8mm Forum: Japanese Star Wars

This is topic Japanese Star Wars in forum 8mm films for sale/trade/wanted at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on April 12, 2016, 05:01 PM:

I have never seen on of these.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Wars-1978-unopened-vintage-Japanese-lot-8-mm-film-2-Takara-badges-wallet-/272210028105?hash=item3f60fb6649:g:6qkAAOSwSzdXDJCK

Ah so!

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on April 12, 2016, 06:07 PM:

They are fairly easy to find used here in Japan. I have seen unopened Star Wars digests like this in Japan but they sell for a lot cheaper.

It's a Fujifilm 400ft digest. They still have a lot of color but they have a purple tint because they were printed on early Fujifilm. It"s a nice digest but they end the digest at the Millenium Falcon"s escape from the Death Star.

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on April 12, 2016, 08:02 PM:

Still way overpriced.

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on April 12, 2016, 10:07 PM:

Yeah, there are a lot of used copies of this digest here in Japan. They usually sell used for around $30 or more but you can get them for cheaper.

I will try and put together a review of the digest and post some pictures sometime soon.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on April 13, 2016, 03:21 AM:

I expect the price depends on the value of the badges and wallet included. Other Star Wars items have higher value than film, not being a Star Wars collector I don't know how much though.

[ April 13, 2016, 05:34 AM: Message edited by: Brian Fretwell ]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 13, 2016, 11:45 AM:

The sad thing is that many of these STAR WARS 400ft digests are Ken Films prints repackaged for the Japanese market. Now, some were printed on Fuji stock, but most weren't. Jason would know more about these Japanese STAR WARS than I.

In my personal opinion, either luck out on the very late Ken Films STAR WARS printing of part 1 (as a few actually made it onto LPP film stock), and luck out on a good color part 2 (I don't think Ken Films printed any of part 2 on LPP) ...

or, better yet, go after the absolutely GORGEOUS AGFA prints of the German Marketing Films digests, part 1 being 400ft and part 2 being a very full 200ft. The color is really, nearly beyond description, so incredibly saturated, NOTHING like the Ken Films digests, and then, since the German one doesn't include the last Battle, splice in a good color copy of the Ken Films part 2 last battle sequence.

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on April 13, 2016, 07:26 PM:

May the force be with you!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 14, 2016, 11:19 AM:

You couldn't resist, could you Passquale? [Smile]

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on April 18, 2016, 08:35 PM:

Here are a few screencaps from my 400ft Japanese Star Wars Digest. On the leader it says Ken Films(just as Osi said) but my digest(and I believe most of the Japanese Star Wars digests) were printed on Fujifilm. A lot of digests and features I have that are on Fujifilm have a purple tint but they have a lot more color in them than a red Eastman print would.

This digest has optical sound.

Posted by Peter Harrison (Member # 5290) on April 19, 2016, 06:39 AM:

I recently sold my copy of the Fuji 400ft digest of The Empire Strikes Back which was a similar quality (purple hint) to Jason's edition of Star Wars. The shared characteristic that confuses me though is the editing decisions that went into both that seem to willfully disregard major components of the films' plots.

In Star Wars, as has been mentioned, the reel concludes after the escape from the Death Star, while in Empire it finishes not long after the battle of Hoth (serving really as a condensed first 30 minutes). This leaves out such a massive portion of the film that digest hardly seems that right word to describe it (not that they use that or any equivalent word on the box as far as I can tell).

Though I find this odd it only became a head-scratcher for me after seeing Fuji's digest of Superman that was released around the same time. Where it differs is that the Superman digest does a truly excellent job of condensing the 'entire' plot of the film into 17 minutes. Basically, to cut right to the point, I was wondering if anyone knows the motivation/background behind these two very different approaches? My guess is that it's merely down to the differing production companies. Any alternative or more elucidating opinions would be welcome though.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 19, 2016, 11:48 AM:

Jason, you MUST get the German marketing films digests parts 1 and 2, if you really want this film truly looking as good as possible, you will be knocked out by the color, I kid you not!

I remember some screenshots from the part 2 digest on this very forum many years ago, could someone (with a lot of spare time on their hands) find them and perhaps, post them on this series of posts?

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on April 19, 2016, 01:49 PM:

But some german prints are also faded, you must search for a print on AGFA film stock.

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on April 19, 2016, 10:33 PM:

Peter, I recall asking Larry Arpin what was up with the crummy editing of the first 400' Ken STAR WARS digest back around 1979. He explained that Lucas or someone at Fox would not let Ken include certain scenes (raid on the Death Star, the demise of Obi-Wan, etc.) I suspect this I why the German and Japanese digest are compromised as well. I think Fox is also the reason the Ken ALIEN digest turned out the way it did.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 20, 2016, 12:14 PM:

Ahhhh, the ALIEN digest, an excellent example of just how GOOD a 17 digest can encapsulate a two hour movie!

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