Customer Ratings & Reviews

After years of only being available as the heavily altered "Godzilla 1985", the original version of "The Return of Godzilla" is finally available for U.S. audiences to view. "The Return of Godzilla" is a true follow up to the original 1954 "Gojira" eschewing the light-hearted direction of the previous sequels and returning to a darker and more political toned environment that touches a bit more on the nature of the beast. Godzilla here is no protector of humanity but the original film's vision of an invincible bringer of doom created by mankind's own destructive conduct. Finally seeing their performances in a non-dubbed form I can say the cast do an excellent job making the film more believable especially the cast playing the cabinet members (some of whom you'll probably recognize if you are a fan of Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza films). The music was great as usual with this series and the end credits song did induce some tears (I doubt there are many Godzilla fans who hadn't cried at least once at the end of this film, usually I can hold off until the Prime Minister starts crying then that sets off the waterworks). Of course it's time to get down to the technical front on this disc. Yes, indeed this does NOT include the American cut with Raymond Burr and Dr. Pepper product placement galore so you might want to continue holding onto your VHS copy if you have one. The English version used is a dubbing which I believe was done in Hong Kong and from the few scenes I did watch isn't quite as fluid as the dubbing done for the 1985 version although the dialogue in said scenes is much more faithful to the Japanese film than the American dub was. Both the English and Japanese audio are lossless DTS-HD 5.1 which means kudos to Kraken for giving fans the most optimal options (to note the film's default audio when pressing play is the English version and it cannot be changed during the film so if you want the Japanese audio remember to select it in the film's audio menu before you hit play). I watched the Japanese version as mentioned above and can attest the audio is very good and I didn't notice any sort of anomalies. As far as the picture quality goes it's a solid enough transfer that fits the tone of the film and doesn't appear to have encoding problems at least on my modest-sized TV. Not much in the way of special features outside of trailers for Kraken's other Godzilla releases and this film's trailer. Overall a wonderful disc. Overall, Godzilla 1985 was my favorite Godzilla film alongside the original and since this film is leaps and bounds above that one in my opinion due to the more complex political nature which was excised from '85 and steadier pace this one's taking the mantle alongside the original '54 classic. Thankfully (as of writing this) another Godzilla in the same apocalyptic vein is set to open in select theaters next month (Shin Godzilla or Godzilla: Resurgence as it was previously called) so luckily we won't be seeing the last of the true King of the Monsters stomping through his native land (no Dr. Pepper product placement reported as of yet). Overall this disc is highly recommended and an essential part of any Godzilla fans collection.

In 1984, Toho wanted to reboot the Godzilla franchise with a more serious tone in line with the original film from 1954. Koji Hashimoto’s THE RETURN OF GODZILLA (released in a heavily reedited version as GODZILLA 1985 in America) is the first entry in the Heisei series, ignoring all other Godzilla flicks besides the original. Featuring a much larger budget than films from the Showa era of the '60s and '70s, the film is mostly successful in reestablishing the King of the Monsters as a genuine threat. After a ship full of sailors are killed by gooey, giant mutated sea lice, the world soon discovers that Godzilla has awakened after thirty years. When a Soviet submarine is destroyed by Godzilla, it leads to rising tensions between them and the USA, with Japan in the middle. A group of scientists are convinced they can lure the monster to a volcanic trap, but can they complete the task before the destruction of Tokyo or before atomic weapons are deployed? The film has a paranoid Cold War flavor to it, lending to the construction of the desired serious tone. Effects and production design are an obvious step up from the campy Showa films, though later films in the Heisei series are much more impressive. The human characters and storylines aren’t bad but not terribly gripping either. Akira Ifukube’s iconic and powerful music is very much missed here, as Reijiro Koroku’s score is unfortunately aggressively corny. I don’t dislike the film, though. Effort is put into framing the destruction from the humans’ perspective, placing an emphasis on tension and thrills as opposed to light sci fi action. My son and I have watched many Godzilla films over the last month. I’d put Koji Hashimoto’s THE RETURN OF GODZILLA in the top half despite having some of the worst music of our marathon. I’d seen the US version in the theater as a kid and never since, so I found myself remembering certain sequences and smiling as it took me back to that age. Heavier than the Showa era films it ignores, but not quite as sophisticated as later Heisei films, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. That being said, it’s successful in its endeavors to make Godzilla scary again. Recommended with caveats.

As always, Toho supports its Kaiju quite well. The movie is an oldie but surely a goodie. Noting like an ol' romp'em stomp'em. All this was thanks to a great order and super fast delivery experience .

Toho took a break for a while and brought it back to life in a big way with this installment. It’s great to see big G back as an adversary!

The original Japanese version is a ball out of the pack, perfect homerun! I absolutely love the franchise, one of my favorites!

Long overdue for my collection. This is the Japanese version which is miles better than the US version.

Anyone looking for an updated reimagining of the 1954 original will find it here.

Mean, green and large it's not the Hulk its Godzilla. The big guy is back.

This is yet another worthy followup of the timeless classic, Godzilla! There is a reason why Godzilla has set the world record for most feature films by a single character!

Godzilla comes back in all the rage of the first movie but more!

Still one of the best G movies IMO. Classic finally on Blu-Ray!

Well done reboot of the Godzilla franchise, 5 stars

This is my favorite Godzilla movies of all of time.

Gift for my brother for his 73rd birthday. He loves these movies. He wanted the ones with Raymond Burr, but I couldn’t find it at Best Buy. I went ahead and bought the ones they had from earlier days. He lost all 10 toes and then part of his leg, so watching movies and westerns is all he can do. He is depressed so I’m hopeful these will cheer him up. He is a very special person and has a wonderful wife who helps him daily and lot of love between them.

I think that "The Return of Godzilla" was one of the greatest classic Godzilla films of all time to celebrate the Godzilla film series 30th anniversary and was also one of my many favorite Godzilla films of all-time. I was very surprised and excited to find out that this film was going to finally be released on Blu-Ray. This film has a lot of entertaining and enjoyable action, mystery, horror and suspense including a really great and amazing cast, plot and storyline as well.

This is the one where Godzilla returns back to his roots after being absent for about 10 yrs. He returns back to a monster of destruction. This is the original Japanese version, not the Godzilla 1985 version with Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). This is the better version.

Fans of Godzilla, in America at least, have long been awaiting for a stateside release for this one. The Return of Godzilla has been one of my favorite Godzilla movies since I was a kid. I wish it would have had both the UD and Japanese cut, but I'm still not dissatisfied. Plus it was only $9.99

FINALLY! They finally found a way to get this film released. This is not only the first time that this version of the film has been released in the U.S., but is also the first time it has been dubbed in English. It is unfortunate that they couldn't include the American 1985 version along with the Japanese 1984 version, but just the fact that they finally found a way to get SOME version of this film released is a major victory.

After years sleeping godzilla return hungry for nuclear smoke. The Japanese are aghast at his presence but have a new almost indestructible flying machine to try against him. See the panic and hear the roar-its a scream a minute

Awesome to finally have the original uncut Japanese version of this Godzilla installment. No crummy added scenes with Raymond Burr. Just good old big G stomping across Japan. Includes an English bubded track.