For HK DVDs, try Poker Industries (www.pokerindustries.com) or Five Star Laser (www.fivestarlaser.com).  Poker has the best prices for the Kurosawas ($17.99), but Five Star Laser has more information about the DVDs.  Also, if you live in the US, Poker has free shipping over $50.

However, before you load up your shopping cart with all the goodies, definitely try to find feedback on the quality of the DVD.  Try finding comments or reviews from the Asian cinema section of the Moebius forum (http://www.mhvf.net) or the Asian DVD Guide (www.asiandvdguide.com), since the quality of the Mei-Ah transfers are all over the place.

As for the two DVDs, "Ikiru" and "Red Beard" both have good transfers, with "Red Beard" image quality being slightly better.  The video images are a little better than the Home Vision Cinema VHS copies of the two films.  The DVD prints do seem to have been transfered from the Criterion LD print, especially since both are flippers.  The down side is that the subtitles (which are removeable/selectable) are typical of HK DVDs (some typos, awkward sounding translations), but since Kurosawas films tend to be visual anyway, it isn't a major problem.  

Since both films are Criterion/Home Vision Cinema films, odds are, they will eventually be released on DVD, although there hasn't been an announcement yet.  Personally, I will be replacing the HK DVDs with the Criterion ones if and when they're announced, but they're a pretty good interim solution for my need for a quick fix.  :-)

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