Edward Yang

[cj-535]

It's playing as part of the London East Asia Film Festival in October too: https://www.leaff.org.uk/2022

[hearthesilence]

I was going to catch A Confucian Confusion at Metrograph (a DCP of the restoration), but they sent out an email saying they had to cancel all screenings due to a rights issue. Hope that's not a bad omen that it won't be getting a Blu-ray release anytime soon.

[yoloswegmaster]

I was going to catch A Confucian Confusion at Metrograph (a DCP of the restoration), but they sent out an email saying they had to cancel all screenings due to a rights issue. Hope that's not a bad omen that it won't be getting a Blu-ray release anytime soon.

I wonder what the rights issue could be about considering that it's been screening in a lot of theaters the last couple of months.

[hearthesilence]

I wonder what the rights issue could be about considering that it's been screening in a lot of theaters the last couple of months.

Not sure if I'll get an answer from them, but FWIW, the email only said "circumstances beyond our control surrounding the film's licensing."

[yoloswegmaster]

I wonder what the rights issue could be about considering that it's been screening in a lot of theaters the last couple of months.

Not sure if I'll get an answer from them, but FWIW, the email only said "circumstances beyond our control surrounding the film's licensing."

Let's just hope that there's no issue with Elvis' estate this time!

[Hypon]

Question about Taipei Story, is the smug guy who antagonizes Hou Hsiao-hsien’s character in the pub played by Edward Yang? Or is he just someone who has a passing resemblance to Yang?

[swo17]

Nova have put out That Day, On the Beach in three different packaging variations - "Steelbook Full Slip", "Steelbook Lenticular Full Slip", and "Steelbook 1/4 Slip"

For anyone interested, I compared this to the CMPC Blu-ray. The transfer and English subtitle track seem to be identical to me, from spot checking. (The Nova also adds a Korean track.) The Nova release is a little more English-friendly in terms of the packaging, the menu screens (the CMPC disc calls its English subtitle track "Englisg"), and for containing a book with English writing (in addition to Korean). If you already have the CMPC there is probably no need for the Nova unless you are a packaging hound who needs your Edward Yang movies to have both lenticular covers and steelbooks! Having two copies now, I think I might just list them both for sale and part ways with whichever one sells first

[dda1996a]

Does anyone have any updates regarding Mahjong and A Confucian Confusion?
I'm wondering if I should watch the low-quality rips availalbe or wait for their possible restorations...

[andyli]

possible restorations...

The last two pages have lots of info about the restorations, which have been far beyond mere possibilities.

[dda1996a]

possible restorations...

The last two pages have lots of info about the restorations, which have been far beyond mere possibilities.

Yes, yet there was also a problem with the films' rights, so I asked if it was worked out or not...

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The TFAI's bilingual booklet for their Yang retrospective is a good read, with comments from Yang about his own films as well as his favorites by other directors (which are also part of the series—amusingly they're showing both the L'Herbier and Bresson L'argent, since Yang's original list didn't specify which one he meant, though he later clarified it was the L'Herbier). A few observations:

• None of the previously-restored films (the run from That Day, on the Beach through A Brighter Summer Day) appear to be new restorations (I would expect them to be designated as 4K if they were).
• Mahjong is screening on 35mm, so clearly the restoration for that one isn't ready.
• The official English title for Yang's Eleven Women episode is "Floating Weeds" and not "Duckweed"—pretty brazen for a first-time director, but I can certainly see Yang doing something like that.

[Tom Amolad]

On that last point, do you know anything about how the two titles came about, and which is a more literal rendering of the Chinese title (Fú píng)? I ask because as I understand it, Hou was completely unaware of Ozu until the mid-eighties. I wouldn't be surprised if Yang was onto him earlier, but I'm curious.

When *did* Ozu become big internationally, by the way? 70s? 80s?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

There's been some discussion about Ozu's international reception in this thread; long story short, his reputation abroad really took hold in the '70s, but he had been bubbling under for awhile. Yang first saw Ozu's films while living in the U.S.

As for the title: 浮萍 translates idiomatically as "duckweed," whereas 浮 on its own means "float" and 萍 itself means "duckweed" (but is no longer used in isolation in the modern language, except in certain fixed expressions). The original title of Ozu's film uses a different character (浮草) but permits the same dual interpretation.

[Tom Amolad]

Thansk -- interesting thread.

[zedz]

The official English title for Yang's Eleven Women episode is "Floating Weeds" and not "Duckweed"—pretty brazen for a first-time director, but I can certainly see Yang doing something like that.

I once had to read a short film script for a guy I knew to provide feedback. It was beyond anything I could do for it and, yes, it was called 'Floating Weeds'.* I did say, "This is what you're calling your film? Seriously?" But I neglected to add "Are you also going to be wearing a jacket with 'KICK ME' embroidered on the back?"

* Nothing accidental about the reference, but the script did feature 'symbolic' floating weeds in it, which reeked of being reverse-engineered from the stolen title.

[mizo]

Shameless!

Now, I'd like to pitch my screenplay entitled The Rules of the Game (it is about Scrabble)

[yoloswegmaster]

Edward Yang retrospective happening at the Lincoln Center in NYC from December 22 to January 2. They haven't put out the list of films that are screening but they have hinted that A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong will be a part of it.

[hearthesilence]

Edward Yang retrospective happening at the Lincoln Center in NYC from December 22 to January 2. They haven't put out the list of films that are screening but they have hinted that A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong will be a part of it.

I hope so. I missed the sold-out screenings of A Confucian Confusion at last year's NYFF and tried to go to Metrograph's screenings of the same restoration in January, but as mentioned upthread, it had to be cancelled at the last minute due to a rights issue.

[ryannichols7]

details announced, including confirmation that A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong are both held by Janus

[cowboydan]

details announced, including confirmation that A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong are both held by Janus

That means they have the rights to 5 out of Yang's 7 features. Praying for a boxed set in the future.

[hearthesilence]

A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong would make sense as a double-feature package.

Truth be told, I'm kind of tired of comprehensive box sets because it usually means double-dipping and spending more money for little to no gain. If it was an upgrade across the board, great, but that just hasn't been the case.

[Matt]

On the other hand, I would be happy to not to have to buy the nine-disc Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2 just to get a Blu-ray of Taipei Story.

[yoloswegmaster]

Edward Yang retrospective happening at the Lincoln Center in NYC from December 22 to January 2. They haven't put out the list of films that are screening but they have hinted that A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong will be a part of it.

American Cinematheque will also be holding a Yang retrospective next month.

[AxeYou]

If anyone’s interested in the piano scores in Yi Yi, I managed to catch a word with Kaili Peng (composer and Yang’s widow) today at Lincoln Center’s Edward Yang retrospective. She said they were hoping to release the scores this year or next.

[ryannichols7]

If anyone’s interested in the piano scores in Yi Yi, I managed to catch a word with Kaili Peng (composer and Yang’s widow) today at Lincoln Center’s Edward Yang retrospective. She said they were hoping to release the scores this year or next.

my Criterion BD menu can only be looped so many times....terrific news!