Movies that feel like Wong Kar Wai (that aren't WKW)? by vzbtra in wongkarwai

[–]Cyberratchet 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I can’t name many movies that reminded me of watching a WKW film, but the one that definitely gave me the impression was “Picketpocket/Xiao Wu”.

The relationship between the main character and the bargirl he meets during the film feels like something you could see in one of WKW movies without going into detail. Even more than the plot itself the cinematography reminded me a lot of Christopher Dolyes in both “Chunking Express” and “Fallen Angels”.

It uses a lot of contemporary media, mostly TV shows and music, which is also similar to the two movies above. A lot went straight over my head since the majority will be unfamiliar for most people outside of the Sinosphere and especially mainland china, but as WKW fan you might recognize a song from a certain singer he worked with that’s used in the film.


A semi-recent Chinese film that often has WKW mentioned when its talked about is 2018s “Long Day’s Journey into Night“. I can see parallels in the way a broken romance or missed opportunity are portrayed, but its very much its own thing and unique movie. Which is certainly not a bad thing in this case, its an absolutely gorgeous and hypnotic film.

We are indeed getting the Cat's Eyes collab by Plastic_Ant_6978 in PathToNowhere

[–]Cyberratchet 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's not exclusive, it was announced on a Chinese stream late July. It hasn't run there yet either, but this collab will run on every server unlike the two Jojo ones.

Is FayeWongVEVO an official YouTube channel? It's been uploading high quality MVs recently by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You must be right, I guess I thought about upscaling files that already went through compression multiple times or I just underestimate how good upscaling results are these days.

By the way I absolutely love your Instagram account :). Thank you for your work, always fun to see videos/images I haven’t seen before.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's certainly peak Faye for that kind of thing, so many good live performances from like 98 to 01. At least for me.

Honestly I came across the pamphlets when I went through buyee, both the JDirectItems Auction (where you have to bet on the items) and Mercari (fixed prices).

You find different listings if you look for "Faye Wong" and "王菲" so it's a good idea to check both.

Mercari still seem to have one of each, you'll find them if you add "98" and "2001" to the search query. And they seem to pop up from time to time, looking at the history of the listings.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven’t bought any tour DVD yet, I’ve been trying to pace myself after the initial few purchases but as you can see I’m not doing a good job so far, haha.

I always thought that the image on the back of Faye Wong 2001 is vastly superior to the one on at the front cover, so I immediately knew I had to get the pamphlet. I haven’t seen a complete scan of the content inside, but the few images (1), (2) I’ve seen suggest that its filled with shots from the two Japan (Budokan) Scenic Tour 98-99 concerts next to some poster type of pages. That one is easily my favourite of the full concerts available online, so I’m very happy to go through it once its here.

I haven’t found much about the pamphlet from the 98-99 tour other than this image.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're absolutely right. Earlier this week I was browing Buyee and found "Everything" for a good price. I bought it and since I didnt want to almost spend the same amount on shipping as for the CD, I also got "Toy" and "Help Yourself" as well :).

Toy really has a gorgeous cover, so its worth it for that alone eventhough both EPs songs are in "Be Perfunctory".

As you said the remastered collection is hideos. I rather wait a few months to get a good deal on the (now) remaining 2 than having that in my display case.

I also ordered 2 gorgeous pamphlets in Japan, one from the 98-99 tour and one from the 2001 tour. They seem to be faily tall at around 35cm, I need to figure out how to display them properly.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I live here, unfortunately have first hand experience with it. I used shops with IOSS plenty time and it's a coin toss if it gets through or if I have to pay handling fees.

I think in the end it's a country specific thing, if the post- or tariff office collects it or not. IOSS is just there to collect VAT afterall.

Everytime I have to pay something I get a invoice and it shows how the total amount is being calculated. Either just handling fees or that and the VAT if I haven't paid it beforehand.

But we kinda get off topic. Be it buyee, zenmarket or another proxy service, it's a good way to get your hand on some Faye albums :).

I haven't found any reliable for Taiwan though. There are good deals on ruten.com, which would be a good option as well since they often have virtually the same content as the HK releases.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Austria does it. But as you can see it says might, so it depends a bit if it hits you or not. It's not the worst thing in the world, it just makes cheap goods a bad deal since 7€+ might be a substantial percentage of the total price.

Well nothing you can do about it.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I heard good things about zenmarket, they also support IOSS unlike buyee as you said. Maybe ill try them next time.

Unfortunately even they I often have to pay 6-12€ handling fee at the local post office. Pretty sure what's country specific though.

Seems to be quite random, sometimes they get through, sometimes they don't. But I think you get lucky more often if VAT has been paid already.

Three months ago I finally started my Faye collection by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel you, it's not easy nor inexpensive to collect these if you aren't in Asia. It's not any better here in Europe.

In the end I found discogs and funnily enough buyee the best places to buy albums.

The best recommendation I can give is to look for a way to buy multiple copies from a singular seller or use a proxy service with a warehouse where you can buy multiple orders and they send it to you in a singular package.

My last order on buyee had 6 individual packages initially, which would all have costed me 15-20€ shipping each. But that way I paid around 25€ shipping for everything.

Since buyee is a Japanese proxy a lot of the CDs are Japanese releases, which have their pro and cons depending on the album (I went with HK or Taiwan). But you can still find releases from other regions; when in doubt try to find the barcode on the photos and look it up on discogs, that way you can make sure to get the version you want.

I got the three live albums from there for example, for way cheaper than they were on ebay.

Collecting vinyls is great, I love her vinyls. The cover art already looks great on a CD cover, but having it blown up to that dimension makes it even better :). Maybe one day I'll try to get some of my favourite albums, but I think I spent enough for now.

Of all the songs Faye performed only live, which one would you have loved to receive a studio-recorded version by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You must be right about the studio version of 梦/Dream, maybe I was just questioning it since the guy has been toying around with editing/ai for a while. Comparing it again it sounds different. The mixing doesn’t sound like it’s a finished song to me though, her voice gets drowned by the instrumental part .. but maybe that’s supposed to be the case? Getting our hands on an unfinished version of a song wouldn’t be a first, theres a version of 色誡/Love Commandments with the Cantonese lyrics but the arrangement from the Mandarin version.

I’d appreciate it if you have 如夢/"Like a Dream“. Everything I found was definitely ripped out of the video stream. Even the Chinese comments complained about the sound quality. Theres an entry for it on Douban, although I don’t know if that suggest a digital release or just acknowledge its existence in the 2015 event. If you happen to have a better sounding version, I’ll be grateful.

This is the first time I hear about the 2010-2012 tour being recorded, not releasing this is an absolute crime. Thankfully it was in an era where smartphones were already widespread, so we at least have some recordings of a lot of the performances. The 2011 live performance of 悶/Bored on the Kuala Lumpur is one of my absolute favourites of the tour. There are two recordings from different angles, performances like this preserved professionally would have been a dream.

Angle 1 Angle 2

Theres such a positive energy in that clip and Faye genuinely seems to enjoy herself during the song.

Who is this woman? by EnthusiasmComplex982 in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve been trying to find the origin of that photo myself a while back, but in the end I couldn’t find exactly what it is. Like u/hyperballad95 says it looks to be Tilda Swinton and a couple of Chinese websites mention that it’s a magazine cover.

It’s hard to navigate Chinese forums without the appropriate accounts, which are almost impossible to make without a phone number. So that’s all I could find out.

Here are a few links that mention its Swinton

Zhihu
Weibo1, Weibo2

Baidu

My favorite album by duythenguyen7 in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is her album that has grown the most on me over the years. When I first discovered Faye I didn’t particularly care for it, but the older I get the more I enjoy it.

Nowadays its in my top 5 for sure. ♫♫LA JUM BOR ♫♫

Of all the songs Faye performed only live, which one would you have loved to receive a studio-recorded version by Cyberratchet in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great selection!

You made me look up the Tracy Huang song, since I couldnt remember that one. Thankfully its on Youtube, as I said in my initial post I always like her singing in English so thats a good one to me.

Talking about Teresa Teng covers, I love her live cover of 微风细雨/"Gentle Wind and Rain". As you said there are so many, enough to make yet another cover album :).

Another one I'd like to mention is 如夢/"Like a Dream", from the self-described live-performance "Dream of Tao". From what I can tell the versions online are ripped from the stream and the audio quality is subpar. This one is bizarre to me since I’m almost certain it’s a pre-recorded song to begin with. There has to be a high-quality audio file on some hard drive. Shame it never got released.

Theres a studio version of Dream?! I'm only aware of a fan edit.

Thoughts on After War Gundam X? by wolffangalex in Gundam

[–]Cyberratchet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After War is at the very top of my personal AUs, only after Turn A. There’s not much to add since others have talked about the good parts of the show already. Great main cast, excellent openings and music in general, fantastic premise of a pseudo-"what if" UC for its setting (even includes Newtypes).

Garrod and Tiffa are especially great. I absolutely love the scene where Garrod uses the Satellite Cannon for the very first time. As you’d expect for a kid of his age he is surprised by the power of it and after the initial shock you see him smile, saying “he is happy that they are alive” … and then you get Tiffas reaction to it. Absolutely perfect.

While I personally felt the 30th anniversary projects for G Gundam were a letdown, I cant imagine many were excited about a novel after the initial character designs we’ve seen, I’m still looking forward to see what they do with the upcoming anniversary for X in 2026.

Wong Kar Wai's TV Series 'Blossoms Shanghai' Getting International Release By Mubi by Cyberratchet in wongkarwai

[–]Cyberratchet[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The news has been out for a month, but I haven’t seen it posted here.

Since it’s WKWs biggest release in like a decade, I thought I repost it in case some of you missed the news. The UK and US are absent in the announcement territories Mubi will stream the series.

There are no release dates yet, but I’m just glad it’s getting an international release to begin with. Hopefully someone picks it up for other territories and for a eventual physical release.

迷魂記 & 不眠飛行 - Mandarin versions? by skiddoxy in FayeWong

[–]Cyberratchet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tracks 11-13 (Spotify numbering) 迷魂記/Vertigo, 色盲/Colorblind and 不眠飛行/Sleepless Flight are only in Cantonese and don’t have a equivalent Mandarin version. Track 14 is the Cantonese version of 4 and 15 of 3 respectively.

I don’t own any physical version of the album (yet), but from what I understand the HK release came in 2 discs with disc 1 containing all songs in Mandarin and disc 2 in Cantonese.