Back thirty years ago there were only three or four channels. Sometimes, you didn’t have much choice. Because of that, you would often watch whatever was showing.
This was the time where the afternoon movie was popular. Before cable, films were often shown at 4 in the afternoon, after school. One of the big genres of films was the monster movie.
There were the Godzilla films. There was Mothra. And, there was Gamera. With the people in rubber suits, bad dubbing, and overall silliness, these were always fun to watch.
Gamera was a turtle like monster, breathing fire, that waged war against the countryside after having been woken by the crash landing of a nuclear bomber.
GAMERA: THE GIANT MONSTER is now being released on DVD for the first time in its original Japanese version, complete with subtitles and letterboxed for the first time. For the US release, American actors were added, increasing the running time, and it was dubbed into English.
To be completely honest, to many, the dubbed version may be preferable. Unfortunately, it isn’t available here. It is out on a cheap DVD of its own.
This version looks quite good. Too good, because you can now see every string pulling along the little miniature fighter planes and other models used in making the film.
Maybe that makes up for the lack of dubbing.
WHAT IS ON THE DVD?
The film has an audio commentary by a genre historian. This is a very interesting talk about the film that tells you everything you wanted to know, even more than you wanted to know, about the film.
It contains a Japanese documentary on the series, A LOOK BACK AT GAMERA (23:11)
There is also a publicity gallery as well as the trailers for the film.
SHOULD I BUY IT?
For those that remember the film, it is fun to see it in the way it was originally intended too.
GAMERA: THE GIANT MONSTER will be available on DVD May 18, 2010 from Shout! Factory.
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