Toho's Godzilla 4K Restoration Project

[GodzillaFan1996]

Here are some images from what I believe is from the 4k restoration project, can anyone confirm this?







I also posted this to bring some life back to this discussion.

[Terasawa]

Appears so, but I'm not sure what can be discussed just yet. I'm wagering none of us here have seen any of these except Kong. :/ Ghidorah just aired four days ago; MvG was broadcast at the beginning of May and has so far only been shared in very private circles. Actual screenshots (i.e. not cell phone picks of a TV) have been pretty scarce.

[GodzillaFan1996]

Appears so, but I'm not sure what can be discussed just yet. I'm wagering none of us here have seen any of these except Kong. :/ Ghidorah just aired four days ago; MvG was broadcast at the beginning of May and has so far only been shared in very private circles. Actual screenshots (i.e. not cell phone picks of a TV) have been pretty scarce.

These images are from a small group of people on Twitter who regularly upload these images online, I bet they have recordings of the broadcasts because occasionally they will upload specifically requested images like this.

[Major sssspielberg!]

My God

[GodzillaFan1996]

My God

Here is a comparison image of the HiVision vs.4K

2008 HiVision


2021 4K


It is literally night and day!

[canofhumdingers]

Yeah that color timing is vastly superior. As well as pretty much everything else about the image. Crap. Now I have to decide whether to blow about $150 per film to import the Japanese discs, or take the gamble of holding out hope that either A) Toho reissues the 4K discs in a more barebones and budget friendly package down the road or B) we are actually lucky enough to get these released on disc stateside at some point. And I’m not much of a gambler...

And I don’t even have 4K! (Yet!)

[GodzillaFan1996]

Here are some screenshots from Mothra vs. Godzilla.

[canofhumdingers]

Wow, that absolutely destroys the previous transfers! Awesome!!

And it’s amazing to see MvsG look so natural! Every copy I’ve ever watched (ESPECIALLY the hi vision master) has had this harsh, unnatural brightness to the highlights and bright whites (such as the woman’s hat or the men’s shirts) that I always found distracting. I don’t know if it was clipped whites or some other technical issue but it always stuck out to me. This looks INFINITELY better and more natural!

I’m simultaneously elated with these new transfers and gut punched that rather than being able to wait a bit more and use these, Criterion was forced (for whatever reasons, Toho’s or their own) to utilize the previous generation masters for their set. Looks like I’ll have educate myself on how to rip criterion’s subtitles, rip toho’s video, and somehow combine them. Also fingers crossed our amazing dub preservationists have one more go at their reconstructions with these new sources…!!!

[Jetty_Jags]

all I can say is wow

[Terasawa]

I believe all of those shots from MvG are also in the Matsuri version. In other words, none of those shots came from the lower quality multi-generational element they had to use for the footage exclusive to the full length version. Those are the frames I'm most interested in looking at for judging the quality of the overall transfer.

[GodzillaFan1996]

I believe all of those shots from MvG are also in the Matsuri version. In other words, none of those shots came from the lower quality multi-generational element they had to use for the footage exclusive to the full length version. Those are the frames I'm most interested in looking at for judging the quality of the overall transfer.

Sadly the images I just supplied, minus 5-6 more images, are the only ones that I can get from "THEM"
They have recodings of the movies, with Mothra vs. Godzilla in 2k broadcast while the other two are true 4k broadcast, they just won't risk sharing them, except for their inner circle, which I'm not part of.

[Chrispy_G]

I don't know man, I'm cool with the HiVisions.

Only joking. Those images are fantastic

[John Schuermann]

Those who kept saying "these films can look so much better" when the Criterion release came out are now vindicated. An "I told you so" or two would be completely justified.

Pointed out because many of us were attacked for being hypercritical killjoys.

[Legion1979]

Those who kept saying "these films can look so much better" when the Criterion release came out are now vindicated. An "I told you so" or two would be completely justified.

Pointed out because many of us were attacked for being hypercritical killjoys.

I dont remember anyone, anywhere (here or otherwise) saying that these films COULDN'T look better or that this the best they could possibly look.

[Terasawa]

Dr. Kain did, essentially, but he lives in the bizarro world.

[GodzillaFan1996]

Those who kept saying "these films can look so much better" when the Criterion release came out are now vindicated. An "I told you so" or two would be completely justified.

Pointed out because many of us were attacked for being hypercritical killjoys.

I dont remember anyone, anywhere (here or otherwise) saying that these films COULDN'T look better or that this the best they could possibly look.

But can we all agree that these new transfers are BEAUTIFUL!











They are also using this tech on non-4k releases

King Kong Escapes
Previous transfer


New transfer

[Tohosaurus]

Those who kept saying "these films can look so much better" when the Criterion release came out are now vindicated. An "I told you so" or two would be completely justified.

Pointed out because many of us were attacked for being hypercritical killjoys.

To be fair, I think most people were saying that the transfers Criterion used were all that was possible (at that time) based on what Toho would allow, so the people blaming Criterion specifically and advocating for Arrow or whoever else to have gotten the movies would've been disappointed to find the same PQ. I don't believe anyone was saying it was impossible for them to look better from a technical standpoint.

The next question then is how quickly Toho will allow these new 4K transfers to be used elsewhere, such as by a US distributor, even on a Blu-ray. Criterion of course (in)famously doesn't do 4K Blu-ray yet, but they've used 4K transfers so there's that. Aside from the 1954 movie though, it doesn't seem terribly likely Criterion would re-release anything individually and wouldn't probably re-issue the entire set for a handful of films getting a new transfer.

[Chrispy_G]

Those who kept saying "these films can look so much better" when the Criterion release came out are now vindicated. An "I told you so" or two would be completely justified.

Pointed out because many of us were attacked for being hypercritical killjoys.

To be fair, I think most people were saying that the transfers Criterion used were all that was possible (at that time) based on what Toho would allow, so the people blaming Criterion specifically and advocating for Arrow or whoever else to have gotten the movies would've been disappointed to find the same PQ. I don't believe anyone was saying it was impossible for them to look better from a technical standpoint.

The next question then is how quickly Toho will allow these new 4K transfers to be used elsewhere, such as by a US distributor, even on a Blu-ray. Criterion of course (in)famously doesn't do 4K Blu-ray yet, but they've used 4K transfers so there's that. Aside from the 1954 movie though, it doesn't seem terribly likely Criterion would re-release anything individually and wouldn't probably re-issue the entire set for a handful of films getting a new transfer.

Yeah, generally...for the Criterion set my perspective was "I still consider this worth buying for XYZ reasons even if it could have been much better, I am happy with it" while some people seemed to have a bit of a "well this sucks so why bother" mind-set...which is fine, each to their own. Don't like it, don't buy it.

If the Showa series is in the hands of Criterion for the foreseeable future...if they wouldn't upgrade the complete Showa Set as some nice new 15 Disc release, I could perhaps seeing it be done in 2 or 3 "volumes" that split the films/discs/cost of production up a bit.

Splitting it up across multiple release might even incentivize them to maybe include a few non-Godzilla films. Rodan and Mothra in particular sort of 'belong' in the continuity, and even though the monsters don't cross over into G films, the Maser Tanks from War of the Gargantuas do re-appear a few times. If you throw in those 3 movies you have 18 films, two sets of 9 films, or 3 sets of 6 films.

It is all purely hypothetical at this point. But I would love to get these transfers of the films officially released over here.

[John Schuermann]

Just to clarify, I was never one of those who blamed Criterion - I was well aware that Toho tied their hands. And, FWIW, I did buy the set right when it came out. I was just massively disappointed when I found out that the Criterion set was going to use the Toho transfers because, as is obvious with even a quick glance at the comparison screenshots floating around, there is a HUGE difference in quality between these new transfers and the old. There were those of us who knew that the films could look MUCH better even on standard Blu-ray if Criterion had been allowed to properly remaster the films, never mind 4K (after all, the screenshots were are seeing right now are either standard HD or lower resolution).

If you peruse the Criterion announcement and release threads (plus comments on social media), you will see quite a bit of the following:

These are old movies - they were never going to look that good.

We should just be happy for what we get.

The transfers look fine to me!

Some people will just never be satisfied.

But, honestly, my post was intended to be lighthearted (the smiley face was meant sincerely, lol). I am extremely excited about these new transfers, and have already ponied up the money to buy the Japanese KK v G UHD Blu-ray release (it looks amazing). So I am happy that everyone gets to enjoy the new transfers (if only from screencaps) and that includes the naysayers of us naysayers

[Legion1979]

Crispy...

I think its going to be a while before the 4k masters make their way to this country. So far only KKvsG has been released on disc in Japan, and that was two years after it's television airing, and nothing else has been announced yet. Who knows what Toho's game plan is going to be with these. At the moment we only know of 8 movies that are even getting this treatment. It's probably going to be a very long time before all the movies get released on 4k disc in Japan. And if Toho doesnt want cheaper American releases cutting into domestic sales, it will be even longer of a wait for a US release.

Also, I just don't see Criterion bothering to upgrade their set. Dealing with Toho was no doubt unrewarding, and they got a lot of crap from the dedicated fan base for various aspects of the set. I just don't think they're going to revisit it.