The secret of The Crying Game became a punchline in the ‘90s with many spoofs but it was actually very sensitive about Fergus (Stephen Rea)’s realization. The Criterion Collection released a 4K UHD edition last month and in 2026 it holds up well as a drama of people from different lifestyles, and it is more pro-Dil (Jaye Davidson)’s lifestyle than Fergus’s terrorism.
This was always a good looking widescreen movie but this 4K brings exquisite detail. It opens with deep shadows under the pier. The kidnapping happens at sunset magic hour. The warehouse hideout is full of darkness and shadow. Back in the city, back alleys and London at night are shrouded in shadow and black sky. The lights out in Dil’s apartment is too.
Fergus’s dream of Jody (Forest Whitaker) playing cricket is a little hazier. Also Rhea’s hands don’t turn as purple as I remember in the finale.
Director Neil Jordan goes through his whole career with the Criterion interviewer. His conversation with the director of The Vanishing explains a lot I’ve never heard. His thoughts about the trans community in 1992 seem quite progressive and inclusive. Rea too is quite open with vivid memories.
2005 era bonus features were already a retrospective over a decade passed. The behind the scenes interviews run 50 minutes, and Jordan’s 2005 commentary is really old school, discussing his film influences and career ambitions, even some personal details about his father and the opening pier. It really takes us back to the early ‘90s getting a foreign indie movie made.
The alternate happy ending is rather absurd but worth seeing.
The bonus features really show how the twist really became the story from preproduction until after release and there is more to it. It’s about a terrorist bonding with the other side. Fergus then looks for the widow out of guilt and falls for her but then that gets unforeseeably complicated. It all comes to a head when the terrorists find him and he can’t keep his lives separate.