comes to directors who have revisited their past work and made new edits while undergoing the restoration process. Hong Kong master Wong Kar-wai now joins the club as the long-awaited 4K restorations of his most beloved films have now arrived virtually ahead of a likely Criterion release next year.

If you don’t want to opt for a side-by-side analysis, the director himself has provided an overview of the editing changes he made during the restoration work. Most notably, Fallen Angels is now presented in cinemascope, which was his original intention for the film, while Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love are now back to their original aspect ratios of 1.66:1. He also had to cut a bit from Happy Together due to negatives getting lost. Summing it up, he says, “I invite the audience to join me on starting afresh, as these are not the same films, and we are no longer the same audience.”

Check out his note below, courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center and Janus Films. Be sure to read our recent interview with cinematographer Christopher Doyle here.

On the Restorations

During the process of restoring the pictures that you are about to watch, we were caught in a dilemma between restoring these films to the form in which the audience had remembered them and how I had originally envisioned them. There was so much that we could change, and I decided to take the second path as it would represent my most vivid vision of these films. For that reason, the following changes were made.

Aspect Ratios

Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love were shot and released theatrically on 1.66:1, one of my favorite aspect ratios, but they were converted to 1.85:1 on videogram. Since most people experienced these films on videogram, it perpetuated the belief that they were shot on 1:85:1. With these restorations, you will be watching them in their original aspect ratios. With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.

Sound Mixing

Chungking Express was made before 5.1 surround sound, so we had to retool the settings and sound configurations this time.

Likewise, we also remixed In the Mood for Love, and Robert Mackenzie did a great job as we collaborated remotely during the pandemic.

Credits

We created new credits for a consistent look throughout the films. They are also a reminder to our audience that these are the restored versions.

Happy Together

During a fire accident in 2019, we lost some of the original negative of Happy Together. In the ensuing months, we tried to restore the negative as much as we could, but a portion of it had been permanently damaged. We lost not only some of the picture, but also the sound in those reels.

As a result, I had to shorten some of Tony’s monologues, but with the amazing work of L’Immagine Ritrovata, we managed to restore most of the scenes to better quality.

Final word

After the premiere of Ashes of Time Redux in 2008, some audience members observed that the film looked different from what they had remembered. I realized that some of our audience discovered the film on pirated copies and suboptimal exhibition venues that presented the film in a different light. Still, some preferred the versions that they had watched, because memories are hard to beat.

As the saying goes: “no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

Since the beginning of this process, these words have reminded me to treat this as an opportunity to present these restorations as a new work from a different vantage point in my career.

Having arrived at the end of this process, these words still hold true.

I invite the audience to join me on starting afresh, as these are not the same films, and we are no longer the same audience.

Start (re)discovering these classics as the new restorations are now playing as part of World of Wong Kar Wai.

Film at Lincoln Center video link
World of Wong Kar Wai | Trailer | Nov. 25-Jan. 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxSYQQvB1VQ
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yitian



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PostPosted: Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

AND
The long-awaited Criterion box set is almost here love
I see 2046 very deservedly made the list In Love

Coming soon, available Mar 23, 2021


World of Wong Kar Wai
https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/4117-world-of-wong-kar-wai

With his lush and sensual visuals, pitch-perfect soundtracks, and soulful romanticism, Wong Kar Wai has established himself as one of the defining auteurs of contemporary cinema. Joined by such key collaborators as cinematographer Christopher Doyle; editor and production and costume designer William Chang Suk Ping; and actors Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Wong (or WKW, as he is often known) has written and directed films that have enraptured audiences and critics worldwide and inspired countless other filmmakers with their poetic moods and music, narrative and stylistic daring, and potent themes of alienation and memory. Whether they’re tragically romantic, soaked in blood, or quirkily comedic, the seven films collected here are an invitation into the unique and wistful world of a deeply influential artist.



Films In This Set

As Tears Go By
Wong Kar Wai’s scintillating debut feature is a kinetic, hypercool crime thriller graced with flashes of the impressionistic, daydream visual style for which he would become renowned. Set amid Hong Kong’s ruthless, neon-lit gangland underworld, this operatic saga of ambition, honor, and revenge stars Andy Lau Tak Wah as a small-time mob enforcer who finds himself torn between a burgeoning romance with his ailing cousin (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, in the first of her iconic collaborations with the director) and his loyalty to his loose-cannon partner in crime (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau), whose reckless attempts to make a name for himself unleash a spiral of violence. Marrying the pulp pleasures of the gritty Hong Kong action drama with hints of the head-rush romanticism Wong would push to intoxicating heights throughout the 1990s, As Tears Go By was a box-office smash that heralded the arrival of one of contemporary cinema’s most electrifying talents.

Days of Being Wild
The breakthrough sophomore feature by Wong Kar Wai represents the first full flowering of his swooning signature style. The initial entry in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle that includes In the Mood for Love and 2046, this ravishing existential reverie is a dreamlike drift through the Hong Kong of the 1960s in which a band of wayward twentysomethings—including a disaffected playboy (Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing) searching for his birth mother, a lovelorn woman (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) hopelessly enamored with him, and a policeman (Andy Lau Tak Wah) caught in the middle of their turbulent relationship—pull together and push apart in a dance of frustrated desire. The director’s inaugural collaboration with both cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who lends the film its gorgeously gauzy, hallucinatory texture, and actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who appears briefly in a tantalizing teaser for a never-realized sequel, Days of Being Wild is an exhilarating first expression of Wong’s trademark themes of time, longing, dislocation, and the restless search for human connection.

Chungking Express
The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu Wai), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out food 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 & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing.

Fallen Angels
Lost souls reach out for human connection amid a glimmering Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai’s hallucinatory, neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of Chungking Express only to spin off on its own woozy axis, Fallen Angels plays like the dark, moody flip side of its predecessor as it charts the subtly interlacing fates of a handful of urban loners, including a coolly detached hit man (Leon Lai Ming) looking to go straight; his business partner (Michelle Reis), who secretly yearns for him; and a mute delinquent (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who wreaks mischief by night. Swinging between hard-boiled noir and slapstick lunacy with giddy abandon, the film is both a dizzying, dazzling city symphony and a poignant meditation on love, loss, and longing in a metropolis that never sleeps.

Happy Together
One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing as a couple traveling through Argentina and locked in a turbulent cycle of infatuation and destructive jealousy as they break up, make up, and fall apart again and again. Setting out to depict the dynamics of a queer relationship with empathy and complexity on the cusp of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong—when the country’s LGBTQ community suddenly faced an uncertain future—Wong crafts a feverish look at the life cycle of a love affair that is by turns devastating and deliriously romantic. Shot by ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle in both luminous monochrome and luscious saturated color, Happy Together is an intoxicating exploration of displacement and desire that swoons with the ache and exhilaration of love at its heart-tearing extremes.

In the Mood for Love
Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past two decades of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career.

2046
Wong Kar Wai’s loose sequel to In the Mood for Love combines that film’s languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his role as writer Chow Mo-Wan, whose numerous failed relationships with women who drift in and out of his life (and the one who goes in and out of room 2046, down the hall from his apartment) inspire the delirious futuristic love story he pens. 2046’s dazzling fantasy sequences give Wong and two of his key collaborators—cinematographer Christopher Doyle and editor/costume designer/production designer William Chang Suk Ping—license to let their imaginations run wild, propelling the sumptuous visuals and operatic emotions skyward toward the sublime.
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Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great news for all WKW - and Tony fans love ! cheers
Thank you sooo much for posting, Yitian Giving a kiss
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Paul



Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Posts: 188
Location: Tokyo

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 11:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That looks like a nice set. I was hoping they would have done some commentaries for the movies too as criterion commentaries are very good usually.
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

These are “SPECIAL FEATURES” that come with the Blu-ray set:
New 4K digital restorations of Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046, approved by director Wong Kar Wai, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
New 4K digital restorations of As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
New program in which Wong answers questions submitted, at the invitation of the director, by authors André Aciman and Jonathan Lethem; filmmakers Sofia Coppola, Rian Johnson, Lisa Joy, and Chloé Zhao; cinematographers Philippe Le Sourd and Bradford Young; and filmmakers and founders/creative directors of Rodarte Kate and Laura Mulleavy
Alternate version of Days of Being Wild featuring different edits of the film’s prologue and final scenes, on home video for the first time
Hua yang de nian hua, a 2000 short film by Wong
Extended version of The Hand, a 2004 short film by Wong, available in the U.S. for the first time
Interview and “cinema lesson” with Wong from the 2001 Cannes Film Festival
Three making-of documentaries, featuring interviews with Wong; actors Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Chang Chen, Faye Wong, and Ziyi Zhang; and others
Episode of the television series Moving Pictures from 1996 featuring Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle
Interviews from 2002 and 2005 with Doyle
Excerpts from a 1994 British Film Institute audio interview with Cheung on her work in Days of Being Wild
Program from 2012 on In the Mood for Love’s soundtrack
Press conference for In the Mood for Love from the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival
Deleted scenes, alternate endings, behind-the-scenes footage, a promo reel, music videos, and trailers
PLUS: Deluxe packaging, including a perfect-bound, French-fold book featuring lavish photography, an essay by critic John Powers, a director’s note, and six collectible art prints
................
No commentaries Sad
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solitude87



Joined: 31 Jan 2008
Posts: 47
Location: NYC

PostPosted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow this set looks really stunning.
_________________
-Eve
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Criterion Blu Ray Box set is finally released. It looks astonishing love.

Here are some upboxing videos from Youtube (never mind opinions expressed about WKW and his movies)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJbnZGnc1_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbndBvKU5u0
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Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 8:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Grrrreat ! thumbleft (Many thanks, Yitian flower )

WKW Cool and Tony sunny ....in my view one of the most fruitful and happy movie-cooperations ever ! love Applause
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