Japan-made DVD quality

[Michael E Kerpan Jr]

Ted Mills wrote:

>Could anyone comment on the quality of DVDs coming from Japan? Because of
>their price, .... Seeings we're talking about many
>of these classics coming out soon (the Ichikawa and Teshigahara sets for
>example), I'd be curious as to how close the Japanese companies get to
>matching the U.S.'s--generally--high standards. 
>
So far, most of the Japanese DVDs I've seen have been of very good 
quality.  For instance, the Buena Vista releases of Ghibli films have 
been first-rate in every respect (except perhaps the use of dub-titles 
instead of real subtitles in some cases).  Early DVD (1998-9) releases 
sometimes had little or nothing in the way of menus (or extras), but 
were otherwise fine.  I haven't gotten any Japanese stinkers (knock on 
wood), but I don't know that I've gotten enough DVDs to constitute a 
representative sample.

>That is, all except for
>FoxLorber who should be shut down entirely.
>
I think you are being overly generous to American companies.  New 
Yorker's offerings have often been quite disappointing.  Image's stuff 
is variable. But FoxLorber's Yi Yi was prety bad -- and their pan-n-scan 
release of Puppetmaster is not supposed to be so great.

Michael Kerpan
Boston. MA