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The Beatles - At the Budokan, Tokyo (NTSC)


RRP: £23.99
Our Price: £4.99 (subject to change)

Not as good as I'd hoped
Review date: 2007-11-02 Rating: 4 out of 10

I won't go into the merits of the performance, this is a technical appraisal of the DVD.

Concert performance is the 30.6.66 show only with the group in dark suits, the other videotaped performance from 1.7.66 is NOT included. Video and motion quality are not as good as they should be considering the original recordings are NTSC and this is an NTSC DVD. It seems to have been taken from one of the old laserdisc releases as the captions that appear with the titles of the songs are the same. I expect the picture has been degraded in the conversion from that format and it may have even gone via PAL and back to NTSC again. It is generally softer and more smudgy on movement than either the original laserdisc versions or the excerpts seen in the Anthology.

Tokyo Hilton interview - this is the same b&w bonus footage that appeared on the laserdiscs. The fabs in corridors and at a press conference but there's no sync sound, just a separate audio interview running underneath. Has the same Japanese narration and titles as the laserdisc. Bolted on the end of this is some additional "new" footage which (as others have said) seems to have some kind of screen reflection over it - this has a few colour shots. After this is a further 15 minutes of mostly b&w press conference Q&A footage with sync sound (picture is soft and murky). This seems to be compiled from various sources and includes the occasional "filmed off screen" shots in colour. Then further shots from different sources of the group standing in front of the conference table accompanied by "Day Tripper".

Beatles Interview London - This is a minute long 1966 Pathe newsreel called "Beatles Like Home Best". The fact that all but the first few seconds of footage features timecode numbers as the bottom of the screen gives an indication of the unofficial nature of this DVD. Following this, 50 seconds of various airport shots accompanied by "Yesterday". Then 4 minutes of interview footage of the Beatles discussing the Philippines compiled from various sources including scratchy film, letterboxed converted shots, multi-gen VHS, Japanese subtitled footage etc. Finally about 50 secs of shots of mainly John getting hassled by fans leaving a hotel accompanied by "I Want To Tell You".

Finally, ALL the footage on the DVD has a logo in the top left of the screen consisting of the letters MP in an oval.

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Reviews


Beatles At The Budokan
Review date: 2007-09-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

As the other reviews have stated, this is not an 'official' Beatles release and has nothing to do with Apple.

Because of this, I was unsure whether to purchase the DVD. I assumed the picture and audio quality would be extremely poor, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The picture is very good and the audio is excellent.

The quality of the footage is no worse than the footage from the concert included on the Beatles Anthology DVD set. I would certainly recommend it. It is one of the few Beatles concerts where you can clearly hear them playing, as they are not drowned by the screams from fans,

Very disappointed with only one concert and poor quality
Review date: 2007-09-28 Rating: 2 out of 10

I am sure I read somewhere that this DVD had both "Black suit and "White suit" concerts, but no, only the Black suit footage.
Quality is very poor, yes it looks like a copy of a bootleg.


Approach with caution - this is a copy of a bootleg!
Review date: 2007-09-13 Rating: 2 out of 10

It is wonderful to have this item available through a "regular" outlet however, this dvd appears to be a copy of a bootleg dvd that is circulating. If someone has other information, please let us know.

Note: during the interview portion of the video, it is clear that the video is copied from a tv screen as the reflection of the camera is visible during portions of the film!

NOT The Beatles at their best but still fascinating
Review date: 2007-07-02 Rating: 8 out of 10

These Tokyo concerts are famous amongst Beatles collectors for a number of reasons, not least because two of them were filmed in colour and have circulated as good quality bootlegs for many years.

Unfortunately,they are also famous for the below-par peformance turned in by the Lads. It is well-knon that they did very little rehearsal for their 1966 tour, having lost interest in live performing by this time, and it shows, particularly on George Harrison's vocal performance of If I Needed Someone.

Compounding the problem is the Japnese audience who remain pretty quiet throughout the gigs, allowing The Beatles' occasional sloppines to be heard with unaccustomed clarity.

Better examples of the Beatles live exist on film, particularly the excellent performance from Paris 1965. However, if the Tokyo concert/s is finally getting an official release then this is to be welcomed, as even a sub-standard Beatles performance is better than most other live offerings available from this period.

A fascinating and rare glimpse of The Beatles live concert experience.




Product Details/Specifications


Artist(s):
The Beatles

Recording label: Quantum Leap
Manufacturer: Quantum Leap
EAN: 4250079731800
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: NTSC,
Release date: 2007-07-30
Audience rating: Exempt
Running time: 44 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

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