Hello!

We got our Forbidden Planet review up as fast as we could, to join the varied coverage we expect from other reviewers. Today’s CineSavant Column is just two small items of lesser interest, but we will take what we can get. Advisor Gary Teetzel sent along this link to a ‘new’ trailer for the 1957 Toho epic Chikyu Boeigun, aka ‘Earth Defense Force’, released around the world as  The Mysterians.  We wondered if this trailer for the ‘2026 release’ would look different from our old DVD copies, which it does not.

It does look like the trailer was put through a program to enhance the color and buff away dirt, dings, scratches — but it’s still the same soft image. Back around 1990, I spent big money on a Japanese import laserdisc, the first video viewing available in Tohoscope. Toho’s discs didn’t normally have English subtitles, which made our viewings a little less coherent than they might have been.

Does anybody own one of Toho’s ‘new 4K remasters’ of The Mysterians?  I assume that they’re still English-language challenged. But is the scan/colorization/encoding really an improvement, with better color values?  Did they try to digitally remove the snowstorms of negative dirt, that we theorize were the result of early attempts to do opticals without ‘clean’ protocols?

And what’s up with the funky soundtrack on this transfer? I turned it down to silence.

This entry is even less substantial. Editor Steve Nielson was going through some old paperwork and found a receipt for a laserdisc rental. He’d routinely drive all the way from Santa Monica to Dave’s the Laser Place.

Dave’s the Laser Place was for years a busy shop frequented by industry types as well as celebs that bought discs by the dozen and ordered up thousands of dollars of high-end video and audio gear. But when DVD came in, the days of the laser format were numbered, and so was the store.

The unimpressive item is a credit slip for a free rental … all transactions were done on paper, and maybe Steve rented a disc that didn’t play. I wonder if Steve can still redeem it?   It’s only from 35 years or so ago.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson