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Gojira(1954) and GKOTM(1956); Discuss these two films & their DVDs
Topic Started: Jan 31 2006, 09:04 PM (10,792 Views)
UltramanSmythe
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I think the most ignorant review of this film comes from Roger Ebert. A film critic who I usually respect...but he seemed to have no clue what he was talking about in his review of Gojira...especially when he glosses over how powerful the Oxygen Destroyer is of a discovery. That pretty much broke his review for me.
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packmule
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Gojira(1954) and GKOTM will be released on R1 DVD and Blu Ray by Criterion on January 24, 2012.

Source: http://www.criterion.com/films/27755-godzilla

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( *waits for G2KMaster to respond to this post with the words "too bad" )
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G2Kmaster
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Yeah, too bad I wasn't on the next to check up on this. Then again, I was showing my brother the underrated Abel Ferrara film DANGEROUS GAME followed by the Sweedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (my brother is really getting into Sweedish cinema).

Everything on the disc looks good. That being said, I see nothing which may make me want to get rid of my Classic Media DVD. David Kalat is known to have made some errors with his commentaries and I doubt his KOTM commentary will be filled with first person interviews and such.

Everything else seems great, particularly...

"New interviews with actor Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata), Godzilla performer Haruo Nakajima, and effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects
New interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo fukuryu maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla

Theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman"
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TrentonFella
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I was able to catch Godzilla: King of the Monsters on AMC (I think it was AMC) over the weekend. First time I've watched a Godzilla film in probably close to 2/2.5 years. I'm not sure but it might have jumped started my interest again in the Godzilla universe...though I have to say watching it on AMC was strange simply because parts of the movie were in English and Japanese. But it was refreshing to see a Godzilla flick after a long hiatus.
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packmule
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I almost forgot that today, November 3rd is Godzilla's "birthday". It was way back on November 3, 1954 that Gojira, produced by the Toho Motion Picture Company, was released in theaters in Japan. This film went on to enjoy great commercial success and set the standard by which subsequent Godzilla movies would be made.

http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-birthday-godzilla-november-3-1954.html

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The Real McCoy
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It'd be nice if they'd show some more movies. I saw GMK on TV twice in October, and somehow missed KOTM.
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josh TX
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Happy Birthday, Gojira! Godzillablast partytime
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packmule
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The Real McCoy
Nov 3 2011, 10:14 PM
It'd be nice if they'd show some more movies. I saw GMK on TV twice in October, and somehow missed KOTM
You can watch some of these Godzilla movies at Crackle: http://search.crackle.com/search/?q=Godzilla&c=US
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The Real McCoy
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I own all the Godzilla films, but what I meant was that it would be nice to see a variation of different Godzilla movies on TV.
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TheDreadedGodOfKaiju
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Happy Birthday to the king of the monsters. dancing admin partytime

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packmule
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Click the link to see Sci-Fi Japan's detailed article on the upcoming Criterion DVD and Blu Ray release of Godzilla, which will feature remastered versions of both the '54 Toho film "Gojira" and the '56 Americanized version GKOTM: http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2011/11/18/godzilla-from-the-criterion-collection-2/
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G2Kmaster
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Kalat was about to quit, eh? Well, what a swan song to have in terms of audio commentaries.
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G2Kmaster
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Here is an interesting transcript of material from Kalat's commentary which were cut out... Kalat accuses Toho of something quite surprising... read:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/11/12/the-importance-of-being-godzilla-part-2/
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packmule
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Evan, why do you think Toho is so difficult in regards to which extras are included in these DVD releases?
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G2Kmaster
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1. They don't want company secrets getting out. What Kalat theorises about in the article I linked above is a possible illegal action. That kind of thing is something Toho does not want to be associated with. International distributors do not want to do buisness with companies which are going to lend them cut versions of the films without their know how.

2. The keeping back of information helps wit the merchandising. If there was one ultimate tome of information on the Godzilla series, it would be the end all be all. However, let different tomes contain different bits of information, and you can sell three products instead of one. And that kind of thing keeps happening and happening because Toho would rather have us by 100 different books on the same film rather than 2 or 3. It's all about the $$$$. And fans do love their information.

3. This is a point similar to my point about keeping future publications proffitable. Just like how Toho decided to handle the ADV DAM DVD, Toho hates it whenever a country other than Japanese gets a better release of one of their films. If a country was to get a better release, then people would stop buying the domestic release and start importing, which is a very bad thing when it comes to proffit margins. To Toho, buying a domestic release is more proffitable than buying a release which you have to import. $8 better than $2. With us Americans though, we got screwed a good bit because a lot of us ended up buying our own domestic release as well as importing the R2 NTSC DVDs, making it basicaly be $8+$2.

4. When it comes to people working on these releases, there are two ways to deal with the special features - A. you can lease the special features from different companies who had released the film previously or B. create a whole new slew of special features. To create special features though, you need to bring people in. To bring people in, you ususaly have to pay them. And Toho doesn't like anything which is going to make them wait longer for a product to start making proffit.

Toho makes sure that Godzilla makes money the a digital front. There are sometimes outliers to some of these things such as the Criterion blu-ray comming out but then again, Criterion pays a good bit for the film before production of the actual product begins. It's all designed to get our money.
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packmule
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There seems to be growing criticism of Criterion over the inside artwork design of their upcoming DVD/BD release of the '54 G film: http://www.chud.com/80163/godzilla-oops-criterion-fucks-up-the-king-of-monsters/

Is this criticism justified? Or are fans beings overly picky?
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The Real McCoy
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Here's what I think about it, and about fifty percent of product rants like this: Those people don't really have a problem with it; they just found it odd. But alas, let's go to the internet! The internet is a perfect place to be a complete jerk about something for no reason, and feel justified about it. Nerd-raging over using a design of Godzilla different than the movie it's presented on is ridiculous; and it makes people look like five-year-olds throwing temper-tantrums. And the sad thing is, they truly believe they're justified. No one will ever know who they really are, so it's okay to be a jerk. All of them are probably immensely enjoying this product, and if that's the case there is absolutely no reason to complain. Heck, when they get it, they'll probably spend five minutes thinking "Man, this is cool!!"

You know, Japanese movie posters for Invasion of Astro-Monster and Godzilla vs. Megalon both used Godzilla designs different from what was in the movie too. Why don't we complain about that?!? angree

One of the users on Club Tokyo mentioned a few other Criterion releases handled this way. It's not like they sat back and said, "We've done things exactly right for years now. Lets goof this box-art up and see what happens!" In other words, It's not exclusive to Godzilla, no matter how hurt they are about it.

I just realized I spent three paragraphs being a jerk after I said being a jerk on the net was dumb... crazy2
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monstermoviefanchicknj
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I'm glad there are people here who, like me, don't like the American version of "Gojira". I just don't see the justification for Raymond Burr to be in this film. He really didn't add anything for me. I like the original Dr. Serizawa character a lot more since he was a dark, troubled man who didn't want his secret weapon to end up in the wrong hands. And I just prefer the subtitled version overall.

BTW, is there any way to convince Toho to release MST3K episode "Godzilla vs The Sea Monster" to DVD? I know the crap they pulled with "Godzilla vs Megalon" and Toho lost a lot of respect from me when they did that. So, is there a way to contact them and maybe suggest they get off their high horse and release this to MSTies who don't have this one?
No Cinematic Titanic purchases until there is a show in Atlantic City, NJ!! No exceptions!!!
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The Real McCoy
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monstermoviefanchicknj
Jan 18 2012, 05:04 PM
I'm glad there are people here who, like me, don't like the American version of "Gojira". I just don't see the justification for Raymond Burr to be in this film. He really didn't add anything for me. I like the original Dr. Serizawa character a lot more since he was a dark, troubled man who didn't want his secret weapon to end up in the wrong hands. And I just prefer the subtitled version overall.

BTW, is there any way to convince Toho to release MST3K episode "Godzilla vs The Sea Monster" to DVD? I know the crap they pulled with "Godzilla vs Megalon" and Toho lost a lot of respect from me when they did that. So, is there a way to contact them and maybe suggest they get off their high horse and release this to MSTies who don't have this one?
I'll agree; the added scenes at times felt out of place, especially when you add in the poor dubbing for the movie. The characters were more powerful in the original. But I think if you look past those little quirks, you can find a pretty good movie. As I said; I prefer the original, but I actually watch the English version just as much. I think the narrative at times helps give added clarification to the story, and I thought Burr really did a good job with his part; despite being mostly deadpan the whole time. Some actors can pull off that type of character, some can't. I thought Burr did it nicely. I will again agree with you though; the original is the superior version.

As for the MST3K versions, I highly doubt they'll ever see the light of day again. I don't know much, but I have heard that the reason they, Megalon specifically, were made was that they were thought to be "public domain," which they weren't. I doubt you'll ever find any affordable legit copies of those films.
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monstermoviefanchicknj
Jan 18 2012, 05:04 PM
I just don't see the justification for Raymond Burr to be in this film
Toho and Jewell Enterprises(the American production company) both felt that the inclusion of an American actor would greatly improve the theatrical reception of the Americanized version of "Gojira"(GKOTM) by American audiences. I don't know the actual box office figure(s) for GKOTM but if I remember correctly the Americanized version of the '54 Toho classic did pretty well.

I've seen a lot of negative comments about GKOTM and I can understand disdain for the American version as the scenes involving Raymond Burr do not mesh well at all with the original film footage. I've always believed Raymond Burr turned in a solid performance as reporter "Steve Martin". His character "Steve Martin" is portrayed as being curious, professional and steady in both emotional demeanor and work ethic, all of these qualities I'd expect from an experienced journalist and all of them fairly well conveyed by Raymond Burr in the role. winky

For the record I absolutely prefer the original, '54 Toho version with English subtitles.

The Real McCoy
 
I don't know much, but I have heard that the reason they, Megalon specifically, were made was that they were thought to be "public domain," which they weren't
Indeed. Godzilla Vs Megalon has been mass produced in numerous and cheapie VHS and DVD releases for that very reason and is why this movie is the most viewed Godzilla film on the planet.
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packmule
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USA Today's website has posted this article about the upcoming Criterion DVD/BD release of the '54 G film: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/story/2012-01-22/godzilla-gojira-restored-dvd/52747790/1?AID=4992781&PID=4003003&SID=1ddhno2hqofx4

Good write up. thumbz up
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TrentonFella
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packmule
Jan 23 2012, 12:34 PM
USA Today's website has posted this article about the upcoming Criterion DVD/BD release of the '54 G film: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/story/2012-01-22/godzilla-gojira-restored-dvd/52747790/1?AID=4992781&PID=4003003&SID=1ddhno2hqofx4

Good write up. thumbz up
Very good write-up thumbz up thumbz up
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packmule
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August Ragone has given the Criterion release of the '54 G film high marks at Facebook. thumbz up

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The Real McCoy
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Cool video. Even on my crappy monitor I can see it does have better picture quality. I can't wait to get this.
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packmule
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DVD Drive-In has posted their review of the Criterion "Godzilla" DVD/BD release and it's very positive: http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/e-h/godzillacriterion5456.htm
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packmule
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Sci-Fi Japan has posted their review of the Criterion Blu Ray release of Godzilla(1954): http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2012/02/13/review-the-criterion-collections-godzilla/
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Russzilla
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packmule
Feb 14 2012, 12:09 AM
Sci-Fi Japan has posted their review of the Criterion Blu Ray release of Godzilla(1954): http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2012/02/13/review-the-criterion-collections-godzilla/
Ordered the new Godzilla blu ray along with the Destroy All Monsters blue ray a week ago from Amazon. Will post my thoughts when they're shipped next week.

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G2Kmaster
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Good luck if you get the DAM blu-ray. I heard they were being recalled.
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packmule
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Feb 15 2012, 11:28 PM
Good luck if you get the DAM blu-ray. I heard they were being recalled
heyo

Why the recall for these?
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G2Kmaster
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Something was not to Toho's liking in regards to the photo galleries
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