When will The Last Emperor SE come to Region1? (1 Viewer)

[James Luckard]

There has been a fantastic SE of The Last Emperor for months now in the UK, and I just bought a regionless player, so I'm seriously considering buying it.

It has the original, superior in my mind, theatrical cut, which won so many Oscars, with commentary by Bertolucci. It also has the extended cut on a second disc, as well as a documentary and various other extras. As I understand it, both cuts are new 16x9 transfers.

Does anybody know if this will make it to Region 1?

I know Artisan has released the unwatchable DVD of the extended cut here, which I had before I got the Korean 2 disc set, but I remember that Columbia released the theatrical version back in 1987, I have no idea who has video rights to it now, maybe that's the holdup?

Also, does anybody have the British SE, is it really 16x9 for both versions of the film?

 

[MarcusUdeh]

Lions Gate holds the domestic home video rights now since they swallowed Artisan.

 

[Mike Wadkins]

yep both animorphic

 

[Daniel P]

Digging up an oldie here, but does anyone have this R2 SE?If so, how is it?

 

[Andy_MT]

neither picture/sound are going to break any records, but so much better than the joke that is the region 1 release. it also has a solid set of extras (haven't seen these yet).

given that it can be picked up cheap and with no sign of a release coming in region 1, i wouldn't hesitate to pick it up.

 

[Kain_C]

Wow, I know I'm late to the game, but that set sounds great! I bought the R1 last year because it was being pulled of our shelves. What a terrible disc for such a great movie. The PQ was so bad, I had a hard time watching it. Would upgrade in a sec!

 

[James Luckard]

The British DVD set is the best I've seen. The theatrical cut looks much better than the extended version (which looks about as bad as the Artisan disc), but the theatrical is the only one I watch. The commentary is great, and the making-of is an hour long and one of the most well made I've ever seen. There is also a featurette of bertolucci's location scouting videos from China, with optional commentary. A great set.

I've also owned the Artisan atrocity and the Korean 2 disc set, which reproduced the Artisan disc along with the theatrical cut on another disc. However the Korean set was no good because there was a flaw in one of the chapters, the contrast and brightness were altered on that chapter, making it look awful. This flaw was not just with my copy, I had the store check another.

Aside from the video flaw on the Korean set, the British set actually looks exactly the same, except for the PAL speedup, of course.

 

[Douglas Bailey]

Do you happen to remember which chapter it was? I have the Korean edition, and don't remember encountering this flaw, but I'd like to double-check.