594, 1000 Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975

[yoloswegmaster]

Some recent updates on the Godzilla Franchise:

• Toho will be releasing the original Godzilla, Mothra vs Godzilla, Ghidrah, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, Hedorah and Biollante on 4K UHD by the end of the year in Japan (no HDR or English subs)
• Toho have also done 4K restorations for Godzilla vs Megalon and The Return of Godzilla, which will be premiering on Japanese TV in early November in celebration of the new Godzilla film
• As mentioned in the Janus thread, a theatre programmer revealed that Janus have picked up the rights to the Millenium-era films

[371229]

Does anyone know if Criterion plans to re-release this set in a more bookshelf friendly edition? The enormous size of this set has prevented me from buy it because I don't have anywhere to put it with my other blu ray/DVD movies.

[swo17]

Anything's possible but I wouldn't count on it

[therewillbeblus]

Does anyone know if Criterion plans to re-release this set in a more bookshelf friendly edition? The enormous size of this set has prevented me from buy it because I don't have anywhere to put it with my other blu ray/DVD movies.

I learned a while ago that it works best as part of a presentation (though I prefer the other shelf's to this one!)

[swo17]

I keep mine positioned next to the Bergman set so it sort of looks like the Persona arm is an extension of Godzilla's body

[therewillbeblus]

I keep mine positioned next to the Bergman set so it sort of looks like the Persona arm is an extension of Godzilla's body

Haha that works - It just didn't feel like it gelled in that section, aesthetically:

For size

[Grand Wazoo]

Who knew Netflix released their kids series Bookmarks and you thought it worthy to be next to Fellini and Bergman.

[therewillbeblus]

with kids-sized blu-ray discs inside!

[ComradeMisato]

I've got mine on a dedicated shelf for big/otherwise irregularly sized box sets, along with Criterion's Zatoichi box, the Arrow Gamera and Shawscope sets, and that big Neon Genesis Evangelion box.

[therewillbeblus]

That makes a lot more sense thematically, and I used to do something similar in past residences. Thankfully I can store those in the add-on Billies very easily now. Shelf space is everything at this point, but I'll probably consult a few of you about storage options eventually.

Honestly, the packaging for Trainspotting bothers me more than the giant Godzilla set. At least with this, I get the idea to have a cool design. I have zero idea why anyone would make Trainspotting's packaging so complicated and ill-fitting - it serves no fun or thematic or fashionable purpose.

[midnitedave]

Godzilla (1954) 4K UHD Upgrade in November

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
High-definition digital restoration of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Audio commentary for both movies by film historian David Kalat
Interviews with actors Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima and special effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects, introduced by special effects director Koichi Kawakita and special effects photographer Motoyoshi Tomioka
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
Trailers
PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman

[yoloswegmaster]

A theater in Arizona is screening the 4K restoration for Destroy All Monsters, which I think is the first time that any of 4K restorations for the other Godzilla films outside of the original have been screened in the U.S. (though I could be wrong about this). Regardless, I hope this means that Toho will allow for 4K releases of the other Godzilla films.

[andyli]

Not until they have done it first domestically.

[Orlac]

Not until they have done it first domestically.

Toho's 4k came out last year.

[Cash Flagg]

Any particular reason the Burr version isn’t also 4K? That’s the one most people grew up with.

[yoloswegmaster]

Any particular reason the Burr version isn’t also 4K? That’s the one most people grew up with.

It could just be Toho not allowing them to add it on the release, which would not be surprising to hear. I don't have the standalone release, so I'm unsure what source was used for the digital restoration on the 2012 release, but it could also be possible that the elements aren't good enough to do a 4K restoration for it.

[dwk]

According to the booklet, The US cut was from" a 35 mm fine-grain master positive and a 16 mm dupe negative."

[yoloswegmaster]

A 35mm fine-grain master positive should be good enough for a 4K scan, since Seven Samurai and OG Godzilla were restored using the same type of source, but have no idea how a 16mm dupe negative would translate on 4K. Do you recall if KOTM looked just as good as the original film on that release?

[dwk]

No, I can't remember, it has been so long since I watched it (God, that came out 12 years ago.) I do recall some people saying that Criterion's master for the US cut is better than the master of the US cut included on the Toho release.

[ComradeMisato]

IIRC the Toho disc has the Japanese variant of the US cut, which is blown up/cropped to scope and subtitled in Japanese. I remember hearing it's transferred from a pretty punished print, too.

As for why Criterion couldn't redo the US version in 4K, the cynical answer is that both Godzilla fans and Criterion's own following will buy this release whether they do it or not, so why spend all that money?

Another possibility (maybe more of a stretch) is to consider that on the existing Blu-ray, the Japanese footage looks better in places in the US version than in the Japanese version due to the quality of each version's respective source elements. A 4K remaster of the US cut done in-house by Criterion would run the risk of upstaging the degrained/regrained off-the-shelf Toho 4K master of the Japanese cut even more dramatically. Maybe Toho wouldn't allow it, or maybe Criterion doesn't want to risk another Seven Samurai situation.

[yoloswegmaster]

Toho will be releasing a 4K boxset containing Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla 1984, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla '93, and Godzilla Final Wars. A bit of a random set if you ask me since they are just throwing multiple films from different eras together but still cool that we are finally seeing releases for it. Hoping that they can finish restoring the rest of the Godzilla films soon so that we can get a 4K set in this part of the world.

Anyone interested in what hasn't been released yet: remaining Showa-era titles that haven't been released yet are Ebirah, Son of Godzilla, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla vs Gigan, Godzilla vs Megalon. Heisei-era titles that haven't received releases yet are Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs Mothra, Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla, and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. For the Millenium-era, all the films besides Godzilla: Final Wars have yet to be released.

[midnitedave]

Toho will be releasing a 4K boxset containing Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla 1984, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla '93, and Godzilla Final Wars. A bit of a random set if you ask me since they are just throwing multiple films from different eras together but still cool that we are finally seeing releases for it. Hoping that they can finish restoring the rest of the Godzilla films soon so that we can get a 4K set in this part of the world.

In addition to this box set, TOHO announced the "Fes Godzilla 5: Great Monster Battle" blu-ray which includes five shorts shown at past Godzilla Fests. Hoping these also get a US/European release!

[Orlac]

Any particular reason the Burr version isn’t also 4K? That’s the one most people grew up with.

I’m probably one of the first Westerners who as a child encountered the Japanese version first – the UK’s Channel 4 showed it on Christmas Eve 1999 when I was 13. Such a treat eclipsed my memory of what my actual Christmas presents were!

The host segments were pretty lousy though! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ0shbDdkBc

[colinr0380]

On the same note, I have weird memories of watching the earlier series of Godzilla films that Channel 4 did during late nights in the early 1990s at around 12 years old whilst tucked up in bed half asleep - whilst I don't remember anything about the plot of any of the films from those watches something that always stayed with me from that experience was the way that drifting off to sleep against the background ambience of all the back-and-forth roars between creatures was kind of like listening to a film in a foreign language avant la lettre! Where you got a sense of meaning conveyed through the vocalisations despite not understanding the dialogue!

The Godzilla films turned up a lot on Channel 4 throughout the 1990s (Destroy All Monsters appeared again during 1995's "Sci-Fi Weekend"; and a run of the late 60s-mid 70s films appeared in 1996-7 during a similar all Friday night 'horror' strand - BBC2 got in on the action once as well, showing 1991's Godzilla vs King Ghidorah in July 1998, probably to tie in with the Roland Emmerich film hitting UK cinemas), all dubbed, before the "Vidzilla" season showed the original black-and-white films in 1999, and as Orlac says in Japanese with English subtitles for the first time.

Since that point I can't recall any Godzilla films (aside from the US ones from 1998 and more recently) appearing on UK television at all.

[Orlac]

Since that point I can't recall any Godzilla films (aside from the US ones from 1998 and more recently) appearing on UK television at all.

The UK Sci-Fi channel showed the US version of KING KONG VS GODZILLA, in widescreen, around 2003. That was probably it for the Toho films on UK TV then.