by: Chris Eaton
Sorry for the lack of updates as of late. Between PC issues and work, I haven’t had the time to update as properly as I should. So today, I’m making up for lost time.
Wonderful news! Criterion has released all the specs for their upcoming Godzilla DVD. As speculated, the DVD will feature both the Japanese version and the American version of the film. Since it’s Criterion, there’s a wealth of special features to boot:
- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary by David Kalat (A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series)
- New high-definition digital restoration of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original, starring Raymond Burr
- Audio commentary for Godzilla, King of the Monsters by Kalat
- New interviews with actor Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata), Godzilla performer Haruo Nakajima, and effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
- Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
- Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects
- New interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
- The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo fukuryu maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla
- Theatrical trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman
The release date on this bad boy: January 24th, 2012. Fan fuck tastic. Cover art for the DVD is pretty damn awesome as well.
As someone who owns the Classic Media version, I’ll say that it’s going to be nice to have a Criterion cut laying around. No disrespect to Classic Media, they did a good job with the original film. Releasing the Japanese version when there wasn’t one available in the US on DVD. But, Criterion has that standard of excellence that just can’t be beat. But, I wont be throwing away my Classic Media disc as one Haruo Nakajima has signed it. It can now be put away for safe keeping. 2012 is already looking very good.