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Yesterday, a special day for me-I got the double disc set of the officially licensed Japanese versions of these 2 great movies.  

The Japanese WOTG is far superior: unlike the constant spate of canned AIP music in the American version, you get Ifukube's original tracks, AND the music plays only when necessary or to establish atmosphere in a scene.

There is one scene between the creatures that is especially eerie because there's no music.  Some extra scenes and some seriously remastered spurce material make this one come to new life.  And, fear not-the relationship between Frankenstein and The Gargantuas is clearly explained and even added upon.

I haven't seen the Rodan disc yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing this one a lot.
For $19.95, how can you go wrong?   :cheers:

I've had this set for a while and I just watched Rodan last night.  I watched the Japanese cut and found it very enjoyable.  The ending is actually has a sad poetry to it in my opinion.  I only watched part of the American cut but what I saw was very different.

War of the Gargantuas is good fun, too.  There's a neat documentary on the Rodan disc called Bringing Godzilla Down to Size.  It focuses mainly on Tsuburaya and other folks involved with special effects throughout Toho's film history.  It really gives one more appreciation for their work and passion put into the productions.  There's also a cool bit with 3 of the actors who've had the rare honor of being the the Godzilla suit, including the first guy to ever play him!

I'm interested in this set mostly for WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS (I'm not quite as interested in RODAN).  Are these widescreen versions?

By the way, deepdiscount.com has this for $14.79!

War of the Gargantuas is the original widescreen "Tohoscope" 16x9 enhanced.  Rodan is in its original aspect ration of 1:33:1 or so which is a "full screen" image.

Thanks.  I'm buying it!

Indeed! How could I forget the documentary? Many great actors apperared on that one, including Akira Takarada, who played Dr. Serizawa's rival in the very first movie, "Gojira."

Other actors included Yoshio Tsuchiya (The Human Vapor, 7 Samurai, to name a few)  

There was a fantastic interview with Mr. Inoue (i forgot his first name) who is the man who created the minitaures and the vehicle designs.  AND the original Godzilla himself, Haruo Nakajima (of whom I have had the unprecedented honor of meeting at Chiller Theatre)

Without the combined works of Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya and Tomoyuki Tanaka, and the unrivalled music of Akira Ifukube, Toho may not have led the way in the fantasy\science fiction field.  

Unlike CGI today, everything was a miniature, and a labor of love went into every crushed builidng, bomb explosion and pyrotehcnic.  Toho will always be the leader in this field no matter what comes or goes afterward.  

This documentary was a masterpiece,and I thank God that someone got the real firsthand stories from the surviving members of the golden era of the monster film before they passed on.  :thumbup: :cheers:

Ahhh....foiled again!  Oh well, it's nice to have anyhow  :cheers:

Posted by: Pilgermann 


Indeed-there was a very sad ending to it. But to think that these movies were at the forefront of the monster film, and that over 50 years have gone by in the case of some of the films, makes you really admire what they did considering what they had to work with. 

Some people say "oh it's only a monster film" but then again they never think about what goes into them! I wonder if they'd accept miniatures and non-CGI in today's world?

i'd buy it for 5.00 :teddyr: i'm real cheap! :thumbup: :teddyr: :cheers:

Hah!   :tongueout:

I greatly enjoy both of these films and also picked up the 2 disc set when it came out. Like the Godzilla box set that I also have, I love that they put both the original Japanese cuts and the edited American versions on the discs as a lot of times new footage was filmed by the American distributor and cut into the movie. Rodan has always been one of my top Japanese movie monsters.

 I just picked this up and can't wait to watch it. I was planning on saving it for the weekend but I might not be able to wait that long.