Gojira: Fainaru uôzu (2004)

Director:

Ryûhei Kitamura

Writers:

Isao Kiriyama (screenplay)
Ryûhei Kitamura (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

4 December 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Earth: Out-numbered, Out-monstered, Out-done.

Plot:

Godzilla's 50th Anniversary project, in which Gojira (Godzilla) travels around the world to fight his old foes plus a new, mysterious monster named Monster X.

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Godzilla | Gojira | Tokyo Japan | Wedding Anniversary

Cast

Masahiro Matsuoka	...	Earth Defense Force Soldier Shin'ichi Ôzaki
Rei Kikukawa	...	UN Molecular Biologist Miyuki Otonashi
Kazuki Kitamura	...	The Controller of Planet X
Don Frye	...	Douglas Gordon (Captain of the Gôten)
Akira Takarada	...	UN Secretary General Naotarô Daigo
Kane Kosugi	...	M-Facility Soldier Katsunori Kazama
Maki Mizuno	...	Newscaster Anna Otonashi (Miyuki's older sister)
Masami Nagasawa	...	Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Chihiro Ôtsuka	...	Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Kenji Sahara	...	Paleontologist Hachirô Jingûji
Kumi Mizuno	...	Earth Defense Force Commander Akiko Namikawa
Masakatsu Funaki	...	M-Unit Commanding Officer Kumasaka
Masatô Ibu	...	The Xilian General
Masanobu Takashima	...	Major Kita
Mick Preston	...	New York Cop
Darren Schnase	...	New York Gangster Pimp
Shigeru Izumiya	...	Samon Taguchi, Kenta's grandfather
Kenta Suga	...	Kenta Taguchi, the boy
Jun Kunimura	...	Major Komuro
Shelley Sweeney	...	Commanding Officer of French Aerial Battleship Eclaire
Ryûhei Kitamura	...	DJ Interviewer
Kenji Kohashi	...	X
Tsutomu Kitagawa	...	Gojira
Motokuni Nakagawa	...	Kingu Shîsâ / Monsutâ Ekkusu
Naoko Kamio	...	Radon / Minira (suit actress)
Toshihiro Ogura	...	Angirasu / Ebira / Hedora (suit actor)
Kanae Uotani	...	Xillian
Tak Sakaguchi	...	Xillian
Ray Sefo	...	Glenn
Hideo Sakaki	...	Crew Member on Eclair
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hiroko Akune	...	Xillian
Samuel Pop Aning	...	Earth Defense Force Operator (as Samuel Pop)
Robert Baldwin
Cynthia Cheston	...	Tower staff
Michael Croaker	...	Ritchie
Delcea Mihaela Gabriela
Gary Goodridge	...	Area G worker (Glenn's friend)
Mike Han
Ryô Hashidume
Jun Hashizume	...	Daigo's Aide
Yumi Kikuchi	...	Female earth defense force soldier
Daisaku Kimura	...	Guy on TV
Reika Kirishima	...	Xillian
Jonathan Legg	...	Earth Defense Force Soldier
Shôichirô Masumoto
Minoru Matsumoto	...	Gôten Crew Member
Brad McMurray	...	Johnny
Kenji Motomiya
Akira Nakao	...	Original Gôten Commander
Kazuhito Ohba	...	Gôten Crew Member
Haruka Orth
Shirô Sano	...	Assassin
Shinji Suzuki	...	Mutant Soldier
Koh Takasugi	...	Captain of the Karyu
Yasuhiro Takeuchi	...	Gôten Crew Member
Shosuke Tanihara	...	Man On Sofa (watching TV)
Toshimichi Tasaki
Michael Tomioka
Kôichi Ueda	...	Original Gôten Deputy Captain
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Narrator (voice)
Elisabeth Hayward	...	Street runner (uncredited)
Matthew Scott	...	Street runner (uncredited)

Directed by
Ryûhei Kitamura

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Isao Kiriyama		screenplay
Ryûhei Kitamura		screenplay
Wataru Mimura		story
Shogo Tomiyama		story

Produced by
Shogo Tomiyama	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Keith Emerson		(as Kîsu Emâson)
Nobuhiko Morino
Daisuke Yano

Cinematography by
Takumi Furuya

Art Direction by
Deborah Riley

Production Management
Takuma Hayashi	....	production manager
Julie Sims	....	production manager: Australia

Art Department
Yasushi Nirasawa	....	designer: Gigan and Planet X Alien
Shinji Nishikawa	....	designer: Godzilla, all other monsters
Yoji Shinkawa	....	designer: Gôten/Atragon Warship
Patrick Tatopoulos	....	creature design: Zilla
Katsuya Terada	....	designer: Monster X

Sound Department
Miki Nomura	....	assistant sound engineer

Special Effects by
Eiichi Asada	....	special effects director
Kakusei Fujiwara	....	lead sculptor
Toshio Miike	....	special effects production designer
Rikiya Sô	....	assistant moldmaker

Visual Effects by
Masato Aonuma	....	cg artist: NTT Media Lab
Takashi Kato	....	miniature model maker
Taro Kiba	....	miniature model maker
Kei Kinoshita	....	miniature model maker
Nobuhiro Kondô	....	CGI director
Yoshiaki Nakaichi	....	digital effects artist
Yuichi Sato	....	miniature model maker
Isamu Tajima	....	miniature model maker

Stunts
Mick Hodge	....	stunt performer
Satoshi Katô	....	stunts
Tsutomu Kitagawa	....	suit action advisor
Philip Partridge	....	stunt performer
Takashi Sakamoto	....	stunts
Kensuke Sonomura	....	stunt rigger
Michihiro Takeda	....	action coordinator
Tomoki Tamura	....	stunts
Hiroyuki Yoshida	....	stunt rigger

Camera and Electrical Department
Stuart Bell	....	grip
Jason Binnie	....	first assistant camera
Motonobu Kiyoku	....	cinematographer: outside of Japan
David Nichols	....	key grip

Music Department
Lynne Hobday	....	music production associate
Lynne Hobday	....	soundtrack associate
Akira Ifukube	....	composer: theme music
Masaru Satô	....	composer: stock music

Other crew
Deborah Alleck	....	production coordinator
Kyle Cooper	....	title producer: main title sequence
Peter Hicks	....	location manager: Sydney
Tak Sakaguchi	....	action choreographer

Production Companies

• Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.
• C.P. International
• Zazou
• napalm FiLMS

Distributors

• Toho Company (2004) (worldwide) (all media)
• Pretty Pictures (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• Asia Video Publishing Co. Ltd. (2005) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting (2008) (Japan) (TV)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Marbling FineArts (miniature effects)
• NTT Media Lab (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment  camera dollies
• DENTSU Music And Entertainment  
• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production
• Honda  
• Kobe Film Office  film commission
• Okinawa Film Office  
• Prologue Films  titles
• Toho Studios  sound stages
• Tokyo Laboratory Co. Ltd.  digital intermediate
• U'Den Flame Works  stunts

Also Known As:

Godzilla: Final Wars (International: English title)
The Godzilla (Japan) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence.

Runtime:

125 min | Argentina:125 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Japan | Australia | USA | China

Language:

Cantonese | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Taiwan:PG-12 | USA:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.

Trivia:

Most of Hedorah's scenes were deleted, and in the final cut the monster only makes a brief cameo appearance. A portion of Hedorah's deleted scenes can be seen briefly in the closing credits montage.

Goofs:

Continuity: Drill-head battleship Gotengo rams Xilian deathstar. Bad guys teleport into battleship bridge, kill a lot of redshirts, and kidnap the heroes. When the heroes return to their ship later, all the dead redshirts have vanished.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Wars and pollution, relentless fighting and environmental destruction, have all awakened vicious monsters. Humankind therefore joins forces with one another in order to drive off the monsters, instead of killing each other. Thus, the Earth Defense Force is born...
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Sora no daikaijû Radon (1956)

Soundtrack:

Godzilla Theme

GODZILLA FINAL WARS: The Big G goes out with a big bang

GODZILLA FINAL WARS may not please Godzilla purists but it delivers the goods for everybody else—at least those with some knowledge of Godzilla lore. I saw it with a packed house of G fans at Subway Cinema's annual New York Asian Film Festival and it was the perfect audience for a film as steeped in the kaiju mythos as this one. Every time a new monster appeared on screen the crowd applauded or, rather, they applauded once that monster became recognizable, since the director often teases us with quick cuts and blurry motion before giving us a good, steady full-body shot. There are 15 monsters in all, many friendly old faces and some obscure ones, but all recognizable to longtime Godzilla fans.

The other real pleasure for G fans is the star-studded cast. Three venerable stars of older kaiju films turn up, two in major roles. Akira Takarada (star of the original GODZILLA, 1954) plays the UN Secretary General and Kumi Mizuno (the gorgeous leading lady from MONSTER ZERO, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS and more) plays the Commander of the Earth Defense Force. In a smaller role, Kenji Sahara turns up in a lab coat assisting the attractive young female biologist (Rei Kikukawa) assigned to investigate the monster attacks. Also on hand are Jun Kunimura (Boss Tanaka in KILL BILL VOL. 1); Kane Kosugi, a martial arts star in his own right and son of "ninja" star Sho Kosugi; and one other gorgeous actress, Maki Mizuno, who plays the biologist's newscaster sister. Masahiro Matsuoka plays Ozaki, the lead mutant hero who uses MATRIX-style martial arts to fight the alien invaders. Don Frye plays the tough American captain who pilots the Gotengo (the flying, burrowing ship from ATRAGON) and stands up to the aliens in several memorable confrontations. A martial artist/wrestler/extreme fighter known primarily in Japan, Frye speaks all his lines in English in the Japanese print I saw, while everyone else speaks Japanese to him.

The film's all-star monster cast and alien invasion plot seem derived chiefly from DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968), but with everything pumped up to hyper speed. The film is incredibly fast-paced and filled with action, either in the form of battles between monsters or martial arts fights/ray-gun shootouts between the human and mutant defenders and the alien invaders. Since the monsters attack numerous cities around the world (including New York, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo--of course--and even Vancouver!) there turns out to be more mass destruction in this film than in all other G films combined.

One can argue that the whole production is sheer lunacy, but it's lunacy done with conviction and affection. The director clearly knows and loves Godzilla films and he conveys that love while also adding new twists and imaginative touches (e.g. Anguirus, the spike-covered ankylosaurus, curling up into a spiked ball to launch a rolling attack). One's overall reaction depends on any number of factors, but this should definitely be seen by all kaiju fans.