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Here’s one for the kaiju-eiga fanat­ics — a great-sounding DVD release of the first film in the long-running Gamera series.  Like most schlock fans, Your Humble Reviewer grew up watch­ing Gamera flicks on syn­di­cated t.v. chan­nels dur­ing their week­end mon­ster movie shows and learned to love the char­ac­ter all over again via MST3K.  Everyone’s favorite giant fly­ing tur­tle is going to hit the dig­i­tal medium this spring, with a deluxe pack­age that includes a fresh HD trans­fer and scads of extras.  Keep on read­ing to learn all about the fire-breathing fun com­ing your way…


GAMERA, THE GIANT MONSTER – SPECIAL EDITION

fea­tur­ing north amer­i­can dvd debut of

the orig­i­nal japan­ese ver­sion of the first Gamera movie

pre­sented in anamor­phic widescreen from a newly restored hd master

ROARS ONTO DVD ON MAY 18, 2010

FROM SHOUT! FACTORY

From Japan – the coun­try that brought us such myth­i­cal movie mon­sters as Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah – storms Gamera, the titanic ter­rapin feared by adults and loved by chil­dren. On May 18, 2010, Shout! Factory will unleash Gamera, The Giant Monster – Special Edition on DVD for the first time in its unedited orig­i­nal ver­sion, with English sub­ti­tles — in anamor­phic widescreen from an all-new HD mas­ter. The DVD includes a 12-page book­let with an essay by direc­tor Noriaki Yuasa, a photo gallery, trail­ers and more. The col­lectible Gamera, The Giant Monster Special Edition DVD is priced to own at $19.93.

Like all clas­sic mon­ster movies, it is the folly of man that unleashes a ginor­mous beast upon the world. This time it is lit­eral fall­out from the Cold War — a Soviet bomber is shot down over U.S. air­space in the Arctic Ocean, with the mas­sive radi­a­tion from the resul­tant atomic explo­sion awak­en­ing the ancient, gar­gan­tuan Gamera. A long-forgotten leg­end of the lost con­ti­nent of Atlantis, the 200-foot-long, fire-eating tur­tle isn’t in a good mood, and prov­ing imper­vi­ous to all man­made weapons, the colos­sal che­lon­ian smashes a cat­a­clysmic swath across the globe. But when he arrives in Tokyo, a small boy forms an odd con­nec­tion with him, allow­ing author­i­ties to unleash “Plan Z.”

The clas­sic Gamera was directed Noriaki Yuasa, who helmed all seven of the orig­i­nal Gamera entries in the Showa era series between 1965 and 1971, and stars Eiji Funakoshi (Fires On The Plain), Harumi Kiritachi, Junichiro Yamashiko and Jutaro Hojo (Wrath of Daimajin). The sub­se­quent fran­chise was more kid-friendly (yet iron­i­cally blood­ier) than Godzilla, who became less men­ac­ing and more cud­dly him­self dur­ing the Sixties. The Gamera series was cre­ative in the mon­strous neme­ses that it pit­ted against the tow­er­ing tur­tle, the most famous being the fly­ing, pointy-headed Gyaos, who was res­ur­rected for the suc­cess­ful trio of movies in the Heisei-era series between 1995 and 1999.

Created by the same com­pany who brought Zatoichi to the screen, Daiei Studios’ titanic ter­rapin is the only true rival to Toho’s King Of The Monsters, able to hold his own at the box office and secure a place in the hearts of kaiju eiga (Japanese mon­ster movie) fans around the world. The orig­i­nal films have woe­fully been under­rep­re­sented on DVD, a espe­cially release fea­tur­ing the authen­tic Japanese versions.

To pur­chase this disc directly from Shout! Factory, just click on the “Buy” but­ton below:

Gamera: The Giant Monster

Gamera: The Giant Monster

When a plane car­ry­ing an atomic bomb crashes over the Arctic Ocean, the explo­sion unleashes Gamera, a 200-foot-long fire-eating tur­tle. He is hun­gry for destruc­tion and not about to be stopped, until he reaches Tokyo, where a small boy forms an odd con­nec­tion with him, allow­ing author­i­ties to unleash ?Plan Z.? FormatAspect RatioLanguageSubtitles NTSC, Region 1, B/W1.85:1 (Widescreen)JapaneseEnglish Run TimeRatingNo. DiscsOrig. Release 78 minutesNR11965 Download Desktop Wallpaper: