Sony Releasing More Godzilla -- And Mothra -- Blu-rays!

[Showa Mothra]

I'm content with these releases.....but it seems Toho doesn't give a rat's ass about their Godzilla releases.

[TripMasterMunky]

Just got my blu-rays in, pretty stoked to finally get the Mothra Trilogy on blu-ray! Haven't seen those movies in years. Pretty kiddy, but the monster action is cool.

I gotta do another Godzilla series watching with all the new blu-rays that have come out within the past year.

[Dr Kain]

[Shokara]

[Dai]

[KaiserGhidorah]

[canofhumdingers]

So, I had a slight epiphany the other day. It finally clicked while thinking about my disappointment in the GMK bluray that Kain said it was identical to his Japanese import bluray. I thought, "wait, if it's identical, then that means it's probably the same exact transfer from Toho and, like several other recent releases, never had the video levels corrected from Japanese standards to compensate for North American tv standards..."

And I was right! I tried watching it on my custom setting I use for watching Japanese discs and the improvement in picture quality was ENORMOUS. I think what was throwing me off and preventing me from realizing this sooner was that there's (surpisingly, but thankfully) not the horrendous amount of video noise that I'm used to seeing in the Toho HD masters like on G'84 or GvsBiollante.

Now, while using better calibration settings to get the contrast and color right makes a HUGE difference in how the disc looks, it's still not going to look as good as it could b/c it still has that typical softness Toho HD transfers are known for. But man it sure makes the disc much more watchable! It's exactly the same as the issue everyone was having with the Destroy All Monsters bluray. So if you remember DAM looking terrible and then bumping the contrast and color saturation up a little and being amazed at how much better it looked, try it with the GMK disc. You'll get the same results!

Much happier about the purchase now.

[Dr Kain]

Interesting, because the only thing I do on my TV when I watch Japanese discs is I change the brightness from 42 to 30. As such, I have the GMK BD from Sony at 42 while the Toho BD is on 30.

[O.Supreme]

Sorry to rehash an old question, but as I was posting some news online about the upcoming release of RoG by Kraken, I was going over my Sony BRD sets released in 2014. I have not watched most of them because I have seen these films so many times. I was under the impression that Sony had corrected most if not all flaws from their previous DVD releases (correct aspect ratios, dual audio on all that apply, and correct subtitles, and full closing credits restored), but it occurs to me that this may not have been the case on all these films. Does anyone have a list of what errors (lack of content, or incorrect content) still exist on their R1 Blu Ray discs? Any information would be appreciated. Thank you.

[canofhumdingers]

I think some of them may still have dubtitles. But they are all in the correct aspect ratio and dual language (or in the case of G2000, both cuts of the film). There's also one or two still missing the rolling end credits I believe... GvsKG and GaM:BFE maybe? I also remember someone kept complaining about a black line to the side of the frame on one of the versions of G2000 (I think it was the American cut) in one scene. But I went and watched it when the issue was first brought up and it just looks like an emulsion line or a scratch on the print that wasn't digitally removed after they scanned the film elements. Not something you see very often these days, but nothing out of the norm for films that were actually shot and printed on celluloid, and something that was much more common in home video before all these amazing digital tools were available.

[Benjamin Haines]

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Mothra both have their end credits sequences replaced with a short scroll of copyright information, just like they did on Sony's old VHS tapes and flipper DVD. Also, Mothra continues to keep playing for another two minutes of silent black screen after that copyright info goes by and the music fades out.

King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Mechagodzilla '93 all open with Japanese title cards with small, video-generated English titles underneath.

Spacegodzilla, Destroyer, Megaguirus, and Tokyo SOS open with the international English titles superimposed in flat white text over the Japanese title graphics.

Even though it features the video-generated English title in the opening, Mechagodzilla '93 has the uncut international English credits scrolling over Godzilla and Baby Godzilla as they swim out to sea. Spacegodzilla and Destroyer also have uncut international English end credits, unlike their previous flipper DVD from Sony.

The subtitles on King Ghidorah and Mothra are about 50% dubtitles and 50% different.

The subtitles on Mechagodzilla '93, Spacegodzilla, and Megaguirus are mostly dubtitles, but there are occasional instances where they differ.

Godzilla vs. Destroyer seems to have an accurate subtitle script. It differs significantly from the English-dubbed dialogue.

The subtitles on Tokyo SOS and Final Wars are exactly the same as they were on Sony's DVDs. That is to say they're both the same English subtitle scripts that played during both films' respective North American theatrical premieres in Nov. 2003 and Nov. 2004. The English dub for Tokyo SOS ended up matching that subtitle script almost word-for-word, complete with characters referring to Kiryu as "Mechagodzilla" or "MechaG" every time. The subtitles for Final Wars do not correspond to the English-dubbed dialogue in the same way.

I don't have Sony's GMK/GxMG bluray but I remember reading that GMK's dubtitles had only a couple of alterations from Sony's DVD, and that GxMG boasted the same (seemingly accurate) subtitles from the DVD but with every instance of "Kiryu" inexplicably replaced with "Mechagodzilla" or "MechaG" as if to reflect that same gaffe on the Tokyo SOS disc. That just boggles my mind.

[O.Supreme]

thanks. I just watched Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla on BRD yesterday, and I can confirm that they accurately have the subtitles as "Kiryu" in all instances. Haven't watched Tokyo SOS BRD yet though. Man...seems so convoluted. I'm not too concerned about the opening title cards. It would be nice if the English titles had an option to be removed, but not too bad. I did wish however all films had restored their full end credit sequences and had accurate subtitles.

[Benjamin Haines]