Customer Reviews

Lost Treasures of the Ancient World, Volume 3 [Boxed Set]: Ancient China, Ancient India, Samurai Japan, Empires In The Americas, Dark Age England, The Celts

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This British series examining great historical civilizations and their cultural and artistic artifacts first became known to me through the History Channel, which broadcast several episodes. Intrigued by what I saw, I decided to purchase this box-set labeled volume 3. It contains six 50 minute long episodes (available individually). The episodes included are: Dark Age England, Ancient China, Samurai Japan, Ancient India, The Celts and Empires of the Americas.

The series is superb. Each episode includes analysis by academic experts, beautiful location photography and excellent 3-D computer generated graphics that recreate buildings, works of art or even entire cities that have all vanished into the dust of history. Some of the computer generated images are absolutely stunning: the ancient pagodas of Japan, the great lost cities of the Incas, the intricate art of the Saxons and the Viking longboats that assailed them. The integration of these elements is seamless. The historical analysis is dense enough (in the good sense) to enable multiple viewings without boredom. I found each episode to be both entertaining and informative. If you are interested in ancient history, you might find these programs well worth your while. Each disc is NTSC encoded for Region 1. The films are shot full screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The images are crystal clear. Sound is in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and is excellent. Total running time of the set is 300 minutes.

This is ancient history presented without hype and is not dumbed down (it is a British series). Each episode is extremely informative without being dry. Combining the latest computer graphics with expert commentary, these programs are highly recommended. A nice way to broaden your (ancient) horizons.

Mike Birman

`Samurai Japan' is a low budget documentary exploring the life and history of Japan. This makes use of rather basic computer graphics to illustrate various forms of architecture, which is supplemented with beautiful wood-block paintings and film of temples in Japan. This looks at Japan from the indigenous Ainu right up until the second world war, although the last hundred years or so are rushed through in a matter of minutes. This is an interesting documentary for enthusiasts of Japan and provides a succinct history in just over 50 minutes. This also looks at Buddhism in Japan, and the tea ceremony, amongst other things. This is quite basic in production style, but offers a good introduction to this fascinating and beautiful country.

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I have seen far better renditions of history - the CGI is dreadful, the acting worse. Even the so-called 'experts' I found lacking in scholarship and accuracy. For Chinese history, try the Silk Road series, for the Celts, try the series with the soundtrack by Enya; for any other culture there are much better versions available for the money. Don't waste yours on this. I was profoundly disappointed.

These DVDs are sold as a set when they could have put four or five episodes on a single DVD. They are cheesy and not very well done. Most of the time they are not actual footage -- when footage is available -- and they show cheesy less than cutting edge animation even when they could have shown the real thing. We bought all three sets, watched one and sent the other two back unopened to Amazon. Don't bother unless you have $89 a set to throw away. We are stuck with the opened set and don't have the heart to put it up for sale as we would feel like we are ripping the buyer off.