"Coming Soon"... Unless you Live in Japan!

I was just checking out info on Baz Luhrman's new flick, Australia (starring Nicole Kidman), thinking it looked alright and might be fun to see before I hit up the Land Down Under in December. Well, to my disappointment, the movie doesn't come out anywhere until Christmas and Japan is essentially TWO MONTHs behind that (and pretty much a month later than the next latest country.)

I know Japanese is a difficult language, but I find it really hard to believe it takes that much longer to translate the film. Annoying. I wonder if they're just accounting for the the long line of personal stamps on the contract and paper trail that can accompany big decisions and that's why it takes so long for movies to be released here?

I guess I'm just venting (or commenting on an observation), but doesn't it seem silly that, in one of the biggest economies in the world, they would wait until a movie is practically available on DVD (at least through the American Amazon.com) to release it at the theatres here... when they charge $20 a seat?!

Unless it's a huge blockbuster (Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc, etc...), this is pretty much the norm.

Sidenote: To follow-up on the AU theme, thought I'd also share an interesting article I just saw online about the effects dought is having on human conditions in Australia, the driest continent in the world (Blue Skies, Blue Days in Australia).