Ghidrah/Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster German Blu-ray
Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:38 pm
Very recently, GtTHM was released on Blu-ray in Germany. It has been released under the title "Frankensteins Monster im Kampf gegen Ghidorah". Many of the Godzilla films released theatrically in West Germany during the 60's and 70's had Dr. Frankenstein inserted into the title of the film and into the dubbing. GtTHM was one of only two Showa Godzilla films not to have a theatrical release during those two decades (Godzilla's Revenge/All Monster's Attack being the other). I assume the distributor was trying to evoke the German nostalgia for the old titles.
This particular Blu-ray makes for a very tempting purchase, it is region free, is not exorbitantly priced, has the original Japanese audio and has significantly improved picture quality over the Classic Media DVD. Slightly downscaled screenshots can be found here : http://bluscreens.blogspot.com/2013/10/ ... nster.html. An English language review of this Blu-ray can be found here : http://eastwoodblurayreviews.blogspot.c ... -1964.html On the negative side, it only has German dubbing and subtitles and the special features use PAL-like (50i) video qualities that many U.S. Blu-ray players don't like.
So, at what point does one hunt down any Blu-rays that one can find, or hold out for something more English-friendly? A related question is when to double dip if one has the DVD. Obviously the special features of the Classic Media DVD would keep its GtTHM disc on my shelf whether I purchased this Blu-ray or not. (It would look weird if I had such a hole in my complete good Region 1 DVD collection). Even with this release, seven years after the Blu-ray format's introduction I can still count the number of releases of Toho Godzilla films outside Japan (as in reasonably priced) on Blu-ray on the fingers of one hand. Other upgrades were more imperative, as the Criterion Godzilla Blu-ray offered far superior picture and sound quality on both versions of the film compared to the Classic Media releases. Even moreso the Media Blaster's release of Destroy All Monsters compared to the barebones non-anamorphic ADV releases, and Godzilla vs. Biollante's last authorized release was on a letterboxed VHS tape. With the new Godzilla film scheduled to be released in 2014, one expects there to be a boom of merchandise available just as there was back in 1998. However, really good quality DVD Region 1 Godzilla releases really didn't start making their appearance until 2004-2005.
This particular Blu-ray makes for a very tempting purchase, it is region free, is not exorbitantly priced, has the original Japanese audio and has significantly improved picture quality over the Classic Media DVD. Slightly downscaled screenshots can be found here : http://bluscreens.blogspot.com/2013/10/ ... nster.html. An English language review of this Blu-ray can be found here : http://eastwoodblurayreviews.blogspot.c ... -1964.html On the negative side, it only has German dubbing and subtitles and the special features use PAL-like (50i) video qualities that many U.S. Blu-ray players don't like.
So, at what point does one hunt down any Blu-rays that one can find, or hold out for something more English-friendly? A related question is when to double dip if one has the DVD. Obviously the special features of the Classic Media DVD would keep its GtTHM disc on my shelf whether I purchased this Blu-ray or not. (It would look weird if I had such a hole in my complete good Region 1 DVD collection). Even with this release, seven years after the Blu-ray format's introduction I can still count the number of releases of Toho Godzilla films outside Japan (as in reasonably priced) on Blu-ray on the fingers of one hand. Other upgrades were more imperative, as the Criterion Godzilla Blu-ray offered far superior picture and sound quality on both versions of the film compared to the Classic Media releases. Even moreso the Media Blaster's release of Destroy All Monsters compared to the barebones non-anamorphic ADV releases, and Godzilla vs. Biollante's last authorized release was on a letterboxed VHS tape. With the new Godzilla film scheduled to be released in 2014, one expects there to be a boom of merchandise available just as there was back in 1998. However, really good quality DVD Region 1 Godzilla releases really didn't start making their appearance until 2004-2005.
