Disc

Star Wars Special Edition, DVD, Bootleg, China (?) 2001

This is a bootleg of 1997 US Laserdisc release of the Special Editions of the Star Wars films. The image is non-anamorphic letterbox, with original English sound, encoded in both Dolby Digital AC-3 and DTS.

Subtitles are optional, and come in English, Malay, Chinese, Indonesian and Thai. The original, burned-in subtitles for the alien languages are carried over from the original Laserdisc image, neatly placed in the lower letterbox band.

Before you get to the main menu, you're presented with a Dolby Digital intro. As promised on the back, a theatrical trailer (for the Special Edition) is included, but that is the only extra present.

The cover and disc contains no foreign languages, just English, and I suspect this particular release was made specifically to cater to English speaking customers. If it wasn't for the Asian subtitle options, you couldn't point to Asia being the country of origin for this bootleg. The .VOB files are dated August 2001.

This particular bootleg was found in a thrift shop in Norway in 2026, along with several other Star Wars bootlegs.

Assorted screenshots:
Dolby Digital intro
DVD main menu
Setup menu
Chapter menu
Special Edition trailer
THX intro before main feature
Fox fanfare
A long time ago...
Title card
Opening crawl
Star Destroyer
Droid spa
Binoculars
Greedo subtitles
Jabba 1997 version
Ben's saber
S-foils in attack position SE version
Praxis effect
End credits
End credits