Godzilla and Kaiju DVDs/BDs in UK?

[Baltan II]

Hey! I'm trying to spread the love of kaiju around to a friend and am running into a not-so-surprising issue of knowing which kaiju releases are available within the UK. Obviously, region 2 DVDs would be fine if they exist, but there doesn't seem to be much if anything in the way of BD releases. However, I'm aware that some BDs simply aren't actually region-locked.

I know there's some UK fans still kicking around that would be aware of these things, would appreciate being pointed in the right direction for whatever official releases I can get.

[lhb412]

I know Shin was released in the UK. I don't know anything beyond that, other than the general reputation for rarity kaiju home video releases have over there. Going region free would be a necessity for a fan in the UK.

There's no guarantee that a film released by Criterion in the US will then be released in the UK, but Criterion does release some titles there. Whatever shape the upcoming Criterion Godzilla release takes it may be the best chance for UK fans in terms of physical releases.

[Baltan II]

Yeah, Shin was the first thing on my list due to ease of availability. I think there’s also a release of the original I saw.

I’m moreso hoping to glean input on which releases, particularly BDs, are secretly region-free and just don’t advertise as such. I know this has come up in the forums before but hell if I can find that info now!

[lhb412]

^ Go to www.blu-ray.com

There's an entry for practically every release, and once you go to a release's page there's usually a section for region coding where users have tested the release on various players to find out what they play on, which, as you say, can be different from what's on the official label!

[lhb412]

Doing a little snooping myself on that side I see that Mill Creek's Gamera and Daimajin Blu-rays are actually region free!

[H-Man]

The only UK releases of Toho kaiju films on DVD that I'm aware of are the original Godzilla and The Mysterians from BFI and both Toho Kong films via Universal. The Kong films are English versions only but the BFI releases are in Japanese with subtitles.

There was also Gamera: Guardian of the Universe from Manga in the early 2000s, but that was the bizarre Manga Video dub with club music replacing a lot of the original score. (It's also ugly non-anamorphic widescreen and region free.) That disc was only offered as a giveaway with some gaming magazine and it's hard to come by today. That's a curio though, I certainly wouldn't want to introduce anyone to that film with this version!

[Baltan II]

Even this little bit of info has been a big help, thank you! I've looked at streaming options and found that Space Amoeba, Varan, and Matango were also available on Amazon UK, plus the aforementioned Mill Creek stuff being region-free and the few movies with official disc releases. I'll have to work out something else for the remainder.

[Benjamin Haines]

ADV did release and on region-2 DVD in the UK back in 2004. UK fans today would be better off just getting Mill Creek's region-free BRD releases of the Gamera trilogy.

Here is SciFi Japan's of BFI's Godzilla and The Mysterians DVDs.

[O.Supreme]

Just curious, did the BFI release of The Mysterians contains the original RKO dub/credit sequence, the dub produced by Media Blasters, or perhaps a Toho Intl version (I dont think one exists...but I don't know for sure...)

[H-Man]

[Dai]

Almost all US Godzilla blu-rays are zone-locked, unfortunately. The only exception off the top of my head is Return of Godzilla. As has been mentioned, the Daimajin and Gamera blus are region-free.

Aside from the UK releases already mentioned, Mothra apparently had a DVD release a few years ago. It's really slim picking for kaiju releases over here though.

The most cost-effective way to amass a Godzilla collection in the UK is to buy a cheap region-free DVD player and the region 4 Australian DVD box sets from Madman. Those cover most of the Showa, Heisei, and Millennium series.

[JordanGLC]

what's in filmaf's database. Probably not a complete list of what's out there, but it might include items not already mentioned.

[Kailem]

As has already been mentioned, there's not a lot of choice over here when it comes to kaiju films in any format (unless you're big into collecting old VHS tapes ). I think Shin Godzilla might literally be the only actual Blu-ray release of any sort of film like that in the UK, Godzilla or not, apart from the US Godzilla's of course. A region-free Blu-ray and/or DVD player really is a must if your friend wants to pick up more than a handful of titles (my entire collection is made up of Sony, Classic Media and Madman releases, plus a few of the more recent Blu-ray imports).

That being said, the Godzilla vs Biollante Blu-ray is another one that hasn't been mentioned yet that's definitely region-free. It could make for a good double feature with the G'84 Blu-ray, since like Dai said that's region-free too. The Madman release of Shin Godzilla is also region-free if you or your friend happened to prefer the special features on that above those of the UK version, but since that's one of the rare Godzilla films that's actually been released over here it's not at all necessary to import it.

But yeah, I think all the US and Australian DVDs are region-locked, though if his Blu-ray player plays multi-region DVDs as standard then there's plenty of choice available there, which might be the easiest option if that's the case.

Sadly I feel like the potentially upcoming Criterion Godzilla films will be region-locked though, just as their release of G'54 was. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

[Benjamin Haines]