Godzilla (1954), the beginning of the King of Monsters

From a 4K scan of the best still existing elements (a duplicated negative of 1973, a duplicated negative of 1975 and a positive grain print at the end of 1983) due to the absence of the original 35 mm nitrate film (unfortunately having disappeared for years), this SDR UHD transfer completed by the Tōhō is not perfect (in contrast to encoding, very solid) but gives the opportunity to black and white images (the photograph is the work of Masao Tamai) to be as beautiful as possible... While keeping in mind the generational losses of the digitized elements used in this restoration.

There is still much damage (white dots, scratches, scratches) even if greatly reduced since the previous Blu-ray (automated tools would have been used for deletion), the silver texture is indeed present even if variable from one plane to another and the details, except when the definition falls terribly, gain noticeably sharpness.

Thanks to the WCG (here a 10-bit color coding in the BT. 2020 color space in CSD) and an improved contrast range (a new flash), blacks are much less washed and/or blocked than in the past (the homogeneity is much better) so that shadows are otherwise more legible. As for whites, they have a completely different purity.