Films
/
Duckweed (1981)
Duckweed (1981) poster

Duckweed (1981)

浮萍

Drama, TV Movie • 2h 25m

Director: Edward Yang

Cast: Su-Yun Ko, Dai Ling Li, An-ni Shih, Gao Ming-Hong

TV Movie, only available in HD Streaming https://archive.org/details/duckweed_1981 or youtube

Video format

HD Streaming

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 11 days ago

Video notes:

The Streaming is likely the only surviving copy and was transferred from Kaili Peng's personal tapes according to https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c95808288528e1601892eb8b24c0113 

Overview

The tale of a country girl who comes to Taipei with dreams of entering the entertainment industry. A 2-part TV movie and part of groundbreaking series "Eleven Women," this is Edward Yang's directorial debut.

Release details

Length
145 mins
Type
Movie

More from Edward Yang

See more →

Director: Edward Yang

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps but the Carlotta release is not English friendly

Best Audio:

2011 Criterion Blu-ray

Additional Info:

A user writes: 'the 5.0 mix does not closely resemble the matrixed stereo track included on all prior releases (save for a 2003 French DVD which had 5.1). There is significant dialogue emphasis in the 5.0 mix while the older stereo mix has ambient sounds and dialogue mixed at nearly the same loudness. Additionally, the 5.0 mix has minor limiting in select loud sequences and a strange distorted quality on occasion (one notable example is the sound of a plane taking off which plays during a static shot of clouds in the sky). The stereo mix included on the FRA UHD/BD is a downmix of the 5.0 track.'

Director: Edward Yang

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion Blu-ray with 4K restoration. Japan Happinet Blu-ray is inferior, see caps. No review yet: Carlotta 2025 boxset.

Best Audio:

Happinet Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Criterion is a lossy transcode

Director: Edward Yang

Best English-Friendly & Video:

OOP France/Japan/Korea/Taiwan Blu-ray

Sources: filmlinc.org (opens in a new tab) · YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Directors: Jim Tao & Chang Yi & Edward Yang & Ko I-chen

Best English-Friendly:

OOP Taiwan and Korea Blu-ray

Best Video:

Director: Edward Yang

Best English-Friendly & Video:

OOP Taiwan and Korea Blu-ray

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Taiwan has 2017 2K restoration but Taiwan and Korea Blu-ray are OOP

Director: Edward Yang

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Criterion Blu-ray 4k restoration

Director: Edward Yang

Director: Edward Yang

Best English-Friendly:

Korea Nova Media Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2018 Carlotta France Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Korea Nova Media Blu-ray probably > Criterion

Best Audio:

?

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)

Director: Liliana Cavani

4K · Solid

Director: Iain Softley

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH

Best Audio:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Criterion DVD

Director: Bruce Robinson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion

Director: Olivier Assayas

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow UK Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Director: Steven Spielberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Paramount Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray Dec 15th

Video Notes:

US Paramount Blu-ray > International WB Blu-ray

Edit history

6 edits

Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 11 days ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.