Info on import Blu-ray titles

[HonestAsianGuy]

Some info on Super Cub (Japan 2008) from BitWel [Taiwan]. It's a region free BD25. It's 299 TWD, about 9 USD. Audio: Japanese PCM 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles: English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese. The movie itself was OK, a parody of Initial D? Unfortunatly, PQ is not very good. The image is very soft, compression artifacts etc. The movie file is 21,4 GB and the movie is 82 minutes so the video bit rate isn't very low. 1080p/23.976 fps. The only extra is a trailer for Queens of Langkasuka.

I think these BDs, unfortunately, are SD upscales.

BTW, where did you get this and how much is the shipping?

[ahsoka]

^ I ordered Super Cub from YesAsia for about 22 USD together with another disc with free shipping. It's 299 TWD (9,4 USD) at jsdvd.com. I've only used jsdvd once, their shipping rates were quite high.

[kannisto]

Thanks for the info! I just sent an enquiry to Megastore.se by e-mail regarding whether they would be able to get this BD release, hopefully they will
...

Megastore's customer service replied and said that they are going to check if they can get this (Battle Under Orion) on BD and they'll inform me once they receive an answer.

[ahsoka]

Info on the Death Trance BD from BitWel [TW]. The picture has a grainy and muted look. The movie file size is 23,2GB and video bitrate stays around 28Mbps.
Subtitles: English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Audio: Japanese LPCM 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1.
The only extra is a trailer for Shadowless Sword. Region free.

[kannisto]

Megastore.se managed to get Battle Under Orion (Manatsu no Orion) Blu-ray listed today and I just ordered it. I put Bröllopsfotografen (The Wedding Photographer) in the same order as it seems interesting as well.

[ahsoka]

Megastore.se managed to get Battle Under Orion (Manatsu no Orion) Blu-ray listed today and I just ordered it. I put Bröllopsfotografen (The Wedding Photographer) in the same order as it seems interesting as well.

Good that they could get Battle Under Orion so quickly. Havn't seen Bröllopsfotografen (The Wedding Photographer) but it looks interesting.

Watched the Norwegian horror movie Skjult (Hidden) recently and enjoyed it quite a lot. The story was not very original but I thought it was quite creepy and there was some scary moments. The DVD that I watched had optional English and Norwegian subtitles and the BD have them too.

Screencaps:
http://www.hundland.org/hd/s/s.htm

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCLL75aau5Y

[ahsoka]

The French release Goemon is region B locked and encoded 1080i50.
BD50. Forced French subtitles.

[kannisto]

The French release Goemon is region B locked and encoded 1080i50.
BD50. Forced French subtitles.
...

That's unfortunate regarding the 1080i50 encoding (unexpected) and forced French subs (typical for TF1)... The Japanese release is excellent except for the lack of English language options.

[kannisto]

...
Watched the Norwegian horror movie Skjult (Hidden) recently and enjoyed it quite a lot. The story was not very original but I thought it was quite creepy and there was some scary moments. The DVD that I watched had optional English and Norwegian subtitles and the BD have them too.

Screencaps:
http://www.hundland.org/hd/s/s.htm

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCLL75aau5Y

Is that Skjult available as a Swedish BD release as well? Seems interesring. I couldn't find it in stores with that name. I guess it's been released at least in Norway but I still haven't found any Norwegian shops that ship to Japan.

[Sarang]

Has anyone watched the Chinese Lesbian flick "Butterfly" yet? I was wondering how smart it is, how much it really rocks the boat and is progressive.

[ahsoka]

Is that Skjult available as a Swedish BD release as well? Seems interesring. I couldn't find it in stores with that name. I guess it's been released at least in Norway but I still haven't found any Norwegian shops that ship to Japan.

It seems to be out in Norway only. It's a Sandrew Metronome release so hopefully it will released in the other Nordic countries later. Strange that zailor.no has no option for shipping to Japan when you can choose USA, Canada etc.

[KSC2303]

I posted this for another forum but will post it here as well since I'm very appreciative of all the info you've all shared.

Help Me Eros - Taiwan Blu-ray

Finally received this today, it shipped on the 1st of March. Unfortunately I don't have a BD drive in my computer to do a disc scan or take screenshots, so all the disc specs come from what the PS3 shows and the back of the case. I haven't watched the whole Blu-ray through yet, did a lot of spot checking and comparison with the R1 dvd though. I'm guessing its a single layer disc and the back of the case shows regions A, B and C so it should be region free (can't confirm though)

Sorry if my case pictures aren't the best, had trouble finding enough light and the right angle to take them from. These pictures may be NSFW so I'll post the thumbnails and I'll leave it up to a mod to decide if its appropriate.







PQ: (according to the cover) 1080p 1.78:1
(according to PS3) AVC encoded with bit rates around 20mbps
I'm 99.9% sure this is a true HD transfer and not an upscale. In any case it looks way superior to the R1 dvd upscaled. I saw a 35mm print at a film festival a few years back and this looks pretty faithful to the source. The reason I add these caveats is because I have a 36" CRT so its kinda hard to give a definitive rating. Picture is on the soft side (as I believe was the intended look) colors are brilliant and there is a very faint layer of film grain. The R1 dvd has a weird frame rate issue, it appears to be ever so slightly sped up and that really aggravated me when I watched at home. Perhaps the dvd was converted NTSC from a PAL source? The Blu-ray does not have this issue and has the natural motion from the 35mm print I saw. I love the cinematography in this movie so I'm very happy to have this in HD. I'd give the video a 8/10

AQ: Another huge improvement from the R1 dvd which was Dolby 2.0. The Blu-ray has Dolby True HD 7.1 and a DTS-HD MA 7.1 tracks both in the original language. Sounds great although there aren't any shootouts or explosions in the movie, its not what you'd consider a "reference" track. I haven't watched the Blu-ray through, I'll add an audio rating after hear the whole thing.

Movie: Like I said, I saw this at a film festival and it ended up being my favorite film I saw at the festival. Think Wong Kar Wai mixed with Bernardo Bertolucci and that will give you a good idea of the movie. A guy looses his job during an economic crisis and spends his days getting high and chatting on a suicide help line. He then tries to pursue a relationship with the girl on the suicide line and other women he comes across. The film has strong sexual content, its comparable to something like The Dreamers or Lust, Caution and not nearly as explicit as In The Realm of the Senses.

Cost me about $17 USD (shipped) so I am very pleased.

[kannisto]

^ Thanks for sharing your impressions on that release, KSC2303 It seems interesting.

I think those pics are mild enough (I'm no expert on the "NSFW issues" as it's not much of a topic in Japan or Europe).

[kannisto]

Got an e-mail from Amazon Germany that says that they are refunding me 5.19 EUR total for 5 discs I ordered sometime last year, because of "reduced export charges". No complaints regarding that, but I've never seen such refunds before from any Amazon store...

[ahsoka]

Nordic release of Hero on July 14th from Sandrew Metronome.