Asian DVDs

Ning Hao's Crazy Racer is getting a mainland DVD release in two versions (both don't have English subtitles): the 'special edition' features behind-the-scenes featurettes and the standard trailer-and-text tidbits...Numerous versions of Taiwanese box-office smash Cape No. 7 are bouncing around but the Rolls Royce director's cut package (maybe predictably) can be found in Taiwan: stamps, stationery, an address plate, poster, mock love letters and English subtitles...Speaking of best-packages, Kim Jee-woon's superb "kimchi western" The Good, The Bad, The Weird is being released in Korea in a 3-disc set with the Korean theatrical cut and International version included. A pirate disc (with decent English subtitles) has been bouncing around since December '08 but now's the time to part with the dollars and spring for the geniuine copy (haven't heard any news on the Blu-Ray)...John Woo's intermittently jaw-dropping epic Red Cliff II is getting a Hong Kong DVD release. In Australia a combined theatrical version is promised sometime before June...Chen Kaige's Forever Enthralled is out on DVD in China and Hong Kong. Haven't watched it yet but the wife saw it and was only occasionally enthralled...the global financial meltdown isn't going to send the price of Japanese discs plummeting but if you can afford to indulge, three English-subtitled essentials would be Kore-eda's Still Walking, Hashiguchi's All Around Us and Kitano's Achilles and the Tortoise. I'm not a huge fan of the Kitano but it's probably worth owning all the same. Still Walking comes with a nice water-colour poster in the slipcase...speaking of Japanese discs Detroit Metal City is getting deluxe treatment and comes with some Kubrick figures...I'm not sure whether Xie Jin's recent death will prompt some enterprising soul to collect some of his best on DVD but when I was in Beijing I found a copy of Woman Basketball Player No. 5 with passable English subtitles...