Interview with “Monster Attack Team‘s” Edward Holland and Michael Keller

Along with the promotion of the resurrection of legendary fanzine "Monster Attack Team", I have had the special honor to interview the editors-in-chief of the magazine, Edward L. Holland (also known as Edojira) and Michael Keller. I hope this interview is thorough, if not informative on the resurrection. Do take note that Bolgger seems to have an officinal problem when it comes to clumping large amounts of text together which are supposed to be spaced apart, so if you develop disdain, feel free to go ahead and leave your e-mail via comment and I am sure to give it to you. Enjoy!

1. When and under what circumstances did the revival of "Monster Attack Team" come under?

Ed: MAT was revived with the hard work and reinvestment by original contributor and associate editor Mike Keller.

Mike: It was my idea. Basically, it came out of the fact that I've been employed as a graphic designer for a little while now. I use all this software at work and at home. I have all these resources and equipment, plus I'm a hell of a lot better at this stuff now than I was back when we were doing MAT. It occurred to me that we could have really used all of this when MAT was active, it also occurred to me that there were things I'd still like to write about, or see written about. I contacted Ed and told him that I wanted to do another issue, and he agreed that it was a good idea.

2. When establishing "MAT", what goals did you guys set?

Mike: I'll let Ed answer this, as he is one of the founders

Ed: When MAT was established there were no definite guidelines or by-laws, but I had a clear idea of what I wanted to present and in what fashion. I wanted to bring fans together via television and print media and branch out a bit. I wanted it to be a fan club and fanzine like none other. We never took it too serious and wanted to bring things to our network of friends not seen elsewhere. I believe we continue to do so today.

3. What impact did other fanzines like "Japanese Fantasy Film Journal" and "Markalite" have on "MAT"?

Ed: JFFJ and Markalite had an effect, particularly Markalite. I bought every issue of Markalite when they came out and I believe I wrote to their offices as they were preparing issue 4, which unfortunately never came out. I have stayed in contact with August Ragone and Bob Johnson since those days. Back when Ultraman Powered was being shot in Burbank, CA Markalite, Oriental Cinema, and MAT were invited on the set. It was quite an honor and Markalite and MAT were fortunate to be there. At the same time, MAT was invited on the set of Power Rangers while the first season was being filmed.

Mike: They set the standard. Personally, I don't think JFFJ has ever been topped, though Markalite did come close.

4. How many contributors are returning and how many are new?

Ed: Mike knows more about the lineup, but many have returned and there are many new contributions too. I have not brought as many things to this issue as I would like to due to job and family commitments, but I am very thankful that our original crew is basically all back together. I always thought of our contributors as a team and felt that Monster Attack Team really fit our method of promoting the genre and Japan.

Mike: About half and half. I'm really proud of the contributors we have in this issue. We have multiple published authors in our ranks, and everything they've given us is of the highest quality. We also got some people who were pretty involved in the fandom in the 1990s to come out of 'retirement' for MAT 8, so to speak.

5. How did the advent of a TV series come into play?

Mike: That's Ed's department...

Ed: The cable access TV series actually started first. I was approached by Larry King, not the Larry King of CNN fame, but a real fan in his own right that approached me at Larry Lankford's Dallas Fantasy Fair convention and asked if I would like to have a show on Dallas cable. Both Joe Riley (Church of the Sub-Genius, Jimmy Neutron, Blade: Trinity, Mighty Joe Young, makeup/latex mask master) and I said sure. We had worked on a Fred Williams movie and an MTV commercial and we thought it would be fun. The fan club/fanzine sprang from that.

6. Did any competition come up between "MAT" and other fan organizations/fanzines?

Mike: No. We came out of that whole '90s milieu pretty unscathed. We never bought into any of the con/fan wars. We never turned anyone away and everyone was welcome. We were friends with people who hated each other!

Ed: There has never been a spirit of competition between MAT and any other Japanese tokusatsu group that I know of. In fact, some of the groups we featured articles, etc. from were at odds with each other during the original publications. I hope those waters have subsided now. We did not care if people were at odds with each other. If you are still doing something to promote these great shows you have stood the test of time and we applaud such efforts

7. With the TV show, you showed a lot of copyrighted clips. How was it working with Toho, Toei, and Tsuburaya?

Mike: We probably shouldn't address this, but I'll let Ed answer if he wants to.

Ed: Well we did not really work with the studios to show those clips but the studios including Toho knew about us and NEVER once complained. However, during the Alien Death Squad cable program days, a show started by David May, kind an offshoot of MAT, we actually got some Tsuburaya clips officially which were going to be used on a PBS special that we were interviewed for but I never saw the finished product. I don't think I even have those clips of Ultraman 80 which I received in the mail from Ultracom, Tsuburaya's American division years ago. Great show by the way!

8. Other than fanzine articles, what other contributions have you done for the fandom?

Ed: I have been heavily stating the artistic and surreal value of Japanese film and television shows to anyone who will listen since I was 6 years old. I have done this on shore, at sea in foreign countries, at bars, schools and particularly with my old film school colleagues. If an ear is bent I will fill it up with my admiration for my childhood and young adult heroes. I guess I have never grown up, the whole Island of the Lost Boys syndrome so to speak.

Mike: Fan articles and art are all I've done for fandom. I've had things published in G-Fan, Kaiju Review and Oriental Cinema.

9. When writing an article, what mindset do you put yourself?

Mike: I think I write articles a lot differently now than I used to. I certainly hope that I've gotten better! I do a lot of revising and re-writing. It's important to me to have all my ducks in a row. I won't identify something as a fact unless I can corroborate it with another source or witness it myself. Ideally, I would like to do as much original research as possible for a piece - though sometimes that just isn't possible

Ed: I usually work on a deadline and cram as much in as I can possibly and add a fan edge to it as well. First and foremost I am not an authority. I feel there are no authorities except for the creators of these great productions. Those that feel they know everything can never walk in the shoes of those that live it and breathe it for a living.

10. Do you practice a particular "style" of writing?

Ed: I do not practice writing. I write these day in a military manner and maybe I should adopt that style for the pages of MAT. I don't prefer too much authority in pieces that I enjoy on the genre, yet on the other hand I don't like too much subjective writing as well. I was trained to pass college level grammar, but I am a big abuser of comma splices.

Mike: I would like to think that I have finally arrived at my own style. I used to try to imitate the styles of others, but that doesn't get anybody anywhere. I try to steer away from goofiness - but can't help cracking the occasional joke or delving into sarcasm when the situation presents such an easy target. I do not write 'kaiju fan-wank' anymore (what if Godzilla ate a lobster and took a crap on a dead sea-slug and lightning hit it, blah blah blah...). I'm very embarrassed by some of the things I've written in the past. This issue will not contain anything of a fan-ish nature, or any fiction.

11. Do you think "MAT" has aged well in terms of for example, some issues becoming sought after collector’s pieces due to information kept in them, ect.?

Mike: Content wise, we had some pretty good stuff - good enough that's its been reprinted elsewhere. We were the first ones to write about tokusatsu in popular music, for example. Also things like Ed Godziszewski's Daimajin piece were really popular. I think that visually, our last couple of issues were pretty amateurish - that's something that will be rectified in #8.

Ed: I think MAT has aged as well as possible. We are not a fine Merlot by any means, but the members have been around the block seen things, some of them have released books, worked on dvds, played stages, authored articles for other fanzines and beyond. I think people have kept the old issues as a reference of the shows and time gone by. We are not at that level in fandom or professionally anymore. Most of us have larger responsibilities. The fan boys grew up but we never left our roots behind.

12. Where do you project "MAT" is going to go into the future?

Ed: I hope that MAT will be remembered for what it was, is and continues to be: a group of friends writing, discussing, showing what great events are happening on the other side of the pond. Doing this prior to the internet explosion was a labor of love. Our original members who have their membership packets are holding onto something that has never been done, or will be done again. Our original members received a newsletter, personally numbered fan club card, and the biggest prize a mockup of a SD hero or monster as a pin selected by me and hand painted by Joe Riley. To me this was as good as a fan club has ever come to honoring the masters. "Ultra" Joe Riley relaxes in the monster graveyard in the sky with many other legends now and I know he is looking down from more comfortable digs thinking about what we started. Issue 8 is dedicated to you brother!

Mike: No immediate plans. The magazine will not be coming back regularly. We are all too busy and have original creative endeavors and careers to focus on. Plus, printing costs a good chunk of change!

13. What new ground do you think could be broken in terms of kaiju journalism as of now?

Mike: There are always new things to discover. We have information in Issue 8 on some pretty obscure films - stuff that I'd never heard of before. I won't reveal any more until the issue has gone to press. We haven't mentioned everything we've got on the website. I'd like to see people continue to turn over rocks and dig up some new info. The Teito Monogatari series really needs a good English language retrospective, and somebody should try writing about the Watari films.

Ed: New ground? Hmm... maybe a platform for writers to actually write for screenplays and treatments for episodic television and animation. Everyone loves monsters in some form or fashion. As kids, we would pretend like we were on Monster Island and we would even get the girls to join in on the fun. As adults we saw Gamera and Godzilla in American theatres. How about more fan generated treatments with heavy weight stars and special effects done the western way with Japanese budgets and production efficiency?

14. As a fan, I got to ask: on the upcoming article on Kinji Fukasaku, how much information on the film "Satomi-Hakken-Den" will be included?

Ed: Please direct this question to Mike Keller. I don't know how much of that film content will be addressed in the piece.

Mike: Equal time will be devoted to all nine of Fukasaku's films that involve SF or fantasy - The Black Lizard, The Green Slime, Message From Space, Virus, Samurai Reincarnation, Legend of Eight Samurai (Satomi Hakken-Den), Crest of Betrayal, Battle Royale and Battle Royale II.

15. Any last words you would like to share with the fandom?


Mike: It would please me to think that issue 8 of Monster Attack Team will someday be looked at with the same reverence as those old issues of JFFJ. I also hope this serves as a shot in the arm to the fandom, and more people step up to the plate and try to out-do what we've done. I would love to know that we have inspired people to come up with great things, and I hope someone picks up the ball and runs with it.

Ed: Last words: Make it fun, entertaining, informative, a bit light-hearted and approachable for all and someone to read or watch. Even people at first who hated our cable access show continued to watch because they had not seen anything like that before in such a format. If it is not fun or entertaining for you then it will not be so for anyone else. Do your best and if you fall down trying to make a difference or promote your cause, at least you tried and can be proud of your efforts. Thanks for interviewing us and I hope that our readers old and new will enjoy the ride. Tanoshimasho!

You can visit the new site for the ressurected fan site here: http://www.kellerwerks.com/MAT.html

We at JournalismG2KM would like to thank "Edojira" and Mike for taking time out of their schedules to take the time to talk to us. Arigatou!

Blu-Ray 3rd Line and HMV Tie-ins

I mentioned on the Atari 8 days ago that there was a rumor on many Japanese sites about the third wave of blu-ray releases. Thanks to GVAMP with Atari and Tohokingdom, the rumor was true. The new wave is the rest of the Heisei series plus "War of the Gargantuas". Each of the Godzilla releases are the same as the original DVD releases except for the enhanced audio and picture quality. What is a good thing though is that "War of the Gargantuas" has a more "gargantuan" sized repertoire of special features, including what could be roughly translated as "watch the snap shooting scene" (・X・i・b・v・ﾅ・ﾏ・・・B・e・ｻ・・・ﾌ・・・i) and "Synthetic Steel Collection" (a steel book perhaps? ・・・ｬ・X・`・[・・・R・・・N・V・・・・). If anyone has better translations, please post at the bottom of this blog entry.

In other news, HMV is doing what they do best: capitalizing on new releases. Kind of in the way they gave us accouple more variations of the 8" Kiryu-Goji 2004 version, they are giving us some more. Order now and you will receive a replica dorsal fin off of the Heisei suit, a film canister with some kaiju related goodies, and I think a book filled with text and images with the cover being the same of a G2K booklet released some 10 years ago. And if you order later, you get a free wallpaper for your computer. Not many details could be made out. Here are some links for your considering.

HVM Link:

http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/909040117/#item1

Toho's Site:
http://www.toho-a-park.com/tokusatsu-bd/


Again, special thanks goes to GVAMP.

Legendary Pictures Godzilla... by Who?

Something which has apparently set the world on fire for kaiju fans was the news of Legendary Pictures going into negotiations with Toho for the rights of a Godzilla film. But what is fact and what is not? This is what I am going to write about. Well, that and a look at possibly directors.


Legendary Pictures is in negotiations with Toho. True. Toho said "no comment", though how they said it proved that they are doing something which is top secret. True. Did Legendary Pictures ask Toho or was it the other way around? It was Legendary Pictures which approached Toho (this is based on the wording of a certain Twitch article). Legendary Pictures would like to make for the film an updated version of the Shodai-Goji suit? I do not know. This is where stuff starts to get tricky. That, and accouple of more rumors (that Legendary Pictures will have Weta do the CGI and that they want a Toho villain to oppose the King of the Monsters) came from an ananymous. When I asked about his source for validity, he said that his source was someone high in the industry. So make of it as you will. Is what Avery Guerra keeping secret the same facts? I do not know and event though I am a friend I do not know either nor do I have the audacity to do so.


But who will be the director? Many famous directors love Godzilla. John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, Escape From New York) has been in two different documentaries on the Big "G". But due to his age and his current projects, I doubt it. Tim Burton (Batman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) has given Godzilla a cameo in his film "Pee Wee’s Big Adventure" and even mentions him, "Destroy All Monsters", and had a picture of the Big G in his autobiography, "Burton on Burton". Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Apocalypse Now) did what August Ragone said: "In 1956, Scorsese ended up seeing GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS several times as a young teenager. Decades later, when he worked on Akira Kurosawa's DREAMS (in which he played Vincent van Gogh), Scorsese was elated to discover that Honda was working on the film and asked to have a sit down with him. He told Honda about how much he loved GODZILLA and how he used to do chores so he could see the movie as many times as he could when it first came to NYC. Scorsese also, according to an interview with Honda, talked to Toho and managed to get several of Honda's films into the New York Museum of Modern Art's film library." But there is another guy who I want the most to do this project. And I got two words for you: QUENTIN TARANTINO.


Tarantino is already known to be a Godzilla fan. For "Kill Bill Vol. 1", he used one of the Yokohama sets from "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack". For the epic fight between Beatrix Kiddo and Elle Driver in "Kill Bill Vol. 2", he made both Daryl Hannah and Uma Thurman watch his print of "War of the Gargantuas" before filming the scene - which also copies some publicity stills from "War of the Gargantuas". Some even say that Quentin owns a print of "Destroy All Monsters". Well, some news has surfaced that has seemingly not hit most kaiju forums.


Originally around the time "Death Proof" was released, Tarantino mentioned something about wanting to make a Godzilla film but claimed that he was not at liberty to say anything about it. Very recently, Tarantino was interviewed and said this: "I have an idea for a Godzilla movie that I've always wanted to do. The whole idea of Godzilla's role in Tokyo, where he's always battling these other monsters, saving humanity time and again- wouldn't Godzilla become God? It would be called "Living Under the Rule of Godzilla". This is what society is like when a big fucking green lizard rules your world."


Some unique narrative, eh? Godzilla as a religious symbol is an interesting concept. This is something which effects the original, "Gojira" in which somewhat getting influenced from the original "King Kong", Godzilla is a God to the natives of Odo Island. 30 years later, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka would call Godzilla, "…a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse." Then in 2001, Godzilla became the embodiment of the dead souls of the Pacific Conflict theatre of the Second World War which were angry for the Japanese to try to forget about the war. However, "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" also proves that Japanese mythology is in the GMK universe real, with the description of King Ghidorah’s mature form being eight headed - a call to Yamato No Orochi. Then there is the fact that the international name for Godzilla has the word "God" in it. Tarantino’s take on the religious angle to Godzilla himself sound different from what I have listed above and seems to be a breath of fresh air not smelled since Kaneko’s "GMK".



Overall, Tarantino has revealed something which he has kept secret for two years. We do not know when Legendary Pictures started negotiating for the rights to "Godzilla", with some people (including Chris55) saying that at least it has been going on for the past 2 months, so is it possible at Tarantino may be the new director since right after the revealing of the negotiations he can how talk about his Godzilla concept? Time will tell. I can say one thing, though it may be off topic: Michael Schlesinger is no longer available for interviews for publishing on the internet. Please comment on what you think Tarantino’s Godzilla may be like with this new information and how Legendary Pictures may use this if the negotiations lead to a green lighting which would lead to the hiring of Tarantino in a rare project which does not include the Weinstein Company.

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IN NO WAY SAYS THAT TARANTINO IS THE DIRECTOR FOR A FILM THAT IS ONLY IN NEGOTIATIONS. THIS IS JUST TO GET OUT SOME DETAILS ABOUT THE LEGENDARY PICTURES GODZILLA AND SOME INFORMATION QUENTIN TARANTINO LET OUT IN AN INTERVIEW ABOUT NINE DAYS AGO. TARANTINO IS OF RIGHT NOW NOT THE DIRECTOR OF THE LEGENDARY PICTURES GODZILLA.

The Making of "Sanda vs. Gaira"

One of the most influential of the Showa series films, "War of the Gargantuas" is a legendary picture. Some 44 years after it’s theatrical release, here is what I hope will be the most complete offering of what happened behind the scenes of this film.

1966 was the year of the most kaiju films ever made. Toho's role in this was that other than Godzilla, they were making science fiction films off the bat. "Rodan", "Mothra", "The Last War", and "Atragon" were all part of this. Whether based on a book (Mothra) to a loose remake of Gojira with the only real aspect kept is the anti-nuclear theme (Rodan), these films took the world's box office by storm year after year. Most of this was because these films showcased the best special effects the world ever saw (till Star Wars was made). After the success of the latest out-going of the sci-fi film craze "Frankenstein vs. Subterranean Beast Baragon" (better known as Frankenstein Conquers the World), continuity was going to be added for the first time to this string of unrelated, critically good sci-fi films. For Toho, an original Sci-fi film and a Godzilla film had never been made in the same year. The one exception was 1965's "Frankenstein Conquers the World" and "Invasion of The Astro Monsters". This theme, which would have been great, marked the beginning of Ishiro Honda's pull out of the Godzilla franchise along with Akira Ifukube. Other than Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Tsuburaya was the only one to stay with both productions of the same year in 1966. This change with Ishiro Honda especially could have been caused by one of two factors: too much work or the amount of change the "Godzilla, Ebirah, and Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas" was too much for him since the script got so many edits at one time, including the fact that the Ebirah script was originally a film adaptation of the animated "King Kong" series of the time and then a Ebirah vs. Kong thing to Godzilla ultimately replacing King Kong (I can go on about the changes of this script). Another theory I have read was that the higher-ups in Toho thought that with the Godzilla series, Honda was losing originality, with no original monsters being shown in Monster Zero and with the exception of Ghidorah, all other kaiju Godzilla battled were from a stand alone sci-fi film already and the theme of space invaders, while popular, became tiresome.


The idea for this film and it's script came from 1965 by Takeshi Kimura under the title "Frankenstein's Sons". As with the Ebirah script, "War of the Gargantuas" had the same burden with it's script: numerous changes. One thing that was for certain was that since it was a sequel to "Frankenstein vs. Baragon", it has to reference the original film. After some editing of the original Kimura script, the first official draft of the script called "Frankenstein's Brothers", submitted on January 26, 1966, was turned in with the omages to the previous film. The plot of the draft was ever so similar to the first draft, with the only major difference being the cast, which was originally having the same characters from the first film. But for unknown reasons, names and cast listings were changed into what we have today: Russ Tamblyn replacing Nick Adams (for the record, they were close friends in America), Kenji Sahara replacing Mr. Takashima and Kumi Mizuno was kept under a different character.


Controlling this script and making sure the same thing did not happen as with the Ebirah script, Ishiro Honda started taking up the pen and paper for the script. A second draft was written called "Clash of the Frankensteins". No real details about the differences with the second draft were reported, but a third draft was written called, "Duel of the Frankensteins". Unlike the other titles from the other drafts, "Duel of the Frankensteins" was a title that almost stuck to the project, until a last minute change was made to call the film "Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira". Something that these scripts had in common was the slow watering down of the number of connections between this film and the first film along with mention of the original film. However, the biggest change was something not even related to the continuity between "War of the Gargantuas" and "Frankenstein vs. Baragon": the finale. While the finale was much like the present one, it was to be much bigger than the one we got. While the military attacks the Gargantuas at sea, the military are the ones which start the volcano in Tokyo Bay and while just a coincidence, the volcano doesn't stop with devouring the Gargantuas but also killing the rest of the Frankenstein cells which were scattered through out Tokyo due to military engagement. Tomoyuki Tanaka was the one who ordered this change since he feared it would eat up and expand the budget more than what he, as a producer, could afford. It was rejected even after Honda suggested that they mix the finale with stock footage from a previous Toho film, "The Last War".


As mentioned, Nick Adams was not in the film due to reasons of other shows and movies he was doing back in America (we was quite busy, according to IMDb) so we got the new cast of Russ Tamblyn, Kenji Sahara, and the keeping of Kumi Mizuno. All the cast got along great, but it was Russ Tamblyn who was the biggest case. Even though good friends with "Frankenstein vs. Baragon" star Nick Adams, Russ did not speak a word of Japanese. This was just a small matter that played into a big dilemma which plagued the film's development. A good actor in his own right, Russ Tamblyn was not active into acting around the time, more interested into art. That was until he got the script when he was referred to by Henry Saperstein, a producer of "War of the Gargantuas". Russ found the script not to his liking. This was likely because when the script was translated, the translation was bad with not having everything be correct grammar-wise and not sounding the same as we would say every day-to-day things. Thinking that this was a good way to get a quick buck and a good chance to see Japan, Russ accepted. Along with shooting two films, he acted the role. Without knowing Japanese, he had to hire a translator, Heihachiro "Henry" Okawa. With this being a burden, there were no real rehearsals with Russ, he just had to learn his cues. One day he saw a set where the Gargantuas were duking it out. The thing he thought was "Oh my god, I am in trouble."


Thinking that this film would never reach the states, he went back to the US without seeing the film in any form. But the film which was not to his liking had since received a very large following, enough to make one US TV station show the film at the same time one a day for a week, shocking him especially since he did not even know the film got theatrical distribution in the US ("Monster Zero" was double billed with "War of the Gargantuas" and was almost double billed again with "Godzilla's Revenge"). Another incident of "War of the Gargantuas" popularity was when Russ was doing a film, "Human Highway". In the film was the band Devo. The main singer of Devo, Mark Mothersbaughm, came up to Russ and said, "Oh my God, you did one of my favorite films of all time." Then Matt when on dropping the name "War of the Gargantuas" along with other things about the film, including having a tape of the song in the film, "Feel in My Heart" which Devo has covered. Years later at Godzillafest 2004, Russ Tamblyn with his family sat together and made kaiju history as the first time the film played in theaters and the first time Russ saw it and finally started appreciating the film. It was also around this time that Russ found out that Nick actually went out with Kumi Mizuno. So that was the story of what started Toho's craze to start adding American stars to their pictures, such as "King Kong Escapes" and even "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" (1993).


Without interference from the Ebirah production, this film got the best of almost everything. So let's talk about the best thing about this film: it's special effects! Duking it out with a Godzilla film, three Daimajin films, a Gamera film and a newly developed Ultraman series, it was going to be hard for Eiji to keep up a high standard, but he did that. With Eiji Tsuburaya at the helm of four projects of the year (The Ebirah project, Ultraman, King Kong Escapes, and this), you could say that he was against himself. I can say that he did his best here in WOTG for the year of 1966. With all three aforementioned projects done at different times (all mostly guesses - WOTG in early 1966, Ultraman mostly the May 1996-February 1967 - my guess, and the Ebirah project being done from August - November 1996), Eiji Tsuburaya at least did have enough time to do one project and not three projects at once. As I mentioned, he did the best out of all three here. The most noticeable thing that can be said that was new with Tsuburaya with this production was the Gargantuas being only half the size of Godzilla at the time, (Godzilla was 50 meters and Sanda, the tallest Gargantua, was only 30 meters tall) the call for bigger sets and models was called for. The sets have been reported to have been enlarged to 1/10 scale. This really called for serious budget and serious detail. Quite suitably, Eiji Tsuburaya along with colleagues Yasuyuki Inoue and Mutsumi Toyoshima really outdid themselves here. The buildings are set perfectly and when the Gargantuas crash into them, it looks very realistic. With bigger sets, you have to have bigger military defense vehicles, and just vehicles in general. One example of vehicles in general is when Gaira is walking down a street in the finale of the film, we get a close up of Gaira's foot (Nakajima's bare, green painted foot!) walking on top of a car. The car is crushed. The effect still holds up today. In fact, there is a similar shot in Godzilla 2000 that has Godzilla stomping on top of cars and it pales in comparison.

When it comes to more important vehicles, which are usually the Japanese Self Defense Force vehicles, we get a real treat here. One of which no matter how overrated it becomes has to be talked about: the birth of the iconic Maser Cannon. The person most related to creation of the Maser Cannon is most probably it's designer: Mutsumi Toyoshima. Remote controlled, this little machine was one of the most difficult vehicles to make and use. One reason concerned the iodine lamp bulb which was used to illuminate the necessary parts of the maser cannon. The iodine bulb was a pain in the neck because unless it was perfectly parallel to the ground, it would not light up. That was the most important part of it all, since the laser itself would be animated. The iodine lamp bulb is physically an elongated glass bulb in a phallus shape. So half was exposed outside and the other side was in the tube which connects the saucer part of the cannon with the main body, acting like the neck joint of the cannon. Thankfully, it was a success. An interesting note about the maser cannon was that while the whole conception was Mutsumi Toyoshima's, the base of the cannon was recycled from "Monster Zero's" A-CYCLE Cannon, which was Shigueru Komatsuzaki's design. The Maser Cannon has since become an iconic weapon, from having it's beam color change from blue (most films) to red (Godzilla 1985) to Gold (Godzilla: Tokyo SOS), to having so many names that it isn't even called a maser anymore, but more like names like Hyper Maser (Kiryu's chest weapon in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS) to names like MBT-92 (Heisei films).


One of the most interesting parts of this film's special effects is the sets. Unlike most kaiju films of the early Showa era, a film with a 75% forest settling was mostly unseen until this film's prequel was made: "Frankenstein Conquers The World". The reason for this was because of the troublesome work that goes into this - more troublesome than the metropolis models. You see, the Toho staff had to make sure that every tree on the set had legit-looking roots and even roots at all since they did not know which trees the kaiju were going to pull up! For the branches, they used a small pine tree called Himuro Sugi and trimmed it, mostly trimming off the natural roots. For the new roots, they use the roots of giant golden rods and connect the two usually with wire. The plants lasted three days, meaning that for these hundreds of trees they had to plant, they had to replant. That is also taking into account that weather or not the lot at Toho studios in which these plants just happened to grow would run out and buy additional supplies of these plants.

The two best instances of this effects was one in this film, where Sanda pulls a tree in which he smites Gaira with. The second was in the often condemned film "Godzilla vs. Megalon" when Godzilla uses a tree's roots to choke Megalon and smack the other rival kaiju around. Often times though, the tree that would be used for the offensive would not be specified. Then you have to ask about where and in what are these mini-trees planted in. First, the ground which they were on were usually 1-2 feet off the ground just so that they can get ground shots and stomping shots easier. But the trees in WOTG were more on the mountains than on the ground, which the actor's bare feet (more on this latter) would have to walk on. With the sets being 1/10 scale, the mountains were huge. The mountains were underneath a gigantic metal frame with the top of the frame being in the desirable pose. As for the top soil, a canvas of rough hemp cloth, which is just laid on top of the sturdy metal frame. On top of that is the application of FRP (Fiber-reinforced Plastic) and/or plaster. Some dirt was used and put on top and around the tree which would be used to hit an opponent with. Considering the materials used, it seems like the trees were put in place with the plaster or FRP sprayed around it to make it keep it's balance. The FRP and plaster was strong enough that in a making of clip on the Japanese DVD, a mask-less Haruo Nakajima is standing on a cliff. These mountain structure were known to me moved around.


The most interesting part of the special effects would be Sanda and Gaira themselves. Mostly because of how humanoid the Gargantuas were compared to other kaiju. Playing Gaira, the green Gargantua, is the ever so famous Haruo Nakajima. In interview, Nakajima mentioned that out of all his kaiju suit acting outings this was his favorite (many people may question this, but in many other interviews people ask for favorite Godzilla suit acting and not general kaiju). He liked it because he based the choreography, which he was in charge of in the Tsuburaya years, on professional wrestlers, which he thought it turned out well. Playing the role of Sanda is Hiroshi Sekida. Mr. Sekida was not always originally going to play Sanda. Showa King Ghidorah suit actor Shoichi "Solomon" Hirose was to be the original Sanda. This never came to pass as Hirose and Tsuburaya developing some bad blood. Apparently when Tsuburaya asked Shoichi to play the role, he turned it down since he simultaneously got an offer for a film in which Shoichi could, "act while showing his face". This angered Tsuburaya who went on to cast Hiroshi Sekida for Sanda. Turns out in the film Shoichi was in, he did not show his face at all since he had to wear a kendo mask, making it seem as if karma had gotten back at Shoichi. If one takes into consideration "what if" Shoichi was to have taken the offer, then Gaira would become taller than Sanda. That would be against what the script called for, meaning that either the actors would have to switch roles or Shoichi would have to be in prosthetics to make him taller. If they switched roles, Gaira's character would not be as vivid as what was given to us in the film. The Gargantua's human-like appearance was attributed by two characteristics: one was that except for glue-on nail's and some colored make up, the actor's feet and hands were bare. This is most noticeable when there are close up parts of Gaira's attacks. Another thing of humanity which attributes to the Gargantua's human-esque appearance is the eyes - the actor's eyes are totally exposed. The eyes are the windows to the soul. They can enlarge, turn red, look tired, look angry, squint, cry, look confused, just a whole closet full of emotions. That is what give's the suit actor's something award-deserving. But how were the eyes get exposed? Simply put green or brown colored make up on the eyelid and around the eye socket. Nakajima and Sekida would just walk around the set without the masks on but still have the make up on. Once the make up was applied, the masks were applied.



Post production went like normal. However, one abnormality was that the dialogue track was lost. This was one this that irritated Russ Tamblyn, since he had to do ADR for lines which he for a fraction of the film ad-libbed (although that was said by Russ, Japanese cinema historian August Ragone claimed that it was to make sure that the word "Frankenstein" was not uttered for the American print). The most famous part of the whole film production happened though publicity photos. Publicity photos seem to be something which makes the viewer of the film feel like the film needed more. There are millions of publicity photos. Gaira jumping onto Sanda in the forest, Sanda stomping on Gaira's stomach, vice versa, Gaira on the ground about to get his face kicked in my Sanda, Gaira jumping onto Sanda in the city with masers from even a helicopter shooting. A lot of action. While no actual shot was filmed, they are photos which has led to the legendary status of this film, especially this picture: Sanda and Gaira holding hands. One hand above their heads and one hand below the belt line. This has become a photo synonymous with this film and has been imitated by millions, including Fuyuki Shinada on a Scifi Japan article on Gaira's appearance on a specially made episode of "Go! Godman!" and famous kaiju journalist Norman England on his blog "Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira" was released in July 31, 1966 in Japan. It is safe to assume that it was as successful as any other Toho scifi film, not unlike the Godzilla films of the time were gaining box office draws of an average of $2-3 million dollars on distribution earnings alone.


Henry Saperstein was one of the main producers of this picture. With being an American and having ties with UPA, he was the ideal person to distribute the film throughout the states. Something which has always puzzled fans of the films as to why some Toho films have to wait a full decade or over just to get theatrical showings here. It is because not only was this film’s American print edited and made in Japan, but they also have to ship all of the different materials like original negatives and soundtracks for example. The changes in the film were all improvised by Saperstein, who has also impacted such productions as "Monster Zero" with having the monsters appear earlier in the film to help American audiences not get bored. Doing the same with the film, the beginning credits were moved to after Gaira attacks the ship at the beginning of the film. Most other changes were more adding and no deleting. In fact, the American print of the film is longer than the Japanese print by two to four minutes longer. This was by adding footage, including Sanda walking to Gaira for his first scene, Gaira spitting out a woman's blouse, extra building destruction clips, extra military vehicle shots, among other scenes. It all sounds good till we get to the soundtrack. Ifukube's soundtrack for this film is, while well known, was edited. Changes included having Gaira's theme being played repeatedly instead of the dark theme which is played during the beginning credits. A good example of this is the scene where Gaira was running from the mountain and he runs through the village with the fire burning to keep the Gargantuas away. In the Japanese print, Ifukube's dark theme is played. In the American, the Gaira theme. Other Ifukube music was replaced with Ifukube's themes from "Monster Zero" and some odd choices of music from the film, "Blood Waters of Dr. Z."



Distribution of the film though has more problems than the late timing. Most people know that the film was double-billed with "Monster Zero", but that is not the full story. A question which is not often asked is, "how did the title get changed from 'Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira' to 'War of the Gargantuas'"? Gargantua originated as the name of a French book about a father named Gargantua and a son named Pantagruel. The name was soon given to a gorilla in the Ringling Brothers circus. Saperstein must have known of this circus and called this film "War of the Gargantuas" since Sanda and Gaira do resemble only slightly a gorilla-like animal (in fact, Russ Tamblyn called baby Sanda a gorilla). The finished film was made and was shipped to America to UPA in 1970. But another problem came up: Saperstein also owned the distribution rights to "Godzilla's Revenge". "Godzilla's Revenge's" distribution is also along one. Other than having to cancel calling "Godzilla's Revenge" "Minya: Son of Godzilla" due to Son of Godzilla already been released, early posters for Godzilla's Revenge showed Godzilla's Revenge being double billed with War of the Gargantuas. These posters, while they exist, are rare. After "War of the Gargantuas" was put with "Monster Zero" permanently, the posters advertising War of the Gargantuas with "Godzilla's Revenge" were changed to "Godzilla's Revenge" with a film called "Island of the Burning Damned". "War of the Gargantuas" was released double billed with "Monster Zero" in July 29, 1970 with a box office earning of $3 million, with the film being shown mostly at grindhouse cinemas and drive-ins.

In Japan, the film built a following, like any other film. But American viewers provided the biggest following for the film. With no Laser Disc or VHS or even Beta release till 1992, War of the Gargantuas became a classic on such specialty channels such as Channel 7's "4:30" movie and KTVU-Creature Features with Bob Wilkins. One reason why I can see this film becoming a cult classic on television is that in full screen, you can see Nakajima's and Sakida's eyes better due to full screen being nothing but really a close up on the faces of the characters. In fact, the film's biggest fan was it's producer Henry Saperstein. In 1978, same year Terror of Mechagodzilla was released in America, Henry Saperstein decided to want to make a Godzilla vs. Gargantua film. Originally, it was to be the first American Godzilla film. Being a production between Saperstein and UPA with an American-written script fallowing the American version of the film, it was to have a budget of $6 million, a gargantuan budget for the time. But the project evaporated with Toho giving it a no. It is unknown how the gargantuas would be put into the film, weather if Sanda or Gaira survived or if the cells blasted off of the Gargantuas during the army attacks. "War of the Gargantuas" would not get a valid sequel till 2002 with the release of "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla".


In the years that followed, "War of the Gargantuas" became more and more popular. The gargantuas has become a pop culture icon. In 2004, the film Kill Bill Vol. 2 was released in which The Bride (Uma Thurman) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hanna) fought, with the main inspiration of the fight being the film War of the Gargantuas. Before doing the scene, Quientin Tarantino showed both actresses his print of the film and said that he want the fight to be like "...War of the Blonde Gargantuas", making Kill Bill Vol. 2 a collector's piece in someone's Gargantua collection. Japanese director Kazuo Komizu often lists himself the pseudonym of Gaira. Gaira, Sanda, and 1965 Frankenstein were parodied in the 2008 edition of The Simpson's "Bart Simpson's Treehouse Horror". An in 1972 and 1973, Toho-made shows like "Go! Godman!" and "Go! Greenman!" has Gaira and Sanda appear to do battle with Ultraman-like rip offs. It is unmistakable that " War of the Gargantuas" is a pop culture icon. While not up there with the ranks of Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and even Ghidorah, the Gargantuas have enjoyed a rather long prosperity period and have affected society and history of film as a whole and is a cult classic. But one thing makes me sad: Guy Tucker (RIP) interviewed Ishiro Honda (RIP) and Honda said this, "Actually, I find [the film] a little boring. I'm glad it's popular, but [I feel that it] doesn't really have much heart." I do not share Mr. Honda's judgment on the film. I agree that it is, "...one of Director Honda's masterpieces of monster mayhem."


This paper is a tribute to a late friend.