Rodan/War of the Gargantuas

Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 09/09/2008

I see another viewer mentioning this but most are not. I'd give this 4 stars if the subtitles worked (not 5 because the dubbed print of Rodan is visually god-awful regardless). War of the Gargantuas looks great, however.

Years ago you were lucky to find any Toho movies on VHS (!) and they were usually the scan and panned, dubbed versions that played on TV, which always looked cheap and gave the genre a negative image.

The folk at Classic Media have made a dream come true by making these films available in their original formats and language, with beautiful prints, sumptuous packaging and extra features as well. This is treating the genre with respect.

"Rodan" is technically impressive, even if the story drags a big, but to have the film in its original format is a major plus.

The real treat here is "War of the Gargantuas", a totally bonkers kaiju epic that is a sequel to "Frankenstein Conquers the World" with two protagonists in the title slugging it out across Japan. The visual effects are often stunning even if the Gargantuas look a bit like "Odd Bod" from "Carry On Screaming".

The icing on the cake here is both the Japan and US version, the latter having some scenes printed slightly brighter, with different takes used and a lot of the Ifukube score replaced with stock cues from both US and other Toho films - bizarre!

Fantastic stuff, its a pity that rights issues mean Classic can't work their way through the whole series of Godzilla and other Toho classic, but what they have done is wonderful.

"War of" is a great movie, the "darkness' that everyone's talking about in the Japanese version is not a problem, it adds to the mood. And of course, "Rodan" is a classic...

Nostalgia is a strange thing. It makes us rate with five stars such a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad film. I saw this film when I was 11 and couldn't sleep near a window for years (remembering the airport scene). And the kid within me was scared again when I watched it again. It happened again with Count Yorga films. KNowing the inner kid is alive and well. That alone deserves a five star.

I sometimes wonder when I see all these glowing reviews so soon after a new DVD comes out...

I have gotten two copies of the set from Amazon so far and on both of them the English subtitles don't work; don't come on at all. Seems like a problem with the run of the disks. Beware.