Author: ma/anitama Cover Source: Godzilla vs. Megalo
The rise of the second close-up boom began around the time of the heroic close-up boom in 1971, until October 1973, when the "first oil crisis" (due to the outbreak of the Fourth Middle East War, OPEC declared an oil embargo against Israel and its supporting countries, suspended exports, resulting in a sharp rise in oil prices, and crude oil prices rose from less than $3 per barrel to more than $13), and the special-action community suffered a huge negative impact and experienced another recession. However, the direct reason for the end of the second monster boom is that there are many opinions, and it can be said that it has gradually faded from people's vision under the action of various factors. The second feature filming craze that ended was The Mechanical Godzilla Strikes Back (メカゴジラの逆襲), released on March 15, 1975, and the TV special film Leo Ultraman (ウルトラマンレオ).
Poster for Mechanical Godzilla Strikes Back
On July 24, 1971, as part of the Toho Champion Festival, another Godzilla series of films, Godzilla vs. Heidora (ゴジララㄆヘドラ), the film's close-up and drama part of the film were both produced by the production team of the Stunt 1 class, and Yoshimitsu Sakano was also the director and special effects director, and also served as an underwater photographer, while Nakano Akiyoshi was responsible for special technical assistance. It is worth mentioning that Yoshimitsu Sakano is the executive producer of the new 2014 American version of "Godzilla". The story of Godzilla vs. Heidora focuses on the problem of public nuisance, that is, the pollution and destruction of the environment caused by human activities. At the Osaka World Expo in 1970, the Japan Corporate Pavilion put forward the argument that "the power of science can solve all problems", but in fact, the pollution problem caused by the rapid economic development has become more and more serious. Since the establishment of the Environment Agency in 1971 (adapted into the Ministry of the Environment in 2001), close-up works have gradually made the issue of public nuisance the theme of new works, and have reflected human reflection from it. For example, in "Gamera vs. Deep Sea Monster Gigula" (ガメラ対 Deep Sea Monster獣ジグラ), the sludge monster Zazan (ザザーン) in "The Return of Ultraman" was born from toxic gas pollution, the public nuisance monster and investigation organization "Public Nuce g team" (公害gメン) in "Cosmic Ape Man Goli" and so on.
Poster for Godzilla vs. Heidora
The Black Dora who appeared in Godzilla vs. Hedorah was a cosmic creature contaminated by public nuisance, and eventually became a giant monster due to serious pollution. The film depicts the image of the ocean being polluted with garbage, and the wall clock in the floating garbage pile on the polluted sea at the beginning of the film makes a ticking sound and bell, which is full of a terrifying and warning meaning to mankind. Although this film is filmed for a child audience, it also has very scary pictures. In the neighborhood where Hedora flew, people were polluted by Hedora's poisonous gas, dying in mud, and slowly dissolving into skeletons. Such a picture is a wake-up call for air pollution and environmental pollution caused by serious public hazards that threaten the living environment of human beings themselves. At the end of the film, Godzilla severely injured Heidora with the help of the Self-Defense Forces, and when Heidora tried to take off and escape, Godzilla actually used the recoil of the radioactive light to take off to chase, which was the only time Godzilla flew into the sky on his own. Although Godzilla succeeds in defeating Heidora at the end of the film, the subtitle "So another head appears" (そして もう一ぴき?) appears at the end, warning that if humans no longer control the problem of public nuisance, then the same tragedy will be repeated.
The Godzilla films of the 1970s have a similar feel to the Gamera series, and there are three most prominent similarities in them. One is that Godzilla, as a monster, truly becomes a companion of humans and fights, but Godzilla does not tolerate the evil deeds of some humans. The second is that Godzilla resonates with the human child's mind. For example, in "Godzilla to Heidora", the children and Godzilla can communicate with each other through telepathy, and in "Mechanical Godzilla Strikes Back", godzilla also responds to the call and appears in front of them. The third point is that Godzilla is no longer an invincible being and becomes injured and bleeding. In Godzilla vs. Hedora, one of Godzilla's blinded eyes and one hand is also dissolved, while Godzilla's Order to Attack Godzilla against Gaigang (Earth Attack Order ゴジラ対ガイガン) and Godzilla to Mechanical Godzilla (ゴジラ対メカゴジラ) are bleeding. At this point, Eiji Marutani was strongly opposed when he was alive, and Marutani advocated not to appear in the fight of monsters to bleed, emphasizing that it was not a selling point of violence and bloodshed, but a close-up of the monster from the perspective of human self-reflection.
Earth Attack Order Godzilla vs. Guy Gang poster
In 1972, the Toho Champion Festival released Earth Attack Order Godzilla vs. Gaigang (Earth Attack Command ゴジラ対ガイガン), which returned to the stunt group and the separate shooting mode of this part. The main monsters in this game are Godzilla, Anchira, Gegang and King Ghidorah, in this plot Godzilla and Ankiras appear as each other's comrades-in-arms, and the image of these two monsters as the righteous side is also established, and the subtitle prompt of "Good Partner Angelas" also appears in the trailer early in the movie. Also positioned with children as the main audience, the scene of Godzilla and Angelas talking to each other in the film also reappears, and the anthropomorphic line dialogue makes the two monsters much more human. The king Ghidorah who appears in the play is a monster called the second generation of Ghidorah after the first king Ghidorah, and together with Gaigang, he launches an invasion of Earth. Although the film features 4 monsters, the 3 monsters that have appeared in previous films have been fully utilized, and the video of King Ghidorah and Godzilla in "The Greatest Showdown on Earth" and the image of Angelas and King Ghidorah in "Monsters Attack" have been edited into this film. In addition, the footage of the Self-Defense Forces and Gai Gang fighting is edited from the image in "Shanda vs. Gaila", the famous maser beast light car is used by the self-defense forces to attack Gai Gang, which in order to match the picture of the old film, Gai Gang is deliberately allowed to walk through the woods and be chased by the killed beast light car. In 1972, the 10th anniversary of The Founding of Marutani, Marutani released the commemorative film Monster Battle Daiglo vs. Golias (Weird Daetsu Ōtotsune Ōtomo Gorillas) (Yoshitsugi Ōtotsu Ōto-Ōjō Ōyo Ōyo Yōnen Yōyō Yōnyō Yōgyō 1972 1972 1972 191 191 197 1920 1920 19200 Dōgyō Dōryō Dōryō Yōgō Yō
Monster Wars Daglo vs. Golias poster
In 1973, the Toho Championship Festival was released in Godzilla vs. Megalo (ゴジラ対メガロ), in which the main monsters are Godzilla, Jet Lager, Megalo, and Gaigang. The film features the robot character Jet Jacques (ジェットジャガー), inspired by a tv hero at the time, and designed by Toho after soliciting ideas. Originally planned, the film was played by Jagger against Megalo, but when planning, it was pointed out that it could not support the box office of the movie, and finally forced to adapt the script to become a movie in which Godzilla played the main role of Jaeger. Jaeger is usually the height of ordinary humans, small robots controlled by humans, but after the appearance of Megalo, he had the desire to fight with it by his own will, and finally made himself a huge high-performance robot. After repelling his opponent, The grid reverts to its original size, loses its will and returns to its original robot.
In addition to these four, the old images of Angelas and Raton in monster islands generated by the explosion experiment at the beginning of the film are used, but Anjiras also shoots some new pictures, but it is a pity that Anjiras did not become one of the main characters in the film. In the main plot, the already edited images in Godzilla vs. Guy gang are also used, and both clips are adapted from the scenes of King Ghidorah destroying the city in "The Greatest Showdown on Earth". The scene where the Self-Defense Forces confront Megalo also uses the clip of the Beast Killer Ray Car borrowed in the previous film, this time the Beast Killer Ray Car is used to attack Megalo, and the appearance of the Maser Beast Ray Car in two consecutive Godzilla movies has established its important position as an anti-monster weapon. The film tells the story of the underwater kingdom of Sitopia after a nuclear test in the Aleutian Islands, so the monster Megalo is sent to take revenge on the humans on land, and on the Monster Island is also exposed to nuclear radiation, Godzilla incarnated as a human guardian monster to face Megalo. Unlike in Godzilla vs. Heidora, Godzilla in this game becomes a character that humans fully trust, and does not warn humans because of their own evil deeds.
Poster of Godzilla vs. Megalo
In 1973, Toho Image produced the TV special shot "Meteor Superman" (Meteor Man 間ゾーン), in which he appeared in Toho's major signature monsters, Godzilla, Gaigang, King Ghidorah, etc., this film can be said to be a hero close-up theme work influenced by the Ultraman series produced by Round Valley. The production list of the director of the special effects department of this film also adopts the round valley naming method, using "special technology" as the title of the production. This work was produced by Toho at the peak of the second monster boom, and it was also a hero close-up work that was tentatively produced. In the original project, Godzilla was considered as the protagonist of the TV series, and after changing to Meteor Superman as the protagonist, the famous monster cameo became the selling point of the film. The film also joined the two directors of Honda Inoshiro and Jun Fukuda to participate in the production, in addition to the vast majority of the special production staff, from the "Ace Ultraman" team to join, including the monster's call material is not only Toho's own sound source, the sound of various monsters in the Otter series is also included. The film uses "Dinosaur" as a unified title for enemy monsters, including King Ghidorah and Gaigang are also called "Cosmic Super Dinosaur King Ghidorah" and "Future Dinosaur Gaigang", while Godzilla as a human partner does not use this title. Unfortunately, the TV close-up ratings of this series are not ideal, and it can be said that Toho's TV hero close-up attempts finally failed, and finally "Meteor Superman", which only filmed two seasons, had to end hastily. In addition to Meteor Superman, 1972's "Go! Man of God" and 1973's "Go! The two TV specials of "Green Superman" also appeared in the signature monster role of Toho Movies, and Toho constantly tried new possibilities on the road to monster close-ups.
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