Gojira Blu-ray

Gojira

 (1954)

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller



A monster is awakened by an undersea explosion and wreaks havoc on the citizens of Tokyo.

For more details about Gojira on Blu-ray, see the Gojira Blu-ray Review

Gojira Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


I wish I had better news to report on this BD's image quality. The good news is the film is preserved in a somewhat unusual aspect ratio of 1.47:1, offering a slightly wider image than standard Academy ratio. Unfortunately, the film is badly in need of a major restoration effort, something that was apparent with the original DVD release a few years ago and which is only all the more apparent with the superior resolution of Blu-ray. While contrast is still surprisingly strong, black levels vary considerably from scene to scene (and sometimes within a scene), at times offering deeply nuanced shades that allow the nighttime scenes to still bristle with detail, but at other times offer only a murky, shadowy mishmash. The worst part of this transfer is the virtually nonstop specks, scratches, and even emulsion damage. Part of this was inherent in the original negative, due to the primitive working conditions and the multi-pass opticals which only highlighted dust and debris as elements were assembled. (There's also quite a bit of pretty shoddy stock footage, obviously originally from 16mm masters, that is even worse than the bulk of the film). While grain is apparent, it's natural looking and this film has obviously had nary a moment of DNR applied to it. Overall, Gojira sports a pretty soft transfer, though the final third or so sharpened up considerably, until the final underwater segment. This film has obviously not been properly preserved, and it's a shame, really. It certainly is a classic, of a sort anyway (and maybe not even qualified with that "of a sort anyway"), and deserves a thorough scrubbing and complete frame by frame restoration. I'm not sure anyone who already has the two DVD release from Classic Media is going to want to "upgrade" to this BD.

Gojira Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


The original mono Japanese soundtrack has less damage than the image does, but it is certainly nowhere near modern digital standards, and even the Dolby Digital 2.0 repurposing can't ameliorate the highly compressed, boxy sound to a lot of the track. While everything here is clear, you'll notice an omnipresent thinness of sound, especially on the extreme highs and lows, not all simply attributable to noise reduction. Godzilla's thundering roar, a rather brilliant special effect in and of itself (made by a detuned contrabass string played with a leather glove) doesn't rumble with any real ferocity. It's loud, yes, but it doesn't penetrate the way it should. There is noticeable hiss, if no readily apparent dropouts, throughout the film.

Gojira Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Original Godzilla Stomps onto Blu-ray in September - May 7, 2009

Gojira Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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