Spirit Entertainment has announced The Criterion Collection UK releases for September 2025 as Alice Wu’s irresistible 2004 feature debut, Saving Face, Ichikawa Kon’s eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death, The Burmese Harp, and Nicolas Roeg's provocative rumination on time and civilization, Walkabout. Full details below.
SAVING FACE (USA 2004)
Blu-ray | 1 September 2025
A queer romantic comedy set in vibrant, multicultural New York City, Alice Wu’s irresistible feature debut breathed fresh life into the genre by combining snappy dialogue and a swooning love story with a poignant narrative about a mother and daughter coming to terms with each other.
Just as Wil (Michelle Krusiec), a harried young surgical resident, begins a promising romance with the flirtatious dancer Vivian (Lynn Chen), her life is turned upside down when her more traditional Chinese mother (Joan Chen)—unwed and unexpectedly pregnant—moves in with her, forcing both women to confront the generational and cultural barriers that have long troubled their relationship.
Both embracing and cleverly subverting rom-com conventions, Wu delivers a bighearted ode to the Chinese American diaspora, and the liberating joy of living one’s truth.
DIRECTOR APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- High-definition digital master, approved by director Alice Wu, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Wu
- New interviews with Wu and actor Joan Chen
- Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Wu
- Behind-the-scenes featurette
- Program featuring Wu and members of the cast at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Phoebe Chen
THE BURMESE HARP [BIRUMA NO TATEGOTO] (Japan 1956)
4K UHD + Blu-ray | 15 September 2025
An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment.
Magnificently shot in hushed black and white, Kon Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp is an eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death and remains one of Japanese cinema’s most overwhelming antiwar sentiments, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan’s wartime legacy.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Interviews with director Kon Ichikawa and actor Rentaro Mikuni
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns
You can read out review of the prevous Eureka Blku-ray edition here.
WALKABOUT (UK / Australia / USA 1971)
4K UHD + Blu-ray | 22 September 2025
A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to cope in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Along the way, they meet an Aboriginal youth on his walkabout, a rite of passage in which adolescent boys are initiated into manhood by journeying into the wilderness alone.
Walkabout is a thrilling adventure as well as a provocative rumination on time and civilization.
(Indigenous people are advised that this film includes images and recording of deceased persons.)
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital master, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film (in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1) presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film (in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1) and special features
- Audio commentary featuring director Nicolas Roeg and actor Jenny Agutter
- Interviews with Agutter and actor Luc Roeg
- Gulpilil—One Red Blood (2002), a documentary on the life and career of actor David Gulpilil
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Paul Ryan
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