Godzilla KOTM... from the Criterion Collection!?!?!

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

^ Thanks to stock footage, smaller props and puppets, and older suits and public appearance suits being used for certain scenes the right Godzilla is not always in the films themselves!

[lhb412]

Whoa, so the fansubs for King Kong vs. Godzilla we've been reading for the past two decades was just total guesswork as to what the dialogue was, huh?

This is freaking mind blowing.

Oh, and even though the transfer could be improved upon this is such an improvement over my old bootleg it's like watching it for the first time! The standard-definition inserts are also quite brief and limited to the first 20 minutes or so the film. Funnily enough, at the very beginning the switching quality makes sense in the story. The first scene of the film is the television program, so seeing it all low-res and switching to film the moment we're out of the program seems intentional!

[O.Supreme]

Oddly I was thinking the exact opposite. The bootleg KKvG I had for years seemingly looks better. As for the subs. I'm sure they are more accurate, but still question them. Towards the end, one of the characters clearly says the English word "roasting" as in Godzilla is Roasting Kong. Even the English dub follows suit. But the *official* Criterion subs translates the line differently

[Dr Kain]

[Benjamin Haines]

[canofhumdingers]

[lhb412]

Huh, wonder if the "shut up, crackpot!" subtitle line (here used when the guy fetching the hat yells at the princess in Ghidorah) is a coincidence or a really obscure reference?

Before Rialto did their subtitled Japanese language release of Godzilla 1954 into arthouse theaters in 2004 (and BFI and Classic Media and Criterion did theres after that) the subtitled Japanese language print of Godzilla '54 that you would acquire from Toho very famously used that line for when the woman in Parliament is yelling at the other representative who wants to keep Godzilla a secret. I saw this version when I was a teenager at G-Fest in 2001 and that line got laughs.

[lhb412]

Ghidorah is definitely the most improved of the Toho transfers I've seen so far on the set. Watched it last night and I'm rewatching all the action sequences right now. It looks pretty great, and considering the previous American release was especially poor in terms of picture quality it's one of the most significant upgrades of the set.

[lhb412]

Hmmm... there are a few moments during Invasion of Astro-Monster where the subtitles opt for replicating lines of the English dub version exactly.

Not that they're dubtitles, far from it - I'm guessing whoever was in charge of writing them was a fan! Since the original Glen Glenn produced dub was very well-written it makes sense.

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

So far, besides the standard-definition insert footage in King Kong vs. Godzilla, the only really distracting picture anomaly is how visible the splice marks are in the early parts of Mothra vs. Godzilla. They become more sublimated as the movie goes on, and when they have appeared in further movies they're likewise very subtle and not distracting. In the first 15 minutes of Mothra vs. Godzilla, though? They're really distracting.

Currently watching Son of Godzilla. Again, kudos to the new subtitles. I probably watched this movie 20 times, and now everything's just making a little bit more sense.

[H-Man]

[O.Supreme]

Are the subtitles really that different from the Kraken Blu Ray of SoG?

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[Shokara]

[lhb412]

Recently marathoning '60s Ultraman shows has left me very attuned to hearing the word "seijin" in these movies.

[O.Supreme]

[lhb412]

^ Yeah, I believe Sony's subs were just dubtitles culled from the International dub.

[Dr Kain]

[Shokara]

[lhb412]

^ That's right! I remember I called them "modified dubtitles" because they use the dub as a base!

[Dr Kain]

Either way, we need someone that isn't Sony to release the Heisei and Millennium movies with actual subtitles. I am so disgusted at seeing things like "MechaG" whenever Kiryu is mentioned or that horrid excuse they use for GMK.

[lhb412]

[Dr Kain]

This has got to be the most hilarious thing I have read all day: