The World of Wong Kar Wai

This is probably the 1st time WKW's films have been well transferred. One may take issue with the director for changing the aspect ratio and colours of this transfer, which he claims is the original vision, but that beside the transfers are superb. The box beautiful but is a bit dicey as its an origami kind of folding box that can open out if one is not careful. Thankfully the vendor Aflix used proper packing so it arrived safely

Been longing for a Wong Kar Wai set like this. It's beautiful, it's immaculate, it's worth it!

Antes que nada, gran trabajo de Criterion en compilación de un hermoso box set. Me llegó a tiempo, pero tuve problemas con algunos de los discos: As tears go by, Days of Being Wild y 2046 presentaron problemas de reproducción (skipping y freezing). Me puse a revisar los foros de Reddit, y encontré que muchas personas tuvieron los mismos problemas en los mismos momentos de las películas y que para ello había un programa de remplazo de discos por parte de Criterion. Preferí regresar el producto a Amazon, lo cual fue muy sencillo y recibí mi reembolso súper rápido. Aclaro que eventualmente voy a volver a encargar el producto con la esperanza de que ya no venga el batch de discos defectuosos.

amazing set, great features, and am a big fan of the restorations although they are controversial.

I won't go too much into the films. It's Wong Kar Wai. You're getting great value in this boxset. He's such a master of style and form. All these films are incredible (well, maybe not "As Tears Go By" but it's his first movie. He was still working out the kinks). This is pretty much the only way to get such films as "Chungking Express," "Fallen Angels," and "Happy Together," on Region A bluray at the moment. It's a good deal to get this director's entire oeuvre (minus "Ashes of Time" and "The Grandmaster"). But what I really want to go over is the packaging. It's such an aesthetic and I'm here for it! My first thought when opening it was, is this a bluray boxset or a Kpop album? Definitely looks more like the intricate packaging that the Korean boy and girl groups love to release their cds in than anything movie studios typically do with their special bluray editions. First off, there's no plastic. Nice, we love an eco-friendly packaging. What you get is an origami design where the book and disc holder is encased in an outer envelope shell. Same way a sticky rice cake would be wrapped in a banana leaf. Very minimalist and chic, if you vibe with that. It's sturdy cardboard with a nice matte texture. I don't think it will rip easily, but it definitely will be an undertaking to preserve this thing pristinely from dents and creases every time you handle it. Challenge accepted! So there's that. Secondly, the discs are each kept in its own individual pocket that you have to slide out of the folding cardboard case. The first time I took the discs out, I noticed a few of the discs had a tiny amount of sticky glue residue on the very edge of the disc from the cardboard panel of the case. It wasn't that hard to remove with some rubbing with a cloth. I also noticed one of my discs had some light scratches, however it didn't affect the playback any. Perhaps it would be wise if you bought an empty bluray case and just stored all the discs in that. Which brings me to my next point. This thing is bigger than a standard bluray, or even a dvd boxset. It's literally book size. It might be an issue looking out of place if kept with your other blurays, sticking out like a sore thumb. I haven't decided what to do yet about that. I might just keep the box itself with my other books on the shelf and transfer all the discs to an empty bluray case for ease of use and keep that along with the rest of my Blu-ray collection. Now, about the book. It's a French-fold book, which essentially looks like a long piece of paper folded outwardly widthwise and that uncut edge is just left like that. You think first looking at it that the printer forgot to slice the outer edge so the pages are all cut like a normal book. After all, the underside of the page isn't blank. There's an image you can see, kind of like a peek-a-boo surprise feature. However, it's supposed to be like that. It's aesthetic, it's fancy, it's unusual design, but just think about it. It is so Wong Kar Wai. I couldn't think of a more fitting detail for a film collection of his. So, highly recommend this just for the effort Criterion took to release packaging this unusual and stylish. A very fitting tribute to the aesthetic of a Wong Kar Wai film.

「欲望の翼」の台湾上映のときに流れたトニーレオンが居るオープニング映像が入っているらしいと聞いて購入しました。 オープニングだけでなくディレクターズカット版として編集バージョン違いの本編が全部入っていて驚きました。 その他の作品も特典映像がかなり充実しています。 今のところ欲望の翼と花様年華とブエノスアイレスしかまだ内容をチェックしていませんが、ブエノスアイレスの特典映像にはドキュメンタリー映画「ブエノスアイレス 摂氏零度」が全部入っていました。 花様年華にはこの映画に合わせて撮られたショートムービー、ミュージックビデオ、カットシーン全般、バージョン違いエンディング、トニーレオンとマギーチャンのインタビュー形式で振り返るカットされた2人のシーン(ホテルでダンスしてたりしててとてもかわいい)他にもインタビューがとにかくたくさん入っていてまだ全部見れていません。 他の映画もかなり特典が充実していそうな上にコレクションとして嬉しいお洒落な装丁とブックレット(ミニポスター付き)でこの値段は安いくらいだなと感じました。 ただディスクは紙に挟まっている形式なので出し入れしすぎると傷がつきそうでちょい不安です。 Blu-rayなので日本の機械でも問題無く再生出来ます。広東語には英語字幕がありますが英語には字幕が無いです。もちろん日本語字幕は無いです。 思い切って買って良かった商品でした。