I watched Rodan over the weekend, having DVRed it back in May when TCM was doing the "Creature Features" spotlight. I was figuring on doing a full-length post on it, but was very surprised to see that the DVD releases are out of print. You can, however, stream it at Amazon.
TCM ran the American version, dubbed from Japanese and, as I understand it, some changed footage. The establishing monologue certainly seemed like something that would be added for an American release.
To be honest, the American version left me underwhelmed. There are two different monsters here, and neither gets enough time to work well. I have a feeling that would be a problem with the original as well, so some of the problems have nothing to do with the dubbing. And I didn't really have a problem with the American version of Godzilla, the one with Raymond Burr added into the movie.
But the dubbing is something I also found distracting. Not so much the fact that the words don't match the lip movements; I've never been anywhere close to having an ability to read lips. The problem is more that the voices don't match up with the faces on screen. I'm reminded of the "No, no, no", "Yes, yes, yes" bit in Singin' in the Rain where the main characters' voices in the movie-within-a-movie get out of sync.
Monty O'Grady
22 minutes ago
1 comment:
Kinda interesting. I remember one of the guys I was in army training over 10 years ago told me he owned the US rights for a couple of Godzilla flicks - don't remember which at this point. He was hoping to get them remastered and re-released at some point. I guess for some titles/releases (Japan, elsewhere), it might actually be somewhat affordable as an occasional investment. There have been a LOT of small dvd/BR companies coming out in the last few years with really niche titles. Now that you can do everything online - it's a lot simpler too.
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