Author: ma/anitama Cover Source: Monsters Total Attack
At the end of 1968, the children's attention gradually shifted, and more of the audience's hot spots were transferred to the film and television works with monster themes and sports themes, and the popularity of monster specials gradually declined. Round Valley's TV special "Seven Ultraman" also suffered from low ratings in the second half of the period, although it reached a 30% rating in the early stage of broadcasting, but finally fell to only 16.8% of the ratings, the ratings fell very badly, and Eiji Round Valley was also hit after seeing the sluggish ratings. Due to budget constraints, several episodes of Monsters and Aliens had to be reduced due to budget constraints, which is said to have disappointed the child audience at the time. On the other hand, "Ultraman" is more adult than Ultraman, and the theme is more controversial. Under the influence of these two factors, it has contributed to the TV special shooting that does not rely solely on monster alien holsters to attract attention into a rather connotative science fiction TV series. Looking back now, Severn has a broader vision and more excavation story depth in terms of story content than other close-ups in the same period, and is a rare high-quality close-up work.
Monsters Strike Promo poster.
Despite this, in 1968, Toho released two different types of blockbuster films. One is monster attack (Monster Strike) is a large collection of monster movie characters, and the other is the war movie "Commander Yamamoto Fifty-Six" (Commander of the Combined Fleet, Yamamoto Fifty-Six). In Yamamoto Fifty-Six, the battleships Nagato, Yamato, Kongo, Haruna, and the aircraft carriers Akagi, Wyvern, Yorkshire, and Bumblebee appear. The film depicts the classic battles of World War II, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, the Second Battle of Solomon, the Rat Transport Operation, the Battle of Henderson Airport, the Battle of South Pacific, Operation Ke, And Battle Yi, and the story of the film until the death of Yamamoto Fifty-Six, which is the most comprehensive depiction of the Pacific War in the history of Japanese cinema.
As the most important monster close-up film, Monsters Total Attack is the 20th work of Toho Monster Movies, and it is also a film produced in a commemorative nature. At the same time, Toho also decided to make this film the final work of the monster movie, thus ending the shooting of the monster special film theme, making the film a film with considerable weight at that time. In addition to Godzilla, Raton, Mothra Larva, and King Ghidorah, who appeared frequently in previous films, there were also mini-ras, Gu Moga (クモンガ), and even Angelas who did not appear in Godzilla Strikes Back for 13 years, Manda who did not appear in "Underwater Warship" for 5 years, Barang who did not appear in "Baron the Great Monster" for 10 years, Barang who appeared in "Frankenstein vs. Underground Monsters" 3 years ago(フランケンタインン・) in "Frankenstein vs. Underground Monsters" 2 years ago. Grozaurus (ゴロザウルス) in King Kong Escape, a total of 11 large monsters appear in this film, which is very spectacular.
Masamasa Arikawa Honda Inoji Eiji Marutani Yuyuki poses with the monster.
The story is set in the late 20th century, when the monsters were raised by humans in the Ogasawara Islands, where the Monster Island ecosystem was formed, and those monsters that once threatened humans were effectively managed and monitored by humans, reflecting that humans won the final victory in the long-term struggle with monsters. (The Ogasawara Islands were the islands that Japan returned from the United States in 1968) The monster island in the play was accidentally attacked, and this attack was a conspiracy of alien Kiraku to invade the earth, using monsters manipulating monster islands to attack the world. Raton attacked the Kremlin in Moscow, Mothra larvae attacked the railway in Beijing, Godzilla attacked the United Nations headquarters in New York, and Grozaeus attacked the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Godzilla, Raton, Mothra Larva and Manda then appear in Tokyo at the same time, and there is also a scene of Manda winding around a monorail, and the shooting of this leather case model is personally directed by director Arikawa, and the monster's activities are filmed vividly.
Later in the episode, the brainwashed monsters wake up from the brainwashing and fight a final showdown with Ghidorah, the king summoned by the Kiragu starmen. The role of the supporting monster in the final battle also has an excellent performance, such as Ankiras's bite, the spider silk entanglement of Gumoga, the flying kick of Grozaus, etc., all of which contain the actions of King Ghidorah, and King Ghidorah is therefore outnumbered, even if he is strong, he will inevitably be ravaged by the furious Godzilla and other monsters. In the use of music, Godzilla's theme song uses the prelude to "Godzilla's Horror" (ゴジラの horror) from "Monster Wars", the prelude to the theme song of the Great Demon God and the mix of Raton's theme song, while the theme song of King Ghidorah directly uses the original versions of "The Great Showdown on Earth" and "Monster Wars". In addition, there is a rhythmic "Monsters Total Attack March" interspersed in the air battle scenes in the play, making the film's battle atmosphere more intense. At this point, Toho's monster movie boom is over, and then it is mainly to improve the shooting method of monster close-up subjects to prepare for the re-emergence of the future.
Poster of Gamera vs. Giron the Great Beast.
In 1968, it finally became a watershed in the monster film industry, and while the monster genre was instantly popular, the popularity of monster movies gradually faded, and the audience market of the special film itself turned to the monster genre. In the same year, "Gamera vs. the Cosmic Monster Bayras" (ガメラ対 Cosmic Monster 獣バイラス) by Daiei Pictures' Tokyo Photography was released. Although it was a close-up film shot by the same company in the same year, the latter received higher attention at the time, reflecting the gradual decline in the popularity of monster close-ups from one side, and the monster genre began to rise. The Gamera series begins with a completely child protagonist, while using Japanese and foreign children as the duo's main cast to cater to overseas screenings. At that time, Daiying had to cut the budget of the film due to poor operating conditions, so it was forced to reduce the number of close-up scenes in the film, which made Gamera's role shrink. Later, Daiei was shot by kyoto and Tokyo Photography, two special films with yokai themes, "Monster Wars" and "Snake Lady and the White-Haired Demon".
Vampire Skull Ship poster.
Japanese Special-Up Films Co., Ltd., which helped shoot a large number of monster movies during the first monster boom, also began to turn to the business of monster films in late 1968, and in 1968, shochiku films such as "Vampire Skull Ship" and "Insect Wars" were produced. During the year, Shochiku Made a total of three youkai-themed films, the last of which was "Hell Thief" (Vampire ゴケミドロ), which was assisted by p production. Nippon Special Film Co., Ltd. later assisted Toei in filming the science fiction film Gamma No. 3 Cosmic Battle (ガンマー第畫大作戦). At the same time, in the field of television, yokai works also began to explode, the most famous of which were the 1968 animation "Kitaro" (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) and the special film "Kappa Mihei Yokai Battle" (Kappo の三平 Youkai Daisaku), both of which were produced by Toei. In Toei's close-up televisions "Galactic Adventures" and "Iron Man", the director of the special camera department raised the subtitle - "Stunt Supervision" in "Kappa Sanping" and then transformed into "Close-up Supervision". Round Valley Productions also produced the weird-themed "Strange Wars" (Weird Masterpiece) after the end of "Seven Ultraman".
Poster of "Monster Hundred Tales".
In 1969, the film released Two feature films, Gamera vs. The Great Beast Of Kinryu (ガメラ対大悪獣ギロン) and Tokaido Horror (東海道お化け道中). In the subtitles of the production staff of "Tokaido Horror", the general director and the special director are rarely marked with the title of "director", and the opening subtitles appear at the same time and are marked with "Director Yasuda Justice Kuroda Yoshiyuki", who is the special director of the film.
Entering the trough of monster close-up in 1969, Toho Films continued to shoot monster close-up movies, although 1968's "Monsters Total Attack" was known as the finale of Toho Monster Movies, but in 1969, It ushered in the Toho Champion Festival, and the core project of the event finally retained the genre of monster special-shot movies for child audiences. Emulating the Toei Manga Festival, the Toho Champion Festival focuses on monster-themed movies, hero tv series, and anime series that cater to child audiences during spring, summer, and winter vacations in Japan. Due to tight budgets, Toho's new monster movies were reduced to one per year, in addition to the re-release of past monster movies in the form of re-editing with a change of title.
Still, it's a shame that every year new monster movies have to cut back and become low-budget films. In 1969, as the debut of the Toho Champion Festival, the monster movie Godzilla Mini-Ra Gabala All Monsters Strikes Hard (ゴジラ・ミニラガバラ オール Monster Beast Daijin 撃), the special film conte55 Cosmic Adventure (コント55 Cosmic Grand Prix) and the animated film Giant Star (Giant Star Xing け行け飛馬), a total of three works.
Godzilla Mini-Ra Gabala All Monsters Attack.
The play "All Monsters Attack" tells the story of the protagonist meeting the monster in his dream. In the real world of the play, there are no monsters, which has become a unique monster plot. The film was shot by Shiro Honda as both the general director and the special director, and the Toho Stunt Class 1 completed the full photography. As a story of children's orientation, the film also adopts the children's theme song "Monster March" as a representative song. In addition, from this film onwards, Toho began to use a large number of live-action images, and in the subsequent Godzilla series and other close-up films, there were concurrently used rainstorm transition scenes. Before the official popularization of videotape, the audience will not be aesthetically fatigued by these repeated and combined images. The Battle Snippets of The Great Monsters also use footage from The South Sea Duel and Son of Godzilla, as well as images of Grozaurus in King Kong Escape, Ankiras and Manda in Monsters Strike. Although a lot of old images are used, the connection between the film and the newly shot image is very good, and it is not at all abrupt in the film. The rocks rolling down during the Battle of Godzilla and Ibira threaten the protagonist and Mini-La, and the spider silk attacking the protagonist and Mini-La's scenes are all edited from old and new video clips, which look as if they were shot simultaneously, highlighting the outstanding editing skills of the production group.
The plot of the film is about the protagonist who learns courage in his adventure with Mini-La, thus defeating the robbers, and is a children's film that promotes positive energy. Mini-Ra can become about the size of a human and can communicate with the protagonist in Japanese, and Mini-Ra acts as a bridge between humans and monsters, and continues to play a similar role in the later Godzilla series (especially in Godzilla Final Showdown (ゴジラファイナルウウォーズ) in the later Godzilla series).
With the decline of the monster boom, monster movies have gradually decreased, leaving only the children-oriented Godzilla series and the Gamera series to support the only share of monster movies, and the monster genre is struggling, but the dilemma encountered by monster close-ups continues.
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