Are Wong Kar-wai’s new 4K restorations better than the originals? With fresh cuts of In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express and more, is the new Criterion Blu-ray box set worth shelling out for?
- George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy is very different today, Zack Snyder is doing a ‘Snyder Cut’ of DC’s Justice League and Blade Runner has multiple versions
- Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai has brought the trend to his art house films, and he and Christopher Doyle state that some are closer to their original visions
It’s not unheard of for directors to tweak their creations. Many films have a director’s cut and some filmmakers go even further. George Lucas has tweaked his original Star Wars trilogy so extensively it has sparked a fan movement to preserve the originals; comic book lovers are eagerly awaiting Zack Snyder’s “Snyder Cut” of DC’s Justice League, which promises to be significantly different to the version finished by Joss Whedon; there are now several quite radically different versions of the sci-fi classic Blade Runner; and in 2019 after Apocalypse Now (153 minutes) and Apocalypse Now Redux (203 minutes), director Francis Ford Coppola crafted the Apocalypse Now Final Cut (183 minutes).
Seven of the new cuts have been gathered in the Criterion Blu-Ray box set, titled World of Wong Kar Wai, and released on March 23.
While working on these restorations, Wong has made a variety of changes. The director’s debut, As Tears Go By, and 2046, Wong’s pseudo-sequel to In the Mood for Love, are unchanged except for the shiny new visuals of Wong’s 1988 debut, which has never looked better.
Of the more noteworthy changes made to his other films, Wong has written in his director’s note: “During the process of restoring the pictures … we were caught in a dilemma between restoring these films to the form in which the audience had remembered them and how I had originally envisioned them. There was so much that we could change, and I decided to take the second path as it would represent my most vivid vision of these films.”
Despite talk of a new “vivid vision” for his work, some of Wong’s creations have only received minor tweaks. Both Wong’s international breakthrough successes Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love have had their aspect ratios adjusted – from the 1.85:1 of previous home releases to their original theatrical ratio of 1.66:1 – and had their sound remixed.
We were caught in a dilemma between restoring these films to the form in which the audience had remembered them and how I had originally envisioned them
Although not mentioned in Wong’s own press release regarding these restorations, the colours have also been updated for the new releases of these two films.