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Haruo Nakajima

Haruo Nakajima

5 films on Best Blurays4 in 4K1 in HD

Haruo Nakajima photo

Haruo Nakajima (Japanese: 中島 春雄, Hepburn: Nakajima Haruo; January 1, 1929 – August 7, 2017) was a Japanese actor and stuntman. A pioneer of suit acting, he is best known for playing Godzilla in 12 consecutive films, starting from the original Godzilla until Godzilla vs. Gigan. Nakajima also played various other kaiju in Toho's tokusatsu films, including Rodan, Mothra and The War of the Gargantuas and also appeared in minor roles in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Stray Dog.

Biography from TMDB

4 in 4K

UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming

Small role · Director: Ishirō Honda

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Germany Splendid Entertainment Blu-ray

Small role · Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR

Best Audio:

Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray

BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.

Additional Info:

The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.

Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.

Small role · Director: Ishirō Honda

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

AIP Dub is only found on the 2011 Media Blasters Blu-ray along with other exclusive extras (NOT the 2014 reissue)

Small role · Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray or BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

No clear winner, Criterion SDR 4K Blu-ray has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes. BFI 4K Blu-ray's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.

Best Audio:

BFI Streaming

Additional Info:

The subtitles of Criterion  and BFI are translated differently. See BR forum.

1 in HD

Blu-ray or HD streaming

Small role · Director: Jun Fukuda

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

4K restoration exists, no disc announced yet

MST3K version: recalled OOP Vol X DVD

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

Japan DVD & the recalled Media Blasters DVD have extras

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