1905 Film Network News The 14th Beijing International Film Festival kicked off on April 18, and the Beijing screening activities that attracted much attention from movie fans also started. Among them, the 4K restored versions of Hong Kong films "Plan A" and "The Pledge of Allegiance" jointly produced by the China Film Archive, Douyin and Volcano Engine were selected for the tribute restoration unit and had their world premieres on April 18 and 19 respectively.
"Plan A" (1983) and "The Pledge of Allegiance" (1978) are both more than 40 years old. After a long period of influence, the picture quality is not perfect. Nowadays, the classic Hong Kong film restoration project jointly launched by the China Film Archive, Douyin, and Volcano Engine is restoring the original filming negatives of the two films. After completing the 4K specification scanning in Hong Kong, it has been digitally restored by the China Film Archive. Volcano Engine AIGC visual large model technical restoration, as well as art restoration and other aspects of cooperation between the two parties, finally achieved 4K effects in terms of clarity, fluency, color, etc., bringing a different visual experience to movie fans.
It is understood that the Volcano Engine Multimedia Laboratory has further optimized the large visual model by introducing adaptive feature weighting modules, a combination of unsupervised learning and supervised learning, and text semantic priors to reconstruct extremely low-quality portraits. It has achieved good results in several aspects such as color adjustment of faded film and generation of missing text strokes. At the same time, in order to maintain the texture of the film, an adaptive texture enhancement scheme was specially developed to add grains that simulate film noise.
During the pre-screening event of "Plan A", senior film producer Sun Rong, who once served as Vice President of Jackie Chan China, shared with fans on the spot that Jackie Chan's famous bell tower jumping scene contributed by Jackie Chan in "Plan A" was filmed for seven days, with a total height of 15 meters or more. Jumped off the bell tower twice. As a creator, Jackie Chan also participated in the restoration work of the film. He previously thought that the light in the tunnel in "Eagle Project" was not bright enough. The Classic Hong Kong Film Restoration Project team made adjustments based on their opinions to make up for his regrets in the creation. Sun Rong said that if the creator participates in the restoration work, it will be immortal. It is not only a technical preservation, but also an artistic creation.
The digitization and restoration of another film "The Pledge of Allegiance" directed by Xu Guanwen will be completed in 2024. The original filming negatives were scanned in 4K format in Hong Kong using an ARRISCAN scanner, and the sound restoration was derived from the preserved 35mm mixed sound of the film.
Xu Guanwen is good at understanding social psychology. He uses the form of comedy to criticize society and reflect on human nature, giving Hong Kong comedy a new look. According to Su Tao, associate professor of the School of Liberal Arts of Renmin University of China, guest at the pre-screening tour, Hui Guanwen and Bruce Lee were both the two superstars of the Hong Kong film industry in the 1970s. They influenced the appearance of Hong Kong films in the following decades with their respective creations.
In addition to the restoration work of the two films shown this time, the restoration work of other classic films is proceeding in an orderly manner. In January this year, the Volcano Engine Multimedia Laboratory screened and recruited more than 50 professional movie fans, inviting them to conduct online evaluations of the 4K restored version of "Happy Ghost" with different technical solutions, and explore more acceptable restored image quality standards based on fan feedback.
It is reported that in addition to screenings at the Beijing International Film Festival, audiences can currently watch movies that have been restored by the Classic Hong Kong Film Restoration Project online, and 4K restored versions of other movies will also be launched online one after another.
