Novecento wrote on 05/06/17 at 9:02am:So the Japanese DVD is better quality than the Blu-ray?!
The Japanese customer comment on amazon.co.jp I quoted above says they think the Blu-ray uses an SD PAL source (perhaps the German disc?). Japan is of course an NTSC country, but PAL does have a higher resolution than NTSC.
Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment necessary to take screen grabs, but the BD does not appear any better than the Japanese DVD, to my eyes. I'm watching the DVD now, paying particular attention to the sky, and I'd say it looks to have fewer artifacts than the BD.
As to the source of the BD transfer, I'm not sure. There are no additional logos at the beginning and end of the disc. It starts with the Pathé American logo. The feature runs 1:32:42, which seems a tad short/sped-up to me.
The old Japanese DVD runs 1:33:12, when the Lakeshore logo is taken out of the equation. The PAL equivalent would be 1:29:29 (93.20 mins x 0.96). The Spanish DVD runs 1:29:30, proving my math is correct.
So, why is the BD 30 seconds short? I don't know. I don't have time to do a scene-by-scene comparison, to check if any footage is missing, but I don't believe, from my recent viewing, that there is a problem in this regard. The only other explanation would be that the BD runs ever so slightly fast.