criterionforum.org

The World



The fourth feature by internationally acclaimed auteur Jia Zhang-ke was also his breakout success, an epic with a canvas as vast, and intimate, as its title suggests: a state-of-the-modern-world address, and a look at the insular world of a troupe of Chinese stage-performers dreaming of freedom…

Zhao Tao, Jia’s muse, is one of these troupers. For Tao and the larger ensemble of pageant performers at Beijing’s real-life World Park (a sprawling hyper-pastiche of global landmarks — “famous sites from five continents”), love is respite from work, work is respite from love, and the line that extends from the past to the future loses all definition beyond the present.

A testament to the wisdom of this young filmmaker who arrived in the late 1990s with Xiao-wu and, in 2000, Platform (regarded by many to be the greatest film of the 2000s), Shijie / The World provides an image of globalisation as a paradox: at once a phenomenon rooted in social control, and a network that allows connection across individual people and populations. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present both Jia Zhang-ke, and his film The World to Blu-ray for the first time ever.

DUAL FORMAT RELEASE INCLUDING BLU-RAY AND DVD VERSIONS OF THE FILM

• Gorgeous 24fps transfer of the film in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• Tony Rayns on THE WORLD: a new and exclusive video introduction to the film by scholar and critic Tony Rayns
• Made in China: a 65-minute documentary on the making of The World
• The World According to Jia Zhang-ke: a 24-minute video interview with the director
• A lengthy booklet containing a new essay about the film by Tony Rayns; an essay by Jia Zhang-ke; and a special dossier-afterword with further commentary on certain elements of the film and its ending

What A Disgrace wrote:• Gorgeous 25fps transfer of the film in its original frame-rate and 2.35:1 aspect ratio

So it is 1080i? As far as I know, Blu-ray does not support 1080p @ 25fps.

That question aside, the supplementary material is far beyond what I'd been expected. I'm really looking forward to this, and I gotta rent 24 City to get ready.

eerik wrote:

What A Disgrace wrote:• Gorgeous 25fps transfer of the film in its original frame-rate and 2.35:1 aspect ratio

So it is 1080i? As far as I know, Blu-ray does not support 1080p @ 25fps.

We discovered that a 25fps progressive encode is supported by Blu-ray if the encode is flagged as interlaced. It looks no different to a progressive flagged encode because both upper and lower fields show the same image.

The BBC's LIFE ON EARTH / PLANET EARTH Blu-rays are done the same way.

Every 35mm print of THE WORLD was slowed down to 24fps and we didn't want to do that for Blu-ray if we could find a workaround.

Wonderful!
Is there a release date?

Next month (August) - along with THE BURMESE HARP.

Sounds great!
Looking forward to all those extras as well,
Sad there's no trailer for the film included, would have been interesting to see, but as I can't find it on youtube perhaps Jia didn't make one?

Is it playable on US players?

swo17 wrote:Confirmed region-free.

Thank you for posting the link if it's for answering my question. But what I really mean is whether the 25fps content is playable.

As far as I know, region A players don't play 1080i50Hz or standard definition PAL content.

eerik wrote:As far as I know, region A players don't play 1080i50Hz or standard definition PAL content.

Yes they do. See for example the specifications section of the Oppo BDP-83.

One more reason to go region free (and to be able to play 1080i50 content)

Peacock wrote:Sad there's no trailer for the film included, would have been interesting to see, but as I can't find it on youtube perhaps Jia didn't make one?

There's an original trailer included on the Madman Director's Suite release, unfortunately it's not been added to their site yet for streaming.

Speaking of the Director's Suite release, I'm over the moon to be double-dipping when there's the opportunity to see this in High-Definition and those supplements are absolutely wonderful.

• A lengthy booklet containing a new essay about the film by Tony Rayns; an essay by Jia Zhang-ke; and a special dossier-afterword with further commentary on certain elements of the film and its ending

I'm reminded of this quote from Roger Ebert's review (which, incidentally, was the sole reason I bought this when I was in NZ a few years ago, having never heard of Jia Zhang-ke before):

Roger Ebert wrote:After the screening, I rode down on the elevator with the great film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. "I've seen it five times," he said. "It's one of my favorite films. I still don't understand the ending." I was not only afraid to ask him what he didn't understand about the ending, I was afraid to ask him what he thought the ending was.

A masterpiece and one of the best films of the 00's. Thanks very much MOC.

I'm still confused... with this be released in 1080p or 1080i?

I've seen the 1080i release of "Planet Earth" (The Discovery Channel) version and it doesn't look as good as the 1080p ( BBC) version.

I'm a bit confused as well. Will this play in my Region A PS3?

From what I can read on the info page I'd say it's 1080p25.
EDIT:
Which technically is 1080i50 with two identical fields.

heredity4me wrote:I'm a bit confused as well. Will this play in my Region A PS3?

No, North American PS3s don't play 50Hz discs (DVDs and BDs). Idiotically they do play 50Hz video files.

I'm sort of wondering who told MOC that a 1080i/50 release was a good idea

It plays back in "1080i" mode, but is technically 25p. It's a very neat little trick.

We're running further tests re: 50Hz issue.

At the flick of a switch we can make this 24p, and we may do that. Rather than anally pushing for 25p (because it was shot in 25p), a 24p disc could equally satisfy our OCD due to all 35mm theatrical presntations of the film around the world being 24fps.

We have a couple of days to decide.

I'm intrigued by the possibility of seeing this at the correct frame rate, as long as there aren't any compatibility issues. I wonder though, how many people will actually be able to tell the difference?

One question that comes to mind: was the music composed for 24fps or 25fps? (Presumably the soundtrack CD runs at the correct speed, but I don't have a handy copy of the film to compare it against.)

Good question. You may have to send us an MP3 of an identifiable track!

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:

heredity4me wrote:I'm a bit confused as well. Will this play in my Region A PS3?

No, North American PS3s don't play 50Hz discs (DVDs and BDs). Idiotically they do play 50Hz video files.

Thanks for answering my question. This is one of my favorite contemporary films and when it was announced regionless I could not be happier, but looks like I won't be able to get it. Too bad.

The Oppo BDP-83 does play back 1080i50 video without modification on NTSC systems although I have not judged how well it handles the conversion (it indicates PAL playback on the onscreen display and does requires setting the output to match the display exactly, at least in my case). By Nick's description the player would likely see this disc as 1080i50, and the issue in that case would be if the PAL to NTSC conversion would introduce visible artifacts or errors even though the interlaced fields should always match.