ESPY

ESPY Alternate titles ESP-Y (TV 1980s) See alternate titles Directed by Jun Fukuda Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Fumio Tanaka Written by Ei Ogawa; Sakyo Komatsu (story) Music by Masaaki Hirao, Kensuke Kyo Special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano Production company Toho Eizo Distributor TohoJP, UPAUS Rating Not Rated Distributor rentals ¥828 million Running time 94 minutesJP (1 hour, 34 minutes) 86 minutesUS (VHS) (1 hour, 26 minutes) Aspect ratio 2.35:1JP 1.33:1US TV Rate this film! 3.50 (6 votes)

“	PARANORMALISTS CRUSH A STUPENDOUS PLOT TO DESTROY MANKIND	„
	— International tagline

ESPY (エスパイ,   Esupai) is a 1974 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction film directed by Jun Fukuda and written by Ei Ogawa based on a 1964 serialized novel of the same name by Sakyo Komatsu, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Produced by Toho Eizo, the film stars Hiroshi Fujioka, Kaoru Yumi, Masao Kusakari, Yuzo Kayama, and Tomisaburo Wakayama. Toho released it to Japanese theaters on December 28, 1974. It was brought to television and home video in the United States by United Productions of America beginning in the 1980s.

Plot

	“I knew that『plot』wasn't up to much.” This plot synopsis is missing or incomplete. Please help by editing this section.

To be added.

Staff

Main article: ESPY/Credits.

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Directed by   Jun Fukuda
• Associate director   Kenjiro Omori
• Written by   Ei Ogawa
• Based on a story by   Sakyo Komatsu
• Executive producers   Tomoyuki Tanaka, Fumio Tanaka
• Music by   Masaaki Hirao, Kensuke Kyo
• Theme songs "All We Need is Love" and "To an Unknown Country"
  • Performed by   Kiyohiko Ozaki
  • Lyrics by   Yoko Yamaguchi
  • Composed by   Masaaki Hirao
  • Arranged by   Kensuke Kyo
• Cinematography by   Shoji Ueda, Kazutami Hara
• Edited by   Michiko Ikeda
• Production design by   Shinobu Muraki
• First assistant director   Tsunesaburo Nishikawa
• Director of special effects   Teruyoshi Nakano
• First assistant director of special effects   Yoshio Tabuchi

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Hiroshi Fujioka   as   Yoshio Tamura
• Kaoru Yumi   as   Maria Harada
• Masao Kusakari   as   Jiro Miki
• Eiji Okada   as   Salabad
• Katsumasa Uchida   as   Goro Tatsumi
• Goro Mutsumi   as   Teraoka
• Luna Takamura   as   Julietta
• Hatsuo Yamaya   as   Ball
• Jimmy Shaw   as   Godonov
• Andrew Hughes   as   P. B.
• Steve Green   as   Prime Minister of Baltonia
• Willy Dorcey   as   Abdullah
• Ralph Jesser   as   Anti-ESPY A
• Franz Gruber   as   Anti-ESPY C
• Koichi Ito   as   government official
• Yoshio Katsube   as   reporter
• Toshio Hosoi   as   security guard
• Hiroya Morita   as   security guard
• Yuzo Kayama   as   Hojo
• Tomisaburo Wakayama   as   Ulrov
• Roger Wood   as   United Nations Mediation Committee member A
• Anest Harness   as   United Nations Mediation Committee member B
• Germal Liner   as   Anti-ESPY B
• Bart Johanson   as   Anti-ESPY D
• Shigeo Kato   as   security guard
• Kazuo Imai   as   cameraman
• Jiro Mitsuaki   as   man at International Conference Center
• Robert Dunham   as   airline captain

English dub

• Barry Haigh   as   Yoshio Tamura / Salabad / P. B. / Prime Minister of Baltonia
• Linda Masson   as   Maria
• Michael Ross   as   Jiro Miki / Godonov
• Matthew Oram   as   Ball / Hojo / Ulrov

Appearances

Monsters ESPIES Caesar Anti-ESPIES

Weapons, vehicles, and races Soviet nuclear submarine Fuji-Bell 204B-2 Baltonian Prime Minister's plane

Gallery

Main article: ESPY/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: ESPY/Soundtrack.

Alternate titles

• ESP-Y (U.S. television title)
• E.S.P./SPY (U.S. home video title)
• The War of the Occult Powers (La Guerra de los Poderes Ocultos; Spain)
• Espy - Extrasensory Action (Espy - Ação Extra-Sensorial; Brazil)
• Espy - The Power of the Mind (Espy - O Poder da Mente; Brazilian video title)
• Espy - Extrasensory Threat (Espy - Minaccia Extrasensoriale; Italy)

Video releases

Toho DVD (2004/2013/2015)

• Region: 2
• Discs: 1
• Audio: Japanese (1.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: Japanese
• Special features: Audio commentary, trailer, image gallery, 8-page booklet

Though ESPY is not available on Blu-ray, an HD version can be rented or purchased on the Japanese versions of Amazon Video and iTunes.

Videos

Trailers

Japanese ESPY trailer

Miscellaneous

Credits from the U.S. home video release English visuals used in the international export and U.S. home video versions

Trivia

• The film's title is a contraction of "ESPer spy" (エスパー・スパイ,   esupā supai), ESPer being the Japanese term for psychics.

References

This is a list of references for ESPY. 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]

Bibliography

• The Complete 85-Installment History of Kinema Junpo's Best Ten: 1924-2011. Kinema Junpo. May 2012. ISBN 978-4873767550.

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