The Guyver | 4K UHD + Blu-ray + CD (Unearthed Films)
RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2024
On May 21, 2024, Unearthed Films is releasing the 4K UHD + Blu-ray + CD Soundtrack for The Guyver, a 1991 sci-fi actioner from directors Steve Wang (Drive) and special effects artist, Screaming Mad George. The film is based on the Japanese manga series of the same name by Yoshiki Takaya.
Official details:
In this thrill-a-minute action adventure, Sean Barker (Jack Armstrong) is a college student who discovers the “Guyver”, an alien mechanical device that merges with his own body, turning him into a super-powerful cyborg fighting machine. The device belongs to Chronos, an evil corporation run by human mutants that metamorphize into monstrous soldiers called “Zoanoids”. Chronos badly wants the Guyver back and sends a gang of Zoanoids to kidnap Sean’s girlfriend, Mizuki (Vivian Wu). Sean rescues Mizuki with the help of Max Reed (Mark Hamill), a CIA agent determined to keep the device from falling into the hands of Chronos. However, the rescue attempt is not completely successful, thereby triggering a series of epic battles between the forces of good and evil.
Disc 1 (4K UHD):
- NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE ORIGINAL R-RATED CUT FROM THE CAMERA NEGATIVE by Unearthed Films
- HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- NEW Commentary with co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang, moderated by Dom O’Brien, the author of Budget Biomorphs: The Making of The Guyver Films
- Audio/subtitles:
- DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Optional English SDH Subtitles
Disc 2 (Blu-ray):
- NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE ORIGINAL R-RATED CUT FROM THE CAMERA NEGATIVE by Unearthed Films
- NEW Commentary with co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang, moderated by Dom O’Brien, the author of Budget Biomorphs: The Making of The Guyver Films
- NEW Interview with producer Brian Yuzna
- NEW Interview with co-director Screaming Mad George
- NEW Suit Tests with commentary by co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang
- NEW Outtakes with commentary by co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang
- NEW Gag Roll with commentary by co-directors Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang
- NEW Production & Artwork Gallery
- Alternate Title Sequence
- Trailers
- Audio/subtitles:
- DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Optional English SDH Subtitles
Disc 3 (Audio CD)
- The Guyver Soundtrack composed by Matthew Morse placed on a separate CD disc
This title will soon be available at The Goodie Emporium, a U.S.-based online store that currently has many Import Shaw Brothers/Golden Harvest/martial arts DVD/Blu-ray movies in-stock – with New titles being added regularly!
Jesus, this thing is STACKED. I grew up on everything Guyver – Dark Hero, then the OVA series, then Out of Control, and then the first film. I *HAVE* to have this. And if they’ve got a similar release coming for the second film, I’ll shit myself in excitement.
I thought Dark Hero is what this film should have been. It was an R rated Power Rangers film with great action, while the first movie was the equivalent to 1997’s Batman and Robin.
The distributors were even sleazy enough to doctor the poster up to make it look like Mark Hamill was playing the Guyver. Where’s the deluxe edition of Dark Hero?!
I quite enjoy the first one. You’re right, Dark Hero is definitely the better of the two, but the first one’s got a lot of that Yuzna/Gordon tone I love so much, Steve Wang’s and Screaming Mad George’s talents are on full display, and I actually kind of dig that this one feels more like an episode of Power Rangers than the second film’s darker take. Having said that, I *do* enjoy Dark Hero’s darker tone and I think it’s better at everything the first one did well, and then some. That ending was one of the best fight scenes in any American martial arts film ever, and probably still is.
And I totally remember the poster. 😂 It was also the VHS cover. Yeah, some shady shit right there. But even little kid me figured out that it was false advertising before sitting down to watch the thing.
I guess there’s two levels of campiness here. After seeing how fun and dark the anime was, it was hard to watch the first Guyver movie with its out of place comedy, and JJ Walker as a Zoanoid was just wrong!
I like my campiness with a dose of serious, but I can understand how others may enjoy laughing with or at the first Guyver film, and having fun with it.
I won’t argue with you regarding JJ Walker. 😂 (“I been lookin’ high and I been lookin’ low…”) But yeah, I might have a different opinion on the first movie if I’d read the manga or seen the anime first, but it was fun for me, and you have to keep in mind that I was a kid, so there was absolutely no laughing at the movie for me. There’s a bit of that now, but I still appreciate some of the tone and what they were able to pull off.
There was a small interview or an excerpt from an interview with David Hayter from a couple of years ago where he said that he was actively trying to get a Guyver 3 made. It obviously won’t be the movie we would have gotten from the Gamera trilogy’s Shusuke Kaneko’s sequel (God, I wish that had happened), but any form of Guyver 3 that takes itself seriously and involves Hayter is cool in my book.