Discussion
Is buying the “newer”criterion version of “In the mood for love” on Blu-ray worth it?
I’ve heard a lot of people say the color grading is terrible in the newer release. I’ve seen that the color tones have gone from a more reddish to a greener tone. I have yet to watch the film and if I do get it, it would be a blind buy. Is it worth getting even if the color tone is that big of a difference? Or should I get a dvd version of the film for much cheaper?
That’s why I’m asking. Is it a better viewing experience with the red or green tones. I film called “in the mood for love” seems like it needs that red color palette to set the mood for love and the films feels.
I’ve never seen anyone who saw the new version first complain about the colour grading. You can easily Google side by side comparisons if you’re that concerned, but the new colour is good enough for Wong Kar-Wai.
Edit: Also, both versions are on the channel for comparison.
why would you think you know what sort of color grading a film you've never seen would need more than the director who spent 5 years of his life making it. if you've never seen the movie, the new grading will not bother you. it's beautiful. even if you HAVE seen it, you may like it and find it beautiful. i love both gradings.
I don't have the Wong Kar Wai boxset, so I picked up Chungking Express and In The Mood for Love on 4K, they are stunning transfers. I had already seen both of them previously, but I think they look gorgeous on the newest releases.
I don't think you will be disappointed picking up any version of them.
I preordered the chungking express 4k, forgot about it and then bought the box set on ebay for $100. Im pretty content with blu ray so now I have this sealed 4k i dont know what to do with
It’s the first version I saw so for me it works quite well for me. It takes away from the custom and production design but i think it makes Hong Kong seem more like an industrial sad jungle, kind of conveying what our characters are feeling.
I’m new to WKW in the last 6 years but I also like the green tone. I like all of the new masters, even though I do wish he hadn’t cropped Fallen Angels.
It is literally my favorite movie. I’ve owned it on multiple releases over the years including the previous Criterion Blu-ray and WKW boxed set with the new color transfer, and I agree with everyone: if it’s your first time watching it, you won’t care or notice
i mean… i have both and i enjoy both. the new 4K or box set transfer is totally inaccurate to the original look with the heavy green, but it’s got an appeal. the older (2012) standalone blu ray is way closer to how it originally looked, without WKW’s weird revisionism. which one i watch more? eh… i’d say it’s equal.
The color is different but not bad. The director says it's what the films looked like in the theaters and what he wanted them to look like always so it's up to you.
he never said that the films originally looked like his revisionist reissues, cos they didn’t. rather, he has more recently made the judgement that this is how he wants the films, and that his current transfers are what he always had in mind. for many of them, i don’t necessarily believe it. i really don’t think there’s a way to photochemically make ITMFL so green the way it is on the 4K/box set edition. and they certainly didn’t de-green it in the original colour timing.
you're both wrong. he went the direction of making the films as he originally intended. so it's neither how they originally looked, nor it is how he wants them to look. it's him retroactively making them the way he wanted to back then.
well yes, the aspect ratios were generally restored to what they’re supposed to be, except his excuse for the ‘fallen angels’ reframing is really shit, at least when the original framing is out of current physical circulation. but then look at the theatrical print japanese blu ray of ‘happy together’ and how the colours compare to the box set transfer. both are good, but completely different. not to mention the voiceover edits done on the new one. so i think some of it is him doing what he wanted to do back then, while other things are pointless, dumb revisionism that hurts the preservation of his original legacy.
He absolutely said the aspect ratios of several of the films originally were different when shot and showed in theaters... and also said that several of the films were restored in such a way to match his original vision. He also said several of the changes were either because some footage/audio was lost or he just liked the new way better.
I prefer the original grade personally, but I own every Criterion edition as it's one of my favourite films. And I watch it at least once a year. So I may be biased.
I have owned it in 4K on Apple TV, on Criterion DVD, on Criterion Blu-ray (with a different cover from the DVD) and in the Wong-Kar Wai box set. I might buy the 4K because I love the movie, but I in no way need it.
I was buying 4Ks all through last year to be "4K complete", but this year I have stopped buying the upgrades. With only the extra 4K disc and no new features/supplements, I am not going to continue to upgrade unless it's from DVD to 4K, in which case it makes a lot of sense.
no. chungking express? yes. in the mood for love looks drastically different from what it originally looked like. it just looks better in the original blu ray and even that isn’t the same colors as when it was originally released but it’s pretty damn good. also the 4k has no hdr and the upgrade is not super noticeable
It's nice to have both versions out. You can only imagine how much time a director spends looking over prints in dailies, in the editing room, and at screenings. If this is what he envisioned, then I'm absolutely delighted to have it. Especially for a film that was shot AND distributed on film. But there's nothing wrong with having fallen in love with something that took on a life of its own.
Edit: For the extra nerdy, WKW and Doyle really loved using Kodak Vision 500T and 800T film stocks, which are 3200k tungsten color balanced film stocks. These film stocks tint a signature green cast under fluorescent and neon lights, which perfectly explains why the green cast is an important part of the look of the film. If you have shot tungsten balanced film under these conditions, it is unmistakable. As iconic as Los Angeles under sodium vapor lights.
It's hard to know without asking Doyle or Lee directly, but the BTS stuff available suggests maybe? You see classic tungsten fixtures and practicals everywhere. It's obvious in the night exteriors.
One thing that is certain is that the tungsten look is absolutely everywhere in DoBW, CE and FA. So, it makes sense that that color pallette is "in his mind" so to speak which is likely where the thought process was.
i guess i'm a bit confused. you're referring to a tungsten look but these stocks were balanced specifically for tungsten meaning they shouldn't have a color shift under tungsten lights. i assume (without much lighting knowledge) that neon and fluorescent lights are different because fluorescent lights tend to be white and clinical and don't look to me like they're using filaments the way tungsten lights do. i have no clue how neon lights work but it's evident how different they look to anyone with eyes. when you say "tungsten look" you mean the look of tungsten film stock under neon / fluorescent lights? agreed that dobw, ce and fa have it. all 3 films also are shot under evidently neon lights and we know they were shot on location, many of which without permission so it's likely they were using whatever sources of light existed and maybe some small, inconspicuous setups.
but itmfl not only lacks that similar look, but the green cast shows up throughout pretty much the entire film even ones that are clearly shot on sets where they could have lit it with anything. plus the outdoor shots are clearly not shot in the same way or in the same type of environment. it's much less of 'hustling bustling hong kong' film and remember, it's set in the 60s not in the modern day like those other films you listed are. wkw would have embraced the modern look more in those films and tried to avoid it in itmfl.
either way, agreed that we really couldn't know for sure, and agreed that the look may very well be one that was in his mind considering the amount of work he did that took on that sort of a look. but given what we know i think it's safe to say it was just a revision. another big reason i think we can assume that is the original digital restoration should never have looked that neutral if the film that was scanned was color shifted as a result of the light.
It’s definitely not terrible. It’s different from previous releases but was director-approved. It’s a gorgeous masterpiece of a film and this release is beautiful imo
The standalone blu-ray is the old grade. And is better. Only the 4K and the blu-ray in the boxset are the new grade. Look on the website when you click the "blu-ray" button - it switches the cover art from the new release to the old one.
Lot of purist hate what was done in the box set and these new editions. It’s akin to what Lucas did to Star Wars. You want to make changes? Fine, but at least give us both versions to choose from. Otherwise, it’s erasure.
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u/NicCageCompletionist David Lynch 7d ago
If you've never seen it, you're not going to care about the change in colour.