Samurai Trilogy boxset question

Sam Tanry · 05-05-2004, 07:23 PM

Is this:

Samurai Trilogy from Criterion
the same as the
Samurai: The Book of the Five Rings DVD that was apparently just released???

I understand the bottom one probably wouldn't have the Criterion transfers but I've heard they're not that good anyways. So what's the difference between them? I can't find much info on the lower one...can't even tell if it's an actual set. It's just so cheap(15 dollars). I would post links but I can't.

Brandon Conway · 05-05-2004, 08:33 PM

They are entirely different films.

And while the Criterion transfers of the Samurai Trilogy are not of any high quality, this is a fault of the very poor source materials available and not Criterion.

Matt Czyz · 05-05-2004, 11:24 PM

Criterion's is only a repackaging of three separate dvds of theirs that already exist. No changes made to anything, just grouped together with a lower price.

Check www.criterionco.com for more info.

Sam Tanry · 05-05-2004, 11:52 PM

I understand what you are saying, but then what is the Book of the Five Rings 15 dollar DVD? Under the description of it on Deep Discount DVD and several other sites it says:

"This program contains three classic martial arts dramas based on the life of samurai Miyamoto Musashi: MUSASHI MIYAMOTO, DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE, and DUEL AT GANRYU ISLAND. Please see individual titles for complete information."

Those are the same titles as the Criterion set, and that is where my confusion comes in.

Brandon Conway · 05-06-2004, 01:11 AM

Huh - the only Five Rings DVDs I could find on Amazon.com described them as documentaries about samurai of 16/17th Century Japan.

Sam - perhaps a link would help us see what the other set is you are referring to.

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Sam Tanry · 05-06-2004, 11:52 AM

I can't post links until after 15 posts, or I would've included them already. But if you search for the words 'First Samurai' on Deep Discount DVD you can see the title I'm speaking of. I did some more searching before posting here and couldn't find much more info. I found some other sites listing it but no one had any description besides that it stars Toshiro Mifune.

Matt Czyz · 05-06-2004, 12:29 PM

I'm going to guess database error if this isn't showing up anywhere else.

Tom June · 05-13-2004, 02:35 PM

Here's the link to DeepDiscount.

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=RDD001002

It seems like they're the same set as the criterion. Probably too good to be true though.

Sam Tanry · 05-14-2004, 08:21 AM

I've ordered the 15 dollar set off DDD. They moved the release back to 5/18(same as Criterion...strange). I figured what could I lose? I'll post back when I get it.

Tom June · 05-14-2004, 05:00 PM

Awesome, let us know.