The Rarest Japanese Tape Releases

Submitted by Bloke on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 00:50

Pics are from Tim's own private photo archive..check out his MySpace page www.myspace.com/ichikiller

Most japanese vhs enthusiasts are familiar with the PACK-IN label vhs release of Jess Franco's Count Dracula (el conde dracula) ..... and up until a few weeks ago I too thought that was the film's only release in JAPAN until I found a very tiny front cover scan on the mega rare sony/exciting label on an all japanese genre site, so I asked Bill Knight* if he had heard of this release and of course he had and not only that but had an absolutely prisitine condition original of it with no sun fading on the sleeve, no stickers , a true museum piece , which he then offered to me for sale, so I bought it.., which I have proudly added to my collection...this is truly an EXTREMELY RARE VHS release from JAPAN on the highly collectable SONY/EXCITNG label

* Bill Knight is the owner of MIDNIGHT VIDEO, a hugely influential american vhs distributor for many years.

THE GATES OF HELL - JAPAN RELEASES

The toshiba release is the first issue and is a brighter print , both r LBX and UNCUT
The sony release however is much rarer....but is a very dark print, same as the print on the sony LD

Although much more common, the toshiba release is the far better print for watching the film...

DEVILS WEDDING NIGHT..SONY/EXITING LABEL

This ULTRA OBSCURE , LEGENDARY, pristine condition , japanese VHS release, i can saftely say this is without a doubt is one of the RAREST japanese VHS tapes in the world, if not one of the RAREST tapes PERIOD !.....spiralheadcase who has been supplying the ebay community with japanese vhs for the better part of 10 years has NEVER found one, i know collectors in japan who have NEVER found one..

And my theory why this is so rare!

The SONY VIDEO SOFTWARE label, specifically the EXCITING line is very rare and highly collectable.....

let me give some backround....so far i have been able to gather through my own experience and with the help of Bill from MIDNIGHT VIDEO, that there is 43 titles on the EXCITING sub label....the first 15-20 or so have slightly bigger sleeves, 20 or so to 43 have smaller sleeves, smaller in a way laterally not vertically....

now the exciting line offically kicked off in 1986...these were the slightly bigger sleeves w/ titles such as

massacre in dinosaur valley
blood beat
cards of death (again another obscure release uncovered by midnight)
pengabdi setan
mistics in bali
devil's nightmare

to name a few

then around approx the 20 or so cat # the sleeves were shortened by the distributor and fit in a smaller box...these r my favorite and r very rare and kicked off in 1987

o.k. ...NOW...

this is a theory of mine that i have come up with to explain why DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT is so much rarer then other titles on the label....

DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT = is # 34 on the catalog

SOMETHING CREEPING IN THE DARK = # 36 on the catalog

DEATH SMILES AT MURDER = # 40 on the catalog

L'AMANTE DEL DEMONIO = # 42 on the catalog

...ALL of which EXCEPT devil's wedding night was released in 1987, devil's wedding night was released in 1988 , strange huh, why would DWN be #34 and with a release date of 1988 , and the other titles which have higher release numbers in the catalog have release dates of 1987 ?

this is where my theory comes in...i believe devil's wedding night was planned for a release in 1987 at cat #34, but for some reason was delayed...., it was put on hold at cat#34, and they just went on to the next title...#35..., with still no sign of DWN they continued with the catalog ,#36(something creeping in the dark), #37, #38, ect..and so on..., i believe at the last minute at the end of the EXCITING releasing catalog, the title finally fell through, sleeves were then printed(both sleeve and cassette labels have a copyright of 1988) and it was finally released in a very limited number to close the catalog....

that to me makes the most sense and explains the obscurity and the copyright dates of 1988 which is the only title i know of in the catalog that was released in that year.......

GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE..CLARION LABEL