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A Brighter Summer Day



Among the most praised and sought-after titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang, finally comes to home video in the United States. Set in the early sixties in Taiwan, A Brighter Summer Day is based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual, inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chen Chang, in his first role) from innocence to juvenile delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary featuring critic Tony Rayns
• New interview with actor Chen Chang
• Our Time, Our Story, a 117-minute documentary from 2002 about the New Taiwan Cinema movement, featuring interviews with Yang and filmmakers Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, among others
• Videotaped performance of director Edward Yang's 1992 play Likely Consequence
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire and a 1991 director's statement by Yang

ianungstad wrote:Got an email from Mulvaney today. He confirmed Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day but didn't provide an ETA. He also said Criterion does not have plans to release a DVD of Joseph Losey's Accident. A shame, as I was hoping they would. 1/2 isn't bad though!

I had sent this email just after the blog posting. With the Scorsese partnership announced, it was pretty much a given. Nice to have confirmation I guess.

To have real confirmation of this is news of the year. This is incredible, incredible!!

denti alligator wrote:

ianungstad wrote:Got an email from Mulvaney today. He confirmed Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day

To have real confirmation of this is news of the year. This is incredible, incredible!!

I've been a big fan of Yang since I blind-bought Yi Yi, and haven't really had an opportunity to, ah, actually see anything else, so this is VERY exciting news especially with all the hype the film's gotten around here.

The countdown to eye-rolling "not more Edward Yang" posts has officially begun!

(I'm not holding my breath for both versions, however)

zedz wrote:The countdown to eye-rolling "not more Edward Yang" posts has officially begun!

As someone that didn't particularly care for Yi Yi but was thoroughly taken by A Brighter Summer Day, I'd have to say I'm thoroughly excited by the news, even if in a general sense I'd rather there were 2 Hous in the collection than two Yangs.

Loved Yi-Yi so I'm very excited about the confirmation of A Brighter Summer Day which, like kaujot, I've not seen before and will blind-buy on reputation and board comments alone. =D>

Is it too much to hope that the Paramount deal will include Don't Look Now?

As for future Eclipse releases, I'd kill for a set that comprises King Hu's martial arts films Dragon Inn, A Touch Of Zen, The Fate of Lee Khan, The Valiant Ones and Raining in the Mountains (which exists in a decent version from Films Sans Frontieres).

I've had a sub-VHS quality, hard-subbed (in at least two languages) copy of Brighter Summer Day sitting on my hard drive for months, but haven't been able to subject myself to watching this for the first time in such shameful quality. I can certainly hold off now knowing a real release is in the works. Phenominal news!

Count me as another who didn't think much of Yi-Yi, but was very impressed with A Brighter Summer Day which has been screaming for a global upgrade forever. So no eyerolling from me.

Count me as one who wasn't impressed with either Yi Yi or A Brighter Summer Day.

Well bless Scorsese/The Film Foundation, because I doubt without the restoration time (including, I would assume, the creation of the first set of decent English subs this movie has ever had) they put into Summer Day, I doubt Criterion wouild have had access to a print of the film they deemed release-worthy. I also seem to recall Criterion discussing some legal snafus (here, in fact) associated with acquiring the film, so once again I assume that Scorsese et al helped iron those issues out. To echo Jun-Dai, however, now bring on some Hou!

I pray Criterion deems this important enough to release on Blu. I wouldn't hesitate to pay a WB-style outrageous price for it.

I'm sure they do some sort of market research to gauge how commercially viable each title will be on Blu, but it might also help to email them at [email protected] to voice your interest. Otherwise, a four-hour film by a director who apparently has not sold that well in the past--this could be an uphill battle here.

Highway 61 wrote:I pray Criterion deems this important enough to release on Blu. I wouldn't hesitate to pay a WB-style outrageous price for it.

I suspect it has less to do with the importance of the film and more to do with the quality of what they'd be able to put out. So far Criterion has gotten top marks for all (or mostly all) of their Blu-ray releases, and I think they'd hate to spoil that run with a sub-par master/transfer or unfortunate source materials, even if it was the best they could do under the circumstances.

I wonder how their Blu-ray titles have been selling in relation to each other.

That's if it's a mainline title. The press release from Scorsese's organizations did state that most of these titles will be Eclipse sets with only a select few getting the full Criterion treatment.

As for Hou, if this IFC deal is for multiple films and not limited to Che, I would imagine it likely they grabbed Flight of the Red Balloon. It's one of the bigger titles in the IFC library. Just speculation on my part. We'll have to see how the IFC relationship plays out. Personally, I'd be delighted if they could get Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park as part of the deal.

swo17 wrote:Otherwise, a four-hour film by a director who apparently has sold that well in the past--this could be an uphill battle here.

Yeah, I'm not exactly holding my breath, but I'll still write to them, which will be the first time I email Criterion something other than a question.

ianungstad wrote:That's if it's a mainline title. The press release from Scorsese's organizations did state that most of these titles will be Eclipse sets with only a select few getting the full Criterion treatment.

Eclipse seems unlikely since I doubt they've secured the rights and materials to a batch of Yang films, unless they were to release a group of unrelated movies under a "Martin Scorsese presents" banner.

And I'll add to the chorus clamoring for Hou in the collection. A box set or even just a loaded Blu-ray of one of his many masterpieces would be the kind of monumental release that could put Criterion back on top after this fallow year.

The future release of another Yang film is great news! I've been waiting to see another of his films for quite some time.

Agree with all those who are calling for at least one Hou. I have seen all the dismal R1 releases of his films and he has still somehow managed to become one of my favorite directors. A criterion release of one of his films I'm sure would only raise my appreciation (if only to bring some light to those Fox Lobers).

I was recently going through the spring schedule at Doc Films (UofC) and they had a whole lineup of films dedicated to New Taiwanese Cinema (which I sadly completely missed). They delayed their showing of A City of Sadness citing a new print: "This film was originally planned for 11 May; the delay was so Doc could get a shiny new print struck for its twentieth-anniversay screening." Any chance it'll get a DVD release?

One would hope! The Japanese DVD is in very good condition, which makes me surprised that there's been no release. If they do decide to put it out, the best would have to be a "history trilogy" box set!

I've posted some more information about the Yang restoration (which suggests a Criterion edition might not exactly be imminent) in his filmmaker thread.

I'm sure the non-appearance of Hou in the collection can't be by choice, and a new print of City of Sadness - one of the most obvious contenders for inclusion - sounds like a perfect opportunity to address this failing. (But then I also can't believe Criterion isn't interested in releasing any Rivette!)

Don't get me started on Rivette...

The HHH situation is most likely due to poor quality prints that are available. My hope is Hou will see a new touring retrospective of his work, with new restored prints and subtitle translations, sometime soon, at which point I'm sure Criterion will jump on the chance to release them. That's what happened with Oshima, Malle, Korda, and Rossellini. I'm also guessing that the forthcoming Yang is also related to that. The Rivette retrospective was not to show off newly restored prints. Those who saw OUT 1 in March of 2007 suffered through that clicking soundtrack and the poor reel changes.

Seriously, this Rivette situation has got to be stopped. Pont du fucking Nord.

God, Hou is almost as boring as Yang.

Now, how about some Tsai? The R1 discs so far are non-anamorphic abominations. I'd shoot someone (maybe Hou?) for a proper release of The Wayward Cloud or The Hole.

Really? Hou and Yang are boring but Tsai is not? That seems a little incomprehensible to me.

I don' t get it either. If you consider Yang and Hou boring then logically Tsai should push you to commit hara kiri. He must be the most boring filmaker in the world. I mean I love films that are slow and don' t have a lot of dialogue ( I adore Maborosi ) but Tsai's films are almost silent. In my opinion, The River, is one of the worst films I have seen in my entire life.

mteller is not unique. I have encountered others who adore Tsai -- but are hostile to HHH and fairly indifferent to Yang. Me -- I love HHH beyond reason -- and would rather undergo surgery without anesthesia than watch Tsai.

The silent film analogy is apt for Tsai (especially if one thinks of silent comedy: Tsai's films are peppered with extended--very extended--comedy "routines.") His films are not at all like Hou's. I like both, but I think Tsai would be far more accessible for a lot of people. Anyway, dismissing either as "boring" is unhelpful and simply suggests a lack of patience on the part of the viewer, IMO.

I especially loved The River, and found it both hilarious and deeply moving, so each to his/her own.

StevenJ0001 wrote:Anyway, dismissing either as "boring" is unhelpful and simply suggests a lack of patience on the part of the viewer, IMO.

I completely agree with this, not just in this case, but in general. I don't care what the movie is*, when someone describes something as "boring," all this means is that he/she refused to engage in the viewing experience. This says more about the viewer than it does about the film.

*One exception: I do get a kick out of it when "boring" is used to describe hyperkinetic, wall-to-wall action type movies that try far too hard not to be boring.