Recently came the news that celebrated filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai was doing a 4K restoration of much of his back catalogue of films, some of which are considered among the greatest ever made, with plans for a cinema and disc release through Janus Films. Said retrospective began unfolding the other week.
Now Wong has penned a note via the Film at Lincoln Center explaining the process of restoring some of his classic films, and in the process confirmed some alterations to his original work. While no new scenes have been added, there has been adjustments to the presentation.
Both “Chungking Express” and “In the Mood for Love” will be shown in their original 1.66:1 aspect ratios as opposed to the 1.85:1 they have been on home video. Here they will be restored to that original size. Both were also made before 5.1 surround was a thing and so have now been remixed to take advantage of that. His “Fallen Angels” has been the most drastically altered, changing the format to CinemaScope.
One film that has seen some edits is “Happy Together” as the original negative was damaged in a fire in 2019. They’ve restored as much as they can, but as a result they have had to shorten some of Tony Leung’s monologues. All the films also now have new credits with a consistent look across the versions.
Wong says: “We were caught in a dilemma between restoring these films to the form in which the audience had remembered them and how I had originally envisioned them. There was so much that we could change, and I decided to take the second path as it would represent my most vivid vision of these films. I invite the audience to join me in starting afresh, as these are not the same films, and we are no longer the same audience.”
Janus Films is in charge of the “World of Wong Kar Wai” restoration which kicked off the other week at the Film at Lincoln Center in New York and gets a nationwide rollout from this coming Friday in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and more. There is hope a Criterion box-set is also on the way next year.
Source: The Playlist
