jab's collection (mostly Korean Films) | Update 03-28 pg. 28

by **jab** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:05 pm

Showing off my collection. (Click on any image to see a larger version)
Let me know if you want any information about or pictures of certain editions.

Older pictures of the setup as of January 3rd 2009 can be found here. (page 14 in this thread)

Overview:

Details:
Oversized Editions:

Metropolis LE

Favourite Directors:

The Killing | Paths of Glory | Six Days

Cinéma d'auteur:

Arsenal | Jules and Jim

Rest of the West:

Basic Instinct | Doctor Zhivago

HK/Taiwan/China/Singapore/Thailand:

Japanese Cinema:

Some of the Books on Film that I have (well, actually most of them)

Gojko Mitic Book

Korean Cinema:
Overview:

Details:
Soundtracks:

My Wife is a Gangster | Once Upon a Time in Highschool | April Snow

Oversized Editions:

The Terrorist | Chihwaseon | Memories of Murder | ...ing | My Mother the Mermaid

Hong Sang-soo Collection | Two Cops 2 & Two Cops 3

Shortfilms, Omnibus films & more:

WFFIS Winner | Korean Short Film Collection | Three Extremes

Korean Films, sorted by release date starting in the lower left corner: (an alphabetical list of all Korean Films I own can be found here)

1954 - 1989

White Valentine

2000 ->

<- 2000

My Heart | Bloody Beach | Vanishing Twin | Plum Blossom

2001 ->

Paradise Villa

2002 ->

Oollala Sisters | Iron Palm | Marriage is a Crazy Thing | Four Toes | Love Me Once Again 2002

<- 2002 ->

Camel(s) | Addicted | Baby Alone | Ardor | Unborn but Forgotten

<- 2002

A Bizarre Love Triangle

2003 ->

Run to You | Garden of Heaven | Oh! Happy Day | Spring Bears Love

<- 2003 ->

Elysium | Untold Scandal

<- 2003 | 2004 ->

Daddy Long Legs | 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant

<- 2004 ->

Someone Special

<- 2004

Jenny, Juno | Crying Fist | The Twins | Innocent Steps

<- 2005 ->

Art of Fighting | Lost in Love

<- 2006 ->

Vampire Cop Ricky | Forbidden Quest | The Legend of 7 Cutter

<- 2006 ->

The War of Flower | Traces of Love | A Cruel Attendence | 200 Pounds Beauty

2007 ->

Forever the Moment | Little Prince | A Man who was Superman | Beautiful | Babo | Doremifasollasido | A Tale of Legendary Libido | Cherry Tomato | Girl Scouts | Life is Cool | My Mighty Princess | Sunny | Death Bell | Dachimawa Lee

New Additions:
The Last Witness
The Host
Happiness
Wide Awake
Modern Boy
Bewitching Attraction
One Night Stand
Yangsan Province
Hyperbola of Youth
My Wife Got Married
Lee Seong-gang Animated Shortfilm Collection
Ae-ran
Mom Has a New Boyfriend VCD
I’m a Man with a Gun
Millions in My Account
Do You Believe in Jazz? HK DVD
Gangster Lessons
Blackjack
Wild Animals HK DVD
A Killing Story VCD
Master
Tie a Yellow Ribbon CN DVD
Whispering Corridors
A Mystery of the Cube
The Spy
La Belle
Harpy HK VCD
Vanishing Twin
Club Butterfly
Go
Four Toes
Jesus Is My Boss
Emergency Act 19
Resurrection of the Little Match Girl
Baby Alone
Unborn but Forgotten
Dying or Live
My Right to Ravage Myself
Jeong Jin-Woo Retrospective 1
Jeong Jin-Woo Retrospective 2
Jeong Jin-Woo Retrospective 3
Love Me Once Again Boxset
Shit Up!
A Bizarre Love Triangle
The Road Taken
Viva Freedom
Rough Cut
Piagol
The Hidden Princess
Ice Bar
A Good Day to have an Affair
My Beautiful Short Films Vol. 1
Addicted
Someone Special
The First Amendment of Korea
The Past Unearthed Vol. 2
Kim Ki-young Collection
Untold Scandal
An Open Pomegranate
The Submarine With A Rabbit Aboard
Family Ties
Miss Gold Digger

Film I don't (yet) own:
The Marines who never returned
Pong

by **jab** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:06 pm

I got my 500th Korean Feature Film on DVD yesterday :oohyeah:

, so I thought it was time to take some pictures. :yes:

The purpose of this thread is to get some encouraging feedback from fellow collectors - most people I know tend to think that spending all your money on DVDs and getting DVD-packages every second day is insane. :looney:

I will try to take pictures of any new updates and will otherwise pick some of the above pictured editions for a more detailed presentation. Feel free to request any information or pictures of editions you are interested in.

A few words about the collection:
It all started out rather casually: I was really impressed by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, therefore I ordered the SE-DVD, then I saw the LE of The Matrix in a store and liked the pictures/lobby cards and bought the box. When I moved out I found the SE of Gladiator in my room, that somebody must have left there (I still don't know who actually owned that one, nobody wanted it back). So I had 3 DVDs, but I was still rarely watching films and if so, either in cinemas or at a friend's place (never had a TV all my life).
When I came back from my gap year, this had changed: on the one hand I had been so bored, that I went to the pictures once a week and watched nearly everything Hollywood put out in that 10-month period. Even though I rarely liked the films themselves, I came to love the "cinema experience". At the same time I was shown clips of (non-european) Independent Films and non-american commercial films, finally something I found interesting. On my way back I was left with some kind of coupon (forgot what store it was) and since I wasn't looking for anything and didn't have the space in my backpack to take some books I ended up taking a few DVDs home.
But now there was a problem: I've been 'a collector' all my life. Not that I ever took that as a serious hobby or spent a lot of money on any collection, but I basically kept everything, that you could group with similar items - I just like to arrange and put things in order. :oops:

The standard marketing ploy to make everything part of series to make it collectible works very well on me :lol:

(and they don't even need to do that: I once had a box with several hundreds of differently packed lump sugar - snatching some at every cafe/restaurant I came by) If you classify people as hunters and gatherers I would definitely be the latter.
Since I already had a few DVDs and was trying to source some films I was interested in, I started buying DVDs for a collection rather than just renting them to watch the films. Obviously I couldn't afford a lot of new DVDs, therefore I only bought/ordered films that might interest me, but because I didn't really have an established taste in movies I decided to buy anything provided it was significantly cheaper than cinema tickets (<3.50€). Therefore I bought lots and lots of used DVDs! I was soon tired of Hollywood B-movies and started to look for east-asian films. I soon realized I was willing to pay more for korean films (5€ and 10€ for a SE/LE), therefore the collection slowly found its main focus. I was actually able to find more cheap DVDs than I could afford and therefore cut down on western cinema and concentrated on Chinese/Japanese/Korean films. That in turn made me realize that there are actually editions that are made for collectors and I started to look for special cases and Limited Editions, but since I could only afford to buy one every once in a while, I was mostly busy just looking at pictures of LE-Collections of others. (Which is of course why I finally registered on this board) When I moved again I noticed I had quite a few DVDs that I would likely never watch again (and if I ever wanted to could easily get them again), therefore I sold a few hundred standard DVDs of mainly american films.
About a year ago I started to slowly look for Korean Films and Korean DVDs only and at some point actually made the decision to make Korean Films my one and only collection, limiting everything else to things I really like or use. (Actually I totally missed the aim of that decision: to curb my spending and the time I spend looking for DVD bargains online - instead I was checking even more frequently and extensively and have been broke ever since :lol:

)
At first I wanted to set a limit of Non-Korean films I keep, but found that very difficult to do. Deciding which asian (but non-korean) Films to keep was even harder, because with some of them I couldn't just pop into the next dvd-rental-shop if for any reason I wanted to watch the movie again. After some back and forth I noticed that the DVDs that were still on the 'to-keep' list would fit perfectly in one of my shelves. Being happy about finally having found some kind of solution, I bought another one of those and did the same thing with my DVDs of non-asian films: taking those away that I'm least inclined to keep until I could fit in the rest. I kept certain DVDs for various reasons: most, because I really like the movie, lots, because I want to watch them again before selling them off and some, because of their packaging. When I look at those shelves now I am really unhappy with what's left, because it doesn't seem to reflect my taste in movies. I feel like I really should have only kept about a third of those.

I think as soon as I find another use for the second shelf my collection will be downsized once again - however that's unlikely to happen in the next couple of month.

The Collection of Korean Films is something else, though.
I really like that part of my collection and am very happy about the pace at which it has been growing. I also happen to think that it strikes a good balance between something collectable (and aesthetically pleasing) and something useful, as I have set myself the goal to watch as many Korean Films as possible and am currently convinced that DVDs will likely be the last format one can actually own a displayable copy of most of these films. (I would be very surprised if another optical-disc-format takes off in Korea)
I started by simply buying the cheapest editions available for me (mostly used german and HK releases), but quickly preferred Korean editions, because of better image/audio quality (in most cases), english and korean subs and the frequent special packaging. Initially I had grouped them according to genre, which is confusing, because Korean film-makers tend to mix genre elements in an unusual way - it ended in a mess and I never knew where to find the film I was looking for. I thought about sorting them by director, but I didn't like the thought of sorting all the Kims according to first names, which I would never be able to remember. So I tried sorting them by year and surprisingly it worked (for me) and I ended up sorting them by the date they have been released theatrically in Korea. I have a pretty good idea where each edition is and what's missing for each year. And I really like to see which films were in cinemas at the same time.

In case you were wondering why I don't have those big & popular LEs (Oldboy, Fighter in the Wind, My Sassy Girl, The King and the Clown, Memories of Murder, Marathon, 200 pounds Beauty, A Moment to remember etc.) "most" people have: I have only recently begun to pay more than ~15€ for any edition and am still 'only' paying about 7€ for the first 2 and 4€ for each additional disc (actually the formula is much more complicated). In the last few month I have vastly increased the number of big LEs I own - Windstruck, Secret Sunshine, Arahan, Silmido, The Classic, My Tutor Friend, YMCA Baseball Team and some more have all been purchased in the last 2-3 month. I still have a quantity over quality mentality, meaning that I'm not buying (just) those films, that I'm interested in, but everything that's under the price limit I have set for myself.
You might wonder, if I have actually seen all of these 500 films - well, nearly: I have seen about 475 Korean Films in the last 3 years and I always have a few DVDs that I still haven't watched. For obvious reasons I get asked frequently why I think Korean Films are better than others - and actually I don't even think that. There are a few Korean Films I really like, but I don't think that percentage is significantly higher than films produced for any other market. Watching (and collecting) Korean Films is just what I do - I can't give an exhaustive explanation for it.
My stated goal is to own all Korean films released on DVD in the most collectable Korean Edition. :woot:

I still have a looong way to go, but I'm really looking forward to it. :yes:

Obviously a certain purple box would be the pinnacle of my collection ... *one day* :roll:

edit: January 5th 2009:

I started that thread a little over 3 month ago, so I guess it's time to take stock. (Is that even a proper term to use, meaning to evaluate the situation/changes?)
Since then I got 42 new feature films (+ a few shorts), have replaced a further 12 and have seen about 50 Korean films, that were new to me, 2 of them on the big screen. Not the fastest pace I've had, but I've been a bit busier and it provided a good flow of new stuff. I have made good on my plan to reduce the non-korean films to one shelf, and I think it's much better now, even though there still are some films/editions I don't care too much about. As I previously said, I somehow like the idea, that whenever I am getting something new, I'll have to let something else go. Let's see how that works out.

Because the collection was growing disproportionately with Films released in 2008 and before 1995 I had to re-order it and actually split the lot to store the pre-2000 films in a different shelf. I should now be able to sort new arrivals, without having to stack them up. So far I've not been proven wrong about believing that most/almost all of these films will never be released on Blu-Ray in Korea, and with the launch of the first big commercial IPTV broadcasters and VOD still on the rise, I have not read/heard anything that made me think otherwise. The one thing I didn't manage to do, was provide you guys with regular pictures.
So what's in store for 2009? Well, I don't do New Years Resolutions, but I do want to go to the cinema more often than I did in 2008. I really missed that sometimes and the only thing that kept me was being a lazy anti-social bum. :lol:

(Well that, and the swindling number of films shown with original sound and the rising ticket costs.)
I'll get to see 2 new Korean Independent films in January ("Written" and "Daytime Drinking") and I hope to get some tickets for the Berlinale (February) this year - and who knows what will happen in the summer. I'm hoping for a few smaller film festivals to return!
When it comes to my collection: I'm still missing ~375 films/dvds + ~50DVDs of independet films and want to replace ~95DVDs with more collactable versions, so there's still a lot to do. :lol:

For the first time I have actually made a list of the DVDs I most want to get, but it seems like I don't reach the right people and it will be more a list for myself. Nevertheless it will be interesting how many I can actually get/find during this year. I just hope that not too many stores dissappear like DVDfromKorea. The ways to get DVDs from Korea are rather limited at the moment, so prices are often unnecessarily high, which mostly means that I won't get them.
I also have hopes for some new DVD releases, like 하녀 [The Housemaid] (that one has been in the work for a looong time), 여름이 가기 전에 [Before the Summer Passes Away], 나의 친구, 그의 아내 [My Friend & His Wife], Cut! (Short by Royston Tan)... etc. It will be interesting to see if there are many good DVDs released this year (a proper DVD of Ashes of Time (not the redux version) is probably too much to hope for) or if major studios, criterion, moc & co will concentrate on releasing their classics on Blu-Ray. I'm also curios how the attempt to market Blu-Rays in China will work out.
When it comes to new films, I'm not that well informed (something I want to change asap) but rumour has it 박쥐 [Thirst] is slatet for an April release, so we might get a DVD later this year. (And I'm fairly certain it will show up on a lot of festivals) 잘 알지도 못하면서 [You Don’t Even Know] & 파리의 어떤 한 여자 [A Woman in Paris] hopefully get their funding straight and will be shot sometime this year as well. For most other Korean Films I have more of a "let's-wait-and-see" attitude.
WKW might finally start shooting 一代宗師葉問 [Grandmaster IP Man], I really hope the success of Donnie Yen's "Ip Man" doesn't stop that project! The restoration of Metropolis could be finished late this year, so I'm hoping for a theatrical release. With Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" (and maybe "Brothers Bloom") there might even be some worthy Hollywood Entertainment. Oh, I'll probably watch "Che" when it's released here.
But more than anything else I'm looking forward to what is one of the reasons I love cinema: being deeply moved by something totally unexpected!

by **jab** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:06 pm

I'll start with this DVD: a WKW short/music video for DJ Shadow's Six Days:

Menu & Still Gallery:

Some screencaps:

It's probably of no interest in this LE-obsessed forum: there's no fancy packaging (a simple jewelcase without a booklet), it's not limited (though I don't think there were that many discs pressed), it's not especially rare or valuable (there's one on amazon for 10$ right now and it shows up on eBay every now and then) and it's not even exclusive (the video was available on djshadow.com for years; there's also a Universal/MCA RC1 edition and it has been released on the 'Extra: Collection of Outstanding Electronic Music' DVD).
The picture quality isn't exactly top-notch (I don't know if the other releases are any better ...), it's not even anamorphic and I have yet to find anybody who actually likes the track. (I can't remember anything from DJ-Shadow that I didn't find absolutely tedious :roll:

)
But I think it's a wonderful short :love:

(at least with the music turned off :tongue:

) and you would have a hard time trying to take that off my hands. It was quite likely among the first 50 DVDs I bought and being my only Music Video on a DVD single, I still think it's something special.

by **Bunnies = Omens** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:32 pm

I loved reading your collecting history! Pretty sweet collection too

by **Mrs.Robinson** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:50 pm

Jab, a very nice and... huge! collection! :cool:

But most of all I loved reading your comments.

btw - I kind of collect those sugar things myself... not lumps, but those small packages you get next to your coffee :oops:

Way to go! :oohyeah:

by **jab** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:28 am

Bunnies = Omens wrote:I loved reading your collecting history! Pretty sweet collection too

Thank you

Mrs.Robinson wrote:Jab, a very nice and... huge! collection! But most of all I loved reading your comments.

Oh, and I thought nobody would be interested in that :oops:

... I guess I misunderestimated you guys :lol:

(yeah, I actually know that's Bushism :badgrin:

)

Mrs.Robinson wrote:btw - I kind of collect those sugar things myself... not lumps, but those small packages you get next to your coffee

Oh you mean these ones:

You actually made me look for that box, I didn't touch it for years! I preferred lump sugar, because you could stack them :lol:

(I don't know why I got rid of most of them, but still have the packages :suspect:

)
There must be quite a few older & foreign ones between those, because I remember that I got my first ones in the summer of 1995.

:ontopic:

I'll have a lot to do tonight, look what just arrived:

Btw: I totally forgot: there's an alphabetic list of my Korean films here.

by **christik** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:51 am

Nice and really big collection! Impressive :notworthy:

by **jab** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:57 pm

christik wrote:Nice and really big collection! Impressive

Danke

and who would've guessed: the postman rang twice :sofa:

received these ones as well (different postman, though ^^)

by **BumBum** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 2:32 pm

Now I know who to ask if an asian film I'm planning to buy is any good

Nice collection - love it! :notworthy:

by **Mrs.Robinson** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 2:37 pm

yes, those are the ones I meant! It's only that I actually use them, so I have to keep bringing new ones. 1 per 1 pizza or a few of them for an apple / strawberry pie

I have to say I'm not much into Asian cinema (yet), so I don't know most of the films, but still - it is a beautiful update (that turtle thing is so adorable!) and yeah, I love it when postman rings twice - but it usually just isn't the same guy.

by **the Gringo** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:14 am

That was pretty rad! I can totally appreciate someone trying to make sense of why they collect and sharing it. At least that's how I call it because with over 900 films myself I'm still trying to figure it out :lol:

But good on you for maintaining a limit. Korean films are a good choice! ...even though I prefer Japanese myself. But I have a fair share of Korean films.

HD, Blu-ray, DVD, VHS, Limited or otherwise ... whatever, it really is all about the film. The important part is figuring out which of the actual cinema is worth collecting. It took me quite awhile to narrow the groups down, but it got there. And I've learned over time that the collecting can sometimes be just as much fun as the films themselves - not to contradict myself or anything :roll:

....

Anyway, congrats on the milestone! Very nice and tight collection ...

Oh and PS ... on ordering systems and since I can't read a lick of Korean or Japanese, I place about 75% of my foreign collection alphabetically by their English names, but I remember where everything is just by the shape/coloring/art design of the box. For some reason ... it continues to work. I have just a hair under 500 Asian films.

by **jab** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:44 am

thanks @ Bum Bum! :notworthy:

I have frequently checked your amazing collection for LE pictures. You're certainly an inspiration for LE collecting! (btw. your pictures for The Chaser LE don't seem to work.)

the Gringo wrote:That was pretty rad! I can totally appreciate someone trying to make sense of why they collect and sharing it. At least that's how I call it because with over 900 films myself I'm still trying to figure it out But good on you for maintaining a limit. Korean films are a good choice! ...even though I prefer Japanese myself. But I have a fair share of Korean films.

Thank you for your kind words! :kiss:

It is nice to hear others are "struggling" with their collection as well. I have to say that percentage wise, from the Films I've seen, Japanese ones do seem the most interesting and appealing to me. The biggest problem is however, that Japanese DVDs are really expensive (being a student does limit my budged substantially) and in contrast to Korean Editions, I rarely see any drop to bargain prices. And for some reason I just can't get excited over the HK editions of Japanese Films, even though they are mostly decent and offer English subtitles more often that Japanese Editions.
I am somehow convinced that I will someday go through a phase of watching tons of Japanese classics. I've met a few people who have been studying those films and at one point I will start borrowing DVDs from them. Maybe there will even be subtitled streams in a few years - who knows. (Otherwise I might have to learn Japanese :lol:

)

the Gringo wrote:HD, Blu-ray, DVD, VHS, Limited or otherwise ... whatever, it really is all about the film. The important part is figuring out which of the actual cinema is worth collecting. It took me quite awhile to narrow the groups down, but it got there. And I've learned over time that the collecting can sometimes be just as much fun as the films themselves - not to contradict myself or anything ....

Anyway, congrats on the milestone! Very nice and tight collection ...

Oh and PS ... on ordering systems and since I can't read a lick of Korean or Japanese, I place about 75% of my foreign collection alphabetically by their English names, but I remember where everything is just by the shape/coloring/art design of the box. For some reason ... it continues to work. I have just a hair under 500 Asian films.

Hehe, some day I might actually reach that point to look for the best picture/audio quality of the films I really like instead of the best looking packaging. (I for one, am one of those that prefer the Oldboy FE to the rougher cinematric version - at least at a small screen.)
btw I can play neither Blu, HD nor VHS, but if I want to stack up pre-1995 Korean Films I might have to buy a VCR and ransack some rental shops.

Sorting alphabetically is another option (that at least puts sequels to the original etc.), but I decided against it, because I always get confused on the different English titles and even though I try to remember the Korean titles I still fail miserably. I think the most important thing is to have a good clue where a certain edition is and a certain feeling that it 'belongs' there - and everybody uses a different method to get there.
btw: it's fairly easy to learn to read & write Hangul (Korean writing system) - they have various proverbs linking a mans intelligence to the amount of time he needs to learn hangul - the meanest one I heard was "even a bull can learn it in 10 days". (But imho, just being able to pronounce it won't get you very far ...) Japanese on the other hand seems much harder to get a grip on reading and comprehending.

Anyway, finally halfway decent pictures of my latest additions:

by **jab** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:46 am

Windmill Palm Grove LE: a nice & sturdy digipak (magnetic holder) and a 8-page booklet

This replaces my HK edition:

by **jab** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:47 am

Art of Fighting LE: 2Disc Keep Case with slipcase with a 4-page booklet and a 500Won coin

by **jab** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 3:49 am

The Twins: Amaray with slipcase

jab's collection (mostly Korean Films) | Update 03-28 pg. 28

jab's collection (mostly Korean Films) | Update 03-28 pg. 28

Update: 08-09-24

Windmill Palm Grove

Art of Fighting

The Twins

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