On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, at 10:41 AM, Scott Andrew Hutchins wrote: > Raymond Burr is about as well integrated into the film as one can > home, due > to a clever use of stand-ins to make it seem like he's actually in > Japan. > The worst problem is the noticeable difference between the Japanese and American film stocks. The American stock is finer grained, and of course the U.S. scenes were lit by a different cinematographer, contributing to their different look. About the best Americanization of the various kaiju eiga, IMHO, would be Rodan, although as always changes were made for no discernible reason. Why add narration? Why remove Akira Ifukube's music from the jet fighter sequence? Why ruin the surprise of the second Rodan's appearance? (In the Japanese version, we only find out about the second monster when it joins its mate in attacking Fukuoka, whereas the US version reveals this fact much earlier through re-editing) The least altered of these films is Monster Zero. About the only thing cut were a few short seconds here and there of the Controller of Planet X (played by Yoshio Tsuchiya) speaking in an alien language. Also, no re-editing was done. The most altered for US release are King Kong vs. Godzilla and Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster, both of which suffered heavy re-editing. In Ghidrah, the re-editing was done so haphazardly that Ghidrah's first appearance is moved to before the Princess predicts his arrival, thereby robbing her prediction of both its validity and its narrative purpose. King Kong vs. Godzilla had numerous scenes removed, and the American version brackets the narrative with bogus newscasts. As Scott said, the film is intended to be a comedy - specifically a satire on the media - and much evidence of this has been excised. Also, certain touches are only apparent if one has a knowledge of Japanese, such as the humorous name of the pharmaceutical company executive who wants to use Kong for advertising - Mr. Tako - which means "Mr. Octopus." Chris ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu