Godzilla Raids Again | |
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Directed by | Motoyoshi Oda |
Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
Written by |
Shigeaki Hidaka Takeo Murata |
Starring |
Hiroshi Koizumi Setsuko Wakayama Minoru Chiaki Takashi Shimura |
Music by | Masaru Satō |
Cinematography | Seiichi Endo |
Edited by | Kazuji Taira |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Toho |
Release date
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Running time
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81 minutes (Japan) 79 minutes (USA) |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Budget | $800,000 |
Godzilla Raids Again (ゴジラの逆襲 lit. "Counterattack of Godzilla"?, also known as Gigantis, the Fire Monster) is a 1955 Japanese science-fiction kaiju film featuring Godzilla, produced by and distributed by Toho. It is the second film in the Godzilla franchise and Showa series, and introduced the "monster vs. monster" concept that the franchise would adopt for the rest of the films.
An English dubbed version, titled Gigantis, the Fire Monster, was heavily re-edited and released theatrically in the United States by Warner Brothers in 1959 on a double bill with Teenagers from Outer Space (or with Rodan in some areas). This version features heavy alterations from the Japanese original. The English dub was later retitled Godzilla Raids Again (at Toho's request) for home video in the early 1980s and continues to be marketed in English-speaking markets as such, but in the 1960s and 1970s it was always shown on U.S. television as Gigantis the Fire Monster.
Two pilots named Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi are hunting for schools of fish for a tuna cannery company in Osaka. Kobayashi's plane malfunctions and is forced to land near Iwato Island, an uninhabited strip of rocks formed by volcanic eruptions. Tsukioka then looks for Kobayashi and finds him safe, with only a wrist sprain. While talking, the two men hear some strange sounds and find two monsters fighting. Tsukioka immediately recognizes one of the monsters to be Godzilla. The two monsters then fall off a cliff, into the ocean.
Tsukioka and Kobayashi report to the authorities in Osaka, and find out that the other monster Godzilla was fighting is Anguirus. A group of scientists with the two pilots research Anguirus in a book written by a Polish scientist. Godzilla and Anguirus lived around the same time millions of years ago, and there was an intense rivalry between the two monsters.