Background and Trivia |
- On April 16, 1985, Cinema Shares International Distribution Corporation and the "Mechagozilla Company" registered the film with the US copyright office with the registration number V2107P142. The title used was "The Terror of Mechagodzilla", and referenced an original execution date of November 14th, 1977. The following year on December 8th, 1986, Toho submitted the film to the US copyright office with the registration number of PA0000317015. This time the movie was submitted under its international title, Terror of Mechagodzilla, and its Romaji title, Mechagodzilla no Gyakushu.
- Toho held a story contest in order to attract ideas for the sequel to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). The winning entry was written by Yukiko Takayama, a female student at a Tokyo screenwriting school. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was so impressed with the story, though, that he not just selected it but commissioned Takayama to write the full script. This fact is located in Japan's Favorite Mon-Star (ISBN: 1550223488).
- Although Yukiko Takayama received full screen writing credit, in reality director Ishiro Honda had a hand in altering the concept from its original concept. Details on the earlier version of the concept can be found here Terror of Mechagodzilla (Early Draft).
- Director Ishiro Honda laments not being able to work with the story's writer, Yukiko Takayama, on other films, enjoying that a "woman's perspective was especially fresh" for the genre. This account is referenced in Age of the Gods (self-published).
- Originally, the movie was to open with the preparation of the submarine, Akatsuki, for launch. Director Ishiro Honda axed this, though, citing the desire to speed up this part of the movie by having the submarine already in the water. This cut is mentioned in Age of the Gods (self-published).
- In keeping with the desire to minimize the budget but still show a decent amount of city destruction, leftover model buildings from Submersion of Japan (1973) and Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974) were used during the scene where Mechagodzilla II and Titanosaurus attack Tokyo. This information is located in Japan's Favorite Mon-Star (ISBN: 1550223488).
- Special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano was thrilled to be working with Ishiro Honda on a movie again, having not previously been given an opportunity to work directly with Honda as a special effects director since the passing of Eiji Tsuburaya. Despite this, though, he had worked with Honda in other roles for almost two decades. As a result, he likened their friendship as being even stronger than that with director Jun Fukuda, who he had often been paired with and also cited as a friend. This fact is mentioned in Age of the Gods (self-published).
- Kensho Yamashita was the chief assistant director on the project. He notes, though, that Ishiro Honda never actually assigned any of the shooting to him, possibly because Honda was happy to be directing again after a long gap in his career and wanted to do the work himself. This detail is cited in Age of the Gods (self-published).
- The movie's US release is somewhat strange. It played in theaters from 1978 to 1980 under the title The Terror of Godzilla, edited down to recieve a G rating. Around the same time, though, the movie also played on TV under the title Terror of Mechagodzilla starting in the fall of 1978. The TV version was more complete, only editing out nudity, and also added a six minute introduction that utilized stock footage from Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) and All Monsters Attack (1969) to relate the backstory of events leading up to the film. This info is found in Japan's Favorite Mon-Star (ISBN: 1550223488).
- The US theatrical version of Terror of Mechagodzilla as The Terror of Godzilla makes many edits to remove human violence, besides the removal of the operation scene with Katsura's exposed breasts. These removed scenes include: when Interpol agent Kusugari is caught in the woods and shot to death by aliens, when Mugal tortures his men with a whip and sentences them to death, footage of Titanosaurus attacking the two schoolboys before Godzilla arrives, a scene of one of the Third Planet of the Black Hole aliens being strangled and removing his mask, seeing Mafune get shot, and also removing Ichinose carrying Katsura's dead body at the end.
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