Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

An Autumn's Tale Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 29, 2024

Mabel Cheung's "An Autumn's Tale" (1987) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films. The supplemental features on the release include archival program with Mabel Cheung; archival program with screenwriter Alex Law; vintage stills; and remastered original trailer. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Jennifer (Cherie Chung, The Story of Woo Viet, The Postman Fights Back) arrives in New York City to study and reunite with her boyfriend, Vincent (Danny Chan, Job Hunter). At the airport, she is picked up by Figgy (Chow Yun-Fat), a distant cousin whom she has never met before, and his friends. Her immediate impression is that he has absolutely no style and talks too much.

Figgy’s place is in a part of the city where garbage trucks are rarely seen and graffiti artists roam free. Strangely enough, his front door is always unlocked and his neighbors always somewhere else. There are no cops around either.

Jennifer’s room has not been cleaned in years, but she does not care. She is grateful that is letting her stay with him and excited that she is finally going to meet Vincent. It is only a matter of hours before she would be able to kiss him again.

On the following day, Figgy takes Jennifer to the train station to meet Vincent. Much to her surprise, however, he appears with his new part-time girlfriend, with whom he has just spent a lovely weekend in Boston. Heartbroken and outraged, Jennifer warns Vincent to stay away from her and then leaves with Figgy.

A few days later, Jennifer gets a job as a waitress in a small restaurant somewhere in Chinatown. Figgy also goes to work -- occasionally waiting tables and regularly gambling with his friends.

The more time Jennifer and Samuel spend together, the more they begin to like each other. Eventually, while taking a walk on the beach, Samuel confesses to Jennifer that one day he would like to open up a restaurant -- with that special girl right next to him to help him manage it.

Before Samuel could save enough for a down payment, however, Vincent reappears. Jennifer also agrees to babysit for a wealthy family somewhere in Long Island. On the day she moves out of Samuel’s place, the two finally realize that they have fallen in love.

Most North American viewers know Chow Yun-Fat primarily from the sizzling action films he made with John Woo and Ringo Lam during the late '80s and early '90s. The Killer (1989), Hard Boiled (1992), and Full Contact (1992) solidified him as an international action star. However, in some of the very best films he made during the years, Chow Yun-Fat never had a gun in his hand. For example, in Stanley Kwan’s little seen on this side of the Atlantic gem Women (1985) he plays a man who desperately tries to win back his wife. The film was a tremendous success in Hong Kong, where it was nominated for nine Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor.

In Mabel Cheung’s An Autumn’s Tale, Chow Yun-Fat plays a charming gambler who falls madly in love with a very distant and very naïve cousin. Most of the time, he looks extremely vulnerable and insecure, almost like a teenager who simply does not know how to properly express his feelings. The woman he loves does not know how to interpret his behavior either.

Chow Yun-Fat is the heart and soul of the film. There are hardly any surprising twists or intriguing subplots in it, but his character’s constant struggle to impress his cousin without being pushy is quite the treat. Men who suddenly fall in love after years of living alone look a lot like him -- inspired but completely lost.

*In 1988, An Autumn's Tale won three Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Alex Law).

An Autumn's Tale Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, An Autumn's Tale arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films.

The release introduces a new 4K makeover of An Autumn's Tale, supervised and approved by director Mabel Cheung. This 4K makeover is a genuine stunner, one of the very best that I have seen done for an older Hong Kong film.

In 2011, we reviewed this release of An Autumn's Tale, produced by Hong Kong-based label Kam & Ronson Enterprises. It was a disappointing release, sourced from an old standard definition master with many limitations. I still have the release in my library. However, after spending fifteen minutes with the new 4K makeover, I did not feel the need to pull it out and perform direct comparisons.

The new 4K makeover gives An Autumn's Tale a very healthy, gorgeous organic look that impressed me a lot. I liked everything that I saw on my system, but was particularly pleased with how the new 4K makeover was graded. An Autumn's Tale has a notably diverse color scheme, emphasizing certain primaries and nuances in ways that were very typical for Hong Kong films from the 1980s, and the new 4K makeover revives the native qualities of this color scheme in specular fashion. Many of the darker sequences, for instance, have a rich appearance that is not easy to get right but looks sensational on this release. (I intentionally took screencaptures #3 and 5 to demonstrate to highlight this particular strength of the presentation). Delineation, clarity, and depth are excellent. In a few areas, small density fluctuations can be observed, but they are part of the original cinematography). There are absolutely no traces of problematic digital corrections. Image stability is excellent. The entire film looks immaculate as well. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

An Autumn's Tale Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono and Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The previous Blu-ray release of An Autumn's Tale had a Cantonese track with some obvious balance issues. I chose to revisit An Autumn's Tale with the Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track and thought that it was wonderful. It is very easy to tell that it has been remastered because it sounds very, very solid. I did not notice any thinning, balance issues, hiss, or unnatural dynamic fluctuations. The English translation is outstanding as well.

An Autumn's Tale Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Alex Law - in this archival program, screenwriter Alex Law reveals that many of the stories he wrote over the years came from personal experiences or those of close friends, and that he loved tweaking them, if necessary. Law also discusses the conception of the screenplay for An Autumn's Tale and reveals that initially it was supposed to emulate the story told in Midnight Cowboy. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. (22 min).

• Interview with Mabel Cheung - in this archival program, director Mabel Cheung discusses the early stages of her career, her experience as a student in New York's Chinatown and how it impacted the tone and style of An Autumn's Tale. There are some particularly interesting comments about the shooting of a key sequence featuring New York's famous sunset and the need to do get it right during the course of multiple days, as well as Chow Yun-Fat's excellent character transformation. In Cantonese, English subtitles. (18 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered vintage trailer for An Autumn's Tale. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. (5 min).

• Gallery - a collection of archival stills from An Autumn's Tale. (2 min).

• Booklet - a 28-page illustrated booklet featuring critic Tom Cunliffe's essay "A Hong Kong Romance In/Via New York: An Autumn's Tale" and technical credits.

• Cover - a reversible cover with vintage poster art for An Autumn's Tale.

An Autumn's Tale Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chow Yun-Fat will always be remembered as one of Hong Kong cinema's greatest action men. However, some of his best work is in films that did not require of him to carry a gun. One of these films is An Autumn's Tale, a romantic charmer from the '80s shot entirely on location in New York City. I like An Autumn's Tale a lot, and even during the DVD era always kept a copy of it in my library. This new Blu-ray release from 88 Films introduces a 4K makeover of it that is a genuine stunner. I am going to place it next to Casino Raiders, another old favorite of mine from the '80s, which was also given a fabulous makeover and great Blu-ray release last year. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.