"Hard to be a God" Japanese BD includes "Playback" documentary

Aleksey German's "Hard to be a God" has been available on BD in US and UK
with different extras, as reviewed by
Blu-ray.com and DVDBeaver, respectively.

Based on these reviews, both BDs have good extras,
but there's one notable material missing:
"Playback"(2012),
a documentary movie on ther making of "Hard to be a God".
(For the details of "Playback", please read Film Divider's article.)

But the recent Japanese BD includes it.
As far as I know, this is the first time "Playback" is available on BD/DVD.




Japanese BD basic specs

• Video: VistaVision (16x9 enhanced)
• Audio: Russion
• Subtitles: Japanese
• Region code: ALL
• Discs: BDx2 (Disc 1: DL, Disc 2: SL)
• Publisher: IVC
• Release date Dec. 18, 2015
• Runtime: 177 mins

Disc 2 is devoted to "Playback" (67 mins).
Also comes with a 28-page leaflet with essays by Japanese critics.

Of course, even if you can ignore its high price,
the Japanese BD wouldn't attract many foreigners
as it only has Japanese subtitles,

I have no plan to get it for the present, because
I'm rather skeptical of the A/V quality of the products from IVC.

James Bond 007 - Japanese graphic novels

In Dec. 2015, Japanese publisher Shogakkan released
the reprints of 4 books of Takao Saitô's graphic novel adaptations of
Ian Flemming's James Bond stories.

• Live and Let Die
• Thunderball
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service
• The Man with the Golden Gun
  

Originally written in 1968,
they are officially licensed adaptations,
but long time out-of-print.

After the licence has expired Saitô begun his most successful
(and still going on) series Golgo 13.
It's widely believed these Bond adaptations served as the basis for Golgo 13.

These reprints are billed as
the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Saitô's career.

Also obviously a tie-in with Japanese release of the movie Spectre.



Of course they are in Japanese,
but if you are a collector who wants to have anything James Bond,
they may be of your interest.


I haven't read any of them myself, but reportedly,
the stories are very different from the Flemming's source books.

Note that, among the 4 stories above,
Thunderball was the only one already adapted to screen at the time.

Still, Saitô's Bond doesn't look like Sean Connery at all.
(Somewhat like Victor Mature IMO.)
See here, for example.