Peking Opera Blues

[yoloswegmaster]

Having already proven himself a master of kinetic action with Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain, legendary director Tsui Hark adds lashings of comedy and frenzied expressionism to spectacular effect with 1986’s Peking Opera Blues.

Beijing, 1913. In a time of violent turmoil when local tyrants vie for supremacy, three women’s lives converge in the local Peking Opera house. Together they hatch a revolutionary plan to stop president Yuan Shikai from reinstating the monarchy and proclaiming himself emperor. With the help of a righteous freedom-fighter and a disillusioned palace guard, the rebels must use all their wits and brawn to protect their democratic principles and save the emerging Chinese republic.

Showcasing all of Tsui’s talent for visual spectacle and featuring captivating performances from Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh and Cherie Chung in the three leading roles, Peking Opera Blues is an explosive thrill ride presented here in a stunning 4K restoration and packed with extras.

4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless Cantonese mono audio
Optional lossless English mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the Cantonese audio and hard of hearing subtitles for the English audio
Brand new audio commentary by film critic James Mudge
An Opus for Peking: Starring in a Tsui Hark Classic, a brand new interview with actor Mark Cheng
An Operatic Achievement, a brand new interview with cinematographer Ray Wong
Hong Kong Confidential: Inside Peking Opera Blues, a brand new interview with author and Hong Kong cinema expert Grady Hendrix
Peking Provocations, a brand new interview with film critic David West
Peking History Blues, a brand new interview with historian and academic Dr Lars Laamann
Archival interview with star Sally Yeh
Archival interview with composer James Wong
Original theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Xinmei Liu
Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Camille Zaurin and Professor Jamie Zhao

[domino harvey]

Are the subs here revised from what Shout used? Imprint made a point of highlighting their new translation but the specs here don’t

[JamesF]

Are the subs here revised from what Shout used? Imprint made a point of highlighting their new translation but the specs here don’t

The Arrow edition does indeed have brand new, bespoke subtitles courtesy of Dylan Cheung. I wouldn't be too sure about Imprint's seeing as they also said everything else from Shout's edition was "NEW", but you never know.

[domino harvey]

Thanks for the confirmation! Not much risk of me picking up the Imprint over this version, fear not

[Finch]

Appreciate you guys going the extra mile with the archival interviews, booklet (which Shout only did for The Killer + Hard Boiled) and stronger subs.

[JamesF]

Wait until you see Hard Boiled specs - not long to go!

[Finch]

It's honestly embarrassing for Shout that everyone else felt the need to redo the subtitles, and in Imprint's case to publicly advertise it (assuming they are actually different).

[andyli]

Wait until you see Hard Boiled specs - not long to go!

Can't wait. Going with Arrow for GP titles for sure.

[ryannichols7]

since I've never seen this and IMDb doesn't give too much info - just how violent/gory is this, exactly? I have skipped plenty of the HK titles but picked up Shawscope and Bruce Lee. I'm semi intrigued here due to the elusiveness of these titles and strong recommendations from board members, but if they're really not my thing, then they're really not my thing

[dwk]

It's honestly embarrassing for Shout that everyone else felt the need to redo the subtitles, and in Imprint's case to publicly advertise it (assuming they are actually different).

Shout's history of shitty subtitles is the first thing I thought about when it was announced that they had acquired the Golden Princess catalog.

I guess, thankfully, they are also too lazy of a company to release the films themselves in every territory.

[JamesF]

It's honestly embarrassing for Shout that everyone else felt the need to redo the subtitles, and in Imprint's case to publicly advertise it (assuming they are actually different).

Shout have their way of doing things and we have ours, and people will have their opinions one way or the other, but none of this would have happened without their hard work, and I can’t give enough props to Henry Weintraub who has done extraordinary work under tremendous pressures.

[Finch]

I greatly appreciate that Shout paid a shitload of money to get these films licensed, and the restorations themselves seem to be very good (I certainly was happy with how City of Fire looked on their 4K), but the subtitles did bother me. It feels like they were so keen on getting the major titles onto digital platforms as soon as possible that they either didn't give translators enough time to work on the subs to the translators' satisfaction or decided not to wait and go with old scripts instead. Yes, it's their call but it just feels some aspects of their releases could have used that extra polish, especially after they went through so much effort already to secure these films in the first place. I appreciate that some people feel differently (a few members on the other forum get very defensive, belligerent even, about the quality of Shout's subs) but I was annoyed that City of Fire and Peking Opera Blues were sloppily translated. I was not intending to buy them again for a second time, and with POB at least, I was able to return that to Orbit unopened for a refund, but it was enough for me to decide I was going to wait for your releases a few months longer in the knowledge that the team at Arrow are making them as definitive as possible. Again though, I am not in the know, maybe Arrow and everyone else have the luxury of being more patient and thorough, maybe Shout had to get these onto digital by a certain date to avoid going into the red. Ultimately though, overseas buyers are getting a superior product where corners aren't being cut for whatever reasons.

[Mr Sausage]

since I've never seen this and IMDb doesn't give too much info - just how violent/gory is this, exactly? I have skipped plenty of the HK titles but picked up Shawscope and Bruce Lee. I'm semi intrigued here due to the elusiveness of these titles and strong recommendations from board members, but if they're really not my thing, then they're really not my thing

There isn’t much violence or gore. Just some action scenes late in the film. It’s a good natured comedy for most of the run time. You’ll be fine.

[ryannichols7]

since I've never seen this and IMDb doesn't give too much info - just how violent/gory is this, exactly? I have skipped plenty of the HK titles but picked up Shawscope and Bruce Lee. I'm semi intrigued here due to the elusiveness of these titles and strong recommendations from board members, but if they're really not my thing, then they're really not my thing

There isn’t much violence or gore. Just some action scenes late in the film. It’s a good natured comedy for most of the run time. You’ll be fine.

thank you!! will blind buy it, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to resell if I don't enjoy

[Finch]

I've only seen it once or twice decades ago but I don't remember it being gory or very violent so I'm surprised the BBFC still rated it 18. Unless the overall rating got pushed up by something in the extras.

[Thornycroft]

To quote Dylan Cheung on twitter:

My main issues with City on Fire's subs were tonal, but Peking Opera Blue's are an absolute mess. Whoever did them doesn't know the language, some lines having the exact opposite meaning, and they're also completely unfamiliar with the history so it's full of made-up references. The strangest mistranslation though was how the police are now ticket inspectors. I don't even know how you reach that conclusion. The archaic term used could be misunderstood to mean customs officers if anything, and that would still make more sense than ticket inspectors.

Sounds like a new translation was essential for this one. Glad Arrow is putting in the extra effort.

[htom]

To quote Dylan Cheung on twitter:

My main issues with City on Fire's subs were tonal, but Peking Opera Blue's are an absolute mess. Whoever did them doesn't know the language, some lines having the exact opposite meaning, and they're also completely unfamiliar with the history so it's full of made-up references. The strangest mistranslation though was how the police are now ticket inspectors. I don't even know how you reach that conclusion. The archaic term used could be misunderstood to mean customs officers if anything, and that would still make more sense than ticket inspectors.

Sounds like a new translation was essential for this one. Glad Arrow is putting in the extra effort.

I have no idea about its correctness or not, but my memory of the subtitled print I saw in 1996 or 1997 was that "ticketing agent" was the phrase used there as well; I think this was repeated in the first Hong Kong DVD since it simply used what was available.

[feihong]

To quote Dylan Cheung on twitter:

My main issues with City on Fire's subs were tonal, but Peking Opera Blue's are an absolute mess. Whoever did them doesn't know the language, some lines having the exact opposite meaning, and they're also completely unfamiliar with the history so it's full of made-up references. The strangest mistranslation though was how the police are now ticket inspectors. I don't even know how you reach that conclusion. The archaic term used could be misunderstood to mean customs officers if anything, and that would still make more sense than ticket inspectors.

Sounds like a new translation was essential for this one. Glad Arrow is putting in the extra effort.

I have no idea about its correctness or not, but my memory of the subtitled print I saw in 1996 or 1997 was that "ticketing agent" was the phrase used there as well; I think this was repeated in the first Hong Kong DVD since it simply used what was available.

That's true. It was referred to as the "Ticketing Office" in early books I had on Hong Kong cinema, on subtitles I saw on VHS tapes in the 90s. But they just act like cops.

[dwk]

A Blu-ray.com user posted a picture of the booklet's note on the subtitles.

[Finch]

My eyes are seriously rolling into the back of my head at the handwringing over the British English Dylan used in City of Fire. Hongkong was a BRITISH colony so it'd make sense they'd likely speak more British English. People could and have quippled with the extent of Dylan's use of slang but again it gave the translation more character.

He obviously couldn't apply it to the 1913 Beijing setting but they give you the choice between a more standardised and a stylised translation. Even the standardised translation is bound to be better than Shout's riddled with inaccuracies version. I'll be watching the film with the "simplified" subs tonight and maybe give the other set a spin next weekend.

[dwk]

I'm of the opinion that subtitles should be as invisible as possible, so I think excessive slang should be avoided (I just got the Arrow City on Fire delivered earlier this week, so I havent had a chance to watch it yet.) On the topic of the subtitles for this film, based on the description, his original subs sound awful, so I am glad they have a more standard option.

[MichaelB]

Also, us Britons have subtitles in US English—and sometimes really jarring US English—rammed down our throats all the time. Which is why I have absolutely zero sympathy for people like this.

In fact, a not insignificant part of my day job involves “translating” rightsholder-supplied subtitles into British English for UK-only releases. Although within reason—I do completely accept that US English was more appropriate for Hitch-Hike given that it’s entirely set there, but I really can’t stand obviously European thrillers that are subtitled as though the characters are wisecracking New Yorkers, because they’re so obviously not.

One of the weirder situations I’ve encountered was with the Polish TV series The Londoners, whose first episode was subtitled in fingernails-down-blackboard US English (which made no situational sense whatsoever), and then the second was in British English. And when the third was in US English again, I checked the credits—and, sure enough, two different subtitlers worked on it, clearly alternating episodes.

But in fact modern Polish films are just as likely to be subtitled in British English, with “berk” a particularly common insult—I wonder if it’s the same subtitler every time? Probably. I also greatly enjoyed the sports drama in which the various contestants called each other poofs and wankers and exclaimed “Bugger me!” when they won a race. The US audience for these films must be close to zero, but the Polish cinema circuit in the UK is very much a going concern, so it makes sense.

[Mr Sausage]

This kind of translation is so common in Lit that I don’t know why there’s so much fuss. It’s common to translate the simpler, laconic style of the Spartan characters in Lysistrata in a twang from the American south to represent the way Spartans were viewed as slow and uneducated by Athenians. And Michael Hofmann translated all the different German registers in Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz into different British regional accents, which I thought gave a good sense of the varieties of speech used in that panoply of a novel, and wasn’t something you could achieve in American English.

I like that Dylan Cheung is being creative in the same way to give a sense of the range of voices and registers of the original. There’s evidently a rich verbal texture to these films that we’re cut off from, even more so with blandly readable subtitles.

[MichaelB]

Yes, there are situations where "neutral" subtitles simply aren't the right solution, and it sounds as though this is a classic example.

I've seen loads of English-language films in Paris with French subtitles, and on quite a few occasions I've wondered if French viewers were getting any more than the merest fraction of what I was getting out of them, because wonderfully colourful and idiomatic dialogue had been rendered in bland textbook French—good as a guide to what's going on, but rarely any more than that. And if the film features highly colloquial dialogue whose flavour is a key part of the originally intended appeal, monoglot French speakers are seriously losing out.

Granted, highly colloquial dialogue is by definition harder to translate, and requires rather more in the way of possibly contentious judgement calls, but I'd rather have that than something purely functional. I mean, if I actually understand the language to a fair extent, like French or Italian, I don't mind the subtitles being basic when I can fill in (some of) the blanks myself, but I'd be hopeless with a non-European language.

[nicolas]

Dylan Cheung comments on the different accents in his subtitles for Peking Opera Blues: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... st23873901.