Half Human Release Guide

For the discussion of Toho DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs, streaming services, VHS, and other formats where Toho films and soundtracks can be found.
Bigdog
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by Bigdog »

omgitsgodzilla wrote:I actually once provided a bootlegger with a .srt subtitle file so he could put together a DVD. It's also all over torrent sites if you know where to look.

Also whoever's on about the "PC Police," shut up. Now. Please. This is a company taking racism and insensitivity to marginalized groups seriously for once and trying to make things right. Christ, to go back to when political correctness just meant trying not to be an asshole to disadvantaged groups and hadn't been turned into a dirty word by ignorant bigots. No one's screwed us; if you really want the movie, you can get it easily and for free, not that you're missing out on THAT much by not seeing it anyway. It's decent, but it's not legendary.
Shut up now because I don't have a valid argument and would rather censor everything than deal with the issues at hand?

Much like Song and the South , the racist cartoons, a Rise of the Nation and other highly-offensive media, I'd have to disagree with this statement. There was plenty of anti-Irish, anti-German, anti-French and anti-Catholic films [my main ethnicities and background] and media out back in the day, alongside other offensive media that targeted different groups. Should it be preserved or forgotten? I argue anything of that nature should be preserved and released just because of the fact that it gives us an effective learning experience.

I'd honestly love to see Half Human even despite its controversy just like I'd love to see Song of the South. My issue is people forgetting the past and then not knowing why it was done or why it shouldn't be perpetrated.

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Gothicserpent
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by Gothicserpent »

Honestly, I don't think people would be bothered by the racism In Half Human if it was released on DVD. I think it's just something that we take for granted; many old movies were very racist and there's nothing we can do to change it.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by Mr. Xeno »

I agree. Hiding these old movies from the public is just trying to brush history under the rug. That doesn't mean that people now still agree with those racist/sexist/homophobic/xenophobic/whatever-ist/phobic views. Denying history is a bad thing to do as well.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

I would agree that as a work of some cultural significance it ought to be available, but in the end it's the choice of the owners. And very rarely, on a film that's even remotely well-known, would I expect the black market to disappoint.
TylerPreston20 wrote:
omgitsgodzilla wrote:I actually once provided a bootlegger with a .srt subtitle file so he could put together a DVD. It's also all over torrent sites if you know where to look.
You mind sharing the sub file in a private message?
I don't have it anymore; I got it from a torrent file that I downloaded on an old PC. I mean, I might be able to find it if I dig through my old email account to see if the attachment is still there. I'll let you know if I can find it.
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Godzillian
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by Godzillian »

Honestly if they just have a little insert before the movie starts saying "this movie contains racial insensitive elements. These do not reflect the studios views and are a product of them time." At least being honest about it would make it a little better. They could even do a limited dvd run with it to try and make it more appealing for the consumer.
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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

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^^That's probably the best way to deal with it, in my opinion. The key to just about anything problematic in media is tasteful handling and open acknowledgment of what's wrong with it.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by MaxRebo320 »

Hey guys, how y'all doing? Fine I hope!

While I can sort of see Toho's reasoning for the ban, it would be nice if they would at least release it as apart of a Video on demand service or something. Same applies to PON.
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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

^^For a banned film, there sure are a lot of different versions out there that you can get your hands on.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

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omgitsgodzilla wrote:I actually once provided a bootlegger with a .srt subtitle file so he could put together a DVD. It's also all over torrent sites if you know where to look.

Also whoever's on about the "PC Police," shut up. Now. Please. This is a company taking racism and insensitivity to marginalized groups seriously for once and trying to make things right. Christ, to go back to when political correctness just meant trying not to be an asshole to disadvantaged groups and hadn't been turned into a dirty word by ignorant bigots. No one's screwed us; if you really want the movie, you can get it easily and for free, not that you're missing out on THAT much by not seeing it anyway. It's decent, but it's not legendary.
YOU shut up! People are TOO sensitive, & should get a grip. Or grow a pair, & drive on. Whatever. When the feelings of a minority, take ANYTHING of value away from the majority, Society LOSES OUT. So, a certain group didn't like how they were portrayed in a movie? Big deal. I'm of Italian descent, maybe I should complain about movies depicting Italians as gangsters? Hence, the Godfather movies should be banned! WHERE does it STOP? It should never even have STARTED.

I say, release "Half-Human", on DVD, in it's entirety.

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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by Legion1979 »

^I'm not the most informed person when it comes to Toho and their reasons for banning this film, but are you Japanese? How much do you know about their culture and history? Without looking on Wikipedia do you know all the details about why this movie was banned? Do you truly understand why Toho would be sensitive about releasing this movie and why there could be a backlash over it? How can you sit there are scream "shut up!", "get a grip" and grow a pair" when until a few days ago you knew nothing about the fact that this movie was banned and why?

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Re: Half Human Release Guide

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^ Nice, how you pick & choose what parts of my post to respond to, & not to others, Legion.

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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Basically, I really don't see anything wrong with a company wanting to distance itself from a film that treats its country's minorities with near-Birth of a Nation-level insensitivity and contempt, and frankly has scarcely an iota of that film's importance and relevance. I like the movie, and I'd love to see it released, but it is Toho's call, and their reasons for keeping it to themselves are pretty understandable and honestly more substantial than the arguments in favor of releasing it. Besides, it's pretty easy to find online anyway - the black market rarely disappoints.

The same goes for Prophecies of Nostradamus - it contained depictions of irradiated people as subhuman cannibals, which Toho realized had some pretty nasty implications with regards to the still-living victims of radiation from the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and decided they didn't want their name attached to it and didn't want it distributed any further.

The point is, creators don't owe audiences access to their work. If they're ashamed of or retrospectively opposed to the content of past work, to make it available or not is their prerogative.
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MandaSaurus
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by MandaSaurus »

^ Sez you. Once something has been made, & distributed, NO ONE has the right to hide it away somewhere, & that includes creator of 'said media'. CENSORSHIP is WRONG, no matter how you want to slice it. Book-burning in Nazi Germany was considered for the 'greater good' at the time too.

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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Book-burning in Nazi Germany was a racist and totalitarian political move designed to squelch the voices of an entire race of people as well as anyone the Third Reich deemed a political opponent or dissident through the destruction and suppression of vast amounts of printed written material. Not releasing Half Human is a company deciding that they do not want to endorse or perpetuate racism, which is a pretty rampant problem in Japan, and so deciding to sit on a single, fairly inconsequential film. No government or law was involved - Ainu advocacy groups raised complaints about the portrayal of indigenous peoples like themselves, Toho agreed, Toho stopped the presses. To claim it's some sort of oppressive act of censorship is asinine, and the Nazi analogy is a classic "reductio ad hitlerum" bad argument trope and at best severe false equivalence; at worst, hideously trivializing the Holocaust.

And let me reiterate: You can still get the film very easily and for free.
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MandaSaurus
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by MandaSaurus »

My POINT is ALL censorship is BAD. What's yours, 'omits-godzilla'?

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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

My point is that even calling this censorship is pretty dubious, and that censorship is rarely absolute or effective anyway, and furthermore, that this is one of the least important "censorship" cases imaginable.

In addition, it really doesn't do much for your argument when your response to a calmly stated rebuttal pointing out flaws in your rhetoric is to resort to a broad, absolute, dichotomizing statement and a weak dig at my username.

Plus, I'm going to go out on a limb here: White, able-bodied, cisgender heterosexual male. If I'm right on even most of those, then your opinions on oppression, discrimination and media representation of minorities is the least informed by personal experience as is possible and the least relevant for it, especially living somewhere like Texas. Hell, in this scenario, the main relevant point is race, and as a white person, Italian or not, your race has most likely never been a truly serious issue for you during your lifetime. Your opinion on racism is irrelevant. (So is mine, for that matter.) Now give that poor soapbox a rest.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

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omgitsgodzilla wrote:Plus, I'm going to go out on a limb here: White, able-bodied, cisgender heterosexual male.
Had to take a second to make sure I didn't accidentally switch back to Tumblr.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by MandaSaurus »

KaijuAlertSystem wrote:
omgitsgodzilla wrote:Plus, I'm going to go out on a limb here: White, able-bodied, cisgender heterosexual male.
Had to take a second to make sure I didn't accidentally switch to Back to Tumblr.
No kidding. Esp under 'preaching'.

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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Well I could have just said "uppity prick who doesn't know what he's talking about," but I thought more specific terminology would better support my point.

But more to the point: all I'm saying is that this isn't government censorship and it's not an oppressive act. Furthermore, I don't think any specific action is always 100% good or bad under any imaginable circumstances, and Toho sitting on Half Human does little to no actual harm to anything. I'm not saying I would do the same thing were I in their position; I'd probably go ahead and release it with a disclaimer. I'd love to see it put out; it's a decent movie and an interesting deviation from the standard kaiju/toku fare produced by its creators around the same time, but Toho does have valid reasons they don't want to re-release it and I can understand and respect their decision.
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Re: Half Human Release Guide

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

^^Point taken. Honestly, I was about to drop it anyway, it kind of stopped being an interesting discussion around the point where I got exasperated and dropped the SJ jargon barrage. That wasn't really even that relevant to the debate. Manda, I apologize and I hope I at least got another side of the issue across. Jomei, for my part, consider the shit dropped.

Anyway, if anyone's interested in seeing Half Human, PM me and I'll point you in the right direction.
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