tinlunlau

has anyone grabbed Tai Seng's region 1 edition of "Initial D: The Movie" on DVD yet? i heard it was a direct copy of the region 3 hong kong edition. anyway, bought the hong kong region 3 edition and thought it was a great DVD overall. anamorphic widescreen (2:35.1), DD-ex 5.1 (cantonese and mandarin tracks) and DTS-es Cantonese track. the audio tracks are a real size hog so the video had to be sacrificed a little bit. got a bit of video noise is what i hear other people say.

bonus features don't have english subs on my region 3 edition (i don't know about the region 1 edition but i assume it's exactly the same). nice selection of bonus features here. promotional video in Shanghai which is basically a 10 minute drifting demo. press conference in japan. both seem to have been covered up by music score from the movie. a 20 minute "making of", the net documentaries, interview segments with the stars, deleted scenes, outtakes, all don't have english subs. since i don't need them, i can say they didn't give too much informative input. typical press kit material. there is an easter egg on the bonus disc when you keep pressing left until the "fujiwara tofu-den" logo turns blue. you'll see a rough sketch of the CGI effects.

good disc overall...but Megastar shoulda gave it a better video treatment. the disc took in about 6.67gb in total.

mrhan

--but how is the movie? I'm on the edge about buying this but have heard it's not as good as the anime.

Cardiac161

Saw it with very low expectations and found it entertaining...in a shallow way. Nevertheless, if you fast-forward the cheesy romantic scenes and the sometimes over-the-top acting of Chapman To, you might actually find it worthwhile.

I was quite surprised at how well the racing scenes were shown. It does get a little bit redundant after (since all the races only happen at the same place and at the same time of day) but I can say it was quite involving.

Anne Suzuki is cute!!! From Returner to Hana & Alice, she has really turned out to be a fine looking girl.

aw614

I enjoyed it though I have the crappy mainland china version that was dubbed and had no subs

Sifu

Tai Seng has a nasty habit of pretending to release Hong Kong movies by simply putting their sticker on the front cover of the actual Hong Kong release.

zerotl

Picked this up over the weekend, if you liked the anime, you'll like the movie, I liked the hiphop music as well.

Agree on the cheesy parts and the Over the top acting by Chapman To, but I think they were just trying to stick to the anime character as close as possible, which is kinda tough.

tinlunlau

but in this case, i would imagine that Megastar has especially sub-licensed the North American release to Tai Seng since the Japanese companies forced them to make this a Region 3 release. So basically, the R1 would get the R3 contents.

gerrytwo

The HK release of Initial D is all region according to DVDInfoPro.

Cardiac161

It's actually released in either Region 1 or Region 3. I asked what the difference was and I was told that there isn't disc-wise but the Region 3 has some stuff inside the case like a couple of trading cards.

tinlunlau

my copy was definitely region 3. i had to re-install DVD Region-Free just to play it properly on my computer. i have no problems playing it on the dvd player on my TV, tho.

there were no trading cards bundled on the dvd. they were 4 bookmarks and a scratch & win game card.

aw614

wow, this is the first time can I think of megastar making a release a "real" region 3, I'll probably still get it though

mrhan

I just got the R1 release today. It didn't have a slipcase but did come with the 4 bookmarks. There's a street fair at the Oakland Chinatown and one of the street vendors had it. I asked about the slipcase and he said the Tai Seng releases don't have them. Oh well--- It isn't bad for $15 bucks.

Cardiac161

Sorry, tinlun. I meant bookmarks, not trading cards, plus a scratch & win card. Didn't really get to pay attention too much on them.

tinlunlau

yeah...i won nothing on my card. i almost wanted to try again.
lol!

Spring Roll

I'll wait for the Region 2 release with Japanese dubbing (Sorry, tinlun, for repeating my reply at RFD).

tinlunlau

roflmao!!! redflagdeals....

flixtime

Umm........I suppose since the title of this isn't "The Initial D Appreciation Thread" it would be okay for me to comment.

The following - possibly acerbic - comments should not be taken as being disrespectful towards those viewers - significant in number? - both here and at other forums who enjoyed this film, I'm simply venting and wish to underscore my dislike for this film (however, my rating for the film should not be taken as hyperbole - I really do feel it is that bad).

And to think, after the Sox victory in the Bronx, I was in high spirits as I settled in - with modest expectations - to take in this film for the night's viewing.

This movie left me stone-faced and apathetic (rather than hateful) throughout. Actually, I would have preferred that it, at the least, inspired a feeling of strong dislike or hate rather than what I was left with - a feeling of nothingness where one feels that if this film were to disappear completely from the history of cinema it would matter not one bit. Almost right from the get-go it seemed like it was going to be a loser - and boy was it ever! My infamous 0/10 score rarely finds a mark - and that too, the mark would likely reside within the realm of Indian cinema - but it is right on target as the rating for this film. At least in some of the awful Indian films we've watched we have managed to find some redemptive Mystery Science Theater-style entertainment value in ripping on the movie........no such luck here.

Frankly, I can't think of a single positive thing to say about this entertainment-challenged, bore of a film; it gloriously failed to capture interest from me as a viewer as I cared neither for the characters nor the plot. It's not my style to quit on films and I like to see things through till the end but, if I were so inclined, this was the type of film I easily could have walked away from after 15 minutes (actually sooner). Looking back, I can't recall a fragment - even as short as 90 seconds - that would grab my attention if I were flipping through cable channels and once again stumbled across this movie.

When we took a break after about 40 minutes of watching, the general reaction was that "Initial D" wasn't even as good as a bad Bollywood film. The CGI-infested race scenes were both dull and repetitive; the acting was sub-par; character development was weak; the story was poorly delivered; the romance was awful; the music was awful; and much of the film needed to be trimmed away. I just don't think the filmmakers had any feel for what exactly they wanted this film to be; the tone/style/feel of things just felt so uncertain.

Hong Kong cinema in 2005 had a lot of hope - or at least hype - invested in this film, right? How the mighty have fallen. "Initial D" - marked in my memory as one of the worst films I've seen this year.

On the bright side, after reading this and thereby approaching "Initial D" with harshly tempered expectations, you - as a possible future viewer of this film - are bound to enjoy it more than I............it would be near impossible not to.

Spring Roll

I watched this over the weekend (yes, I know I said I'd wait for the Japanese-dubbed version, but I broke down). It was not as bad as I thought it was. Anthony Wong's character was the only interesting one in it. I think I might watch it again with Japanese dubbing, I really think it would benefit it signifantly.

matrixrok9

Anybody know where I can get the region 1 version with dts es? I checked dddhouse.com and it's only region 3. Thanks.

dleedlee

This the one?
http://us.yesasia.com/assocred.asp?C...id-1004117378/

and this one

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...id-1004049930/

toddly6666

I finally got around to watching this...Damn, this movie sucked. Jay Chou is officially the worst HK actor ever. I wonder if he will ever act enthusiastic in a role instead of acting bored, awkward, and semi-retarded (just as he did in Kung Fu Dunk and Curse of the Golden Flower).