Whither Survive Style 5+?

The Japanese The Taste of Tea dvd release has English subtitles.

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BOEZVA/qid=1140014636/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/403-1888294-3709239

there is this french dvd of taste of tea, but it's without english subtitles

Is the Japanese release R3?

The French release of Taste of Tea is beautiful. Anyone interested in Survive Style 5+ can obtain a superb-looking English-subtitled version from HKDVDSTORE for around $13.00. Service is reasonably fast, and they accept Paypal.

The Japanese is R2. And typically excellent. And, yeah, there are bootleg issues of Survive Style out there but the Japanese version is the only legal, subtitled release.

The Japanese SS5+ DVD wasn't as good as most Japanese DVDs. The picture was somewhat unsharp in some wideangle shots and if I remember correctly, there was a good bit of edge enhancement here and there. However, it's totally watchable and by no means bad, and of course the film is solid entertainment. Worth picking up.

I'd love to have a good version of Taste of Tea. That Japanese LE box was beautiful but is now OOP and I'm on the edge if I should get the Japanese disc (which I'm told, isn't *that* great image quality wise either), or wait for some other release. However, somehow I doubt it's going to get a good release soon - some of the recent Japanese titles haven't been handled all that well in R1 and I fear this will also get a lackluster release.

americans, particularly movie people, are dumb.

Yeah, but if they like Taste of Tea, at least they've got good taste and are dumb.

Tabool how can you make complaints against R2 Japanese releases?

Everyone knows that they are the best around and if that doesnt satisfy your extremely discerning eye I have no idea what will

might as well wait for a Holographic release of both films in the year 2025

What I want to know is whether Taku Tada and Gen Sakaguchi will make another film together.

Tabool how can you make complaints against R2 Japanese releases?

Yeah, "Tabool," everyone knows that Japanese DVDs emanate from a single hive mind and are of uniformly perfect quality across the board regardless of the title.

Anyone have an idea of what the title of this film means or relates to?

Sure, I am discerning - and for a good reason! The disc I'm buying had better be of perfect quality, considering the premium you have to pay for Japanese releases. If there are more than one releases of a film, then it becomes a straight price/quality comparison. I can sacrifice quality if I can get the film cheaper but there's no way I'd pick up a non-progressive, edge enhanced disc when there's better to be had.

There are bad releases in Japan like everywhere else, but in nine out of ten cases, the releases of Japanese films there are far better than the R1 or whatever versions that come later. I can't even remember when a R2J disc had an actual defect that really impacted the viewing experience (skipping, large visual artefacts, missing audio, etc.), can't say the same of R1.
The quality isn't across the board, I've seen that much, but in general it IS of very high standard. To me, it seems like they actually care whether they put out a good release or a bad one - the general DVD viewers may not care if the release isn't perfect but for a perfectionist like me, every cent counts.

Mark, the film is a series of interlocking stories about people dealing with different emotional traumas. It's about different approaches to turmoil, different coping mechanisms. Hence the title.

Well thanks for clearing that up, Todd. I've seen it twice already from a downloaded version and absolutely loved it, and I was really hoping a US DVD would come out. I guess I'll just have to fork over the cash for the Japanese version now...I did that for the Taste of Tea, except I bought a used copy in mint condition in Japan for only about 28 bucks.

I'm also really looking forward to the next collaboration between Taku Tada and Gen Sakaguchi.Survive Style was a suberb debut, and I think they defintely still have several equally great, if not better films still in them.

Todd, I've seen the movie so I know the premise. But something strikes me as odd. If you've seen the video for Supercar's "White Surf Style 5" you've probably noticed how similar it is to the scenes with Tadanobu Asano and Reiko Hasimoto battling it out with eachother. To reiterate my original question, is there some kind of meaning to "Style 5" that I'm not aware of?

Maybe Gen Sekiguchi directed that Supercar video, but I can't find that information anywhere.