The Great Buddha Arrival – SRS Cinema (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Japan, 2018
Director: Hiroto Yokokawa
Writers: Hiroto Yokokawa, Kazuma Yoneyama, Yuki Yonezawa, Robert Hood
Cast: Philip Granger, Toshi Toda, Akira Takarada, Shirô Sano, Yuki Morita, Akira Kubo, Peggy Neal, Yukiko Kobayashi Yukijirô Hotaru, Norman England

Release Date: November 11th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 60 Minutes 9 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Japanese/English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $19.95

"A gigantic statue of Buddha awakens and goes on a trek across Japan while the world watches in awe." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

The Great Buddha Arrival comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 15.7 GB

Feature: 13 GB

Flesh tones look healthy, image clarity, contrast, and black levels are solid, and there are no issues with compression. That said, the black and white footage is deliberately degraded to provide it a vintage look.

Audio: 3.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles. There are a few dialogue exchanges in English. The audio sounds clear, balanced, and robust when it should.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a slide slideshow with music from the film playing in the background (49 images - stills/poster), a teaser trailer (1 minute, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles), a trailer (1 minute, Dolby Digital stereo English with text in Japanese, no subtitles), a music video (1 minute 7 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese, no subtitles), a deleted scene (6 minutes, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a Behind-the-Scenes featurette (1 minute, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a collection of Kaiju trailers for films also available from SRS Cinema, and reversible cover art.

Other extras include trailers for other films released by SRS Cinema.

Summary:

A giant Buddha statue comes to life and travels across Japan.

The Great Buddha Arrival was the directorial debut of Hiroto Yokokawa, who later would direct Nezura 1964, a film about a film that was never completed. The Great Buddha Arrival is a film that uses Yoshiro Edamasa's film of the same name as its starting point. Yoshiro Edamasa's The Great Buddha Arrival is a historically significant film; it is one of Japanese cinema’s tokusatsu movies, and its director trained many prominent directors and cinematographers, notably Eiji Tsuburaya. Outside of a few photographs, no elements remain of Yoshiro Edamasa's The Great Buddha Arrival; it is considered a lost film.

Like the aforementioned Nezura 1964, The Great Buddha Arrival is a pseudodocumentary that offers an inside view of the films that inspired it. The narrative is a combination of a documentary filmmaker who's looking into a lost film while a giant buddha in real life comes to life and a recreation of moments from Yoshiro Edamasa's The Great Buddha Arrival. These recreation moments are shot like a silent film and are in black and white. Despite its 60-minute duration, the narrative consistently captures your interest without lingering too long. Ultimately, despite the unconventional narrative of The Great Buddha Arrival, the film is well-executed, consistently engaging, and does an excellent job of resonating with our nostalgia.

SRS Cinema gives The Great Buddha Arrival a strong audio/video presentation.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer