Saw IV (2007) - Unusual Bootleg DVD

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Scanning a table of legitimate, used DVDs at the swap meet this morning, my eye caught an odd looking spine for Saw IV. Picking it out revealed a bootleg of dubious origin, but this was a bit different from the usual DVD-R quickie. I normally don't buy bootlegs, mostly out of my support for smaller video distributors, but this was an "old" title from a seller who obviously wasn't a bootlegger. As you know, illegal copies mostly suck on the grounds of packaging quality, usually housed in cheap super slim cases that reek of freshly-opened Barbie doll with photocopied covers that appear toasted in a microwave.

This boot of Saw IV exhibits a surprisingly level of care for something designed to reap maximum return for the unscrupulous. The case actually has a cardboard "o-card" slipcover with an embossed "bumpy" title. The double-sided cover is on high quality stock with a poster design on the reverse. The dual-layer disc itself sports a very well done silkscreened label and is factory pressed. The interlaced transfer of the unrated cut (PG-13?!?) is anamorphic and the only sound option is Dolby 5.1. There's no extras features and only a basic animated menu.

Otherwise, this disc shows all the usual signs of an average bootleg. The back synopsis barely makes sense, spelling errors in the cast information, technical specs only being "sorta" correct, and the legal blurb at the bottom taken from an MGM/UA title. At least Dolby Laboratories received the correct copyright information. Not to mention the big behind-the-scenes photo of Darren Lynn Bousman framing up a shot. There's one unintentional piece of hilarity featured on this disc--the horribly translated English subtitles. Nearly every line is way off and Detective Hoffman is sometimes referred to as "Yao". The word "no" is substituted for "can't" and "be" frequently replaces "is" ("this be the detective of Peter Strahm"). Reading over the severely broken sentences, I'm guessing a person in China with English as a sketchy second language did the translation. Whoever you are, thank you for making me cough Corn Flakes all over my screen in choking laughter.

Here's Jigsaw's final tape-recorded words in the last scene as Hoffman stands over his embalmed body from the subs:

you feel the whole to all exert you control under BE?

do you feel that you can evaded a test?

I promise that my plan will also continue, I promise

hear this dish tape some people will perhaps feel the whole to all end

but I still at you in the center

you think because of the dead of my dead everything end?

haven't end, the game just started, just, just...