Tokyo Shock Releases Classic Toho Sci-Fi

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Eric Paddon
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Tokyo Shock Releases Classic Toho Sci-Fi

#1 Post by Eric Paddon »

Fans of Toho kaiju and sci-fi movies have for the most part been frustrated by the inaccessibility of most of the catalog on good Region 1 DVD releases. In recent months, some of this has been rectified to a small degree with Sony releasing some of the lesser Godzilla films in beautiful transfers with both Japanese and English tracks (though the English track used in always the bad one recorded in Tokyo and not the specially done US recordings most of us grew up with that used professional actors), but it's becoming clear that the Media Blasters "Tokyo Shock" label is emerging head and shoulders as the best outlet for good classic Toho sci-fi with their release of "The Mysterians", "Matango" (better known in the US as "Attack Of The Mushroom People") and the upcoming releases of "Varan The Unbelievable" and "Dagora The Space Monster".

"The Mysterians", made in 1957, was the first widescreen Toho movie, coming just after the original "Godzilla" and "Rodan" and is about a hostile invasion force that uses among other things a giant robot monster Mogera. The transfer used is stunning and gives us not only a crisp widescreen image with an English subtitled Japanese track, but also optional English and Spanish tracks (specially recorded for this edition). Even more impressively, a Japanese commentary track by a couple of Japanese FX directors has been ported over from the R2 DVD release and has subtitles to let the English listener follow what's being said (though truth be known the commentary is very boring and says little about the movie itself). Other extras that were part of the R2 release have made it over as well.

"Matango" is an even more impressive. Don't be put off by it's American title, or the fact that it's premise of a shipwrecked group of people on an island looks mighty similiar to "Gilligan's Island". This is a VERY scary, atmospheric movie that emerges and in an equally beautiful transfer in widescreen packs a wallop. A commentary track by the lead actor is also featured and subtitled.

The upcoming "Varan The Unbelievable" is the original Japanese cut of the movie and not the heavily re-edited US version that is generally disliked by all Toho kaiju fans.

Pick up these DVDs and get a chance to see how in their original state, these Toho movies had a lot going for them and still do!

romanD
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#2 Post by romanD »

sounds like some fun stuff...

now I only need GODZILLA FINAL WARS on DVD... that was hilarious fun! Never seen Godzilla like this! :-)

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AndyDursin
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#3 Post by AndyDursin »

Eric, sorry I didn't reply to his but I was on vacation at the time. I'm a big Godzilla fan and this is fantastic news. I bought a group of "Video Daikaju" VHS tapes a few years back that were subtitled and transcribed off the Japanese LDs (KING KONG VS GODZILLA, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, etc), but I'm still waiting for the day when a lot of these Toho flicks are properly formatted and issued in letterbox. Clearly Columbia's recent Godzillas (some of which I've reviewed over the last few months) are a big step in the right direction, but there are only so many they control...and so many Toho monsters out there that need their respect!

Roman -- is FINAL WARS available in R3 HK yet? I usually wait until they get them for dirt cheap (prior to them coming out here) and then order them up. Though, I haven't seen the last couple of Godzillas they released since GODZILLA 2000 (which was good fun, especially in its American dubbed version!).

Eric Paddon
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#4 Post by Eric Paddon »

You'll enjoy these releases! Varan came out a week ago, but my efforts to find a store that has a copy have so far proved futile and I may have to make that a mail order. "Dagora" is slated for a July release. "Varan" has no English track, while "Dagora" will have the original English dub used for the American TV release as an option.

That appears to be the limit of what Media Blasters will pry out of the Toho catalog as too many of the other titles are tied up with other US distributors who won't act on the material. I am hopeful that Universal will cash in on the King Kong movie by giving us widescreen DVD releases of "King Kong Escapes" and "King Kong vs. Godzilla" since they control the US rights on those. Granted, the US version of the latter film is inferior to the Japanese version but it'd be nice to see a widescreen version of that one at last.

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AndyDursin
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#5 Post by AndyDursin »

Eric,
I noticed DeepDiscountDVD has some of those titles for $11.99 shipped.

If you can wait until the summer-time 20% off sale you can snag them for under $10...I may do just that!

Eric Paddon
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#6 Post by Eric Paddon »

Bumping this thread up to note that another classic Toho title "Atragon" gets a Tokyo Shock release in December. This, along with the still unreleased "Gorath" is regarded among the best Toho sci-fi efforts as opposed to kaiju monster flicks (though "Atragon" introduces the sea serpent Manda that also appears in "Destroy All Monsters").

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AndyDursin
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#7 Post by AndyDursin »

Eric Paddon wrote:Bumping this thread up to note that another classic Toho title "Atragon" gets a Tokyo Shock release in December. This, along with the still unreleased "Gorath" is regarded among the best Toho sci-fi efforts as opposed to kaiju monster flicks (though "Atragon" introduces the sea serpent Manda that also appears in "Destroy All Monsters").
Any idea, Eric, if we'll ever see FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD and WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS from these guys? I did rent THE MYSTERIANS and enjoyed it a great deal. I assume GARGANTUAS is at Paramount still (they did do a horrid p&s laserdisc years back), and while I have subtitled taped copies of both from "Video Daikaju" or some outfit, I'd love to see licensed, subtitled versions of those Toho import DVDs for sure!

Eric Paddon
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#8 Post by Eric Paddon »

According to the Toho forums I lurk at but don't belong to, "Frankenstein Conquers The World" and "War Of The Gargantuas" are now owned by Classic Media, the division of Sony that now has most of the Godzilla movies which they have not been doing right in their most recent DVD releases (which were P/S). Since Classic Media has yet to do decent releases of their Godzilla movies (and haven't released "Ghidrah The Three Headed Monster") I doubt we're going to see those two for a very long while even though both would be great in both Japanese and English versions.

There's a great interview with Russ Tamblyn at this site, where he not too long ago attended a screening of War Of The Gargantuas and pretty much made peace with the film after trying to ignore it all these years, and showed his respect for those kaiju fans who've enjoyed it (you have to scroll a long way down to the bottom of their 2005 archive page to find it).

http://www.henshinonline.com/archive.html

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