8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
"Farewell, My Concubine" is a movie with two parallel, intertwined stories. It is the story of two performers in the Beijing Opera, stage brothers, and the woman who comes between them. At the same time, it attempts to do no less than squeeze the entire political history of China in the twentieth century into a three-hour time-frame.
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, Qi Lü (I), Da YingForeign | 100% |
Drama | 61% |
Romance | 18% |
Music | 6% |
Period | 6% |
War | 5% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Mandarin: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Korean, English, Japanese, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional)
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" (1993) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Korean label Art Vision. The only supplemental feature on the disc is an audio commentary with cast and crew members in Mandarin. In Mandarin, with optional English, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Mandarin, and Simplified Mandarin subtitles are provided for the main feature. Region-Free.
Cheng Dieyi
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Korean label Art Vision.
The release has been sourced from a pre-existing master, one that must have been created during the DVD era. Detail, clarity and especially image depth frequently fluctuate. Some of the fluctuations can be traced back to the film's original cinematography -- the film has a very specific period look that favors warm and natural colors (somewhat similar to the look Chen Kaige and cinematographer Christopher Doyle favored in Temptress Moon) -- but the majority of them are purely technical limitations. Indeed, grain isn't evenly distributed and resolved and there are even traces of light built-in filtering (see screencapture #10). Light is captured by the camera in a variety of different ways, but shadow definition isn't convincing and in select areas one could easily spot various patches of black crush. Traces of light sharpening corrections also emerge during the daylight sequences (see screencaptures #12 and 20). For the most part colors remain stable, but they should be better saturated and nuanced. Overall image stability is very good and there are no serious transition issues. Finally, there are no large cuts, debris, stains, or damage marks, but minor compression artifacts can be seen throughout the entire film.
All in all, when compared to the old R1 DVD release, the Blu-ray release certainly offers some notable upgrades -- one should keep in mind, however, that the old DVD release used a non-anamorphic transfer -- but it is very easy to see that Farewell My Concubine could and should look a lot better in high-definition. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your Blu-ray player regardless of your geographical location).
There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Mandarin Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0, and
Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Mandarin, and Simplified Mandarin subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The Mandarin Dolby TrueHD track is very good. There are different sequences with different types of dynamic activity -- see the stage performances and the mass demonstrations -- but balance and depth are consistently excellent. The dialog is stable, clean, and very easy to follow. Also, there are no digital distortions, pops, audio dropouts, or problematic background hiss.
It is unfortunate that this excellent film from director Chen Kaige does not yet have a proper North American Blu-ray release. (The director's equally moving and stylish Temptress Moon also needs to transition to Blu-ray). Korean label Art Vision's Blu-ray release of Farewell Concubine is English-friendly and Region-Free and I think that at the moment it is easy to recommend. However, the film really needs to be rescanned and then brought to Blu-ray so that it looks as good as it should. RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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