Japanese DVDs - Anything worthwhile
Posted: 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?
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?