Has Anyone Seen the REAL "Godzilla: King of the Monsters?"

[PeppeRaskell1]

Has anyone ever seen the original and uncut 1954 version of "Godzilla: King of the Monsters?" I mean, the one with no Raymond Burr and no actors with their backs turned to the camera?

Surely, a DVD or VHS of this movie must exist somewhere in the world.

What made me think of this movie? I'm watching Chushingura: The Loyal 47 Samurai on DVD, and the fellow who does the music score for this flick did the music for the first Godzilla movie.

[batboy2001]

I have! Man, it was corny...

[DarthGonzo]

You can get the original Japanese version of the original Godzilla on VHS and on DVD, as long as your shopping in Japan or go through a specialty dealer. Of course, the DVD is region 2 so it wont play on any old DVD player. Of course, you can always buy a bootleg of the Japanese version, if you want to.

And, comon, the first Godzilla film is not corny! It's a pretty powerful film, especially if you watch it with subtitles.

And, BTW, the fellow who scored the first Godzilla film is named Akira Ifukube.

[finbarlafume]

I've seen a subtitled version shown on tv ( British network Channel Four showed several of them subtitled ) and I've got the Japanese DVD.
The Japanese DVD sadly has no English subtitles so you'd need to know the story before watching it.
It's a lot, lot better than the version with Raymond Burr, much darker and a far more ambitious production.

I've also seen a subtitled copy of Godzilla 85 and that's far better too.

[DarthGonzo]

Aside from Godzilla vs the Sea Monster and Godzilla vs Megalon, I've seen every Godzilla movie in Japanese, many subtitled. They're ALL better when they're not dubbed in English. King Kong vs Godzilla is leagues ahead of the crappy American version. And Godzilla does not win in either version, btw.

[PeppeRaskell1]

Originally posted by finbarlafume
[B]I've seen a subtitled version shown on tv ( British network Channel Four showed several of them subtitled ) and I've got the Japanese DVD.
The Japanese DVD sadly has no English subtitles so you'd need to know the story before watching it.
It's a lot, lot better than the version with Raymond Burr, much darker and a far more ambitious production.

Where did you get the Japanese DVD?

[finbarlafume]

Where did you get the Japanese DVD?
____________________________________________

Well, I got mine from an online store called DeoDeo. However, I learned a short while later that I could have bought the disk much cheaper from CDJapan ( www.cdjapan.co.jp/ )

As I said though, the disk contains no English at all so unless you're familiar with the story you might end up scratching your head. ( Although it's a great incentive to learn a second language )

The uncut, widescreen version of King Kong vs. Godzilla is also available, as is Godzilla Raids Again and Rodan ( All region 2 )

Try ebay auctions too... they pop up from time to time.