Amuse Soft (Japan)
Region Free
BD-50 (actual size: 43.6 GB)
Video: 1080 progressive
Audio: Japanese 5.1 DTSHD-MA
Subtitles: English
Extras: none
The much awaited Blu-Ray edition of Sion Sono's divine masterpiece. The Japanese release titles itself as the "Ultimate Edition", though it hardly is. All extras are absent, despite them being plentiful on the original Japanese 3 Disc DVD release. Contrary to the early announcements, the disc does feauture English subtitles. The new transfer is, according to the front cover, supervised by Sono himself. The minor optical censorship (a few seconds of partial shots of a fake penis) is still present. The UK DVD was previouly reported being uncensored.
Somewhat amusingly, the cardboard sleeve (probably limited to the initial pressing) is full of English language quotes -perhaps because the Japanese critics hated the film, though local audiences made it the biggest arthouse hit in Tokyo movie theaters ever. The regular blue case found inside the sleeve comes with awesome, new artwork, as depicted in the scan below.
Note that US and UK Blu-Ray editions will be released shortly. With all three coming out withing three months after three years of wait, it's not hard to guess all will utilize more or less the same source. The UK edition, however, would appear most promising with its set of extras and low price tag (and possibly region B encoding).
Screencaps (click for full size)
Rough refence comparison to R2J 3 Disc DVD
