6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Taipei. A voice off-camera looks back ten years to 2000, when Vicky was in an on-again off-again relationship with Hao-Hao. She's young, lovely, and aimless. He's a slacker. Cigarettes and alcohol fuel her nights. We see bits of her life: when Hao-Hao steals his father's Rolex and the police detain them; when she gets a job as a club hostess, where she meets Jack, who becomes her patron and protector; when Hao-Hao comes to the club, insisting on talking to her; when she visits Yubari, Japan, for its film festival in the dead of winter; when Jack must go to Japan to straighten out trouble caused by one of his acolytes. Does Vicky have any expectations? Does time simply pass?
Starring: Shu Qi, Doze Niu, Pauline Chan (I), Jack KaoForeign | 100% |
Drama | 80% |
Romance | 17% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Millennium Mambo" (2001) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Metrograph Pictures and Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critic K. Austin Collins; new video essay by critics Cristina Alvarez Lopez and Adrian Martin; and rerelease trailer. In Mandarin, 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, Millennium Mambo arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Metrograph Pictures and Kino Lorber.
The release introduces a recent 4K restoration of Millennium Mambo that was completed at L'Immagine Ritrovata. Unfortunately, but perhaps unsurprisingly, this 4K restoration is yet another poor digital reimagination. Why? Because Millennium Mambo has a distinct lush appearance that is now gone and as a result large sections of it look very ordinary. Millennium Mambo is not supposed to look ordinary. It is supposed to boast intoxicatingly intense neon-esque colors -- blue, green, red, yellow -- that are reflective of the intoxicating feeling of being very young and very alive. This is how Millennium Mambo looked when TF1 released it on DVD more than two decades ago. Now, it looks just like another contemporary film boasting conventional, wildly inaccurate primaries and supporting nuances. (For reference, a lot of the primary blues look turquoise now, while the whites are replaced by creamy yellows like the ones that altered the native appearance of Krzysztof Kieslowski's White). Needless to say, this is most unfortunate because the new 4K restoration produces healthy visuals with outstanding density that can look pretty impressive on a large screen. The entire film looks spotless as well. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 (with very small portions of English and Japanese). Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
I viewed the entire film with the 5.1 track. I thought that the audio easily gave the film that very rich ambient quality that previous DVD releases of it never managed to properly replicate. The dialog and narration were clear and easy to follow, too. The English translation was outstanding. For the record, I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.
When it is most intense, the feeling of being very young and very alive can be intoxicating, so different people manage it differently. But this most special feeling does not last long, so over time only shaky memories and dreams remind that it was real. Millennium Mambo is an aging director's attempt to reconstruct this feeling while chronicling a young girl's recent experience with it. This release from Metrograph Pictures and Kino Lorber introduces a 4K restoration of Millennium Mambo. Unfortunately, I have to report that the 4K restoration is yet another poor digital reimagination.
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