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Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection
Topic Started: Aug 19 2009, 05:38 AM (379 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Out yesterday: The H-Man, Battle in Outer Space, Mothra.

I wonder if anybody is going to take their “Toho Collection” back to the store because “it’s only got one disc in it.” I mean, c’MON. What goofball at Sony thought it was okay to stack three discs on one spindle? Does somebody over there have a DVD player that works like a 1960s phonograph? Are we going to have to start putting those yellow plastic things into the hole in the center of DVDs to get them to play?

A few years ago, one of our In The Balcony moviegoers requested “one of those movies with the two li’l Japanese singing princesses”. Always amenable to requests (except for “don’t EVER play an Arch Hall, Jr. picture again”), I complied, and we got about 45 minutes into RODAN before I realized that my memory re: flying Japanese monster movies needed a little bit of brushing up.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Black Tiger
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In Godzilla vs. The Thing and Ghidrah and The Three Headed Monster the princesses are played by Tokyo '60s pop singers The Peanuts (aka the Ito sisters)
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panzer the great & terrible
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I always wondered who the Hell they were and what they were doing in those movies. Now I know: selling tickets.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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They are in the original Mothra, too. They couldn't BE any cuter!
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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JazzGuyy
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Be sure to check out the DVD Savant this week. He has an extensive interview with the guys who did the commentary for the Sony collection. http://www.dvdsavant.com/
TANSTAAFL!
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cinemalover
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Has anyone got this set and watched the discs yet? I'm curious to see if the dumb packaging did any damage to their discs. I am very interested in acquring this set but would love to hear anyone's reaction to it that has purchased it.
Thanks.
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Laughing Gravy
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I have it. Have been too busy to watch it... Will try this weekend.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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CliffClaven
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I've watched Mothra and Attack From Space -- no technical issues, good-looking pictures and genuinely scholarly commentary. The commentators discuss just about every important person on or offscreen, and generally refrain from MST-type snark (although there's unintended irony when they go on about the scientific aspirations of Attack From Space).

The movies themselves are fun, with the odd flash of seriousness. Attack From Space opens with a playfully designed space station being destroyed; later the heroes see some scraps of metal and a single body orbiting the earth. In Mothra, the bad guys gun down unarmed islanders and there's later talk of thousands of deaths after a Mothra attack. But no blood or gore. I'd still have a few doubts about showing to kids -- as a child I had issues with the whole idea of giant monsters.

The plots make more sense than, say, Thunderbirds, but don't expect tight plotting or character development. And even though you can generally spot the miniatures there are several really impressive effects.
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cinemalover
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I picked up this set and watched H-Man last night. The picture quality and color were quite good with the exception of the stock footgage of an atomic blast, which had quite a bit of wear. The story was a cross between a gangland crime drama and the Blob. It features a green slimey substance that dissolves people, but leaves their clothes eerily intact. It features lots of nightclub footage of scantily clad dancers in between takes of disappearing victims.

The film takes itself very seriously and has respectable special effects for its time (1958). I enjoyed the film. I watched the Japenese version with subs, which ran between 5-6 minutes longer than the American dubbed version. The film didn't feature any distracting comedy relief and appeared to be aimed squarely at an adult audience.

The single spoke packaging for all three discs seems silly, but didn't present any issues with the disc. Removing two discs to get to the bottom of the pile is a waste of time, but I don't thnk this packaging should lead to any excessive disc damage unless you're either a very impatient person or have abnormally large fingers.
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panzer the great & terrible
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The whole idea of 'abnormally large fingers' scares me to death.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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