I've been wallowing in childhood nostalgia recently amassing a full run of the Godzilla films, Rodan, Mothra (including Rebirth), Ultraman and even Space Giants, so I thought it would be interesting to know if there are other fans of Japanese Giant Monster movies and TV shows here.
The most interesting part has been tracking down the Godzilla films and watching them in the original Japanese with subtitles and with an anamorphic TohoScope presentation. I was impressed with the quality of the acting and although many of the early films were definitely lacking in the story department I was quite surprised by the Heisei and Millennium films in many cases.
Of course the price for doing this is having DVDs from four regions because not all regions have the films in print or the versions that are have compromises like English dub-only or 4:3 presentation. I did have to make a couple of concessions to get what appeared to be the best options (given my lack of comprehension of spoken Japanese): King Kong Vs. Godzilla is the R2 version which is anamorphic widescreen, but the American cut of the film with the dub featuring the annoying pronunciation of Hokkaido as "hokey-eye-doh" or "hoh-kay-doh." The other is R1 release of Godzilla 2000, which I mistakenly thought contained the Japanese soundtrack; thankfully the dub is actually quite good I don't feel too hard done by. Godzilla Returns (1985) and Godzilla Vs. Biollante are R3 and the video isn't that great; neither is the DVD mastering which is difficult to navigate using the Apple DVD player. Again, very watchable even though you do have Chinese and English subs on at the same time.
Ultraman has also been an interesting experience. Some of the shots of people falling are hilarious given it's obviously a ragdoll dummy being thrown off a cliff, but I've been surprised by some of the more serious episodes and interesting cinematography that appears halfway through - especially given this is clearly a children's show.
Space Giants (nee Ambassador Magma) is in some kind of copyright limbo presently, so I had to pay a modest chunk of change for a set from an online retailer specialising in bootlegs. I'm looking foward to being able to see the complete run since I used to only see it on tv during my summers in Illinois and it does have a serialised quality so I missed a lot of it.
When I think of it now it seems a bit odd that my friends and I in a small town in rural Illinois would watch all these imported Japanese shows (including Speed Racer, Lost Cities of Gold an Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets) and run around playing Ultraman and Goldar without a second thought. I expect if I met a Japanese person my own age and relayed this shared pop-culture experience they'd be suprised and amused.
Hopefully other people have fond memories to share.
The most interesting part has been tracking down the Godzilla films and watching them in the original Japanese with subtitles and with an anamorphic TohoScope presentation. I was impressed with the quality of the acting and although many of the early films were definitely lacking in the story department I was quite surprised by the Heisei and Millennium films in many cases.
Of course the price for doing this is having DVDs from four regions because not all regions have the films in print or the versions that are have compromises like English dub-only or 4:3 presentation. I did have to make a couple of concessions to get what appeared to be the best options (given my lack of comprehension of spoken Japanese): King Kong Vs. Godzilla is the R2 version which is anamorphic widescreen, but the American cut of the film with the dub featuring the annoying pronunciation of Hokkaido as "hokey-eye-doh" or "hoh-kay-doh." The other is R1 release of Godzilla 2000, which I mistakenly thought contained the Japanese soundtrack; thankfully the dub is actually quite good I don't feel too hard done by. Godzilla Returns (1985) and Godzilla Vs. Biollante are R3 and the video isn't that great; neither is the DVD mastering which is difficult to navigate using the Apple DVD player. Again, very watchable even though you do have Chinese and English subs on at the same time.
Ultraman has also been an interesting experience. Some of the shots of people falling are hilarious given it's obviously a ragdoll dummy being thrown off a cliff, but I've been surprised by some of the more serious episodes and interesting cinematography that appears halfway through - especially given this is clearly a children's show.
Space Giants (nee Ambassador Magma) is in some kind of copyright limbo presently, so I had to pay a modest chunk of change for a set from an online retailer specialising in bootlegs. I'm looking foward to being able to see the complete run since I used to only see it on tv during my summers in Illinois and it does have a serialised quality so I missed a lot of it.
When I think of it now it seems a bit odd that my friends and I in a small town in rural Illinois would watch all these imported Japanese shows (including Speed Racer, Lost Cities of Gold an Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets) and run around playing Ultraman and Goldar without a second thought. I expect if I met a Japanese person my own age and relayed this shared pop-culture experience they'd be suprised and amused.
Hopefully other people have fond memories to share.
