tbickle

Do you guys know a good store in and around Burbank, Studio City, Sherman Oaks etc. that sells import dvd's like Battle Royale, Volcano High, Ringu and Miike films? I've gotten a few of said items from ebay but shipping takes forever and the end product has sometimes not worked properly. Any help would be great.

raytrade

Amoeba Music on Sunset & Ivar in Hollywood has a section of import DVDs but I've never really looked through them carefully.

MrPeanut

I don't know anywhere in LA, but that's because I never really wanted to find a place. I know ebay can be problematic as you described, but I've never had any problems ordering directly form Asian retailers. There's a good faq in the international forum. dddhouse.com is my favorite. Always gotten quality product, good price, and shipping times as good as your average domestic etailer.

tbickle

Thanks, I checked out dddhouse.com and already put in a order with them. There were a few dvd's I wanted that was Region 3 only, though. Anyone know a way to play different regions on a region 1 player? I have three different players, a toshiba, a portable and an xbox. Got any ideas?

Jackskeleton

I will have to second the comment for Amoeba Music. The place has a ton of stuff and if you look through it, You will find some pretty nice deals. Not to mention they also have plenty of OOP items, though they are aware of the OOP'ness of them and charge a bit more for them (not that bad compared to places like ebay)

Static Cling

Perhaps the good folks in International can help you out more. Moving thread.

Darthkim

If you are looking for korean dvd's, dvdasian.com is located in la mirada. you can usually send the company an email and pickup the stuff yourself. That way you can save on tax and shipping.

I've bought over 40 korean dvd's from them.

Also i think you can order from yesasia.com and pickup from their LA location. Not sure where it is, but i know its on their website.

bcelmins

Just went to Amoeba today and rifled through their imports section. On the basis that it's the only selection like in the city that I've found, it's very cool. The selection is pretty limited, but they did have some things I was interested in (got me R2 Throne of Blood). The biggest issue I had was that they had a lot of imports of movies that had R1 counterparts, which I felt defeated the purpose of having the imports section. I guess special editions are different from country to country, but do we really need an R2 Superbit of Men In Black?

At any rate, I'll go back every once in a while to check out the selection, see if anything else interesting pops up.

The prices aren't as outrageous as I would have thought. Throne of Blood was $27 brand spanking new (about half are used), which sits okay with me.

Okay then...

EricBill

Awesome! I'm kicking myself wondering why I didn't start this thread a long time ago...

I just called Amoeba and confirmed that they do indeed carry a number of non-region 1 dvd titles. They claim to even have RINGU 1 & 2 in stock (though I'm wondering now if I should wait for the newly announced American RINGU dvd to be released). There's a ton of other non-R1 titles that I am dying to own, and I am hoping that I can get some of them at Amoeba.

I don't order dvds online anymore since I lost my job (where I had all my deliveries sent). My mailbox at home is TINY and is not even deep enough to hold one dvd; so the mailman leaves it in front of my front door for anyone to take, should they so desire. Until I get another "permanent" job where I can accept deliveries, my non-R1 dvd purchases have been relegated to where I can find them... which - up until now - has been at only one retailer - Five Star Laser. If the name sounds familiar, it's because they have enjoyed a fairly strong internet business for several years (go to http://www.fivestarlaser.com). I discovered that they also own a b&m storefront in San Gabriel, CA... a bit of a drive from where I live in west L.A., but well worth the trip. They don't have a whole lot of non-R1 titles, but seeing as a large portion of my non-R1 wishlist is Asian produced, I find many of these at Five Star.

Laser Blazer on Pico in west L.A. recently started carrying a VERY small section of "imports". Lest you be confused, these are still R1 dvds, but not officially released in America. From what I can tell, these are all Canadian releases (the 3-disc BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, the feature-less pan-n-scam pixelated LOST HIGHWAY, among others). Still, it's reason to hope that non-R1 dvds may begin to show up at local merchants soon. After all, finding a multi-region pal/ntsc player for sale at a local merchant was all but unheard of just a year ago. Now such players can be found at Beast Buy and Wally-Mart. It's just a matter of time before the demand for imports starts to influence these merchants' stocking decisions.

On a related note, I've been considering opening my own dvd rental shop in west L.A. for some time. I would cater to a specific niche crowd that shares my (sometimes) odd taste in films (think heavy in kung-fu, world cinema, art films, cult films, horror/sci-fi/exploitation, and other "hard to find" items). I am toying with the idea of also carrying non-R1 titles for rental, but I've no idea what the legalities of carrying such titles might be. Can anyone help me out with this? I am fairly certain that NO other dvd rental shop in L.A. rents non-R1 dvds, and that might very well be for a good reason (i.e. - it's illegal?). If it IS legal to rent non-R1 titles, it's only a matter of time before someone beats me to the punch. Any advice on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Eric