THE WORLD IS YOURS…..
The world is full of strange and wonderful cinema. You, like everyone else, is jaded by what is readily available. But wait, what is that I hear? The call of film makers from distant lands with foreign backgrounds, cultures, and influences? Hell yes! Come aboard the good ship lollipop and find new adventures, horrors, and thrills!
Now, I may be preaching to the choir here, but I may not be. If you already have an all region player then I’m going to have to just ask you to be patient, and you might just learn something.
I first purchased a multi-region DVD player while living in Sardinia, Italy a few years ago. Basically mine crapped out, and I’d become smart enough to know that the DVD’s that were readily available to me wouldn’t work on anything else. Guess what? Under a hundred bucks and lasted 2 years. (Math= $100 divided by 48= about $2.08 a month. Good investment in my book.
The awesome thing was, there in Italy you’d go to a news stand that sold magazines, chewing gum, capachinos, etc., and their version of “News Week” would be packaged with a DVD, and usually there were two choices. Now I couldn’t read the magazine, but $10 for a copy of “Green Mile” or “Nine Months” is pretty sweet when the nearest cinema is an hour away on a vomit inducing switchback highway. And they changed every week.
I also learned the value of on-line shopping to go with this. When you’re stuck on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Amazon, Ebay, and Half dot coms become your link to freshness.
Here are some other reasons to go Global DVD good and bad:
1. Early goodness- I watched Shawn Of The Dead and Severance amongst others from the comfort of my own living room BEFORE they hit theaters in America. Chances are if It’s financed by a foreign company, and hits their theaters first, you can bet it hits their store shelves before it hits our theaters. I’ve no qualms about this by the way as I am supporting the movie with sales. Hell, I bought a Russian bootleg of Luc Besson’s Angel-A a month after it hit theaters in France, then bought the Official Collector’s Ed. from France, then a copy from the UK so I could see it subtitled and really understand what the fuck was going on. Then I went to see it in the theater when it finally came to our shores a year and a half after it hit cinemas in France. Dedication to the craft young padawan. I also have the French poster hanging in my living-room. More on why French movie poster rule in another Chudblog…
2. BluRay- Well, I’m not sure what to say about this. I’ve read a little, and I hope that there are or will be region free players that will play DVD and BRDVD from around the world, but at this point I’m still working on upgrading my 8 year old 37″ old-school TV to a much larger flat panel HD plasma. All I know at this point is that my Multi-Region DVD player will jive with the current flat-long TV’s. I’d love to upgrade a few titles, but for the most part I thing my current collection will stay intact regardless of the technology.
3. www.DVDcompare.net; I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest that once you have a Region Free player you should check out this website to find out what DVD version is best for you. Regular movie buffs from around the world (just like you and me) give details on all of the minutia of their regions release. Invaluable when hunting down copies for the best special features. If you’ve gotten this far in the article and are not sold on a Region-Free player go to this website and find out what extra features you’ve been missing from your favorite DVDs.
4, Shopping- Here’s a big one. Got an Amazon and/or Ebay account? Guess what? You can shop at their overseas websites too. Your login and passwords are the same. I’m not getting any kick backs for this, but you belong to:
eBay.fr, UK, etc.
for Amazon, just go to the very bottom of the homepage and click on a country. Any country. Your info (login & password) is all there at the other website and you can browse and shop your heart out. Maybe even learn a little of a foreign language. Bloody good stuff.
My only cautions for this is watch the exchange rates & subtitles/languages. My experience is that when I’ve ordered from Amazon UK or Germany (directly, not used), when I get to checkout the item is actually lower than what was originally listed on the page by a pound or so (average by DVD). No idea why, but I’m not going to argue with saving some cash. If you know Ebay, then really watch the shipping prices, they can be fucking huge from Europe! Look for a seller who’s got a good price for that just like you would an American seller on the “.com” site. Here’s a good website to help with the $$$ math if you’re not great at it (neither am I):
HTTP://www.Xe.com/
Also, make sure you know what languages are available on the disc for audio and subtitles. I watched Miike’s “ZebraMan” for 2 years in Japanese before it was available dubbed. No big deal, I studied Japanese for 6 years, but the dubbed allowed me to really enjoy it. I’m down with subs, but if I’m going to get the actor’s emotions I’d rather watch it dubbed the first time. Thank Odin I did that for my first Viewing of Oldboy, otherwise I would have missed the amazing cinematography and acting.
5. Steelbook Fan? Guess what? The Germans and English are kicking our asses in that arena, just like Futbol. If you’re a fan of the steelbook you’d be doing yourself a favor (and your bank account a disfavor) by going Multi-Region. They far out pace the U.S. in steelbooks. My personal favorite example is the Fight Club UK version has a way better cover than the U.S. version of the steelbook; a bar of pink soap versus Pitt and Norton looking fucked up. No contest. Take a look and you will be happy, but poor.
6. What the fuck? Is the movie any good? Well, IMDB tends to cast a long shadow over foreign releases for no real viable reason at all. Fuck those home grown dumbasses! So, here’s a way you can read reviews from regular schmucks who’s country the movie comes from without actually learning another language. If you’re interested in a title, but it’s from another country, go to their version of Amazon. Then use this website to plug in either the whole page URL (which doesn’t always work), or a single review in the big box.
7. Last, but not least. Here are some titles for you to check out once you get that Region Free player:
Dobermann (France)
[REC] (Spain)
UN Ticket Pour L’Espace (France)
Howard The Duck (Germany)
That’s it for my first CHUBLOG.
Take care of each other, and PARTY ON DUDES!
Mickey Crimson
P.S. Special thanks to all at CHUD, especially the amazing pod-cast crew.