Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972)

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Credits for Daigoro vs. Goliath


Daigoro vs. Goliath
The Japanese poster for Daigoro vs. Goliath
Alternate titles
Flagicon Japan.png Great Monster Battle:
Daigoro vs. Goliath
(1972)
See alternate titles
Directed by Toshihiro Ijima
Producer Hajime Tsuburaya, Kazuho Mitsuta[1]
Written by Kitao Senzoku
Music by Toru Fuyuki
Distributor Toho
Rating Not Rated
Budget ¥140 million[1]
Running time 85 minutes
(1 hour, 25 minutes)
Aspect ratio 1.37:1
Rate this film!
3.36
(14 votes)

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!?)
„ 

— 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.

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

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

Japanese Daigoro vs. Goliath trailer

Miscellaneous

Full movie (English subtitles)
Interview with SFX director Minoru Nakano and art director Noriyoshi Ikeya

Trivia

Toys of Daigoro and his mother cameo in Mirrorman
  • 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

  1. While most media conveys the long vowel at the end of Daigoro's name as ロウ (), using the kana u, the film's end title erroneously spells it with a chōonpu as ロー (), though pronounced the same.

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]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ultra Special Effects PERFECT MOOK vol.10 Ultraman Ace. Kodansha. 25 November 2020. pp. 30–31, 35. ISBN 978-4-06-520932-5.
  2. Godzilla Toho Champion Festival Perfection. ASCII MEDIA WORKS. 29 November 2014. p. 48. ISBN 978-4-04-866999-3.
  3. Tsuburaya Pro All Monster Encyclopedia. Shogakukan. 6 March 2013. p. 87. ISBN 9784096820742.
  4. Hi no Tori Fansubs (26 June 2011). "Latest Release: Daigoro Vs. Goliath". Facebook.
  5. John LeMay (2017). The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films. Bicep Books. pp. 36–37. ISBN 1548145254.

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