Getting hold of foreign films (especially obscure ones) on DVD is nearly impossible on the high street, unless you have a specialist shop near you and even then they can be quite expensive. Although I usually only buy a DVD if I see a film I really like (whether it be in the cinema or by other means) I have found a number of useful online outlets which offer great value for money and have large selections of stuff you can’t get locally (in the UK that is). I’ve compiled a short list below of the good ones but always remember to purchase with discretion when buying online, especially from abroad, in general:
1) Only buy from reputable stores which have a solid track record and/or have been recommended to you by people who have brought from them before.
2) Always check that the connection is secure (a small padlock symbol should appear in the corner of your browser window) when entering credit card details etc.
3) If something looks to good to be true then it probably is.
4) Check how long delivery will take. Watch for additional charges such as VAT, customs duties, delivery and packaging. Some of these might be hidden.
5) Check your credit account and bank account statements regularly. If you find an error or discrepancy, notify the financial institution and contest the error immediately.
For more detailed information check out this page here, now onto the list:
- Amazon.co.uk - Always my first stop, they have a smallish collection of Japanese and Chinese films.
- CD Wow! - Good selection of Asian films, very cheap.
- mrKwang - Retailer of Korean DVD’s & CD’s, lots of unique stuff.
- YesAsia - Large catalog of just about everything Asian, free delivery to the UK.
- cdJapan - Sells music/anime/movies, all prices in yen though.
If you’re looking for Region 1 releases then the best place to look is probably playusa.com. If none of these turn up the goods then there’s always suprnova.org which has enough torrent links to keep you going till the end of time (almost!).
If you know of any other good places please add a comment below!
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It’s been another busy day at work - with a never ending stream of broken computers and corrupt software there’s always something to do! Unfortunately I had to turn on ‘Comment Moderation’ on the site today due to unscrupulous monkey-loving (??) people abusing the system - this may or may be a permanent feature depending on how things go 
Just time for a foreign film review of something I watched yesterday:
A Tale of Two Sisters (Korean) - 8/10
Every now and then you get a film which stands out from the rest in terms of its originality and quality - ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ is certainly one of them. Korean cinema wasn’t particularly renowned for psychological thrillers (from what I read) but that has all changed now with this particularly thought provoking piece. Not many films make you really scratch you head with intrigue quite like this one which claws at the mind with its surreal imagery in a world so removed from reality.
On the face of things ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ is a story about two sisters (surprise, surprise!) going to live with their cruel stepmother and their estranged father. They appear deeply unhappy and arguments soon break out. For around the first 45mins of the film we are led deeper and deeper into their rather creepy world where soon nightmares begin to blend with reality. From the outset you get the feeling that nothing is really what it seems and this is true in more than one respect with the perspective of the story telling being the crucial element (without giving two much away).
The house in which they live is obviously very old and the flower-patterned wallpaper (Laura Ashley style) which covers virtually every wall is somewhat sinister in its cheery depiction of the gloom contained within. Dark closets and the gaps beneath furniture provide the perfect hiding places for the ‘other’ inhabitants of the house. Quite what those ‘other’ inhabitants are is left up to the viewer’s discretion and is never directly explained.
As the film progresses things appear to begin to slot into place only to be dislodged again as the story takes its twisting path leading to its ultimatum which although not particularly dramatic still rounds things off nicely with plenty of scope for questions. The sisters, Su-jeong and Su-mi play their parts perfectly and the spectrum of emotions they experience are totally convincing. Their portrayal of mental turmoil and desperation is particularly haunting and not to be forgotten in a hurry.
The film is shot beautifully with both dark and vivid moments capturing the mood throughout. Very little CG is used but where it is it’s seamless and appropriate with nothing going over-the-top as is often the case today. Some people may find the film a little slow as there are no real action sequences but the suspense that is built up from the outset more than makes up for this.
I would highly recommend watching ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ at least once if not twice to get your head around it! For a more in-depth review see here and here. You can get the DVD on CD-WOW or off eBay.
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Good news for die-hard matrix fans out today - as earlier rumored The Matrix trilogy (including the Animatrix) is to be released as part of a special ten-disc DVD boxset in time for Christmas. Probably the most exciting aspect of this release is the new cut of Reloaded which will include all the footage from the “Enter The Matrix” game which I haven’t had a chance to play. Also included will be hours of documentaries about each film and for the first time an audio commentary to go with each but alas neither of the Wachowskis will grace the soundtrack. Luckily I managed to hold off buying Revolutions as I suspected a boxset might be on the horizon so while the journey may be over the legacy of the Matrix will live on!
For more info on the boxset take a look here.
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Regular visitors may have noticed a slight change in look to the site - I’ve shifted everything to the centre because when viewing the old style in anything about 1024 x 768 it looked a bit weird and lop-sided. As ever it’s a work in progress so expect to see more minor changes over the days to come (I think the header needs some work especially). Using a database driven site with a templated front end certainly has its advantages in these sorts of situations allowing you to make changes on the fly without the hassle of having to dig to deep into the guts of the system!
Update: Talking of re-designs, our old friend Jakob Neilsen (self professed web-guru) recently had a word or two to say about the subject, take a look here. Personally I don’t think a great deal of his views as they seem to restrictive to actually allow for anything else than very dull mainly text-based web design. What worries me most about him though is the page of hi-resolution photos of himself that he has on his web site! Talk about ego-centric!
Be afraid, be very afraid - this man will eat your web site!
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I’ve always liked creating my own wallpapers for my desktop but yesterday when I moved up to a 19″ screen running at 1280 x 1024 I realized that none of my old 1024 x 768 wallpapers would fit without some nasty scaling. This was the perfect excuse to have a root through my digital pictures that I’ve taken over the last year or so and create a few for myself and to share with the rest of the world! I can’t profess to being anywhere near an expert photographer but I do get the occasional good snap (by my standards anyway) and so with no further-a-do here is my rather abstract collection of primary colour wallpapers (click the links below each to save):
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Hope you like them! As ever everything on the site is distributed under the ‘Creative Commons‘ license.
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