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Today I received the Japanese Edition of Blood Simple and had a chance to peruse the plethora of extras.

First off this is the Director's Cut Edition but includes all of the scenes with changes as a bonus (more to follow).

So you get the Mortimer Young Intro, the film in 16:9 and Dobly Digital Soundtrack all in a Region 2 NTSC (for Japan) package.

The extras is where this DVD shines. I love the Japanese. They never skimp on packaging or content, no matter how trivial that extra may seem. Only downside is that some of it is in Japanaese, but hey they didn't make it for me anyway--just glad that they did it!

DVD EXTRAS (what they call PROGRAM)

STAFF - Bio (in Japanese) on Joel, Ethan and Barry Sonnenfeld.

TRAILERS -
1.)Included is the ORIGINAL 1984 U.S. trailer, before even Circle releasing got a hold of it. It says River Productions (I assume Joel and Ethan's company to make the film (***maybe a play on their New York address at the time??--Riverside in New York***)
2.) 2000 U.S. Re-release Trailer
3.) 2000 French Studio Canal Re-release Trailer (in English)
4.) 2000 Swedish Re-release Trailer(In English + Japanese Subtitles)
5.) 2000 Japanese Re-release Trailer (In Japanese)

SECRET GUIDE - Unfortunately it is all in Japanese accompanied by various stills of the movie (damn wish I knew Japanese!)

RADIO SHOW - Three (3) actual Japanese Radio Promos for Blood Simple. These are hilarious! Not because they are in Japanese but because the voice-over tries to emulate M. Emmett Walsh and his slimy Texas drawl as the P.I. Must be heard to be believed! These play over various stills of Blood Simple but the stills are presented in various ways. Obviously created for the DVD as the original promo spots were for Radio.

GALLERY - A gallery of all the Blood Simple Re-release Posters from various countries, a Blood Simple Blank Journal tie-in and even a Blood Simple tote bag.

CAST - Stills of the cast members with info in Japanese

INSIDE STORY - Nine (9) pages of info on the history and making of Blood Simple (Now I really wish I knew how to read Japanese!!)

***EXAMINATION*** - An actual scene comparison between the 1984 Edition and the 2000 re-release. You choose the scene from 1984 and play the whole scene. Then you choose the same scene as the 2000 edition. Six (6) scenes total and then explanations (in Japanese of the changes or deletions). For me this is worth the price of the disc alone!!!

INTERVIEW - All audio. This is an actual recorded phone interview between a Japanese journalist and Joel + Ethan in New York. Really good and very funny!

SPECIAL FEATURES - Trailer for Five (5) other movies this company is also distributing.

Sounds good to me!

Where did you buy it from?

On a slightly related note, my copy of Crimewave arrived today. I've neer seen it before so I'm quite excited about seeing it while simulataneously not expecting very much

Hi Paul,

Actually a friend in Japan found it for me. I just needed him to tell me what was actually on the disc since the extras were in Japanese on the ordering site. Usually when I buy anything from Japan I go to Yesasia Video here (sometimes they do free shipping to the U.S.):

Blood Simple is listed here (it's the one marked No. 4.):

http://www.yesasia.com/us/search/blood-simple/0-0-0-bpt.48_q.Blood+Simple-en/results.html

for US$49.75




I also have Crimewave. Def. watch it with an open mind then put it back in the collection and never watch it again, hahaha....