Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
02-12-10, 09:21 AM
#1
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Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
I'm surprised there isn't a thread about this already. Where are all my fellow Japanese giant monster movie fans?
Shout Factory will be releasing the first film of the Gamera series, Gamera The Giant Monster (Daikaiju Gamera), on May 18, 2010!! This will be the first time it's ever had an official U.S. release with the original Japanese audio track. Unfortunately, it will not include the U.S. version, Gammera The Invincible. UCLA has the available materials for that but apparently were being difficult to work with. Kadokawa (the company that acquired Daiei) provided Shout with an HD master of the film so the disc should look great. No U.S. blu ray is in the plans btw.
As many of you probably know, the market has been inundated over the years with crappy "public domain" releases of the Gamera series. I was thinking no company would step up to the plate and give us proper releases, but here we are. Makes me hopeful for a legit Godzilla vs. Megalon.
Shout Factory will release all of the Gamera titles from the Showa era in the coming months.
Shout Factory will be releasing the first film of the Gamera series, Gamera The Giant Monster (Daikaiju Gamera), on May 18, 2010!! This will be the first time it's ever had an official U.S. release with the original Japanese audio track. Unfortunately, it will not include the U.S. version, Gammera The Invincible. UCLA has the available materials for that but apparently were being difficult to work with. Kadokawa (the company that acquired Daiei) provided Shout with an HD master of the film so the disc should look great. No U.S. blu ray is in the plans btw.
As many of you probably know, the market has been inundated over the years with crappy "public domain" releases of the Gamera series. I was thinking no company would step up to the plate and give us proper releases, but here we are. Makes me hopeful for a legit Godzilla vs. Megalon.
Shout Factory will release all of the Gamera titles from the Showa era in the coming months.
02-12-10, 11:14 AM
#3
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
I'll agree that it's a shame that the US version couldn't be part of this release
02-12-10, 11:43 AM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
02-12-10, 01:29 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
Cool. I was sort of eyeing the various Gamera Blu-ray sets released in Japan. This will be much cheaper and with American subtitles.
02-12-10, 03:11 PM
#7
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
Well there was the Synapse Films laserdisc release of the film with 2.35:1 aspect ratio and in Japanese with English subtitles below the letter boxing. It also had liner notes by DVDTalk reviewer Stuart Galbraith IV. But that was a long time ago and such a limited format that most folks probably missed out on it. So this is good news for folks who didn't get the laserdisc or the Toho R2 DVD releases that had English subtitles for the films but were pretty expensive when they were out there.
I'll agree that it's a shame that the US version couldn't be part of this release
I'll agree that it's a shame that the US version couldn't be part of this release
02-12-10, 03:16 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
You know what, even though I'm a HUGE kaiju fan I've never really gotten into Gamera. I think I've only seen Gamera vs. Gaos, maybe vs. Zigra, too. I'll def pick this up, though I wish we were getting a BD release.
02-12-10, 04:01 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
This is great. I wish they were following the blueprint of the recent Gojira/Godzilla sets though, but I am thrilled to hear about this.
02-12-10, 08:35 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
Originally Posted by August Ragone
Now, to answer the question about Shout! Factory's release not containing the US version, GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE. Yes, this release does not include the US version (probably my favorite US adaptation):
While I agree that the US-shot scenes and the edit of US version is somewhat an improvement upon the original (especially in regards to the USAF characters), the only known 35mm elements in the UCLA Film Library were wrapped up in endless red tape (this was the same source used for the Neptune Media/Synapse release eleven years ago), but they made it extremely difficult and ultimately, Shout! Factory was unable to hurtle their endless stipulations and monetary demands. In the end, it was a hard decision, but there was nothing that Cliff MacMillan at Shout! could do to -- for months got the runaround, and then they started demanding unfair amounts of money. The only option was going with a flat 16mm television print, and that would defeat the purpose of the medium, right? So, he had to drop plans to include it. IMHO, if anyone is to blame, it's the UCLA Film Library.
While I agree that the US-shot scenes and the edit of US version is somewhat an improvement upon the original (especially in regards to the USAF characters), the only known 35mm elements in the UCLA Film Library were wrapped up in endless red tape (this was the same source used for the Neptune Media/Synapse release eleven years ago), but they made it extremely difficult and ultimately, Shout! Factory was unable to hurtle their endless stipulations and monetary demands. In the end, it was a hard decision, but there was nothing that Cliff MacMillan at Shout! could do to -- for months got the runaround, and then they started demanding unfair amounts of money. The only option was going with a flat 16mm television print, and that would defeat the purpose of the medium, right? So, he had to drop plans to include it. IMHO, if anyone is to blame, it's the UCLA Film Library.
02-13-10, 08:41 AM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
SciFi Japan has an article (including early cover art) and interview about these upcoming DVDs.
02-16-10, 02:14 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
Too bad there's no BR release; I own the English subbed Japanese box set, and there's no way I'm buying SD versions of these again.
02-16-10, 04:11 PM
#14
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
SciFi Japan has an article (including early cover art) and interview about these upcoming DVDs.
Never seen any of these, but I've added this title to my DVDAf wishlist and will keep my eyes open for it.
02-17-10, 10:54 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
I don't have the disc in front of me but my recollection is that it was a Synapse Films/Neptune Media release. I'm not sure if there were other versions but my copy is the "limited edition" gold disc version. Just how limited this really is appears to have been determined by how many they could sell as there are plenty of them up for grabs on eBay.
05-12-10, 01:49 AM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
There's another thread discussing it, but bringing it back here. Yes, it is nice to have an option to see it with an optional dubbed version, but for me personally, I hate dubbing, it is a waste of disc space, and a waste of time.
I said it long time ago in the Ghost In The Shell thread, but I can't stand watching anything dubbed. The original language version is what should be first and foremost. And thanks to Shout Factory on this release.
(But then don't get me started on dubbing of Spaghetti Westerns or Mandarin/Cantonese films.... that is something else entirely.)
I said it long time ago in the Ghost In The Shell thread, but I can't stand watching anything dubbed. The original language version is what should be first and foremost. And thanks to Shout Factory on this release.
(But then don't get me started on dubbing of Spaghetti Westerns or Mandarin/Cantonese films.... that is something else entirely.)
05-12-10, 07:39 AM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
Isn't there a WS print of the US dubbed version Gamera used for the Elvira disc? Couldn't somebody just buy it and put it in the case with the SE and have both versions
05-14-10, 02:13 PM
#20
Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
I just received a copy of Giant Monster...I have only previewed it on my PC but it looks very good and clean. There is a booklet (with the original Japanese cover art) with an awesome cutaway drawing of Gamera on the inside showing his anatomy.
05-15-10, 09:55 AM
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05-20-10, 09:57 AM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
What the heck is it with white guys in the Japanese monster movies? From the 60's right up through the Godzilla millenium series, it seems that they can't manage to sound like a natural English speaking actor, no matter how few lines they have. They either have terrible, wooden, off-kilter delivery, and/or the lines they say are subtly odd, as if they're translated from Japanese by someone who's slightly-less-than-fluent in English (which is probably the case).
05-20-10, 10:29 AM
#24
Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
What the heck is it with white guys in the Japanese monster movies? From the 60's right up through the Godzilla millenium series, it seems that they can't manage to sound like a natural English speaking actor, no matter how few lines they have. They either have terrible, wooden, off-kilter delivery, and/or the lines they say are subtly odd, as if they're translated from Japanese by someone who's slightly-less-than-fluent in English (which is probably the case).
All the US military guys in the first half of the movie constantly had memos or important teletypes in front of them as they "acted"....I am pretty sure they were reading their lines right off of them. It actually seemed like they were reading off a paper like a kid might. And like you said, way off kilter, and oddly worded as if they had been translated. Probably the case there.
Had to laugh when the Eskimo spoke English, and they put up both Japanese AND English subtitles. His English was better than the American guys!
That being said, I did really like the rest of the movie, and the little documentary on the series (honestly the first extra I have ever watched because I was curious about the rest of the movies) was pretty neat...even going so far as to show the storyboards/studio mock up for the proposed sequel.
05-20-10, 12:04 PM
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Re: Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition 5/18/10
To be fair, for all I know the Japanese acting was just as bad, since I can't speak it how would I know. But this wasn't even funny bad. It was bad bad.
All the US military guys in the first half of the movie constantly had memos or important teletypes in front of them as they "acted"....I am pretty sure they were reading their lines right off of them. It actually seemed like they were reading off a paper like a kid might. And like you said, way off kilter, and oddly worded as if they had been translated. Probably the case there.
Had to laugh when the Eskimo spoke English, and they put up both Japanese AND English subtitles. His English was better than the American guys!
That being said, I did really like the rest of the movie, and the little documentary on the series (honestly the first extra I have ever watched because I was curious about the rest of the movies) was pretty neat...even going so far as to show the storyboards/studio mock up for the proposed sequel.
All the US military guys in the first half of the movie constantly had memos or important teletypes in front of them as they "acted"....I am pretty sure they were reading their lines right off of them. It actually seemed like they were reading off a paper like a kid might. And like you said, way off kilter, and oddly worded as if they had been translated. Probably the case there.
Had to laugh when the Eskimo spoke English, and they put up both Japanese AND English subtitles. His English was better than the American guys!
That being said, I did really like the rest of the movie, and the little documentary on the series (honestly the first extra I have ever watched because I was curious about the rest of the movies) was pretty neat...even going so far as to show the storyboards/studio mock up for the proposed sequel.
It almost seems like when they got ready to shoot certain scenes for the movies, somebody told the director:
"Hey, we're going to need a white guy for this scene, and we forgot to cast one. Should we hold a quick casting call to get an actor?"
"No time, we've got to shoot this today. Just go to the airport and offer $50 to the first white guy you see--tell him he'll get to be in a movie, and get him back here quick!"
But yeah, that's part of the charm of these. I'm sure I'll enjoy this disc when I pick it up.