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I wouldn't hold out hope for that, given that the version streaming on FilmLinc.org has this warning: 'The Hole was shot on Super 16mm and blown up to 35mm for its release. The quality of this version may be below HD standards.'

Given that Super 16 doesn't have to look "below HD standards," that sounds to me like code for "old transfer." If someone does rent it, please let us know, though.

Calvin wrote: Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:33 am A 4K restoration of Goodbye, Dragon Inn is screening at the Taipei Film Festival

Second Run will be releasing this

Great news! It'll be great to finally see it again for the first time since it's festival run. Now I just wish someone would release an edition of What Time Is It There? with video sufficient enough that it doesn't completely obscure one of the films great visual jokes (thanks Fox Lorber).

Calvin wrote: Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:16 am

Calvin wrote: Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:33 am A 4K restoration of Goodbye, Dragon Inn is screening at the Taipei Film Festival

Second Run will be releasing this

I'm screaming! I've been rallying for this film to get a release for years. No announcement this year has gotten me this excited (similar feeling to hearing about The Horse Thief getting a release through WCL)

Adam X wrote: Sat Sep 12, 2020 6:04 pm Great news! It'll be great to finally see it again for the first time since it's festival run. Now I just wish someone would release an edition of What Time Is It There? with video sufficient enough that it doesn't completely obscure one of the films great visual jokes (thanks Fox Lorber).

Agree--I'm hoping that between Dragon Inn coming out, the theatrical re-release of The Hole, and a festival run + Blu-ray release of Days, more of Tsai's stuff will be coming out. I too would love to replace my sad DVD edition of What Time Is It There?

I actually lent my copy to someone I fell out of touch with and never got it back, but I just couldn't see the point in buying it again.

senseabove wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:30 pmGiven that Super 16 doesn't have to look "below HD standards," that sounds to me like code for "old transfer." If someone does rent it, please let us know, though.

To confirm, this is indeed an old transfer, or more specifically a 1080p upscale of an old transfer. I can't tell if it's a terrible transfer or "just" a terrible upscale, but it's riddled with edge enhancement and has a generally smeary, unpleasant look. The only advantage over the Fox Lorber DVD is that it doesn't have the telltale PAL-to-NTSC combing, apparently because it was made directly from a PAL source and runs at 25fps natively. Bad enough that Big World put it out looking like this, but I find it more offensive that Lincoln Center is trying to pin this on the film's Super 16 origins, as if there weren't perfectly fine 1080p transfers of Carol and Uncle Boonmee, etc. etc. that prove how good Super 16 can look in HD.

ryannichols7 wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 2:21 am Rebels of the Neon God is coming to bluray via Big World Pictures and Vinegar Syndrome in December.

Who would have guessed VS and not Criterion would be involved in a Tsai release first...

My least favorite Tsai feature, but I'll probably buy it anyway if it's an improvement over the Taiwanese Sony Blu-Ray, or if it has some nice extras.

Not familiar with Big World Pictures, but I see this review criticizes them for a poor DVD transfer of this film in 2015. I assume this blu-ray will be from the same restoration, but hoping that whatever shortcomings the DVD may have had were more to do with the format than the restoration, and can be corrected by a better transfer to blu-ray. I assume that DVD and the 2015 Taiwanese BD are from the same source... anyone know of any newer restoration that could be in play now? (I see Spectrum in France did a blu ray earlier this year... my google-translated read of this review makes it sound solid but likely not a new master.)

Also surprising that BWP is partnering with Vinegar Syndrome for this, as the HD digital version for sale from Apple is credited to Cinema Guild.

They also recently put out The Hole on DVD [-o<

bad future wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:14 am Not familiar with Big World Pictures, but I see this review criticizes them for a poor DVD transfer of this film in 2015. I assume this blu-ray will be from the same restoration, but hoping that whatever shortcomings the DVD may have had were more to do with the format than the restoration, and can be corrected by a better transfer to blu-ray. I assume that DVD and the 2015 Taiwanese BD are from the same source... anyone know of any newer restoration that could be in play now? (I see Spectrum in France did a blu ray earlier this year... my google-translated read of this review makes it sound solid but likely not a new master.)

The source for other intl. BD releases is a major improvement on the BWP DVD, and I assume/pray they'll be using that.

It looks OK but rather like a good older HD master than a brand new restoration à la Goodbye Dragon Inn.

tenia wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 9:54 am It looks OK but rather like a good older HD master than a brand new restoration à la Goodbye Dragon Inn.

This is correct. It is a case of extremely terrible dvd vs. good blu-ray. I have the Taiwanese Sony box set with Rebels, Vive l'Amour and The River, and it was released back in 2014, so the restorations (they are 2K) must to be almost 10 years old by now. They were done by Central Motion Picture Corporation who also restored titles by Hou and Yang, etc., and, as is the case with those films as well, today you can see that a decade of technology has passed since they did them. Would be great if this upcoming release came from a newer master, but I kind of doubt it as I don't recall reading any news about a new restoration touring the festival. If 4K Tsais were done, they would almost certainly premiere at Venice which has been "his" festival since the early 90'ies.

Edit: Just saw the screenshots from the French release in the linked review, and it certainly is from the same decade old restoration.

swo17 wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:17 am They also recently put out The Hole on DVD [-o<

they addressed this in a comment to another user:

Big World Pictures wrote:王瑜安, THE HOLE poses a special challenge re: HD--but we're doing what we can. In the meantime, it can be seen in a high-quality SD version on our Vimeo On Demand page.

does anyone have a good knowledge as to who owns the rights to his works in the US? Rebels and the Hole seem to be with them, but I legitimately have no clue about any others, like What Time is It There and The River

I found Big World's work on The Hole to be quite disappointing. It has the advantage over the previous DVD of being in anamorphic widescreen but my partner and I both agreed that it looked bad in motion, almost as if a smooth-motion effect had been applied to the image. A label like Second Run or Criterion really needs to rescue these films. Between Days and the re-releases of Goodbye Dragon Inn and Rebels there seems to be renewed interest in Tsai's work at the moment, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Hopefully working with Vinegar Syndrome will lead to an improvement in Big World's releases.

ianthemovie wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 4:02 pm I found Big World's work on The Hole to be quite disappointing. It has the advantage over the previous DVD of being in anamorphic widescreen but my partner and I both agreed that it looked bad in motion, almost as if a smooth-motion effect had been applied to the image. A label like Second Run or Criterion really needs to rescue these films. Between Days and the re-releases of Goodbye Dragon Inn and Rebels there seems to be renewed interest in Tsai's work at the moment, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Yeah, I was about to write the same. Had really hoped that this new dvd would offer a watchable version of this masterpiece, but, alas, it is very disappointing, and I'm not sure I would even call it an upgrade. Very fuzzy old school dvd quality, and their "high-quality SD" claim in the post above is quite laughable. I don't know what the "special challenge" to give this a proper treatment is. I have caught it on glorious 35mm at my local cinematheque two times, so the material is definitely available. And yes, hopefully we will see more Tsai on blu in the future, although I doubt it as he is still strictly an arthouse auteur with a very limited audience, a fact that Stray Dogs and especially Days confirmed very strongly.

bad future wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:14 am Also surprising that BWP is partnering with Vinegar Syndrome for this, as the HD digital version for sale from Apple is credited to Cinema Guild.

Cinema Guild handles digital distribution for Big World.

One reason their DVD of The Hole is so substandard is that it's probably a PAL-to-NTSC job, given that the streaming version is 25fps and that would imply they only have a PAL master.

A likely issue with Tsai's films getting new scans is that his own company owns all of the features after The Hole and they almost certainly don't have the resources to do it themselves. So they have to find well-heeled distributors (Criterion would of course be an obvious one) or institutional partners/commercial sponsors (the Goodbye, Dragon Inn 4K was done by Cinematek in Belgium, which also handled the early Hou films that MoC released). So I fear it might be awhile before we get new editions of his complete features.

tenia wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 9:54 am It looks OK but rather like a good older HD master than a brand new restoration à la Goodbye Dragon Inn.

Oh, for sure—bad future just seemed to think a new BD might be the same scan as the DVD, so wanted to assure them it would at least be an improvement on that tragedy. I'd love to be wrong and have a brand new restoration, of course, but I'll take a Region A release of the old scan over nothing, since I waited too long and now the Taiwanese box set is seemingly OoP.

If anyone knows a place to still buy that box set, though...

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:12 pm A likely issue with Tsai's films getting new scans is that his own company owns all of the features after The Hole and they almost certainly don't have the resources to do it themselves. So they have to find well-heeled distributors (Criterion would of course be an obvious one) or institutional partners/commercial sponsors (the Goodbye, Dragon Inn 4K was done by Cinematek in Belgium, which also handled the early Hou films that MoC released). So I fear it might be awhile before we get new editions of his complete features.

Those last two words set my heart aflutter. Is there any filmmaker more suited to a "Complete Features" box...

ryannichols7 wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 2:34 pm does anyone have a good knowledge as to who owns the rights to his works in the US? Rebels and the Hole seem to be with them, but I legitimately have no clue about any others, like What Time is It There and The River

I don't think Vive l'amour and What Time Is It There? are with anyone, though the CMPC themselves distributes the former on digital platforms like iTunes and the Google Play store. There is a company that claims to have at least the U.S. theatrical distribution rights for The River, but I have it on pretty good authority that those rights expired years ago and said company is being less than truthful (they also claim to be the U.S. theatrical distributor for Code Unknown, which is part of the Janus catalog now). What I find bizarre is that Rebels of the Neon God got a U.S. reissue, including the upcoming Blu-ray, but the two other CMPC Tsais (along with major CMPC titles like The Terrorizers, A Time to Live, a Time to Die, The Sandwich Man, etc.) are still MIA from any U.S. distributor despite having decent if unspectacular HD remasters.

senseabove wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:44 pm

tenia wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 9:54 am It looks OK but rather like a good older HD master than a brand new restoration à la Goodbye Dragon Inn.

Oh, for sure—bad future just seemed to think a new BD might be the same scan as the DVD, so wanted to assure them it would at least be an improvement on that tragedy. I'd love to be wrong and have a brand new restoration, of course, but I'll take a Region A release of the old scan over nothing, since I waited too long and now the Taiwanese box set is seemingly OoP.

If anyone knows a place to still buy that box set, though...

Check out this thread that's only 2 months old: https://www.reddit.com/r/boutiquebluray ... ollection/

Thanks!

Besides the Tsai I own the Taiwan New Wave and *Chang Yi sets and these are gorgeous. Curious of the upcoming Big World disc.

* Director and actor / actress listings not correct though.