Dec -
4K upgrades for 8 1/2 and Paris, Texas

+

4K



Blu

Paris Texas, NCFOM, and Eastern Condors in 4K? Oh, hell yeah.

(edit: looks like Condors might only be Blu, but that’s ok).

Hmm, might keep an eye out for Eastern Condors.

I think I mentioned ages ago in the Eureka thread that EASTERN CONDORS shouldn’t have been lumped in with two of Sammo’s older period martial arts movies in their three-pack, as it’s a completely different beast of a film, so this standalone version is long overdue. Seems like it ports over all the extras from the Eureka edition except the commentaries, and replaces those with yet another one, but Tony Rayns is a solid scholar for this stuff.

Funny you bring up Rayns as I just caught a featurette he did for Hsi Shih: Beauty of Beauties from 88 Films. With a straight face he claimed the director wasn't trying to make a political film with it. Generally I think he's well-informed but his opinions are all over the map.

That’s some beautiful cover art for NCFOM!

Interesting. I have that one but haven’t seen the movie itself in many years and won’t get to it for a while, but certainly from a ‘true history’ perspective I recall it a very political film, so he’s definitely off-base there, unless he was referring to it not being a metaphorical statement about then-contemporary Taiwanese and/or China affairs? (I don’t recall if the film operated on that level, but some films of that era apparently did). All of these HK movie commentators make gaffes from time to time – but the accurate info mostly outweighs the oversights and mistakes, and certainly EASTERN CONDORS should be an easier film to ‘interpret’.

I got an email from Amazon today saying they had to cancel my order for The Heroic Trio/Executioners 4K that I tried to order back in August for $30 when they matched the BN sale.

It said it was due to lack of availability. Really surprised they outright cancelled it. They usually attempt to fulfill backorders.

Oh, they could fill it but they'd lose money on your sale. Amazon doesn't think losing money on that sale is worth it anymore.

Yeah, an algorithm probably caught that order and refused to honor it and canceled it.

Oh I understand they are under no obligation to honor that price. The set is currently being sold via a 3rd party seller. I guess they have no timetable for getting any back in stock, so they opted to cancel than have me wait more weeks/months.

It'll be $30 again in a few weeks via BN. A flash sale from Criterion.com is coming soon too.

Never heard of it.

The film I am interested in that's being released by the Janus imprint is The Beast. Sounds great and gives me a Cloud Atlas sort of vibe on a lower scale.

It’s an excellent film, highly regarded when it came out but relatively under-the-radar in the home video era, despite getting a decent treatment by Sony on DVD (well-reviewed on this site, btw).

The subject matter is something I’ve noticed turns up in a number of films written and directed by Asian-Americans, and particularly Chinese-Americans; the often rigid cultural divide between immigrant parents and their second-gen (or 1.5 gen) kids. To be honest, if you’ve seen enough Asian-American films or TV shows (many made after this one, tellingly) the trope borders on being a cliche – as in, “immigrants will always misunderstand and slap unrealistic expectations their American-born kids, but they still love them,” etc. – but the films routinely end up being compelling because they reflect a lived experience for so many, even outside of Chinese/Asian cultures.

This picture came up in the ‘movies’ forum earlier this year, in a thread devoted to the small sleeper DIDI, directed by Sean Wang and distributed by Universal. I still haven’t seen that (I wonder if Criterion’s eyeing it?), but I couldn’t help but notice Joan Chen playing what appeared to be a similar role to the one she plays in SAVING FACE. The fact that she hasn’t aged in 20 years probably helps, too. SAVING FACE may also have the distinction of being one of the earlier (earliest?) LGTBQ-positive Asian-American-made films, but it’s not militant about it: two girls simply fall in love, one’s traditional-minded mom is in deep denial about it, but her own middle-age problems help her see things differently. It might’ve played as wishful thinking for many young viewers in similar circumstances, but it also may have shown them a way through a difficult divide. It’s very compelling storytelling, with zero ‘white’-washing, and it always surprised me that Alice Wu didn’t make another movie until her Netflix coming-of-age dramedy THE HALF OF IT in 2020, which dealt with a similar themes in a teen rom-com format, and was similarly praised.

According to the Wiki, it was also the first ‘studio’ picture uniquely focused on the Asian-American experience since THE JOY LUCK CLUB nearly a decade before, which does seem right (although there were indies in between, of course).

When I hear or read younger (Millennial/Gen Z) people of color say they never saw themselves represented on screen growing up, I know they’re speaking their truth, but I also believe they maybe didn’t know about and/or didn’t make an effort to find out about and support films like SAVING FACE. It often feels like they simply meant that they wished to see more representation in ‘big’ stuff like STAR WARS, MARVEL and other IPs that were indeed rather whitebread while the North American audiences that supported them were anything but. But onscreen representation of many cultures, as well as North American multi-culturalism in general, was definitely happening back then, albeit not as casually or with the frequency that it is now. But it was there, and Alice Wu in a small way was at the forefront of it two decades ago, so her getting the Criterion treatment makes sense for multiple reasons, even if her career since then has been pretty slim (one movie, one TV episode).

I tried to do the mobile Closet today, but the lines were insane and not worth the wait to me (in addition to having a day packed full of film viewing). I was able to get a free tote though.

That's cool though. I just came here to ask if anyone tried or was able to participate. I heard some of the first got in line around 7a and by 9 it took about 3 hours to wait from when it opened. I hope it comes to like SXSW because I will totally make the drive to do this.

There are some people that waited 8-9 hours...

Fuck that.

Especially when 50% off is right around the corner.

Seeing some of the videos on social media...

I thought the idea of a mobile closet sounded cool when they first announced it, even though I suspected it would be overwhelmed no matter where it went. But beyond its existence and the inevitable popularity with social media types and novelty aficionados, what exactly do you get out of it that you don’t get from just buying on the website during a sale? I mean, beside the tote bag. Are the discs in the truck discounted for the events that it shows up to? I refuse to stand in lines for virtually anything – even at TIFF screenings I always walk in dead last – and I really couldn’t imagine standing in line for this unless the movies were all free, and even then the thought of an hours-long wait would make it an easy skip. But, obviously, the videos online suggest that Criterion’s marketing team knows exactly who the audience will be for it in this Instagrammable age.

At best, it might be cool for Criterion to actually drive that thing to smaller film fests (and other artsy events) in smaller communities where it wouldn’t draw three-hour line-ups and might actually attract some people who aren't already familiar with the brand, or aren’t aware that physical media is still very much a thing.

EDIT: searching for more info about the van brought this cool (and very recent) article about the original closet and the influence that has grown around over the last 14 years (which undoubtedly led to the creation of the truck):

https://www.gq.com/story/how-the-cri...nternet-famous

(Now if only Severin would put a little more effort into their Severin Cellar videos, which barely appear anymore - just one in the last six months or so)

Yeah, even as someone with triple-digit Criterion discs, I like the idea of the closet on wheels more than the actual execution of it. That’s nothing against Criterion per se, and it’s hard to put into words without sounding meaner than I would intend.
So putting it lightly… I just have no interest in what some random people (or worse, YouTube/instagram/tiktok “influencers”) have to say about the titles they pick. It’s more meaningful/entertaining when it comes from people who at least have some kind of stake in the industry.
While I think it’s a neat experiment, it’s not something I’d want to participate in, other than the chance of finding a stray copy of a film in there that’s either OOP (which they said somewhere they’re not including in the van) or just not readily available at my local B&N (which is unlikely). I’d go for the free tote bag if I was in the area, I guess.

If folks are into it, that’s cool, though.

edit: put a better way: it’s like Hot Ones. If it was just totally random people, it wouldn’t have the same… feel. And I skip the ones I have zero interest in anyway. And while I think a hot wing challenge is fun, I have zero interest in doing it on camera.

All of Criterion's January titles are getting the UHD treatment.

Finally Winchester '73. It feels like they've been sitting on that one for a decade.