Kino Lorber

Either the 2015 Kino Lorber Blu-ray or the Arrow Blu-ray

The 2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray is botched.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray see caps-a-holic, has good new master but as usual poorly encoded with macro blocking and chroma noise which is just as horrible. See also cap 4. Their Blu-ray looks much better in the above shot and is more consistently grainy.

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray's HDR10 encode and audio tracks are poor, film looks fine in Dolby Vision

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor encoding see caps but still a huge improvement over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray

Both the 2.0 and 5.1 tracks are improvements over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray

Theatrical cut is on the 4K disc, but the restored Director's Cut is only on the Blu-Ray disc. Director's Cut utilizes the same 4K transfer as the theatrical cut for 86 minutes, but the 6 minutes of restored footage could only be salvaged from a standard definition source and are thus needed to be upscaled. 

Bonus features are better encoded on the Australia Imprint Blu-ray found on After Dark: Neo Noir Cinema Collection Two

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has terrible encoding, but presumable still better than Paramount Presents Blu-ray from Chinatown 4K.

It was an old Blu-ray, and not the latest restoration. Unfortunately, there's no caps comparison yet.

Documentary, included in Kino Lorber Nostalghia Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is encoded in a wrong color space see post "A BT2020->P3 matrix corrects the issue (ignore tonemapping related errors)"

US Cut with Chaz Jankel Score: Lionsgate DVD

(Caveat: "Hero" segment is stretched from 4:3 to 16:9, 1999 Fox Lorber DVD features original framing)

Kino Lorber and 101 Films are bit idential. For extras, 101 Films Adds a new extra (~25 min) with Abel Ferrara

1993 Live Home Video LaserDisc

1993 Live Home Video LaserDisc is not only better, but also has the correct music see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUmm8J7EDNM 

Kino Lorber vs France Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray caps

Closest to original: 1993 MCA Laserdisc or other laserdiscs probably

DVD is about the same also. Blu-rays only have upmixes (and the 2.0 track from Kino Lorber is a downmix)

MGM letterbox LaserDisc

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor encode: Dolby Vision caps

DVD or LaserDisc for original mix

Thanks to the magic of Dolby Stereo encoding the 2.0 mix actually has much better surround activity compared to the 5.1 mix, which feels flat and lifeless. The surround mix is also missing elements (eg @ 0:04:58 the zapping sound doesn't extend to the surrounds on the 5.1 track, same with the flickering sound @ 0:21:46, etc)

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is disappointing

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has a replaced soundtrack, see details here

Australia Umbrella Blu-ray and Germany NSM Blu-ray have the original soundtrack intact, don't know which sounds better

2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray

2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.

Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible.

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.