Japanese DVDs - Anything worthwhile

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Xenu
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Japanese DVDs - Anything worthwhile

Postby Xenu » Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:15 pm

I recently discovered that I live near the two (two!) American locations of the Greatest Store in the World: Book-Off, a Japanese bookstore that also dabbles in CD and DVD sales. Book-off sells both new and used items, but it's their pricing philosophy that really sells the store: if things don't sell for around 3 months, they get put on ever-more-gradual levels of sudden-death clearance. Naturally, the store has been great for feeding my current Japanese music kick (although I was irritated, to say the least, when I realized that many of the high-ticket items I had spent hours searching for on sites like amazon Japan were actually available, often for $3 a disc, at a store four miles away from where I live).

Thing is, they also carry a crazy assortment of Region 2 DVDs, many full-price, but some decidedly less than full price; they usually hover around a $7 price point. Recently, a new stack went on sale, and amongst the rubble (lots and lots of copies of "Dianetics") I found one or two actual discs of interest:

1) ER Season 1. Fullscreen (as God intended), and not the sorta-matted version on the US DVDs. I will cave and get Seasons 2 and 3 from amazon.co.jp any day now, but I got 1 for cheap, at least.

2) Kill Bill Vol. 1. Longer edit than the domestic cut.

3) The MGM DVD of "Army of Darkness" (DVDBeaver praises the fuck out of the Hong Kong version of this, but seems unaware that the Japanese disc exists). Anchor Bay has released this one, what, twenty times already? And this bare-bones Japanese disc kicks the fuck out of it. A better transfer, in a better aspect ratio, with some brief scenes that are *still* MIA from North American releases.


Thing is, they have a lot more. Is there anything I should be looking for?
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Ess Ay Cee Dee
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Postby Ess Ay Cee Dee » Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:09 am

Does the AOD DVD have the "director's cut" that's on the Hong Kong disc? I've been wanting to get that, since the Anchor Bay edition looks absolutely hideous.

I know that Jap. version of Kill Bill is highly regarded. I've never seen any version of the film, though, so I don't know how it differs.

Do you remember any more of the titles? If they have the Japanese pressing of Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, I'd love to have it. The French DVD looks like shit.

Do they have any Superbits?

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Postby Xenu » Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:12 am

Ess Ay Cee Dee wrote:Does the AOD DVD have the "director's cut" that's on the Hong Kong disc? I've been wanting to get that, since the Anchor Bay edition looks absolutely hideous.


It does indeed. I'm not intimately familiar with the movie, but there is at least one extra scene (the quick "bodice-ripping" scene) that is, in fact, there.


I know that Jap. version of Kill Bill is highly regarded. I've never seen any version of the film, though, so I don't know how it differs.


A few extra scenes, and one bit at the end is in color instead of black and white.

Do you remember any more of the titles? If they have the Japanese pressing of Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, I'd love to have it. The French DVD looks like shit.


I don't think anything quite that refined. You had your recent usual suspects (Unbreakable, The Hulk, Dark Water), your not-so-recent usual suspects (Friends boxes, Tremors) and some obscuro stuff that I barely remember. I mean, it's a LOT of DVDs, and I'm bad with movie recall. I can make some sort of list next time I'm there, though.

Do they have any Superbits?


Superbits? Why Superbits? Besides, doesn't Best Buy sell all superbits for $9 now?

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Postby Ess Ay Cee Dee » Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:40 am

Xenu wrote:I mean, it's a LOT of DVDs, and I'm bad with movie recall. I can make some sort of list next time I'm there, though.


That would be cool.

Superbits? Why Superbits? Besides, doesn't Best Buy sell all superbits for $9 now?


Yeah, the US ones are super cheap. However, there are some that were only released in Japan and tend to be quite expensive. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the Superbit Taxi Driver. Most of the films that have gotten the treatment are pure shit, though.

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Postby Xenu » Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:55 pm

I also don't really like the philosophy. Would ALWAYS encoding at those sorts of bitrates and including a second disc for extras really shoot up costs?
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Postby Ess Ay Cee Dee » Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:25 pm

Xenu wrote:I also don't really like the philosophy. Would ALWAYS encoding at those sorts of bitrates and including a second disc for extras really shoot up costs?


No, not at all. Hell, from what I've seen, that's a pretty good description of a typical 2-disc Warner Bros. release. If they can do it (and sell the things for $20), then anyone can.

I copy DVD's on a regular basis (shhhh--don't tell anyone) and I'm constantly amazed by the double-layer DVD's that only have about 6GB of content (including bonus features).