Toho Kingdom

People who don't like this film are probably awful to be around.

I was reading about on OriginalTrilogy, and someone (SpacehunterM) mentions that the Sony DVD of Gigan "is also a complete synchronization disaster." I personally never noticed any errors, so I'm curious, what does he mean by that? Can someone explain?

Goji wrote:The scenes lifted from Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster are what take me out of the movie the most, but I still adore this film, so it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. To me, anyway. I should probably note that as a kid, those scenes didn't bother me, even though I could tell they were from GTTHM, so like ebaker pointed out, it works for it's intended age group. It's probably Nakano's 'grossest' use of stock footage in any of the Godzilla films he worked on, but it doesn't hamper my enjoyment of the overall experience.

Nakano would agree with you. In an interview with Steve Ryfle in the Japan's Favorite Monstar book, Nakano talks about how much he hated being forced to use stock footage and that he would try his best to make them 'new' scenes by flipping the footage, changing the tint to match it to night time as much as possible, ect... but he admitted theres only so much you can do.

Nakano was one of the humblest SPX directors Toho ever had. My only criticism of him was why he used Sinking of Japan stock footage explosions in Return of Godzilla when he had a huge budget for that movie (the chain reaction explosion of the cars is the scene mentioned in this case).

That stock footage was from Prophecies of Nostradamus, not Sinking of Japan, but I'll assume that was just a brain fart on your part.

I'm guessing that since that film had already been on a self imposed ban for the past 4 years, and was such a great sequence (and he didn't want it to be lost to the ages), that he choose to reuse it, but that's just speculation on my part. And here we are, 40 years later, and Toho still hasn't loosened up on the issue..but that's a discussion for another topic.

It's a pity Toho was cutting the budgets for the G films, but they did a good job with they had. G vs Gigan is one of the more entertaining of the later Showa films.

edgaguirus wrote:G vs Gigan is one of the more entertaining of the later Showa films things in the history of the known Universe.

Just had to make a slight adjustment there.

I fully agree with you.

Godzilla vs. Gigan is one of my favorites Showa films, along GvM and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster.

Rewatched this with a friend not too long ago, we both forgot somethings.

-I forgot how many Maser Cannons there was in this flick, King Ghidrah destroys like 10 or 11 of the things.

-He forgot how dark this film was. Keep in mind we had rewatched Godzilla vs Megalon before this so he forgot that it wasn't campy like Megalon and more oppressive.

If only Toho had given this film the budget it deserved. If they had a real budget like the early 60s films this would've been even more fantastic

Godzillian wrote:If only Toho had given this film the budget it deserved. If they had a real budget like the early 60s films this would've been even more fantastic

The fact we can see the potential of the film despite everything holding it back speaks volumes about the crew working on it and their talent.

I don't know what you guys are talking about with this unrealized potential business. The movie is goddamn fantastic and special and wonderful just the way it is, like a warm shower on frosty day.

And, yes, it is a movie I first saw when I was about five years old, and I can't really divorce it from that context...

Have I mentioned how much I love this movie's atmosphere? Unlike most of the alien invasion movies in the Godzilla franchise, this and TOMG actually feel like the world is at stake if Godzilla fails to repel the invasion.

In a way, the bleakness of the tone, the sense of paranoia and oppression, and the way that the invaders' plot specifically centers around marketing to children all give it a sensibility similar to Halloween III.

Personally, this is my favorite of the '70's godzilla movies to watch. It may not have the most intricate plot and it may use stock footage, but it is the quintessential 70's movie in my eyes. Godzilla being the (super)hero, multiple kaiju participating in brawls, and the enemy monster being used by the aliens. The human cast is somewhat memorable and gigans design is awesome.

Not to mention that the main cast aren't scientist or soldiers. They're ordinary people, and these ordinary people succeed against an advanced foe.

And they win the day with the power of manga artwork! (Okay, and some explosives.)

I wish this has the budget of earlier films. It's so good that with a larger budget it would be even better

I've officially given up listening to the naysayers, "consensus", and reading listed rankings of Godzilla movies. Son of Godzilla, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla Raids Again, and now Godzilla vs Gigan were supposed to be some of the most unwatchable bad G-movies of all time. Rewatching G-movies in order with new eyes (Japanese originals only), the funny/cheesy Showa films are still fantastic as they were in my previous viewings.

Granted, the SFX/toys/costumes were bad, there was too much swimming, and the plot was wacky, but I actually liked the geeky humans in this (especially the ladies and heavyset guy, and being a comic book artist is cool). The villains acted poorly but they WERE cockroaches- what should we expect? The stock footage did not bother me at all. I think the production was marvelous considering the shoestring budget. My main confusion was Godzilla and Anguirus speaking to each other like a tape recorder gone bad.

I felt bad for Anguirus getting beat up, and Godzilla really got hurt, the rampage scenes were awesome, and the songs were cool.

Pretty cool movie, although ridiculous and cheap looking. It is in middle of the pack in the first 12 Godzilla movies for me, not at the bottom like others.

Yeah, this one has always held a pretty solid ranking for me. Not top 10, but well above the bottom of the barrel. It's so much goofy fun, and so self-consciously and unabashedly comic-bookish in its tone and style (a fact is absolutely acknowledges through its choice of main character), I feel like you have to be kind of a joyless person not to appreciate it to some degree.