The Wong Kar-Wai Collection [1994] [DVD]

Never mind the product description above which I think should go with a different box-set, this set definately is a collection of the three films - Ashes of time Redux, Chungking Express and Happy Together - three very different films but in style are cut from the same cloth - being directed by Wong Kar-Wei.

Firstly Ashes of Time Redux - being a completely restored and re-cut film as the original prints were deteriorating. I've never seen the original version so cannot give a comparison but the film is wonderful. The story which is (very loosely) taken from a martial arts novel The Eagle Shooting Horses concerns a swordsman-for-hire/tavern keeper Ouyang Feng (played by Leslie Cheung) and the characters who pass by during the course of a year. There are several sword-fights and soul-searching but ultimately we learn why Feng has isolated himself within this desert tavern. The colouring of the film has been artificially enhanced and looks stunning as do the landscapes - beautifully framed and filmed. Extras include a few interviews and a making-of documentry which is really more a featurette as for its 13-minute length it just contains a few soundbites from some of key players mainly recorded at Cannes in 2008 along with the whole of the 2-minute trailer - which also features separately as another extra! Skimped is the word that springs to mind.

Chungking Express, recorded quickly during a break in the filming of Ashes of Time, couldn't be more different. Two stories of two potential romances - firstly between a cop and a drug-dealer, in the second another cop and a fast-food counter employee. It looks like it was filmed on the run but thats not a criticism - it makes the film fun and gives it a seeming spontaneity. My preferred story is the second one with Tony Leung and Faye Wong - she acquires a key to his flat and starts going in and cleaning and rearranging it without his knowledge or permission. Very entertaining.

Finally, Happy Together concerns two men, lovers, who have travelled to Argentina and desire to see the Iguazu waterfalls but fall out on the way and separate (having fallen out many times before). Strangers in a strange land, their paths cross again but is happiness possible when the relationship is essentially destructive. As with all Wong Kar-Wei films, don't expect an ending of riding off into the sunset together! Out of these three films, I did already own this one as a separate film before buying this new box set so I can use it to best compare the new edition of the film. There has obviously been some restoring here too as whilst my previous dvd was also from Artificial Eye, the new dvd film print is much clearer, colours are much improved (my older ver had a muted washed-out look) as well as a few minor adjustments such as the opening credits are now on a black background instead of the bright red previously. Extras here include the Buenos Aries Zero Degree documentry - a 60 minute making-of which also has deleted scenes and out-takes.

All in all, three essential films from one of the more stylish and interesting directors around in a nice restored set.

Chungking Express is one of my favorite movies, and I thought I would finally upgrade to a DVD copy (I have the old American videotape release). It is a wonderfully stylish, breezy movie with great actors and even better cinematography. Well, if you could actually SEE it, that is.

I don't know what happened with the transfer to DVD, but it is so dark that you can't even see what is happening in some scenes. I can't stress this enough: You CAN'T SEE what is happening in some scenes. I compared some scenes side-by-side with the videotape to see if I was imagining things, and I wasn't.

Two examples: 1.)There's a scene with with Brigitte Lin in a hallway, where she slumps to the floor and lights a cigarette. In the videotape version, the hallway is well-lit, and so is Ms. Lin. You can see her body language, and really feel her jittery weariness as she slinks to the floor. In the DVD version Ms. Lin is a black silhouette merged with the wall on her left, and we can just barely make out accents of light on her face. It completely changes the tone and feel of the whole scene.

In another scene a character is eating canned pineapple in his apartment and tries to feed it to his dog. In the videotape version everything is visible and well-lit, and you can easily see his cute dog and it's reaction. In the DVD version the apartment looks pitch black, and you can barely see the dog.

These are just two examples, but the WHOLE DVD is like this. In the videotape Faye Wong waters plants in a shower, with daylight streaming through the windows, but in the DVD she waters a black silhouette of something frightening looking in a dark, creepy looking shower.

I don't want to sound like a pedantic video buff nit-picking over minor problems; this DVD transfer is absurdly, incomprehensibly DARK. I just wish I could post side-by-side examples. This movie's great and deserves better.

And now I'm worried about the quality of the other two DVDs in the collection, because I've never seen them before, and thus have nothing to compare them to. Will they do this fantastic filmmaker justice?