Rusty James

Just FYI: Popped into Kim's Video on St. Marks today and walked out with a bunch of good stuff. They have about 50 copies of the Japanese R2 Kill Bill Vol. 1, R2 versions of The Comfort of Strangers, The Driver and Perdita Durango (the new uncut set put out by Sogepaq), a bunch of the Russian Dogville: Special Edition two-discers and *one* copy left of the two-disc R3 Zatoichi (I almost didn't see it, because they have it on the Japanese import shelf near the back of the store instead of the import rack at the entrance).

Also spotted some of the Twin Peaks box sets from Spain, an intriguing Dario Argento set, Lost Highway and some other coolness.

Mao

Rusty,

How much were they charging for that "Twin Peaks" set?

Fandango

What were the prices of said discs?

Rusty James

They are asking $85 for the Twin Peaks box.

As for the others: I paid $25 for Zatoichi, $20 for Comfort of Strangers/The Driver/Perdita Durango and $40 (ouch) for Kill Bill.

harosa

Thanks, forgot about looking into Kims for the Kill Bill, got it from Xploited Cinema for the same but if i knew it was alreday there I mightve made the trip.

jrutz

Beware of Kims...they sell boots...

Jeremy

marty888

Jeremy - you jump into every thread that mentions Kim's with the same statement. Can you give us some examples, because I've never spotted anything that looked like a bootleg there.

jrutz

Oh man, now I'm on the spot...

It was probably a year ago, my wife and I were walking back from the East Village and I went in to check out what they had. I can't remember the boot(s) I saw - So Close? Battle Royale? Returner maybe? It was something I wanted to get in Chinatown/Koreatown and saw it there. I remember thinking, "wow! they have this?" and then noticing the packaging was similar to the legit releases yet different, and then I saw it was some knock-off distributor. Since then I've vowed I'd never step foot in that store. The boots they carry were very similar, if not the same, to the knock-offs you'll find in those video stores along 14th. Case in point - the DVD-5 version of Shaolin Soccer.

Yeah I know it's annoying to see my stock response in every thread mentioning Kim's, but I just want to do all my fellow DVDTalkers a favor and warn them ahead of time. It might not be in every case they have a boot instead of the legit release, but I have seen it before.

Just remember - if you want legit releases, you just have to know the right places to shop!

Jeremy

marty888

Well, I've spotted lots of obvious boots at places like Entertainment Outlet (I think that's the name of the place - one on 14th St, another near the main library) and at some of the Chinatown stores, but I haven't really seen them at Kim's.

Case in point: I've seen boots of the Celestial Shaw Brothers R3 releases at a Chinatown store, but the ones at Kim's seem completely legit. Also, in the R2 section near the entrance, I've never noticed anything that didn't look legit.

I hope you get a chance to stop in there and browse around - I'd be interested to see if I'm just being blind, or maybe they've cleaned up their act, or maybe you just happened to see one or two of the few boots they've had.

jrutz

Yeah, that could be that I just happened to find the lone boot they had in the store. I'd be interested to see what the Zatoichi R3 they have looks like, since I just bought it in Chinatown today. I'd also like to see the R2 Kill Bill, although I don't own it.

And yeah there are some Chinatown stores that have blatant boots. Like the store at the end of Elizabeth - don't know the name, but everything they had was a knock-off. And the farther away from Chinatown you go, on the fringes of Little Italy, the worse the stores get.

Entertainment Outlet is sketchy too - to this day, I don't know if my Canadian 3-disc Brotherhood of the Wolf is the real deal. There's also a store between 7th and 8th Ave, maybe this is the one you mentioned, that has all bootleg imports.

Jeremy

harosa

EO has alot of boots but the 3 disc u got there was legit, i got it also, they seem to carry alot of Canadian imports, maybe to sell early, who knows? A couple of times in the past I got some releases early from them and they had Canadian inserts in them, not boots just foreign editions. I remember they got some Smallville import that was a Canadian exclusive also. As for Kim's, Im pretty sure they might have some boots in there, all stores seem to nowadays that cater to film fans, especially ones that might not have an All Region Player but im sure they carry legit versions too for those that can afford them. Any one who's been buying movies for awhile, especially imports, should be able to tell a bootleg from an original, especially living in NYC.

MuTajiri

Most of the Japanese DVDs towards the back are bootleg DVD-Rs. If you look at the packaging, there's often heavy pixelation on the back cover. Furthermore, Kim's also sells a number of cheap Taiwanese DVDs that may not be boots but are at that level of quality.

cultshock

I've never been to Kim's but have heard of the place for years. I don't know about now, but in the old, pre-DVD days, I heard that the place was like most "underground" video stores, with a lot of boots or "grey market" videos of films that were virtually unavailable in North America any other way. I'm not going to make a moral judgement about that, because the underground store I used to frequent exposed me to many obscuities, Asian films, etc that I otherwise would have never known existed or have had an opportunity to see, and I'm grateful to have had the chance to expand my film horizons (this is back over 10 years ago when HK and cult films, for example, were not widely, legally available like they fortunately are now). Anyway, I don't know how things are now at Kim's, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some boots still lurking around.

Rusty James

It's true that Kim's sells some boots, and I don't know if they used to label them in the past, but today they are all clearly labeled with a sticker that says DVD-R on it, along with a warning to make sure your player is compatible before purchase (they have a list posted at the cash register).

They definitely don't try to pass off boots as legit, studio-issued product, though, no matter what region the disc is from.

BabyBuddha

On 14th St, or somewhere else?

jrutz

Oh yeah 14th St. I forgot that part.

Jeremy

harosa

After a mixup with Xploited I ended up getting the Kill Bill Region 2 from Kim's after all, they had it at $41.99+tax now, they had a Region 2 Zatoichi going for $25 but the longer I eyed it the more i thought it looked photocopy-ish, and alot of Japanese releases usually have stickers and such on the outer package wrapping,this didnt, and it also had a sticker across the top of the case like US releases with Zatoichi in English that looked suspect so I opted to go to Chinatown and got the Region 3 for $16 flat. Couldve been wrong about it being a boot at Kim's but I decided to play it safe and ended up with a better deal.

Rusty James

I bought the same two-disc R2 Zatoichi at Kim's and can definitively say it is not a bootleg. Anamorphic, great transfer (and great movie too). But it sounds like you did get a better deal with the R3.

harosa

Glad to know it wasnt a boot.

Bill Geiger

Well, I have the R3 Taiwan release of Sleepers. The quality, although I watched on a 27inch Sony TV, appeared very good... except for a couple instances of lip synching which happens in many a dvd anyway.

jrutz

You guys do know quality is not an issue with most DVD boots, since almost any DVD can be copied from it's source almost flawlessly.

Jeremy

darmok

YES, Kim's do sell boots (just check their anime section!), but they do have legit Asian and Euro releases, only very expensive. i'd buy there if i couldn't get it for less online. still, it's a nice to just stop by and see what's out, since they have more niche selections than the local bestbuy or hmv.

flashburn

I don't see how that could be possible, since a lot of movies are dual layer, and you cannot burn 1:1 dual layer dvds.

jrutz

flashburn, I have seen DVD-9 boots, just check the anime section at any Chinatown video store. Also, there was a Shaolin Soccer boot that was sans extras but still sported a perfect transfer - I don't know if this was a DVD-9 though.

Also, just because a DVD is dual-layer doesn't mean it can't be reauthored for a DVD-5 with a negligible difference in quality.

Jeremy

harosa

Regardless of picture quality almost always being identical, I know because I have a bunch of boots of some stuff, the issue is whether you're being told its a boot and being charged legit copy prices. For me, if I had the option of getting something of identical quality for a little cheaper and it was unavailable otherwise Id snap it up, just dont pretend like youre selling me a legit product (or doing me favor, as anyone who goes to Kims and other specialty stores know the clerks there act like) and then charge me as if it was a legit copy.