Reviews written by Jeff
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PUFFY SPIKE Daisakusen (Japan Version)
1 people found the following helpful
July 10, 2007 Amazing, fun and funny!This is possibly the best of PUFFY's concert DVD's, especially if you're already well-acquainted with their "standards" that they play at every show. On this tour, they went a little crazy with the set list, so you'll hear plenty of stuff you won't hear them play anywhere else - including several solo songs (something they rarely do anymore even once during a show, let alone three or four times). There are tons of guests, all of them totally cool. And of course, there's Ami breaking her guitar string during the solo to "SuiSui". I love seeing them both actually play instruments, and Ami even plays the drums (and does it well!) for one song on this DVD. I take off one point for the choppy editing, especially during the "digest" portion near the end of the disc - some of the best songs are in that section and they're spliced together almost randomly. Kind of disappointing. The rest of the disc makes up for it, though. Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
Kamikaze Girls (Hong Kong Version)
Kamikaze Girls (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3
(5)Our Price: US$12.49Usually ships within 1 to 2 daysRelated promotions:9 people found the following helpful
March 9, 2006 GREAT movie, average DVDI'm writing this review more of the Hong Kong DVD than the film. I had a really hard time finding good reviews of the various DVD options for this film before I bought this, so hopefully I can help some other people in the same boat.
The film itself is surprising, fun and ultimately beautiful. It's shot almost like a live-action anime, and reminds me a lot of FLCL (minus the aliens). It's a story about rural alienation, and the way in which the two main characters find each other and ultimately help each other is both hilarious and uplifting.
I bought the Hong Kong DVD because of the poor quality of the US release by Viz Media, which is not even anamorphic and includes hard-coded subtitles. On the plus side, the Viz release does have several extras, but having seen them on a rental, I wanted better picture quality from an anamorphic release.
In most ways, the HK release is vastly superior to the US release in terms of picture quality. It is anamorphic and much crisper than the US release. The subtitles are not hard-coded (they can be turned off), and there are both simplified and traditional Chinese, as well as English subtitles. On the downside, the English subtitles are a bit buggy in that there's a strange white line at the bottom of the screen whenever there's subtitle text being shown (in other words, nearly all the time) - this is not the case for the Chinese subtitles. You likely won't notice it if your TV overscans like most do, but it is annoying watching on a computer or on a digital TV.
Also, the Hong Kong DVD features the same yucky black border as the US release, which both limits resolution and just looks really bad. I assume this is to compensate for overscan, but they really shouldn't be doing this, as digital displays (both computer-based and otherwise) are becoming more common. The solution to overscan is to get rid of it, not compensate for it - DVD's should use the entire picture area available rather than devoting a significant portion of it to the color black. I am not sure if the Japanese or Korean releases have the same issue - I would like to find out.
There are no extras on this DVD whatsoever. It is the film and that's it. For the price, though, you really can't complain - you are paying for the film and nothing more, so that's what you get. If you want extras, buy the Korean version (which supposedly also has English subtitles) - but you'll pay extra for those extras. Or buy the US release and deal with the non-anamorphic, sub-standard picture quality.
Is the Hong Kong DVD the definitive release of this film? No. The Japanese SE probably is, but then it doesn't have English subs. The Korean version has English subs and has extras, but I can't vouch for the picture quality as I haven't seen it. The Hong Kong version's picture is superior to the US release but it does have a few issues... but then again, it is cheap.
This is a film well worth owning one way or another. Which version is best for you depends on your priorities and how much you want to spend.
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