Suggested Japanese/R2 versions of Western films?
 

Hey all,

So I'm fortunate enough to be located near several Japanese bookstores that possess an astonishing array of R2, Japanese editions of American titles.

Now, I know that several R2 Japanese versions of discs are preferred: for example, the R2 "Scream" has the extended cut, while the R2 "Army of Darkness" is the "full-length" MGM version, the R2 Cell has the International cut, the obvious Kill Bill bonuses, and so on and so forth. My question: is there a site out there that catalogs or has a list of movies for which the current R2 Japanese version is the/a preferred version? DVDCompare partially has this feature, but it's incomplete (for example, last I checked it lacked information citing the MGM Japanese "Army of Darkness" as being the longer version...instead, it recommends the HK PAL disc) and, of course, only works if you know what movie you're interested in in advance.

Alternately: does anybody here know of some discs that either have extra bonuses or the sort of plusses noted above in their Japanese editions?

The R2 directors cut of "Chronicles of Riddick" is excellent - includes both versions and DTS. I'm also planning on picking up the version of The Rundown soon too.

If you can find it (probably only used), I'd pick up the R2 trilogy box of Mad Max.

Domestically, Peckinpah's THE DEADLY COMPANIONS is only available in terrible pan-and-scan public domain editions. The Japanese DVD is anamorphically enhanced and look fantastic!

Anthony Mann's "Man of the West" with Gary Cooper, French Region 2 PAL on Carlotta.

Awesome transfer.

Japanese R2 Dawn of the Dead remade, is 2-disc, with DTS and one brife scene not digitally censeored.

This is great info so far. I assume there's not a website compendium of this sort of thing?

If you go to DVDcompare.net, you can search for all best editions by region - including Region 2 -- however IIRC, it won't differentiate between Region 2 European and R2 Japan so you'll have to do some reading. Still very convenient though.