A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989)

[obloquy]

Some of you may be interested to know that this bootleg is a fairly good It's a straight copy of the R2 AE VHS. The website threatens a ship time of 4-8 weeks but I got my order in less than 2.

[godardslave]

can you expand/clarify on what you mean by "fairly good" picture quality?

[obloquy]

Yeah, sorry. I mean that I have a few VCD and DVD bootlegs, and this is the best of the lot. Since the Artificial-Eye logo appears at the start of my copy, the OOP R2 VHS is most certainly the source. The quality is, I imagine, very close to that of the VHS tape, although I'd venture that it might be a bit more blurry. If you're familiar with bootlegs of rare material, however, you'll definitely find this one watchable. This is my only exposure to the film, so I can't comment on color integrity and such, but the aspect ratio appears to be preserved, and the subs are readable.

[godardslave]

thanks, its a bit expensive at almost $30, but im close to buying this.

[captgriff]

I also purchased this DVD from them, and though it could be better, I am satisfied. This is a very hard film to find, and I think at this time the AE VHS is the only version with English subtitles in circulation. If this is an important film for you to own (or if you have never had the chance to see it but are a Hou fan), this copy (which looks like a second-gen VHS dub) will do until someone does a proper issue.

[Miguel]

There already is a Taiwanese dvd, but unfortunately it is not subtitled.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

There already is a Taiwanese dvd, but unfortunately it is not subtitled.

It's also full-frame -- possibly pan-and-scan, even. There's another Chinese edition out there with a cover similar to the one at the eBay auction Saj linked to (minus the red border) which is in widescreen, but again, no English subtitles.

This page on the dvdbeaver site suggests it's "coming soon in R0 box-set from Taiwan with two other titles";scroll down and it's no.62 on the list between CHINATOWN and CLOSE UP.

I don't know where DVD Beaver got that info, but it may be outdated -- around the same time the first Hou boxed set came out, it was claimed that Sinomovie would be releasing two or three additional boxsets covering the rest of Hou's output, but it was subsequently established (whether here or at another forum, I can't remember) that the claim was premature and Sinomovie doesn't actually own the rights to those films. Maybe someone else recalls this better than I do.

[captgriff]

it was claimed that Sinomovie would be releasing two or three additional boxsets covering the rest of Hou's output, but it was subsequently established (whether here or at another forum, I can't remember) that the claim was premature and Sinomovie doesn't actually own the rights to those films.

I don't recall where it was discussed either (possibly in a thread on this forum), but I think it was pretty firmly established that SinoMovie do not have the rights to issue the other box sets. If anyone has updated info, this would be a great time to post it.

[kazantzakis]

I believe peerpee was the source and he seems to know what he is talking about.

[peerpee]

Last I heard, about 18 months ago, was that SinoMovie were planning to release more, but didn't have the rights -- so it all got canned.

Would like to hear some new info on this.

[Donald Brown]

SinoMovies announced at the time of the original box set's release that they were working of two more Hou sets, but nothing has come of it.

[godardslave]

Last I heard, about 18 months ago, was that SinoMovie were planning to release more, but didn't have the rights -- so it all got canned.

Would like to hear some new info on this.

whats the process for obtaining rights to such films? is it difficult?

Such films as these by HHH would seem like an obvious candidate for possible excellent MOC releases?

or does someone already own the rights to these films in region 2 [UK]?

[Mise En Scene]

SuperHappyFun has City of Sadness, but I can't speak on the DVD myself.

The description says English subs, but no subs on the intertitles. For those who have seen the film, are the intertitles frequent, wordy, and/or extremely important in making sense of the narrative?

[denti alligator]

What is wrong with the world that this can't see the light of day in an English-friendly (of any western language, for that matter) edition?

I mean, WHY?

[ptmd]

Virtually all of the intertitles are just representations of the letters that the deaf-mute character played by Tony Leung writes and I don't think that any of them are overly crucial to understanding the narrative. I haven't seen it, but the SuperHappyFun is almost certainly a subtitled bootleg based on the Taiwanese-released DVD which is washed out but certainly watchable. Unfortunately, there is no good DVD of this masterpiece anywhere (even the Japanese disc has issues).

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Unless they've replaced it, the SHF version is sourced from a Taiwanese laserdisc with Chinese/English subs.

[Stagger Lee]

Has this been released recently? I just found what claims to be a DVD rip, but I don't know what DVD might have been the source because it has excellent picture quality, English subtitles--even on the intertitles--and (unless I'm mistaken) the correct widescreen aspect ratio. It is in three AVI files with a total size of 2.04 GB. Anyone know where this could have come from?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It's a rip of the Japanese DVD with custom subtitles. There's still no authorized English-subbed DVD.

[Trees]

Seems like a lot of these HHH pictures really need a decent Blu-ray release. Is the issue that the rights are scattered all over the place?

[Zot!]

I think its money that's the issue most likely. The existing box set of blu rays is terrific, and there is also the New Taiwan collection that is available and has an early short from HHH. Stay tuned....I hope.

[Michael Kerpan]

Not a "money issue" with City of Sadness, definitely a (huge) rights issue. That is why CoS (and Puppetmaster) screened for free at the Harvard Film Archive, the contending rights holder agreed to a free "educational" screening only.

[zedz]

It might be even worse than that. I believe it's more of a case that free screenings in conjunction with some other presentation can't be prevented by the rights holders, even if they wanted to. For many, many years, the unreleasable A Poem Is a Naked Person could only be screened as an adjunct to a personal appearance / lecture by Les Blank, and I believe the same is still true for Superstar and Todd Haynes.

[jindianajonz]

I recall that the screening of either Puppetmaster or City of Sadness that I attended had to be framed as a lecture that happened to show the movie, and not a screening of the movie itself. Although it was also implied that very special arrangements had to be made to allow even that to happen, and it was unlikely to happen again any time soon, so I'm not sure how repeatable the loophole is.

[Zot!]

But both remain available on DVD...are these all bootlegs?

[Michael Kerpan]

There was a terrible ES DVD of Puppetmaster -- I don't think there has ever been a Western DVD release of City of Sadness. Neither of these were ever included as part of HHH's own Taiwanese releases.