First Review of the Restored Blu-ray of A Brighter Summer Day: A Clear Look for the First Time in 20 Years. Take My Money!

March 2, 2016

Today the Canadian DVD and Blu-ray review site DVDBeaver.com published the first review anywhere of the 4K-restored Blu-ray of Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day. If we count from the VCD and LaserDisc released by Hong Kong’s Fei Tu in 1997, this is the first time in nearly twenty years that audiences can see the film in its original, “clear” form.

Criterion had already released a short preview of the restored footage, and two days ago it shared photos of the actual cover and packaging:

But seeing these images, so clear and unlike anything we had seen before, still got us excited:

The restoration looks so different from the dark image we remember that it feels like another film altogether. Here is another before-and-after comparison:

Before restoration (LaserDisc edition)

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After restoration (4K-restored Blu-ray edition)

Before restoration (LaserDisc edition)

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After restoration (4K-restored Blu-ray edition)

A friend on Weibo saw the screenshots and wondered whether they were overexposed—the bright scenes even look washed out. What is going on?

In my earlier article, “Why Haven’t We Seen the Director’s Restored Cut of A Brighter Summer Day?”, I summarized a few facts based on an interview:

1. A Brighter Summer Day has undergone two restorations. The first was in 2009, and that was the version shown in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Busan. A second restoration began in 2014 and further improved the 2009 version. It had never been shown publicly. This Criterion Blu-ray uses that version.

2. Some people who had seen the film in Busan and elsewhere said the image looked “very dark” and the restoration was nowhere near as good as they had hoped. This was Zheng Zihong, managing director of the Hong Kong branch of the Bologna Film Restoration Laboratory, which handled part of the work, in response: “I saw it in Hong Kong and Taipei. Many parts of the film take place in darkness, and after restoration you can see things that were previously invisible. The restoration also aims to preserve the original film texture. Some viewers may have misunderstood and thought an ‘ideal’ restoration should look as sharp as a modern digital DCP.”

The purpose of restoration is to bring a film back to its original appearance. That is why Criterion restorations usually say “supervised by director” or “approved by director.” During restoration, the director, cinematographer or another member of the production team supervises color correction—film changes color over time—in an effort to recover its original look.

So does this restored image show what A Brighter Summer Day looked like when it premiered in 1991? Who supervised the restoration? Most of the people involved in filming it are still alive, so finding out should not be difficult.

I had the same questions, so here is an advance announcement:

On March 12, Mr. Zheng Zihong, who took part in the restoration, will come to Shenzhen to talk about the philosophy of film restoration and answer questions about the restoration of A Brighter Summer Day. Details of the event will be published separately soon.

Now let’s take a look at DVDBeaver webmaster Gary Tooze’s review.

Text by Gary Tooze

Translated by Zhang Fengming

The Set

Disc 1 contains the nearly four-hour A Brighter Summer Day, along with Tony Rayns’s commentary track.

Disc 2 contains the special features.

Main Feature Menu

Picture Quality

Criterion’s release is a “new 4K digital restoration.” Edward Yang was a serious artist, and his films have rarely been commercially released, so they are hard to see. I was therefore very interested in the video quality. This release gives film fans a chance to see the film as it was meant to look, and its rarity is part of the appeal. The 4K restoration, presented in 1080p, has a clean, textured image. Its cinematic presentation is impressive and meets all our expectations. The screenshots below give you a fair sense of it: the picture looks fluid and has no obvious flaws.

Sound

The sound is quite straightforward. The 1,152 kbps (24-bit) PCM linear mono track makes the Mandarin dialogue—as well as the Taiwanese and Shanghainese—consistent and clear. It sounds perfectly fine. The film itself has no score, although some scenes feature “live” music (see above). English subtitles are available, and my Oppo player identified the disc as Region A.

Special Features Menu

Special Features

As mentioned above, the first Blu-ray includes Tony Rayns’s commentary. It is very professional and informative, as you would expect. He fills these four hours with extensive detail and information on every aspect of the film’s production: Edward Yang, the film’s themes and structure, politics, American culture, and more. It is well worth listening to, and listening more than once is no bad idea—there is a lot to think about.

The second Blu-ray includes an eleven-minute interview with Chang Chen, who was still a boy when he made A Brighter Summer Day. He later became a major star, appearing in films such as Happy Together, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Grandmaster. In this interview, filmed by Criterion in 2014, Chang Chen talks about his breakthrough beginning.

The main special feature is the nearly two-hour documentary Our Time, Our Story, about the twenty-year history of Taiwan’s New Cinema movement in the 1980s and 1990s. It includes interviews with directors such as Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Sylvia Chang and Tsai Ming-liang. There is also a poor-quality recording of Edward Yang’s 1992 stage play If. This 45-minute satire shows Yang’s ability to work with young actors and his tendency toward social criticism, although the subtitles are hard to read (see below).

The set also includes a booklet with an essay by film critic Godfrey Cheshire and a statement Edward Yang published in 1991.

Verdict

A Brighter Summer Day is essential—just buy it. In his films, Edward Yang examines the conflict between modernity and tradition, often using long takes and/or limited editing. Important details are often obscured by other activity in the frame, apparently on purpose, so you have to watch patiently to notice what matters. You have to discover things for yourself; it is the only way to truly notice them. The film has so much to offer that you could watch it repeatedly for the rest of your life. Rayns’s commentary adds even more through its guidance and discussion. We recommend this Blu-ray set as strongly as possible. If you plan to buy only one Blu-ray this year, make it this one.