Yokoso! Welcome to "Henshin! Online," your doorway to the wonderful world of Japanese Fantasy Films & Television. From state of the art tokusatsu (special effects) to old school anime (animation), here at Henshin! Online we will strive to cover not only the latest releases to cinemas and home video, but also the people behind the scenes, and the actors who bring this genre to life. Don't despair, the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema & Television is alive and well at Henshin! Online, and here you will find extensive coverage on this incredible era and those who made it happen. Not only will you see onset reports, in-depth articles, essays, reviews, and interviews, you will also have access to an extensive and expanding database of cast and credit listings, episode guides, biographies, and other minutia for the enthusiast and fanatic, alike.
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12/02/06:
A FINAL OVATION FOR KUNIO MIYAUCHI
Famed ULTRAMAN Composer Passes Away
Author: August Ragone
Source: Various Japanese News Services
TOKYO - Famous film and television composer, Kunio Miyauchi passed away on November 27 at 4:13 pm at the Fuchu City Hospital as a result of Colon Cancer. Miyauchi had been living at his son Toshiro’s residence in Iwato-Minami, Komae City, Tokyo. Miyauchi was 74 years old.
Born in the Matsubara section of Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on February 16, 1932, the youngest of five brothers, Miyauchi was surrounded by music as a child; his family was very keen on playing classical music, which filled their home. Since this was a normal part of his life, he took classical music for granted as he attended several prestigious schools such as the Nippon Gakuen. While attending middle-school, he and his brothers seemed to be more interested in Baseball than music. Even though Miyauchi's physical education instructor thought that he could make the pros, his parents decided to send him to music school.
While attending Kunitachi Music Academy, the 16 year-old had an epiphany - not at school, but in a movie theater. During the U.S. Occupation of Japan, previously-banned American films were released in Japanese cinemas, and on one day in the Spring of 1947, Miyauchi and his friends went to see Irving Rapper's RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1945), a biography of celebrated American composer George Gershwin. The young man was shocked by the film - or more appropriately - by Gershwin’s unforgettable music. These pieces struck a deep emotional cord within Miyauchi, so profoundly that it had instantaneously changed the course of his life.
As jazz started to gain popularity in Japan, Miyauchi took up the trumpet, and together with three of his fellow students, formed a band. Working slowly at first, they practiced in their spare time, until they were able to devote more time to this project. Around the age of 18, they found themselves playing dance halls and picking up regular gigs - and earning serious money for the time. But, then things suddenly changed for the young musician. Miyauchi had contracted tuberculosis, was forced to leave the band, and leave his school behind. While he was expected to recover in a year, his protracted battle with the disease lasted more than three years before he was strong enough to pursue a career in music.
After he was back on his feet, he began working on arrangements under famed orchestra leader Tadashi Hattori. Before long, through his sister who worked at Aoyama Gakuin University, he was able to connect with composer Akira Ito of Nippon Broadcasting (later NHK), and secured a job arranging music for their radio shows. From there, Miyauchi joined Fuji Television, where he was making quite a name for himself composing theme songs and background music for the network’s melodramas. Even in the early phases of his new career, Miyauchi would employ electronics, experiment with sparse instrumentation, and combine disparate musical instruments, thereby gaining quite a reputation as composer on the cutting edge.
During this period, he was working on as many as seven different programs per week, and so film composer Ichiro Saito suggested that Miyauchi try his hand at working in the relatively slower-paced motion picture industry. Miyauchi’s feature film debut was for the Nobuo Aoyagi comedy LONG LIVE THE PARTY LEADER’S TERRIFYING WIFE (1960). His next feature film job at Toho was his atmospheric score for Ishiro Honda’s THE HUMAN VAPOR (1960), starring Tatsuya Mihashi and Kaoru Yachigusa. Then came Masuo Maeda’s AFTER THE KILLER (1962) for Nikkatsu, and back to Toho for another Aoyagi comedy, DURING A MEDICAL EXAMINATION (1964). Honda’s GODZILLA’S REVENGE (1969) was his last original film score. Unlike his contemporaries Akira Ifukube and Masaru Sato, Miyauchi was something of a musical chameleon - his score for THE HUMAN VAPOR sounds nothing like his score for GODZILLA’S REVENGE.
During the early 1960s, Eiji Tsuburaya’s son, television director Hajime Tsuburaya, thought that Miyauchi would be perfect to bring a new, contemporary sound to Tsuburaya Productions’ initial series, WOO. Even though this production was cancelled, and eventually transformed into ULTRA Q (1966), Hajime was still lobbying on the behalf of Miyauchi. Needless to say, Miyauchi got the job. His theme for ULTRA Q is perhaps the single most famous television theme song in Japanese history - akin to THE TWILIGHT ZONE theme in the U.S. - and his Ventures-inspired surf guitar piece helped to immortalize the hugely popular science fiction series. For his score, Miyauchi returned to atonal sparse instrumentation, utilized early synthesizers, and employed traditional Chinese instruments, creating a highly evocative and atmospheric score.
For his next assignment, ULTRAMAN (1966-67), Miyauchi decided on a more action-oriented, jazz-influenced work, which drew heavily upon scores from American action films and the Italian new wave cinema, such as Alessandro Cicognini’s score for THE BICYCLE THIEF (1948). Another concept Miyauchi relied upon while scoring ULTRAMAN, was approaching the overall series with the sensibility of a Musical - sometimes scoring original pieces he felt were required for a particular story, and composing straight from the teleplays. Another important element of ULTRAMAN was the theme song, which is also equally an elemental part of modern Japanese pop culture, even forty years after it was written. In fact, the ULTRAMAN theme song was played as a wake up call for Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese astronaut to go into space in 1992.
Miyauchi also contributed theme songs for many television series, but did not compose the series’ music scores, including original theme songs for the Japanese versions of Hanna-Barbera’s THE HERCULOIDS (1967), THE FANTASTIC FOUR (1967), and P-Productions’ SPECTREMAN (1971-72). For the latter, he contributed four separate theme songs. Miyauchi enjoyed a long a prolific career in composing theme songs and background music for television, including Tsuburaya Productions series such as BOOSKA, THE FRIENDLY BEAST (1966-67), TRIPLE FIGHTER (1973) and DINOSAUR TASK FORCE: KOSEIDON (1979-80) - and his score for the animated series THE ULTRAMAN (1979-80) was recorded by the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
While Kunio Miyauchi has now departed this floating world, he has left behind a rich body of work that will be treasured by many generations to come - and he will live forever in the hearts of his fans around the world.
11/30/06:
A FAREWELL TO AKIO JISSOJI
Acclaimed Ultraman Director Passes Away
Author: August Ragone
Source: Brad Warner and Hiroko Sakurai of Tsuburaya Productions
TOKYO - Director, producer, screenwriter and novelist, Akio Jissoji passed away at the Tokyo Bunkyo Ward Hospital on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 11:45 pm from complications due to stomach cancer. He leaves behind a daughter, and a wife, actress Sachiko Hara (who appeared in Episode 37 of ULTRAMAN TIGA, written and directed by her late husband). Jissoji was a member of the Directors Guild of Japan, The Japan Writer’s Association, and was a professor at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. A huge fan of railway trains and trolley cars, Jissoji wrote a book about his boyhood fascination, as well as a column about his pet subject in Tokyoite (Tokyojin) magazine. Jissoji was 69 years old.
Born on March 29, 1937, Tokyo native Akio Jissoji studied as the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and graduated from the Literary Department of Waseda University. Beginning his career at Tokyo Broadcasting System in 1959, Jissoji quickly became one of the shining talents at the network, working with chief director Hajime Tsuburaya. When Hajime’s father, visual effects master Eiji Tsuburaya, founded Tsuburaya Productions, Jissoji was one of the young talents who were tapped by the company. Along with Hajime’s other colleagues, Jissoji was on the ground floor of such productions as ULTRA Q and ULTRAMAN, both of which premiered in 1966. But, his unique ideas were not without incident or controversy.
After screening his highly comical episode of ULTRAMAN, "A Gift From the Sky" (Ozora-no Okurimono), the executives at TBS were ready to cut him loose for going too far. Jissoji felt that was the end of his career until the ratings came in - the highest numbers the series had seen - and all was forgiven. His early days at Tsuburaya Productions were brought to life in the 1988 television drama THE MEN WHO MADE ULTRAMAN (Urutoraman-o Tsukuta Otoko-tachi), based on his book. Jissoji went on to direct memorable episodes of ULTRA SEVEN (1967-68), OPERATION: MYSTERY (1968-69), as well as write some of the more popular episodes of other Tsuburaya Productions series, including RETURN OF ULTRAMAN (1971-72), under his various pen names, such as Yuri Manpukuji and Ko Kawasaki. His work on these shows garnered him a cult status in Japan.
Jissoji left TBS in 1969 and founded his own production company, Godai Group, which produced the short film, AS TWILIGHT FALLS (Yoiyami Semareba), based on a script by director Nagisa Oshima. Originally scheduled for broadcast on the TV Tokyo network, the film was released theatrically by the Art Theater Guild with Oshima’s DIARY OF A SHINJUKU THIEF (Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki). Jissoji became one of the most important directors of the ATG during the 1970s. His first feature was THIS TRANSIENT LIFE (Mujou), which despite its emphasis on eroticism was a breakthrough film about Buddhist thought - a result of his family’s long Buddhist tradition. His outlook on Buddhist philosophy can even be seen in his other films, as well as episodes of the science fiction shows he directed.
As a producer, Jissoji also produced the recent comedies by Minoru Kawai, THE CALAMARI WRESTLER (Ika Resura, 2004) and EVERYTHING BUT JAPAN SINKS (Nippon Igaizenbu Chinbotsu, 2006). Jissoji’s handful of genre films as director include TOKYO: THE LAST MEGAPOLIS (Teito Monogatari, 1988) and ULTRA Q THE MOVIE: LEGEND FROM THE STARS (Urutora Q Za Mubi Hoshi-no Densetsu, 1990), and he also returned to the Ultra Series to direct episodes of ULTRAMAN TIGA (1996-97) and ULTRAMAN DYNA (1997-98). For ULTRAMAN MAX (2004-05), he directed a follow-up one of his most beloved episodes of ULTRA SEVEN, "The Targeted Town," which was well received by fans. At the time of his passing, Jissoji had just completed work on a re-visioning of his 1971 science fiction teleseries SILVER MASK (Shiruba Kamen), DIE SILBERMASKE, as a Roadshow feature which premieres in cinemas this December.
Largely unknown outside of Japan, and sometimes ignored his in own country, Jissoji is one of the unsung, important directors of post war Japanese Cinema - Midnight Eye compared Jissoji to Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer and French auteur Robert Bresson - one day soon, perhaps, more of Jissoji’s feature films, such as MANDALA (Mandara, 1971), POEM (Uta, 1972), UTAMARO’S WORLD (Utamaro Yume to Shiriseba, 1977), and others, will be seen and appreciated outside of Japan. Most recently, Jissoji was enjoying a revival of his film career, and helmed the 2005 horror mystery THE SUMMER OF UBUME (Ubume-no Natsu) as well as HELL MIRROR (Kagami Jigoku), the second segment of the four-part anthology film RAMPO NOIR (Rampo Jigoku, 2005).
His last film, the upcoming Nikkatsu production of TEN NIGHTS OF DREAMS (Yume Ju-ya), is a collaboration with ten other directors, such as Kon Ichikawa (THE INUGAMIS), Takashi Shimizu (THE GRUDGE), Matsuo Suzuki (OTAKUS IN LOVE), Nobuhiro Yamashita (LINDA, LINDA, LINDA) and Yudai Yamaguchi (BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL), each contributing one of the ten segments based on the stories of Natsume Soseki (whose portrait appeared on 1000 Yen notes from 1984-2004), the foremost novelist of the Meiji Era. This highly anticipated film - featuring an all-star cast - is to be released in Japan early next year.
While he has now slipped into that eternal sleep, Akio Jissoji’s dreams will continue to fascinate his fans around the world as long as our cinematic heritage lives.
02/10/06:
NEW DVD LABEL LAUNCHES JAPANESE LINE WITH ULTRAMAN!
BCI Secures DVD License From Chaiyo Productions
Author: August Ragone
Henshin! Online recently sat down with Cliff MacMillan, formerly with Ventura Distribution, who is one of the unsung champions of Japanese action cinema, who has worked hard to release such films as KARATE FOR LIFE (Karate Baka-Ichidai, 1977) and SHIKOKU on DVD in the US. Today, he is working at BCI Eclipse and has some big plans for the future of Japanese television shows and movies on R1 DVD.
H!O: Cliff, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. I'd first like to ask you: was your work with Ventura Distribution/Adness America your initial start in releasing Japanese films on DVD, starting with some classic Sonny Chiba titles, such as KARATE BULLFIGHTER [Kenka Karate Kyokushin-Ken, 1975] and THE KILLING MACHINE [Shorinji Kempo, 1975]?
CM: Yes, though I had been a fan for many years, my first releases came during the time I worked for Ventura when we did a distribution deal with Adness.
H!O: What was your goal working with Adness/Venture? You certainly released a diverse range of older Japanese titles - titles from Toei, Daiei and Kadokawa - the aforementioned and beautifully presented Chiba action films, big studio productions such as LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI [Satomi Hakkenden, 1983], NEVER GIVE UP [Yasei-no Shomei, 1978], G.I. SAMURAI [Sengoku Jieitai, 1979], RESURRECTION OF THE GOLDEN WOLF [Yomigaeru Ginrou, 1979], and some recent J-Horror titles, specifically the TOMIE series. So, you've got some experience under your belt, now.
CM: Hmmmm... Goal?... Heck, I had no real goal... I'm a fan and I wanted to see these films too [laughs]. Actually, I wanted to give the other Japanese film fans some cool titles on DVD - many for the first time in the US... or the first time in their original versions.
But in the case of the Sonny Chiba films, I wanted to give the Chiba fans a chance to see these films in Anamorphic Widescreen and to hear them in Japanese. I have been a long time STREETFIGHTER [Gekitotsu! Satsujin-Ken, 1974] fan, having seen the film on VHS when it was released by MGM in the 1980s. Once I saw that x-ray head crushing shot, I was a Chiba fan.
H!O: Who wouldn't become a fan? [laughs]
CM: Some of these films weren't even available in Japan on DVD (and still are not). We had to create all new film to tape transfers for most of the films. I'm really proud of the Chiba release but I sure wish we had been able to get Chiba involved in the making of the discs. I wasn't completely happy with the version of G.I. SAMURAI we released. We didn't have access to the stereo tracks for the film.
Recently Kadokawa Pictures re-mastered the film for a DVD release in Japan, so Adness will re-release the film someday from the new 5.1 Master.
H!O: Can you explain what the process is involved to acquire these Japanese films for the North American market?
CM: Well, the owner of Adness did most of the acquisition work with the Japanese film companies. I picked the titles from a list of what was available.
H!O: Why did you leave Ventura for BCI Eclipse?
CM: I've been good friends with the people from BCI Eclipse, back when it was Brentwood, and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It was hard to leave the label [Adness America] I helped develop, but I am working again with Adness to acquire new products.
H!O: Can you explain what BCI Eclipse is and what their current goals are?
CM: BCI was originally a company called Brentwood that originally dealt in public domain and budget films and special interest programs.
As they grew, they began to license content. They licensed a group of Bob Hope films from Freemantle, and after he passed away, the sales were monstrous. That was when they really started to grow into a real independent licensed label. The Navarre Corporation, a huge music, video and computer software distributor purchased Brentwood a few years ago.
So, with the backing of a major company, BCI began to acquire exclusive product full-time and move away from the PD business once and for all. So now BCI is working to acquire properties that have a wide fan base and are collectible properties, and so Navarre Corporation recently acquired Funimation, one of the largest Japanese Anime labels in the US and also most of the Filmation Studios library [not to be confused with Funimation], which includes HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, SHE-RA, THE GROOVY GHOULIES and many other animated favorites.
The HE-MAN TV series has been one of BCI's biggest releases, and recently won best '80s TV series on DVD at the recent DVD Conference, beating out major studio releases. We will be quite a force in independent DVD publishing in the years ahead.
H!O: I dig the GROOVY GHOULIES! There are a lot of very nostalgic titles in the Filmation Studios catalogue, including the STAR TREK animated series...
CM: Unfortunately, any shows with rights to a character(s) held by another company, like STAR TREK (Paramount) or BATMAN (DC Comics and Warner Bros), are unavailable to us from the license holder of the Filmation library.
H!O: While they sound similar, Funimation's catalogue includes the DVD rights to the subtitled ULTRAMAN TIGA [Urutoraman Teiga, 1996-97] series, licensed through 4Kids Entertainment; does this mean that BCI will be re-issuing these, or will they be discontinued? If it's the latter, some fans might want to rush out and pick these up, if they haven't already.
CM: I will have to talk to Funimation about that.
H!O: So you also decided to carry over your Japanese film list over to BCI Eclipse from Ventura and what is your aim?
CM: Yes. Some of the properties I had been looking into at Ventura have followed me to BCI including the original ULTRAMAN [Uruotraman, 1966-67] series. We are developing a new Asian label called Ronin Entertainment, which will be focused on films and television series from Japan. Our first release will be the Sonny Chiba television series SHADOW WARRIORS [Kage-no Gundan, 1980].
H!O: There's quite a bit of buzz about both series, but before we discuss ULTRAMAN, I am sure that you are aware that there are five seasons of SHADOW WARRIORS. What are your plans for this release and can you leak any specs? Additionally, if sales of the first season are successful, do you have the option to the following seasons - or other Chiba series, such as THE YAGYU CONSPIRACY (and it's sequels) - and can I hold out for a stateside release of THE GORILLA 7 or THE BODYGUARDS? [laughs]
CM: For starters, we will be releasing the first season of SHADOW WARRIORS in a big, 7-disc box set. We do have the option to pick up the rest of the series. We will have to see how the first set sells.
It's an expensive property to pick up and a lot of subtitles have to be created... and that's not a cheap thing to do for a 27-episode 55 minute television series. I would like to release THE YAGYU CONSPIRACY [Yagyu Ichizoku-no Inbo, 1978-79]. The feature version, SHOGUN'S SAMURAI [Yagyu Ichizoku-no Inbo, 1978] is the best selling Adness title to date, so it would be great to release the series, too. But, SHADOW WARRIORS will have some cool extras, which I can't talk about right now... but fans will want to get this box set.
H!O: Sounds great, Chiba fans are really looking forward to this. Now, about ULTRAMAN, are you a fan yourself?
CM: Big Time! I grew up watching ULTRAMAN. It was my favorite show as a child... and SPEED RACER [Maha Go Go Go, 1966-1967], so it's really a dream come true to be able to release the show on DVD.
H!O: When did you decide to pursue ULTRAMAN, and were you aware of the on-going problems between Tsuburaya Productions of Tokyo and Chaiyo Productions of Thailand?
CM: ULTRAMAN first was brought to me from a sales rep when I was at Ventura, but they told me that the first six series were in litigation and were unavailable. Since those were the shows that I knew the fans really wanted, I didn't pursue the Tsuburaya Productions library while at Ventura, though I did think real hard about doing ARMY OF THE APES [Saru-no Gundan, 1974-75].
H!O: Amazing. I'm sure that it would find a following besides the MST3K fanbase who froth over the Sandy Frank movie version: TIME OF THE APES; you'd also have fans of the original PLANET OF THE APES as possible buyers... The series was recently remastered for DVD release in Japan - it would be cool to see this eventually released in the States.
CM: Yeah, I really would have loved to release the series... When I got to BCI, I had a friend talk to Tsuburaya about the original ULTRAMAN series. He was told that the US video rights were now with a Thai company. We had a friend in Thailand locate the company and we began talks on acquiring the series.
H!O: Because of this on-going dispute, what kind of checking into the rights was performed and who was responsible for these procedures?
CM: Well, the litigation between the two companies concerned us. As a public company, we didn't want to acquire something that would end up in further litigation, so we had our lawyers and the sales agent that acquired the title from Chaiyo read all the documents from the courts in Japan.
H!O: Are your lawyers who read these documents located in Los Angeles or Thailand?
CM: Our lawyer is in Los Angeles, and the person who read all the Japanese court documents speaks fluent Japanese.
H!O: How do you feel about Tsuburaya Productions' situation in all of this?
CM: I would much rather be working with Tsuburaya. No doubt about it.
I think our release would be more complete having the creators of the show work with us to create our DVD release. I think it's unfortunate that the creators of the show do not have the rights to their creation, but as a fan of the show, I wanted to see it get a Region 1 release and the people that had the rights were Chaiyo.
H!O: Now, I'd like to talk about some technical aspects that fans might be keen on; what source are you using for the video masters for BCI's release of ULTRAMAN?
CM: Chaiyo has furnished us with masters. I am assuming the master originated from Tsuburaya, but I really don't know for sure. They look pretty good.
H!O: Are these discs going to be dual language?
CM: Yes, we will have the original Japanese language version with new subtitles and the English dubbed track.
H!O: What kind of restoration work is being done in regards to the original English soundtrack?
CM: The English track was hard to find. We are working to clean it up a bit, but the original tracks no longer exist in the United Artists' vaults. We looked for them.
H!O: Just for the record, in the early 1990s, when United Artists Television's rights elapsed, Tsuburaya Productions' former Los Angeles office, Ultracom Inc., located all of the original masters and returned them to the Tokyo office. These included the English, Spanish and French tracks produced by Peter Fernandez at Titra Studios. If I remember correctly, the English tracks were transferred to DAT by Brad Warner of Tsuburaya Productions' International Department.
CM: Yes, I know Tsuburaya has the dubs, but I doubt they will give them to us.
H!O: How will the series be presented and when can consumers expect to see them in retail shops?
CM: We are going to split the 39 episodes into two releases to make it more affordable. There are so many cool releases on DVD these days, it's hard to buy everything you want, so I thought if I split it into two sets, it would make it easier on the fan's DVD budget. I know I can't afford everything I want to buy these days. I'm sure some fans would rather have the whole thing in one box set but the releases will only be 60 days apart.
The first set will be released in July around the time of the San Diego Comic Con and the second release will hit stores in September.
Both sets will have some bonus features and each set will contain two collectible art cards like our HE-MAN sets. As I mentioned, it would have been awesome to work with Tsuburaya on this release, but unfortunately, the rights exist with Chaiyo and the two sets won't have all the cool stuff on the Japanese releases, but we will still try to create something that the fans will appreciate. This is the only way a Region 1 release was ever going to happen and we will still create something better than the bootlegs available here in the US, which can be found all over the internet.
H!O: Do you have plans to include the introductory special, "Ultraman is Born" [Urutoraman Tanjo] in this DVD set?
CM: Those rights are not available to us. We only have access to the episodes themselves.
H!O: What do you have planned for the future?
CM: In addition to SHADOW WARRIORS, we have several exciting titles we are releasing, including GOLGO 13: KOWLOON ASSIGNMENT [Gorugo 13 Karuun-no Kubi, 1977], Akira Kurosawa's THE QUIET DUEL [Shizuka-naru Ketto, 1949] with Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura - released for the first time on home video in the US...
H!O: ...it's also the only Kurosawa film scored by Akira Ifukube, who scored dozens of films, including the original GODZILLA [Gojira, 1954].
CM: Yes. We also have the SISTER STREETFIGHTER Quadrology coming this year - starring Chiba's protÈgÈ Etsuko Shiomi. There's some other titles, but we have to wait until the ink dries on the contracts...
H!O: Sounds excellent - these are all really great films that need more exposure. I know that I'll be putting those on my waiting list.
Once again, thanks for your time and best of luck with your 2006 releases and I look forward to more great titles in the years to come - and more Chiba!
02/06/06:
KING KONG vs. GODZILLA SOUNDTRACK
Akira Ifukube's Thunderous Score Finally Heard in the States!
Author: Richard Pusateri
Source: La-La Land Records
LA-LA LAND RECORDS has announced the shipping date of their KING KONG vs. GODZILLA soundtrack release as February 7, 2006. They are accepting pre-orders now.
This follow-up to La-La-Land Records 2004 GODZILLA 50th Anniversary Edition is greatly anticipated as it is stereo. Many details are still not announced, but most of the running times of the new CD's tracks appear to be nearly the same as those on the stereo disc 2 of the 50th Anniversary GODZILLA Soundtrack Perfect Collection Box #1, which were different from the mono recordings. Presumably this indicates they were recorded in stereo, not "re-channeled" mono versions. More authoritative information is expected soon, so keep watching Henshin!Online.
KING KONG vs. GODZILLA
Music By Akria Ikufube
LLLCD 1041
Remastered in Stereo!
First time ever on CD in North America! Presenting the original motion picture soundtrack to the classic 1962 Toho Studios monster thriller "King Kong Vs. Godzilla." Legendary composer Akira Ifukube ("Godzilla") fashions a spellbinding orchestral score to chronicle this one-of-a-kind battle between two of filmdom's most beloved creatures. Remastered in stereo from Toho Studio Vault elements, with bonus tracks and featuring exclusive liner notes, this is the definitive release of Ifukube's amazing score. Godzilla celebrated his 50th Anniversary in 2004 with many worldwide events and King Kong has seen a resurgence of interest with the new Peter Jackson film in theaters and a new DVD release of the original movie.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Main Title (2:02)
2. Series of World Wonders (0:09)
3. The Sparkling Iceberg / Pashin Commercial (1:20)
4. Fujita & Fumiko (4:30)
5. The Seahawk in Crisis / Great News Gathering Team Departure (4:33)
6. The Seahawk's S.O.S. (1:58)
7. Faro Island (0:47)
8. The Natives (0:57)
9. Southern Island Tale (1:50)
10. Thunder and the Devil / Fumiko's Misgivings (2:18)
11. Godzilla's Resurrection (1:42)
12. The Cry of the Devil / A Prayer to the Rolling Thunder (2:12)
13. The Devil of the South Seas / Drums of Battle / Giant Octopus vs. King Kong (4:57)
14. The Sleeping Devil (3:13)
15. The Terror of Godzilla (3:36)
16. The Invincible King Kong / Preparation for Operation "Burial" (1:00)
17. King Kong vs. Godzilla I (2:42)
18. Preparations for Operation "One Million Volts" (0:24)
19. Operation "Burial" (0:53)
20. Operation "Burial" Fails (0:13)
21. Operation "One Million Volts" I (0:59)
22. Operation "One Million Volts" II (2:13)
23. Kong Shows Up in Tokyo (2:05)
24. The Plan to Rescue Fumiko I (2:17)
25. The Plan to Rescue Fumiko II (2:44)
26. The Plan to Transport King Kong (2:13)
27. King Kong Advances on Fuji (2:07)
28. The Confrontation at Fuji (2:07)
29. King Kong's Resurrection (1:41)
30. King Kong vs. Godzilla II (1:59)
31. Ending (0:21)
BONUS MATERIAL:
32. Main Title (mono) (2:02)
33. Main Title (a cappella) (3:44)
All music composed by AKIRA IFUKUBE (except #4 & 9)
