Toho's Godzilla 4K Restoration Project

[JetrellFo]

I would like to see the Japan language ONLY "making of's" all get english dubs and be released. There are some really cool TV specials and such that would make for great bonus material.

[UltramanGoji]

I would like to see the Japan language ONLY "making of's" all get english dubs and be released. There are some really cool TV specials and such that would make for great bonus material.

I see no reason to have it be dubbed, but subtitled would be excellent.

[JetrellFo]

I would like to see the Japan language ONLY "making of's" all get english dubs and be released. There are some really cool TV specials and such that would make for great bonus material.

I see no reason to have it be dubbed, but subtitled would be excellent.

I could live with English subs.

[Dr.Cgad]

if they do restore them, i'd like to see a mst3k edit of vs megalon where the film footage is replaced with the restored one but still keep the audio and silhouettes intact.

[UltramanGoji]

if they do restore them, i'd like to see a mst3k edit of vs megalon where the film footage is replaced with the restored one but still keep the audio and silhouettes intact.

Will never happen in a million years.

Maybe a hundred if we’re talking fan edits.

[Chris55]

if they do restore them, i'd like to see a mst3k edit of vs megalon where the film footage is replaced with the restored one but still keep the audio and silhouettes intact.

If anything, it'll be a fan edit

[Dr.Cgad]

I was referring to a fan edit.

[Maritonic]

I was referring to a fan edit.

Then this isn't really the place to discuss that.

[MikeSTZillak]

Actually, Rhino released the MST3K version of Godzilla Vs Megalon on DVD. It was later pulled by Toho. http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mystery ... _Volume_10

[UltramanGoji]

Actually, Rhino released the MST3K version of Godzilla Vs Megalon on DVD. It was later pulled by Toho. http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mystery ... _Volume_10

That's not what he's talking about, though.

[GodzillaFan1996]

It should be pointed out that those are shots from a recording of the "Godzilla 4k Project" special, not a full restoration of the whole film. I haven't seen anything about the whole film being restored in 4k on any of the Japanese sites that covered the previous 4k Godzilla news. This film has some of the same problems that KKvsG had, in that the camera negative was cut down to make the Champion Festival edit... all video releases of the uncut version have been mastered from a dupe negative. Hopefully the missing trims can be found if Toho decides to restore the whole film in 4k.

https://twitter.com/pasinpasin/status/9 ... 7209075713

But hasn't it been proved that a 4k scan of a film can be made from a dupe negative (internegative).

[Joseph Goodman]

But hasn't it been proved that a 4k scan of a film can be made from a dupe negative (internegative).

Well, yeah, but that'd hardly be ideal.

[omgitsgodzilla]

You can absolutely make a 4K scan of a dupe neg.

You can also use an old Xerox machine to make a black-and-white photocopy of a color photograph, and then use an expensive scanner to make a high-resolution digital image of that photocopy. There's nothing stopping you, and it will undoubtedly look better than a cell phone photo of that same photocopy. But all the pixels in the world will only ever show you what's present in the photocopy, and the same expensive scanner will give you much better results if you scan the color photograph.

[Servanov]

As many have said before, yes, one can make a 4k scan of any generation of film. I think what you may have meant was it hasn't been proven that a dupe negative, or inter-negative, inherently has enough resolution to warrant a 4K scan. That depends on many factors, but I think if anything one should scan any element in 4K, even if it is something like an inter-negative or heck, even a release print, because if an element is low in resolution, the last thing I would want to do is lower that resolving power even more.

[Malchik]

But hasn't it been proved that a 4k scan of a film can be made from a dupe negative (internegative).

Well, yeah, but that'd hardly be ideal.

Better deal with it because it's questionable if original camera negatives exist for many of these films.

[Joseph Goodman]

Better deal with it because it's questionable if original camera negatives exist for many of these films.

The camera negatives for the first film and Godzilla Raids Again are not known to exist; they were from a period when flammable cellulose nitrate film was still in use in Japan, and staff from Tokyo Laboratory have surmised the originals may have been discarded, after being printed to "safety" stock (cellulose acetate). As for the rest, they do exist (per publicity for the Godzilla 4K Project special, and the 4K KKvsG restoration), though, as stated above, Mothra vs. Godzilla and Astro-Monster are cut down to around 74 minutes, and there's been no indication that the missing negative trims have turned up.

[GodzillaBurgh]

It baffles my mind how Toho goes all-out on marketing with reissues of the Godzilla films for either Blu-ray or DVD, and yet they don't do an F'N thing on putting a little effort on sprucing up the print so the colors look AT LEAST natural. I just don't get it.

[Rody]

I grow more and more curious about what it will take for Toho to start restoring/remastering films in force. Something must be disconnected at the top levels.

[Tamura]

I don’t think there is a simple answer. What little we know about Toho’s decision making is that they’re a bureaucracy. I doubt cost is a big issue for giving these films new transfers with even marginal restoration.

If Toho really wants to enter the North American market in any significant way, maybe they should improve their reputation among North American companies and stop ramming ancient transfers down our throats. It’s embarassing, it’s shameful, and it doesn’t do anything to improve these films’ reputation in the eyes of American viewers, in general. I wish Toho would give one reason why the market they are trying to penetrate is not allowed to see a transfer of Monster Zero that doesn’t look like 8mm.

[Malchik]

Also, in this day and age, Blu-ray and especially 4K media is a collectors medium. Casual viewers will prefer a stream over a disk these days. Godzilla movies are for the collectors.

Toho has always been cheap. Given the budgets for all their projects and the quality of their home media releases throughout the decades, I think we can assume as much.