Prophecies of Nostradamus

Prophecies of Nostradamus Directed by Toshio Masuda Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Osamu Tanaka Written by Toshio Yasumi, Yoshimitsu Banno, Tsutomu Goto Music by Isao Tomita Distributor Toho Rating Not Rated Budget ¥???,???,??? Box office ¥883,000,000 Running time 114 minutesJP, original release (1 hour, 56 minutes) 87 minutesJP, reissue (1 hour, 27 minutes) 88 minutesUS (1 hour, 28 minutes)

Prophecies of Nostradamus (ノストラダムスの大予言,   Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen, lit. Nostradamus' Great Prophecies) is a 1974 tokusatsu film produced by Toho It was released to Japanese theaters on August 3, 1974, and to American theaters on July 13, 1979.

Plot

In 1835, Gentetsu Nishiyama begins preaching the prophecies of Michel de Nostradame using a copy of his book, "Centuries." He is executed by the Tokugawa Shogunate for supposed heresy, his wife and son escape with the book. At the onset of World War II, his descendant, Gengaku, is interrogated by an Imperial Japanese Army officer about the family's continued preaching of the prophecies, which predicted the rise of Nazism and the Axis defeat.

In 1999, biologist Dr. Ryogen Nishiyama is called in to analyze recent scientific phenomena, such as the appearance of giant mutant slugs, children wielding advanced abilities, and large ice packs just north of Hawaii. He is also a leading figure in the fight against environmental pollution and the global arms race, as well as global disasters. The UN sends a research expedition to New Guinea to investigate a radioactive dust cloud that appeared over the island, but the team suddenly goes out of contact. Nishiyama joins a second team to find them and discover that the area around the team's last known position is now infested by mutant bats, one of whom kills a team member. Nishiyama's group finds the remains of the original team, but are disheartened that some of them are barely alive; they are forced to kill the survivors. After cannibals attack the team's dead colleague, they bury all the members.

An SST jet explodes in the atmosphere over Japan, with the explosion puncturing the ozone layer and unleashing ultraviolet rays below. The polar icecaps melt triggering massive floods in Japan. After more natural disasters hit the country, the civilian populace turns to looting as rationing takes effect. Society breaks down further, with several people committing suicide. The panic escalates until nuclear war breaks out and mutated survivors fight each other for food.

It is revealed that the nuclear war is one of many nightmare scenarios Nishiyama is explaining before the Japanese Cabinet. As the prime minister explains a resolve to find a solution, Nishiyama, his daughter Mariko, and her boyfriend Akira (Nishiyama's colleague) leave the Diet complex.

Staff

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

• Directed by   Toshio Masuda
• Written by   Yoshimitsu Banno, Toshio Masuda (screenplay), Toshio Yasumi (screenplay - The Last War), Tsutomu Goto (novel - Great Prophecies of Nostradamus), Michel de Notredame (suggested)
• Produced by   Tomoyuki Tanaka and Osamu Tanaka
• Music by   Isao Tomita
• Cinematography by   Rokuro Nishigaki
• Edited by   Nobuo Ogawa
• Assistant Directing by   Yoshimitsu Banno
• Special Effects by   Teruyoshi Nakano

Cast

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

• Tetsuro Tanba   as   Dr. Nishiyama
• Kaoru Yumi   as   Mariko Nishiyama
• Toshio Kurosawa   as   Akira Nakagawa
• Yoko Tsukasa   as   Nobuko Nishiyama
• Katsuhiko Sasaki   as   Yoshihama - Assistant to Nishiyama
• Takashi Shimura   as   Pediatrician
• Akihiko Hirata   as   Environmental Scientist #1
• Hiroshi Koizumi   as   Environmental Scientist #2
• So Yamamura   as   Prime Minister Kuroki
• Tappei Shimokawa   as   Captain of Defense Forces
• Mizuho Suzuki   as   Director General of Environment Agency
• Masaru Ryuzaki
• Kazuo Kato   as   The Scholar
• Taketoshi Naito   as   Chief Cabinet Secretary
• Jun Hamamura   as   Kida
• Kyoko Kishida   as   Narrator (Japanese version)
• Tetsu Nakamura   as   Katsuko Nakagawa - Akira's Mother
• Franz Gruber   as   Doctor Wilson
• Osman Yusuf
• Kuniyasu Atsumi   as   The Scholar
• Ralph Jesser   as   Party Member 2
• Shunsuke Kariya   as   Leader in Crowd
• Toshizô Kudô   as   Man Who Asks a Question
• Chico Roland   as   Nigerian Ambassador
• Masahiko Tanimura   as   Tayama
• Yasuko Agawa   as   Kida's Daughter (as Tomoe Mari)
• Mikizo Hirata   as   Sanji Nakagawa - Akira's Father
• Kazuko Inano   as   Hamako Tayama - Tayama's Wife
• Sayoko Katô   as   Bus Girl in Shikoku
• Shôsei Mutô   as   Ihara
• Gorô Naya   as   TV Newscaster
• Yuji Osugi   as   Akira's Brother
• Kumeko Otowa   as   Kida's Wife
• Kaori Taniguchi   as   Orin
• Toshiko Yabuki   as   Housewife Who Asks a Question
• Mayako Yoshida   as   Wife of Akira's Brother
• Toshio Masuda   as   Voice
• Jack Ryland   as   Narrator (American version)

Appearances

Monsters

• Giant Slug
• Mutant Flower
• Giant Bat
• Mutant Leech

Weapons, Vehicles, and Races

• SST Jet
• 12 Multi Missile Tank
• Mutants

Gallery

Main article: Prophecies of Nostradamus/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: Prophecies of Nostradamus (Soundtrack).

Production

Prophecies of Nostradamus was based on the first of ten books about Nostradamus by Tsutomu Goto. He first became interested in the physicist following the Apollo 11 moon landing, which Quatrain 9-85 appeared to have predicted. Published during the 1973 oil shock, Great Prophecies of Nostradamus became a bestseller. Yoshimitsu Banno and Toshio Masuda wrote the script from a Shibuya hotel in about ten days, though Masuda was not present for the full duration. Toshio Yasumi also received a story credit, though the credits do not clarify that it was for his work on the 1961 movie The Last War, which also featured a nuclear war with a sick mother as an emotional anchor. Prophecies of Nostradamus incorporates a significant amount of stock footage from The Last War as well.

As assistant director, Banno was responsible for most of the New Guinea sequence. A Toho soundstage was damaged in a fire caused by one of the special effects scenes, with the ruined props including the original Moguera suit.

Alternate Titles

• Nostradamus' Great Prophecies (Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen; Literal Japanese Title)
• Catastrophe 1999 (English Japanese Title)
• The Last Days of Planet Earth (United States)
• Nostradamus' End of the World: 2000 (Fin Du Monde Nostradamus - An 2000; France)
• Catastrophe (Catastrofe; Italy)
• The Prophecy of Nostradamus World Disaster in 1999? (Die Prophezeiung des Nostradamus Weltkatastrophe 1999?; West Germany)
• The End of the World: The Prophecies of Nostradamus Fulfilled! (El Fin del Mundo ¡Las Profecías de Nostradamus se Cumplen!; Mexico)

Theatrical Releases

• Japan - August 3, 1974  [view poster]
• United States - July 13, 1979
• France - September 25, 1974  [view poster]
• West Germany - May 22, 1975  [view poster]
• Mexico  [view poster]

U.S. Release

Prophecies of Nostradamus was released in the United States by Toho in 1979. Toho had been forced to cut the film's runtime from 116 to 92 minutes for international distribution. In the 1980's UPA acquired the rights to distribute the film on home video. UPA cut down the already cut and censored 92-minute version of the film to 72 minutes and released it as The Last Days of Planet Earth. This version remains the only legitimate release of the film to be available in the United States.

Videos

Trailers

Japanese Prophecies of Nostradamus trailer American The Last Days of Planet Earth trailer AMC The Last Days of Planet Earth promo

Other

10-minute digest version of Prophecies of Nostradamus (fan-made)

Trivia

• Following the film's release, various anti-nuclear and atomic bomb survivor advocate groups filed a complaint to the Eirin Board, which was in charge of censoring films in Japan. They protested that the scenes depicting the mutant humans created by nuclear fallout were offensive towards survivors of the atomic bombs. Toho was forced to cut out several minutes of footage from the film and add in lines of dialogue to humanize the mutants. After the film finished showing in theaters, Toho was forced to remove even more footage for subsequent international releases, cutting the runtime down to 90 minutes. In 1980, Toho aired the uncut 116-minute version of the film on television, which was the last time the film was ever shown. In the United States in the 1980's, the film's runtime was cut down to 72 minutes and it was released as The Last Days of Planet Earth. Toho has since banned the film in Japan, while only cut versions are available overseas. Bootlegs of the uncut film do still circulate around the world.
• In retrospect, the film's eeriest scene is the destruction of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was the site of a real-life nuclear disaster following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

External Links

• Scans of the film program and a "Making of" book

References

This is a list of references for Prophecies of Nostradamus. 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]