Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidorâ: Daikaijû sôkôgeki (2001)

Three ancient guardian beasts awaken to protect Japan against Godzilla.

Director:

Shûsuke Kaneko

Writers:

Keiichi Hasegawa (as Kei'ichi Hasegawa), Shûsuke Kaneko

Stars:

Chiharu Niiyama, Ryûdô Uzaki, Masahiro Kobayashi

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chiharu Niiyama	...	Yuri Tachibana (BS Digital Q reporter)
Ryûdô Uzaki	...	SDF Adm. Taizô Tachibana
Masahiro Kobayashi	...	Teruaki Takeda (science writer)
Shirô Sano	...	Haruki Kadokura (Yuri's boss)
Takashi Nishina	...	AD Aki Maruo
Kaho Minami	...	SDF Intelligence Capt. Kumi Emori
Shin'ya Ohwada	...	SDF L:t. Gen. Katsumasa Mikumo (as Shin'ya Ôwada)
Kunio Murai	...	SDF HQ Secretary Masato Hinogaki
Hiroyuki Watanabe	...	Yutaka Hirose
Shingo Katsurayama	...	SDF Intelligence Maj. Tokihiko Kobayakawa
Toshikazu Fukawa	...	Adjutant Miyashita
Masahiko Tsugawa	...	Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hideyo Amamoto	...	Prof. Hirotoshi Isayama the Prophet
Nobuaki Kakuda	...	Commanding Sector officer (as Nobuo Kakuda)
Takafumi Matsuo	...	Mototsu Station police officer

Storyline

Strange incidents occur when an American submarine has been destroyed by a mysterious force at sea off the shores of Guam. Only Admiral Tachibana was certain that behind the disaster was none other than the destructive King of the Monsters, Godzilla! 50 years after his attack on Tokyo in 1954, Godzilla has mysteriously returned to life to destroy Japan, and General Tachibana, whose parents died in the monster's destructive wake, was prepared for his return to protect Japan from yet another tragic disaster, but is dismissed by the overly confident Japanese government, who underestimate Godzilla's power. But to further prove Tachibana's claim, his daughter Yuri, who works for the TV news program "Digital Q," investigates strange phenomena in three separate areas in Japan (two of which involve the deaths of immoral youths), and meets a mysterious old man named Isayama, who proclaims that aside from his infamous nuclear origins, Godzilla is an accumulation of vengeful souls (of both ...

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Plot Keywords:

godzilla | mothra | ghidorah | kaiju | gojira | 

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Taglines:

Who will be the last monster standing?

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 December 2001 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Daikaiju Sogougeki

Filming Locations:

Studio 1, Toho Studios, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$9,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

JPY 257,450,000 (Japan), 16 December 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 89 min (USA) (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the scene where Godzilla first appears rising from Yaizu Harbor in Shizuoka, three people in a nearby office witness the incident (before Godzilla's thundering roar shatters glass on the office windows). Next to one of the three people, the camera focuses on a black and white poster of an old ship, the Lucky Dragon, which was the real life Japanese fishing boat that was contaminated by radioactivity in mid-1954. That incident became a direct inspiration for the original Gojira (1954).

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Goofs

The unnatural way King Ghidorah's two outer heads attach to his body, and the way they move, clearly reveal there's an actor inside his suit, and that these two heads are actually arm puppets. In other films, the heads were moved by strings, producing a much less fake-looking effect.

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Quotes

[recalling his encounter as a child with Godzilla in 1954]
Adm. Tachinaba: The sky was blood red and filled with smoke. And through it a devil appeared, its face was twisted with rage and hatred. When it was over my parents were gone. I will never forget the wretched cries of the dead...

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Alternate Versions

During the November premier, in addition to the unfinished special effects shots, the score was incomplete. It has been remixed since then.

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Connections

Follows Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

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Soundtracks

Great Monster War March
(AKA: "Monster Zero March")
Track from "Ostinato" Album - 1986
Ending Credits Theme 2
Composed by Akira Ifukube
Arranged by Hiroshi Kumagai

User Reviews

The Japanese have the Godzilla know-how

Japanese filmmakers know how to make Godzilla films. Nearly 50 years after giving us the original "Godzilla," Japan films present "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." The technical, special effects, CGI, and all aspects are superb. This film launched a renewal in Godzilla lore on film. It completely outdoes the lame 1998 American "Godzilla" by TriStar.

As with the original black and white, Godzilla looks the part of the monster it is - a unique hybrid not a dinosaur-age imitation or look-alike. The other monsters in this one, especially Mothra and the Red Monster look more cartoonish. The battle scenes, rampage and destruction around Tokyo again has a real feel to it.

This plot has an interesting twist. The original Godzilla was conceived as an aberration that resulted from nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean. But, in this film, a question surfaces more than once, after a reference to Godzilla having been in New York (the 1998 American film). "Why Tokyo again?" a couple of Japanese officials ask rhetorically. And the female lead, Yuri Tachibana (played by Chiharu Niiyama) says that it may be because Japan has to acknowledge its inhumane actions in the Pacific war. That's how the reference is stated regarding World War II and Japan's inhumane aspects in its conduct of the war.

Even though it doesn't specify any of the bad deeds, this is an acknowledgement that the Japanese did some heinous things during the war. That's interesting coming in a film 55 years after the end of WW II.