I dream of Hong Kong Criterions . . .

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I dream of Hong Kong Criterions . . .

Postby Brian Thibodeau » Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:41 pm

For anyone who's ever held hope of seeing more Hong Kong titles given the treatment they deserve on the Criterion label, this might have to do for now. Came across it at Colin Geddes' Kung Fu Fridays blog:
http://kungfufridays.blogspot.com/2009/ ... rions.html
(Lord knows I've thought of doing a few myself on many an occasion-and I can think of a few titles that would be truly Criterion-worthy--plus I'd be a little more inventive with the font work!)
Post contains a link to the original Chinese site, where there are even more designs, though it requires a lot of scrolling!

Grady Hendrix also posted some at Kaiju Shakedown:
http://varietyasiaonline.com/kaijushake ... N-DAY-7808

If only . . . :lol:
Image

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Postby Masterofoneinchpunch » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:59 pm

That's a nice cover.

Yes, more non-Wong Kar-wai directed Criterions would be quite nice (though nice to see Chungking Express though, not complaining about that).

I doubt they would ever put a martial art film in their catalog (yes they put good Karloff movies even though The Old Dark House probably would have been easy to wrestle from Kino), but they certainly could put a Johnnie To (The Mission would be a perfect fit for R1) or an Ann Hui (Boat People) or Michael Hui or ...
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Postby Gaijin84 » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:13 pm

they certainly could put a Johnnie To (The Mission would be a perfect fit for R1)


Funny, I just wrote them yesterday at their suggestion email address requesting this film. I can't think of a film more deserving a Criterion release! The DVD that is available might be one of the worst copies I've seen in a long time, and the movie is one of the best.
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Re: I dream of Hong Kong Criterions . . .

Postby KMGor » Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:19 pm

I'd say several To works are worthy of Criterion releases. I'd like to see one of Mad Detective. I also think Blade deserves it, above all other Tsui Hark films.

Probably the most deserving Chinese/HKof Criterions that are unlikely to get one are King Hu's films. They're of great artistic and historical importance, which is exactly what Criterion is supposed to be all about. It's hard to think of a film more influential that isn't on Criterion than Dragon Gate Inn, for example. I'd also say One-Armed and Return of the One-Armed Swordsman should get one, though the first did get a quite nice US release by Dragon Dynasty at least.
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Re: I dream of Hong Kong Criterions . . .

Postby Masterofoneinchpunch » Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:35 pm

KMGor wrote:I'd say several To works are worthy of Criterion releases. I'd like to see one of Mad Detective. I also think Blade deserves it, above all other Tsui Hark films.

Probably the most deserving Chinese/HKof Criterions that are unlikely to get one are King Hu's films. They're of great artistic and historical importance, which is exactly what Criterion is supposed to be all about. It's hard to think of a film more influential that isn't on Criterion than Dragon Gate Inn, for example. I'd also say One-Armed and Return of the One-Armed Swordsman should get one, though the first did get a quite nice US release by Dragon Dynasty at least.


Since MOC has Mad Detective (what is weird is that it is R0 and NTSC) it would be a great fit for Criterion, but since I've been going over older To (saw Breaking News last week; will go even older and watch All About Ah Long soon), I will get to it soon.

I've bugged them several times about HK, Mainland and Taiwan films, but they never commented on them (while answering my other questions; FYE I was missing one insert and had one faulty disc on another Criterion).
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