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written by Juice / photos by Juice
Hello again everyone! Thought I'd try to do a vs. review, and
figured these two LE's would be a good one to start with. The Korean
LE drove aftermarket prices through the roof with it's elegant wooden box,
and the Philippines LE kept excitement up with it's short run of 1000 copies,
as well as the fact that it was the first LE released from the Philippines.
The first thing I'll go over are the two major differences in the LEs. Korean Philippines - Juice's Verdict - - Build Quality - - Content and Extras - - Overall Rating: - -
a. The Korean box is nice, heavy wood, with brass hinges. The Philippines box is
made out of faux leather (cardboard and paper).
b. The Korean version comes with a slip of paper that is numbered with the edition
number. This is not present in the Philippines version.
I'll start off with a side by side shot of the
boxes themselves. Opening the boxes, and laying out the contents, you'll notice some immediate
similarities and differences. The Korean set comes with a nice numbered certificate, as well as a
slip flier that is inside the shrink wrap. Interestingly, the fold-out that comes with the
Philippines edition is used as the inside to the DVD case in the Korean edition.
To create a "plush" feeling, they must have glued something between
the top layer of paper and the cardboard on the cover, giving it spongy
feel. The gold emboss on the paper is actually nice, and looks good.
Unfortunately, as we all know, paper and cardboard tend to damage easily.
Because of this, the box is prone to dents and tearing.
Now we look at the Philippines version, which is a good showcase of
what can go wrong with a lower end version. As noted before, in the picture
where both the Korean and Philippine edition are show above, the Philippine
looks excellent. It's when you hold it in your hands that you realize this box...
just isn't anywhere close to being a 10 out of 10. The faux leather is some sort
of textured paper, that is wrapped and glued around a cardboard base.
Even worse, the area that fits into the box when it closes,
on my edition was glued in incorrectly. This caused it to tear
when I opened my box to get at the DVD inside. Repeated openings
are only going to tear it more. On a plus note, the tear allows us
to take a look inside the box construction itself and see just how
cheap it really is. Note you can see where the paper that goes over
the cover is folded in and then glued down with the black area.
Now everything about the Philippine edition isn't all bad.
The booklet for the Philippine edition is very nice. Even though
it has the same content as the Korean edition, it's printed on a
nicer paper, with a better cover stock and excellent looking vellum
sheets dividing the sections. The cover has a great textured feel to
it with a nice deep emboss and gold foil.
Here is the cover of the
Korean booklet for a comparison.
The Korean version is a clear winner here. Construction is leaps and bounds
over the Philippines LE.Even though the Philippines version has a nicer booklet,
you can't beat the box itself and the fact that the Korean version comes with a #'d
"certificate of authenticity".
Personally I feel the Philippines version is up there with the now infamous Men In Black LE
box when it comes to not delivering in real life when compared to online pictures. What was
surprising to me was when I took pictures of the Philippines box, in my camera I could really
see how cheap the faux leather was, along with ever dent and tear in the fabric. However, when
I went to resize and post them, that faux leather changed from low-end paper to what appears
online anyway, to be a high-quality leather.
If you're planning on buying one of these sets at the clearly inflated after-market prices, go for
the Korean set.
- Korean: 9 - vs - Philippines: 3 -
Hard to beat the fantastic build quaility of
the Korean set. I'd give it a 10 if the DVD was a little easier to get out. Due to it's size,
you have to dump out all the contents to get to the DVD case. Philippines gets a 3. Cheap paper,
poor construction, my copy is already falling apart after only having it for a few days. This is a
good example of how NOT to make an LE
- Korean: 7 - vs - Philippines: 5 -
Nice booklets and cards, but nothing spectacular
for either set. Even though the Philippines book is superior, I giveit a lower score due to the fact
that it does not come with any type of LE numbered certificate.
- Korean: 8 - vs - Philippines: 3 -
This Korean set is so nice that even my wife
likes it. If you can find a copy, and you like the movie, this is a must have LE. The Philippines
version is a stinker. At it's original price it was almost worth the buy, but with the current
after market prices soaring, leave it for the suckers
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