LD#02: An introduction to Japanese import LDs Revised: 10 Jul 93 Part: 1 of 4 Rev: 10 Jul 93 Part: 2 of 4 Rev: 24 Mar 91 Part: 3 of 4 Rev: 30 Apr 92 Part: 4 of 4 Rev: 14 Jul 92 Note 2002-07-14: Production of LDs may already have ceased in Japan, but it did so after North America, so there may yet be import LD titles that were never released in N.A. Japan uses the NTSC American television standard, and is therefore was the only major laser disc market outside the U.S. that was potentially a source for North American consumers. With the prevalence of multi-standard LD players in Europe, import of NTSC discs (both US and Japanese) to PAL countries was a significant business. That is not the topic of this import article. The purpose of this series of articles is to share what I learned about Japan->NA sales. .-----------------------------------------------------------------------. | Market Attribute (typical) | North America | Japan | |=============================+====================+====================| | Television & LD standard | M/NTSC | M/NTSC | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Media list price range | $25-50 | $50-100 | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Installed base of players | 400,000 | 2,000,000 | | Circa 1993 | | | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Available titles | 6,000 | 10,000 | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | "Foreign" dialog processing | Dubbed English | Japanese subtitles | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | English closed-captioning | Often | Never | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Typ. widescreen processing | Pan&scan, shifting | Pan&scan, with | | | to mat/letterbox | many mat/letterbox | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Censorship | None to speak of | Yes: See narrative | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Typ. product documentation | Skimpy | Extensive, but... | |-----------------------------+--------------------+--------------------| | Typical LD rotational mode | CLV | CLV | `-----------------------------------------------------------------------' Legality: ======== Many Japanese LDs bear U.S. copyrights and a legend stating "For Sale only in Japan". As with CDs (LPs and books, for that matter), if there is a U.S. copyright holder for the work, they can theoretically prohibit or otherwise regulate commercial import of the work. Consequently, few dealers will STOCK imports copyrighted in the U.S. (without permission of the U.S. holder). Several CD retailers have been busted for stocking "parallel imports" or are under consent decree to cease and desist. Works copyrighted only in Japan are evidently not a problem. (Grey market hardware is also generally not a problem from a legal standpoint.) However, under a provision of U.S. copyright law, there is apparently an exclusion allowing individuals to import works for their own use. (I have not researched this, and the Berne Convention may or may not alter it in the future.) Consequently, it is legal to personally bring back discs from Japan. Since few of us go there or have contacts, U.S. mail order firms are interpreting this exclusion to mean that they can act as your agent, and individually import works for you on a per-order basis. So, yes, you could get any LD in print, but it took a couple of months, or more. Also, the price you'd pay depended on the value of the Yen at the time your dealer got the order acknowledged from Japan. If one currency moved strongly against the other in the meantime, you could get a pleasant or nasty surprise. Pricing: ======= If you had a yen for an import, but have hesitated, it is probably because of price. A Japanese title would cost you roughly twice the identical domestic release. This was not due to the expense of importing it; for example, if you examined a stateside import catalog, you will notice that they state local Japanese prices in Yen. A typical price was 7800 Yen, or about $78.00 before shipping charges. None of the importers that I am aware of offered any discounts on imports. The high prices were due in part to the weakness of the dollar against the Yen, but there also seemed to be major structural differences between the U.S. and Japanese LD markets. It appears that Japanese producers deliberately kept prices high, much as U.S. video tape producers did in the early days of VCRs (and often still do during the first year or so of many new tape releases). Producers in Japan were able to prevent a rental market from developing, which means the consumer buys the LD, or doesn't get to see it at all. Pioneer announced in July 1993 that they would support the introduction of rentals. I never saw any follow-up reports on where that proposal went. High tape prices failed as a sell-thru strategy in the U.S., for several reasons. The courts threw out the "fair trade" laws many years ago, eliminating direct control of retail prices by producers. We also have the "doctrine of first sale", which implicitly allows people to rent whatever they buy (and the studios get no rental royalties). Instead of milking an end-user sell-thru market, the studios unwittingly created a massive tape rental market. In the early 1990s, U.S. producers experimented with lower first-release prices, in an attempt to bypass the rental market and sell huge quantities directly to end users ("E.T." and some Disney titles are examples). Sell-thru is now more common for VHS and DVD. I have a feeling that legal and market conditions are vastly different in Japan. Product distribution is an elaborate multi-layer scheme, with prices virtually dictated by the original producer at all levels. I have been told that there are no LD rentals in Japan, probably a result of legal conditions. Incidentally, the Yen price of a Japanese title is often encoded into the initial digits of the catalog number. For example, on those I had... Title Label Catalog No. Yen Invoice (incl. ship.) Dragonslayer Bandai LA098L14046 9800 $90.50 ^^^ Local Hero Tohokushinsha K88L-5061 8800 $85.89 ^^ Tune-Up A.V. Sony 50LS5023 5000 $56.50 ^^ The bottom line: a Japanese LD title is expensive. The question becomes: is it worth it? Features, Advantages, Benefits: ============================== What can a Japanese disc provide that you can't get here? * Titles unavailable on domestic discs - easily over half the Japanese catalog were titles never released on disc in the U.S.; for example (until recently), "Local Hero" above, a huge number international animation works, and of course, domestic Japanese productions. * Widescreen - the Japanese video consumer apparently prefers original aspect ratios, and prefers original language dialog. Matting and letterboxing not only preserve the image, they also allow the Japanese subtitles to appear outside the image. The space needed for the subtitles is also apt to cause the image to be closer to the full original aspect ratio, and not just less severely cropped. A few years ago, Japan was the leading source of widescreen LDs. A few titles are still only available in W/S from Japan, but they are rapidly losing their leadership as US labels discover that domestic LD purchasers prefer original aspect ratios. In some cases, a title will now be available in w/s in the US, but be pan&scan in Japan. Japanese catalogs (in translation) often phonetically specify widescreen transfers as either "VistaVision" or "Cinemascope". These terms roughly approximate the domestic terms "matted" and "letterboxed", with respective aspect ratio ranges of 1.50-to-1.85:1 and 1.9-to-2.35:1. * Original running times - due to the desire of U.S. theatre owners to run more than one screening per evening, and the industry's low estimate of the American attention span, U.S. releases are sometimes shorter than the original director's cut. This is particularly true for imported films. "The Last Emperor" ran 2 hours 9 minutes in U.S. theatres (and on the Nelson discs). Laser Disc Newsletter (LDN) reports that the Japanese LD set runs 3 hours 39 minutes. * Original language - if you are interested in non-English works, and hate dubbing, a Japanese disc is more likely to provide the original dialog (albeit with Japanese subtitles). Incidentally, even on U.S.-sourced works, if the original film had English subtitles (e.g. the bar scene in "Star Wars"), that English may be absent (or be in Japanese) on the Japanese disc. * On the other hand, if you don't mind dubbing, some Japanese discs are "multi-audio", and have between two and four different soundtracks on them. You may be able to obtain a domestically unreleased title with English on one of the channels. Obviously a four-channel disc requires a player with digital audio capability. * Side break frames - Japanese discs are more likely to fade to black at side end, and resume the feature immediately on the subsequent side. Until 1990, U.S. releases (except for Criterion) often displayed an End-of-Side title and begin subsequent sides with the idiotic zooming LaserVision logo. Frameless side switching is much less distracting, especially if you have a multi-side player or autochanger. Fortunately, new domestic releases are shifting to frameless side changes. * Chapter marks and digital subcode TOC (Table of Contents) - Japanese discs used to be more likely to have them. * Liner notes - The three imports I have include inserts with extensive text, and in the case of "Dragonslayer", still photos. The disc jacket artwork appears to have been created specifically for disc, rather than being a rehash of the VHS package. The only comparable treatment in the U.S. was on the Criterion Collection label. Unfortunately, the supplemental material included with the imports is all in Japanese :-( * Alternate disc rotation modes - Although "Star Wars" is now available in a letterboxed domestic edition (and a nice one at that), it is CLV. If you want CAV, you'll have to import until the THX editions arrive. Caveats: ======= * On-image subtitles - Works filmed in 1.37:1 Academy ratio, or cropped (panned-and-scanned) down to the 1.33:1 TV ratio, or filmed for soft- matte but transfered full-frame, will almost certainly have the Japanese subtitles in the picture, usually horizontally on the bottom or vertically on one side. Even some widescreen discs have subtitles in-picture. This happens when the only available "master" is a Japanese theatrical print or internegative with the titles already present, and/or the producer can't justify re-mastering the theatrical release for video. * Censorship - Genital nudity (male or female) is verboten in Japan. Although there appear to be a large number of "adult" titles, the exposure is evidently limited to breasts. This puritanism is a legacy of General MacArthur's administration of Japan during the post-war occupation (but then, so is the convenient fact that they use NTSC instead of PAL, SECAM or something invented locally.) Even in such "socially redeeming" works as George Lucas' "THX 1138" the offending details have been airbrushed or digitally scrambled out. As far as sex is concerned, if the film you seek bears anything beyond a [PG-13] rating, make sure you can tolerate tampering before ordering. "THX 1138" was fortunately finally released in the US in 1992, in an uncensored letterboxed version. Violence does not seem to be censored; however, LDN reports that scenes of WW-II Japanese attrocities in China were trimmed in the Japanese release of "The Last Emperor". * Language - If the work was filmed in English, odds are that the original soundtrack will be present, but don't assume it. If the work was not English, be very careful. The Sight&Sound import catalog had a column for this. * Source quality - particularly for U.S. films. The Japanese producers may have had to make their video master from an ordinary projection print, and may not had access to an inter(neg/pos) much less the camera negatives. Consequently, don't assume that the Japanese version of a random 1963 film will improve on the faded color of the domestic disc. * Pressings - On two of the three discs I listed above, only the style of the "mint marks" provide clues as to who pressed them. Even one of my Japanese co-workers can find no printed information on the disc jackets about the manufacturer on the other two. If you are avoiding discs pressed by a particular vendor, you may have trouble getting information. So How Can You Tell? =================== Having now cautioned you about disc contents, you are doubtless wondering how to collect the necessary "decision support data". The answers were: * Subscribe to LDN. Douglass Pratt reviews significant imports. His compilation book "The Laser Video Disc Companion", includes a number of those reviews. * Order an actual Japanese catalog from Sight&Sound (about $15.00). Don't expect me to translate it for you :-) I have a report that new editions of the Japanese catalog "LD Review" include cover art photos only for new releases. * Patronize mail-order dealers who provide the information in English. Swell, sez you. Where do THEY get it? Well, it turns out that the Japanese are fanatics for detail. Based on the discs I have, the vendors seem to conform to a standard set of data blocks on the disc jacket. They list: price, catalog number, rotational encoding (CAV/CLV), running time, video encoding (color/NTSC), sound (mono/stereo/surround/CX/digital), aspect ratio and presumably language. This level of detail is reflected in actual Japanese LD catalogs I have seen. At least one domestic importer (Sight&Sound) carefully translates and transcribes all this and more into their own import catalog. Mistakes are made, however, on both sides. The Sony "Tune-Up A.V." claims to be "CLV" right on the disc jacket. It is CAV. Now Before You Pick up the Phone... ================================ Make sure you actually need an import. It would be a shame if you went off-shore for a disc already available. Despite the smaller size of the LD market in the U.S., there is surprising choice in disc presentations of individual titles. Just because the old MGM/UA disc of "2001" is cropped beyond belief, don't assume that it's your only choice (there were at least four widescreen versions domestically). In particular, look for Criterion Collection releases. CC no longer sells LDs, but those in the resale market are the equal of any imports. End of Part 1 of 4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ re: a review of an Academy-ratio Japanese import LD Part: 2 of 4 Revised: 24 Mar 91 In the accompanying discussion of imports, I mentioned... Title Label Catalog No. Yen Invoice (incl. ship.) Dragonslayer Bandai LA098L14046 9800 $90.50 Local Hero Tohokushinsha K88L-5061 8800 $85.89 Tune-Up A.V. Sony 50LS5023 5000 $56.50 I have a brief article on "Tune-Up" available, but both the disc and the discussion are skippable. This article covers the first of the other two. Local Hero ========== For those unfamiliar with the work: "Local Hero" (1983) is Bill Forsyth's unpredictable and whimsical story of a yuppie Huston oil company site negotiator (Peter Rigert) dispatched by eccentric exec Burt Lancaster to purchase an entire coastal village in Scotland. Mark Knopfler composed and performed the score. Until March 1991 this film was not available on a domestic U.S. LD. It is one of my favorites, and had it been available, I would have bought an LD player many years earlier than I did. It is now available on Warner Bros. catalog# 11307. The difference between the import and the new domestic disc are evidence of the maturation of the domestic LD market. Disc K88L-5061 has the following attributes: Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 Soundtrack: English, mono CX analog Subtitles: White, one or two horizontal lines near bottom of frame Running time: 107 minutes (compared to 111 for the theatrical release) Chapter marks: None Side change: Frameless (black) Timecode res.: 1 second Manufacturer: Markings consistent with Pioneer Video Corp., Japan List Price: 8800 Yen (about $88) Other: Extensive liner note insert (in Japanese). Domestic disc 11307 has the following attributes: Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 Soundtrack: English, mono digital and CX analog Subtitles: Running time: 112 minutes Chapter marks: 29 Side change: Frameless (black) Timecode res.: 1 second Manufacturer: Pioneer Video, Inc. (USA) List Price: $34.95 Other: Closed-captioned The import K88L-5061 runs 5 minutes less than WB 11307. LH is a [PG] film, so there was nothing to censor. K88L is missing a few seconds of one scene (Happer picking up the phone in his kitchen for the second time). It is not critical and was probably omitted because Japanese phones can't behave that way and the audience would have been confused. Where are the rest of the missing five minutes? Answer: the import is time-compressed. When I synced up the two discs to find the missing time, the sound on K88L was constantly getting ahead of the picture on WB 11307. It appears that two or three times per second, a field is dropped during a 3-2 pulldown. Since the disc media could hold 120 minutes, I have to assume that the Japanese video transfer was originally done for broadcast, and the time was trimmed for commercials. Another more sinister explanation for the missing 5 minutes is that the video transfer was originally done in PAL (where 4% speedup to match the 24fps film to 25fps PAL video is common), and the Japanese disc was mastered via standards conversion from PAL to NTSC. Yuk. WB 11307 also has a sharper image, truer colors, clearer sound and less video noise. It is clearly a new, quite possibly digital, video transfer. Both discs are presented in the same framing. Having never seen the film in a theatre, I am not certain what the original aspect ratio was (probably 1.66:1 soft matte), and the on-screen credits provide no clue. In any case, there is no obvious cropping. Consequently, it is difficult to make a case that the LH disc should have been letterboxed, with the subtitles (if any) placed below the image. Regarding the subtitles: although I have seen the work several times, and presumably would pay less attention to the main action, I found that I tuned-out the subtitles most of the time. They were only evident when their content was numeric or roman characters (as when the Danny Olson character is not speaking English). The numbers are slightly distracting because they don't necessarily match the dialog. Dollars are evidently converted to Yen and measurements to metric! A co-worker who borrowed the disc also reported that neither he nor his wife were bothered by the subtitles. I obtained K88L through "Laser Island" in Brooklyn. It took three months to get. Dealing with Laser Island (and presumably Juke Box Japan) was a pain, because they didn't accept credit card orders. You had to call for a price estimate, send a deposit check for 20% of that amount, wait for notification of disc importation, send a check for the balance, then wait for shipment. Personal checks (as opposed to money orders or certified checks) slow the already-laborious process. The Bottom Line: =============== At the time, the import disc was the only game in town, and was almost exactly what I expected. (The catalogs didn't mention the CX encoding.) I have no regrets about the purchase, but anyone wanting a copy of "Local Hero" will be happier with the clearly superior WB 11307. End of Part 2 of 4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ re: a review of a letterbox Japanese import LD Part: 3 of 4 Revised: 24 Mar 89 This is the second of two reviews. Dragonslayer ============ For those unfamiliar with the work: This is a 1981 Disney film, directed and written by Mathew Robbins. It is not necessarily for children, and were it remade today, it would probably be a TouchStone release. Set in 6th century England, the premise is that dragons (and wizards) were real. The king is sacrificing virgins to placate the regional reptile. A band of villagers, headed by Caitlin Clarke, petition aging wizard Ralph Richardson to help. The job ends up involving his apprentice, Peter MacNicol. ILM did the special effects. The dragon was ILM's first use of the "go-motion" model animation technique. I had never seen "Dragonslayer", and originally bought the cropped domestic LD release only because it was $13 in the used-disc rack. I expected a predictable "swords and sorcery" flick, and was surprised to discover an intelligent work with convincing production values (and, for Disney, a surprisingly casual contempt for religion). The brief nudity in one scene is not censored on either disc. Comparative attributes: The domestic disc Dragonslayer Paramount LV 1367 $29.95 list Aspect ratio: Cropped to 1.33:1 Soundtrack: English, CX (Dolby surround, not documented on jacket) Running time: 110 minutes Chapter marks: None Side change: "End of Side" frame, zooming LV logo at start of side. Timecode res.: 1 minute Manufacturer: Pioneer Video Corp., Japan (Note: The domestic PVI repressing of this title has 1 second codes) The import Dragonslayer Bandai LA098L14046 9800 Yen $90.50 paid Aspect ratio: 2.0:1 letterboxed Panavision, near top of screen Soundtrack: English, CX and digital Dolby surround (documented) Subtitles: White, one or two horizontal lines below frame Running time: 110 minutes Chapter marks: 11 Side change: Frameless (black) Timecode res.: 1 second Manufacturer: Markings consistent with CBS/Sony, Japan "Dragonslayer" was filmed in 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision 35. The domestic disc (LV1367) is obviously cropped. A lot of ILM's work on the dragon is simply chopped away. Main characters are missing from scenes, particularly group scenes. In a scene where magic fails the apprentice, you can't see that a crowd is witnessing it. The credit roll after the movie, which begins some time before fade-to-black, is anamorphically squeezed, even though the credits would have fit if the frame was merely cropped! However, all of this is no surprise to those of you familiar with the problems of pan-and-scan. Furthermore on LV1367, the images are grainy, the colors are a little washed out and one shot is reversed (disrupting up the continuity). The side change titles are distracting. How does the import fare? ======================== The LA098L14046 "Dragonslayer" is one of several widescreen Disney films which were re-released by Bandai (Japan) during 1991 in letterbox format. There are vague rumors of a letterboxed release in the U.S., but at the time I ordered L14046, Disney was denying them. On the Bandai disc, the image is darker, crisper and seems to have more detail, despite the smaller size of objects compared to pan and scan. Some scenes have extraneous brightness at the bottom edge of the frame. This is not a serious problem, and appears to be a video mastering defect, not a disc error, and is not correlated with the presence of subtitles. "Dragonslayer" is a dark movie for the most part, and the bright subtitles would be very distracting but for the fact that they are below the frame. I attached some velcro pads to the monitor bezel and strung a strip of black polyethelyne across the screen, and - poof! end of subtitle problem. Aside: there is a lot of authentic Latin dialog in "Dragonslayer". The subtitles display it as well as the English, but I can't tell if the text is translated or phonetic. I obtained the disc through "Sight & Sound" (aka Wok Talk) in Waltham Mass. It took six weeks and was trivial to order. One phone call, a credit card number, and the disc simply appeared six weeks later. The charge did not appear on the card account until shipment. However, don't assume that six weeks is typical. The companion letterboxed import "Twenty Thousand Leagues..." never showed up at all. Unfortunately, Bandai's rights reportedly ran out, and these two works, as well as "Tron" and "Mary Poppins" will be unobtainable in widescreen until Buena Vista takes over LD production for Disney in Japan. When re-issued, they may not be in exactly the same presentation format, so beware. The bottom line: =============== I am very satisfied. Even if "Dragonslayer" appears in a domestic letterbox release, I might skip it and keep this import. End of Part 3 of 4 Regards, PO Box 248 Bob Niland Enterprise mailto:name@isp-name.domain Kansas which, due to spam, is: 67441-0248 USA rjn AT access DASH one DOT com Unless otherwise specifically stated expressing personal opinions and NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ re: Legend for Japanese catalogs Part: 4 of 4 Revised: 14 Jul 92 This section contributed by: jayembee (Jerry.Boyajian@eds.com) Date: Wed, 20 May 1992 09:03:31 GMT Subject: Re: Japanese LD-Catalog abbreviations Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Path: nntpd.lkg.dec.com!engage.pko.dec.com!ruby.enet.dec.com!boyajian Newsgroups: rec.video.releases Here's how to interpret the symbols in the Japanese LD catalogs. This isn't all of them, but just the ones most relevant to the "Movies" sections. Obviously, not all of the following symbols appear on every given entry. The definitions of each symbol is given in a "code key" toward the back of the catalog. Anything appearing in <" "> is a transliteration of the Japanese katakana where they are actually spelling English words phonetically. I don't really read or speak Japanese, so some of my kanji translations may be slightly off, but I'm certain they are close enough to give an accurate idea of the symbols' meanings. All of this resulted from my juggling a kanji dictionary or two. And the kanji shown below are the best approximations that I can make with an Roman character-set keyboard. First, I'll get the Roman characters out of the way: C = Color BW = Black & White <"mo-no-ko-ro"> [monochrome] S = Stereo M = Monaural A = CAV format L = CLV format Di = Digital Sound <"de-zhi-ta-lu onsei dei-su-ku"> [digital sound disk] DS = Dolby Surround <"do-lu-bi sa-ra-u-n-do"> Now for the kanji: ---|--- = Subtitled | --- | / Code Key definition is "jimaku " -- ----- "super[-imposed] captions" / _ /__ = Dubbed | |/ / - /\ Code key definition is "Nihongo fukitai" -- / \ "substituting Japanese speech" / = Anamorphic- or 70mm-ratio Widescreen [over ~ 2:1 ratio] " / / Code key definition is <"shi-ne-ma-su-ko-pu sai-zu"> / -- "CinemaScope size" | / " = Matted Widescreen [under ~ 2:1 ratio] |/ | Code key definition is <"bi-su-ta-bi-zho-n sai-zu"> --- -- "VistaVision size" Two others that may be helpful, though they may be somewhat obvious in context: _____ | _______ = Side (prefaced by the number) | |_| | | |_| | | | | | ------- ___ / \ /_____\ = Minutes (prefaced by the number) / | / | / / --- jayembee (Jerry.Boyajian@eds.com) EOF