Info on import Blu-ray titles

[jjj]

Originally Posted by collectorgonewild

Any word yet on whether the UK, Australia, or other foreign blu-ray of The Unborn will be region-free? I want a copy that has the international cover art (much better than the US artwork don't u think?.....)

Confirm region free

[kannisto]

A couple of highly rated movies coming out as Nordic releases soon:

Boy A : 8-Jul in Sweden by Noble Entertainment:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078188/
http://english.megastore.se/template...itemid=2111607

Hunger : 5-Aug in Sweden by Atlantic Film
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986233/
http://english.megastore.se/template...itemid=2119666

I'll probably pick up both.

[ahsoka]

Watched Kadokawa's Daimajin Monster of Terror last night, enjoyed it quite a lot.
The picture is soft but thankfully not quite as soft as Kadokawa's Ran. No English subtitles. Region Free.

http://www.kadokawa-pictures.co.jp/d...s/daimajin.wmv

[ahsoka]

Originally Posted by kannisto

My package with these was shipped from Amazon JP this morning:

- The Crow
- K-20: Legend of the Mask (no English expected)

I hope to get them soon, probably Thursday or Friday. I'll post some info when I've received them.

Don't know if you've watched K-20 yet, thought it was very entertaining and fun. It was also very nice visually with impressive CGI. A DVD with English subtitles is released in HK, hopefully a BD will follow at some point.

Tokyo Sonata was great as well and it was nice to have the English subs on that one...

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by ahsoka

Don't know if you've watched K-20 yet, thought it was very entertaining and fun. It was also very nice visually with impressive CGI. A DVD with English subtitles is released in HK, hopefully a BD will follow at some point.

Tokyo Sonata was great as well and it was nice to have the English subs on that one...

I didn't watch K-20 yet, good to hear it's a good film I guess when the DVD with English subs come out it'll be possible to find external subs too. I'll watch it soon without subs first anyway. Also still waiting to watch "Watashi wa kai ni naritai". Did you watch that one already?

I liked Tokyo Sonata very much. Didn't think the job hunting methods the main character applied were very realistic in his situation as first options though, but the movie was very engaging. The friend of the main character who made his phone ring automatically was very funny. Pretty much everything in the movie worked well though the acting of the Dorobou character was a bit over the top and kind of broke the flow for a moment. Anyway, that was probably what the director intended anyway

[ahsoka]

Originally Posted by kannisto

I didn't watch K-20 yet, good to hear it's a good film I guess when the DVD with English subs come out it'll be possible to find external subs too. I'll watch it soon without subs first anyway. Also still waiting to watch "Watashi wa kai ni naritai". Did you watch that one already?

I liked Tokyo Sonata very much. Didn't think the job hunting methods the main character applied were very realistic in his situation as first options though, but the movie was very engaging. The friend of the main character who made his phone ring automatically was very funny. Pretty much everything in the movie worked well though the acting of the Dorobou character was a bit over the top and kind of broke the flow for a moment. Anyway, that was probably what the director intended anyway

Yes I watched Watashi wa kai ni naritai earlier. The story was quite easy to follow even without all of the dialogue but I'd like to watch it again with subs. Overall the movie was quite OK. I felt that Masahiro Nakai perhaps wasn't an ideal choice for the leading role in the movie though.

I was wondering about the job hunting in Tokyo Sonata, it didn't feel quite realistic and there was some other parts as well like the burglar and the mother sequence. It was a very good movie but a bit different from what I had expected.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by kannisto

I took a look at recent Italian releases at dvdland.it and ordered these:

Come Dio Comanda (As God Commands)
http://www.dvdland.it/nicom1/p_56097...a_blu_ray.html

The Burning Plain
http://www.dvdland.it/nicom1/p_56124...e_blu_ray.html

The Horsemen
http://www.dvdland.it/nicom1/p_56215...n_blu_ray.html

The first one is an Italian film and according to dvdland it has English subs. I'll post some info when I get these, probably about 10 days from now.

I received these today (registered air mail shipping was 9.99 EUR, took a bit less than 2 weeks this time).

Come Dio Comanda (01 Distribution)



- Region B locked
- Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and optional English subs
- Nice looking VC-1 video, 2.35:1, 1080p23.976

The Burning Plain (Medusa)



- Region B locked
- English | Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
- Great looking VC-1 video, 2.35:1. 1080p23.976
- Optional Italian subs
=> As the dialogue has some Spanish parts I'm going to apply external English subs

The Horsemen (Mondo Home Entertainment)



- Region free
- Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0 audio
- Great looking VC-1 video, 1.78:1, 1080p23.976
- Optional Italian subs
=> Unfortunately they've included English (original audio) track only as stereo

Too bad that so many smaller European distributors are locking their titles. Some more work for me before I can watch them on my main setup. Only The Horsemen works straight off on my PS3 (and extras don't work) but that one suffers from lack of proper surround original audio. Anyway, region free or not, I'm looking forward to watching these! Very happy that none were 1080i50 encodes, and they don't include any 50hz before the movies either. Some of the extras are in SD PAL and 1080i50 though but that's very usual with European releases that are not from major Hollywood studios.

[collectorgonewild]

Originally Posted by jjj

Confirm region free

Which release are u referring to? UK? Australia? Another country?

[jjj]

Originally Posted by collectorgonewild

Which release are u referring to? UK? Australia? Another country?

UK release

The Matyrs(UK) and Gomorrah(UK) although stated region locked , my panasonic , pioneer and denon blu ray can play . For Matyrs , just press stop when you see the region lock logo , then press top menu button on the remote will do . As for Gomorroh , simply press top menu button when the bd player stop to load .

However , no luck on Salo(UK) and Elite Squad(UK) . Both confirm need a region free or B players .

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by jjj

UK release

The Matyrs(UK) and Gomorrah(UK) although stated region locked , my panasonic , pioneer and denon blu ray can play . For Matyrs , just press stop when you see the region lock logo , then press top menu button on the remote will do . As for Gomorroh , simply press top menu button when the bd player stop to load .

However , no luck on Salo(UK) and Elite Squad(UK) . Both confirm need a region free or B players .

I'll have to try if Martyrs and Gomorrah work on my Japanese PS3 with such a workaround. They didn't work straight off and AnyDVD HD confirmed them as region B locked. Maybe the workaround is possible because of some "bug" in the disc's content authoring that makes the lock less effective than it's supposed to be, since it works on so many players. (I created region free editions for my PS3 already anyway.)

[kannisto]

I watched The Burning Plain Italian import last night (with external English subs especially for covering the Spanish dialogue parts) and liked it. It's written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter of Babel, 21 Grams, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Amores perros etc. I was interested in it since I like those 4 films pretty much. This one had excellent PQ/AQ and I liked the cinematography and music a lot. The acting performances were pretty decent as well. However, the story was a bit more predictable and didn't grip me with similar intensity as e.g. 21 Grams. The movie was somewhat similar in style and content to those 4 films but something was lacking in intensity or emotional impact. Overall it was pretty interesting anyway especially when compared to mainstream films and I was satisfied with my purchase. It's another good effort from Mexican filmmakers

[jjj]

Originally Posted by kannisto

I'll have to try if Martyrs and Gomorrah work on my Japanese PS3 with such a workaround. They didn't work straight off and AnyDVD HD confirmed them as region B locked. Maybe the workaround is possible because of some "bug" in the disc's content authoring that makes the lock less effective than it's supposed to be, since it works on so many players. (I created region free editions for my PS3 already anyway.)

I sold my PS3 quite sometimes ago so no chance to test .

Yes , I believe it is due to "bug" on the disc authoring because there are no response on any buttons on the remote(all players I owned) for salo and elite squad UK blu ray disc except the tray eject button

[ahsoka]

The Chaser and A Chinese Tall Story mentioned earlier are now up for pre-order at Amazon.fr. Release October 5.

http://www.amazon.fr/chaser-Blu-ray-...7081709&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.fr/chinese-tall-st...7081807&sr=1-1

[KSC2303]

My copy of Joe Hisaishi's Studio Ghibli concert (Joe Hisaishi in Budokan - Miyazaki Anime to Tomo ni Ayunda 25 Nenkan) arrived and I thought I would show my appreciation for you guys by contributing the little bit of info I can relay. Unfortunately I don't have a Blu-ray rom drive so I can't do a disc scan or take screen shots.

First off there are no english language options, 95% of the content is music performance so it doesn't really matter. The packaging says the video is 1080i, its AVC encoded and the bit rate stays between 25-40mbps. I only have a 1080i CRT so I can't really judge how good the PQ is but I was very happy with it.

The 5.1 PCM audio sounds amazing. The difference between the PCM and DD 5.1 is night and day. There is also a stereo PCM mix. There are two extras both in HD and PCM stereo. The first is a 20 minute long video of behind the scenes and rehearsal. The second is all the movie clips used in the performance, its a nice teaser for how Miyazaki's movies will look on Blu. If your a fan of Joe Hisaishi or Ghibli then I highly recommend it.

[ahsoka]

Yatterman (Takashi Miike) [JP]
Release September 25

VAP
111 minutes
3 Disc
Japanese Dolby Digital Stereo
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese Subtitles

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%A4%E3...7163991&sr=1-1

http://www.yatterman-movie.com/