That's good to know, I've only seen the film once so far, but am looking forward to seeing it again. I was thinking of inviting a couple friends over too (those who liked Shaolin Soccer, and aren't afraid of subs).

You're probably right about 2046 too. In fact, now that I think of it, I think I've always watched Wong Kar Wai films by myself (not necessarily intentionally, it just happened that way). But yeah, it does seem like the best way to watch Wong's films.

nodoubt, i have an extra copy of the official R3 release, if you still need it. PM me.

Darmok

Ygm

Wow, Sony's pulling out all the stops, releasing this wide to 2,500 theaters this weekend. I'm planning on seeing it tonight. Anyone else going to see it this weekend?

I'm gonna see it tomorrow and I'm taking a couple of friends who hardly ever watch HK movies too

I saw this film over the weekend after havning already seen it on DVD. I just want to say that even if you've already seen it on DVD:

The film is 10x better on the Big Screen!

I saw it today and had a blast. The most entertaining movie I've seen since The Incredibles. I got home and placed an order for the single disc through HK Flix and after I ordered it I saw it was backordered. I hope it's a genuine case of them being out-of-stock with more on the way and not a Sony strong-arm tactic.

Definately a "strong-arm" tactic. It says on the site that if you are in the US, Sony won't allow you to order it and your order will be cancelled.

It's so stupid. It's not like people can't order it from overseas shops.

Sony bastards!!!! Guess they don't realize that if they offer better versions of a movie, as in more & subtitled special features, as in House of Flying Daggers, people will buy both. Looks like I'll have to try elsewhere.

Yeah. Say, ordering from DDDHouse plus shipping is still cheaper

I got mine from DDDHouse too. Great little company. I try to give them all my business since they hold a wider range of stock than CDWow plus I like supporting that type of company.

Loved the film.




I'll recommend Shaolin Soccer too. I don't know how Stephen Chow does it but he fills his films with characters I love. I don't like Jacky Chan but I like Chow's work.

If buying Shaolin Soccer make sure you get the full version as Miramax are messing with it.

The Miramax DVD contains both the full version and their edit of the film. So buying the R1 is a perfectly viable option.

Yeah, but who wants to support Miramax? 20 minutes cut from the US version.

And the Region 0 (plays in all players) disc has dts.

No brainer.

I had no problem getting it from CDWow for $16.95 shipped. Hard to beat.

Nobody hated the Miramax cut more than I, check my back posts. However, Miramax did do good for the DVD. Factor in that those responsivle are now out of Miramax, and that Miramax got the point about their edit from the theatrical run, it's fine to support a DVD release that actually has the full version with original language.

It also has a zoomed in transfer of a dirty print, as well as the requirement of pressing 'play' on your remote at specific points during the film in order to view the extended scenes. Both editions have problematic subtitles. So it's not a really clear-cut issue.

Believe it or not, there's actually a sizable number of people who'd rather not do their own importing. It's certainly not stopping all of the importing, but it's probably cutting down on a good percentage of those imports.

It's like how region encoding is still effective since so many people still have region-locked players, despite the wide availablity and ease of getting a region-free player.

And for one, I'm upset at all at Sony for trying to limit imports. This is a release that the studio has put a large amount of investment into. The turnaround from the Hong Kong release has only been a matter of months, and the film is being presented in a manner entirely respectful to the original version (original language subtitled, original edit). If ever there was a distributor that deserved to profit from a release, it's the domestic arm of Sony Pictures Classics that handled this one.

on July 17, Sony Japan will release, 4 (!) DVD versions on KFH.

start with the Collector's box:

Y7,980
-2.35:1 16x9
-Cantonese Dolby 5.1
-Japanese Dub Dolby 5.1
-Japanese or English Subtitles

Disc 1:
-Audio Commentary with cast and crew
-Making Of Documentary
-Theatrical Trailers

Disc 2:
-Deleted Scenes
-NG Scenes (Outtakes)
-Stephen Chow Interview
-TV Spots

Also:
-Photo Album
-Postcards
-Movie leaflets
-T Shirt

Standard Edition:

Y3,980
(Just Disc 1 of the Collectors Box, same contents)

SuperBit Edition

Y4,980
(Minus the extras and adding a Cantonese DTS track)

PSP edition

Dont know about the extras on this one.......

All versions have english subs it seems.
For the movie only and not the extras,
but this looks to be the first release of KFH with significant extras.

Huh? I'm not sure I understand that first line of your reply, as that means those people are having someone else import it for them, which is what I'm talking about to begin with. Do you mean that there are a sizeable number of people who don't buy imports at all? If so, I would agree.

It's only effective for people who don't care or who don't know anything about it. Region coding is a complete joke for anyone who is interested in expanding their DVD horizons. If studios were smart, they would realize that region coding only limits overall sales and pushes some people toward bootlegs and downloads.

You are right that they deserve to profit, but who do you think is profiting from the DVD releases overseas? It's Sony Pictures Classics. If you are buying a legitimate version, you are allowing Sony to profit regardless of what country the DVD comes from. And I think there is much more to it. The number of people who import DVD's is a small percentage, and most of them, as is proven on this forum will buy multiple copies of the same title, especially when there is something more offered (as D.Zero pointed out). These are also the people who get excited about a foreign movie like Kung Fu Hustle and will spread positive word of mouth about it once they see it, which will actually increase the interest once it hits movie theaters here in the US. Take that away, and you could argue that it could possibly reduce the ticket sales.

Look at Miramax and the movie Hero. That movie was out on DVD forever in other countries, despite the attempt to stop imports, and it did very well at the box office and in DVD sales.

My point is, that the people who are interested in importing movies are not a threat to any kind of profitability for the studios. If anything, they bring the studio more money and help their cause worldwide. The idea that someone can sit at their computer and buy a DVD from a store in Hong Kong but not buy that same DVD from a store in the US is just plain stupid.

I agree that many people don't buy imports. I was talking about those within the group of import buyers who don't import the films personally, but buy from others who do. By stopping parallel importing, you are stopping these people from purchasing the film.

That doesn't mean it isn't effective. Your personal opinions about region coding aside, the fact remains most people still own and purchse region encoded machines and never bother changing them.

Having a price tag limits sales and pushes some people toward bootlegs and downloads. That doesn't mean the studios should give the film away for free. And often a film can be released by different studios or divisions in different countries, so studio's aren't concerned so much about "overall" sales as they are with their sales.

Actually, it's Columbia, and probably an Asian division of that studio as well. Now it's true that they have the same parent company, but studio divisions are responsible for their own profit and costs. Saying it all goes back to Sony doesn't eradicate the fact that the division responsible for the wide and respectful release of the film in the US will not see a dime of the R3 DVD. Which is why they'd want to limit sales of it.

Word of mouth is helpful. And I did go see the film and spread good word about it after renting the R3. However, since you've argued that that this small percentage are going to import the DVD regardless of region coding or parallel importing, then the steps Sony has done to limit the film doesn't affect that group at all. So doesn't it make sense for Sony to want to make steps to insure that not everyone has seen the film before it hits theaters?

But Miramax tried to limit the DVD sales of imports of that film as well. So it actually supports my argument, not detract from it.

If it has no effect, why are you complaining about it?

wohoo!! this is what i've been waiting for! cos iam not impressed at all with the hong kong and the korean sets...i dont know why ppl liked them...i mean they are heavy and they cost alot to ship and they have no extras.

the japanese one is the one to buy.

what's your source? any pix?

CDjapan has specs and pics up of the Japanese sets:

Warning! potential spoilers for the film:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=BP-210
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TSDD-36423
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=SB-36423

But it doesn't stop parallel importing, as those people are perfectly free to buy from shops in other countries. If they chose not to, that's a different point entirely. That's also a very tiny group you are talking about. The idea that stopping that handful of people from buying imports is going to make a big enough difference in profits is laughable.

Of course it's not effective. The people you are talking about have nothing to do with the effectiveness of region coding, as most don't even know what region coding is, and they don't care since they would never import movies to begin with. Not to mention that you can walk into almost any home video retailer today and find a DVD player that will play all regions out of the box, or one that only requires the pressing of a few buttons on the remote to make it all region.

I'm saying that it doesn't necessarily hurt domestic sales at the box office. While the domestic arm might not see a direct profit from the sale of an R3 DVD, they can see increased profit from it in indirect ways, such as positive word of mouth or the ability to sell the rights for a higher price.

My point exactly. It actually helps them. So why try to stop that from happening? And why, since you seem to be arguing that Sony should limit imports and people shouldn't buy them, would you rent them and then argue against the sale of them?

The people who can/will import the disc regardless of what Sony does are the bulk of the people who Sony is trying to stop from seeing it in the first place. So no, it doesn't make sense.

Their failure to stop import DVD sales supports your argument? As you say, they "tried" to limit the sales, but in fact it did nothing but anger people and causes some people to go out of their way not to support Miramax.

I'm hoping that you don't really need an answer to that question.

You don't know what parallel importing is, do you? It's not someone buying a copy overseas for themselves, that's direct importing, and legal. Parallel importing is buying a copy overseas and then reselling it here, basically distributing it in the US. It's interfering with the distribution rights of the studio which may have paid a handsome sum for those rights. Basically it's to prevent retailers from having DVD copies on the shelves while the film is in theaters, or even later competing directly with the domestic DVD. The online retailers are only a small portion of retailers the studio limits, but I don't see why they should be exempt.

How do you know how small that group is? Look at Kabeej's posts earlier in this thread to see someone who was limited by region coding. This group of exists, and while it's speculation, it's probably larger than the group of people who do circumvent region codes and import directly.

It's more to stop any large-scale distribution of region-free, quality releases in major stores and such. But again, I don't see why the smaller ones should be exempt.

Not directly import, but there are a number of people who would buy them if they were more readily available. Could you see how much loss of ticket sales there would be if people could go into their local Blockbuster and get a R0 copy of this film before its release here? I don't see why it's "stupid" to keep the title from being readily available.

Most of those stay region coded though. Even the relative ease of remote hacks are more than some people are willing to research and perform. I've told many a member on this board that their DVD player can play that R3 disc they weren't going to buy because they never thought to modify it.

Actually, you originally said that you thought the domestic arm would see profits from that sale somehow, since it's all "the same company." And indirect ways are just that, indirect, and thus hard to actually judge the value of. Meanwhile, a studio can see a $16 import purchase and see that as $16 they didn't get.

In that instance of me supporting Kung Fu Hustle despite already seeing it: maybe. I would've seen it in theaters and boosted it to my friends even if I hadn't seen the DVD. In this case, the most the import DVD is not hurt, it didn't really help.

Also, I completely avoided Hero and House of Flying Daggers in theaters because I had already seen them on DVD. If I hadn't I would've seen them in theaters. So personally, importing hurt two films' domestic release while it didn't hurt the other. Although I suspect I may have already seen Kung Fu Hustle twice in theaters if I hadn't seen it on DVD already.

I'm not really arguing that people shouldn't import. I'm just saying it's not "stupid" on Sony's part to try and limit that. They have sound economic reasoning behind limiting imports and region coding. And they are within their legal rights concerning the limits they are imposing. As far as importing goes, Sony is incredibly lenient. Pokerindustries and others still have imports of other films Sony has released on DVDs. It's only movies with theaterical releases they get touchy about.


If the people were going to direct import anyway, where does Pokerindustries get its business?

Where does it say they failed? I said they limited sales, which they probably did. Certainly most of the people who saw Hero in theaters hadn't seen it yet. Hero import DVDs didn't florish on retailer shelves, despite many of them being region free.

Most of the anger at Miramax was in the way they dragged their ass in releasing the film. You really have no proof it did "nothing" as far as limiting sales. In fact, all your judgements on how everyone else acts seem based on your own personal actions, even though being a direct importer with a region free player makes you a minority of a minority.

Well, my copy shipped from CD-Wow today. I'm looking forward to watching it again and if Sony offers an upgrade when they release the R1, I'll probably pop for that as well. Plus, I've been telling all my friends to go see the thing, so I've done my bit for the Sony empire and Kung Fu Hustle.

You offer only your own judgements and speculations, and no facts or proof of your own. If you want to engage in a discussion that's great, but lose the hypocrisy.