Shin Ultraman

[lhb412]

Received a shipping notice for my replacement disc! I would never have expected such promptness.

[lhb412]

Bummer.

Got my replacement. Still dubtitles, still audio descriptions for a hard at hearing track. They just fixed the formatting and omission of onscreen text. Occasional misspellings persist. Occasional video glitches persist. Do not buy!

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Thanks for reporting. What a bummer. They got it wrong twice!

Video glitches too?

[lhb412]

A sort of grid or dot pattern flashes on the corner a couple of times, like when Zarab drags Kaminaga out of the car.

[Dai]

That's annoying. I won't bother trying to get a replacement then. The lack of translation for on-screen text didn't bother me much. While the movie copies a lot of the style of Shin Godzilla, it doesn't have the constant barrage of on-screen text.

I found the subtitle track completely unwatchable, thanks to the audio descriptions and the speaker names being listed at the start of most lines. The English dub isn't great, but it's a hell of a lot less distracting than the subtitles.

I hope Cleopatra won't licence any more Japanese movies. They made a real mess of this one.

[Kailem]

Welp, that sucks. Is the Canadian release being handled by a different company? Either way it sounds like this one is worth giving a miss.

[lhb412]

^ They haven't announced their release yet, but a boutique label called Raven Banner has Canadian rights. They do a lot of niche horror flicks and are known for doing special editions variants with deluxe packaging (slipcase, booklets, trading cards, etc.)

[Kailem]

That sounds like there's at least a *chance* they won't mess it up then!

[lhb412]

Couldn't find any contact info for Raven Banner, so I went through the tweets of one of that company's guys (Michael Paszt) and found his retweet of the announced acquisition of Shin Ultraman. I made a comment to the effect of the US release being plagued with issues x, y, and z - and he responded with a simple:

"We’re working on a Raven Banner edition. Details soon at https://ravenbanner.store"

Not much, but a simple confirmation!

[lhb412]

I'm not on Facebook, but apparently folks have been sharing interactions with Cleopatra Entertainment on there that indicate they're working on a second fixed disc addressing the dubtitles and closed captioning that should be available in September.

Fingers crossed.

[Kailem]

Third time's a charm, hopefully!

[lhb412]

Got an email:

"Thanks for your feedback. We heard what customers like you said, and we stopped production of the original replacement discs. We are working on a 3rd version of the disc that has true subtitles, removes the hard of hearing text, and has resolved the compression issue. It should be available in September.

We appreciate you support of independent entertainment companies like Cleopatra."

[Kailem]

Stopping production of the original replacements is a good move, since at least that'll mean less busted ones out there in the wild. But man, it feels like they really should have paid someone to at least *watch* these things before they started shipping them out!

[Benjamin Haines]

Nice! I'm on pace to finish watching Ultraman Cosmos sometime in September, so hopefully Cleopatra's fully corrected edition of Shin Ultraman will be the next thing on my Ultra watch list.

[sentaison]

[quote="lhb412"]Got an email:

"Thanks for your feedback. We heard what customers like you said, and we stopped production of the original replacement discs. We are working on a 3rd version of the disc that has true subtitles, removes the hard of hearing text, and has resolved the compression issue. It should be available in September.

We appreciate you support of independent entertainment companies like Cleopatra."[/quote]

Well, that explains why my replacement disc never showed up. Would have been nice if they had let me know via email.

[Benjamin Haines]

I ordered Shin Ultraman directly from Cleopatra's website and I received the corrected third edition. More specifically, I received a shrinkwrapped blu-ray case with the second edition disc inside, and taped to that in a clear plastic sleeve was the third edition disc. The front of the case had a yellow sticker on the outside of the shrinkwrap, and the third edition disc is distinguished by the word "subtitled" printed in red underneath the title. The main menu offers three different subtitle options: English subtitles translated from the Japanese dialogue, English SDH dubtitles transcribed from the English dub, and subtitles off (which still retains the subtitles for all of the onscreen text).

I still haven't finished watching all of Ultraman Cosmos or the last two Cosmos movies but I went ahead and watched Shin Ultraman anyway because my lady wanted to watch it with me, as she likes both Shin Godzilla and Shin Kamen Rider. We both really like this movie too!

Shin Ultraman is so densely packed with plot turns, rapid-fire dialogue and action sequences that it's almost hard to believe that it's the shortest film of this Shin trilogy. It takes so many concepts from the original Ultraman series (and Ultra Q!) and distills them all into one streamlined story. It's remarkable how smoothly everything clicks. The film never drags nor does it feel cluttered. The stakes just keep getting bigger as everything comes to light, from the initial premise of giant monsters attacking Japan, to exploring how people react to Ultraman, to revealing the plans of alien visitors, to ultimately showing how all of these developments invite consequences for humanity and the planet.

I've only watched this movie once so far and it's a whole lot to process, from the breakneck pacing to the multitude of classic series references. I love how Pagos, Neronga and Gabora were reinterpreted as being biologically connected! The entire Ultra Q prologue is just awesome from the very first moment when the swirl effect spells out Shin Godzilla before the title Shin Ultraman bursts onto the screen with a red background. Zarab and Mefilas are both highlights of the film, and these new takes on Zoffy and Zetton are bold. The ending of the movie really sticks the landing.

Oh, and I clearly wasn't paying enough attention to the casting before I watched this because I was surprised to see Hidetoshi Nishijima as the captain of the SSSP. He played Kotaro Minami in the series Kamen Rider Black Sun (also 2022), which came out after this in Japan but I saw that show first so I was pleasantly surprised to recognize him in this. I know it couldn't have been an intentional reference but I like how him having roles in both projects sort of parallels how Akiji Kobayashi went from playing SSSP Captain Muramatsu in the original Ultraman to playing Tobei Tachibana in the original Kamen Rider.

Shin Ultraman rocks!

[lhb412]

^ Glad you loved it! It's film of the year for me (yeah, I know technically it's a 2022 movie).

In good news: the far snazzier looking Canadian blu-ray is up for preorder! Original poster on the case, new art for the slipcover, and a commentary track!

https://ravenbanner.store/products/shin-ultraman-blu-ray

[Kailem]

I'll have to keep an eye on that! It seems the UK got the same busted Cleopatra release that the US did, so I've held off on ordering it for fear or getting one of the bad printings. I'll definitely see how this one turns out and hope it's both available to ship here and also just not busted!

[Dai]

It's now been over a month since I emailed Cleopatra Entertainment to ask if they would be able to supply a replacement disc, since I pre-ordered and ended up with the flawed first pressing. They never replied. Underwhelming, to say the least.

[Benjamin Haines]

Although Cleopatra did finally fix the problems with their Shin Ultraman blu-ray disc on the third edition, they really dropped the ball in terms of customer service for everyone who bought the first and second editions. They initially did offer free replacements by shipping the second edition to anyone who provided proof that they bought the first edition. When that edition still had problems and Cleopatra made a third edition, though, they declined to offer that as a free replacement to any of their customers who already had the second edition. According to an email from Cleopatra shared by the user Starsteam on the blu-ray.com forums, their exact words were "As a general rule, we are not replacing the second edition copies of Shin Ultraman whether purchased directly or received through our initial replacement program."

Based on your experience, Dai, it sounds like Cleopatra has quietly decided to stop offering free replacements altogether, even to customers like yourself who bought the first edition and never got it replaced with the second edition. Talk about lame.

Remember back in 2011 when Mill Creek's first edition of Gamera 3 on blu-ray had problems with the subtitles during the main feature, and then their second edition had problems with the subtitles during the special features so they had to make a third edition? They never wavered in offering free replacements to their customers throughout that process, even years later. Class acts, Mill Creek. Cleopatra has not measured up to that at all.

[Kailem]

Yeah honestly, all these continued stories of Cleopatra woes make me just not even want to bother *trying* to pick up the latest edition of that one.

[Dai]

^^ Yikes, that's really bad. I'm definitely not double-dipping unless someone releases it in the UK.

As you say, it's a night-and-day difference from Mill Creek, who have become the gold standard for affordable, good quality tokusatsu releases over the years.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ The worst part is how customers like you and lhb412 who were among the first to buy Cleopatra's product are the ones who got left high and dry in this situation. The only reason I got the corrected third edition with a single purchase is because I waited until the end of September but customers like me shouldn't be "rewarded" in a way that earlier customers aren't. You guys essentially served as Cleopatra's quality control department by pre-ordering this release.

[lhb412]

Raven Banner has had to push back their Canadian release one month so they could resolve certain errors present in the files they were given. The disc is now (or, as of like a week ago) going through quality control. Since I preordered I received an email explaining/apologizing for the delay, which I really appreciated.

[lhb412]

Raven Banner's release is shipping now! I'll give my impressions when I can.