What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

You remember the days where we started buying just Region 1 NTSC DVDs, and then you realized there were different DVDs getting released in other countries with English subtitles but wouldn't play on your regular DVD player! What was the one DVD that convinced you to research and buy a multi-region DVD player?

For me:

http://www.cine-east.com/catalog/images/avalon.jpg

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

It was actually an entire catalogue of new releases - The Celestial R3 restorations of the Shaw Brothers productions.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Oldboy

I don't recall with absolute certainty but I think it might have been Zhang Yimou's HERO (2002).

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Damn - I don't remember.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Kill Bill

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Good answer. Love that film and release.


As close as I can pin my own experience, it would be ....

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...inger/Musa.jpg

... and ...

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...nger/JSASE.jpg

edited for pic size - at least I thought so.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Not one film, but one film industry: Hong Kong's. By 1997, I realized that high-priced VHS tapes and laserdiscs from Tai Seng (via their Canadian distributor) were only gonna get me so far, and I lived too far from the big city to spend any time scouring Chinatown rental shops for used versions. VCDs would get me a lot further, plus they were as plentiful in Toronto's Chinatown sales shops as they were in the rental shops, so I got a player that had PAL/NTSC and VCD capabilities and started stockpiling during visits to the city. The region-free aspect of the player soon after became an valuable feature once R3 DVDs started turning up on these shores.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

More than likely this one:

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/570...ffairs3jg9.jpg

Although it turned out to be Region 0 (8 Disc Set).

But it could be Yimou Zang's HERO (Region 3) Ace Label.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

+1

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

<a href="http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd114/besh1/?action=view&current=nosf-moc.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd114/besh1/nosf-moc.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

When I heard about MoC's lavish treatment of this title, I decided it was time to go region free. Eleven months later, I can't imagine living without MoC, Second Sight, BFI, Second Run, Artificial Eye, RHV and all of the other wonderful labels who have enriched my knowledge of cinema incalculably.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

... and we have a tie.

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/r...necovlarge.jpg

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/r...CasanovaII.jpg

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

:hump: i've got almost all of their martial arts releases.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

There will be an increasing number of people wishing they'd followed your lead as U.S. releases of these titles become increasingly fewer (so long, BCI! :( ) and the Hong Kong originals continue to go out of print. I'm so glad I didn't wait: 400+ Shaw films and counting (in all their wonderful genres), and I just found a Chinatown shop selling IVL Shaw VCDs 2-for-1 and their Shaw DVDs at 30% off as part of their slowly-going-out-of-business sale (which of course makes me happy and sad at the same time, as they're one of the last legitimate Chinese cinema retailers in the entire city).

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

For me, it was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, originally an R3 release. Sampo 620!

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

pretty lame...but i think "The Hitcher" (R2).

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Honestly, I don't think there was any one title that convinced me to go all region. It was more about the steady accumulation of titles that I realized were only available in other regions.

That being said, I guess the one movie that convinced me to go multi-region would be Kill Bill, and not for the Kill Bill disc. Watching Kill Bill at the movie theater got me more interested in the films that influenced it, which led me to a lot of dead ends in this region and new opportunities in other regions.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Betty Blue

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

It was either the Battle Royale LE DC tin, or the R2 Ichi the Killer.

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

lost highway (when there were no signs of a widescreen R1 release)
spellbound (used criterion prices were ridiculous)
notorious (used criterion prices were ridiculous)

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Re: What Import DVD convinced you to buy a Multi-Region DVD Player?
 

Mine is VERY lame...Family Guy Season One. At the time it had been axed by Fox, it did not air anywhere on Cartoon Network or anywhere else, and it truly appeared as if the show was dead, and not likely to come out on DVD in the US any time in in the future.

I also bought the animated feature Help, I'm A Fish! at the same time. Those were my first two region two purchases.

Mainly the decision to get the region free player was motivated by TV material available in region two than anything else. I am a huge British TV fan and had to get my fix (though I realize Family Guy isn't British...but British TV soon followed!)