What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

Sizable haul arrived via FromJapan today.
  • Shin Kamen Rider 4K Limited Edition, which includes:
    • Film on 4K UHD Disc & Blu-Ray
    • 2+ hours of Special Features/Deleted Scenes on 2 additional Blu-Ray discs including a 5-episode re-edit of the film.
    • 2 Replica Muffler Scarves
    • Exclusive Soft-Vinyl Figure
    • Pre-Order Bonus Clear Bookmark
  • S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Buffa Figure
  • Bocchi the Rock Kessoku Band - Kirara Tribute Collection (Cover Album) CD
  • The Guy She was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All Manga Soundtrack CD
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I've been on the fence for ages regarding Dr Stone.
The HMV exclusive is £4.99 per part.
Can't really complain if I don't like it.
No idea why it's exclusive unless it is because it's 2 parts??

Edit
Just opened part 1. There's 4 art cards and a poster. More than I've got with some collectors editions. 😜
 

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2025 HAUL - JANUARY v2

Another batch of Asian Cinema arrived to wrap up the January haul.

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#11: Terracotta January Pre-Order Pickups
To avoid having too many individual pickups in the post at various times I decided to focus a bit more on larger batches instead. Which is why I ordered almost all of the January pre-orders for Asian Cinema from Terracotta altogether, the only exception being the 88 Films titles as they were ordered a few months ago which arrived a month earlier than its release date and the Radiance Films titles because they can be tracked on their stock statuses by the distributor themselves.

First up we have a brand new Arrow Video release. This is a 2005 Japanese anthology film called Rampo Noir (乱歩地獄) directed by Akio Jissoji, Atsushi Kaneko, Hisayasu Satō & Suguru Takeuchi. I hadn't heard of this film prior but the artwork looked awesome. The first print edition includes a slipcase and booklet like previous Arrow releases.

Next we have two brand new British Film Institute releases, both from director Akira Kurosawa. With recent 4K restorations in Japan, BFI have been re-releasing his works onto either the 4K or Blu-ray format. In this batch there's his 1963 film High and Low (天国と地獄) and his 1949 film Stray Dog (野良犬), both are more of a crime/police drama compared to his more known samurai films. Both of these do have 4K Ultra HD releases in Japan but BFI must have decided it wasn't worth the upgrade. Each of these are first print editions which includes a booklet.

And to wrap up this batch we also have two brand new Eureka Entertainment releases, both also part of their Masters of Cinema range which in case you missed the recent notice that the booklets will now be part of the first-print run only going forward (and for their older catalog). Starting off with a classic Japanese horror film from 1997 it's Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure (キュア), re-released for 4K Ultra HD using the recent 4K restoration. When Eureka released the film years back it was an older transfer while Criterion put one out using the new restoration but only for Blu-ray. I really enjoyed this film and am happy to upgrade the release to this which also has great artwork.

Also arrived is Running On Karma (大隻佬), a 2003 Hong Kong film from directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, starring Andy Lau. I hadn't heard of this film prior but a lot of people were looking forward to this one and it looks promising so I can see why its placed under the Masters of Cinema banner than the Eureka Classics one.

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#12: Eighteen Years in Prison & Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza
The final haul of the month is a catch-up to two releases from Radiance Films that came out during the summer time of last year. They put out a couple of Tai Kato films and I had only picked up about half of them, and it's fortunate they're still available in their limited edition formats. Amazon recently lowered their prices to about £15 each so I figured I'll get both Eighteen Years in Prison (懲役十八年) and Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza (沓掛時次郎 遊侠一匹) at that moment. These were made back in 1967 & 1966 respectively and each come with their reversible covers, booklets and Scanavo packaging.
 
I received one more pre-order title from Crunchyroll yesterday:

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash

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A few things today (so much for only buying stuff I had planned to, as is how it usually goes). However! Don't regret anything that made you smile (lol).

Firstly, I picked up Anonymous;Code Steelbook Launch Edition (PS4): I have the other Science Adventure games on Steam, but this was at a very good price on Amazon so I don't mind having this one physically on PS4.

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Second is the awaited Chronicles of Narnia full-colour illustration set (hardback) from Books4People. It seems that there has been some debate as to the best reading order: publication order (2, 4-6, 3, 1, then 7) or in-universe order (1 to 7). I think I'll have to look into it a bit more before I decide which to go with for my read-through.

£105 RRP!! :eek: Only paid £40 though 🤭

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And lastly, this was a bit of a spontaneous purchase. Seeing as I was in the Narnia mood, I managed to grab a sealed copy of the BBC adaption of The Chronicles of Narnia for only £5 from Vinted, which adapts four of Lewis' Narnia stories. I remember watching these as a kid when I used to visit my dad, so I have fond memories of these.

These adaptations were aired from 1988 to 1990 (I wasn't even born! Sorry to all the true oldies here) and this DVD set seems to include quite an array of special features; notably a 2003 cast reunion and some Blue Peter interviews (that's how old this is, lol). This set is also from an era where things like trivia and outtakes were commonplace on home video sets. Truly a blast from the past.

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DECULTURE! Do you remember the time... we had to wait 30 years for a new release of Macross: Do You Remember Love in English?

The good news is it's a solid translation. If anything it clarified a couple of important lines of dialogue that were poorly worded in Kiseki's VHS release. Visually the colours really pop, even on the BD. I don't have a 4K TV, so I can't comment on the UHD. For audio, the surround mix sounded impressively weighty through headphones.

The rest of the visual presentation is likely to be divisive though. There's almost no sign of film grain, so there has presumably been some heavy-handed noise reduction. Some shots also look blurred or oddly smeary in places, but I can't tell if that's an artefact of noise reduction, intentional soft focus from the souce, or depth of field caused by the rostrum the cells were filmed on. Most of the movie looks great; it's just that the issues can be distracting in places. As I say though, I don't know how much of that is native to the film itself rather than the new master.

That said, this is likely the best the movie will ever look, and it's obviously an incomparably massive upgrade over the ancient VHS release.
 
Got a new High Sierra bag in the post today. Not exactly the most glamorous get but it's important for work and I have brought so many pins at conventions that it's nice to have something to stick them on.
 
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