Product Details

• Actors: Akira Takarada, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kchi, Akihiko Hirata, Toyoaki Suzuki
• Directors: Ishirô Honda, Ishir Honda
• Writers: Ishir Honda, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Takeo Murata
• Producers: Tomoyuki Tanaka
• Format: Black & White, Dubbed, Full Screen
• Language: Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Classic Media
• DVD Release Date: September 22, 2009
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002C6VMKC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,211 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Gojira [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

GOJIRA - Blu-Ray Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Ultimate Edition of Godzilla, December 2, 2009

By 

Jose Luis Romeu Miguel (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gojira [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

This review is for the Blu-ray edition, and I am going to focus on the technical aspects of the release, not the movie itself, the movie is a great classic and should be seen in its Japanese original form, whether through this BD or the previous Classic Media DVD, that's your choice.

First of all, the movie is not 1080p is 1080i, which might be because it's not comming from a direct filmscan, but through an HDCAM tape, since it's a film, not TV, the fields show half and half of the frame and when a projector or the TV does the conversion to progressive you have the original frame, if you have your BD and TV/Projector properly set up you won't see any interlaced images.

The film is not presented in it's original 1.33 aspect ratio, the width is perfect but there is a slight loss in the upper and lower parts of the image (it is clearly seen in the original GODZILLA title, look at the lower right logo), therefore the aspect ratio might be around 1.45, still and improvement from the previous DVD release, it was 1.33 but because it lost both width and height.

There is also another HUGE problem: the Noise Reduction. Since it's a pretty old film, film stocks from the original movie are in pretty bad shape, and CM instead of performing a full restoration (a-la Criterion), simply applied an inmense quantity of automatic Noise Reduction, resulting in lots of jittering and screen tearing. To tell you the truth, when checking the DVD versus the BD, I found hard to decide wich was poorer in Image quality, but I guess that MPEG-2 is quite an old codec now, and the Standard Definition makes everything look slightly blury, so all in all I prefer the BluRay since it's coded in AVC. The sound only includes the original Japanese audio in PCM linear, wich is fine in my book (I hate dubs), and the subs are more than ok.

The extras are the same that on the DVD, nothing new, and they are presented in their original MPEG-2 codification.

I would never recommend this BD to any Godzilla fan if already own the CM DVD, since I truly believe that this movie will eventualy get a proper release. However if you have never seen the original Godzilla, and don't care about the american version... Hey! It's a Blu-Ray and IT'S REGION FREE! (tested on a PS3 region "B")

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary and Insightful Monster Movie, November 20, 2004

By 

Sharon A. Hutchinson ""It is the time you... (Toms River, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Godzilla: King of Monsters [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This review is mainly concerned with the original, Japanese version of Gojira (not dubbed). I find that inserting Raymond Burr's character and removing some of the original to do so takes a great deal away from this movie and what it represents.

Godzilla rises from his long sleep due to the effects of the hydrogen bomb. With each attack, the creature becomes more bold until Tokyo suffers a devasting attack, and only a miracle can save the country from another tragic visit by this risen giant.

The love affair plays a secondary but important part in the film. Emiko has been promised in marriage to a brilliant young scientist but has fallen in love with another man. It is the old world traditions clashing with modernity. Her father is a paleontologist who is probably the only person sharing empathy with Godzilla, feeling that destroying the beast will be depriving science of its one and only chance to study a creature from the prehistoric past.

What is often overlooked (and not really stressed in the American version) is the terrible dilemma the young scientist faces when he is begged to use his oxygen destroyer weapon against Godzilla. Only the viewing of the destruction and sadness make him realize there is only one course to take. I feel he is the most crucial and yet saddest character in the entire movie. He actually loses on a number of counts--his life's work (he destroys his formula so it could never fall into the wrong hands), his fiancee has decided to wed another, and in true samurai-like tradition, ends his life nobly. The scene of Godzilla's painful death at the same moment that this brave but troubled researcher ends his own is poignant in the extreme.

This film is not just about humans against an ancient monster awakened from the past. It is about the universal emotions of love, dedication and the dangers to which science can lead us. It is also about sacrifice and triumph over impossible odds.

It is important to remember that the original movie was produced not that many years after the devastation wrought on Japan by the atomic bombs. It does not take much of the imagination to see the same destroyed cities, dying and injured people and the heartache produced by an attack, whether monster or man-made, on such a massive scale. The burning buildings, high levels of radioactivity, the melting metal all conjure up the effects of the atomic bomb, and in many ways this movie is an illustration of what Japan experienced, as well as providing a cathartic effect to a nation that suffered perhaps the greatest horror of this century.

The underlying message here is that, like the oxygen destroyer, atomic weapons are the most destructive device ever invented by man. This movie, besides being a very scary monster film (it gave me nightmares when I was a little girl) is an anti-nuclear weapon vehicle which gets its message across through the characters of a enormous beast, a scientist faced with a moral decision, and a people bent on surviving. Godzilla is more then a movie; it is a social statement against any weapon that has the power to alter our world, and the people in it, forever.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the old gentleman who was encased within the Godzilla costume. A very short man playing a huge monster (he was about 5 feet tall), he was nevertheless delighted and surprised that his portrayal of the beast has continued to draw audiences even after all these years. It was an honor to meet him.

My advice is the best way to see this movie is in the original, uncut Japanese version without dubbing. I am not a big fan of dubbing anyway, and feel that since people know the story and what is being said, the language barrier disappears and the emotional impact of the film is felt on a much higher scale.

To me, this is one of the best movies produced and has stood the passing of time. It holds many lessons for those who are open to the warnings and human tragedies, both physical and emotional, that we are forced to face in a world that has advanced to the point of self-annihilation.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five star Popcorn movie from the old days., July 30, 2007

By 

Oldtechnohobbiest "Mr. Nobody" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (DVD)

HA! Imagine that, I'm the first one to get to review one of the old classics! HA! Finally, today is my day.

First of all, I like all these old monster movies, especially the really big monsters. Godzilla is somewhere between 300 and 400 feet tall (I got that from the dialogue in the movie), that constitutes BIG. So you can expect my review to be a half star to one star higher than most others.

So lets get with it. (I'm watching it again as I review it).

PROS:
1. Stars Raymond Burr, that's a star.
2. Great music, four notes on a piano and three notes on a clarinet--works just fine. That's a star.
3. Special effects, everybody knows the Japanise did the best scaling on cities and toy cars and things than anybody else. Though you can in several scenes (where godzilla is jerking around) tell it's just a man in a rubber suit...so what. It's all shot in that great old Black and white film. They get a star.
4. The acting, directing, writing are just fine for an old popcorn movie, that's a star.
5. The idea. That's another star because of the way it is handled. A very big lizard is waken up, or resurrected, or frankensteined together, because of H Bomb Test. And what's a big lizard to do when woke up from a 200 million year sleep?...go find the guys who did it and stomp their city to rubble. Yes sir, NOBODY does it better or equal to godzilla! The story starts off with Raymond Burr's plane flying several miles above the ocean just as the big lizard decides to sink its first ship. He is questioned by the authorities--he was asleep and spends some part of the movie running around with the scientist and military as they try to figure out what is going one. It helps that godzilla stomps his way onto one of the islands late night and smashes a rather large village, small town. Of course it has to be the one Ramond is sleeping on. He doesn't see the monster but everybody hears it coming. I guess the whole world knows THOSE foot steps. We don't get to see it either except for the bottom part of its' left leg. But that's okay, the next time it comes stomping ashore it does so in full day light.

Welp...there's no doubt now!

Yea know, godzilla has just about the same amount of respect for a military tank as a tornado does for a trailer...something about those two just don't get along!

Moving along: There a few incidents, all of them seem well done, the scaling continues to be the best out there...no need for computer graphics in these old movies. They must have had background actors in the high hundreds to low thousands to shoot some of these scenes.

Well, I don't want to giveaway all the story to those of you who have never seen this movie before--all three of you. I will say, it is a clean movie through and through. It is the stuff that used to give me nightmares when I was a young kid 45 or more years ago. Some of the scenes actually look real. I do recomment it to all the growing popcorn crowd and all of you who like to watch 'old' classics. For all the old giant monster type movies this is probably the best one to ever come from overseas.

CONS:
1. I could set here and pick this or any popcorn movie to pieces...but why do it? It is a fine movie. It is a monster movie. It is a BIG monster movie. I've seen better, I've seen worse. It is a BIG MONSTER movie that demands popcorn and soda. Remember, it is a classic and is the original godzilla from which all the others came from.

Buy, don't rent the classics.

Bye!