I don't see anything wrong with it per se. If someone wants to "man-boy decorate" their house with the things they enjoy in life, who cares?

Bookshelves full of books have a more intellectual association to them than bookshelves full of Star Trek DVDs. But hey, to each their own.

Maybe not everyone wants to necessarily live in a cold, perfectly decorated house free of character or personality designed to emulate the pages of an elitist Home & Design magazine article.

It's odd how you never hear any criticisms about "woman-girl" decorated homes?

There is nothing wrong with tasteless decorating. You just can't tell someone else that "it looks good". It only looks good to own's own eyes, which yes, is your own choice and your freedom to do whatever you want as long as it makes you happy. But that has nothing to do with the subject of decorating as "aesthetically pleasing" versus "tastless, not visually pleasing".

There are "woman-girl" decorated homes as well! It's just that most DVD collection photos we see in this forum are usually dudes. Here's a woman-girl decorated house:

I think that the "woman-girl" decorated homes are even creepier than the "man-boy" decorated homes! Still interesting to look at though, but I wouldn't use the words "aesthetics".

I think you are talking about buying bootlegs. I buy most of my imports from amazon.co.uk I've gotten many titles for $10 or less and have never had any "misrepresented crap." I probably own less than 100 imports but some of my favorite films/directors are only available in other regions.

Since he likes old movies, I think he may get suckered for those cheap-ass $2 dvds of old movies (public domain movies, I think?). And we all know what kind of quality those dvds are.

I think he might also may be talking about OOP R1 discs that he's buying through eBay. That might be a big part of the problem. There are plenty of reputable online retailers to go through that ship to the U.S. You don't have to go through eBay.

Kerborus' assertion that "buying foreign can be an adventure almost 50% of the time" is really untrue in my experience. Granted, I don't have a huge collection of imports, but I've never had a problem with any of them. So maybe the "adventure" is in who you decide to buy from rather than buying foreign.

And also Kerborus, I still don't understand how you can be sure that some of these releases would turn a profit. I'm not denying The African Queen would sell, that's been in the works for a long time. But the Apu Trilogy? Not that I wouldn't buy it, but foreign films don't traditionally do gangbusters here and then you have a director who probably wouldn't be exactly a mainstream name for U.S. audiences ... Just because you're a fan and you will buy it doesn't mean the public will.

Kerborus, if the covers are such a big deal, why don't you just buy your own cases and make customer covers or even print out the R1 cover? No one has to know that it's really one of those damn foreign discs!

Venom? Jerky? It was your snippy comments that sparked this discussion in the first place. I was stating a fact, which was that, at the time I posted, you still hadn't explained this earlier snark:

Now you have explained it, thanks, but in the process you've revealed that you've used by far the riskiest method of sourcing these DVDs that a person could possibly use--America-based ebay and Amazon (presumably the marketplace?)--and have therefore come to the conclusion that importing in general is a waste not only of your time, but your money. That's not fair.

What keeps you from researching (even here in the forums) the countless other reliable methods and web sites that region-free collectors use to get ahold of these discs, rather than assuming/implying that they, like you, must be getting ripped off? Actually, you needn't answer that because I know, now, that you're simply not interested in importing at all. But your comments do reveal an ignorance of the process. I'm not, nor was I, using the term in a desultory way. To be ignorant of something is common human behaviour. We ALL do it. But too often we assume the word to be a putdown. In this case, you are ignorant of the process of importing based on the comments you've made (and what else do we have to go on, really?); you've bought "imported" discs, yes, but it doesn't sound like you've done much actual importing. Which is, I suspect, why Toddly666, myself, and possibly others, decided to debate the issue.

And if you display your your 4000-strong DVD collection--or even some portion of it--across three walls of your office for, as you admit above, "aesthetic" reasons, then you ARE decorating with them, just like everyone else who does it. No crime there. But you do do it.

I used to as well. Then I realized what a man-boy thing it was to do. Hell, it's a man-boy thing to even have collections as large as most of us do, but I just got sick of not being able to decorate in an aesthetically pleasing way around such a mish-mash of color . . . and plastic . . . and color . . . and . . . I still cringe when I see the pictures in those "show us your collections" threads here.


Indeed, but simply wanting to discreetly tuck away my massive collection of DVDs--even just to minimize the visual eyesore that DOES accompany plastering it all over the wall's of one's home like a badge of honor--while maintaining accessibility doesn't automatically mean I'm trying to create an environment better suited to an "elitist" architectural or design magazine. That's a loaded "either/or" argument, to be sure.

It's funny, I almost never agree with Toddly666 in this entire forum, but I generally share his side of the fence on this issue. Amusing.


Take this how you will, Kerb--and based on your reading of my previous posts, I can just imagine--but I honestly feel bad at just how long you will be waiting for some, possibly all, of the titles on your list. I hope the formats last long enough in your preferred region for that day to come. Obviously, it can only help if you've got youth on your side as well.

Well, I do have a huge collection of imports, and I've had a problem with exactly one of them. So, out of over 700 imports (keep in mind that most of these are catalogue Hong Kong movies, for which I pay the exorbitant sum of between $2 and $5 U.S.!; importing's virtually the only way to get most of them), I had to eat the cost of just one, a title from Australia. Hardly enough to sour me on importing.

And this is just your opinion. Great. Moving on...

I've had bad luck, you've had good luck, so what?

If they make these DVD's in Korea, then they are turning a proft. They can make a profit in the US. Clearly folks like me want them. Just slapping Criterion's label on it means it will sell...

I do make plenty of custom covers but have found with a 4 and 2 yr. old that my time for doing that has dried up.

Again, I'll hold out hope for these releases R1.

Ha, ha! What have u never agreed with me - my negative take on Wong Kar Wai?

I've been guilty of man-boy dvd decorating too. But as my dvd collection got larger and larger, all it does is remind me of my obsessive-compulsive habit of consuming.

The Blood of Heroes

Rutgar Hauer, Delroy Lindo, Joan Chen

Last I read there was some argument with the holders of the rights. Ever gonna see the light of day? I have a crappy copy from a VHS dub. Not the best movie ever, but not bad either.

Indeed, luck, because there couldn't possibly be any research involved in getting a region free player (they're staring you in the face in every electronics store in North America), AVOIDING Amazon Marketplace and ePay like the plague, and getting virtually everything you could ever want by picking the best releases from any regions you please (yes, even R1), instead of waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting. You won't forgive me for saying, and I can live with that, but you seem bound and determined to not even try it the right way, even just for kicks!



Not true, but hardly a surprising assumption (this-->therefore this). Many, if not most, of the Korean releases of U.S. and European films don't turn a profit for their distributors (even Korean films don't turn a profit for a lot of the companies that release them there, but they're contractually bound to do so). Same goes for western titles on Hong Kong labels. Beyond the first couple of weeks of visibility and sales, they're catalog-builders, at best, and even then they don't stay in print for very long because those countries/cities don't have massive home entertainment/electronics stores like Best Buy or online retailers the size of Amazon or Deep Discount or their kin.

I have plenty of Korean and Hong Kong (and Japanese and even Thai!) discs of American/European films unavailable in R1, and I often purchased them at the tail end of their very short shelf lives, just before they went OOP, when prices were down to the $3-$5US range, even less. Korea, to stick with that country because it's been mentioned specifically in this thread, does NOT have a successful DVD market; it's been dwindling for a few years now. People just don't care to OWN over there the way we do over here. You can't assume anything about those industries unless, at the very least, you purchase from them on a regular basis, I'm afraid.



You should see the Korean Criterions I acquired over the years! Haxan, Colonel Blimp, Notorious, Day of Wrath, Wages of Fear, Diabolique and about twelve others, all for about $4US each, again, quite some time after they'd been released in Korea because they just weren't big sellers. Exact same contents, all the extras, and on region-free discs, so they'd play on ANY player in the world. Turned out the company releasing them, which was a legitimate, major player in the Korean DVD industry (and still is), didn't really have the rights to Criterion's versions, only to the films themselves, so those beauties quietly went off the radar and OOP! When I ordered them, I had no idea what they contained. I just wanted to see these films cheaply for the first time, to decide whether a proper Criterion upgrade was a good investment, and figured they were movie-only editions. I've since upgraded some of the ones I really loved to the actual Criterion versions, but certainly not all of them. No need.

So yeah, that was some good luck!

Everything else about importing? Research and due consideration, not luck.

Well, we could start there, I suppose . . .

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

By the way, since this could be a thread about DVDs that aren't available anywhere in the world, I must admit I'd love to get my hands on legit discs of a couple of old drive-in curiosities: I SAILED TO TAHITI WITH AN ALL-GIRL CREW (1968) and FOR THOSE WHO THINK YOUNG (1964). Both can be had from dealers in DVD-R rips (most likely taken from VHS or TV broadcasts), but to my knowledge there's never been official releases. Hardly surprising I guess, but they'd still be nice to have . . .

BTW, I've had Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight (his best movie - yes, better than Kane) imported from Spain for more than five years now and have watched it numerous times, while 5 years later, there's still not a peep of it coming to R1. I don't remember how much it cost, but it couldn't have been more than $15.

Like I said, if you're a true fan of film, you'll go where the films are, not wait for them to come to you - especially when it's not clear if they ever will come to you.

Seconded, naturally!

I guess I'm not a 'true fan' like you guys... Woe is me. I explained that I have a backlog of a thousand movies or so, that allows me to wait for R1, but that didn't suffice to be a 'true fan'.

I think we've all taken this as far as it can go. It always surprises me how a simple question, like when do these obviously needed R1 films going to be released and turn it into attacks of man-boy decorating or true fandom being questioned.

"What we've got here is....failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach."

Only true patriotic Americans buy American NTSC Region 1 dvds. If you purchase dvds from other countries, then that means you are a communist, hippie, liberal!

Dude, you are the one crying about "WHEN" are these movies coming out. If you have such a big back-log, then watch those and don't bitch about movies that aren't out yet.

You're trying to have it both ways, complaining that movies aren't out yet, then when presented with an easy solution, you say that you'd rather wait for an R1 and watch your back-log in the meantime. Which is it?

This has been out for a couple of years now, through Lionsgate. FOOLScreen though.

I am and I do. I still want to see these films though. I'm not crying, just asking. You are eloquent as ever 'SLOP'.

Hahaha. Spoken like a true liberal. If you disagree, then attack the person, not the issue. I think we're done here. Can we close the thread since it only breeds trolling?

Do you know where i can find those shelves?

How many of the Roy Rogers Trucolor movies are on DVD?
E.g. THE GOLDEN STALLION.
I mean, legit Republic Pictures editions, not P.D. rips of UNDER CALIFORNIA STARS and such.

I was just kidding - I was just adding a caption to NoirFan's funny photo....