Hou Hsiao-hsien

[Stagger Lee]

The opening of Millenium Mambo is one of my favorite moments in recent cinema.

Me too, and the snowy scenes late in the movie just kill me. Hou perfectly captures the tranquility that comes with a thick blanket of snow. Absolutely beautiful.

[yoshimori]

Without the budget for a blind-buy, I'd also like to find out whether this does actually have English subs (and is a port of the MK2). If anybody comes across it, please let us know!

I got an email from Suzanne at Trigon who says the Goodbye South, Goodbye disc does NOT have English subs. Sad.

[Michael Kerpan]

A Senses of cinema piece on Time to Live, time to die (featuring yours truly as a guest star of sorts)

[otis]

Cheerful Staging: Hou’s Early Films - David Bordwell on HHH's staging for the long lens (a supplement to the chapter on Hou in Figures Traced in Light)

[jsteffe]

A heads-up on Trigon's DVD of THE PUPPETMASTER. Not only is it *not* English subtitled, it's also presented improperly, like every #%@! release so far, as 1.33:1.

I'm glad I bought the UK PAL VHS from Electric pictures a while back, because it's the only letterboxed version I've ever come across. It doesn't look bad for VHS, either.

[zedz]

Thanks for the additions.

When searching the forum, I was surprised not to find more Hou threads or discussions. I suspect that a lot of the commentary I remember reading must be buried in other (non-Hou) threads, so if you stumble across something worth linking, let me know. Or if you've posted something to the point elsewhere on the forum, consider copying it to this thread.

[denti alligator]

A heads-up on Trigon's DVD of THE PUPPETMASTER. Not only is it *not* English subtitled, it's also presented improperly, like every #%@! release so far, as 1.33:1.

I'm glad I bought the UK PAL VHS from Electric pictures a while back, because it's the only letterboxed version I've ever come across. It doesn't look bad for VHS, either.

Fuck! Any chance you'd transfer that VHS to DVD?
Is the Trigon release at least clean and transferred halfway well?

EDIT: was it by chance shot open-matte, so that one could zoom in with a 16x9 display to replicate the proper AR?

[sidehacker]

Reverse shot introduction: Who's Afraid of Hou Hsiao-Hsien?

There's new reviews for all of Hou's films as well.

[forweg]

Looks like there's a new 8-film Hou set being released January 1st. I'm surprised I haven't heard anything about this yet...

[swo17]

Oooh, I believe like half of those are currently unavailable in R1-friendly versions. But where the hell is City of Sadness?

[denti alligator]

Looks like there's a new 8-film Hou set being released January 1st. I'm surprised I haven't heard anything about this yet...

Wow! I wonder if the version of Puppetmaster included will be widescreen, and whether the early films will be anamorphic or at least with zoom-in friendly subs. We need reviews of this. Now.

EDIT: the specs at that site have "letterboxed" for the early films and "full screen" for Puppetmaster, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Oedipax]

Also it's 8 movies on 4 discs, so I can't imagine image quality will be great.

[Michael Kerpan]

I'm guessing this 4 disc set is essentially a bootleg product. The 4 films released by HHH's own company plus the 4 Fox Lorber releases.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It would be far from the first time HK Flix has trafficked in bootlegs -- note that they're also selling the individual discs in plain white sleeves, which seems, uh, less than legit.

[forweg]

It says the set is from Sino Movie, which distributed the legit OOP release. I've never known HKFlix to blatantly lie about the distributor.

But it is extremely suspicious that Puppetmaster is still Full screen and that the set has only appeared on HKFlix. Yeah, probably a bootleg.

[PerfectDepth]

I purchased this knowing I'd get a refund if I didn't open it and it was an obvious bootleg. I don't have the original Sino box set and don't plan on spending the $300 it's going for now so I figured at the very least I'd get the 4 sinomovie box films although compressed much more.

The set arrived the other day and It does not appear to be a bootleg. The box is copyright 2005. Sinomovie logo is there along with the website. The bad news is that nothing is anamorphic and the pq quality is poor (more so on the FL films than the SM). The Fox Lorber films are likely from the same source but have different subtitles.

Before purchasing, HK flix told me they purchased these directly from Sinomovie. My guess is that they were never intended for retail and unloaded them to HK flix at a very low price and they are probably getting a good mark up at $60 a pop.

My advice is to avoid.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

All four discs in that set look fine -- almost certainly the best available editions, although there are a couple of French discs I haven't seen. I posted some caps of Cafe Lumiere in the Screen Captures thread. I recall the R2J Flowers of Shanghai as the odd man out color-wise -- it looks more subdued and naturalistic than the U.S. and French editions -- but I suspect the other versions were just contrast-boosted. I never saw it theatrically, so I'm not really sure how it's "supposed" to look.

[ryan11]

I purchased this knowing I'd get a refund if I didn't open it and it was an obvious bootleg. I don't have the original Sino box set and don't plan on spending the $300 it's going for now so I figured at the very least I'd get the 4 sinomovie box films although compressed much more.

The set arrived the other day and It does not appear to be a bootleg. The box is copyright 2005. Sinomovie logo is there along with the website. The bad news is that nothing is anamorphic and the pq quality is poor (more so on the FL films than the SM). The Fox Lorber films are likely from the same source but have different subtitles.

Before purchasing, HK flix told me they purchased these directly from Sinomovie. My guess is that they were never intended for retail and unloaded them to HK flix at a very low price and they are probably getting a good mark up at $60 a pop.

My advice is to avoid.

I contacted HKFLIX, asing if the films were the same editions (eg: quality) as the Sino boxsets. I was told they are, with the original dvd-5's now 2 per dvd-9. I'm still to receive the box. I purchased, going by the Dvdbeaver screens of the original boxsets, which varied in quality, but seemed ok. As there aren't many options to purchase all of these films, I'm at least grateful to have the opportunity to buy them.

The single DVDs in paper slips is odd, but I imagine HKFLIX must have the ok to sell them. Personally I think it looks shabby and looks like a bootleg. Either way, the new boxset will tide me over until a boutique dvd company takes a chance and offers us decent editions.

Having said that, I'll reserve the right to throw a tantrum if the editions are lesser quality than advertised. Dvdbeaver offers an excellent comparison.

[PerfectDepth]

I contacted HKFLIX, asing if the films were the same editions (eg: quality) as the Sino boxsets. I was told they are, with the original dvd-5's now 2 per dvd-9. I'm still to receive the box. I purchased, going by the Dvdbeaver screens of the original boxsets, which varied in quality, but seemed ok. As there aren't many options to purchase all of these films, I'm at least grateful to have the opportunity to buy them.

Like I said, the early films are not anamorphic in this 8 film box, but (I believe) are in the original box. Otherwise, the image does not look atrocious. But it hasn't stopped me from searching for the original box.

[stereo]

damn; I'm always amazed when I find I own one of these box sets that has gone through the roof in price. The key is not to tell your wife or they immediately try to get you to sell the thing.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Like I said, the early films are not anamorphic in this 8 film box, but (I believe) are in the original box. Otherwise, the image does not look atrocious. But it hasn't stopped me from searching for the original box.

I have the original box and they're not anamorphic. The films were later reissued in different packaging, but the discs themselves are identical.

[PerfectDepth]

Oh. In that case the 8 movie box is a nice option for those who don't own the original box (like Ryan and I). I've officially stopped considering paying $300.00 for the original.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I'll sell you mine for $299.

[ryan11]

"The set arrived the other day and It does not appear to be a bootleg. The box is copyright 2005. Sinomovie logo is there along with the website. The bad news is that nothing is anamorphic and the pq quality is poor (more so on the FL films than the SM). The Fox Lorber films are likely from the same source but have different subtitles.

Before purchasing, HK flix told me they purchased these directly from Sinomovie. My guess is that they were never intended for retail and unloaded them to HK flix at a very low price and they are probably getting a good mark up at $60 a pop."

My set arrived today. I viewed each on my computer, comparing them with the Dvdbeaver snapshots. I absolutely agree with your assessment. As it stands, this is a reasonable way to get the collection, but the four films on discs 3 & 4 are very average, but seem to be taken from Fox Lorber prints. There aren't many options to get these films.

Worth getting it for the four films on the first two discs, but $40 would probably have been a fairer price. (I had credit to use up at Hkflix, so the pain wasn't so great)

My advice, check out the Dvdbeaver reviews before buying. That is pretty much what you are buying.