No. Not Godzilla.
Gojira.
The original, b&w Japanese Kaiju flic is available, unedited, in the US for the very first time!
What’s the difference?
[ol]
[li]No Raymond Burr[/li][li]19 minutes longer[/li][li]Additional scenes of the Monster[/li][li]Spooky, atmospheric.[/li][li]Plot actually makes sense! YAY![/li][/ol]
My copy is…arriving all too soon! Via that free Amazon Prime offer they made me. I decided not to keep it, but all backordered items shipped free/2 day.
I saw it in a theater two Halloweens ago. It’s a lot of fun.
Me too. The Big Screen experience is a blast for kaiju films. 
That’s weird… in Canada we have to wait until the 19th of Setember, but our version has ‘Godzilla King of Monsters’ on the second disc.
Amazon in the US doesn’t list that as a bonus feature.
Yes it does. 
We Americans get the American version too.
Thanks for reminding me about this- I just added both versions to my Netflix queue. Beware Gojira! He is coming!
I’ve had this on VHS – no Burr, it has English subtitles, extra footage – for over six years. I think it’s not a bootleg – I bought it in an anime store, but the only credit it gives is to Toho studios.
Gojira…is HERE!
Arrived today.
I watch it tonight.
Yeah I’ve been watching the original Japanese version off of VHS taht I bought at Sam Goody back inthe mid 90s.
Now if it had Godzilla Raids Again the first sequel with it I’d be in heaven.
I always liked the sequel because the Japanese male hero had a goofy blonde American sidekick.
Got that one on VHS, too.
When I was a kid, though, the title was Gigantis, the Fire Monster , although I heard that an alternate title was The Volcano Monsters. I never heard this corny “Godzilla Raids Again” title until it appeared on video.
Interesting, generally overlooked flick (because it’s been played pretty rarely on TV since the 1960s). first time Godzilla fights another monster (Anzilla), long before King Kong Vs. Godzilla. First time they just dubbed the Japanese version. First sequel. And Godzilla’s got Waaaaaayyyyy too many teeth! (They used the name “Gigantis” because another American distributor had “Godzilla” sewn up.)
I even have a trading card with a scene from this one it!
D’oh! I was looking at the “DVD Features section”, didn’t scroll down all the way.
Still annoyed that ours isn’t out for a few more weeks though. I wonder if they moved up the street date. For some reason I want this, but I’ve never actually seen either movie (just a sequel on TV at some point I think).
Oh, we are definitely getting it! We have collected a bunch of Toho films, as both kids are huge Godzilla fans! I heard about a local Godzilla Con well afterwards, ;( , so I’ll have to pay more attention next time. The 7 year old will think he’s died and gone to heaven!
Much like Gojira himself, this thread rises so I may tell my opinion- Gojira is pretty damn good! It works as both a gaiju giant-monster funfest and a very powerful allegory about nuclear war and deadly weapons- both the atomic bomb which brings Godzilla/Gojira to life (and the real Bomb as well) and the important weapon which could kill him, but could also kill others. And looking at the scenes of Tokyo in the wreckage, you can really feel what the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki felt.
As for the American version, Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, it may be the fact that I watched it a day after I watched Gojira, but I found myself thinking the same thing I thought a number of years ago when I first watched in on TV: this film is dull. Somehow, the exciting and capitivating Japanese film becomes lifeless in its American incarnation. I think I know where I can lay the blame: Steve Martin. No, not the “wild and crazy” comedian, but an American news reporter of that name played by Raymond Burr. This film is almost Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to Gojira’s Hamlet: all of the events are being retold through the eyes of Martin. However, Martin also narrates the entire story, which I think is the reason the film flounders- why tell us something when you can show it happening instead? And the poor insertion of Martin into pre-filmed Japanese scenes is almost comical- you can make a drinking game out of how many times the camera cuts to an Unnecessary Raymond Burr Shot during the course of the movie. Watch it after you’ve seen Gojira to see how editing can destroy a good story. (Other interesting changes: most references to nuclear attacks are removed, the ending is happy rather than forbidding, and some of the events are changed. Godzilla attacks Tokyo twice in the American version.)
Classic Media, which owns the rights to the Showa-era Toho films, will be releasing five more throughout 2006/2007, in both Japanese and American forms. Coming up next on November 7 are Godzilla Raids Again/Gigantis the Fire Monster and Mothra vs. Godzilla/Godzilla vs. The Thing. Visit the official site for more.