Gojira on Blu-ray: a disappointment

Ok, I was warned...

Imagine my delight several months ago when I learned that the legendary 1954 Toho Kabushiki-kaisha (東宝株式会社, a.k.a. Toho Studios) film, GOJIRA (ゴジラ, a.k.a. "Godzilla"), the seminal film of my life, would be released in the U.S. in a high-definition transfer on Blu-ray disc on the Classic Media label. I have already seen a number of HD transfers of black and white films and many have been spectacular, including Sir Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980) and others. With the prior deluxe two-disc DVD release by Classic Media of the subtitled 1954 Japanese original -- the first time it appeared on a commercial U.S. DVD -- along side of the famed 1956 U.S. version (not only dubbed into English but re-cut and featuring new scenes with the late Raymond Burr), one would have assumed that this Blu-ray issue would be quite fine. (This, even considering the fact that they were not using -- according to several reports -- one of the near-mint condition/digitally cleaned and restored, Toho master prints.)

Among others, such notables as August Ragone, an important scholar of Japanese sci-fi cinema and author of the wonderful new book, "Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters" -- which is full of great information and beautiful (many rare) photos -- and the engaging (and quite informative) Blog, "The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla" (続・夕陽の呉爾羅), personally cautioned me about the release. But how bad could it be, I thought to myself? On the launch date, big box retailers discounted the Blu-ray disc at such low prices -- e.g. Best Buy's $12.99 -- so I was compelled to give it a shot.

Dumb me. First of all, the Blu-ray release is not parallel to the deluxe two-DVD set as, and I read this prior to purchasing the disc, the 1956 U.S. version is not included. Second of all, I had read that this release is in 1080i video mode, not in the now-standard 1080p. Third, of course, the prior information--that it has been mastered from a less-than-high-quality film print. The result? All you get with the Blu-ray disc over the DVD is that the image is a bit "fuller"; a.k.a. physically larger in volume. However, this makes the viewer feel that the image has been "stretched" to accommodate the screen resolution--it is not widescreen but it fills more "square space." The worst part is that the additional resolution actually makes the image look worse: grainier, with saturation in all the wrong places so that the original dark film print looks even darker. You can barely see Gojira/ゴジラ/Godzilla in the night scenes! (Nearly all of Gojira's/ゴジラ's/Godzilla's scenes in the film occur at night.) Even the sound -- which is actually improved on the Blu-ray disc -- is a hindrance because you hear more crackle.

For die-hard Gojira/ゴジラ/Godzilla fanatics like me who can withstand their Japanese versions without subtitles, the currently-being-released (albeit expensive) Blu-ray discs from THE SOURCE, a.k.a. Toho, are, from all accounts, gorgeous--crisp, clean, near-perfect issues. Because the region coding for Blu-ray is different than DVD and puts the U.S. and Japan (as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan! :-) ) in the same region, the Toho discs will play on U.S. Blu-ray machines.

See CD Japan for listings of the Toho discs. I'll definitely purchase a few of them! :-)