Godzilla vs. Gigan
Godzilla vs. Gigan | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jun Fukuda |
Written by | Takeshi Kimura Shinichi Sekizawa |
Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
Starring | Hiroshi Ishikawa Yuriko Hishimi Minoru Takashima Tomoko Umeda Toshiaki Nishizawa Zan Fujita Kunio Murai |
Cinematography | Kiyoshi Hasegawa |
Music by | Kunio Miyauchi |
Distributed by | Toho |
Release dates | March 12, 1972 |
Running time | 89 min. |
Languages | Japanese |
Godzilla vs. Gigan (地球攻撃命令 ゴジラ対ガイガン, Chikyū Kogeki Meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan, Earth Attack Command: Godzilla vs. Gigan), also known as Godzilla on Monster Island when first released to U.S. theaters, is a 1972 tokusatsu film. The 12th of the Toho Studio's Godzilla series, it was directed by Jun Fukuda with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. In the U.S., Cinema Shares released the film in 1977. When released to video in the 1980s, the title reverted to Godzilla vs. Gigan.
The monsters featured in this film are Godzilla, Anguirus, King Ghidorah and a new monster, Gigan.
Godzilla fans usually do not hold the film in high esteem. It had a lower budget than most of the other Godzilla films and depends heavily on stock footage from earlier Toho kaiju movies, such as Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Rodan, War of the Gargantuas, Destroy All Monsters, and Monster Zero. However, because of the film's low-budget, the special-effects crew could not have completed the movie without the use of the older footage. Some fans do enjoy the film for its lengthy four-way fight between the monsters at the finale.
The music is credited to Akira Ifukube, who composed the scores for most of the Godzilla films of the 1960s. Ifukube, however, did not write any new music for this movie; all of his music was taken from his earlier Toho scores, most notably Battle in Outer Space for the main title music.
Plot
Giant cockroaches from a dying Earth-like planet in the Space Hunter Nebula M plot to colonize the Earth and destroy all cities to make it more "peaceful" (Peace and technology are the themes of this film). They inhabit the bodies of recently deceased humans, thus resembling them, and work as the staff of the Japan branch of the peace-themed theme park, World Children's Land (based in Switzerland), the centerpiece being the Godzilla-shaped "Godzilla Tower". The plan of the Nebula M aliens is to use the space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan (guided by two "Action Signal Tapes") to wipe out civilization. A cartoonist named Gengo Kotaka stumbles onto their plan after being hired as a concept artist for them. When Gengo and his friends play one of the incomprehensible Action Signal Tapes (which he obtained by accident) on their tape player, only Godzilla and Anguirus hear it from afar and catch on to this evil plot as well. Godzilla sends Anguirus to the source of the sound to make sure nothing's wrong, but once Anguirus arrives at Tokyo Bay, the Japanese military, having no clue on the monster's intentions, drives him away. Anguirus goes back to Monster Island, and Godzilla then follows him back to the city. Both monsters try to save the Earth from King Ghidorah and Gigan, though the Nebula M aliens plan to lure Godzilla into a shocking fatal trap . . .
Trivia
- This was Haruo Nakajima's last role as Godzilla before retiring from the role.
- The monsters are made to "speak" briefly in this movie. In the Japanese version, Godzilla and Anguirus communicate through thought-bubbles put on the screen, with their "voices" represented by a scratchy sound undecipherable as a language. The English version provides the monsters with deep and difficult to understand spoken dialogue.
- The two unfilmed scripts that resulted in this film were:
- The Return of King Ghidorah (キングギドラの大逆襲, Kingu Gidora no Daigyakushū), which featured Godzilla, Rodan and Varan fighting Ghidorah, Gigan, and a new monster named Mogu.
- Godzilla Vs. the Space Monsters: Earth Defense Command (ゴジラ対宇宙怪獣 地球防衛命令, Gojira tai Uchū Kaijū: Chikyū Bōei Meirei), which featured Godzilla, Anguirus and the Daimajin-like Majin Tuol fighting King Ghidorah, Gigan and Megalon (both new monsters). The three evil monsters are controlled by an alien brain called Miko. This script also had a theme park and the Godzilla Tower (which Gigan mistook for the real Godzilla in one scene).