Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by MaxRebo320 »

Legion1979 wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 2:19 pm The idea of watching any of these dubbed is horrifying.
Why? Return of Godzilla - Mothra's dubs are done largely by the same crew as the 1970s HK dubs everyone loves. And does your statement include 1985? And while the dubs for Mechagodzilla II - Destroyah aren't exactly good, there are plenty of people who have nostalgic attachment to them (its not like the movies themselves are especially good any way you watch them). If you don't enjoy them, that's obviously fine, but "horrifying"? Really?
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Legion1979 »

Yes, horrifying. I've tried to watch these dubbed. No thank you.

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by InfiniteHollywood »

I wish the dubs were available on these films. It's crazy that for years you practically had to kill someone to get the subtitled version of any of these films and now you can't hardly find any of the dubs. I really wish Godzilla 1985 was available in HD. For all the fun poked at the Dr. Pepper stuff, it was a solid cut and Raymond Burr did a great job. Purists can get upset or whatever, but I'd enjoy a lot of these in the dub forms as well.

They're quite good but some are bad sure, but honestly I assume more the people who are so anti-dub have grown up without them, but millions of people watched these films dubbed.

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Chrispy_G »

InfiniteHollywood wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 12:58 pm I wish the dubs were available on these films. It's crazy that for years you practically had to kill someone to get the subtitled version of any of these films and now you can't hardly find any of the dubs. I really wish Godzilla 1985 was available in HD. For all the fun poked at the Dr. Pepper stuff, it was a solid cut and Raymond Burr did a great job. Purists can get upset or whatever, but I'd enjoy a lot of these in the dub forms as well.

They're quite good but some are bad sure, but honestly I assume more the people who are so anti-dub have grown up without them, but millions of people watched these films dubbed.
Outside of the unique 1985 cut, all of the Heisei and Millennium films are presented on Blu Ray with the English Dub option. Return of Godzilla has a dub from the same basic team that handles the whole Heisei/Millennium era.
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Legion1979 »

Well of course. Toho owns those dubs, so they'll keep using them.

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Terasawa »

InfiniteHollywood wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 12:58 pm For all the fun poked at the Dr. Pepper stuff, it was a solid cut and Raymond Burr did a great job.
And it's easily the best dubbing in any of the Heisei Series films.
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Chrispy_G »

Legion1979 wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:02 pm Well of course. Toho owns those dubs, so they'll keep using them.
It's almost like they should make sure they have Dubs that they own for EVERY movie :mrgreen:

I'm only kidding.

Added in 52 seconds:
Terasawa wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:07 pm
InfiniteHollywood wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 12:58 pm For all the fun poked at the Dr. Pepper stuff, it was a solid cut and Raymond Burr did a great job.
And it's easily the best dubbing in any of the Heisei Series films.
Just out of respect to Burr, I would like anything that NEEDS to be sorted with 1985 to be sorted to get it a good, official Blu Ray release.
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Mac Daddy MM »

Can't even begin imagining having to sit through Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla with subs. Be like watching a SyFy channel movie... In French.


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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

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Mac Daddy MM wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 5:27 pm Can't even begin imagining having to sit through Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla with subs. Be like watching a SyFy channel movie... In French.
I see it the other way. Sitting through it dubbed means the same lousy movie, but also with inferior performances, and even less reason to keep my eyes pointed at the screen.
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

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eabaker wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 5:58 pmeven less reason to keep my eyes pointed at the screen.
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plasmabeam wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:03 am Hear me out on this. What if Godzilla is actually Suko’s father? In GvK when Godzilla defeated Kong and they were roaring at each other, what if Godzilla inseminated Kong at that moment and that’s why they were screaming?

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Legion1979 »

I always felt bad for fans who grew up with the Sony releases of the Hesie series before 2014. These aren't fantastic movies but they still play better in their native language. I just can't make it through these things dubbed. The full frame, dubbed versions of King Ghidorah and Mothra that were the only way to legally see them in this county were almost unwatchable.

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Mac Daddy MM »

Legion1979 wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 6:14 pm I always felt bad for fans who grew up with the Sony releases of the Hesie series before 2014. These aren't fantastic movies but they still play better in their native language. I just can't make it through these things dubbed. The full frame, dubbed versions of King Ghidorah and Mothra that were the only way to legally see them in this county were almost unwatchable.
It helps to have actually grown up with the dubs, not just of the Heisei era, but the franchise as a whole. I have fond memories of picking out VHS tapes of a handful of Godzilla movies to take to my gram's when I was like 5 or 6 when my parents went out. I mean, you can "feel bad" about it all you want, but it's not going to make someone like myself suddenly jump ship and start preferring subs. Hell, I could even say that without the dubs, I wouldn't be a fan because there's no way my typical 5-10-year old self would have sat through these movies with subs.


Quote of the Year:
plasmabeam wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:03 am Hear me out on this. What if Godzilla is actually Suko’s father? In GvK when Godzilla defeated Kong and they were roaring at each other, what if Godzilla inseminated Kong at that moment and that’s why they were screaming?

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Terasawa »

Chrispy_G wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 1:10 pmReturn of Godzilla has a dub from the same basic team that handles the whole Heisei/Millennium era.
Pedantry alert:

RoG was one of the last Toho films dubbed by that particular group of performers (I know of only one after it, an OVA anime) - of the main performers in that dub, only John Culkin (Maki) and Warwick Evans (Okamura) are heard in later Hong Kong-dubbed Godzilla films, and neither after Godzilla vs Mothra. Beginning in the late 1980s, Toho's contractor in Hong Kong was Rik Thomas, and while his initial dubs featured some holdovers from the previous era of HK dubbing, by 1997 (when SpaceGodzilla and Destoroyah were recorded), he'd eventually recruited essentially an entirely new cast.

Another way to look at it: practically every Toho film dubbed in Hong Kong prior to 1997 has the actors using a variety of Mid-Atlantic and British and Australian dialects, while the dubbed versions recorded later have actors typically using the General American accent. Some of this was a concerted effort by the actors to Americanize their voices, but also, the nationality of the primary actors had changed (in the old days they were mostly Brit ex-pats, while the latter day leading roles were assigned to Canadians and Americans).
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Legion1979 »

I'll always insist that listening to these movies the way they were made is the best way to watch them, but I love some of the 70s dubs enough that I watch them regularly. There's something so great about them and the goofiness fits the vibe of these movies.

Later films try to be so serious and those dubs just don't work for me. The first time I heard "Oh no. The monsters are getting pissed off!" in Godzilla vs Mothra I cringed. Yikes.
Last edited by Legion1979 on Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

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Legion1979 wrote: Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:14 am Later films try to be so serious and those dubs just don't work for me. The first time I heard "Oh no. The monsters are getting pissed off!" in Godzilla vs Mothra I cringed. Yikes.
That's funny, because when I listen to that dub, I get the impression that it was done very much with tongue in cheek. When a friend contacted Simon Broad (who'd dubbed Takehiro Murata; also the English voice of Chow Yun-fat in a number of his best movies), Broad recalled that they'd had so much fun doing Godzilla vs Mothra. It was also the only Godzilla film he worked on that he remembered by name, but he's also in Godzilla vs Biollante and the "lost" version of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (but he's still heard in the available version).
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Chrispy_G »

Legion1979 wrote: Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:14 am I'll always insist that listening to these movies the way they were made is the best way to watch them, but I love some of the 70s dubs enough that I watch them regularly. There's something so great about them and the goofiness fits the vibe of these movies.

Later films try to be so serious and those dubs just don't work for me. The first time I heard "Oh no. The monsters are getting pissed off!" in Godzilla vs Mothra I cringed. Yikes.
"Oh no they're getting pissed off!" had me cry laughing the first time I heard it. Again, I know the tone of the Heisei films isn't meant to make them THAT kind of movie, but I think there is fun there.

Over time, every 'modern blockbuster' eventually comes off as silly and laughable in hindsight. Just look at some of the contemporary perspectives on the "camp factor" of the Raimi Spider-Man films. Nobody was really turning their noses up at that back when they came out, but now stuff like Green Goblin gassing Spidey and saying "sleeeeeep" is considered a little corny. You'll see the same thing happen to even the best of the MCU movies, the most outlandish things about them will stand out, and cast an aura of 'this is ridiculous, goofy bullcrap' over the entirety of the film.

If you don't think all of the physical comedy shenanigans of the MCU isn't going to come off as absolutely cringey in 10-15 years, you have another thing coming.

Kevin Smith once re-watched the Burton Batman films and talked about how, back in the 80s "This was our Dark and Gritty Reboot!" relative to Adam West Batman, and yet by modern standards, Joker dancing around to a Prince soundtrack as he vandalized a museum feels quite cheeseball.

So...as 'serious, modern 90s blockbusters' those dubs don't really do the Heisei films any favors but through the modern lens of "kind of silly and dated 90s blockbusters"...something like "Oh no they're getting pissed off!" delivered in that way is, surprisingly endearing and adds to the entertainment factor. It lets a viewer have a little bit more fun with the film. Reading subtitles being a more literary function sort of takes away an element of "sit back, watch, and have fun" that I think is paramount to the timeless enjoyment of MOST of these films.

That's my two pennies.
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Legion1979 »

Did you just say people didn't laugh at Raimi's Spider-Man films when they were new? I was in the audience for the 3rd one in 2007. Believe me, the audience laughed.

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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

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Heck, we laughed plenty at the first two! Those so-called "corny" elements are camp humor, consistent with the work Raimi had been doing since the 80s and was still doing as recently as MoM!
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

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Legion1979 wrote: Sat Jul 23, 2022 11:46 am Did you just say people didn't laugh at Raimi's Spider-Man films when they were new? I was in the audience for the 3rd one in 2007. Believe me, the audience laughed.
No, you missed the point of what I was saying. I wasn't saying nobody laughed at those films, or that they don't have intentional humor.

I am saying that with age, things about the films that were generally NOT perceived as silly/cringey have since aged to a point where they might induce eyerolls or unintended sniggers from modern viewers (or many more than they did back then). As happens with EVERY film. To kids who grew up on Adam West Batman, Tim Burton's Batman was the dark and serious reboot. To kids who grew up on Burton Batman films or BTAS, then the Nolan Trilogy was Batman "taken seriously"...and then you have films like Joker and The Batman that make the Nolan films feel like much more lighthearted affairs. For better (Joker) and for worse (The Batman)

For all of the things that can be said about the Heisei Godzilla Dubs, at least they never erroneously referred to Mothra as a He.
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Re: Japanese vs. Dubbed Versions of Heisei Movies

Post by Legion1979 »

Chrispy_G wrote: Sat Jul 23, 2022 10:44 pm For all of the things that can be said about the Heisei Godzilla Dubs, at least they never erroneously referred to Mothra as a He.
......I'm almost positive that Mothra being a girl wasn't something that was established until long after the 60s films were made. You can't fault older movies for not calling Mothra the gender we now accept her as.

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