This independent Japanese daikaiju eiga [giant monster film] — which combines WW2 history with giant monster action — seems to be nearer a release in the West, with the appearance of a trailer with English titles (as seen above). For a full report on the film, check out the excellent article on SciFi Japan. Deep Sea Monster Reigo has given rise to a second daikaiju eiga by the same director — Shinkaijû Raiga [aka Deep Sea Monster Raiga] (2009; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya) — but as that was only in production this year, we can’t expect too much international action for a while.
Addendum: As Keith Aiken of SciFi Japan quite rightly points out (see comments attached to this post), it is rather too optimistic to assume that a DVD release in the West is definitely about to happen. I’m sure that it will sooner or later, but there has been no official word as far as I know. My wording above perhaps gives too strong an emphasis to the likelihood and imminence of it.
Meanwhile, Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has collected a bunch of new images from Deep Sea Monster Reigo (well, most of them are new), including green-screen SFX shots and a few pictures of the Reigo “puppet”:
Gallery:
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Great news! I am anticipating this. Hopefully the company that buys this film will also buy the sequen, “Raiga”. Thanks guys!
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I think it’s somewhat of a leap that an English subtitled trailer suggests an western release is now nearer. The makers of REIGO have been producing English subbed trailers for this film since at least 2005 at that obviously didn’t lead to a release in western markets.
English subbed/dubbed trailers are often done to promote a project at international film markets or to audiences who don’t speak Japanese. If this promo is new, it’s most likely another attempt by Gold View (REIGO’s foreign sales agent) to advertise the film to foreign buyers rather than a claim that REIGO has been acquired for a release in English speaking territories… note there’s no “coming soon” announcement or mention of a foreign distributor in the trailer .
I’m also surprised this trailer has the English title THE DEEP SEA MONSTER- REIGO, which the producers stopped using back in 2006. For the last few years Gold View has been promoting the film and releasing English sales materials with the English title REIGO: THE DEEP=SEA MONSTER VS THE BATTLESHIP YAMATO.
You’re right, of course, Keith. It IS a bit of a stretch. I’m just being optimist. Still, from looking around the blogsphere, it does feel like it may happen sooner rather than later, though I have no evidence to support that feeling. On the other hand, maybe we’ll be stuck with a HK release and dodgy English subtitling.
On the title: I agree. It is odd that the trailer isn’t using “Reigo the Deep Sea Monster vs. The Battleship Yamato” (or even just the shorter “Reigo vs Yamato”), particularly as Hayashiya’s follow-up film has such a similar title.
Keyword being; “seems”…..
Except the title of the Undead report is “Deep Sea Monster Reigo Gets Closer”. And, based on the history of REIGO, I think even “seems” is too much of a leap. Over the past 4-5 years the makers of REIGO have prepared other subtitled trailers, English sales materials, even a subtitled version of the movie… so what is there about this trailer that even seems to imply a western release is now any nearer?
My guess is that some US or UK DVD label will eventually pick up REIGO because there’s a market for Japanese giant monster movies. It could be soon or be years from now, but I don’t see anything from yet another English subbed trailer that would suggest that English market distribution may be about to happen.
Thanks for the confirmation, Robert. I’m all for being optimistic; I guess I’m just urging a little more caution based on the lack of evidence regarding a western release. Backbrain is a trusted site, and Avery has posted links to this story on several message boards so there’s a chance many kaiju fans would read the article and come away with the impression that the subtitled trailer means more than it does.
I’m not sure what’s being discussed about REIGO on the blogosphere, but there’s nothing about a western release on the official movie site, Gold View’s site, or Shinpei Hayashiya’s own REIGO blog.
Quite right, Keith. I intended the title to be an ambiguous one — referring to both “getting a closer view” (that is, some new pictures) as well as the hope of a release. I guess it is a bit too optimistic. I’ll put a note to that effect in the actual article, just to avoid undue enthusiasm.