I’m frustrated.
For some reason I cannot fathom, though there are TONS of Godzilla movies out on DVD, the original version hasn’t been released–so far as I can tell.
I’m not talking about the Raymond Burr-infested American release of Godzilla King of Monsters. I’m talking about the ORIGINAL Raymond Burr-free Japanese version from 1954 (titled Gojira in Japanese).
It’s supposed to be much less campy, much more artistic, and much more gooder.
Yet I can’t find it!
I’ve tried going to the Amazon.co.jp site to order it from Japan (I’ve used the British and German Amazons to order stuff from overseas before), but the Japanese writing system is just too much of a barrier at present for me to find what I’m looking for.
So I was wondering: Could someone who reads Japanese check the site and let me know if they’ve got an original DVD version of the film–preferably with English subtitles?
Or if anyone knows of a western release of the original version, I’d love to know about that, too.
Thanks much, folks!
ゴジラ: http://tinyurl.com/agyph
It doesn’t say anything about English subtitles, though.
Keep in mind that it’s a Region 2 DVD.
Gomen, ne! That was me.
This has both American and Japanese (with English subtitles) versions.
Alas, it’s Region 4.
I checked ebay and found this. I don’t know if it’s what you’re looking for though. There may be others.
http://tinyurl.com/cr74j
Thanks, guys!
Got one on order–*with* English subtitles!
P.S. Different regions are no problem for me. My laptop seems to function as a region 0 player, and I recently looked up a hack for my regular TV-top player that may let me use it that way, too.
The original has been restored by Rialto Pictures and is touring the US. I missed it when it was in Houston! No word about when it will be on DVD. http://www.rialtopictures.com/godzilla.html
I never quite understood why you were required to define your player to one country or the other. I bought some dvds overseas on vacation and became very sad. Does it have to do with trying to keep “american produced” dvds a set price, or what.
Jayson:
I understand that it’s because American films are often released in foreign countries after they are released in the United States — in fact, sometimes just about the time the DVD is being issued in the United States. If American DVDs were playable in those countries where the film was just having its theatrical release, there would be a lot fewer theatre tickets sold in those countries.
It’s pretty easy to buy an all region DVD that will play DVDs from anywhere. We needed one for our office, an international Christian relief ministry, because we were often given DVDs produced overseas to document projects we fund. Just enter “region free DVD” in a search engine to find vendors.
Here’s to hoping that the region codes will die out. For one thing, even old movies that are never going to be released in theatres again, are sold with certain region codes. Not all, but a lot. That just doesn’t make sense.
And at least in Europe, plenty of movies come out at the same time as they do in the U.S. Especially big ones like the summer blockbusters.
Region encoded DVDs is to time releases in different countries to maximize profits for producers and distributers. At least thats the story they say, in reality its to sell more DVDs.
Just type a search in for your DVD model and ‘region free’ and there should be some hack out on the internet for it. Sometimes its a matter of pressing buttons or entering a code through your remote, other times its opening the dvd up and changing a jumper, other times it requires sodering on a new chip (much rarer.) From the DVD manufacturer’s perspective its much easeir to make one that could be shiped to multiple countries.
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Jimmy,
According to davisdvd.com posting of March 13th, Classic Media will release the original 98-minute Japanese cut of Gojira on September 5th. It will be part of a 2-disc set that will also include the edited U.S. version.