criterionforum.org

Throw Down



One of the most personal films by the prolific Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To is a thrilling love letter to both the cinema of Akira Kurosawa and the art and philosophy of judo. Amid the neon-drenched nightclubs and gambling dens of Hong Kong's nocturnal underworld, the fates of three wandering souls—a former judo champion now barely scraping by as an alcoholic bar owner (Louis Koo), a young fighter (Aaron Kwok) intent on challenging him, and a singer (Cherrie Ying) chasing dreams of stardom—collide in an operatic explosion of human pain, ambition, perseverance, and redemption. Paying offbeat homage to Kurosawa's debut feature, Sanshiro Sugata, To scrambles wild comedy, flights of lyrical surrealism, and rousing martial-arts action into what is ultimately a disarmingly touching ode to the healing power of friendship.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Interview from 2004 with director Johnnie To
• New interviews with coscreenwriter Yau Nai-hoi, composer Peter Kam, and film scholars David Bordwell and Caroline Guo
• Short making-of documentary from 2004 featuring To and actors Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, Cherrie Ying, and Tony Leung Ka-fai
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Sean Gilman

Great news! I discovered this with the new MOC disc and loved it. Is this as underrated as I think it is?

So it looks like Criterion is only adding one supplement "New interviews with coscreenwriter Yau Nai-hoi, composer Peter Kam, and film scholars David Bordwell and Caroline Guo" but the MoC has two commentaries not ported over. Pass.

That isn't one supplement, it is three separate interview programs. Criterion often groups together interviews on the specs, which sometimes leads a release to look like it has less special features than it actually has.

I don't think Ric Meyers' work is that highly regarded, so probably no loss there.

I’m excited for this as someone without region free capabilities though I do miss the chance of the inaugural To being a chance to break with the idea that Chinese cinema must be action cinema with a release of my favored Don’t Go Breaking My Heart duology.

dwk wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:53 pm That isn't one supplement, it is three separate interview programs. Criterion often groups together interviews on the specs, which sometimes leads a release to look like it has less special features than it actually has.

Fair enough, I was aware of that but admittedly phrased it poorly. Either way, not exactly a glaring incentive to double-dip til we get more info on how strong the interviews are. I imagine this is the same 4k transfer as the MoC?

Yeah, the transfer is almost certainly the same. And, yeah, if you have the MoC, I don't think the new interviews would be enough to buy it again. (Assuming Janus has this, I would guess that the new interviews will eventually be on the Criterion Channel, so one could just wait and watch them there.)

Chris, does it say on the press release who this is being licensed from?

Fortune Star

I saw this in theaters when it initially got a small release in LA and though I bought a DVD release I haven’t revisited it again. But I was very taken by it and think it’s an original evolved take on a martial arts theme. Super stoked for it.

We had a bit of a discussion about Throw Down (spoilers) a few years back in the Johnnie To thread, and it is a really good film and well worth getting a Criterion release. Although I'm debating getting it myself just because it will be the third time I would have purchased the film on Blu-ray!

One of my favorite To films. I hope this introduces him to a wider audience. I guess it is sort of an action film -- but it has an awful lot of non-action as well.

dwk wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:53 pm That isn't one supplement, it is three separate interview programs. Criterion often groups together interviews on the specs, which sometimes leads a release to look like it has less special features than it actually has.

I don't think Ric Meyers' work is that highly regarded, so probably no loss there.

The MoC release also had the new commentary with Frank Djeng, which was ok (better than the other one anyway)

The interview with Bordwell could be quite interesting, but I'll probably pass on this...

So Gary says the video is mostly a draw, while the audio goes from a 2.0 to a 5.1 track. Does anyone know which is accurate?

It actually seems possible it could have been 5.1 originally but I don't know myself. Anyone with either disc able to say what the Dolby logo at the end of the credits indicates (Dolby Stereo or Dolby Digital)? That could provide some help though I think it might not be a 100% guarantee.

Ivy Mike wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:01 am It actually seems possible it could have been 5.1 originally but I don't know myself. Anyone with either disc able to say what the Dolby logo at the end of the credits indicates (Dolby Stereo or Dolby Digital)? That could provide some help though I think it might not be a 100% guarantee.

It says "Dolby Digital in Select Theaters"

The earlier Hong Kong Blu-ray has the audio options of either Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 or Mandarin Dolby Digital 6.1

HK releases are often offering upsampled and/or remixed tracks. It could very well be that the Criterion 5.1 track is new and based on a Dolby base while the older tracks simply are multichannels remixes.