7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A small-time mob enforcer finds himself torn between a burgeoning romance with his ailing cousin and his loyalty to his loose cannon partner in crime whose reckless attempts to make a name for himself unleash a spiral of violence.
Starring: Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Alex Man, Tseng ChangForeign | 100% |
Drama | 83% |
Romance | 28% |
Crime | 7% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cantonese: LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Wong Kar Wai's "As Tears Go By" (1988) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include remastered vintage trailer for the film and alternate endings. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, As Tears Go By arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The release is sourced from a recent 4K master that was supervised by director Wong Kar Wai. It is included in the World of Wong Kar Wai seven-disc box set.
I have only one other release of this film in my collection, which was produced by Mega Star in 2009. (We have a review of it here). The master that was used to produce the Hong Kong release, however, is even older. I viewed the new release yesterday and did plenty of direct comparisons with the old release. Here are my impressions:
Delineation and depth are better during daylight and nighttime footage. However, I think that the more substantial improvements are during the nighttime footage because now it is a lot easier to see and understand why and how certain stylistic choices were made. For example, a lot of the softer footage from the previous release still looks soft, but the density levels are vastly superior and delineation looks much more convincing. The heavy stylization, an example of which you can see in screencapture #4, has stronger organic qualities as well. The color scheme is convincing. I was unsure what to expect, but on this particular master the balance looks good. There are some minor shifts from blue to green, but blues are not eliminated. A lot of rebalancing work has been done, so certain sequences where blues are very prominent now look much better. (A prime example is the gang punishment around the 01.11.10 mark). The primaries are strong and the supporting nuances look healthy. The fluorescent lighting looks much better as well. Image stability is dramatically improved. On the old release you could occasionally spot a few loose frames here and there, but here all visuals are rock-solid.
Is there anything that could have been done better? I think there are a couple of darker areas where the dynamic range of the visuals could have been handled a little better. The grading job flattens some shadow nuances, which shouldn't be happening but often does on 4K masters that are finalized overseas. However, it could very well be that in native 4K this minor issue is completely eliminated. There is a lot of very particular stylization in this film, so in some areas the flattening could be intentional. I think that at least a few of the highlights are pushed up a bit as well, but many such effects are present even on the old release. One more thing. During the brawl at the end the images are intentionally distorted -- the grain is flattened and there is actually gradual crushing. I specifically took screencaptures #32, 33, and 34 to demonstrate it. The same effects are present on the old release as well, only there the weaker master hides the majority of them. In native 4K, where the higher resolution significantly tightens up the visuals, these will be unrecognizable. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The old release of As Tears Go By did not have an original Cantonese Mono track, so it was good to finally see the film with a proper audio track. All I can say now is that in terms of balance and stability the Mono track is as good as it can possibly be. Obviously, when the current master was prepared, the audio was fully and very carefully remixed as well.
I know that there are a lot of nervous people that have read and seen promotional materials highlighting the changes that were made while some of Wong Kar Wai's films were restored in 4K. While I have a few minor reservations, I think that Wong Kar Wai's directorial debut, As Tears Go By, looks very good now. I have not seen the other films in Criterion's upcoming World of Wong Kar Wai box set, but I will be going through them as quickly as I can. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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