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Post by stareater on Feb 3, 2005 10:33:06 GMT -8
According to dvddrive-in.com, Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock has acquired the rights and will be releasing a handful of long-awaited Toho films on DVD. The Mysterians is coming out this March, and the following films are set for tentative release by some time next year: Varan The Unbelievable, Dagora the Space Monster, Matango (Attack of the Mushroom People), & Yog, Monster From Space. However, as with other Media Blasters releases, I've already found some glaring discrepencies. DVD Drive-In had the Mysterians release date as January 25th, and the current release date is March 22nd. They also claim the disc will be an anamorphic widescreen print, yet it shows up as pan & scan on the price search and at stores. This happened before with their release of Fulci's Zombi 2: 25th Anniversary Special Edition; previews claimed a running time of 115 minutes, saying the version was finally a fully-restored, uncut print. In truth, it was the same 91 minute film as all other releases. The release date was also set back about 100 times. Aside from some potential problems along those lines, it's great to see these films finally getting a long-deserved DVD treatment.  www.dvddrive-in.com/ |
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Feb 3, 2005 11:10:51 GMT -8
that will be cool- i can't imagine them releasing anything in fullscreen, nor would i buy subbed movies that way. at least Matango and Dagora will have their English tracks, since those are the "international" ones that we grew up with.
here's hoping they are as good as Sony's discs!
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Post by stareater on Feb 3, 2005 12:44:39 GMT -8
Yep, I'm hoping they get the same treatment as the Sony discs too. I have Dagora, Yog, and Matango on DVD-R (all widescreen), and it would be nice to have a restored widescreen print of any or all of these films. The DVD-Rs were obviously mastered from VHS versions, so I have high hopes. Media Blasters, when all is said and done, usually do a good job.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Feb 3, 2005 15:14:31 GMT -8
Except for the mushroom people one I have those on VHS. I liked Dagora because it so different from the typical dai kaiju.
I prefer Japanese dialogue with English subtitles to English dubbed. The only film I've seen dubbed in English and with original language which I prefer in English is the Chinese Superman, Inframan.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Feb 3, 2005 16:04:00 GMT -8
i prefer all the stuff i saw growing up as a kid in English. since the newer movies rarely have that kind of good dubbing i don't mind their being subtitled. but for the classics, i want to hear those great voices!
Peter Fernandez, who wrote the English script for Infra-man also did many scripts and voices for Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra and the Ultraman show, plus Speed Racer and other cartoons.
and he's a heckuva nice guy to boot!
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Post by celamowari on Feb 3, 2005 22:02:55 GMT -8
The word was that these were licensed straight from Toho, so I can't see how they could be anything BUT widescreen/subtitled prints. Of course, they could include the English tracks for them, as most were released with Toho International's dubs.
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Post by stareater on Feb 4, 2005 4:49:06 GMT -8
If a company like Media Blasters is going to go through the trouble of acquiring the rights to these films, I'd love to see both versions put on a disc; the original restored print of a film, and the U.S. dubbed version. I'd be satisfied with a fully-restored original version, and an as-is dubbed version. I know cost is a major factor when these distributors produce and market discs, but I think fans might be willing to pay a little bit more since these aren't mainstream films. They're really dealing with a captive audience in a sense; I'll happily pay the $20 cost for the Sony Godzilla discs rather than upwards of $60 for the imports. It's great having a restored, widescreen print of the original uncut film with the option of hearing those corny dubbed voices.
It doesn't make any sense for the films to be released in pan & scan format (especially since Mysterians was the first Toho WS film), but that's what I've been seeing on edition details for that particular film. That's normally left to companies like Alpha, as they don't look to create a higher-priced edition of these films; they can make money putting out the bare-bones versions they do as there's no cost for any restoration processes. Might as well go the extra mile, since your market is limited anyway.
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Post by celamowari on Feb 4, 2005 8:47:48 GMT -8
Very true, but I can't help but wonder if someone has made an error somewhere along the way regarding that fullscreen notation. Also, I keep thinking that MYSTERIANS may be one of the dubs that is under copyright to the US distributor. I should look into it further.
Of course, if it was PD, it would be all over the place. At least that's my thinking. Hmmmm.
One of the problems is the only print of THE MYSTERIANS' English dub that I've seen has this weird slight slowdown to the audio portion. This was the one that Star Classics put out ages ago, and I don't know of a better one.
I know I'd love to have both versions for most of those films. DOGORA/DAGORA is probably one of my favorites, but not so much for its kaiju action.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Feb 4, 2005 9:25:41 GMT -8
i'm surprised we haven't seen US Mysterians PD discs. that Starmaker one had to be considered PD at the time, right? i'd bet it's a widescreen subbed release, like the rest. i'll like seeing Matango and Dagora that way, but Varan is meh to me at best.
and of course, the Mysterians, dubbed or not.
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Post by celamowari on Feb 4, 2005 11:23:48 GMT -8
To my knowledge, there were only two editions of THE MYSTERIANS on (legal) VHS and I think the Star Classics one was licensed from the earlier edition. I would have to look it up to see.
To answer your implicit question - no, not all those el cheapo VHS tapes were public domain material. Many were licensed from bigger companies. The best known of these might be the Goodtimes tapes of CURSE OF THE DEMON and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS that came out after the RCA/Columbia ones. The Video Treasures Godzilla tapes were all under copyright, as far as I know.
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Post by stareater on Mar 14, 2005 8:48:31 GMT -8
DVD Drive-In has a Mysterians review posted, and it answers the big question: the disc is presented in 2.35:1 Tohoscope. So, that's good news. Hopefully, the other discs they have on the slate will be widescreen, so long as they were shot that way. I know Dagora, Yog, and Matango were shot widescreen, while I'm not sure about Varan.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Mar 14, 2005 10:05:19 GMT -8
well, Media Blasters does not have YOG now, so that's a moot point!
all Toho movies after Rodan were shot in widescreen. Varan is an interesting story since apparently SOME tiny bit was shot fullscreen, but it's mostly widescreen.
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Post by stareater on Mar 14, 2005 14:41:54 GMT -8
What happened with Yog? I was looking forward to that one, as it's a fave and my DVD-R copy is rather grainy and has awful audio.  |
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Post by celamowari on Mar 22, 2005 16:42:27 GMT -8
It's actually not a "tiny bit" of VARAN that is in Academy ratio, but rather all of the FX sequences. That's why the stock footage from GODZILLA was able to be incorporated into it. I'm not sure about the human action, but the kaiju stuff looks very much like it has been blown up.
Guy Tucker was of the opinion that Koji Kajita was the actual director of VARAN, rather than director of record Ishiro Honda.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Mar 22, 2005 16:56:45 GMT -8
YOG is still held by some other company, i think. i dunno about that- perhaps some of the effects footage, but there are plenty of monster shots where cropping would be evident if they blew it up. but it's all a moot point since we will never be able to know what was shot in what ratio for sure!  i hadn't heard about the other director, but it wouldn't surprise me. |
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Post by stareater on Mar 23, 2005 7:50:37 GMT -8
Great.  Isn't it wonderful when these companies retain rights to films yet do absolutely nothing with them? Sell 'em to somebody who wants to release a DVD, for crying out loud! |
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Post by WaverBoy on Mar 23, 2005 10:30:00 GMT -8
What's the source of info re: Media Blasters no longer having the DVD rights for YOG?
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Mar 23, 2005 12:39:51 GMT -8
i don't think they ever did, or perhaps upon investigation realized that the N.A. rights were still held by MGM or whoever. in any event, we'd most likely lose the grand AIP soundtrack.
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Post by WaverBoy on Mar 23, 2005 12:47:22 GMT -8
i don't think they ever did, or perhaps upon investigation realized that the N.A. rights were still held by MGM or whoever. in any event, we'd most likely lose the grand AIP soundtrack. OK, but, as I asked, what's your source for that info? |
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Mar 23, 2005 12:49:31 GMT -8
i forget where i read it, probably at MZ. or Henshin!Online. somewhere. sorry i'm not more specific, i'm not trying to be vague, i just don't know.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Jul 15, 2005 20:52:54 GMT -8
I picked up Dogora at my local Best Buy. The DVD has Both Japanese and English language versions and optional English subtitles. Widescreen.
It was not in DVD Profiler's database, so I added it.
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Isn't it wonderful when these companies retain rights to films yet do absolutely nothing with them? Sell 'em to somebody who wants to release a DVD, for crying out loud!