Partyslammer
09-09-09, 05:29 PM
I was surprised to get my Amazon Japan order of the Japanese Gamera 90's trilogy Box set today. Considering I had also ordered several of the Godzilla films to be released this month and for everything to be shipped together, this was a surprise.
A quick synopsis - this so-called Gamera trilogy started with the 1995 "Gamera vs Gyaos" which was a reboot of the often laughably bad and increasingly juvenile Japanese monster series which ran from the mid 60's through the end of the 70's. The '95 film was a model of innovation, imaginatively made on a relatively small budget with adult themes and was vastly superior on an artistic level then any of the Godzilla films (and many American sci-fi films) being made in the 90's. The succeeding two sequels in '96 and '99 respectively, each displayed further improvement both technically and artistically and the three movies as a whole not only form a cohesive single story, but remain a high point of the genre.
Anyway, I had read another AV regular's views on the blu-ray box set in the Godzilla blu-ray thread and he seemed pretty disappointed in the a/v quality which dropped my expectations way down.
Happily, I can say imo, the video and audio is significantly better than I was now expecting but that's not to say this set lives up to it's potential, especially in the extras which are a huge disappointment considering what the previous dvd and especially the 90's laserdisc box sets gave fans.
First off, the transfers *are* a significant step up from the dvds. The color especially on the first movie (Gamera vs Gyaos) leans a bit more towards a more natural, warmer pallet than the respective dvd but doesn't go off into oversaturated, chroma bleeding reds and oranges like the laserdisc version did. Detail is significantly better on all three titles although as noted, the positive differences increase with each succeeding movie, the oldest still looking fairly soft compared to the last movie, Revenge of Iris which is significantly sharper, due in large part to the better photography. I agree, none of these movies are really true a/v demo material (although the Gamera vs Gyaos battle in the first half of "Revenge of Iris" comes close) and the lack of solid contrast especially evident in the first movie is troubling.
The audio is a bit more problematic. When listening through direct analog pcm streaming, the TrueHD soundtracks on all three movies really lacks punch and bass. I'd almost guess there's no subwoofer/low frequency track via direct stream. However, when I switched my receiver to digital input, the soundtrack really came alive and to my ears, sounded marginally better then the dvd release.
Which leads to the extras on all three discs. Basically, for each movie, you get the respective multiple trailers. The other feature is a ridiculously over-chaptered (over 80 chapters!) series of interviews with the principles and technicians involved in the 3 movies spread out over all three discs designed to be watched as one long program. The big problem with this feature, especially for non-Japanese language viewers is these interviews mostly are static talking head style interviews of cast and crew sitting in front of the three posters for the movies with occasional snippets of movie scenes and some very brief behind the scenes shots. Worse, the interviews do not address the movies in any sort of chronological order, topics jump back and forth between all three movies so you'll see a bunch of interviews with scenes from the 3rd movie on the first disc, etc. Although I skimmed through the interviews, I did not catch any of the wonderful cgi in-progress shots that appeared on the Revenge of Iris laserdisc box set.
Overall, I can recommend this set for diehards with the above reservations, but I think overall, especially in regards to the bonus features, this falls way short of it's potential. The lack of English subtitles (which the dvd box set included as well as the US dvd releases) and Japanese language only audio is a big turn-off for some people as well.
T.B.
A quick synopsis - this so-called Gamera trilogy started with the 1995 "Gamera vs Gyaos" which was a reboot of the often laughably bad and increasingly juvenile Japanese monster series which ran from the mid 60's through the end of the 70's. The '95 film was a model of innovation, imaginatively made on a relatively small budget with adult themes and was vastly superior on an artistic level then any of the Godzilla films (and many American sci-fi films) being made in the 90's. The succeeding two sequels in '96 and '99 respectively, each displayed further improvement both technically and artistically and the three movies as a whole not only form a cohesive single story, but remain a high point of the genre.
Anyway, I had read another AV regular's views on the blu-ray box set in the Godzilla blu-ray thread and he seemed pretty disappointed in the a/v quality which dropped my expectations way down.
Happily, I can say imo, the video and audio is significantly better than I was now expecting but that's not to say this set lives up to it's potential, especially in the extras which are a huge disappointment considering what the previous dvd and especially the 90's laserdisc box sets gave fans.
First off, the transfers *are* a significant step up from the dvds. The color especially on the first movie (Gamera vs Gyaos) leans a bit more towards a more natural, warmer pallet than the respective dvd but doesn't go off into oversaturated, chroma bleeding reds and oranges like the laserdisc version did. Detail is significantly better on all three titles although as noted, the positive differences increase with each succeeding movie, the oldest still looking fairly soft compared to the last movie, Revenge of Iris which is significantly sharper, due in large part to the better photography. I agree, none of these movies are really true a/v demo material (although the Gamera vs Gyaos battle in the first half of "Revenge of Iris" comes close) and the lack of solid contrast especially evident in the first movie is troubling.
The audio is a bit more problematic. When listening through direct analog pcm streaming, the TrueHD soundtracks on all three movies really lacks punch and bass. I'd almost guess there's no subwoofer/low frequency track via direct stream. However, when I switched my receiver to digital input, the soundtrack really came alive and to my ears, sounded marginally better then the dvd release.
Which leads to the extras on all three discs. Basically, for each movie, you get the respective multiple trailers. The other feature is a ridiculously over-chaptered (over 80 chapters!) series of interviews with the principles and technicians involved in the 3 movies spread out over all three discs designed to be watched as one long program. The big problem with this feature, especially for non-Japanese language viewers is these interviews mostly are static talking head style interviews of cast and crew sitting in front of the three posters for the movies with occasional snippets of movie scenes and some very brief behind the scenes shots. Worse, the interviews do not address the movies in any sort of chronological order, topics jump back and forth between all three movies so you'll see a bunch of interviews with scenes from the 3rd movie on the first disc, etc. Although I skimmed through the interviews, I did not catch any of the wonderful cgi in-progress shots that appeared on the Revenge of Iris laserdisc box set.
Overall, I can recommend this set for diehards with the above reservations, but I think overall, especially in regards to the bonus features, this falls way short of it's potential. The lack of English subtitles (which the dvd box set included as well as the US dvd releases) and Japanese language only audio is a big turn-off for some people as well.
T.B.