For those interested in obtaining the film...

OOOOO, a DVD version. Is the film actually good?

“No matter how far a Jackass travels, it won't come back a horse” Batou - GITS 2: Innocence

This sounds waaaay too good to be true--not that it couldn't be, of course, but for an apparently private individual to create a DVD package like this is incredible. (If you're the individual in question and you're reading this...sorry, but you can understand where I'm coming from, right?)

So, has anyone bought anything from this website before? And if you're the DVD author, how are you getting around the legal issues? Or are you?

Hi there ya'll!!! Here's an update regarding the WTF Films presentation of All 4 existing cuts of this movie in a nifty 5 disc box set - It's well worth the money, and was great seeing the film uncut for the very first time... Definitely adds a lot of depth and scope to the movie. If you just want to see the movie uncut, or in English, WTF also offers a two-disc set of the uncut, as well as a one disc of the international cut, Catastrophe 1999.

Keep in mind, the original uncut is VERY hard to find... and the international cut is fairly difficult to find as well... (i've been to more than a few genre conventions looking for this one for a while, all to no avail. It's definitely the more available of the two, though.) As such, the discs aren't the pristine quality that a lot of people might be expecting, but are very watchable nonetheless. As a concession to keeping the quality as high as possible in the transfer, the uncut version is spread across two discs. (WTF's production notes on their website detail the hassles of dual layer disc recording. Can't blame 'em there, they tried it out, and it just didn't work.)

Here's the breakdown of the boxed set:

Disc one and Two, as said earlier, comprise the full, uncut, banned in Japan disasterpiece theatre oddity "Prophecies of Nostradamus" in all it's 2.35:1 awesomeness. The bonus audio tracks on these discs include the original Japanese; a rather tinny-sounding commentary track which makes up for it's tinniness by packing in a whole lot of interesting trivia about this movie.
Also included in the audio tracks are the film's isolated soundtrack, as well as the Japanese radio drama based on the movie! The subtitles are easy to read, and the translation certainly isn't simplified - They're quite well written.

Disc three is the English dubbed international cut, Catastrophe 1999 - it includes some notes regarding the restoration process used on this movie, as well as an easter-egg gallery of promo art, posters, video covers of various edits of PON.

Disc four (box set exclusive) is the French cut, dubbed in French. (And lemme tell you this - it's sort of funny watching Tetsuro Tamba dubbed in French, for some reason.) Included as extras are some notes on the mis-credits in this version, as well as a re-construction of Toho's theatrical trailer for PON, with and without the superimposed titles. No subs here, and not a problem - being in the boxed set, this one's for completists only.

Disc five (another box set exclusive) is the infamous American direct to TV edit from Harry Saperstein/UPA... This is the version that's the most accessable, and rounds out the set nicely as a great party-disc. Being a transfer of the old video release, this one's in full-screen, and English dubbed. Included extras on this disc include the Japanese theatrical program for PON, its lobby cards, and excerpt scans of the Japanese making of book...
(Now if only i could read Japanese better!!!)

All in all, this is an amazing set for fans of this movie, and as far as fan-compiled works of otherwise un-available films are concerned, the WTF Films presentation of Prophecies of Nostradamus is simply amazing. i for one, can't wait to see what they come up with for their upcoming presentation of the movie known in the US as Half Human.

I just wonder, if it was banned in Japan, then why do they have novels, VHS, DVDs, posters and sound tracts for it? I kinda wonder that.

Skepical? Look at this link here (it's only in JAPANESE):
http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/search/auc?p=%A5%CE%A5%B9%A5%C8%A5%E9%A5%C0%A5%E0%A5%B9%A4%CE%C2%E7%CD%BD%B8%C0&auccat=0&alocale=0jp&acc=jp

Well, you could just track down the VHS version, readily available in the States during the video era, and transfer it to DVD, like I did. In fact, someone with initials very similar to mine naively offered the DVD on eBay for quite some time before realizing the rights-infringement issues.