I thought it'd be a fun idea to start a series of talkbacks on not just the divisive subject that is dubbing, but the even more divisive subject that is the Hong Kong-made international dubs. I, for one, find them usually very entertaining.
When Toho put international dubs up for sale in their catalogs they never stated where the dubs were recorded, and a number of them are lost now. Even if we did somehow verify what the first HK-dubbed Toho film was, it's possible nobody on this board has heard it or ever will. So instead of going in order, I wanted to start with one of my favorites.
This dub basically embodies the spirit of HK dubbing during this era, which, to me, can be summed up as entertainment despite being hastily made that contradictorily features golden voices. This was made during a time when dubbers in Hong Kong mostly worked in radio for their day jobs, which explains why they all sound like announcers and have such memorable, distinct voices. Ted Thomas is really creepy and good as the Secretary. They could have left Godzilla and Angilas talking to each other through speech bubbles, but they just dubbed them instead. I just love that. The hastiness reveals itself in inconsistencies such as accidentally giving the general two or three different voices, and in that Space Hunter Nebula M has like two alternate names, but none of it detracts from the entertainment, in my opinion. Some people say the guy who voices Gengo doesn't really fit him, but I'm so used to the dub that it doesn't bother me.
