(aka "Mest" or "The Reed Flute" )

Revenge (Ermek Shinarbaev, 1989)

 

Disc:

Runtime: 1:40:00.786 

Disc Size: 48,628,562,698 bytes

Feature Size: 20,700,020,736 bytes

Video Bitrate: 24.00 Mbps

Chapters: 12

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

 

Audio:

LPCM Audio Russian 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit

 

Extras:

• Scorsese Introduction (1:48)

• Interview with Ermek Shinarbaev (18:51)

 

A child is raised in Korea to avenge the death of his father’s first child in this decades-spanning tale of obsession and violence, the third collaboration between director Ermek Shinarbaev and writer Anatoli Kim. A study of everyday evil infused with philosophy and poetry, this haunting allegory was the first Soviet film to look at the Korean diaspora in central Asia, and a founding work of the Kazakh New Wave. Rigorous and complex, Revenge weaves luminous imagery with inventive narrative elements in an unforgettable meditation on the way trauma is passed down through generations.

***

Restoration:

Set largely in Korea and China, and spanning the 1910s to 1940s, Ermek Shinarbaev’s epic masterpiece unites the resonant pictoriality of certain Far Eastern cinema with a mysticism rooted in the Russian tradition: a fitting and harmonic convergence for this collaboration (one of three) between the Kazakh director and Korean-Russian writer Anatoli Kim.

A rural schoolteacher, Jan, murders a pupil, the young daughter of a family under whom he had previously been a tenant. The father, Caj [pronounced “Tsaiya”], tracks him to China to exact revenge — but at at the moment of vengeance, Caj cannot act. He returns home only to take a concubine, who in turn bears him a son: Sungu, a prodigious composer of verse. At Caj’s deathbed, the boy is informed he has been brought into the world purely for the sake of vengeance; he takes an oath to annihilate Jan.

Tonally, Revenge [Mest’] exhibits an extraordinary use of natural light that lends the figures an almost ethereal incandescence in the picture’s first half; the second half of the film shifts into a noless-impressive palate that is ally to late-Tarkovskyan naturalism. A narrative broken into seven chapters, and constructed in a full-circle that creates a visual and spoken summary of Sungu’s poetic universe, Revenge is, to quote the critic and WCP Artistic Director Kent Jones, “a true odyssey, geographically and psychologically. One of the greatest films to emerge from the Kazakh New Wave, and also one of the toughest.

Excerpt from The Masters of Cinema Website located HERE

In ancient Korea, a king trains his son as a warrior in order to overcome a strain of inordinate gentleness he sees in him. His intentions are shown to have succeeded when the boy, now king, banishes a poet friend of his for improperly criticizing him. In modern Korea, when a girl is killed for no reason by her teacher, her father vows to get revenge for that someday. The killer has vanished over the border into China, and the father has remarried and had a son, whom he trains to carry out his revenge.

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Revenge was a part of Volume 1 of Masters of Cinema's World Cinema Project Blu-ray package from 2013 (reviewed HERE.) It comes from the same restoration, and we can repeat our comments - "The image is rich and bright - with impressive colors - bordering on vibrant. Contrast is solid and the 1080P produces a beautiful, 1.37:1, presentation. There is no noise, or artifacts, and many scenes have a sense of depth. This Blu-ray has a nice realistic feel with a reasonable film-like sense to it. Visually this gets high marks - notable for the colors and pleasing texture."

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

1) Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray  - TOP 2) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

Criterion transfer the film's audio via a LPCM mono track at 1152 kbps, but advance over the Masters of Cinema transfer making it 24-bit. The original Russian dialogue also sounds clean with a few natural sounds (rain, ocean waves etc.) exporting depth. There were no flaws and the uncompressed audio seemed to support the film - akin to its original, flat, state.  There are optional English subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

 

Extras :

Mr. Peixoto, who is reportedly at work on something new, anticipated in "Limite" a great many camera movements that have since become commonplace, and the air of discovery is one of the things that keeps "Limite" exciting. His camera zooms in on a subject even if that means zooming out of focus, or executes a dizzyingly precarious 360-degree whirl. He shoots up at his actors from such a low angle that a telephone pole appears to hover over them, or devotes long sections of the film exclusively to the players' feet. His choices are flashy, impetuous and never less than interesting.

Excerpt from the NYTimes located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Limite was a pure delight to finally just see, let alone, restored, on Blu-ray from Criterion. It is both the oldest selection in the boxset and has the most significant damage. The film was in an, obvious, state of decay - making the preservation all the more important. It can almost take on it's own Brakhage-esque stylistic presentation, also reminiscent of Bill Morrison's Decasia, but the deterioration often blends in beautifully with Peixoto's rich visuals.  The 1080P quality, obviously, varies with some impressive detail in close-ups to odd fluctuations from warping within scenes to frames being totally obscured and compromised by factors relating to emulsion degradation. I, still, thought the film was beautiful, even in this state, and I greatly appreciated my viewing. 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damage

 

 

Linear PCM (24-bit) of a remastered digital soundtrack created from archival recordings. It sounds quite strong with selections from Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky etc.. I've shown, above, an example of an intertitle card, in original Portuguese, that is translated and indicates a missing section of the film. My Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

Extras :

 

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 (aka "Hudutlarin kanunu" or "Law of the Border" )

 

Law of the Border (Lütfi Ö. Akad, 1966)

 

Disc:

Runtime: 1:16:56.153

Disc Size: 48,213,008,801 bytes

Feature Size: 17,131,880,448 bytes

Video Bitrate: 26.00 Mbps

Chapters: 19

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

 

Audio:

LPCM Audio Turkish 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit

 

Extras:

• Scorsese Introduction (2:38)

• Mevlüt Akkaya (16:54)

The Film:

***

Law of the Border is a film shot and produced in Turkey, primarily for domestic consumption, rather than for the international art house scene, since it doesn't seem too preoccupied with establishing a historic context for non-Turks. From what I've been able to read on the internet, the film reportedly ushered in a New Wave of sorts in that country's cinema when it premiered in 1966. Without any familiarity whatsoever with Turkish movies, or really much of anything that I could consider the authentic culture of that society, much less the underlying political intrigues that inform this 70 minute drama.

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

As warned by the text screen (see above) prior to the presentation, Law of the Border has some serious issues, on the best available sources, hindering a more satisfying restoration. Many sequences are clean and consistent while other show extensive scratches, noticeable marks and fluctuating contrast. I accept that the best was done with the source provided, and after a while, you aren't hindered by the film's state and can concentrate on the film and its important themes.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

Examples of damage

 

 

 

Extras :

 

 

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  (aka "Qing mei zhu ma" )

Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985)

Disc:

Runtime: 2:00:02.069 

Disc Size: 48,213,008,801 bytes

Feature Size: 26,722,363,392 bytes

Video Bitrate: 25.99 Mbps

Chapters: 26

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Video:

Audio:

LPCM Audio Hokkien / Mandarin 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit

The Film:

Edward Yang’s second feature is a mournful anatomy of a city caught between the past and the present. Made in collaboration with Yang’s fellow New Taiwan Cinema master Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taipei Story chronicles the growing estrangement between a washed-up baseball player (Hou, in a rare on-screen performance) working in his family’s textile business and his girlfriend (Tsai Chin), who clings to the upward mobility of her career in property development. As the couple’s dreams of marriage and emigration begin to unravel, Yang’s gaze illuminates the precariousness of domestic life and the desperation of Taiwan’s globalized modernity.

Restoration:

The disintegration of a relationship has undertones that find an echo in the possible disintegration of both the economy and the society in this intriguing tale from director Edward Yang. Qin (Cai Qin) has a high-paying job in a computer company, and her fiancé, Lon (Hou Xiaoxian), works in a textile company. Their relationship was never strong, since Lon still harbors some feelings for his ex-girlfriend and tends to dwell in his past glories as a baseball player. After Qin gets a new apartment for them both, everything collapses. She loses her job when the computer company is bought out, her father needs money, her sister needs an abortion, and she suspects that Lon is off seeing his old girlfriend. Lon himself shies away from marriage, gambles away whatever he earns, and worries about one of his friends in need of help. With these demands and strains on their relationship, matrimony hardly seems like a viable option.

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

Consistent with the other transfers and strongly representational of the original film we get another linear PCM mono track at 1152 kbps - this time in Hokkien / Mandarin. There are appears to be some, post sync issues but I didn't finds them fatally distracting - just noticeable. The film's subtle score is credited to, the director, Edward Yang. There are optional English subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

 

Extras :

A 'Marty' introduction (I feel I can call him this as we share the same birthday) for about 2.5-minutes. Plus we get an fascinating 15-minutes with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edmond Wong. Criterion's, new, interview additions have real benefit to appreciation of the films, in my opinion.

 

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Speaking for myself, Limite, with its mythical cinema legacy, and Edward Yang's Taipei Story, were the most impacting new film experiences of this boxset. This is pure, emotionally evocative and transcendent, cinema at its very best. For many, this will be the most appealing package of the entire year. We are talking about a set stacked with important, lovingly restored, world cinema gems, containing valuable supplements. Films to revisit the rest of your life. A perfect compliment to Criterion's Volume 1. But I think this set has even more value. Our absolute highest recommendation!