New Classic media "Rodan" and "Godzilla, King Of The Monsters" DVD quick thought (1 Viewer)

[Joseph Goodman]

Post Edited By Administrator - Do Not Post The Name Of Retailers Breaking Street Dates.
These discs were supposed to be out on the 17th, but some retailers have already broken street date. Other Godzilla titles available in this wave are "Godzilla Vs. Mothra", "Godzilla's Revenge", and "Terror Of Mechagodzilla", but as they are pan 'n scan I won't touch them. "Godzilla, King Of The Monsters" and "Rodan", however, are not widescreen films.
IL BUONO:
The encoding is very good on these discs, much better than on the Simitar
discs; I saw no artifacting in the parts of the discs I
watched. "Rodan" also has good color, likely due to the fact that whenever
that video transfer was made (it's the same old transfer we've been seeing
since the early 80's), it was made from a Technicolor dye-transfer release
print, which do not fade. "Rodan" was one of the only kaiju films printed in
this process. "KOTM" also seemed to have decent contrast and didn't seem too
murky, which can be a problem for B&W films on video. It's also a little
sharper looking than "Rodan". The packaging is also much better than we're
used to (as if that matters), so it's nice to know that at least someone
tried to make a purse out of these sow's ears.
IL BRUTTO:
As stated, "Rodan" is an old transfer apparently from a release print...
rather contrasty and grainy, but there's really no way around it. It's also
rather soft in certain parts, and video noise from the old analog video
master is apparent. It's a little annoying to think that this is probably
the best we're gonna get with the US version of "Rodan", unless someone is
willing to spend the money to track down one of the aforementioned dye
transfer prints and make a new video transfer (I'm willing to bet that the
negative for the US version of "Rodan" is long gone... dupe negative stocks
of the late fifties faded even faster than the original camera negative
stocks).
IL CATTIVO:
Had to drive way too far to find a store that had put "KOTM" on the
shelves by itself... no way I'm buying the box set with the pan 'n scan
Tohoscope films!

 

[Jim Peavy]

How does it look compared to the recent "GoodTimes" DVD of KOTM? I don't have the Simitar one, but this one is, not surprisingly, pretty mediocre.

I'm not the biggest RODAN fan there is, but I'll definitely be getting it. I'll also be avoiding the P&S ones like the plague.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Unfortunately, since they are dubbed and butchered, they should be avoided at all costs

 

[Jim Peavy]

They are going to be releasing RODAN and KOTM by themselves, correct? I don't want to have to buy the box either.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

Um, buying them seperately is exactly what I did.

To answer your question on the Goodtimes KOTM, I've never seen it. It wasn't even a legal release, and it's since been pulled, though copies still can be found in stores. All that is irrelevant anyway, as the new Sony/Classic Media disc of KOTM is very good. Not as perfect as some other black & white DVD's I've seen, but
it's still vastly better than the Simitar disc. As an aside, this new disc does *not* use the old 80's transfer like "Rodan", but a much better one that was used on
the Simitar disc, except this time, it's compressed properly. Another problem the Simitar disc had was that it was not converted properly from a composite master, so dot crawl and rainbow noise effects were all over the place, which isn't the case with the new disc.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Amazing. So, it was shot in Eastman Color, and the prints were then made by the "Technicolor dye-transfer" process? Eastman Color is a "photographic" color system, not a "dye-transfer" system, correct?

What other kaiju movies were made in this process? If any, I'm guessing THE MYSTERIANS.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

What other kaiju movies were made in this process? If any, I'm guessing THE MYSTERIANS

A film is not "made" in dye-transfer; it's merely printed in dye transfer. Only the US prints, and possibily some European prints, of "Rodan" were in dye-transfer, as Technicolor did not have a dye transfer line in Japan. The only other Japanese sci-fantasy film I have heard of dye-transfer being used for were the US prints of Toho's "Latitude Zero".

 

[JeremySt]

So no widescreen on any of the titles that should be? Godzilla vs. Mothra is my fav of the "vs" G-Films, and saw that it was being released. No OAR, no sale.

 

[Kevin M]

Are they (whomever) ever going to release the ORIGINAL version of Godzilla A.K.A.:Gojira (1954)?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

The only other Japanese sci-fantasy film I have heard of dye-transfer being used for were the US prints of Toho's "Latitude Zero".

Universal made 35mm dye-transfer prints of "King Kong vs. Godzilla". An acquaintance of mine is getting a print of it.

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

The original versions of the Godzilla films are forbidden to be released in this country, because Toho is afraid that Japanese customers will import the R1 discs instead of buying the grossly overpriced (around $50 in U.S. dollars) Japanese discs. Thus we are screwed over. (If I am wrong, please tell me; but I swear something like this was mentioned before)

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Tis true, but $5-6800 yen is typical for Japanese native programming on DVD. Japanese home video prices were set when the yen was around 200- $1US, so if you do the math it's about right. SO while the price in Japan has not changed, the price in the US has changed a lot

 

[Jeff Adkins]

No OAR, no sale.

Well in the case of all these films, No OSL=No Sale!

Jeff

 

[Jim Peavy]

What would you OSL purist guys do if they released the Japanese language version of Godzilla vs. Monster Zero with Nick Adams dubbed into Japanese? Or War of the Gargantuas with Russ Tamblyn? Or King Kong Escapes with both Rhodes Reason and Linda Miller?