Kraken Releasing to put RETURN OF GODZILLA on Blu-Ray

[lhb412]

I guess 'extras' meant the trailer for this film, plus the trailers for the other Godzilla films Kraken has released.

[snowfall]

[Dr Kain]

I don't remember a scream in the movie.

[snowfall]

[H-Man]

[snowfall]

Interesting, but its not in either dubs of this bluray. Again I dont even care much for it, but i guess it seems to be an important topic of this movie, lol.I dont see a big deal about it.

[Kailem]

Yeah the scream was definitely in the original international dub. I remember because when I rented it on video in the UK back in the day that was part of what made me cry when I first saw that scene as a child.

Hey, this was the newest Godzilla movie I'd seen at the time, and it was long before the days of the internet! How was little Kailem to know he wasn't really dead and that he climbed out of the volcano no worse for wear in the next one?

[lhb412]

^I remember when I first rented Godzilla vs. Biollante around... '95? '96? I was very relieved Godzilla got out of the volcano. I found the film overall to be very scary as a kid, so relief was a short-lived emotion.

[Kailem]

I can't even remember when/how I found out there were other films made afterwards and that he wasn't really dead. I remember asking my dad about it at the time and he told me that he wasn't, but I'm pretty sure he was just saying that so that I wouldn't be too upset.

[lhb412]

I would jump to it and order from RightStuf, but I've got a mountain of Blu-Rays I need to watch. Really looking forward to it, though!

Return of Godzilla and a ton of Universal Monsters and Hammer Horror films will be released on the same day!

[jellydonut25]

That scream was a big thing I noticed as a difference between the dub and the original Japanese version the first time I finally saw the subtitled version.

[Dr Kain]

[Heiseigodzilla425]

I got this release on Saturday as well. Here are some things that I noticed. (I'll try to update with better/more screenshots later).

The opening credits and title card are from the Japanese version, rather than the previous Kraken releases which were Toho's International versions (which were the International versions that Sony remade for Toho).


The Japanese version has burned-in Japanese subtitles, and the English subtitles are merely placed directly on top of the Japanese ones. It makes things rather difficult to read.


The subtitles are literally all over the screen. They appear over signs (like on the boat in the beginning). The font will change to match what they're naming. In the beginning, when the main character (I suck with remembering their names, sorry) discovers the drifting boat, the song he's listen to on the radio is subtitled. Interestingly, there are two sets of simultaneous subtitles. One with the English translated lyrics, and another with the romanji. Subtitles also change color (white and yellow), based on if a character is speaking vs a voice from off-screen, like a radio announcer. Someone else on a Facebook group pointed out that this is common for anime releases, included Section23's (Kraken's parent company) other releases.

As for picture quality, I don't have the Toho blu-ray, so I can't compare directly to it. But, knowing that the Kraken release is using a Toho transfer, it does look a bit soft (but not that bad), and the color looks a bit muted. I don't see any print damage though, and the image seems pretty stable (I compared the BD to my G85 LaserDisc, which was shaky as hell).

For the Language tracks, I have a feeling that they music and effects are the same between the English and Japanese language tracks, and that they just swap out the languages for the two tracks. Both tracks are DTS-HD 5.1. I noticed this when I changed languages while the movie was playing, and the music in the background (there was no dialog at that moment) sounded the exact same, no change in quality. I actually had to double check that the audio track had actually changed. This is probably why the scream is missing, since they're only using the dialog from the International dub, and not any of the dub's music or background effects.

[Dr Kain]

Wait, they put the subtitles over the Japanese subs? Oh my god, that is going to be a nightmare. I'm not surprised the Japanese subtitles are burned in, as they were that way on both the Japanese DVD and BD. In fact, the subs were burned in even when I ripped the movie using MakeMKV, so they are pretty much burned into the picture itself.

[canofhumdingers]

[Shokara]

[Benjamin Haines]

[O.Supreme]

[Shokara]

Humble pie tastes weird. *Chewing.*

[Dr Kain]

[Mysterio]

[canofhumdingers]

Yeah, I'm not 100% certain but I think that's referred to as hard coded subs. But burned in subs is definately what I described, and not removeable without physically painting them out of each frame in some way.

But at this point it's really just semantics.

[Gojira69]

I may just opt out on this Kraken disc then. English subs on top of Japanese subs? Really? That really shows Kraken to be cutting corners.

Also, I read Kraken's justification for making no effort to get Godzilla 1985 for this release. "Too much trouble, too expensive, too blah blah blah..."

Kraken, eat my shorts!

[Dr Kain]

Do you not care about owning every Godzilla movie though? We finally get this release and then you are going to not buy it just because it has subs on top the of the Japanese subs? Sure, that is a dumb decision, but it isn't a big enough issue for what equates to 5 minutes of the entire movie, if that.

[william newell]

I must be stupid, but I can't figure out why the Japanese version of the film would have Japanese subtitles...