Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

[Lain Of The Wired]

Another thing I noticed, right after the car explodes, and our heroes sneak off, it cuts to stock footage from Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster, and as Godzilla is making his way towards King Ghidorah, you can see little Mothra Larva accompanying him! And that makes for one of the most awkward uses of stock footage in this entire movie.

There's also a part later when they use stock footage from "Invasion of the Astro Monster" of Godzilla standing up, and Rodan is lying on the ground behind him.

Is that so? I didn't notice that one.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Obviously you need glasses or maybe your meds need to be adjusted.

Yes, obviously.
JUST because I missed one small mishap in the film, I'm stupid

Listen Paradise, no need for childish remarks, champ

[MrGameguy]

Speaking of stock footage mistakes, they use a scene from GTTH where Godzilla approaches Ghidrah, & you can see Mothra Larva behind the bridge.
I guess they figured nobody would notice.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Speaking of stock footage mistakes, they use a scene from GTTH where Godzilla approaches Ghidrah, & you can see Mothra Larva behind the bridge.
I guess they figured nobody would notice.

I literally brought that up 6 posts up...

[MrGameguy]

Speaking of stock footage mistakes, they use a scene from GTTH where Godzilla approaches Ghidrah, & you can see Mothra Larva behind the bridge.
I guess they figured nobody would notice.

I literally brought that up 6 posts up...

Oh........


Anyway, I find this movie to be really dull.
While the story is creative, the human aren't that interesting, the amount of stock footage just comes off as lazy & even the original shots are pretty slow.
But at least we got Gigan out of here.

Overall I find this to be a mediocre film at best.

[he-ba]

Is it just me, or did the Anguirus suit operator neglect his mouth? From GRA on his mouth opens about once per movie. Kind of awkward when they have a closeup and a huge long roar is heard and his mouth never opens..... this movie especially! I think it only opens because he slams into gigan's buzz saw

[Kaiser]

Does anyone else prefer the dub for this one? I do because the Japanese acting is soooo bad in this one, the dub actually improves upon it given the actors actually inject some energy into their lines.

[The Robber]

It's not a great movie but it's got soul. Definitely one of my favorites when I was a kid. As a teenager I found it too goofy, but now I love it again. Sure, it's painful to see all the stock footage (I have high cheese tolerance, but I prefer my cheese to be fresh). It's painful to see strings of rubber dangling like spaghetti off of Godzilla's arms when he raises them. Ghidorah is looking pretty sad. Most of the miniature buildings (the ones built for the movie) look pretty sad. However, the showpiece battle at the oil refinery is spectacular. Anguirus and Gigan (who is awesome, by the way) look great. What really makes the movie for me, however, are the human characters. There's just something very appealing about them. The plot is absolutely ridiculous and bonkers, and that only adds to the fun. I love how Gengo doesn't seem terribly shocked when a theme park manager reveals his plan to wipe out the monsters (?!). I haven't read through this whole thread but I get the sense that I'm echoing the general consensus here.

So can anyone familiar with Japanese culture explain the corncob-loving Shosaku to me? Does he represent a recognizable "type" or subculture? Is he a hippie? And what is his relationship with the Shimas?

[ebirahsmeg1]

Godzilla vs Gigan is a guilty pleasure of mine. It has tons of flaws...but it's just too much damn fun! Sure, this film gets ripped on alot for these flaws (and rightfully so), however, if this film had the same budget as the early/mid 60s showa films (and used the original intended script Godzilla vs the Space Monsters), I personally feel this would have been one of the top G films of all time (though it still is for me sentimentally).

I think Gigan alone is what makes this flawed film work so well for me and allows one to overlook all its faults. Gigan is hands down one of TOHO's best creations. You know, we always hear about the elite "big 5" being Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and MechaGodzilla in regards to monsters that *must* appear every new G film series, G video games, G book/comics, etc...well, I think we should extend this to "the big 7" and throw Gigan in there as well (and Angilas too)...as far as I'm concerned, he's equal to any kaiju in the "big 5" and he deserves to be mentioned in this elite class...


One interesting tidbit that rarely gets mentioned regarding GvsGigan is that during production, this film had a different working title during the production:



Apparently, the film was originally titled Godzilla vs King Ghidorah: "Earth Destruction Directive This is obviously the traditional cast/crew production photo that is usually taken near the end of filming, and you can see the katakana for King Ghidorah and the kanji for "Earth Destruction Directive", so this would indicate that the title was changed to Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs Gigan rather late prior to being released...

[he-ba]

I think Gigan alone is what makes this flawed film work so well for me and allows one to overlook all its faults. Gigan is hands down one of TOHO's best creations. You know, we always hear about the elite "big 5" being Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and MechaGodzilla in regards to monsters that *must* appear every new G film series, G video games, G book/comics, etc...well, I think we should extend this to "the big 7" and throw Gigan in there as well (and Angilas too)...as far as I'm concerned, he's equal to any kaiju in the "big 5" and he deserves to be mentioned in this elite class...

When I was younger, I would always talk to my friends about Godzilla (which they usually ignored......)and the one question that always got them going was "What's your favorite monster?" And right away, most of them would shout OH MY GOD GIGAN!!!!! Once in a while I got a Ghidorah, Rodan, or MechaG, and rarely Anguirus or Hedorah from the guys. The girls always said Mothra or Anguirus, every so often a Baragon. So I totally agree with you ebirahsmeg1.

[Kaiser]

This is one of the hardest films for me to rate simply because it is, by any objective standard, an awful movie. But there's something endearing about the film and the way it presents itself. It's leagues better than the abysmal Godzilla vs. Megalon from the following year, perhaps because even with all the stock footage and bad acting, I feel like they were actually trying to make something entertaining whereas Megalon was made as cheaply as possible with the sole intention of turning a profit with no-one really giving a damn if it was watchable or not.

Maybe it's just the ending theme song which makes me so nostalgic for some reason.

[Gojora]

"Hey angilaaaaa"
"Waddya want"
"Something funny's going on, you better check!"
"Oh yeah."
"HURRY UP"
I swear, this film is infamous for that scene.

[Godzillian]

"Hey angilaaaaa"
"Waddya want"
"Something funny's going on, you better check!"
"Oh yeah."
"HURRY UP"
I swear, this film is infamous for that scene.

You can really tell what good friends they are from how they talk to each other

[Kaiser]

"Hey angilaaaaa"
"Waddya want"
"Something funny's going on, you better check!"
"Oh yeah."
"HURRY UP"
I swear, this film is infamous for that scene.

You can really tell what good friends they are from how they talk to each other

Whenever I hear them talk in the English dub, all I can think about is how they sound completely wasted. Maybe they keep the kaiju well supplied with booze on Monster Island before they invented their force field.

[he-ba]

"Hey angilaaaaa"
"Waddya want"
"Something funny's going on, you better check!"
"Oh yeah."
"HURRY UP"
I swear, this film is infamous for that scene.

I think Anguirus says O-K! instead of Oh, yeah!

[skuzzy-punk-kid]

"Hey angilaaaaa"
"Waddya want"
"Something funny's going on, you better check!"
"Oh yeah."
"HURRY UP"
I swear, this film is infamous for that scene.

I think Anguirus says O-K! instead of Oh, yeah!

It actually sounded more like "over" (as in "over and out).

[he-ba]

^ It sounds like a combination of "Ok" and "Over".... like an "Oker"

[JAGzilla]

Just got done watching the Japanese version for the first time, and I hadn't seen the movie at all in something like ten years. Anyway, it was pretty good. The human characters and story weren't anything too special, though the corncob gun scene and Tomoko Umeda were worth mentioning. The balloon escape plan was fairly cool, too.

The monster action was impressive, though, stock footage and terrible flying props aside. I'm always hearing that Gigan and Ghidorah's attack on Tokyo is one of the series' best destruction sequences, and it didn't disappoint. It was cool to see Ghidorah fighting the military's ground forces, too. The actual monster battle was great, if a bit slow at times. The space monsters felt like credible threats to Godzilla, and Gigan's reputation for sadistic brutality was well-earned. Anguirus was pretty useless as a teammate for much of the fight, but his backwards leaping scenes made up for it. His decision to charge the buzzsaw to save his friend earns him some points. Godzilla and Anguirus' talking scenes were better in the dub, I have to say. Those robot sounds were just plain strange.

The score was top-notch, of course. I particularly liked the end credits song, as the heroic monsters waded back out to sea. It fit the scene very well.

[Space Hunter M]

A relevant sentence.

[daveblackeye15]

It's alright, the movie itself looks really good and I love Gigan but the fights were a little slow in spots. Don't get me started on stock footage and I wish Anguirus got to do more.

Buuuut it's great we see some moments of friendship between Anguirus and Godzilla. It's also weird how Gigan seems to just bond with whichever monster he's with, be it Ghidorah, Megalon or Monster X.