Chikyû kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan (1972)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Jun Fukuda

Writers:

Takeshi Kimura (story)
Shinichi Sekizawa (writer)

Release Date:

August 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Space Monsters War With Godzilla For The Earth!

Plot:

A man begins to suspect that something is wrong about his employers; meanwhile, Godzilla and Anguirus are alerted to something strange going on.

Plot Keywords:

Godzilla | Alien | Monster | Gigan | Cigarette Smoking

Cast

Hiroshi Ishikawa	...	Gengo Kotaka
Yuriko Hishimi	...	Tomoko Tomoe
Minoru Takashima	...	Shosaku Takasugi
Tomoko Umeda	...	Machiko Shima
Toshiaki Nishizawa	...	Kubota, Head of Children's Land
Zan Fujita	...	Fumio Sudo
Kunio Murai	...	Takashi Shima
Gen Shimizu	...	Commander of Defense Forces
Kurayoshi Nakamura	...	Priest (as Zeko Nakamura)
Kuniko Ashihara	...	Middle-Aged Woman
Akio Murata	...	Editor of Comics Magazine
Noritake Saito	...	Henchman
Yasuhiko Saijo	...	Henchman
Naoya Kusakawa	...	Henchman
Wataru Omae	...	Henchman

Also Known As:

Earth Assault Order: Godzilla vs. Gigan
Godzilla on Monster Island
Godzilla vs. Gigan
The Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs. Gigan
War of the Monsters

MPAA:

Rated PG for sci-fi monster violence and some language.

Runtime:

89 min | Germany:80 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:G (original rating) | Australia:PG | UK:PG | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:PG

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

This was the first film in which Godzilla actually drew blood. It first happens during the big battle later in the film when Gigan flies over past Godzilla and swipes his shoulder, and later, when Gigan repeatedly strikes a severely weakened Godzilla in his forehead.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When tanks are coming to stop Anguirus, a wire can be seen pulling the tanks forward.

Quotes:

Gengo Kotaka: Oh, cigarettes?
Kubota, Head of Children's Land: They're for you.
[grins]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Team America: World Police (2004)

Soundtrack:

Yattsukero Gaigan

70s Godzilla-juvenile,cheap,sometimes shoddy,and FUN!

After the interesting but none too successful experiments Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla Vs Hedorah,Toho made this film,which sometimes feels like an attempt to make a 60s Monster Zero-type film on a fraction of the budget. Obviously,it's not a good film in the traditional sense,but all the 70s Godzilla films,despite their childishness,cheapness,shoddy effects work,samey plots,and 'wacky' ideas {in this one ,Godzilla and his mate Angilas TALK to each other in the non-Japanese version,whilst the Japanese version has speech bubbles instead!}etc,are fun to watch,and Godzilla Vs Gigan is no exception.

The plot is the aliens-out-to-conquer-Earth-by-controlling-monsters one already used in Monster Zero and Destroy All Monsters and it would be used a few more times,but here it is reasonably successful,with some fairly intriguing ideas {though often badly done}and unusual human characters,although their constant in-and-out of the Godzilla Tower,the alien's base,becomes a bit tiresome. When the monsters show up,we have probably the longest battle in a Godzilla film,and one of the funniest,too,as Godzilla and Angilas engage in a tag team duel with the evil Ghidorah and Gigan. Sadly the movie is badly let down by excessive stock footage from previous films {Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster,Monster Zero,Son Of Godzilla,Destroy All Monster and probably a couple of others too!}. At least in Godzilla's Revenge the stock footage had a sort of context,here,it jars with the new footage. The worst bit for this is the lengthy destruction scene,where new,night time footage of a tattered,slow moving Ghidorah who can barely move, is intercut with older,daytime footage of Ghidorah,showing a fast-moving dragon in action.

Somehow all this adds to the film's quirky charm,a sometimes good,occasionally awful,entry in the series. The soundtrack is one of the best,it's all Akira Ifikube stock music,much of it from Godzilla films,but it has many of the great Ifikube tracks and a wonderfully rousing title theme.