Tokyo Gore Police: US vs JP vs UK vs NO

[HungFist]

R1 US (Tokyo Shock)
Image: Anamorphic widescreen (progressive)
Sound: Japanese 2.0, Japanese 5.1, English 2.0, English 5.1
Subtitles: English
Movie file: 5,5 GB approx

Extras:
- Japanese promo video
- Bonus trailers


R2 UK (4Digital Asia)
Image: Anamorphic widescreen (interlaced / NTSC to PAL conversion)
Sound: Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English
Movie file: 4,0 GB approx

Extras:
- Making of
- Yoshihiro Nishimura interview
- Eihi Shiina interview
- Japanese premiere
- Commercials from the movie
- Japanese promo video (broken)
- UK trailer
- Bonus trailers


R2 Nordic (AWE)
Image: Anamorphic widescreen (interlaced / NTSC to PAL conversion)
Sound: Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian
Movie file: 4,2 GB approx
Note: the running time is approx 109 min. Some cover and review state incorrect running time.

Extras:
- Making of
- Yoshihiro Nishimura interview
- Eihi Shiina interview
- Japanese premiere
- Commercials from the movie
- Japanese promo video (broken)
- Bonus trailers


R2J (Inter Film)
Image: Anamorphic widescreen (interlaced)
Sound: Japanese 5.1, English 5.1
Subtitles: English & Japanese
Movie file: 3.8 GB approx

Extras:
- Audio Commentary by Yoshihiro Nishimura, Eihi Shiina and poster designer Yoshiki Takahashi
- Tokyo Gore Police Short Collection (45:18)
- Making of (25:03)
- Yoshihiro Nishimura interview (28:25
- Eihi Shiina interview (13:34)
- Japanese premiere (13:14)
- Commercials from the movie(4:12)
- Japanese promo video (4:44)
- Theatrical trailer (2:09)
+ Original Soundtrack CD (19 tracks, approx 65 min)

1st: R1
2nd R2J
3rd: R2 UK
4th: R2 Nordic









































More caps:

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[HungFist]

Ok, this one’s a bit tricky. The R1 release by Tokyo Shock is the only one with progressive image, but it also has also the worst extras.

The Japanese edition falls behind the R1 in terms of picture for being interlaced and crammed into smaller space, but if you have any interest in extras, it’s a must buy. Aside the making of, interviews and some other stuff also included on some other DVDs, it comes with several exclusives, such as audio commentary and original soundtrack. The most important extra, however, is the short movie collection. It features three new short spin off movies for the main feature, plus new fake commercials. More about this in the next post.

The UK disc is missing the R2J exclusives, but still has a pretty nice selection of extras. It would have been even nicer if someone had bothered to check them before printing the discs. The main problem is the subtitles. Names are misspelled (Paul Vorhoven), movie titles are incorrect (Nishimura talks about Exte (Hair Extensions) but subtitles say “Ecstasy”), and for a moment there’s some rendering error that makes the subtitles almost impossible to read. In the Japanese Premiere some parts are not subtitled. The Japanese promo video is partly broken; the audio goes silent for about 30 seconds.

The Nordic edition by AWE is essentially the same as the UK disc, although the encoding is a bit different. For some reason it was next to impossible to get good comparison caps from the Nordic disc… combing was constant, and sometimes I could not freeze at the right frame. In any case, both the UK and Nordic disc are NTSC to PAL conversions.

For fans I would recommend buying both the R1 and the R2J. R1 for viewing the film, and R2J for extras which alone are worth the price of the disc. Do notice, however, that R2J extras are not subtitled. Perhaps you want to consider third edition for that purpose… like I said, it’s tricky.

* Dice mentioned that that he much prefers the 2.0 audio on the R1. Myself, with no home theatre set up, could not notice much difference between the 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, although I might lean on the 5.1 for being slightly punchier. I cannot compare to the R2J as I left my R1 on the wrong continent, but the R2J sounds fine to me. That being said, a couple of sound effects do lack punch, but I think it’s the problem with the original elements and not the dvd sound mixing. I can’t remember how this film sounded like theatrically anymore. Comments are welcome.

EDIT: Just tested the English 5.1 audio on the R2J and that sounds bad indeed. I should have specified before that I was talking about the Japanese tracks only, but I didn't come think of that someone might actually view the film in English.

[HungFist]

Tokyo Gore Police Short Collection

Tokyo Gore Police Short Collection is, as the title suggests, a collection of short movies related to the main feature. It has become a tradition for Nishimura and Noboru Iguchi to offer additional value for DVD buyers by filming spin off features. The Machine Girl was accompanied by Hajirai Machine Girl, and the upcoming Robo-Geisha and Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl DVDs will also feature bonus movies.

Tokyo Gore Police Short Collection opens with a 6½ minute re-edit of the main feature. The rest is original content, a few archive shots excluded. The first new story follows the poor gunman who was supposed to be taken out by the sniper in the main film. He tries to return to normal life after serving his prison sentence, and gets a job at a construction site (lead by Takashi Shimizu). But the looser story has tragic ending.

The second feature is the back story of Dog Girl (unfortunately not played by Cay Izumi this time). This story falls behind its potential, mainly serving as mean spirited by low tech splatter with no action or impressive special effects.

The concluding episode on the other hand is highly ambitious, packed with penis mutants, killer Indians, belly dancer (here’s Cay Izumi), and nuclear weapons. The remixed score is nothing short of epic, and gore is plenty. The connecting character in this story is the ill lucked policeman who went to the weirdo strip club and ended up losing a few limbs.

Between the short stories new commercials are seen. They are not as good as the ones in the main feature, although the Gaijin Control spot is quite amusing. After the films there’s lengthy closing credits with special effects work on display.

1st story


(Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge))




Commercial time




2nd story






3rd story






End credits (Nishimura on the left)


(there's always an insanely cute girl involved in making splater films)

[HungFist]

Tokyo Gore Police 1.5 [2-Disc Set]
May 18, 2010
Tokyo Shock

http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.552 ... etails.htm

No exact details yet but this could be a good deal for most customers. Probably will include the spin off films. However, do keep in mind Tokyo Shock's The Machine Girl SE was still missing most of the R2J extras. I'm confident my R2J will stay in my shelf, for the soundtrack if for nothing else.

[HungFist]

French Blu-Ray in February 2011
http://www.asianblurayguide.com/detail/ ... an_france/