pygospa

Release: 2021

Link (Wicked Shop): ???

Price: ???€

Limited: ???

Their next announcement in the 30 days, 30 announcement series is again something where I'd say: "Oh god, please no!". Luckily it is just the bonus movie for another release. I don't know why, but Wicked decided to just concentrate on the bonus movie in their announcement and just mentioned THE COMEBACK in one little sentence. They even dedicated the artwork for SCHOOL OF SEX, which I hope will not count as nudity (if it does, please just remove the image, if possible).

In thier Pete Walker collection, wicked have already released 4 movies:

• House of Whipcord
• House of Mortal Sin
• The Flesh and Blood Show
• Frightmare
   

With this release, they are doing something rather unusual - releasing two movies in one edition. I guess, because SCHOOL FOR SEX (1969) doesn't really fit both - the filmography of Pete Walker (this was his third movie and before his start of horror movies) as well as the lineup of Wicked Vision, and may be too unknown to be interesting enough for buyers on it's own - I could only find one Blu-ray release from 2016 in the USA - no one else has touched this movie until now and Wikipedia has literally just three lines of text about it: "School for Sex is a 1969 British sex film directed by Pete Walker. The film was very popular at the box office. In France it enjoyed 72,000 admissions in its opening week.". From the trailer you'd see that it's not a pornographic movie but rather a really strange and absurd british comedy that includes a lot of nudity. For this reason I won't link the trailer (if you are old enough you know how to find it yourself anyways) and concentrate on the other - in my opinion far more interesting - film:

THE COMEBACK from 1978 is his third to last (maybe that's how these two films are connected into one release: his third and his third to last?) movie and tells the story of an successful singer who retreats to a remote manor to record his next album. However he is stalked by a person in a hag's mask who is out for blood and already killed the singer's ex wife.

This classical slasher movie has been released in the USA and Canada in 2012 as a boxset release with 3 other Pete Walker movies, as well as a single release in 2013 (in both Countries), and is therefore again an European premiere. It got mixed to positive reviews with the main critic being that for a slahser movie it is a bit soft. Still it got the Best Cinematograpy award at the Stiges Film Festival. As a more conventional movie in Walkers filmography it is often credited as "Forshadowing the development of the slahser movie of the 1980s", and therefore considered a must see by slasher aficionados.

All in all it is really strange to see this movie get bundled with the SCHOOL FOR SEX one. Then again, in my oppinion any bonus movie is a better addition to a release, than having just a DVD copy of the same movie, these days.
 

Release: 2021

Link (Wicked Shop): ???

Price: ???€

Limited: ???

"Stick - the only thing he couldn't do, was stick........ to the rules"

According to Wicked Vision every label should at least have one film with Burt Reynolds in their resume, and for this reason, Wicked is releasing STICK. This is especially interesting, because this is not even a German Blu-ray premiere, as we had this movie in an Amaray package on Blu-ray released way back in 2012, and this release is even still available AND affordable, e.g. for 15€ at Amazon (different to certain other releases). However, and you might have already guessed this due to the age, and if not, you may guess it from the fact that up to 2019 this was the only release on Blu-ray worldwide: This was no HD release, but an SD upscale in 1080i. So, one could argue that it is still an HD premiere, and this (according to bluray.com) in Europe - only other releases are USA and Canada from 2019 in an Amaray release bei "Kino Lorber" (allow me for another fun fact: Though a US company, founded by Richard Lorber, the word "Kino" is actually German, meaning cinema. Richard is quite common in Germany as well [though we pronounce it totally different] and Lorber sounds rather German as well - so probably this company was founded by someone from German descendant).

The film STICK is based on an eponymous novel by Elmore Leonard which was made into a film in 1983. In this crime movie, that Burt Reynolds also directed, he plays a convict that just got released from prison. His old friend brings him home, but wants to take a "quick stop" on the way. However, this "quick stop" is a criminal meetup that goes sour. His friend gets killed and Stick has to flee from the gangsters who see him as a witness.
 

Some trivia on this movie: Reynolds wanted to make this film, as soon as he read the novel, and straight away contacted Leonard and tasked him with writing a script for his book. Shooting went well, Reynolds also did the editing and was convinced to have produced a great film, when he handed over his cut to the Studio. However, the Studio didn't like it at all and demanded extensive reshoots, including a rework of the script by another author. Reynolds agency advised him to go along, and so he did. Leonard was the first to see the movie before the premiere, and he hated it and expressed his contempt towards the press, which mad them to attack this movie. Reynolds felt devastated and did not return to directing for four years, though he had plenty of offers.

Wicked promises to release a "loving special edition, which this film deserves" and has tagged the post with blu-ray, dvd and mediabook.
 

7 minutes ago, Casiusco said:

And that the back cover comes clean is something that I didn't expect

At least it's a very strong indicator, otherwise a back cover card wouldn't make sense. But until now Birnenblatt has kept the back artwork a secret (and I thought because it will have text on it).
 

8 minutes ago, Casiusco said:

I should be mandatory in this type of editions.

I think it should be mandatory in every edition. I mean the texts, screenshots and technical information is just for advertisement, when these things are in the shelves of your local shop and you pick it up without knowing anything of the film. But once you know it, or have seen the movie these things don't add any value to the product, don't you think? So having this information on a removable cover card and having beautiful artwork on the back side adds so much more value to the edition. I love keeping the back cover card (and always am happy when they are a bit smaller so you can store them with the edition, but in case I cannot I have an extra binder just for all those J-Card, back and front cover cards, etc.

@extantsrevenge Perfect, thank you very much!

There are some news regarding this release: According to Birnenblatt they (Birnenblatt) have sold all their units, one day before official release - so for Birnenblatt it's sold out - this however does not mean, that this is actually sold out, as Birnenblatt does not sell to customers directly, only to retailers. But it could be an indicator, that demand for this box is rather high.

Together with their announcement there was another picture, and there is one interesting implication, i.e. things we didn't yet know: In the picture you can see a back cover card, meaning that the back of the box will probably just show artwork, and no text. That's awesome news in my book. And talking about books, there is also a sneak peak on the cover of the booklet, and we get to see the disk artwork that is fitting the artwork of the box. Looks beautiful. I still haven't decided. But I'll probably just go for it, I guess

To anyone interested in this: There has been an update. The Master has been deemed insufficient, and therefore they'll do a new sampling in 4K. There is no new date when this will happen, Filmjuwelen said they'll give us an update in 2021. Some speculate that it will probably be in the third quarter or later. Most shops have therefore already removed the article and cancelled orders, or deactivate the order button.

There is some speculation that if they do a new master anyways in 4K, this could mean that instead of the DVD copy we could actually get an UHD disc - but again, that's just speculation. No information from Filmjuwelen as of now. I'll keep you posted!

Aaaand... the Coffin, that I ordered from Pretz got shipped, just today. I recon this will come earlier, than the mediabook from Wicked, as I always ask Wicked to include single orders to another in order to safe some shipping money. I expect it to come together with these two beauties that I ordered, so not earlier than Dec. 18th. But with a little bit of luck the coffin could arrive this weekend - so I'd be able to share some photos for everyone still undecided, and to sweeten the time for anyone still waiting for their order to arrive

Release: 2021

Link (Wicked Shop): ???

Price: ???€

Limited: ???

As I already mentioned, Wicked is doing a "30 days 30 news" announcement run for us to advertise what we can expect in 2021. Being busy and sick I wasn't able to keep up, so after THE WIND (tagged as Mediabook), SILENT MOVIE (not tagged as Mediabook, so maybe not a Mediabook) and COUNT DRACULA (not tagged as Mediabook?!? But that would be strange for this title, now, wouldn't it?), I have a couple of thinks to catch up to with you. The first announcement in this "backlog" that I haven't shared with you is this release:

This 1977 italian-canadian moive was directed by Gianfranco Parolini (as Frank Kramer) and tells the story of Professor Henry Wassermann, who discovered a Yeti on an expedition in Arctic, revives it and brings it back to Toronto, where companies try to use it for marketing reasons.

This movie can be considered as the Italian contribution to the Ape-like-giant-monster-movies, as in 1976, John Guillermins KING KONG remake was a huge success, and though it is called Yeti, Parolinis movie is more like King Kong than like the Yeti we see in the 1957s Hammer movie THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN.

Wicked has not any infos on bonuses and extras, but it is tagged as Mediabook, so we can expect a 2-disc release and a booklet. So, nothing more to say, just point you to the trailer - unfortunately, once more I couldn't find any English language trailers for this one, only really really bad quality illegal uploads of the full movie that'll definitely be blocked soon. There also seems to be no other release of this one on Blu-ray anywhere in the world. An Amaray with slipcover release was announced for Canada and USA for "early this year", but I couldn't find an actual release, so this could well become a world premiere. It definitely is a German and probably European premiere on HD. More over this was also never released on DVD, so the only way one could own this, was on VHS. I don't know the situation in other countries, but given this is a really special interest movie, I guess it could be similar around the world, which would also explain these really horrible quality uploads.

So I hope once more you can forgive me, for posting the trailer in German - but hey: Better a trailer you cannot understand, than no trailer at all, wouldn't you agree?
 

But generally: Yes. I would think they'll be delivering very soon now. Anolis will probably unpack the delivery and check it for correctness, then send them to the retailers, and as soon as the retailers have it, they'll send it to the customers. So I would imagine retrailers could be getting this maybe even end of this week, or beginning of next, so beginning to middle of next week, delivery to the customers should start. And then it'll need some time to arrive at Thomas and he'll need to relay it to you. If you are lucky it'll be there between Christmas and New Year's Eve? Depending on how shipping to USA takes these days... Recon there could be Corona and Christmas shipping madness related delays. But I'll keep my fingers crossed, that you'll get yours very soon

@Veum Oh - I guess best to find out is by asking Thomas directly then. I actually didn't even know that you could also buy them via Mediamarkt. So not sure if he really ordered them at Mediamarkt or somewhere else. I ordered my Coffin edition via Pretz Media, and they have not changed the status of my order in any way. Still, the photo I posted was by Anolis and they tagged the image with coffin edition and dracula, so those releases should be available for shipping as well, very soon.

Anolis' original plan was to release all four Mediabooks the same time, I guess, that's for logistics reasons - they'll probably produced all 4 Mediabooks at the same time. The coffins only arrived now, maybe they where only waiting for those.

The single Cover B Mediabook I ordered via Wicked Vision. They just changed their status, so I guess Anolis has delivered them their batch for distribution amongst the people who ordered it.

OMG, my order status for the single Mediabook just changed to "in progress". Things are really HAPPENING!!! 🤩

As I have probably already mentioned, I signed up for the subscription, and just a few minutes ago, Wicked send out the first two E-Mails. The first one a general "Welcoming" mail, with some general information about the mailing list, that was already announced in their advertisements (and summarized and explained by me in the initial post as best as I can ), and the plea to not share the behind the scenes information contained in the newsletters, as they would like to keep this kind of exclusivity.

So unfortunately I will not be able to share the things, as I will of course fullfil their request. Just so much: first "live" pictures where shared and the date will be kept. I'm pretty excited for it. I will of course share my own pictures once I have mine in hand, but for this you'll still have to wait a wile. Unfortunately up to now no one reacted to this, so I am not sure, if it's at all worth to keep posting on the still coming releases. But at least I'll "complete" these two threads I started with pictures and impressions

2 minutes ago, Veum said:

Can’t say I remember this move if ever I did see it @pygospa and yes mighty ugly cover...

Pew, then this is something you should catch up on this movie But to be quite honest, though I've seen it a couple of times in my youth (starting with free TV broadcasts), I don't remember the resolution. The trailer filled some gaps, and if I am not mistaken it was a twist ending, but yeah. I definitely have to see this myself sometime. And lately I've been neglecting my DVDs in favour for the BDs, so it's good this movie gets finally released

And lucky to hear, that I am not the only one disliking the cover. I have to say, the original is a little bit nicer, due to the different background color. But all in all I feel that the cover rather looks like something you would expect from a comedy movie, not a serious crime mystery drama. It's a shame - I do like his style of drawing. Here's the original artwork for comparison:

 

2 minutes ago, Veum said:

the blu-ray is going anywhere from $144 😳 on AMZ.com to $15.99 from Finland on fleabay

Oh, I realized this as well, and probably this was one reason I did never get this movie on Amaray (or this really cheap Digipak we have in Germany) either. Wanted to mention this in my initial post - I did not know that this is a global phenomena, but in Germany the prices for the Amaray is 88€ and 99,50€ in the Digipack. Don't think the movie lives up to these prices, so please don't pay this much - that's crazy - even for psychos

So you guys, what do you think about this release? Anybody interested? I myself have been waiting for this movie (as well as a few others) to be released in a version worth getting on Blu-ray for a long while now. Often I just opt for the Amaray, if I've been waiting too long, but with this movie, I still have the DVD which I thought was sufficient enough for the time being, as this is a rather old 1986 movie. I hope, that Alive will give this movie a good treatment, I haven't found any information regarding the Master, so I don't know if this is a new master, and if it isn't, then if the old master was sufficient enough to be worth your time and money. But getting this is still a no-brainer for me - in my youth I really loved this movie, so it was one of the first films I actually got on DVD (I guess in 2004, so more than 15 years ago). But to be honest, I haven't seen this for a while now.

Regarding Sean Connery, just this year (and only a few weeks before his death) I rewatched "The First Knight" which I also own on DVD, and to be quite honest, that is a really bad movie But I also have it on DVD, and that one is one of my very first movies, because as a child I also love the "First Knight" movie - not so much because of the plot, but because I was totally into medival and high fantasy films and novels, so I watched anything that I could get my hands on (and at that time, we did not have Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc. ).

Another movie I would love to see get released, best in a Mediabook containing all the movies (as I wouldn't get the other ones otherwise), would be "Dragonheart". And the original "Murder on the Orient Express" with Sean Connery would be nice as well. These also exist, but not in nice editions (and I don't care if it's DigiPack, Steelbook, Mediabook, etc. - but make something beautiful, please!). While speaking of "beautiful" - what do you think of the cover?

I have to confess - and I know this is controversial and people will hate me for this - I think it's ass ugly. I would have loved to see something new and original that both captures the essence of the movie as well as looks nice. I know that this artwork is the original movie poster by artwork legend Drew Struzan, still... I don't like it

 

Release: 26.03.2021

Link: Al!ve, Amazon

Price: 24,99€

Limited: ?

Why do people always have to die, until they get some attention? At least to me it sometimes feels like this. E.g. this year there was a Hybrid Theory box set that finally collected all the CDs, LPs, EPs and even Demos (including a demo tape) during the Hybrid Theory era - just after Chester Bennington died. And now, after the death of Sean Connery, FINALLY there is a release I've been waiting to get a special edition for, for a decade.

THE NAME OF THE ROSE is a European co-production between France, Italy and Germany. Based on the eponymous book by Italian author Umberto Eco, the French director Jean-Jacques Annaud (BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR, THE BEAR) was to direct the movie. However, as in France the movie could not be financed, German producer Bernd Eichinger (THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, THE DOWNFALL) produced the movie and hired Annaud to direct it. He also hired famous cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA), and the Italian production designer and art director Dante Ferretti (THE AVIATOR, SWEENY TODD), who designed the biggest outdoor sets in the history of European movies, in the city Prima Porta (near Rome) in Italy, where most of filming took place. In the lead roles we've got Sean Connery and Christian Slater.

The historical mystery drama Connery plays a Franciscan friar who is teaching his apprentice played by Slater. They are called upon to solve a murder that happened inside an abbey. But while he investigates it, he soon finds out that there's something bigger happening behind the scenes.

This Mediabook will be released by Alive! under their sublabel "Filmjuwelen", which is not that well known, and which I wouldn't say is of the best build quality, but also not bad, just average. It will be packed with extras, which will include:

• 2 audio commentaries with Jean-Jacques Annaud (in English and French - so they will be with German subtitles, but there is no information if this will also be with English subtitles)
• A featurette ("Die Abtei des Verbrechens: Umberto Ecos »Der Name der Rose«" - original audio with English or German subtitles)
• 2 documentations (56 and 61 Minutes, »Der Name der Rose Teil I: Die Genesis« and »Der Name der Rose Teil II: Die Schlüssel zum Labyrinth« - these will be original audio with subtitles, I guess original audio will be French?) <-- Just on the Blu-ray, not the DVD.
• Multimedia picture galery with Jean-Jacques Annaud
• Trailer

Unfortunately none of these extras are new or exclusive - I still own the 2004 DVD release and all extras are listed on my release as well. Regarding the audio, this is supposed to be shipped with DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound in the original soundtrack (English) and German dubbing, and it will also include Italian dubbing but only in DTS-HD MA 2.0.

This is not the first release of this movie, but as far as I know all releases are Amaray release, so this will be the first (probably world wide) "special edition" release.

To close, as usually, here is the original trailer for your enjoyment:

This picture was posted by Anolis today. Apparently those are the coffin editions of Dracula. 1.5 months later than planned (and before that actually 1.5 years later than originally announced), this could actually still be happening this year! 🤩

As I have probably already mentioned somewhere above, I've pre-ordered the coffin back in February this year, so with 10 months this is probably the longest time I've been waiting between order placement and arrival. Well, patience is a virtue, and I am all but impatient (or at least I try to be). Really happy, to get this as well as the Cover B that I've ordered as well (the very first double dip I did with Anolis) 😇

9 minutes ago, Catgirl said:

Im Pool mit dem Lama planschen darfst du trotzdem nicht..... 🤣🤣

Och das brauch ich auch nicht. Aber ein neuer Fernseher wäre mal eine schöne Sache. Irgendwas zwischen 40"-50", OLED. Müsste nicht mal zwigend 4K sein, 3D wäre mir sogar lieber, aber das ist ja nicht mehr... daher dann mit Blick in die Zukunft...

Und wenn ich meine Eltern fragen würde kommt bestimmt wieder sowas in Richtung: "Alter! Du bist alt genug! Jetzt bist Du dran - ich will auch keine Geschenke, aber Du könntest mal 1-mal die Woche vorbeikommen, und hier dies und jenes und das muss noch und.... " 🤣

4 hours ago, thomue1987 said:

dieser Moment wenn die Kleine gleich nen geileren TV als ihre Alten im Zimmer hängen hat. Neid.. 😕

Aber erstmal muss ich zum Baumarkt die passenden Schrauben holen. Die mitgelieferten sind einen ganzen Zentimeter zu kurz 🤨

Wow! Das ist aber mal ein Geschenk. Und das so kurz VOR Weihnachten? Oder ist das schon das Weihnachtsgeschenk und sie kriegt es früher als geplant?

Ach so, außerdem: Adoptierst Du mich, bitte?  

8 minutes ago, forenhase said:

Da FA manchmal am letzten Tag erst die BS veröffentlich, bleibt mir leider keine Wahl. 

War bestimmt auch nicht direkt an Dich gerichtet, die Kritik. Ich find's auch blöde, aber weiß ja (wie wahrscheinlich jeder hier), dass Du da nichts dran ändern kannst, und das alles an Filmarena liegt. Aber denen kann's wohl egal sein - die Dinger verkaufen sich so oder so wie geschnitten Brot (ich bin ja selbst Teil dieser "Maschinerie" 🤪).

Bin mal gespannt, was Filmarena da zaubern wird. Skull Island fand ich schon klasse, Godzilla hat das noch mal getoppt und ist für mich der erste Godzilla-Film den ich richtig feiere und der auch nach mehrmaligem Gucken echt großartig funktioniert.

Hoffe sie machen ein tolles durchgängiges Design, ähnlich wie bei den Jurassic Parks. Das wäre der Hammer

@forenhase Alles klar, dann mache ich das so. Allerbesten Dank für Deine sehr fixe Antwort! Und natürlich auch wie immer für all die Mühen, die Du Dir wegen uns machst

Hab eine kurze Frage, da ja in letzter Zeit die Limitierungen immer so niedrig sind, und ich den Film wirklich gerne haben wollen würde: Ist das okey, sich erstmal für beide einzutragen, und dann nach Erscheinen der Beautyshots (falls noch möglich) noch mal eines davon zu stornieren? Oder wäre das blöd?

Ich weiß, dass Du die Möglichkeit ja generell zulässt, solange Du noch nicht fix bestellt hast, aber ich frage trotzdem vorher lieber noch mal nach. Ich mach das ja eigentlich eher ungerne, weil ich Dir nicht mehr Arbeit machen will, als zwingend notwendig. Aber man muss ja mittlerweile immer echt schnell sein, und schon vor den Beautyshots entscheiden. Bei den meisten Filmen nehm ich's einfach in Kauf, sonst ist's halt pech, aber hier wäre es mir schon wichtig, möchte aber eigentlich auch nur eine Edition, und davon die für mich schönste 😇

@Veum Oh, sorry to hear that. And no, I didn't know. I wish you both all the best, and hope she can beat that nasty thing. Best of luck to you!

On 12/6/2020 at 2:51 PM, Veum said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

🥤Hey @pygospa, some mighty nice pick ups my friend! 😊

 

Sorry to hear you were in the hospital 😞  you need to let us know when something happens to you we love you and we are your “family” also my good friend❣️

 

Thank you very much, @Veum. Normally I am a pretty private guy (or at least I used to be), and I was never big on sharing my illnesses - not even with my family (my first hospital stay this year I was wondering wether or not I should tell my mother. I decided to do so, because I would never hear the end of it, if anything would have happened 🤣). But your words mean very much to me, and I try to keep you posted

I have an inflammation in my pancreas, and it seems to be chronic, as it is reappearing, which apparently is a very bad thing, as it is not treatable. Normally, I don't feel anything, but I've been having "attacks" where there are strong stomach aches. I had these for the first time some years ago, and only short and well spread (maybe 3 times, in the last 6 years), but this year I've had them 4 times since June, pretty heavy and two times I was in hospital, first time because the pain was too much and did not get better for more than 6 hours, and second time, because this time I was also vomitting. But they cannot find a cause for it. There are a couple of things that could trigger something like this (heavy alcoholism, smoking, drug/medical abuse, tumors, gall stones, high blood fat levels, unknown insulin deficiency, bacterial or viral infection, etc.), but none of these apply to me. So now I am under doctoral observation - I get my blood analyzed every week, plus I am still on pain medication. And for the rest, it's waiting, and hoping... I am a bit torn between hoping for never having to go to hospital again, and having another attack so maybe this time they'll find something. It is rather unsatisfactory and frustrating to not know what might cause it, because I don't know what I can change, and so I'm a bit worried that this could happen any time (e.g. "inconvenient" times, like when you meet with friends or family, or on Christmas eve, etc.).

But yeah, what can you do... movies and blu-rays provide a good distraction

One week in hospital once more But after I returned, this week I did not only had to work a lot, but also got a lot of packages.

Wednesday this package by @forenhase arrived:

#1094 | SVK | Gremlins | Black Barons #27 XL Fullslip + WWA Steelbook
Release date: Nov. 11th, 2020
Paid: 70,93€

Now this is a disgrace to admit, but actually I've never seen the GREMLINS movie, so I am pretty excited to finally have a good edition - I've heard that this is a movie worth watching around Christmas, so that's what I'm gonna do I really enjoy the edition, and I have shared some information and photos here:
 

#1095 | CZE | Forrest Gump | Filmarena #138 XL Fullslip + WWA Steelbook
Release date: Oct. 21st, 2020
Paid: 59,44€

Haven't I disgraced myself enough already? Well, actually I also never saw FORREST GUMP before - well, not exactly. I've seen this movie as a child about 2 or 3 times in free TV, but I never saw it in its entirety, and also I did not really like it. Growing up I learned that this is actually considerd a really good movie by a lot of people, so I always wanted to give this movie another chance. Given that I am older now, maybe I'll see things differently? So I was excited in this release. I also enjoyed the edition, and here I've posted my impressions and some photos:
 

On Thursday, I got a package from Amazon, containing this movie:

#1096 | DEU | Pandemie [O-Title: 감기 (Gamgi), lit. ‘Flu’, int. Title: The Flu] | 2xBD Mediabook

EAN: 4260080328616
Release date: Oct. 2nd, 2020
Region Code: B
Paid: 18,00€

In 2013, the Korean movie 감기 (The Flu) was released, and as usually, this movie did not make it to Germany. It tells the story of a mutated H5N1 Virus that spreads in a Korean city, which leads to this city being quarantined, and scientist starting to work on an antidote. The film escalates and shows how a scenario like this could get really ugly.

In 2013 the critics where mixed, with some criticizing the conspiracy theories and exaggeration. Now, in 2020, we have the Corona Virus and actually there are a lot of parallels to the movie. And all of a sudden local distributors and labels realized that there was this movie, which is why this year - seven years later! - the movie gets a release in Taiwan, in Germany, and in Mexico, and instead of using the direct translation, that was also used for the internationla title, we get something like "Pandemie" (Pandemic), which is actually wrong, as this movie is locally contained in Korea, so it's actually just an epidemic. Mexico is worse: "Coronavirus. El inicio de la epidemia" ("Corona virus - beginning of an epidemic"). In Germany, it was advertised as a "Virus thriller" and got a cinematic release in August 2020, and in October the label Alive! released this mediabook.

I haven't seen the movie, but I heard a lot of positive things about it, so I thought: Why not get it? I am working on growing my Asian movie collection as well as my Asian movie knowledge, so this was a no-brainer. The Mediabook is not of the best quality, but it is limited and individually numbered to 2000 pieces, and instead of a DVD copy, we get a second Blu-ray with a lot of extras. Unfortunately the Audio is just German dubbing or Korean (with English parts?) audio. And only German subtitles. So you need to either know German or Korean if you are interested internationally. And it is locked to Region B. A shame.

Next package arrived on Friday, from Wicked Vision, containing a couple of movies as well as this one:



I've not advertised this here, but still I'd like to share it with you. It's a cooperation from Wicked Vision's Daniel with one of the Bands he really loves: "The Other". They produced a "radio play" - in Germany we call these Hörspiel - and they got a couple of famous German stars to play a role, e.g. Micha Rhein (singer of In Extremo), Anna R. (singer of Rosenstolz), Dr. Mark Benecke (Germany's first forensic entomology researcher and forensic consulting), Wolfgang Holbein (Germany's most famous fantasy author), Joachim Witt (famous singer), and many more. The MC is limited to 150 numbered copies and sold out fast - it includes a pencil (we all know why) - unfortunately it is a round pencil, so the joke is not really working (fail ), the CD is limited to 2000 copies and still available. There was a bundle (which you see in the picture) limited to 200 numbered copies that also included a large personalized card with signatures of the Band on the back side.

I actually love radio plays, my most favorite ones being "Die drei ???" and "John Sinclair". This audio play is rather similar to John Sinclair, and I am a huge fan of In Extremo, I like a couple of Rosenstolz songs, and as a child I read a lot of Wolfgang Holbein books, so naturally I was excited to get it, even if it wasn't by Wicked Vision.

The rest of the package contained this:

#1097 | DEU | FBI jagt Phantom | BD+DVD Amaray with O-Card

EAN: 4041036350987
Release date: Oct. 16th, 2020
Region Code: B
Paid: 20,99€

I've written all about this release in this thread and also added some photos and impressions, so find it all here:

#1098 | DEU | Frankenstein schuf ein Weib | 1xBD Digibook

EAN: 4041036371265
Release date: Oct. 16th, 2020
Region Code: B
Paid: 28,99€

Find all about this release here:

#1099 | DEU | Die Nonnen von Clinchy | 4xBD Mediabook

EAN: 4260448732413
Release date: Nov. 6th, 2020
Region Code: free
Paid: 32,99€

And last but not least - I could have linked to a post I've written for this release as well (including a lot of pictures) but unfortunately it was deleted again by the admins - for good reasons! It contains a lot of nudity, and I wasn't feeling to comfortable posting it, and wasn't even sure if it was allowed - I decided to do it anyways, as I guessed this is a 18+ forum, because people here do business with each other and to being able to do so you need to be of legal age (at least in Germany), but of course I totally comply with their deleting it again. Bit unfortunate that the entire post was deleted, not just the pictures, because I wrote quite a bit about this edition as well. Just to sum it up in short: We get a 4 disc release, and Wicked put a lot of effort in this release - the pictures however suggest that this is much more erotic than I had imagined, and I am not sure how I feel about it. Happy, however: I did not want to have this naked images on the front cover of my mediabook so I chose NOT to go with the Timo Würz, though I love having his artwork. I was lucky to be under the first 200 pre-orders, so I got his artwork as a limited and numbered postcard

I was asked to reupload the images if I censor the nudity, but to be quite honest, I don't think it is worth the effort, as there was also no reaction to the thread I created. It would take me too long to do this, so if someone is really interested in this, I'd rather send them via pm, instead.

 

And on Saturday, another package from Wicked Vision, arrived, as well as one from Amazon, that was really strangely packed:

#1100 | DEU | Er kam nur nachts | BD+DVD Amaray [G1]

EAN: 4041036310929
Release date: Oct. 18th, 2020
Region Code: B / 2
Paid: 29,99€

Next entry in the "Der Fluch der Galerie des Grauens" series, and I've already created a post for it, here:

#1101 | DEU | Bloody mama | BD+DVD Mediabook

EAN: 4260448732451
Release date: Nov. 1st, 2020
Region Code: B / 2
Paid: 29,99€

And the next entry in Wicked Visions Collector's series, and I've again already created and described it here:
 

#1102 | DEU | Ist das leben nicht schön? [O-Title: It's a Wonderful Life] | BD+2xDVD Mediabook

EAN: 4260448732451
Release date: Oct. 12th, 2018
Region Code: B / 2
Paid: 18,99€

This was a spontaneous buy, and I ordered it together with PANDEMIE. I actually don't know the movie, but a lot of people have recommended it to me, plus they said it's a great movie to watch during Christmas season, and this is why I got this Mediabook, that was released by Alive! under their "Filmjuwelen" sublabel. It comes with a couple of extras: The movie is available in four versions: the original version and the colorized version on DVD, and then in a HD restauration in black and white and again also in HD in a colorized version. Additionally we also get the short movie ISN'T LIFE TERRIBLE?. Unfortunately that's it.