How big is your dvd collection?

Apart from the lewd suggestions that may appear, just how big is that audiovisual joy that you have locked away in your...err, display...cabinet?

I've probably got a modest total of 300 or so dvds - 250+ would be Asian movies. Most of the movies I bought over a relatively short period of times; probably 3 years or less. But I haven't bought much recently, mainly given the fact that there's seemingly less time for movies.

I started with DVD-Rs and then began to collect originals.So my collection of originals is not that big.Only 300 + something.
But if i count non originals then more than 1000.

Gosh!

I never counted, but I figure I have maybe 150-200 Asian movies (almost all Chinese) and about ten Chinese TV soaps (wuxia and historical dramas). I have maybe 30 Western movies and another 30 documentaries and stand-up comedy. I admit that I have copied most of them and don't own very many purchased DVDs. But it's home-use only, so I guess I'm within my rights.

I will watch videos or VCDs if I really want to watch the film and can't find it on DVD. I don't care how grainy and crappy it is; if it's the movie I'm looking for, that's good enough for me.

I am seriously trying to complete my Johnnie To/Milkyway collection and recently bought a giant Laser disc version of Too Many Ways To Be Number One. I am now looking in thrift stores and yard sales for a cheap Karaoke machine that will play it!

After I got this laser disc, I read online that this format was a popular "video store rental" format in Hong Kong in the 1990's; more popular than DVD's. I was surprised to read that.

Drunken Master wrote:

achillesgirl wrote:

I am seriously trying to complete my Johnnie To/Milkyway collection

Ah! A fellow Johnny To fan, eh? I have a long way to go to finnish my collection, but I'm working on it.

If I could take only one director to the desert island, it would have to be Johnnie To.

Hero Never Dies, Where a Good Man Goes, The Mission...

Great great stuff.

Ooh, ooh! LOVE Mad Detective!

Maybe I didn't understand Throwdown... I found it strange that everybody was a judo master all of a sudden, and also felt that the back alley judo "brawl" was too staged to feel real in any way. I also felt that Louis Koo did not have the physical presence/strength to convince me that he was a Judo master. I've kind of let that one sit on the back burner of my mind for a while.

Hero Never Dies may be the ultimate To/Milkyway genre film. It's got one of the weirdest finales I've ever seen: as my teenage son describes it, "a shootout with a dead midget cowboy"... fun stuff! It is excellently intense.

I also really like The Odd One Dies with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Carmen Wong.

Yes, To has the magical cast that repeatedly appear in his films, especially Lam Suet! Love that guy!

I forgot to answer your question!

Sparrow: I was disappointed. Sparrow felt, to me, a bit too all fur coat and no knickers. I felt like they glossed over the plot in order to spend all their creative energy on beautiful visuals. The story felt threadbare and I somehow couldn't feel invested in the outcome. I feel like I need to care whether the characters live or die, ya know? But the photography was so wonderful!

I categorize Sparrow now not so much as a To film as the quintessential Simon Yam film; like an homage to the Yamness of Simon Yam!

Or maybe it was just too suave and not gritty and violent enough for me!!

Exiled has beautiful photography as well, and because To and the actors all made up the script as they went along, it has a weirdness to the plot that is somehow enjoyable. There are some very memorable scenes, including about 10 guys all in a 10' x 10' space shooting at each other - crazy!

Didn't expect you are Johnnie To fans?Let me join you.
I agree with achillesgirl,i thought Throwdown as strange&unrealistic film.Not only judo but characters were strange too...So far this is the only To project which i don't like.
And you forgot PTU+sequels(i only saw Human Nature) i read rewiews and someone dissed it already but i lvoed it.So all these movies make To the best HK director,i prefer watching his flicks more than John Woo and others.Maybe he is more realistic?

I agree that Sparrow feels different, and this is my take on why:

I happen to really like the combination of To and Wai Ka Fai, the "other half" of Milkyway. Wai's themes, which often involve karma (e.g. Running On Karma, Mad Detective), add a quirky "human" quality to the Milkyway movies. I think this quality, which makes Milkyway films so intriguing (e.g. the cool criminal drops his gun, accidentally shooting somebody), is mainly coming from the pen of screenwriter Wai Ka Fai.

I think Sparrow felt different than other Milkyway movies because Wai Ka Fai was not involved in this project. PTU has a feel similar to Sparrow. Again, Wai was not involved. So: Sparrow and PTU are pure Johnnie To.

I'll risk saying that Wai and To are kinda like Yin and Yang. Sparrow and PTU are pure Yang films. They are extremely "masculine." Quirky human elements play no part in pure Johnnie To films. And hey, that's not a bad thing!

This idea may be way out on a limb, but since I have watched so many Wai Ka Fai, Johnnie To and Wai/To films, this is just something I think I have noticed.

I am a hardcore fan of the HK crime/policier/triad genre, so I could talk about these films all day! Maybe we should start a new thread somewhere else if it's okay with Katalin???

My collection is not very big: only 400 dvd

Welcome Olla! So good to have a new member on our little Forum.

Oh, it was! Hi Drunken Master!

Me too. But I am so happy I am not alone.