I’ll be posting a review, but in short: perfect AV in lossless English and lossless Japanese, region A AND region B compatible (my player is still region B locked so I should know…), so-so extras on the disc as there is no real “making-of”, but to be honest there is a 15-minute selection of pre-visualizations, and the booklet covers most of the making-of adequately.
Already for sale for under 20 USD, this disc comes very much recommended.
Time for some more anime: the Japanese Special Edition BluRay of “Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade”.
Honneamise is fast becoming my favorite distributor in Japan, as this release is again English-friendly and regionfree. It’s also, unfortunately, excruciatingly expensive…
Anyway, you get the BluRay (packaged oddly enough in a DVD Amaray), the DVD and a 20-page booklet. The big draw here is the video-quality of the film itself on the BluRay, which is awesome and a BIG whopping improvement on all other releases of this title.
Anyway, here is what it looks like: a big sturdy box holding two Amarays and the booklet.
Contents out of the box. Oddly enough, the BluRay is packaged in a DVD Amaray.
All contents opened. What the hell is that for a tagline? “It’s so romantic”. Really??:
Speaking of blending fascism and fantasy: here is the UK Special Edition BluRay of “Inglourious Basterds”.
What’s so special about it, you ask? A slipcase and some cards.
Here is what it looks like: The cardboard slipcase is printed with metallic paint and nicely embossed.
Taking all contents out: the BluRay, a set of postcards promoting “Inglourious Basterds” (together with the fake posters used in the film) and a set of postcards promoting the movie-within-the-movie “Stolz der Nation” (including a Strudel-recipe).
Did I mention the slipcase was metallic and embossed? Because this picture sure shows it.
went crazy at the recent Amazon UK sale. this is one box set that’s worth having not just for the handsome presentation and packaging but also for these brilliant, genius short films. the classic The High Sign still made me laugh like crazy. i dare you to watch that without laughing.
Buster Keaton Complete Short Films from Masters Of Cinema. 32 shorts, 700 minutes, 4 discs, a 180-page book.
Just received the German Limited Edition BluRay of “Goemon”.
Why the German edition, you may ask?
Well, to my utter astonishment, it not only features German but also Dutch subtitles! Sorry, no English ones, but I’m Dutch anyway so… heh.
Also, this edition is a few months ahead of the UK version, and is relatively cheap for a new disc.
And I seriously like the way the black embossed steelbook looks!
Funnily enough the first steelbook edition I bought on DVD years ago happened to be “Casshern”, the previous film by director Kaz Kiriya. And “Goemon” happens to be my first steelbook BluRay. Talk about coincidence…
So here it is!
Shame about that huge unsightly age-rating. Yuck, it’s almost as big as the Australian ones. Like Australia, Germany often has reversible covers on their Amarays, with the reversed side not showing any rating sign. But that doesn’t work on a steelbook, of course…
But what’s this?
Fiddling with the rating sign makes it come off! Good old Deutsche Gründlichkeit: it’s an easily removable piece of clingy plastic. It’s a bit sticky but doesn’t leave any residue on the box when removed.
A splendid job by the Splendid team… can we make this an industry standard please?
So here is the steelbook without the unsightly sticker. And it oozes cool:
The book opened. While the disc has a pretty decent set of extras, the “Limited” part of this edition is just the fact that it’s a steelbook, and you get 5 postcards (1 of which shows what is quite possibly the ugliest screenshot of Goemon wearing his mask…).
All in all not the greatest edition, but for the price I’m not complaining too loudly.
And here is the Optimum “Ponyo” Special Edition BluRay.
It’s region-locked for “B” and that’s pretty unique: both the Japanese and the US versions are regionfree. Thankfully it’s set apart by something else as well: it’s English-friendly on the mostly Japanese extras (unlike the Japanese edition), and it has the original Japanese 6.1 HD DTS soundtrack (unlike the US edition)!
W00T!!!
Anyway, here’s what it looks like: a nice but unassuming cardboard slipcover.
Inside is a very nicely decorated disc-holder:
All contents in view: 5 postcards, a sheet of rub-off stickers,the BluRay and the DVD.
Yesterday I more or less stumbled over a special edition BluRay which cost exactly the same as the regular edition Bluray: the 15th Anniversary Edition of “Reservoir Dogs”. Fittingly, it cost 15 Eur.
Now to be honest “Reservoir Dogs” wasn’t exactly at the top of my list for renewal, upgrading or double-dipping, buuuuuuuuuut… the price was good and I needed some shot-glasses. And these were cool.
So… here it is: a huge red box with a translucent slipcover.
Behind the plastic are… the regular BluRay plus six shot-glasses.
Opening the box… reveals the exact same. Only now it’s out of the box. No hidden bottle of booze.
A closer look at the shot-glasses,which are quite cool. Now all I need to do is get drunk with friends while listening to the George Baker Selection playing “Little Green Bag” ad infinitum:
And talk bullshit of course! “Why do I get the Mr. Pink glass?”
“Because you’re a faggot, that’s why!”
Before Ard gets an opportunity to post his “naughty” editions, take a gaze at this 20 dvd set from Suevia Films 20 grandes clásicos del Cine Fantástico y Ciencia Ficción (And no, it’s not a bootleg set!) I mainly invested in this set to get the t-shirt (yeah right!) but as you’ll see this Region 2 standard dvd set has quite a range of fantasy/adventure films. The titles range as follows:
A very soft cardboard packaged box, which regrefully wasn’t shipped in a corrugated cardboard box from Spain but in a padded envelope so it got some damage.
Four nice Amaray flipper cases for each of the five films contained within with a nicely formated 36 page booklet
The Golden Blade (1953), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944),The Day the Earth Stood Still(1951)Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea(1961)
One Million Years B.C. (1966),Land that Time Forgot (1975),Clash of the Titans (1981),Arabian Nights (1942),Fantastic Voyage (1966)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958),Mysterious Island(1956), The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger(1977)
Hercules in the Center of the Earth(1961),My Son The Hero(1962),Sigfrido(1957),Atlas Against the Cyclops(1961),The Loves of Hercules(1960)
And of course that t-shirt!
Ard, feel free to format these photos accordingly, if need be!
EDIT: Ard here. No need for reformatting, these are great! I’ve just realigned them a bit. Great set!
