written by Tsunami / photos by Tsunami

Already its hard to figure out new ways to start a review, so I'll just start it like this for once. So it came time to review this nice little box from Hong Kong, looks like its long? you don't see wrong, but not like a s*ong. Felt like rhyming. Limited to no more than 1500 copies, this little sexy thing is having an check up

At first sight, it almost shines of that same classy mojo as the Scarface box with its leather-like look and silver letters. On the top it states the Oscar Awards it won, "Best Actor", "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay" three prestigious awards and three very deserved awards! Further down it states "Based on a true story", which always kinda sends a chill down my spine. "A Roman Polanski Film - The Pianist - Limited Edition" shines with big silver letters on the center of the box, and below the tagline "Music was his passion. Survival was his masterpiece". Many could have screwed it up with this much text on the cover but this release pulls it off very nicely. When you hold it in your hand it feels very tight and solid.

The box also has a wrapper stating the contents of the box and the specs for the disc. But when you remove this wrapper you'll notice its stuck, you carefully have to pull it off the glue which makes it stick to the box. Here comes the sad part, when you get the wrapper off, you'll most likely see the same thing as the picture to the left, some glue damage. But don't worry too much, you can carefully scratch the glue with you're nails, if you manage to get it high enough to get a hold on the glue between you're fingertips, you can slowly pull it off, some residue will probably still be left on the box, try using the sticky side of the glue you just pulled of the box to clean up the parts where there's still some glue left, this should work, you'll probably see a little sign that it has been there, with some different texture where it was, but at least you'd be rid of the glue.

The box looks much nicer now that the wrapper is gone. If you flip it over and look at the back you'll see a piano in silver, how fitting you think. When you open it you'll notice there is no sticky thing or flipper or anything that holds it, but this is the solution I like best for these types of boxes, strong magnets that are placed inside the cardboard which locks it in place. Nearly invisible and does the job.


Once you have finished drooling over the exterior of the box, we continue inside. First you'll notice the nice #'d certificate which is located in a protective sleeve on the inside. Why can't all limited boxes come with these? Sloth I guess. (Don't they know its a sin? Did they learn NOTHING from Se7en???). And then theres the protective foam. You'd be quick to rip it out to see whats behind there but you should also be thankful that its there, delicate things reveal themselves as you pull out this protective foam.

The film in a CD cover, this actually doesn't look that bad, its nicely done and it works okey, allthough what would have been better was a specially designed smaller digipac containing the dvd. And the cutest thing ever; A tiny crystal piano! Well protected with its tiny legs burried in foam. The crystal piano is extremely well detailed and screams quality. This has got to be seen to really get how cool this little thing is. The CD cover contains a booklet full of pictures, and alot of text in that language very few of us over here understand. But it was nice to have a little booklet with pictures instead of just a black little lay-in with the title on it.

- Tsunami's Verdict -

- Build Quality: 9 -

I really can't complain about the build on the box. Its solid, it has nice protective foam in the needed places. Nice hidden magnetic locks. Guess all I can complain about is the bad way they handled the attaching of the wrapper and that they should have made a special-sized digipac for the dvd instead of a CD-cover.

- Content and Extras: 6 -

It's a single-disc DTS version of this movie. Neat things are the ultra-cool crystal piano and the #'d certificate. Other than nothing to mention

- Overall Rating: 7 -

Copyright © 2005 Skullface (skullface.com).
All rights reserved.