The Sparrow / Man jeuk (Johnnie To, 2008)

[Michael Kerpan]

I'd rather they release 'The Mission' or 'Fat Choi Spirit'. I don't think 'The Mission' has had a proper blu release yet.

Not even a decent English-subbed DVD....

[feihong]

I'd like The Mission, too, but I don't think there's any chance, right? Isn't it still owned by Robert De Niro's company? I remember De Niro buying the remake rights in the most draconian period for this, right after the remake of The Ring was a big hit. Companies gave away the whole store in terms of rights so the Hollywood companies buying the films would have the free hand they wanted in terms of publicity. In the case of The Ring they throttled release of the original versions of the film so they could milk their own film as long as they chose to; I think that was the plan for The Mission, as well.

The last release of the film I know of was the TF1 French disc. It's not blu-ray quality, of course, but it's pretty good. You can see Anthony Wong's eyes behind his sunglasses, which you can't on any of the HK DVDs. I know that's a low bar, but I guess I've just written off the chance of every seeing this movie in hi-def.

[Michael Kerpan]

feihong -- only French subs on the TF1 disc, right?

[feihong]

That's true, but there are subs floating around on the internet. It's pretty easy to synch using VLCplayer. I also should say I've seen The Mission theatrically, and that, combined with being able to watch the TF1 disc is why II guess I feel the need for an update of The Mission a little less keenly. That and I don't believe it's going to get any release in the future.

If anything, since Mei Ah released the previous HK DVDs, I wonder if that means CN Entertainment has the blu ray rights in Hong Kong? They seem to have distribution rights to whatever was left of the Mei Ah catalog. If they actually have the film, that could be great––they put out the Tsui Hark movie The Raid, which I don't think ever came out on DVD from Mei Ah as far as I can remember. And they have been releasing films in legitimate full HD (The Raid and My Heart is That Eternal Rose are true HD with great visible grain). If all those circumstantial possibilities came together, then maybe The Mission has a chance on blu ray? But I'm pretty sure De Niro's company wanted the movie locked down so they could release their ultimately shelved remake without having to compete in any market with the original film.

But Sparrow is to my mind one of To's best movies, very deliberately redolent of French new wave films, but without any heavy sense of homage; it's playful and lightweight, which is really valuable in the context of the other Milkyway crime films, and it has a very particular sense of Hong Kong which is delightful. But the blu ray is...not terrible, but one of the worst good discs of a Johnnie To film. The picture is quite soft for most of its runtime. The Kam&Ronson disc of Throwdown is a lot higher quality. The Optimum disc of Vengeance is better, and the Mei Ah disc of PTU is way, way better (I haven't watched the Election discs recently, but I remember those being not too great, but in different ways. I would like to see MOC re-do Mad Detective to include the original Hong Kong theatrical cut, but that's never going to happen. But I think Sparrow has a decent shot at an upgrade, and is deserving of improvement. And while it was amazing to see the Japanese blu ray of A Hero Never Dies (though it meant having to watch the movie again, which, while it does improve with better picture quality, doesn't really improve enough as a film, to my mind), it doesn't seem like the companies that released that film and Triangle in Japan have any plans for more surprise To movies. So I think Sparrow is a good nominee if MOC goes on to do more To films.

[yoloswegmaster]

Maybe I've gotten the films mixed up, but wasn't 'The Mission' (alongside Vengeance) on Filmstruck a couple years back? If Criterion was able to get streaming rights, then maybe getting the disk rights wouldn't be so farfetched of an idea.