Region 4 Winners and Losers

     The thing about Leon: The Professional and its releases onto DVD is the fact that it's been released in almost every Region, sometimes multiple times, before finally been released in Region 4.

     In Region 1 there are three Columbia Tri-Star releases that have no extras. The Columbia Tri-Star Deluxe Edition includes a DTS soundtrack, a trivia-based fact track and the same three extras as the Madman Region 4 2010 release, albeit on a second disc.

     In Region 2, Gaumont releases in the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands include no extras. The German Kinowelt Home Entertainment release has the same specifications as the Region 1 Columbia Tri-Star Deluxe release with an added Cast and Crew: Biographies and Filmographies extra, International Poster campaign extra and a photo gallery. The Paramount Japanese release does not include the three Madman Region 4 extras, but it does feature text-based extras and a DTS soundtrack. Paramount also brought out a limited edition release in Japan which included both cuts of the film, although the cut version was only about 70 minutes in length.

     The Region 3 Korean Spectrum Anniversary Edition release also included both versions of the film, the three Madman extras and a DTS soundtrack. The original Korean Spectrum Special Edition included both cuts, an isolated music score, but no DTS track or extras.

     In my opinion, the best available releases on DVD are the Region 1 2005 Columbia Tri-star Deluxe Edition and the Madman Directors Suite Region 4 release. Although the Region 1 release has a poorer video transfer which includes 30 minutes of interlacing, the Region 4 release has a lower bitrate as the extras are all included on one disc, instead of being spread out over two discs like the Region 1 Deluxe Edition.