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Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

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Explanatory Notes
Additions or corrections (Please refer to the Explanatory Notes before emailing an addition or correction to this listing)
Title Best
Kill Bill: Volume 1R2J
    Apart from language and subtitle options (and some additional trailers), this title appears to be identical across Regions 1, 2 (UK) and 4. The Japanese Region 2 release is uncut and includes some great extras that aren't present in other regions - most notably a very well presented storyboard to film comparison of the anime sequence and a Production I.G. featurette that dissects it.

    Region 4 misses out on:

  • Uncut version - 111:39 (NTSC)
  • Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (dubbed)
  • Animated scene selection menu.
  • A very cool alternate scene selection menu that allows you to jump directly to a fight scene.
  • Featurette - Production I.G. animation (22:56)
  • Featurette - Behind the scenes (7:03)
  • Storyboard to film comparison (anime scene) (8:07)
  • Gallery - Film and production stills (20)
  • Gallery - Conceptual art & sketches (20)
  • Kill Bill trailer (2:26) (This is the same as the 'Bootleg' trailer)
  • Kill Bill Vol. 1 trailer (1:43)
  • Kill Bill Vol. 2 teaser trailer (0:51)
  • Cast & crew biographies (Japanese text) including English language interviews with Tarantino (2:48), Laurence Bender (2:01), Uma Thurman (3:37), Lucy Liu (2:02), and Japanese language interviews with Sonny Chiba (2:36), Julie Dreyfus (0:52) and Chiaki Kuriyama (0:34).
  • TV Spots (5)

    Region 2 Japan misses out on:

  • Two songs by the 5, 6, 7, 8's
  • Making of featurette

    I must say that I prefer the Japanese cut of the film, and there is no doubt in my mind that it stands as a superior version. Although the Japanese disc misses out on the making of featurette, they still get some great interviews in the biographies section.

    The Japanese main menu introduction is very different to ours and and is surprisingly not based around the film's anime. I've also read reviews that rate the Japanese Region 2 NTSC video quality as being superior to that of the PAL Region 2 UK, but after watching my Region 4 many times now I found the Japanese NTSC transfer to be a little lacking in the sharpness department, but overall very satisfying. It's worth noting that the Japanese layer change (placed at the beginning of the scene upstairs in Hattori Hanzo's place) is just as unobtrusive as the Region 4 layer transition.

    The Region 2 Japanese release includes only one English subtitle stream that transcribes both the English and Japanese dialogue - so English speaking viewers need to watch the whole film with subtitles or simply activate the stream on the fly when needed. With so few actual lines of foreign dialogue I am confident that very soon I'll be able to view the film with no subtitles at all.

    So, not only does the Region 2 Japanese disc contain a superior and more cohesive cut of the film, it also boasts some excellent additional features that aren't present in Region 4 - making it my disc of choice for Volume 1.