International releases sometimes happen on weird, illogic timetables. This Thursday, April the 3rd, Bong Yoon-ho's new film Snowpiercer had its theatrical premiere in The Netherlands. On that very same day, the mailman arrived with a package out of France, containing the special edition Blu-ray of the very same film.
Last year, France was the first country outside of South Korea to show Snowpiercer, with festival screenings back in September, followed with a wide release in October, and that is why their home releases leave the station a bit sooner, this very week in fact.
The French distributor is Wild Side Video, and thankfully they have a reputation for pimping some of their releases like you wouldn't believe. Their Blu-rays for Night of the Hunter and Gun Crazy are the stuff of legends, the accompanying books definite must-haves for collectors. So what did they do with Snowpiercer?
Well, they made it a very solid release. The Blu-ray looks and sounds absolutely fantastic, and contains over two hours of bonus materials, galleries, outtakes, trailers, designs, making-of documentaries, you name it. Interestingly, the film now starts with an added five-minute cgi prologue, done in the same style as Appleseed and Vexille. As far as I know this wasn't attached on any of the theatrical versions. Also, as off-disc bonus content this release includes two very nice books about the production design.
The bad news: the blu-ray has been coded for use in region B only, meaning Europe, Africa and Australia. I've checked it and it won't play on a non-regionfree US player, so be warned. Also, there are no English subs, just French ones. Do know that the movie is almost entirely in English anyway, and the few Korean sentences are almost all repeated by the English characters already. Those that are not, do come with French subs, and can easily be deciphered.
By now you'll know if you want it or not, so let's take a look at what this release looks like. There are two flavors so far: a steelbook-only edition, and the Ultimate Edition. And here are some pictures of that Ultimate Edition. Check this out!
And here it is: a big box. Now often, such a big box contains a lot of air. You open it and there is some foam, the film and a pen or something. So is that the case here?
(see next slide!)
Whoops, apparently not: this box is filled to the gills.
The contents: two books and a steelbook disc-holder.
The books aren't exactly booklets: the hardcover blue one is 80 pages and the softcover black one is 70 pages.
All contents opened. The steelbook contains the film on Blu-ray, the film on DVD including a digital copy, and an advertisement sneak folder of the new French release of the original graphic novel.
A closer look at the blue hardcover book. I love that cover!
The blue hardcover book has 80 pages, most of them covered in artwork, pictures and behind-the-scenes snapshots.
A closer look at the black softcover book. I also love this cover!
The black softcover book has 70 pages, filled with somber character sketches like this one.
Finally, this is the steelbook up close. Pretty!
"The End!"
All in all a damn fine edition. Will South Korea answer this gauntlet, thrown by France? South Korea used to be the world champion in pretty packaging, after all...