Criterion streaming Godzilla films + Criterion Showa Box Set

[Goji]

Godzilla Raids Again and Gigantis: The Fire Monsters are altogether differing films, only sharing a majority of the shot footage and plot.

You think I don't know this? That's not what I'm asking.

When the film opens and you see "Godzilla" on the title, but then you hear people calling him by a different name it creates befuddlement that takes you out of the film. That the aforementioned title screen was created in the '80s adds insult to injury since it's about 3 decades after the release of either film.

The Godzilla Raids Again title isn't from "another cut" though, it's the international title, and Toho's preferred one to a version of the film that was originally altered and released in the U.S. without the Godzilla name; which is obviously the reason they hate it. GRA isn’t a direct translation of the Japanese title, anyway.

[omgitsgodzilla]

So today's the 15th, and a weekday, which means presumably Criterion will be announcing their March releases today. I've heard a couple people allude to the box set as being a likely announcement - probably speculation, but I'm keeping an eye out regardless.

Added in 4 minutes 45 seconds:
And as if on cue, the March releases are up. No Godzilla.

[SonofAnguirus]

The announcement just went up. Sadly, no mention of any release plans for G-Films.

[UltramanGoji]

I don't expect anything earlier than September, honestly. They just got these films and I'm sure there's a lot of restoration work to be done.

In fact, I don't even see them coming out until 2019.

[SonofAnguirus]

As long as it eventually happens, which is by no means a sure thing, they can take all the time they like.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I don't expect anything earlier than September, honestly. They just got these films and I'm sure there's a lot of restoration work to be done.

Late next year does make sense in terms of both preparation and marketing. That said, you'll probably still catch me crossing my fingers every 15th of the month.

[miguelnuva]

I'd drop the films between next year November and March 2019.

[GalacticPetey]

I still think it'll coincide with the release of King of the Monsters

[LegendZilla]

I still think it'll coincide with the release of King of the Monsters

Or late 2018 if we’re lucky.

[Great Hierophant]

GRA isn’t a direct translation of the Japanese title, anyway.

Neither is ToMG a direct translation of its Japanese title

Curious how the 2nd Showa Godzilla's reign begins and ends in a "counterattack."

[SonofAnguirus]

Filmstruck subscriber here. I haven't seen it addressed yet here, so I thought I'd mention that some releases are dubbed, not subbed. I'm sure Criterion would, at the very least, attempt to release original subtitled versions alongside American or International dubs, but as far as Filmstruck is concerned, only one or the other is included. If anyone is curious about which treatment a specific film received for the service, I'd be happy to elucidate.

[UltramanGoji]

Filmstruck subscriber here. I haven't seen it addressed yet here, so I thought I'd mention that some releases are dubbed, not subbed. I'm sure Criterion would, at the very least, attempt to release original subtitled versions alongside American or International dubs, but as far as Filmstruck is concerned, only one or the other is included. If anyone is curious about which treatment a specific film received for the service, I'd be happy to elucidate.

Care to give a list of which films are dubs and which are subs (or both if that's an option)?

I know that War of the Gargantuas is supposedly an "International" dub, but that's about it.

Also, is Destroy All Monsters on there? I heard that when these films were initially released, DAM was unavailable.

[SonofAnguirus]

Filmstruck subscriber here. I haven't seen it addressed yet here, so I thought I'd mention that some releases are dubbed, not subbed. I'm sure Criterion would, at the very least, attempt to release original subtitled versions alongside American or International dubs, but as far as Filmstruck is concerned, only one or the other is included. If anyone is curious about which treatment a specific film received for the service, I'd be happy to elucidate.

Care to give a list of which films are dubs and which are subs (or both if that's an option)?

I know that War of the Gargantuas is supposedly an "International" dub, but that's about it.

Also, is Destroy All Monsters on there? I heard that when these films were initially released, DAM was unavailable.

I'm not great at differentiating between American and International version, so I'll just address whether each is subbed or dubbed.

Gojira: subbed. Appears to mirror the previously-released version.

Godzilla, The King of the Monsters: exactly what you'd expect.

Godzilla Raids Again: subbed

Rodan: subbed

Mothra vs. Godzilla: subbed

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster: subbed

Invasion of Astro-Monster: dubbed

The War of The Gargantuas: dubbed

Son of Godzilla: subbed

All Monsters Attack: subbed

Destroy All Monsters: subbed

Godzilla vs. Megalon: dubbed

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla: dubbed

Terror of Mechagodzilla: dubbed

Regarding video quality, I've never had more than a layman's eye in evaluating such things, but none of the non-Gojira and TKotM releases appear to have had any restorative work done at this time.

I'm definitely looking forward to an eventual physical release for these classics, and am hoping for the best in regard to restoration, multiple language tracks, and special features!

[LegendZilla]

Someone on these forums told me about the strings in the original Rodan being digitally removed for a particular Japanese release. Do you think the same will apply to this upcoming release?

[Mr_Goji_and_Watch]

Someone on these forums told me about the strings in the original Rodan being digitally removed for a particular Japanese release. Do you think the same will apply to this upcoming release?

Rodan on Filmstruck has the wires visible so I doubt it.

[UltramanGoji]

Someone on these forums told me about the strings in the original Rodan being digitally removed for a particular Japanese release. Do you think the same will apply to this upcoming release?

That was on the Japanese Blu-Ray, yes.

I don’t think Criterion is likely to do so as they’ll most likely be making their own transfer (at least I hope they are, they JPN blu Ray is pretty bad).

[omgitsgodzilla]

Filmstruck subscriber here. I haven't seen it addressed yet here, so I thought I'd mention that some releases are dubbed, not subbed. I'm sure Criterion would, at the very least, attempt to release original subtitled versions alongside American or International dubs, but as far as Filmstruck is concerned, only one or the other is included. If anyone is curious about which treatment a specific film received for the service, I'd be happy to elucidate.

Care to give a list of which films are dubs and which are subs (or both if that's an option)?

I know that War of the Gargantuas is supposedly an "International" dub, but that's about it.

Also, is Destroy All Monsters on there? I heard that when these films were initially released, DAM was unavailable.

I'm not great at differentiating between American and International version, so I'll just address whether each is subbed or dubbed.

Gojira: subbed. Appears to mirror the previously-released version.

Godzilla, The King of the Monsters: exactly what you'd expect.

Godzilla Raids Again: subbed

Rodan: subbed

Mothra vs. Godzilla: subbed

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster: subbed

Invasion of Astro-Monster: dubbed

The War of The Gargantuas: dubbed

Son of Godzilla: subbed

All Monsters Attack: subbed

Destroy All Monsters: subbed

Godzilla vs. Megalon: dubbed

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla: dubbed

Terror of Mechagodzilla: dubbed

Regarding video quality, I've never had more than a layman's eye in evaluating such things, but none of the non-Gojira and TKotM releases appear to have had any restorative work done at this time.

I'm definitely looking forward to an eventual physical release for these classics, and am hoping for the best in regard to restoration, multiple language tracks, and special features!

To elaborate a little: Everything on Starz/Filmstruck uses the Toho HD transfers, meaning the credits and so on for everything but KotM are the Japanese versions, though IIRC Astro-Monster has the English Toho logo for some reason.

WotG does feature the export dub, which I think was previously only available from low-quality VHS sources.

Astro-Monster uses the "International" English track, which uses the same dub as the US version but syncs it to the editing of the Japanese version. This means using the Japanese audio for scenes cut from the US version, like the Controller speaking Xilien. There's also one scene cut from the US version that features dialogue from Akira Takarada and Nick Adams. Takarada's line was never dubbed, so it's left in Japanese, while the original on-set audio of Nick Adams speaking English is used for his line. There's also a sync error in the scene where Tetsuo and Glenn read Namikawa's letter. The US version used a new insert shot of the letter that had it written in English, but it was a different length than the Japanese insert. The International version used the Japanese shot, so the synchronization of the dialogue after Namikawa's voice-over had to be adjusted, but it was done at the wrong spot. Tetsuo's "A certain sound?" is visibly out of sync, but the proper sync is restored a second later when he says "So that's why the cell is soundproof!"

And as for the physical releases, I'm sure we'll get at least the Japanese versions with subtitles. I'm not sure how they'll approach the dubs; some of these films (Astro-Monster, WotG, SoG, DAM, possibly AMA [can't remember], Megalon, Mechagodzilla, ToMG) have English dub tracks already prepared that sync to the Japanese version, so those could conceivably be included simply as additional audio tracks, but several others (GRA/Gigantis, Rodan, MvG, Ghidrah, SoG's US dub, DAM's US dub, possibly the AMA/Godzilla's Revenge dub) couldn't be included that way, since they all recut the film to varying degrees. I would imagine at least a couple of these might be included the way KotM was, possibly all of them, possibly none of them; I guess we'll see.

[Goji]

Astro-Monster has the English Toho logo for some reason.

That's because the original Japanese negative was used to create the Champion Matsuri version, and the foreign negative had to be used for all home video releases since VHS.

And as for the physical releases, I'm sure we'll get at least the Japanese versions with subtitles. I'm not sure how they'll approach the dubs; some of these films (Astro-Monster, WotG, SoG, DAM, possibly AMA [can't remember], Megalon, Mechagodzilla, ToMG) have English dub tracks already prepared that sync to the Japanese version

AMA never had an international version or dub, if that's what you're trying to remember. Ichiro's mom crying (and IIRC, really small snippets here and there) are cut from the UPA version. The intro is also completely different, so there's that as well.

There's a theory that the reason no export version of AMA exists is because of Toho's falling out with William Ross (founder of Frontier Productions, which dubbed most of Toho's sci-fi films prior to the ones that followed AMA; which were all dubbed in Hong Kong at various dubbing studios), and that they simply didn't have enough time to make one available to interested distributors. They probably figured that the U.S. market would commission their own dub, anyway, and may have already pre-sold it to Maron Films prior, anyway. It's probably impossible to ever know for sure.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Astro-Monster has the English Toho logo for some reason.

That's because the original Japanese negative was used to create the Champion Matsuri version, and the foreign negative had to be used for all home video releases since VHS.

And as for the physical releases, I'm sure we'll get at least the Japanese versions with subtitles. I'm not sure how they'll approach the dubs; some of these films (Astro-Monster, WotG, SoG, DAM, possibly AMA [can't remember], Megalon, Mechagodzilla, ToMG) have English dub tracks already prepared that sync to the Japanese version

AMA never had an international version or dub, if that's what you're trying to remember. Ichiro's mom crying (and IIRC, really small snippets here and there) are cut from the UPA version. The intro is also completely different, so there's that as well.

There's a theory that the reason no export version of AMA exists is because of Toho's falling out with William Ross (founder of Frontier Productions, which dubbed most of Toho's sci-fi films prior to the ones that followed AMA; which were all dubbed in Hong Kong at various dubbing studios), and that they simply didn't have enough time to make one available to interested distributors. They probably figured that the U.S. market would commission their own dub, anyway, and may have already pre-sold it to Maron Films prior, anyway. It's probably impossible to ever know for sure.

I'm vaguely aware of the situation with Astro-Monster's negative, but the Blu-ray doesn't use the English Toho logo, and the logo is the only visual element in the streaming version that is in English.

As for AMA, I know there's no export dub; I'm just not sure whether the Godzilla's Revenge dub would sync to the Japanese cut as-is or if Maron Films/UPA edited it at all.

[Goji]

I'm vaguely aware of the situation with Astro-Monster's negative, but the Blu-ray doesn't use the English Toho logo, and the logo is the only visual element in the streaming version that is in English.

Right, but the bulk of the film is still sourced from the foreign dupe negative, and has been since the first Japanese home video release in 1986. This is why the rioting headline supers and location supers are now digital, as the foreign negative had them blank. I'm pretty sure they were video generated in previous home video releases. Here are examples of what I'm talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_q-7qt-7qI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQnF3ctxEUU

I suppose the English logo could have been replaced, but they probably felt it wasn't worth the effort.

The UK VHS of "Invasion of the Astro Monsters" (technically the title to the "international version" of Kaiju Daisenso) opened with the English Toho logo too, and also used the unedited English audio that corresponded to the Japanese version's length, which as you already pointed out, is also present on the "Criterion version" that is currently streaming.

As for AMA, I know there's no export dub; I'm just not sure whether the Godzilla's Revenge dub would sync to the Japanese cut as-is or if Maron Films/UPA edited it at all.

And I explained why that isn't possible. Very little was cut, but as anyone that's tried to sync Titan's dub of Smog Monster to Hedorah's video has learned, even a couple of seconds of cuts in different places makes it impossible to just slap one one on top of the other and call it a day.