"There is so much writing in English on Japanese cinema that can't be accepted at face value — not because the writers are careless, but because the differences in culture and language are just too intricate. When I see August Ragone's name on a piece of writing, it gives me permission to place my faith in it completely. Among Japanese fantasy film historians, he's the best working in English." —Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

SONY UNLEASHING HEISEI & MILLENNIUM BIG Gs!
Double Feature Blu-rays Are "Go" for May 6th

平成とミレニアムのゴジラ映画は米国Blu-rayに来る!

 photo godzilla_vs_king_ghidorah_zps90537c93.jpg
Original theatrical poster for GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991).

UPDATED (Tuesday, March 4th): The "rumor" I posted on Friday, February 28th, that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be issuing four double-feature Blu-ray releases of their Heisei and Millennium Godzilla titles on May 6th is spot-on! All of the titles, below, have now appeared on Amazon.com on March 1st. SPHE is taking advantage of the frenzy created by the release of the upcoming Gareth Edwards re-imagining of the original creature feature opening on May 16th.

On Monday, March 3rd, the first Amazon.com listings were changed from DVD (as reported on March 1st), to Blu-ray — as per the original story I posted on February 28th, according to an industry insider. Also intimated by an insider at SHPE that these will be a significant upgrade from previous, barebones DVD releases (Amazon, as of today, is currently listing specs as "AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen"). No doubt that these will be subject to change.

And now, they have:

On Tuesday, March 4th, these specs appeared on the listing for the double feature of GODZILLA FINAL WARS & GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS at Movies Unlimited, indicating (as per my original informant) that this will be a two-disc set. The specs listed include Widescreen, Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, English (SDH) and French Subtitles. All of the details originally leaked to me have now been confirmed, so I am now posting it (but we'll have to wait and see if the originally-reported UltraViolent Digital Copies also materialize).

The unchanging MSRP for each of these double features is $19.95. According to an anonymous source this past Friday, these are the titles dropping, which are all still currently listed on Amazon:

GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991) & GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (1992), GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II (1993) & GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA (1994), GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH (1995) & GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (2000), GODZILLA FINAL WARS (2004) & GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS (2003).

Conspicuously missing are GODZILLA 2000 (1999), GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (2001), and GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA (2002). It's unknown at this time if these will follow — I'll keep checking on sources... Stay tuned! But for now, in the words of the immortal Henry Silva, "NOT bullshit!"

 photo Henry_Silva_zpse493ede0.jpg
Henry Silva says, "I can safely say that this story is NOT bullshit!"

13 comments:

Matthew Licata said...

Nice! The 90s Godzilla movies were always my favorites.

If you have any way of finding out if these would have Japanese audio tracks — especially the 90s ones which have never been released here with them as far as I know — that would be fantastic. I'm still clinging to some VHS fansubs.

August Ragone said...

Matthew,
We've got our feelers out there trying to find out whether is this bullshit or not... Meanwhile, I have other cases I'm working on, so let's see what bodies eventually float up to the surface on this one.

Cheers,
August

Matthew Licata said...

Cool. Thanks for the response!

Elwood Jones said...

Be nice to just see a region 2 release of any Godzilla titles, something I'm hoping to see happen with the release of the new film. True its doubtful as hell seeing how the only re-release confirmed is the cartoon series which accompanied the first film, but I can still dream gosh darn it!

Also good to see your book finally being released in Paperback. More so as I've been kicking myself since I missed the hardback release and now faced with obscenely inflated trader prices.

Unknown said...

I can't find them on amazon.

August Ragone said...

Daniel,
All you need to do is click on the links I provided (the titles of the films in blue). That will take you directly to the lists for each film as you click the respective links.

Cheers,
August

Destroyer14 said...

For some reason the Final Wars/SOS is listed as DVD and not Blu-ray. Once that presumably gets changed, I will pre-order them. Definitely cool news.

Eric Rees said...

I see a few others showing up on the same day:

http://www.amazon.com/Godzilla-Hedorah-Blu-ray-Yoshimitsu-Banno/dp/B00I462XNO/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_y

http://www.amazon.com/Godzilla-Vs-Gigan-Blu-ray-Fukuda/dp/B00I462XLG/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_y

August Ragone said...

Eric,
Yes, I reported this on January 21st; three titles from Section 23 Films (formerly ADV Films)'s new label, "Kraken Releasing":

THE KRAKEN RELEASES "GODZILLA" ON BLU-RAY
3 Classics Being Readied for the Big G's 60th!


Check it out!

Cheers,
August

Eric Rees said...

Ah, I totally missed that. Wow, we could have the entire collection on Blu-ray someday!!

robbievgb said...

It does say subtitled, but it also says the subtitles are in French.

August Ragone said...

Robbie,
If you read my report more carefully, you'll see that the Movies Unlimited website says, "English and French Subtitles."

Cheers,
August

Unknown said...

The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla 続・夕陽の呉爾羅 ... badezimmerset.blogspot.de