New kaiju DVDs from Germany

[el-brazo]

The following films were (re-)released in Germany by MARKETING:

- Godzilla Raids Again
- Godzilla Vs. the Thing
- Godzilla Vs. Hedorah (*)
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (*)
- Return of Godzilla
- Godzilla Vs. Biollante
- Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah
- Godzilla and Mothra (*)
- Yongary, the Monster from the Deep

German Godzilla fans were eagerly awaiting these DVDs, but it seems that they are not quite as good as everybody hoped. I have three of them (marked with a "*") and the films look somewhat soft and lack details. Also, there are some short grey bars located in the first two lines at the top of the image. Since the DVDs are encoded anamorphically, these grey bars will not appear on 16:9-TVs (they are located inside the invisible border region of the TV), but on standard 4:3-TVs you can see them inside the upper black letterbox bar. Though the grey bars can be made nearly invisible by adjusting brightness and contrast, potential buyers should be aware of this "feature".

For non-German fans, Godzilla Raids Again, Terror of Mechagodzilla, and Yongary, the Monster from the Deep might be of certain interest. Generally, the DVDs have German audio only, but the DVDs of Godzilla Raids Again and Terror of Mechagodzilla contain the uncut Japanese versions (Terror of Mechagodzilla in full Tohoscope). Yongary, the Monster from the Deep contains both the shorter German theatrical version (presented in widescreen) and the longer American version (presented in fullscreen). I am still waiting for my copy of Yongary, the Monster from the Deep and I am planning to buy several other Godzilla films (the prices of Marketing DVDs usually drop dramatically some weeks after their initial release, so I am going to wait a bit). If anyone here is interested in further news about those DVDs, please let me know.

[GFan]

[el-brazo]

I just got the Yongary, Monster from the Deep-DVD and it's kind of a mixed bag. The German theatrical version (widescreen) seems to be the one which was previously released in Germany by Astro/Best Entertainment.

The American version (fullscreen) looks like it was mastered from a videotape or a laserdisc. The image is quite soft and lacking details, but overall it looks better ("smoother" and less "blocky") than the American Alpha DVD. There are no German subtitles.

There's also a German Super 8 version (about 15 minutes) on the DVD which features the original German title at the beginning of the movie (Godzillas Todespranke = "Godzilla's Prank of Death"). Unfortunately, the print used is very much damaged.

Extras include pictures of German lobby cards as well as a filmography of Ki-Duk Kim ... as expected, nothing really exciting. Though the DVD does not feature high quality prints, it's the German widescreen version (pan & scan did some really nasty things to this movie) as well as the longer American fullscreen version which makes this DVD interesting. At least I can resell my Alpha DVD, my Astro/Best Entertainment DVD, and my Orion VHS (I kept it after looking at the Alpha DVD) now ... and still have all versions on one single DVD.

@GFan:

> [...] AND Godzilla Raids Again?

As far as I have heard this DVD looks quite good. It contains the Japanese version with a brand new German dub. Unfortunately, the original theatrical German version is believed to be lost (the movie was never shown on TV or released on VHS or DVD), so Marketing had to completely re-dub the movie.

[GFan]

[Kaijufan]

[Garasharp K7]

[el-brazo]

@GFan:

> Sounds pretty nice. I wish Alpha did better encoding/mastering
> on their DVDs.. it's not like it's THAT hard to do.

That's right. However, Alpha is not the only company to do things wrong. I was surprised when I watched the Rodan-DVD (by Media Classics) and saw that the image looked very strange. As if they somehow deliberately "destroyed" the clarity of the picture. Difficult to describe, but it really looks weird. :goofy:

> That's cool of them to redub it. Oh how we need it here in the US!

I was very surprised that they did it, because Godzilla Raids Again is not exactly a mainstream movie. Maybe, they struck a deal with another company in order to share the costs and the film will soon show up on German TV. The same thing happened with the three Heisei movies Marketing released some time ago: Some months after the Marketing DVDs were out, the movies suddenly were shown on several TV channels. At the same time, the three Rebirth of Mothra movies also appeared on TV -- Rebirth of Mothra III actually was shown in Germany about 4 weeks before it premiered on TV in the USA.

It would be great indeed if the Japanese Godzilla Raids Again would be released in the USA in the future. But what about the American Gigantis, the Fire Monster? I do not know who owns the rights and whether it is possible to release the Japanese original. Anyway, the "Godzilla situation" in the USA is very exciting at the moment -- I hope for more upcoming DVD releases at the end of this year and during the next year!

@Kaijufan:

> Im pretty sure that the new German "teacher" is not actually a
> teacher. Every single student in the school does not like her,
> and many parents dont either. I dont know why they keep her.

So, you started learning German? How cool! :Big-th-up: I am sad to hear about your new teacher. Is she a German or an American?

@Garasharp K7:

> I'm always amazed at the amount of extras Marketing put on their
> dvds, such as the alternative titles and endings.

I agree! Though Marketing is a small label they really try to get what they can. Often, what they do is so simple (transferring trailers and other stuff from old video tapes) that I am surprised that other labels don't do the same things. The guys at Marketing may not have as much money as major labels, but obviously they use their imagination instead.

> El-Brazo, how''s the picture quality on the Hedorah dvd?

It's quite similar to Terror of Mechagodzilla. I was surprised to note that this DVD does not have those "short grey bars" I mentioned in my first post.

> I hope to get that one at some stage, along with the Yongary
> disc.(thanks for the info on that, btw)

You're welcome!

@:

Godzilla Vs. the Thing, Godzilla Vs. Biollante, and Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah arrived today. As soon as I have watched them I'll post some short reviews.

[Joseph Goodman]

[GFan]

[el-brazo]

@GFan:

> *Include the uncut Japanese version AND the original US edit/dub
> on the flip side ("ah, banana oil!!"). I don't think there's any
> good source prints laying around for that version of GRA...

That would be a good idea! And I think a good source print does exist, because some months ago I read on that Gigantis, the Fire Monster was screened at the Egyptian Theatre.

@:

Last week Godzilla Raids Again and Return of Godzilla arrived and I finally found some time to watch Godzilla Raids Again. The German dub (there is no Japanese audio track) leaves some things to be desired (some minor translation errors and unfitting phrases), but overall is tolerable. What makes this DVD stand out from the rest of the recent Marketing releases is the image quality, a solid PAL transfer rivaling the Japanese Toho-DVD. While the other Marketing DVDs seem to have been mastered from telecined NTSC material, this one is decidedly different and a real beauty. :th-up: Extras include the Japanese trailer, many stills, filmographies, and more Japanese trailers of the other Godzilla movies released by Marketing.

The German theatrical version of Return of Godzilla is heavily cut (ca. 80 minutes), but without added scenes or other modifications. Marketing has now released the movie uncut and dubbed the formerly missing parts. I have not yet really watched it, so I can't say much except that the image quality seems to be similar to the other Marketing DVDs. As usual, there are many great extras on the DVD, among them several trailers of the movie (Japanese, German, English international) and a Japanese "Making Of" (not subtitled) running for about 40 minutes.