UHD Review Godzilla (1954) – Criterion UHD Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[t1g3r5fan]

Today, Godzilla (1959). Beginning his career in 1934, Ishirō Honda worked his way up the ranks in the Japanese film industry before making his directorial debut in 1949 with the short documentary Ise-Shima. However it was following his first feature film The Blue Pearl (1952) that he would direct a film that would give him his lasting fame both in Japan and internationally. That film, Godzilla, would help establish the kaiju genre and also launch a film franchise that’s still going strong today. Criterion has given the initial film in the franchise its UHD Blu-ray debut here.



Godzilla (1954)



Released: 07 May 2004
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 96 min




Director: Ishirô Honda
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi



Cast: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada
Writer(s): Takeo Murata, Ishirô Honda, Shigeru Kayama



Plot: After a...

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[Wayne_j]

I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to find this and didn't find it. Then last night I saw on the B&N website that my store had it so I placed an order for it. Now B&N says that they can't find it. At least I know I am talented at finding releases at B&N. I guess I will order from Amazon.

 

[JoshZ]

I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to find this and didn't find it. Then last night I saw on the B&N website that my store had it so I placed an order for it. Now B&N says that they can't find it. At least I know I am talented at finding releases at B&N. I guess I will order from Amazon.

I've had the same problem with Barnes & Noble, where their web site will say a title is in stock at my local store, but when I get there it's not on the shelf and the staff can't find it.

 

[Wayne_j]

And they usually order a ton of new Criterion releases especially during the 50% off sales.

 

[Wayne Klein]

I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to find this and didn't find it. Then last night I saw on the B&N website that my store had it so I placed an order for it. Now B&N says that they can't find it. At least I know I am talented at finding releases at B&N. I guess I will order from Amazon.

That used to happen quite a bit for me at Best Buy when they still carried blu’. It usually means one of two things 1) they sold it and it hasn’t been updated in the system or 2) they got a single copy and it either was misplaced or someone who works there set it aside for themselves.

 

[Wayne Klein]

Continue reading...

Great review. This is the only Godzilla film I need. The rest are junk.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Great review. This is the only Godzilla film I need. The rest are junk.

Wow. That's a really narrow opinion.

 

[Tino]

Great review. This is the only Godzilla film I need. The rest are junk.

Surely you jest.

 

[Wayne Klein]

Wow. That's a really narrow opinion.

No, I just don’t like the films. How is it “narrow”? It’s my opinion. I’ve seen most of them growing up as a kid and today it’s a cheese fest. One can enjoy them for that if one wants. Enjoy away.! No need to make it personal.

 

[Wayne Klein]

Surely you jest.

YMMV but I see little to no value in the films made after the first one myself. The second film to be fair is pretty good as a sequel but after that, it’s a massive diminishing returns.

 

[Tino]

YMMV but I see little to no value in the films made after the first one myself. The second film to be fair is pretty good as a sequel but after that, it’s a massive diminishing returns.

Godzilla Minus One?

 

[Wayne Klein]

Godzilla Minus One?

I’ll add that as well as being a very good to great flick. I was referring mostly to the horrible sequels produced during the 60's and through much of the 90's. Regardless, this is the best flick of the original series. The reboot American one with Broderick was horrible as well. I did enjoy Edwards reboot as well. I'm sure there are some I haven't seen to be fair (and, again, to be fair, have no comment on those from the 90's) but the ones made during the 60's and 70's were especially bad films. Honda's original is untouchable and the second one by Oda has some moments that are memorable.

 

[Tom Fynan]

For those if us who already own the Criterion blu-ray, is the picture quality worth the upgrade to the UHD?

 

[Gerani53]

In my opinion, Criterion made a mistake by not providing a 4K UHD version of the 1956 GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, along with its 4K of the original 1954 GOJIRA, in this new package. It's the difference between first and second generation visual material, apparently. From what I’ve been told, when GOJIRA was picked up for U.S. distribution, the original Japanese negative was literally cut into the newly-filmed Raymond Burr material. So what the Japanese have to work in terms of the original GOJIRA is a fine-grain dupe of their original ’54 movie, and it's this dupe that's been spiffed up and treated with scratch-removal in recent times, transferred to 4k UHD, etc. Meanwhile, the same Japanese footage as it appears in GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956) is a full generation ahead, which is why it looks brighter and sharper when you compare the domestic and Japanese versions of the same scenes and shots. The 35mm fine grain element Criterion used for their Blu-ray of GKOTM was contributed by the late film restorer Mike Hyatt, who also confirmed that all versions of GOJIRA are at least one generation below/behind what we see in the '56 U.S. cut, no matter how much clean-up and restoration may have been done for GOJIRA. Bottom line? GOJIRA is its own movie, a bit more adult and political in nature than KOTM, and the version we have, now upgraded to 4K, certainly looks damn good. But for an even better-looking version of 90 percent of the movie, including all scenes with the titular beast, GODZILLA. KING OF THE MONSTERS is the version to watch, even if it's just on Blu-ray, because the footage itself is a generation ahead. That’s why I said a 4K UHD of GKOTM would have been most welcome, as it would have given the world the strongest, clearest version of this footage ever beheld.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

In my opinion, Criterion made a mistake by not providing a 4K UHD version of the 1956 GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, along with its 4K of the original 1954 GOJIRA, in this new package. It's the difference between first and second generation visual material, apparently. From what I’ve been told, when GOJIRA was picked up for U.S. distribution, the original Japanese negative was literally cut into the newly-filmed Raymond Burr material. So what the Japanese have to work in terms of the original GOJIRA is a fine-grain dupe of their original ’54 movie, and it's this dupe that's been spiffed up and treated with scratch-removal in recent times, transferred to 4k UHD, etc. Meanwhile, the same Japanese footage as it appears in GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956) is a full generation ahead, which is why it looks brighter and sharper when you compare the domestic and Japanese versions of the same scenes and shots. The 35mm fine grain element Criterion used for their Blu-ray of GKOTM was contributed by the late film restorer Mike Hyatt, who also confirmed that all versions of GOJIRA are at least one generation below/behind what we see in the '56 U.S. cut, no matter how much clean-up and restoration may have been done for GOJIRA. Bottom line? GOJIRA is its own movie, a bit more adult and political in nature than KOTM, and the version we have, now upgraded to 4K, certainly looks damn good. But for an even better-looking version of 90 percent of the movie, including all scenes with the titular beast, GODZILLA. KING OF THE MONSTERS is the version to watch, even if it's just on Blu-ray, because the footage itself is a generation ahead. That’s why I said a 4K UHD of GKOTM would have been most welcome, as it would have given the world the strongest, clearest version of this footage ever beheld.

Where did you find the claim that the negative to "Gojira" was cut in to the US version*? All the information I've read from staff involved in Toho's 4k restorations (read through machine translation, of course) points to the OCN of "Gojira" being disposed of sometime in the 1970's due to still being on flammable nitrate. The use of nitrate stock didn't cease in Japan until 1955; a similar fate of being disposed of due to being nitrate also befell the OCN of "Seven Samurai". The bulk of the 4k restoration of "Gojira", despite what it says in the liner notes of this new Criterion set, was based on two dupe negatives made in the 1970's, with the existing fine-grain (previously used on most transfers of this film, it's actually a fourth-generation element with a 1983 date code) used only to fill in small bits missing due to splices or damage. All of this information comes from interviews with, and social media comments made by Toho & Tokyo Laboratory staff throughout the process going as far back as 2014. Links to interviews where I've read this:

gŽg—p‹ÖŽ~‚̃lƒKh‚ÉgŽ¸‚í‚ꂽ‚Í‚¸‚Ì—\ƒtƒBƒ‹ƒ€hAw4KƒSƒWƒ‰x§ì”é˜b‚ªƒSƒWƒ‰‰f‰æ‚ÌlŒÃŠw‚¾‚Á‚½ (1/4) - PHILE WEB

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www.phileweb.com

https://www.tohokingdom.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1826734#p1826734 (a machine translation I posted of the interview above)

Do you happen to know the current whereabouts of the KOTM fine-grain? It'd be shame for it to disappear after the passing of Hyatt. I've wondered about the process by which some of the US edits of these films were made, or at which point some of the edits were made... there's some indication that some were done at the IP stage (i.e. an interpositive from Toho was cut together with interpositive of new material for the US version), while some were done at the IN stage (the US version of "Rodan", for example; negative splices between newly made US version opticals and original Toho footage are visible in prints of the US version**).

*There's some evidence that this happened with the original "Mothra"... the OCN was re-cut to Columbia's edit, and then re-cut back to the Japanese version... with some shots placed in the wrong order!

**Toho's 2022 4K restoration of "Rodan" used separation masters made at the time of the film's release (the practice of making separations was not common in the Japanese film industry) as a reference for color correcting the faded OCN; if the US version of "Rodan" was assembled using IN material from Toho, I wonder if that IN had been made from these seps? There's a few bits of unique Toho-shot footage in the US version; I wonder if that footage may be lurking in those seps?

 

[TriplicateGirl]

I would've welcome a 4K version of King of the Monsters, but they are fundamentally two completely different movies. They do not share 90% of the same footage, the American version cuts over 1/3 of the original.