Toho's Godzilla 4K Restoration Project

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junkerde
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Toho's Godzilla 4K Restoration Project

Post by junkerde »

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-godzilla-s ... wires.html

Could we possibly see 4k or 2K releases on bluray? My only concern is if they are using the same technique tehy have used before, it might turn out blurry again and not sharp. I hope they do it right this time.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by goji1986 »

junkerde wrote:http://phys.org/news/2014-08-godzilla-s ... wires.html

Could we possibly see 4k or 2K releases on bluray? My only concern is if they are using the same technique tehy have used before, it might turn out blurry again and not sharp. I hope they do it right this time.
Agreed.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Tamura »

Don't worry, they're using an Arriscan. Unless they noise reduce it later on (which would defeat the whole purpose of this project) these should look perf.

I'm surprised the story first broke on Yahoo. Where's Scifi Japan when you need them? I first read about the project over a month ago and was hoping they'd so much as mention it at some point.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Qaenos »

Really looking forward to seeing some Showa Godzilla in 4K! Although, it will probably take several years before we do.

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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

They say one minute from each film has been restored, which begs the question - when and where do we get to see them?

Also, Final Wars was shot digitally. Wonder what they're going to do about that.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Goji »

Tamura wrote: I'm surprised the story first broke on Yahoo. Where's Scifi Japan when you need them? I first read about the project over a month ago and was hoping they'd so much as mention it at some point.
Probably too busy writing up articles on the week 15 box office report of GODZILLA and sharing more DARK KNIGHT RISES concept art.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Kaiser »

Hopefully they can finally get a decent print of King Kong vs. Godzilla although from what I've heard, the film's condition is so terrible that might be too far gone for a truly intensive restoration. Then again, if they can remaster Manos they can remaster anything. It's just a question of if Toho is willing to shell out the money.

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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

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Kaiser wrote:Hopefully they can finally get a decent print of King Kong vs. Godzilla although from what I've heard, the film's condition is so terrible that might be too far gone for a truly intensive restoration. Then again, if they can remaster Manos they can remaster anything. It's just a question of if Toho is willing to shell out the money.
For all we know, some super collector fan could be holding onto a full 35mm print, but they're scared to give it up because Toho might confiscate it. If I'm not mistaken that's how Criterion managed to obtain a fine grain print of GKOTM, which few didn't believe existed outside of an early 80s video master.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by tymon »

Fuckin a! This is fantastic news. Let's just hope we eventually get em ported over by US companies, I just can't justify buying discs with no subtitles, even if the image quality is perfect...

@Goji - Ah c'mon, they have a lot of good stuff too.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Goji »

Cool story, Tyler. Excuse me that my totally not serious comment offended you so much, you felt the need to point out the obvious.


If Toho does 4K restorations of all the Godzilla sequels, it'll be a while before we see them on home video. They *just* finally released the rest of the Godzilla catalog on Blu-ray; which took them forever because the older BD's weren't selling, so I wouldn't get too excited about this.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Qaenos »

I just found this press release which seems to come from the lab that did the 4K scans:

http://www.arri.com/lighting/lighting_e ... -monsters/

Basically, it seems like there were two jobs; (1) a complete 4K scan of 1954 Gojira for use in Japanese theaters, and (2) clips of all 28 Godzilla movies scanned in 4K for a 30-minute documentary to be used by some Japanese channel for home 4K TVs. From reading the article, it doesn't look like complete 4K scans of any Toho Godzilla movie other than the first one has been performed or are being planned. It seems like these scans take a lot of time and effort (which = $$$). Clips are better than nothing, but everyone should hang on to their Blu-rays because I don't think we'll see a 4K scan of Godzilla Vs. Megalon show up anytime soon.

Oh one more negative thing - the article boasts than many of the people responsible for the new 4K scans were also responsible for older scans and restorations of Godzilla movies for home release. In other words, sounds like the same guys responsible for the lackluster Blu-ray scans were on this project too. Let's hope the equipment was to blame and/or the engineers have gotten a lot better since.

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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

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omgitsgodzilla wrote:Also, Final Wars was shot digitally. Wonder what they're going to do about that.
Was it...? I see magazines on the camera in the behind-the-scenes footage.
Any info on this would be appreciated!
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

seamus wrote:
omgitsgodzilla wrote:Also, Final Wars was shot digitally. Wonder what they're going to do about that.
Was it...? I see magazines on the camera in the behind-the-scenes footage.
Any info on this would be appreciated!
From IMDb:
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I'm pretty sure I've read that it was shot digitally other places, too.
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seamus wrote: Was it...? I see magazines on the camera in the behind-the-scenes footage.
Any info on this would be appreciated!
Do film cameras need magazines on them for some reason?
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seamus wrote:
omgitsgodzilla wrote:Also, Final Wars was shot digitally. Wonder what they're going to do about that.
Was it...? I see magazines on the camera in the behind-the-scenes footage.
Any info on this would be appreciated!
Final Wars was shot digitally, then inexplicably had film grain added in post which completely ruined the picture detail. This might have looked "ok" for theatrical film prints and DVD, but on Bluray it looks downright atrocious.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Power-Glove »

I'm really looking forward to this, hopefully criterion or classic media gets to release the new remasters here in the US.

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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by Goji »

There aren't any 4K remasters happening, at least not yet. Like I already said, Toho literally just released the rest of the Godzilla catalogue on Blu-ray in Japan.

Classic Media aren't interested in Blu-ray releases, so they clearly wouldn't even consider it. Critereon (like Classic Media) aren't interested in acquiring any more Godzilla titles. The original 1954 film is important for a plethora of reasons, (something that I assumed was obvious by this point) which is why it was chosen for release.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

It looks bad on the Blu-ray because it's a mediocre scan of a mediocre quality overseas release print.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by MustafaDaisenso »

Judging from the IoAM pic, the absence of print damage is a plus. As for the colors they still seem on the dull side, which is unfortunate since that's one of the more noticeable shortcomings of the R2 releases. Its too bad the pic isn't of higher resolution so that we could really see the difference from the old master.
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Re: Godzilla Films getting 4K Restoration (Toho)

Post by seamus »

omgitsgodzilla wrote:From IMDb:
http://s29.postimg.org/esxzwqd9z/godzil ... _specs.png

I'm pretty sure I've read that it was shot digitally other places, too.
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