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The Crying Game (1992)
The Crying Game (1992) poster
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The Crying Game (1992)

Crime, Drama, Thriller • 1h 52m

Overview

Irish Republican Army member Fergus forms an unexpected bond with Jody, a kidnapped British soldier in his custody, despite the warnings of fellow IRA members Jude and Maguire. Jody makes Fergus promise he'll visit his girlfriend, Dil, in London, and when Fergus flees to the city, he seeks her out. Hounded by his former IRA colleagues, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the enigmatic, and surprising, Dil.

Director: Neil Jordan

Best English-Friendly Release

Best Video Release

Criterion 4K Blu-ray (caps)

Criterion is a new restoration from the original camera negative, supervised and approved by director Neil Jordan, graded using a 35mm print from the Academy Film Archive as a color reference.

Best Audio Release

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Criterion is a new transfer from the magnetic track and sounds better than previous releases. The 5.1 track on the NTSC DVD is a poor quality upmix.

Format

UHD Blu-ray

UHD Tiers

Excellent
Criterion

Featured Lists

External Links

Criterion Forum

Review

Picture: 8, Audio: 8, Extras: 7

Length

112 mins

Type

Movie

Last Updated

a month ago

Contributors

Best English-Friendly Release
Best Video Release

Criterion 4K Blu-ray (caps)

Criterion is a new restoration from the original camera negative, supervised and approved by director Neil Jordan, graded using a 35mm print from the Academy Film Archive as a color reference.

Best Audio Release

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Criterion is a new transfer from the magnetic track and sounds better than previous releases. The 5.1 track on the NTSC DVD is a poor quality upmix.

Format
UHD Blu-ray
UHD Tiers
Excellent
Criterion
Featured Lists
Criterion Forum
Review

Picture: 8, Audio: 8, Extras: 7

Length
112 mins
Type
Movie
Last Updated
a month ago
Contributors

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Best Video:

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SF is in 1.66 aspect ratio. Whether this is the intended ratio or a compromise isn't clear.

American Film Institute's catalog and Variety's contemporary review list it as 1.66, but other sources disagree.
Exhibitor's contemporary review lists it as 1.85, IMDB and an internal pre-production note from Warner Bros. list it as 1.75.

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Best Video:

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SF is in 1.66 aspect ratio. Whether this is the intended ratio or a compromise isn't clear.

American Film Institute's catalog and Variety's contemporary review list it as 1.66, but other sources disagree.
Exhibitor's contemporary review lists it as 1.85, IMDB and an internal pre-production note from Warner Bros. list it as 1.75.

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Best Audio:

US/UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray has both the original Dolby Stereo 2.0 mix in its best quailty and the original Dolby Stereo 4-track discrete stems in 4.0.

Best English-Friendly:

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Additional Info:

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Although the provenance of Paramount's 5.1 track is not confirmed, the fidelity is outstanding and speaks for itself.
The 7.1 track on the Capelight/old Lionsgate release is just an upmix with nothing gained over the 5.1.
The original stereo mix is only present on older DVDs and LaserDiscs; all Blu-ray 2.0 tracks are downmixes.

Additional Info:

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Best English-Friendly:

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Best Audio:

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35mm matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1995 Live Home Video US LaserDisc

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The 7.1 track on the Capelight/old Lionsgate release is just an upmix with nothing gained over the 5.1.
The original stereo mix is only present on older DVDs and LaserDiscs; all Blu-ray 2.0 tracks are downmixes.

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Best Audio:

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Criterion is entirely unfiltered and sounds significantly more detailed than previous tracks, see Blah-ray.

Night Moves poster
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Best Video:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

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The original mono sounds good. The Atmos remix is a mixed bag, music performances are sourced from magnetic stereo recordings and sound great, but mono dialogue/effectshas undergone destructive noise reduction and unnecessary EQ, so the jumps in fidelity are incredibly jarring.

Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

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Best Audio:

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MoC ported the export dub from LaserDisc, but used a low quality transfer, with poor lossy encoding.

Additional Info:

MST3K version: Vol XXXIX DVD / episode 1013: series finale of the original show.

Best English-Friendly:

UK Masters of Cinema 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original Italian/English dubs: UK Masters of Cinema 4K Blu-ray
Export English dub: Paramount LaserDisc

MoC ported the export dub from LaserDisc, but used a low quality transfer, with poor lossy encoding.

Additional Info:

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The slight darkening of the colour palette with the new WCG/HDR grades suddenly seems to add another layer of detail and immersion into the picture. Now, those dark night times punctured solely by neon or those dreary overcast half-light early mornings or dusks feel more alive with authenticity. Skin tones are gorgeous, the subtlety in colour detail of Hoskins’ atrocious leather jacket/Hawaiian shirt combo is sublime and those all-important blacks go deep. But it’s the now huge variations in colours that stand out – the reds of the Peep Show as Genesis’ classic In Too Deep plays now have a much richer, darker saturation to them than the previous 1080p SDR grade, helping them stand out so much more than those more neutral, toned down colours of the Brighton seaside against the morning skies. It’s a gorgeous colour reproduction from top to bottom.

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The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.

Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration

Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:

With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.

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Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.

Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration

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The Crying Game (1992) backdrop