Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972)
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The orphaned monster, Daigoro. Can even a hungry monster get something to eat!? (みなしご怪獣ダイゴロウ。おなかがすいたら怪獣だって食べちゃうぞ!?)
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— Tagline |
Daigoro vs. Goliath (怪獣大奮戦 ダイゴロウ対ゴリアス Kaijū Daifunsen Daigorō tai Goriasu, lit. Great Monster Battle: Daigoro vs. Goliath)[a] is a 1972 tokusatsu kaiju film. The film was produced as a collaboration between Tsuburaya Productions and Toho Pictures and was released to Japanese theaters by Toho on December 17, 1972, as part of the Toho Champion Festival. It was accompanied by an edited version of 1968's Destroy All Monsters and Panda! Go Panda!.[2]
Plot
Daigoro is a monster who became orphaned after the military used Intercontinental missiles to kill his mother, who did what she could to protect him. Only one man stood up to that call. He pitied the child, and took the infant as his own to Japan and raised him there. Soon Daigoro grew too big for a man to take care of since he needed feeding too often. This caused the man to make Daigoro an icon for a business so he could be fed. Elsewhere, a monster named Goliath crashed to Earth. The two monsters engaged in battle. Daigoro did his best to stand his ground, but Goliath defeated him by striking him with lightning from his horn. Goliath then left to test his power against the world, leaving Daigoro to die. However, Daigoro recovered and practiced daily for his next battle against Goliath. After an intense fight, Daigoro breathed his fire ray and managed to defeat Goliath. Taking advantage of Goliath's weakness, humans loaded him on a rocket to blast him into space.
Staff
- Main article: Daigoro vs. Goliath/Credits.
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Toshihiro Ijima
- Written by Kitao Senzoku
- Produced by Hajime Tsuburaya, Kazuho Mitsuta
- Music by Toru Fuyuki
- Cinematography by Yozo Inagaki
- Edited by Takao Shiroe
- Production design by Noriyoshi Ikeya
- 1st assistant director Masataka Yamamoto
- Directors of special effects Jun Oki, Minoru Nakano
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Shinsuke Minami as Goro Kizawa
- Kazuya Kosaka as Saito, zookeeper
- Akiji Kobayashi as Hitoshi Suzuki
- Hachiro Misumi as Goro Hachi
- Jun Hamamura as Doctor
- Hideo Sunazuka as Middle-aged man
- Masao Komatsu as Yoshiko's marriage meeting partner
- Kiyoshi Hitomi as Newscaster
- Fusako Amachi as Yoshiko
- Reiko Hitomi as Umeko Onisawa
- Miyako Tasaka as Woman
- Chizuko Tashiro as Saito's girlfriend
- Taiyu Wakamiya as Father at bar
- Genpei Imamura as Father
- Hisao Sasaki, Hiroshi Ikaida, Tsutomu Yamadera as Zookeepers
- Shigeru Tsuji as Assistant
- Katsumi Ishiyama as Zookeeper boss
- Tomonori Yazaki as Taro
- Koichi Murata, Shigeyuki Misuchi, Stanley Ilmaty, Kyoko Kawai, Kyoko Ito as Children
- Hiroshi Inuzuka as Uncle, inventor
- Tetsuo Yamamura as Daigoro
- Hisashi Kato as Goliath
Appearances
Monsters
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Weapons, vehicles, and races |
Gallery
- Main article: Daigoro vs. Goliath/Gallery.
Production
Daigoro vs. Goliath was created in celebration of Tsuburaya Productions' tenth anniversary and was the company's first non-Ultraman kaiju film.[1][3]
Alternate titles
- Great Monster Battle: Daigoro vs. Goliath (literal Japanese title)
- The Monsters' Desperate Battle: Daigoro vs. Goliath (alternate translation)
U.S. release
Daigoro vs. Goliath is one of the few kaiju films to have never received an official release in the United States. However, the fansub group Hi no Tori translated the film into English in 2011.[4]
Video releases
Toho LaserDisc (1991)
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (Mono)
Toho VHS (1993)
- Tapes: 1
- Audio: Japanese
- Notes: Available through mail-order only. Out of print.
Toho DVD (2005)
- Region: 2
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (Mono)
- Subtitles: Japanese
- Special features: Audio commentary by Toshihiro Ijima, Hiroshi Inuzuka, and Yozo Inagaki; interview with Minoru Nakano and Noriyoshi Ikeya (25 minutes); trailer; image gallery
- Notes: Re-released on August 19, 2015 as part of Toho's DVD masterpiece selection.
Though Daigoro vs. Goliath is not available on Blu-ray, an HD version can be rented or purchased on the Japanese version of Amazon Video.
Videos
Trailers
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Miscellaneous
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Trivia
- Ultraman is mentioned in the film when a man is lifted into the air by mechanical arms. He jokes that he is Ultraman, implying that the show exists in this movie's universe.
- Godzilla vs. Red Moon, a cancelled Tsuburaya-Toho co-production, was planned for release around the same time, although it is unknown which project came first.[5]
- In episode 34 of Mirrorman, "SGM vs Mirrorman", two Science Guard Members ask a housewife if she's seen any monsters about, only for her to point towards two children playing with toys of Daigoro and his mother in the playground sandbox.
Notes
References
This is a list of references for Daigoro vs. Goliath. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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