Seven Samurai! A timeless classic. An incredible film that has been been released in various versions, even including Criterion treatment. Still, many fans were left less than satisfied. A movie of this caliber deserves a special edition just as regal, bold, and timeless as the movie itself. This edition, released in Korea, tries to reach those lofty goals.
We're
presented with a clean, small package. The package is only slightly
larger than the dvd case itself, and is constructed out of a thick,
durable and rugged heavy paper. Beautiful, bold graphics slash across
both the front and back of the of the set. The
printers used a spot varnish techique amazingly well on this set.
The red lettering and image has a wet, shiny look to it. Red, dark,
it almost appears that someone dipped their calligraphy brush in
blood and tore it across the cover and back. Fantastic.
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The spine also gets a nice treatment, with highly reflective silver lettering making up most of the title. Much like the silver of a samurai blade! |
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Sitting inside the case, like a blade in it's scabbard, rest the contents of this edition. A poster, 56 page booklet, and the dvd case all slide in and out of the exterior package well. If you tilt the box on it's side, the contents will slowly slide out, instead of falling out. Good job on making sure that the contents actually fit properly! The snapcase has a flip inside to hold both DVDs. The exterior image on the front replicates the box imagery, but the rear differs a bit and offers up some stills from the movie, as well as a brief description of the movie. |
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The book is perfect bround, and sports again the same cover which is on the box and the dvd case. The first 16 pages are full color, each showing different Seven Samuari posters. The rest of the book is black and white, and it has scenes from the movie, filming, stage hands, set shots, etc. A very nice book that is unfortunately, yet not suprisingly, entirely in Korean. |
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A full size poster comes folded up in the set. It is a replication poster that appeared when the movie was originally released in theaters. Printed on nice, heavy gloss paper, the poster would look great framed. |
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Juice's Verdict
Build
Quality: 7
The
exterior case is strong, tough, and has a great print job. Be wary of
your fingernails, the matte area tends to sctuff up a bit.
Content
and Extras: 6
Only a book and a poster, but the book has some great imagery in it, and
the design is very nice. The poster is also fairly standard, but printed
on nice paper.
Overall
Rating: 6
This
set is great. It's understated, simply, yet very clean and well constructed.
I do wish the book had an english translation, as it looks extremely interesting.
This really is a nice set and can be found for a good price. Although
picture and audio quality is not a part of the review process here, it
should be noted that these are also good on this, which adds to the value
of this set. If you're a Seven Samurai fan, you should really pick up
this edition.
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