Toho Kingdom

Prove me wrong, but I believe Arrow only dealed with Toho once, for the Blu-Ray release of the Bloodthirsty Trilogy. Strange, as their catalogue includes several movies from Toei, Nikkatsu, etc. But Toho is the studio that is the most noticeably absent from everything they've put out so far in terms of Japanese cinema. That might gives an idea on how difficult it is to work with them.

KaijusHunter wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 5:09 pm Prove me wrong, but I believe Arrow only dealed with Toho once, for the Blu-Ray release of the Bloodthirsty Trilogy. Strange, as their catalogue includes several movies from Toei, Nikkatsu, etc. But Toho is the studio that is the most noticeably absent from everything they've put out so far in terms of Japanese cinema. That might gives an idea on how difficult it is to work with them.

James Flower from Arrow straight up said they were difficult to work with during an interview around the time the Gamera set was coming out.

Thatguy4683 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 30, 2022 7:57 pm I do like that toho is giving love to Underappreciated Kaiju

I never thought I'd see a couple of these titles see a Blu-ray release. Sometimes I think Toho dislikes Varan.

For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:03 pm For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

(Do people still listen to Meat Loaf?)

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:03 pm For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

Do you the print for Varan looks bad, or the transfer?

The Killer Meteor wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:57 pm

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:03 pm For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

Do you the print for Varan looks bad, or the transfer?

The print is awful, full of scratches and dirt. The others are clean, so this is surprising.

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:58 pm

The Killer Meteor wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:57 pm

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:03 pm For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

Do you the print for Varan looks bad, or the transfer?

The print is awful, full of scratches and dirt. The others are clean, so this is surprising.

Sounds like it just a little worse off than Godzilla Raids Again.

If you add the blurriness that comes with cropping a 4:3 film frame to Scope, yes. So actually, it's worse.

The others look like quite good. Not 4K restoration good, but good quality transfers for films of this vintage. Much better than the HiVision disasters.

I could dig a blu ray of Varan.

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 1:59 pm If you add the blurriness that comes with cropping a 4:3 film frame to Scope, yes. So actually, it's worse.

Wait, they cropped Varan to Scope? Now I'm racking my brain to remember if the Media Blasters DVD is scope too. I don't remember it being so. What a bonehead move.

Major sssspielberg! wrote: ↑Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:23 am

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 1:59 pm If you add the blurriness that comes with cropping a 4:3 film frame to Scope, yes. So actually, it's worse.

Wait, they cropped Varan to Scope? Now I'm racking my brain to remember if the Media Blasters DVD is scope too. I don't remember it being so. What a bonehead move.

Not the whole movie. They began shooting in Standard, but part-way through decided to aim for a Japanese theatrical release, so they shot the remainder in Scope, cropped the stuff they'd already shot, and labeled the process "Toho Pan-Scope." That's why some of the effects shots have Varan's head outside the frame.

It seems that it was similar to RKO's "Superscope" process, the similarities to which were detailed in this invaluable CHFB post.

The trailers on this BD release are framed for 2.35:1 (the traditional Scope ratio). While it appears to be heavily windowboxed, it's actually because the black bars at the sides of the frame are part of the film itself. The reason why is described and illustrated in the linked forum post, but to quote the Widescreen Museum's Superscope entry: "A black band was printed onto the right side of the image since the full available width, used by CinemaScope, was not utilized." Crop the trailer so that all the black bars (digital and filmic) are removed and the ratio is ~2.16 -- only slightly wider than the 2.1 Superscope ratio.

Here's a screenshot from the trailer where scratches on the emulsion are actually visible (if only slightly) on the these bands, at right down by the Eirin badge and as a speck at left (about even with the kanji text across the screen). You should probably right click and open the image in a new tab at full resolution to see it better, because it's pretty small damage.



You can also see it in this export trailer (also from the new BD): notice first of all that the TohoScope logo is wider than any of the Varan footage; and notice that the glue marks at visible across the entire frame, even the bands at either side.



(Small gallery of trailer screens.) Apparently this Blu-ray frames the movie at closer to 2.35, but if it's like the DVD transfer, it's done by extra cropping and stretching to achieve that result.

Media Blasters' Latitude Zero DVD had SFX outtakes from multiple films, including Varan in Academy Ratio:

Does anyone know where those outtakes on the Media Blasters' Latitude Zero DVD originated from? I assume they must have been on a Toho DVD first before Media Blasters got them. It's surprising to me that the Varan outtake footage isn't on either the Varan DVD or the Varan blu-ray that Toho released.

SY3 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 21, 2022 8:17 pm Does anyone know where those outtakes on the Media Blasters' Latitude Zero DVD originated from? I assume they must have been on a Toho DVD first before Media Blasters got them. It's surprising to me that the Varan outtake footage isn't on either the Varan DVD or the Varan blu-ray that Toho released.

I'm sure the outtake montage was pulled from Toho's LZ DVD release, which came before.

Will this be released in America?

Destoroyah of Worlds wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 1:36 am Will this be released in America?

Nope.

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:03 pm For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

Once again Varan gets fucked.

Malchik wrote: ↑Sun May 07, 2023 12:18 pm

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 6:03 pm For those consumed with curiosity: just got the new Toho Blu-ray release of Varan, Gorath, Dogora, and Space Amoeba (aka Yog). Gorath, Dogora and Space Amoeba look really good, Varan looks like s**t.

So three out of four ain't bad considering the reasonable price of the 2 Blu-ray set.

Once again Varan gets fucked.

On camera, too. Shocking.

John Schuermann wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 6:11 pm

Malchik wrote: ↑Sun May 07, 2023 12:18 pm Once again Varan gets fucked.

On camera, too. Shocking.

Look, if Toho won't hire him anymore, he's got to get paid somehow. Times are tough for everyone. Don't judge.