Showing posts with label tokusatsu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tokusatsu. Show all posts

8/13/2012

Masked Rider - The First (2005) Review

Masked Rider - The First (2005)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I'll describe the product in the order I saw it. Firstly, the title on the actual DVD is "Masked Rider the First", not "Kamen Rider the First" as shown/as it should have been.
Upon getting it, I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find the supposed 2-disc set was, in fact, one DVD.
The special features are surprisingly well-put together, featuring the trailers (without subtitles), trailers for other projects from years back that the company that released this DVD has apparently acquired (as is frequently done with import releases), and, shockingly, a very in depth and detailed behind the scenes feature that I really enjoyed and that was actually subtitled.
The film itself has an acceptable subbing job, and I was pleased to find that there was no poor dubbing to suffer through, I suppose they finally ran out of monotoned voices to lazily read out lines.
Picture quality is a bit off, but that might be due to transfer stuff (though I don't know why, Japan uses NTSC too), subtitles are clear and easy to read, and the sound quality is excellent
Highly recommended for the Kamen Rider fan or even just someone who has been looking for a good piece of tokusatsu to show to a friend in the hopes of getting them interested too. This flick also makes a surprisingly good date movie, it has action and romance, some slow bits where you can easily get away with a bit of making out, as well as some unintentionally funny bits
NOT for kids though, there is totally a naked dude in part of this film, parents'll want to take a look at this before showing it to the kids. Also, parents'll want to figure out if their kid is really ready to read and watch a film at the same time.

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Takeshi Hongo, a man of extraordinarily keen intellect, has his promising future snuffed out by an evil secret society known as Shocker. They create experimental cyborgs in an attempt to take over the world. Eventually, Hongo is turned into a cyborg - Masked Rider 1 - but soon regains his self-awareness. Realizing that he is now controlled by evil, Hongo escapes.Shocker views Hongo as a traitor and dispatches a new, nearly identical cyborg - Masked Rider 2 - to destroy him. But they're too evenly matched and their duel ends in a draw. Growing impatient, Shocker sends two new cyborgs - Snake and Cobra - to kill them both. KAMEN RIDER THE FIRST is a new adaptation of the popular original manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori.

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7/03/2012

Ultraman: Series One, Vol. 1 (2004) Review

Ultraman: Series One, Vol. 1 (2004)
Average Reviews:

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There sure are a lot of mean-spirited know-nothings out there, judging from the semiliterate 1-star reviews this puppy is racking up. It's almost as if they liked the craptacular bootleg versions of this that were floating around before...
Look. This isn't absolutely perfect. The dub version has some pretty distracting audio problems, but they're transitory, and I am 99% certain it was the best they could do at the price-point they wanted to be able to offer. Could they have cleaned up the audio? I'm not sure, but I bet if they did the whiners would be whining that the set cost $75.00.
People are complaining about how it sometimes drops into subtitled Japanese--this is so that you can watch THE WHOLE EPISODE, for the first time ever in the US. The US version was previously heavily edited for time. And this simply illustrates my point, to wit:
This is a Japanese series. The actors are Japanese. The director was Japanese. The scripts were in Japanese. The expensive audio and video remastering done a couple of years ago for the Tsuburaya region 2 version was done by, you guessed it, Japanese. The English dub is an afterthought. A treat for American fans too young to read. It's a special feature at best. The Japanese audio is crystal clear; the subtitles are legible and accurate. AND THIS SHOW IS MEANT TO BE ENJOYED IN ITS ORIGINAL LANGUAGE (say it with me now, kids): JAPANESE!
And to the nimrod who complained that the DVD wasn't letterboxed: this show was produced for television 40 years ago. The aspect ratio in which it was presented is the aspect ratio on the DVD. There is no letterboxed version. Anywhere. If you still want it letterboxed, ask your mommy or halfway house caregiver for the safety scissors, cut some black construction paper into two long strips, and TAPE IT TO THE SCREEN!
Sorry for the rant, but ignore the doofuses (doofi?) and buy the DVD. If you can read. :o)

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Created by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya (GODZILLA MOTHRA) the 1960s television series ULTRAMAN remains one of Japan\'s most beloved science-fiction exports. Airing between 1966 and 1967 with a total of 39 episodes the live-action series followed a high-tech police force and their robot superhero Ultraman as they battled to save Earth from invading monsters and aliens. This collection presents the first 20 episodes in original uncut and remastered editions.System Requirements:TRT: 450 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating:NR UPC:787364702497

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