Blu-ray and DVD Sets – A Worrying Trend
Blue-Ray & DVD Set
I have to admit since moving to Japan I haven’t bought many DVDs. I left a collection in the hundreds back in England where DVDs are comparatively cheap with sites like play.com and regular sales in HMV etc.
But in Japan at ¥4000 a pop they’re just too expensive.
I’ve not yet managed to find the equivalent of play yet, and sales of anything are small and infrequent here.
But occasionally a film comes along that I definitely want to add to my collection, and this year it was Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are.
I was eagerly waiting for the DVD release and then, to my huge disappointment, I found Warner Bros. Japan have released it as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo set ONLY! They have separate versions but they’re for Rental only.
What the?
This is just a bizarre idea to me. I cannot see who this benefits least of all Warner Bros sales department.
The way I see it there are 3 scenarios.
- I have a Blu-ray player so I buy the combo set.
I now have a DVD I don’t want or need.
I know I’ll give it to my friend who doesn’t have a blu-ray.
Warner lose a potential sale. - I have a DVD player but no Blu-Ray.
I buy the combo set and give the unneeded Blu-Ray to my brother.
Warner lose a potential sale. - Third and my case scenario. I don’t want to spend ￥4000 on a combo set so I won’t buy it at all.
Warner lose a previously guaranteed sale.
This seems to be a lose/lose situation for Warner and their customers.
I also worryingly saw District 9 (a great movie I was considering buying –
not now ) and Sherlock Holmes are also released in combo sets only (both unfortunately on Warner Japan ).
This seems to be only in Japan as far as I can tell, Europe and America have separate releases.
Can anyone explain the logic behind Warner’s decision here?
3D Movies are a Scam by Movie Companies and Cinemas
Let me start by saying I like 3D movies.
I remember as a kid when they showed Fort Ti (1953) in 1982 on ITV with free 3D glasses from the TV Times, the first film shown in 3D on British TV.
I even had a couple of 3D comics and Captain Eo at Universal Studios was great.
3D Cinema Audience
But I guess I was one of the few people who saw Avatar and thought nice tech demo but why is it 4 hours long? Anyway that’s a different post. The point today is I went and paid the extra ￥400 ($4) for the loan of the glasses as it was the event that was Avatar.
Last weekend I went to see Toy Story 3D and this is where the scam started to reveal itself.
Yet again I had to pay extra for the loan of the glasses. Two things bugged me about this.
1) Do I have to pay this everytime I see a 3D movie?
Read more
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we in the killin’ Nazi business.
Inglourious Basterds
There are admittedly a couple of funny lines and some black comedic drama but more action drama than Abbot & Costello I think.
This movie is an alternative version of the “end” (I assume) of the second world war as seen through the imagination of Quentin Tarantino.
Starring a mutachioed Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa (for which he won a well deserved Ocar), and Eli Roth as Sgt Donny Donowitz amongst others. It involves a group of Jewish soldiers, nicknamed The Basterds by the Germans, sent to France to basically kill Nazis.
There’s also a second plot parallel to this involving a Jewish girl, Shosanna Dreyfuss played by Melanie Laurent with a traumatic background linked to the evil Nazi Hans Landa.
Read more
←Older-----
Blog Ranking – Show Some Love
