Originally posted by othdawg
The great forum films post got me thinking about this.. I still need some kurosawa movies and was wondering if anyone has seen the following for a good price:
1) Rashomon : Seen it, brilliant. Unfortunately the DVD is pricey as hell everywhere I look
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I've got it on pre-order from Amazon. With the preorder discount, Share the Love, and a coupon it's costing me about $44 CDN delivered.
2) Throne of Blood : Never seen this DVD anywhere. Does it exist? Too lazy to check imdb right now
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No DVD release. Probably see it from Criterion in the next year.
3) Ran : This is one of my "must haves". Havent seen the DVD anywhere!
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It's out on DVD, but apparently the quality is terrible. There will probably be a new release in the next year. Maybe from Criterion if they can licence it.
Also, I am dying to find a poster (or 2!) of Toshiro Mifune as Yojimbo/Sanjuro. Havent had any luck yet..
the Kurosawa DVDs I have already are: Seven samurai, Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. All are amazing and all were bought from the US since criterion stuff is outrageous here!!
Criterion really is rediculous. The picture quality isnt all that improved, and there really arent that many extras compared to most new releases these days. So I kind of find the $60 price for some of the discs a *tad* unreasonable! (But thats another thread..)
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Actually, owning about 70 of the Criterion DVDs, and having had the opportunity to compare a few of them to other releases of the same films, I find their quality is usually exceptional. Usually any flaws in the picture are from the source material not Criterion.
Criterion licences films, they don't actual own any, so they have to pay licence fees which increases their cost against other companies. Personally, I don't mind paying the prices to get a decent DVD. While I have no doubt a film like Seven Samurai would get a decent treatment from another studio, I shudder at the thought of how films like Sanjuro and the Hidden Fortress would look. Also, if you are comparing the quality of those DVDs to VHS, keep in mind that the VHS releases were taken from the Criterion Laserdisc restorations and are also very expensive to buy.
The problem with Criterions in Canada is they have two price levels $29.95 US and $39.95 US based on the content of the DVD. These prices are pretty reasonable for Americans, but because there is lousy distribution of them in Canada you often get prices inflated to $60+ after the exchange.
I have averaged about $35-$45 a dvd by buying from Amazon, with coupons and STL. Also, DVD Box Office now has pretty good pricing on Criterions. $34.95 for the $29.95 US ones and $46.95 for the $39.95 ones. You might want to check them out.
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