The Tiger Hits DVD April 24th

April 24th...crazy. We're just getting the theatrical realease early in March, so that's a quick turnaround. I know it's been locked away forever, but still. I would think they'd want to leave it in theaters a bit longer before releasing the DVD. Oh well. Sounds good to me.

I stand by my previous assertions that the UK version (although featuring a couple shorter scenes) is still superior to the Thai cut (assuming that my longer Singapore DVD is the same as the Thai DVD and not just a slightly censored version of it) -- for tighter pacing and more blood. I'm definitely picking this one up either way -- it'll be nice to get an R1 version and I'm really hoping for some great special features.

Great news.

Ah. As long as I leave off my website, my comments go straight through.

The Singapore version is compromised. As I understand it, it was censored to trim violence and gore. The "international" version cut out some things to speed the pacing, among them the comedic bits with Sergeant Yam, if I am not incorrect.

However, there are some decent special features on the S'pore DVD, from what I hear about that release, so perhaps Magnolia could get the rights to those and release them with their disc?

That's interesting. I've posted about the comedy before, but I was never sure if the Singapore release was actually independently censored (as they tend to do there) or simply the Thai cut (since I've never been able to order a copy). Unfortunately, the only real extras on the Singapore dvd were some text based features explaining some of the background behind the creation of the story (inspirations, etc) as well as IIRC some decisions on why to use the color pallette. My general list of differences between R2/R3 is here: http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=280504&highlight=tears+black+tiger

There has been an Australian R4 release as well - pictured on IMDB's site, but I think the level of extras is about the same as the UK one so I haven't picked it up yet. http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/226673

Assuming the Thai original did keep all the basic scenes from the R2 as well as being "uncut" with the violence, it'd definitely be the superior version overall.

The Thai version, released by Digital Right, was the full, 113-minute version - with all the scenes that were cut from the Region 2 release, as well as the violence and gore - in all its brain-jelly splattering, amputated arm glory - that was trimmed by by the squeamish Singaporeans.

The Region 4 release by Madman (shame on them!) is essentially the same as the R2 release by Pathe - same 101-minute version of the film. No Sgt Yam!

That said, I'd still like to see the text features from the Singapore release find their way onto a definitive release of the original version of the film.

Out of curiosity, I just checked my new R1 disc (haven't watched it yet) and it's listed as 110 minutes. Anyone compared the Thai cut to the R1?