Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)

[rohming]

Weinstein is the worst.

I am still struggling to understand why these cuts were done. The movie wasn't that long!

[Michael Kerpan]

Weinstein is the worst.

Well, he's not not nearly as bad as Boehner.

[domino harvey]

Good news, possibly

[warren oates]

There's also a reference in the link to a b&w version of Mother, which I've never heard of. Makes me wonder why, if he experimented with this at the time he was making the film, it was never released on home video. Unless this is a more recent revision?

[Finch]

Good news, possibly

Not going to take my chances. The Korean BD is allegedly scheduled for around the 20th of December and it better have English subtitles.

[MichaelB]

Not going to take my chances. The Korean BD is allegedly scheduled for around the 20th of December and it better have English subtitles.

Unless you have hearing difficulties, that won't be an issue - my understanding is that the film is almost entirely in English aside from a couple of lines whose meaning is obvious from the context.

[Finch]

I'd forgotten it was (mostly) shot in English! #-o

[Finch]

Korean BD pushed back to 28 February

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Took long enough: an English translation of the original comics will be published in two parts in January and February. It looks like the English volume two combines the French volumes two and three.

[ianungstad]

From Tony Rayns:

Foreign film aficionados probably noticed that Snowpiercer was curiously absent on the fall festival circuit, even though its July premiere in Seoul drew rave reviews. According to Bong, that’s because the Weinsteins forbade the programmers from seeing the original cut submitted by Korean distributor CJ Entertainment, insisting that the version for English-speaking territories was not yet ready. Thankfully, at least one festival refused to listen — Bong’s version will play at the Berlin Film Festival next year.

As for what the Weinsteins had in mind for the movie, they reportedly showed Bong a rough edit of his movie that ran about 25 minutes shorter, eliminated most of the character detail, and played like a more conventional action thriller. They then asked Bong to put together his own streamlined version for American audiences. For that version, they suggested that he add explanatory voiceovers written by Harvey Weinstein’s “friend” Neil Gaiman, but Bong “quickly rejected” the idea.

At present, the dispute is tied up with lawyers from CJ Entertainment and The Weinstein Co. Depending on how long it takes the sides to come to an agreement, it could be a very long time before the film finally hits the U.S. and other English-speaking territories. For now, we can only hope that a warm reception in Berlin will nudge the Weinsteins toward the realization that Snowpiercer should be left intact.

I really hope they can break their contract with the horrible Weinstein company and release the film via Sony Classics or some other more classy distributor.

[TheDudeAbides]

For the bluray or steelbook collectors, France is releasing a steelbook and a collectors edition of Snowpiercer in April, and based upon their theatrical release, all signs point to it being the non-Weinstein cut of the film

[Finch]

I see it's being released by Wild Side but Amazon France list French subtitles only. Can anyone confirm how often WS put English subs on their discs, if at all? I am asking since not all of the dialogue seems to be in English.

[feihong]

There might be an exception somewhere, but I have never seen a Wild Side disc with English subtitles. I have about 7 of their discs and none are English-language friendly.

[MichaelB]

I understand that virtually all the dialogue is in English, and that the tiny snippet that isn't is easily guessable from the context (and French subtitles will be more than adequate to get me through it).

[Finch]

Thanks Michael. Someone on imdb posted that the Korean BD has been pushed back to April which would explain why there still aren't any preorders up. Still, I'll keep an eye out for the Hongkong & Taiwain releases which may work out cheaper than the French disc, especially if ordering from dddhouse.

[Jeff]

Huzzah! Weinstein caved and the U.S. gets the director's cut. It will now be a limited/platform release instead of a wide one, but I can't imagine that this was ever going to be a multiplex blockbuster in this country.

[Michael Kerpan]

Huzzah! Weinstein caved and the U.S. gets the director's cut. It will now be a limited/platform release instead of a wide one, but I can't imagine that this was ever going to be a multiplex blockbuster in this country.

Great news. It would be nice if this proves popular enough that it eventually spread to a wide(-ish) release.

[TheDudeAbides]

Huzzah! Weinstein caved and the U.S. gets the director's cut. It will now be a limited/platform release instead of a wide one, but I can't imagine that this was ever going to be a multiplex blockbuster in this country.

This is truly excellent news! I wonder how much of his salary Bong Joon Ho had to forfeit for Harvey Scissorhands to cave and allow for Bong Joon Ho's cut to be released. Here's to hoping that Toronto gets a theatrical release of this film [-o<

[manicsounds]

Watched this today, on a very snowy day appropriately. Quite bleak but still fun and visually great, but I wasn't very satisfied with the ending though. I'm not sure how this compares to the comic and if any changes were made, but I'm curious to know how the comic version ended.

As for Weinstein wanting to cut out 20 minutes, I'm not really sure what he would have cut out of it, as it runs at a fine pace and nothing seems to drag. Maybe he would've cut out the Korean dialogue scenes, but I'd find that very difficult to do since there are some important lines in Korean. So if you're planning to import the French Blu-ray, I'd hold off if you don't understand French.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I haven't seen the movie and have only read part 1 of the comic (the last two parts come out in English at the end of the month), but I've read that Bong more or less threw out everything except the basic idea. Very little of part 1 lines up with what I know of the film and even the main character doesn't sound much like what Chris Evans plays in the movie. There also doesn't seem to be a direct equivalent of the John Hurt character, and the comic has a major female character that I'm fairly sure is not played by any of the film's top-billed actresses. And from what I've heard the later volumes get into some weird territory (weirder than the first volume, which is already pretty out there), including supernatural business of some kind. I'd be surprised if they end the same way.

[manicsounds]

I haven't seen the movie and have only read part 1 of the comic (the last two parts come out in English at the end of the month), but I've read that Bong more or less threw out everything except the basic idea. Very little of part 1 lines up with what I know of the film and even the main character doesn't sound much like what Chris Evans plays in the movie. There also doesn't seem to be a direct equivalent of the John Hurt character, and the comic has a major female character that I'm fairly sure is not played by any of the film's top-billed actresses. And from what I've heard the later volumes get into some weird territory (weirder than the first volume, which is already pretty out there), including supernatural business of some kind. I'd be surprised if they end the same way.

No Supernatural weirdness in it.
Although one thing I kept thinking was "with that many people on the train and we barely see any housing compartments, where are these people living?" It's like when you play an RPG and you see many people in a town, but obviously not enough houses for everyone.

Suspension of disbelief of course, but maybe Bong just "deleted" the boring scenes when they pass the boring housing compartments and nothing happens.

[manicsounds]

Considering the themes of the story, I'm really surprised that it's being released theatrically in China

[SpiderBaby]

Finally gets a U.S. release date, a limited theatrical release and on demand, June 27th.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Considering the themes of the story, I'm really surprised that it's being released theatrically in China

The Chinese version (which comes out tomorrow) has reportedly been cut by one minute, though supposedly for violence rather than any thematic content. The Chinese censors don't care that much about socio-political themes in imports as long as they don't directly implicate China or certain "friendly" nations (a particularly amusing example is the way Olympus Has Fallen was carefully edited to remove all mentions of North Korea, which means the movie is now about a bunch of terrorists who want the U.S. out of South Korea for...some reason). Outside of that it's pretty much anything goes with foreign films, including mass protests, police incompetence and brutality, official corruption, criminals getting away with it, and other stuff that's difficult or impossible to do in an approved domestic film (unless it's set in Hong Kong, which gives you a bit more leeway).

[Shrew]

Granted there's no real way to prove it, but China's censors and foreign film quota have always selected films that make other countries seem violent and dangerous. Obviously, there's a commercial element in play where the quota forces studios to put forth their heaviest hitters, which tend to be blockbusters and action rather than dramas or comedy. But I remember a Chinese theater playing some later Dolph Lundgren lunacy (which looking up now may have been some US/Russian co-production that slipped in as a Russian film).