criterionforum.org

Posted: **Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:47 pm**

Glowingwabbit wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:19 pm
swo17 wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:16 pm
1. The Criterion collector expects every release to be in the superior format
2. The Criterion collector does not want dual format releases
If #2 is truly part of their hesitation I'm quite satisfied to see all that unnecessary whining from collectors come back to bite them.

The dual format whining was literally the worst thing in the history of this forum from a "you're sending the wrong message to this company, you dopes" perspective

tenia wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 8:24 am
ford wrote:
RitrovataBlue wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:44 pmAt this point, I’m surprised that no filmmakers have tried to persuade CC to go UHD. Guillermo Del Toro was apparently instrumental in getting the Hellboy films and Pan’s Labyrinth upgraded by major studios; surely he’s spoken with Criterion about it as well.
Maybe I've got their market all wrong, but you'd think the kind of person who buys Criterion discs is also someone who prioritizes having a relatively top-of-the-line television, etc. I'd also imagine the cost of manufacturing UHD discs has come down in the past three years.
I've read last year that UHD still costs at least 3 times the cost of a BD to manufacture, with very high glassmaster fixed costs. Since the market for UHD is at best 20% of the BD market, itself at best 30% of the physical market (going up solely because the DVD is dropping so much), these higher costs will need to be recouped on a much smaller market. In France, UHDs are 1.2% of the overall market.

Look also at how pretty much no indie label have institutionalised UHD releases. Some are only going to released their first one in 2020, while others have only released a handful, and most, including some big indie labels like Arrow or Criterion, have released none.

I understand some people are eager to see these movies on the best possible format, but I think it's clear the market sales potential is what it is for this : extremely low, and thus very delicate financially to go into.

As for SK physical market : it heavily dropped and many households dont even have a DVD player anymore. BD never caught up since most consumers basically dropped the physical market altogether. I guess UHD is not going to. This explains why the KFA chose to upload so many of their movies on YouTube rather than focusing on BD releases (source : the KFA itself).

It's a shame Criterion doesn't have a premium streaming service they put entire releases onto that they couldn't leverage for getting UHD versions of films out there if disc manufacturing costs + format saturation are truly the source of their hesitation - oh well

Posted: **Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:49 pm**

It was literally the useless coaster of our forum's history

Posted: **Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:58 pm**

Having flashbacks to someone (I believe the member is now banned so I'll speak freely) selling their DVD/Blu collection in Trades & Bargains with covers that they cut with scissors and put into new slimline cases, throwing away the DVDs in the event of dual format releases and creating a blank "disc two" case when there was a need for it

Posted: **Sat Feb 15, 2020 12:00 am**

swo17 wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:16 pm1. The Criterion collector expects every release to be in the superior format
2. The Criterion collector does not want dual format releases

3. Libraries and Universities didn't want to pay the extra cost for the "pointless" BD discs when their clientele was dominated by DVD users.

Posted: **Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:33 am**

All the libraries I use offer blu-rays and in fact usually carry both formats. From what I remember, dual-format pricing was the same as the blu-ray release, just with an additional DVD disc, therefore would save libraries money...

Posted: **Sat Feb 15, 2020 3:08 am**

jwd5275 wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:33 am All the libraries I use offer blu-rays and in fact usually carry both formats. From what I remember, dual-format pricing was the same as the blu-ray release, just with an additional DVD disc, therefore would save libraries money...

Yes the dual-format cost the same as the blu-ray, but the DVD only release was cheaper which is what a lot of libraries were getting. So no they weren't saving money.

The price point actually isn't the obstacle at my library as we are well funded, but rather there is almost no demand for Blu-Rays in this particular community and so we only purchase them if a) it's dual format or b) there is absolutely no dvd release. So the dual format Criterions were great.

Posted: **Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:44 am**

Bit of a blessing and a curse with this joint release. The Memories disc can't come soon enough IMO, the Korean BD I have is pretty hard to watch with the frame shake on almost every cut, and I'd love to see some of those extras with English subs. The colors should be an interesting debate between the flatter tones of the French disc and the old Korean transfer. I wonder if the juiced up blown-out look was just what Bong was into at the time since The Host looks very similar and that was finished digitally.

On the other hand, I have next to no interest in their Parasite if it's just going to be another standard BR disc. The 4K HDR master on digital platforms looks way better, especially on the interior shots (ie 2/3 of the film) and cramming all the features they will put on the disc will probably result in worse PQ than the existing BR. I'll just vote with my money on that one.

Posted: **Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:55 pm**

Latest cash grab idea for Parasite: Bong’s storyboards will he turned into graphic novel

Posted: **Fri Feb 28, 2020 3:46 am**

I first saw Parasite on the weekend of its release and thought it was very good rather than incredible, but holy cow did the second viewing blow me away. Every tiny detail I took to be incidental on the first viewing (the use of "sis," the things we learn about the Parks from their conversations, even the way consumer products are framed and discussed) just clicked and I fully got the cult behind the film.

Spoilers for this and also Ad Astra I suppose

In particular, I used to be among the people who thought the violence at film's end was awkward and unfitting of what had come before, but of course upon revisiting I think it's great in its sudden and terrible disorientation. Even if they're doing very different things, I strangely thought of the ape scene from Ad Astra (another film that I am now going to rewatch soon in the hopes that I "get" something I didn't before) if only because both sequences take their tense buildups and turn them into violence savage enough to be bewildering and genuinely frightening.

I don't see too much in the way of praise for the actors here or elsewhere, but I thought Song Kang-Ho and especially Cho Yeo-jeong (the first half of the film depends a lot on her hitting fairly specific marks and she nails them every single time) were fantastic, as good as explicitly comic performances can get. I apologize for this being so jumbled and messy, but I love this movie a lot now and I'm just glad to see what I didn't earlier (and confused as to how I missed it before).

Posted: **Fri Feb 28, 2020 4:41 am**

Everything clicking into place on a second viewing is sometimes even better than falling head over heels the first time; there’s something about being familiar enough with the mechanics of the story to both better appreciate the overall structure and soak in the finer details.

Some of my favorite viewing experiences have been of that variety, including seeing The Shining for the second or third time after being sent home early from high school during a whiteout blizzard and for the first time really feeling the isolation of the family in that hotel.

I’m actually aiming to see Parasite again tomorrow for the second time, so I hope I’m able to appreciate it even more as well (and I already liked it a hell of a lot!)...

Posted: **Fri Feb 28, 2020 6:08 pm**

Never Cursed wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 3:46 amI don't see too much in the way of praise for the actors here or elsewhere, but I thought Song Kang-Ho and especially Cho Yeo-jeong (the first half of the film depends a lot on her hitting fairly specific marks and she nails them every single time) were fantastic, as good as explicitly comic performances can get.

Bong revealed in a recent interview that when he first met Tarantino on this year’s awards circuit, the only thing Tarantino wanted to talk about was how much he enjoyed Cho Yeo-jeong’s perf in the film

Posted: **Fri Feb 28, 2020 6:12 pm**

Song Kang-Ho has been so good for so long, including often having a few hysterical mannerisms even in his more serious roles, that I suppose he didn't stand out here as much; but I agree that Cho Yeo-jeong stole every scene she was in and was the highlight performance for me, and the best part of the film next to the entire structure of the first half which was expertly executed.

I feel sorry for anyone who watched the trailer first, since it ruins not only some of the film's best jokes but the rollout of the first half's genius plan. I get that it's gotta show something and people want to give the trailer props for not showing the back half's material, but for me it still reveals all the best material.

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:00 am**

DarkImbecile wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 4:41 am Everything clicking into place on a second viewing is sometimes even better than falling head over heels the first time; there’s something about being familiar enough with the mechanics of the story to both better appreciate the overall structure and soak in the finer details.

Some of my favorite viewing experiences have been of that variety, including seeing The Shining for the second or third time after being sent home early from high school during a whiteout blizzard and for the first time really feeling the isolation of the family in that hotel.

I’m actually aiming to see Parasite again tomorrow for the second time, so I hope I’m able to appreciate it even more as well (and I already liked it a hell of a lot!)...

Yeah, I saw it for the second time last night and I think that familiarity from the first viewing allows you to pick things up you didn't notice as much the first time around. I rarely ever see a film twice at the cinema, but this just made me like the film even more. And things I noticed much more this time were

Spoiler

the Kims walking down/the Parks walking up, particularly the horrible descent from escaping from the Park's house when they return early to their shit-filled basement, the fact Mr Kim only wants to save his wife's hammer throwing medal, the Kims' 'rise' articulated by the way they deal with the guy peeing in the street second time around, Moon-gwang and her husband looking down on the Kims as plebs, not appreciating the Namgoong house once they'd turned the tables on them, the superb switches in tone - you laugh as Chung-sook kicks Moon-gwang down the stairs, until she thumps her head, I saw someone on Twitter sharing the clip of the family circling the pizza girl like vultures

. You can't stop thinking about small details days later, which is a great sign.

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:27 am**

Universal is releasing Parasite on UHD in June, making this licensing agreement seem mostly a waste of resources

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:05 pm**

Ribs wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:27 am Universal is releasing Parasite on UHD in June, making this licensing agreement seem mostly a waste of resources

Where'd you see this?

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:25 pm**

A retailer in Quebec has a barebones listing for a 4K+Blu edition. The UPC looks authentic and (as far as Google can tell me) isn't already being used by anything else.

Posted: **Thu Mar 12, 2020 11:55 pm**

Confirmation of stateside release

Posted: **Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:20 am**

Welp, the 4K renders a potential Criterion moot for me. This will be their first-ever release of a film already available on 4K. Seems counterintuitive to the “highest technical quality” clause of their “Mission.”

Posted: **Thu Apr 09, 2020 5:56 am**

Parasite, The Host, Mother, and Barking Dogs Never Bite are now streaming on Hulu - between this and the upcoming Memories Of Murder Criterion, all of Bong's features will have easily accessible English-friendly distribution (at least in the US) by the end of this year

Posted: **Fri Apr 10, 2020 6:32 am**

RitrovataBlue wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:20 am Welp, the 4K renders a potential Criterion moot for me. This will be their first-ever release of a film already available on 4K. Seems counterintuitive to the “highest technical quality” clause of their “Mission.”

Yeah, total waste of a release from a technical standpoint if they don't put it out in 4K. Oh well.

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2020 3:12 pm**

It seems to me that Bong Joon Ho has put much thought and effort into producing a B&W version of Parasite.
Seems like the ideal supplement to a Criterion release in my opinion.

I am getting the 4K version but would pop for a Criterion release of the movie if it includes the B&W version and lots of nice extra features.

Thoughts?

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:34 pm**

I never got the appeal of watching movies in black and white after they've been released in color.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:00 pm**

Luke M wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:34 pm I never got the appeal of watching movies in black and white after they've been released in color.

I'm a skeptic as well, but I thought the black and white Mother worked slightly better than the original colour version. It made it more of a grubby noir.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:23 pm**

Fury Road black and chrome to me, really feels like an entirely different film. It is actually my preferred version for the past couple years. I believe post release b+w can really enhance a film overall if it's the right movie.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:47 pm**

I prefer the B&W version of The Mist, and I understand that's how Darabont would have released it had he been able to (i.e. the B&W is the "director's intended cut"). In particular, I think the B&W hides some of the flawed CGI in the creatures, and it also makes the ending seem more haunting.

But, to play devil's advocate, you could argue that de-colorizing a film isn't really different than colorizing one, and most cinephiles were pretty firmly against that little Ted Turner experiment.

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1054 Parasite

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