BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

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Calvin
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BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#1 Post by Calvin » Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:35 pm

DAUGHTER OF THE NILE, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s compelling drama set amidst a world of young people and petty gangsters, will be released as part of the Masters of Cinema Series in a Dual-Format (Blu-ray and DVD) edition on 22 May 2017.

Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien (The Assassin, Three Times, Flight of the Red Balloon) followed up his highly acclaimed Coming of Age trilogy of films with Daughter of the Nile, a rich and poignant drama about a young woman struggling to support her family amidst the violent and neon-soaked milieu of 1980’s Taipei.

Lin (Lin Hsiao-yang) works as a waitress in a fried chicken restaurant, attends night school and pines after her brother’s friend, local gigolo Ah-sang (Fan Yang). Increasingly constrained by the casual brutality of the world around her, Lin finds escape imagining herself as the titular Daughter of the Nile, a character from her favourite manga series.

Based on the personal experiences of screenwriter, Chu T’ien-wen (Millennium Mambo; Goodbye South, Goodbye; City of Sadness) Daughter of the Nile is a profoundly moving observation of marginalised youth. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the film from a new 4K restoration, available for the first time on Blu-ray and DVD in a new Dual-Format edition.

DUAL FORMAT SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New 4K restoration
- Uncompressed PCM soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Optional English subtitles
- A new interview with Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
- Theatrical Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new and archival writing

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Ribs
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#2 Post by Ribs » Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:35 pm

Hooray!

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What A Disgrace
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#3 Post by What A Disgrace » Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:42 pm

I sure hope this isn't a one off like it, apparently, was with von Sternberg's silents and Oshima's early works. I'll be plonking down my support for this release in a timely and financial manner.

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rapta
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#4 Post by rapta » Tue Feb 28, 2017 1:01 pm

It could well be a one off, as the Oshima is another example of a recently-restored festival title being snapped up by Eureka. This seems to be one of the acquisitions from Berlinale 2016, presumably the result of them meeting with the Taiwan Film Institute (and I'm also hoping they discussed King Hu's Legend of the Mountain at the time, or at least plan to acquire that from them as well).

Anyway, at least one more each from Hou, Oshima and von Sternberg would be very welcome. Most likely right now are The Boys from Fengkuei, Boy and/or The Ceremony, and Anatahan. All of those have either been recently restored or had Blu-ray releases elsewhere. Anatahan seems the most likely out of those at the moment, as Kino are releasing it soon and an MoC edition of their high-profile titles often follows.

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swo17
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#5 Post by swo17 » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:02 pm

Most exciting announcement in a while.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#6 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:09 pm

Great news. I've always been quite fond of this (comparatively) neglected film.

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Finch
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#7 Post by Finch » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:42 pm

Wonderful news. I think between this and Harmonium, Variete and catalogue titles like Drunken Master and Hard Times, MoC's 2017 line-up has been their most exciting in some time.

beamish13
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#8 Post by beamish13 » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:43 pm

Hsiao-hsien's funniest, and maybe warmest movie. The scenes at the night school and any moment with Li Tian-lu are incredible. Is The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" part of the reason this film has been so under-seen?

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zedz
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#9 Post by zedz » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:10 pm

The first Hou I ever saw, and I remember almost nothing about it, so this is sensational news!

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domino harvey
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#10 Post by domino harvey » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:21 pm

It's sensational that a film you've seen but can't even remember is coming out?

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L.A.
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#11 Post by L.A. » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:27 pm

Thank you Eureka!

Cinemateek released Hou Hsiao-hsien: Early Works some time ago. Are the set's films likely to receive the BD treatment at some point?

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zedz
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#12 Post by zedz » Tue Feb 28, 2017 4:21 pm

domino harvey wrote:It's sensational that a film you've seen but can't even remember is coming out?
Yeah, because I've wanted to see it again for a couple of decades, with no opportunity to do so. Is that really so unimaginable? It's an all-but-lost film from one of the most important directors of the past fifty years.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#13 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Feb 28, 2017 4:38 pm

beamish13 wrote: Is The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" part of the reason this film has been so under-seen?
I've speculated elsewhere that it might just be because the film was produced by a record label that didn't stick around in the film industry and was eventually acquired by Universal's music division, which probably had no interest in their film holdings (and especially a film like this one). I also suspect the label wasn't too crazy about the film to begin with, which was supposed to be a mainstream vehicle for pop star Yang Lin but turned into what Hou himself described (not inaccurately, I think) as his most formalist film up to that point. The film did get a release in Japan in the late '90s, so it hasn't been completely off the market, but I imagine the effort it would take to obtain the rights made it too daunting a prospect for distributors elsewhere until the TFI came in and sorted things out.

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whaleallright
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#14 Post by whaleallright » Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:01 pm

Oh, wow. This—the rarest Hou Hsiao-Hsien film, and one made between two masterpieces— is probably the film I'd most like to see on Blu-Ray in the whole world. I'll be pre-ordering this like nobody's business.

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TMDaines
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#15 Post by TMDaines » Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:55 pm

Given how obscure this film is, it's a pretty sweet release. Only 17 of the (circa) 585 titles on our All-time List Master List have fewer IMDb votes, to give you a measure of its relative lack of viewing.

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jindianajonz
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#16 Post by jindianajonz » Tue Feb 28, 2017 7:42 pm

TMDaines wrote:Given how obscure this film is, it's a pretty sweet release. Only 17 of the (circa) 585 titles on our All-time List Master List have fewer IMDb votes, to give you a measure of its relative lack of viewing.
Out of curiosity, do you have a full list of those 17?

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TMDaines
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BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#17 Post by TMDaines » Wed Mar 01, 2017 3:31 am

There's a link in the opening post of the All-time List thread: IMDb by Obscurity.

Calvin
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#18 Post by Calvin » Wed Mar 01, 2017 7:47 am


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Ribs
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#19 Post by Ribs » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:20 pm

MoC's trailer. Unsurprisingly, it looks fantastic.

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rapta
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#20 Post by rapta » Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:25 pm

Best trailer for a home video release since that one for Arrow's Dekalog?

Really excited for this now! Will definitely keep my pre-order. Hope they get some more Taiwanese New Wave in the near future...

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FakeBonanza
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#21 Post by FakeBonanza » Wed Mar 15, 2017 4:12 pm

Ribs wrote:MoC's trailer. Unsurprisingly, it looks fantastic.
Positively Godardian

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#22 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:53 pm

Now if only someone could rescue City of Sadness and Puppet Master...

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zedz
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#23 Post by zedz » Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:37 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:Now if only someone could rescue City of Sadness and Puppet Master...
MoC's trailer does cite the former ("from the director of The Assassin and City of Sadness"), and to me it seems really weird to try and sell something on the basis of a film hardly anybody has been able to see. So you can either interpret that as a hint that it might be forthcoming or as traditional MoC perversity ("from the coiners of Carnies' Twilight").

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whaleallright
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#24 Post by whaleallright » Wed Mar 15, 2017 11:28 pm

City of Sadness is known by reputation, though... it's the only Taiwanese new cinema film to have its own BFI Film Classics volume, among other things.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: BD 165 Daughter of the Nile

#25 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:11 am

I looked into theatrical bookings of A City of Sadness and The Puppetmaster a month ago and was told the rights issues with those films are "intractable" and that the solution that allowed them to be shown with the recent touring retrospective was unrepeatable. So I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Also, A City of Sadness was actually distributed in the UK, which makes its citation by MoC less strange than if it had been, say, a U.S. trailer.

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