Which Toho films had extra footage shot (whether by Toho or otherwise) for foreign distribution?

[johnboy3434]

Basically, which films had scenes shot, either by Toho during production or by distributors aftward, for the foreign versions of Toho's tokusatsu films? I know the following had extra scenes...

Godzilla (1954) [for "King of the Monsters" release]
King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) [multiple insert American scenes]
Mothra vs Godzilla (1964) [extra military vs. Godzilla scene]
The Return of Godzilla (1984) [for "1985" release]
Varan (1958) [almost completely reshot for "Unbelievable" release]

I'm sure there's others, but I can't think of any more off the top of my head.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Godzilla 1984/5
They added a bunch of scenes with Raymond Burr.

If you want, Propshecies of Nostradamus lacked new footage, but had some new dialogue inserted and was severely edited down.

[Stump Feet]

Godzilla Raids Again had a lot of stock footage added in. On the top of my head, there was a slide show of pipe cleaner monsters, lizards with fins glued to them, and a scene from an old dinosaur movie.
There was also night club footage spliced in and a gaisaha dance sequence.

Rodan begins with stock footage of atom bombs and a narration

[G-Matt]

PON had a couple of new shots in its The Last Days of Planet Earth TV cut. The paper of the Gibarellen chemical at the beginning was changed slightly; and there was a shot where a typewriter is writing down the report about the New Guinea expedition, replacing the newspaper shot detailing the same thing in the original cut.

[Terasawa]

• Godzilla KOTM: Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Gigantis: English newspaper inserts and a new shot of Kobayashi's letter. As far as I know all other US-exclusive footage is stock.
• Half Human: Footage shot in Hollywood. Toho sent the Snowboy costume over; it only appears as a corpse in the new shots.
• Rodan: The American version has a few Toho-lensed shots that are exclusive to it. Video.
• The Mysterians: The insert shot of Shiraishi’s report is newly shot for the U.S. release.
• The H-Man: Like the previous entry, although there are more shots, including newspaper inserts, etc. Details and screencaps here.
• Varan: Footage shot in Hollywood, including new SFX shot of Varan's arm. The U.S. version also uses three very brief Toho-lensed shots that are only in the Japanese trailer.
• The Human Vapor: Newspaper inserts. I think all other new footage in the U.S. version is from stock.
• Gorath: U.S. version originally opened with a lecture explaining the science of the movie. In existing version there are new shots of maps of solar system, etc.
• King Kong vs. Godzilla: Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Godzilla vs the Thing: Frontier Missile footage originally shot by Toho.
• Frankenstein Conquers the World: U.S. version of Frankenstein’s escape featured probably a minute total of footage shot by Toho for the U.S. distributor. One new newspaper insert.
• Monster Zero: Newly shot footage of Namikawa’s letter, translated to English.
• WOTG: Quite a bit of different footage in both versions, including alternate takes, additional Toho-shot scenes, newspaper inserts, etc. Details and screencaps here.
• King Kong Escapes: The first scene in the U.S. version is Toho footage that wasn’t in the Japanese cut. Madame Piranha’s seduction of Nelson uses alternate takes and shots which have no equivalent in the Japanese version.
• Latitude Zero: Toho’s English export version is 14 minutes longer than the Japanese theatrical release. The U.S. release was edited from the export version (it runs about four minutes shorter).
• Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster: AIP’s theatrical version features a new shot of a map (in English) that replaces the similar shot of a newsreader in front of the same map. Video. This footage is evidently absent in 16mm prints.
• Tidal Wave - Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Last Days of Planet Earth: See G-Matt's post.
• High Seas Hijack: Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Godzilla 1985: Footage shot in Hollywood. There's one shot of Godzilla in Tokyo Bay that's sorta unique to the U.S. version -- in the Toho cut, it's only seen on a monitor in Hayashida's lab.

[johnboy3434]

• Godzilla KOTM: Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Gigantis: The only new footage I’m aware of is the series of English newspaper inserts. All other US exclusive footage is stock.
• Half Human: Footage shot in Hollywood. Toho sent the Snowboy costume over.
• Rodan: The American version has a few Toho-lensed shots that are exclusive to it. Video.
• The Mysterians: The insert shot of Shiraishi’s report is newly shot for the U.S. release.
• The H-Man: Like the previous entry, although there are more shots, including newspaper inserts, etc. Details and screencaps here.
• Varan: Footage shot in Hollywood. There's one new SFX shot of Varan's arm, but it was shot in Hollywood using a stiff prop.
• The Human Vapor: Newspaper inserts. I think all other new footage in the U.S. version is from stock.
• Gorath: U.S. version originally opened with a lecture explaining the science of the movie. In existing version there are new shots of maps of solar system, etc.
• King Kong vs. Godzilla: Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Godzilla vs the Thing: Frontier Missile footage originally shot by Toho.
• Frankenstein Conquers the World: U.S. version of Frankenstein’s escape featured probably a minute total of footage shot by Toho for the U.S. distributor. One new newspaper insert.
• Monster Zero: Newly shot footage of Namikawa’s letter, in English.
• WOTG: Quite a bit of different footage in both versions, including alternate takes, additional Toho-shot scenes, newspaper inserts, etc. Details and screencaps here.
• King Kong Escapes: The first scene in the U.S. version is Toho footage that wasn’t in the Japanese cut. Madame Piranha’s seduction of Nelson uses alternate takes and new footage.
• Latitude Zero: Toho’s English export version is 14 minutes longer than the Japanese theatrical release. (10 minutes longer for the U.S. release which is based on the export version.)
• Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster: AIP’s theatrical version features a new shot of a map (in English) that replaces the similar shot of a newsreader in front of the same map. Video. This footage is evidently absent in 16mm prints.
• Tidal Wave - Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Last Days of Planet Earth: See G-Matt's post
• High Seas Hijack: Footage shot in Hollywood.
• Godzilla 1985: Footage shot in Hollywood.

You are awesome! I had no idea that new footage from Rodan existed. And I always wondered exactly what the difference between the Japanese and English versions of KKE was. I'm guessing the seduction scene is a bit more openly sexual in the Japanese cut?

[Tamura]

The stock footage in Human Vapor is interesting... police cars and aerial shots of Tokyo. I wonder what film they came from. They also added one quick close-up of Fujichiyo's lighter right before the explosive finale.

Gorath has a lot of unique footage - some stock footage from The Last War, some unique footage of Gorath traveling across starfields, an alternate insert for the Gorath report, supposedly some alternate or unique footage of the miniatures...
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=112766

These are super cosmetic differences, but it's also worth noting that some Toho composites/blue screen effects in worldwide copies of Godzilla Raids Again and The Mysterians differ from the original Japanese composites. The explosions in Mysterians are slightly transparent in copies of the US and French versions (worth noting that the French version is based on the US cut).

Doesn't the international version of Zero Fighter or one of those other '70s war films have a bunch of additional model/miniature footage?

The footage/animation underneath All Monsters Attack, Space Amoeba and Godzilla vs. Gigan's title cards slightly differ between the international/US and Japanese versions.

Not Toho, of course, but the international version of Gappa has a ton of extra footage of the Gappas, and the US version of Giant Monster Gamera has at least one additional shot of Gamera roaming around the power plant (in addition to all the footage shot specifically for the US version).

[Terasawa]

-Human Vapor-
-Gorath-

Thanks for chiming in on these! I'm not super familiar with Brenco's versions, especially for HV.

Doesn't the international version of Zero Fighter or one of those other '70s war films have a bunch of additional model/miniature footage?

I'm not certain about SFX footage but IIRC the export version's pre-title sequence uses different footage. Toho's war films slipped my mind altogether while compiling my list.

And I always wondered exactly what the difference between the Japanese and English versions of KKE was. I'm guessing the seduction scene is a bit more openly sexual in the Japanese cut?

IMO there's a lot of footage in Toho's version of KKE that feels totally extraneous and Rankin/Bass cut a lot of it. The cuts are generally good enough that if you've only seen the U.S. version you wouldn't have any idea it's nearly 10 minutes shorter. Unfortunately though, they didn't have or use the soundtrack stems so Ifukube's score is relentlessly chopped up, especially during the climactic Tokyo Tower rescue sequence. (Tamura: I wonder if those edits were done later by Universal, hmm.)

Regarding the seduction scene, here's what I have in my notes:

• Madame Piranha invites Cmdr. Nelson in. The incidental music in both versions is different. The Japanese version is underscored by Chopin’s “Nocturne, Op. 9, No.2” while the US version uses an unidentified romantic trumpet piece.
• The US version has 28 seconds of dialogue exchanged between Nelson and Madame Piranha that isn’t present in the Japanese version.
• There's one alternate take in the U.S. version, four seconds shorter than the Japanese version shot.
• One 4-second shot of Nelson and one 3-second shot of Madame Piranha, both exclusive to the US version.

I think both Nelson and Piranha get more flirtatious in the U.S. version. In the Japanese version, she uses one line on him ("Do you find my attractive?") and he starts his questioning.

[DirektorSplennic]

Godzilla 1984/5
They added a bunch of scenes with Raymond Burr.

If you want, Propshecies of Nostradamus lacked new footage, but had some new dialogue inserted and was severely edited down.

On the subject of Prophecies of Nostradamus, is it even possible to find the original Japanese version subtitled? Does it even exist?

[Godzilla21]

Godzilla 1984/5
They added a bunch of scenes with Raymond Burr.

If you want, Propshecies of Nostradamus lacked new footage, but had some new dialogue inserted and was severely edited down.

On the subject of Prophecies of Nostradamus, is it even possible to find the original Japanese version subtitled? Does it even exist?

Yes it does.

[DirektorSplennic]

Godzilla 1984/5
They added a bunch of scenes with Raymond Burr.

If you want, Propshecies of Nostradamus lacked new footage, but had some new dialogue inserted and was severely edited down.

On the subject of Prophecies of Nostradamus, is it even possible to find the original Japanese version subtitled? Does it even exist?

Yes it does.

Where do I find it?

[LSD Jellyfish]

On the subject of Prophecies of Nostradamus, is it even possible to find the original Japanese version subtitled? Does it even exist?

Yes it does.

Where do I find it?

I pmed it to you.

[Space Hunter M]

• Godzilla 1985: Footage shot in Hollywood.

Don't forget about the single Toho shot that's exclusive to this version:


Semi-related, but Godzilla vs. Megalon (rather infamously and erroneously) and Godzilla vs Biollante both contain extra footage during their endings in their export versions.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Has anyone mentioned the Devilfish ending yet?

[UltramanGoji]

Has anyone mentioned the Devilfish ending yet?

I don't think that was ever actually added to any version of FCTW. It was just included on the DVD.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Has anyone mentioned the Devilfish ending yet?

I don't think that was ever actually added to any version of FCTW. It was just included on the DVD.

It was shot for the English version of Frankenstein, but the distributors were disappointed.

[Terasawa]

Yeah, that's one that should have been mentioned already. Even if it wasn't attached to any foreign versions of the film, it was shot by Toho for that purpose.

[mikelcho]

The Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock version of FvB has three versions: the Japanese version, the U.S. version and a third one called the "international version" with the giant octopus ending.

[Terasawa]

The Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock version of FvB has three versions: the Japanese version, the U.S. version and a third one called the "international version" with the giant octopus ending.

Media Blasters re-created the American version from an already-compromised source. Although the original AIP release in 1966 used around a minute of Toho-lensed footage that wasn't used in the Japanese version, the Media Blasters re-creation is missing those scenes, and as such, doesn't have any unique footage. The "international version" is simply the Japanese theatrical release with the giant octopus ending tacked on; that ending was never seen in any theatrical release. All of the footage shot for foreign versions of FCTW (whether used or not) was already mentioned in this thread.

[mikelcho]

Okay, thanks for telling me this. I had no idea.