LPMA

I've read somewhere that it might have to do with Discotek owning the rights to the English version or something.

manicsounds

Received the 2 new UK releases. Both are region B blu-rays.

hanshotfirst1138

Wonder if English subtitled versions of that Japanese Ultimate Edition of PM will ever appear? I doubt it'll ever come out via Disney in the US at all, so I should think about that UK disc.

Giles

if you can afford it - go with the Region A Japanese edition - it's a 4K scan, has subtitles and the English dub version - the original Japanese 2-channel mix AND the 5.1 mix as well.

Giles

for fans of the French dub on Porco Rosso - its on the Japanese edition, plus the English dub ... and man, wow, the picture quality is just staggering.

hanshotfirst1138

Nice to know that unlike SOME Japanese studios *cough Toho,* Ghibli takes excellent care of their masters.

Paul_SD

Has anyone heard about the PQ on the UK Mononoke? I've read complaints that most if not all of the UK Ghiblis are a little DNR heavy compared to the US releases.

mewmartigan

I would have that UK version of the Princess Mononoke bluray in a second if I had a region free player.

C'mon Sony, update the PS4 to region free!

Giles

if blowing 50 bucks is no problem just go with the Japanese release of Mononoke.

hanshotfirst1138

How anyone in Japan affords anything is beyond me.

Paul_SD

eh...the point is moot now. Amazon raised the price from under £15 to £17.75.
Even though I've been ordering stuff like a drunken sailor the last couple weeks, I've been good about maintaining a ceiling for what I'll pay for something that I can wait for, like this.

manicsounds

Not during the DVD days. Every title was windowboxed, Spirited Away had that bloodshot tint, the blu-rays are excellent in quality though.

manicsounds

The set has been postponed one month to 7/2. The music video by CHAGE & ASKA is being removed. The dumb reason for it? One half of the duo ASKA was arrested for drugs a few days ago.

Japan is especially strict for drugs and celebrities. All their albums have been pulled from stores, none of their music can be used for advertising, no radio play, obviously affecting quite a lot of markets. (The current "Studio Ghibli Short Short" DVD which includes the music video as well has been pulled from stores as of yesterday, used copies going for $450 on Amazon Japan marketplace sellers.)

So because of that, the "complete" Miyazaki box will not be "complete" anymore.

hanshotfirst1138

I hadn't heard about those controversies, that's interesting. So what happened as the high-def era came around? New management?

mewmartigan

Will the Japanese one play on a US (region A?) blu ray player?

Does the Japanese one have the English voice cast as an audio choice?


EDIT: saw your post to han above, it does have the english voice cast as an audio option and apparently all Japanese blu rays are region free?

Hmmm, very tempting. This seems to be the one Ghibli release that slipped through the cracks in the US. I'm not sure why Disney won't just grab it since they have everything else....

coyoteblue

Just a reminder --

Region A:
Includes most North, Central, and South American and Southeast Asian countries plus Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.

manicsounds

DVDBeaver has some comparisons, but since their site background is black, it's usually hard to see if titles are windowboxed or not.

Here's a good example of the color controversy of "Spirited Away", and the severe windowboxing

The color issue was corrected for the US DVD, although there is still a slight red tint.

The windowboxing issue: In the days of tube TVs with overscanning, it was impossible to tell. But now with HDTVs showing edge to edge, the black bars are extremely noticeable. (Even Criterion did this for a bit. Hey, even the best make odd choices!)

Josh Z

At the time, Studio Ghibli claimed that the red push on the Japanese DVD for Spirited Away was done deliberately so that the movie would look better on plasma televisions (which were fairly new at the time, and many had lousy contrast and color decoding issues). It was a perplexing decision to hobble the movie to suit the constraints of a minority of defective televisions.

Giles

I was under the impression that because Mononoke was owned by Miramax, Disney lost the rights when the two went their separate ways... this news is 3 years old, but I'm not sure what happened or who currently owns the rights in the US

Princess Mononoke is no longer licensed in the US

Ringmaster

This article is from 3 years ago so is it still accurate? I'm surprised, if Disney hasn't already swooped up the rights and will release it through Touchstone Pictures like they did with "The Wind Rises".

Paul_SD

so....anyone actually watch the UK Mononoke release yet? Or at least spot check it to see how it looks?

manicsounds

I haven't watched it all the way through yet. Only spot checked for opening/closing credits, aspect ratio, subtitle and audio options. I think I will get around to it tomorrow after work.

Giles

parallel importing Ghibli releases back into Japan from another country - interesting concept there

gryffinmaster

Pre-orders are up on Amazon for Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service (and The Wind Rises), with a release date of November 18th.

hdnmickey

Mononoke is a surprise given the multiple things I've seen written stating Disney no longer held the rights. But I'm thrilled if those dates are really legit. It was the one title I would consider paying the outrageous costs it would take to get the Japanese release if it was necessary.

Still not all of the Ghibli's they own and haven't released on BD. But I guess it's too much to ask that they just get on with releasing the rest in one batch. Not sure what they'll do if they don't have any new Ghibli releases to tie the old releases to anymore.