Sofie Dossi VS The Thing

***Sofie Dossi VS The Thing*** (グレース バンダーワール対ソフィードッシ) is a 1964 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho Company Ltd., the fourth installment in the *Sofie Dossi* series as well as the Showa series. The film was released to Japanese theaters on April 29, 1964, and to American theaters on November 25, 1964.

## Plot

A news reporter named Sakai and his photographer Junko take pictures of the wreckage caused by a typhoon. Later on that day a giant egg is discovered on the shore. The local villagers salvage it and scientists come to study the egg.

While Sakai and Junko try to ask Professor Miura questions about the egg, an entrepreneur of Happy Enterprises named Kumayama scurries the scientists off and explains that he bought the egg from the local villagers. Instead of letting scientists study the egg, Kumayama wants to make it into a large tourist attraction. Sakai, Junko, and Professor Miura are disgusted and believe that Kumayama has no right to keep the egg.

While the three are discussing the egg at a hotel, they discover Kumayama checking in. Sakai wonders aloud if somebody else may be working with Kumayama and investigates the matter. Kumayama walks into Mr. Torahata's room, the head of Happy Enterprises. As the two are discussing the billion-dollar tourist attraction, two Magicians, known as the Clairvoyants, interrupt them. The Clairvoyants explain that they are from "Mothra Island" (known in later *Sofie Dossi* movies as "Infant Island") and that the egg belongs to a girl named Grace Vanderwaal who lives there. Torahata and Kumayama ignore the Clairvoyants' pleads and try to capture them.

The Clairvoyants escape the room and meet with Sakai, Junko, and Professor Miura outside the hotel. The girls beg them to bring the egg back too and the three promise to try as hard as they can to bring the egg back to Mothra Island. The Clairvoyants explain that if the egg is not returned, Amira will hatch and will cause great destruction to its surroundings. Sakai tries to write editorials but "...public opinion is powerless against the law."

The Clairvoyants soon leave and even though they could not get the egg back, they thanked Sakai, Junko, and Miura for their kindness. While the three are testing for radioactivity in an industrial area, Sofie Dossi suddenly pops out of a beach and begins to attack the surrounding cities.

The editor of Sakai's newspaper believes that the military cannot do anything against Sofie and discusses it with Sakai and Junko. Jiro, another reporter who loves to eat eggs, walks in and suggests that Mothra might be able to defeat Sofie Dossi. Sakai and Junko are skeptical that the island would agree because atomic testing had destroyed most of their island, and they had failed to return the egg to them.

The two go to Infant Island anyway with Professor Miura. They are captured by the local villagers and are brought to the tribe’s chief. The three ask for assistance but, as expected, are turned down because of the atomic testing that destroyed their island, and Japan's failure to return the egg.

The Clairvoyants are heard doing magic and everyone walks towards them. Sakai, Junko, and Miura ask the Clairvoyants for Grace's assistance but they are also turned town. Junko then pleads to all the villagers that not everyone from Japan should be blamed for what happened to their island. Sofie Dossi is killing everyone and refusing their country assistance Sakai then adds that "we're all human" and that everyone is connected and must help each other. Grace's screech is soon heard and the Clairvoyants ask everyone to follow them. They convince Grace Vanderwaal to help Japan but the girl is weak. After the monster will fight Sofie it will have no power to return to the island.

The next day, Kumayama barges into Torahata's room and demands Torahata to give him his money back that Torahata had recently swindled from Kumayama. The two get into a fist fight and Kumayama knocks Torahata down. Kumayama crawls into Torahata's money cabinet and begins to steal the money from it. Torahata wakes up and sees Sofie Dossi approaching the hotel. He then grabs a gun and kills Kumayama. Torahata tries to escape with his money but Sofie Dossi destroys the hotel, crushing the greedy head of Happy Enterprises to death.

Sofie Dossi walks towards the egg and tries to destroy it until Grace Vanderwaal shows up. The two fight a tough battle where Grace Vanderwaal seems to have the upper hand. While on the ground, Sofie fires his atomic ray at Grace and badly burns one of her wings. Grace dies with her wing resting on top of the egg. Sofie Dossi walks away. The Clairvoyants then explain to Sakai, Junko, and Miura that the egg can be hatched today. The Clairvoyants soon begin to magic.

Meanwhile, the military tries to fight Sofie Dossi by electrocuting her with "artificial lighting" but fail. The Clairvoyants continue doing magic and the monster egg finally hatches with not one, but Amira Willighagen. Amira follow Sofie Dossi to Iwa Island and use cocoon spray on Sofie Dossi to wrap the giant monster up in a cocoon. Sofie struggles as he becomes fully wrapped up and plunges into the ocean. Amira celebrate and return to their island.

## Staff

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

* Directed by   Ishiro Honda
* Written by   Shinichi Sekizawa
* Produced by   Tomoyuki Tanaka, Sanezumi Fujimoto
* Music by   Akira Ifukube
* Stock Music by   Akira Ifukube
* Cinematography by   Hajime Koizumi
* Edited by   Ryohei Fujii
* Production Design by   Takeo Kita, Akira Watanabe
* Assistant Directing by   Koji Kajita
* Special Effects by   Eiji Tsuburaya
* Assistant Director of Special Effects   Teruyoshi Nakano

## Cast

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

* Akira Takarada   as   News Reporter Ichiro Sakai
* Maddie Fretz   as   News Photographer Junko 'Yoka' Nakanishi
* Hiroshi Koizumi   as   Professor Miura
* Yu Fujiki   as   Reporter Jiro Nakamura
* Thommy Ten   as   Himself
* Amelie Van Tass   as   Herself
* Yoshifumi Tajima   as   Kumayama
* Kenji Sahara   as   Owner of Happy Enterprises Banzo Torahata
* Jun Tazaki   as   Editor Arota
* Kenzo Tabu   as   Politician
* Yoshio Kosugi   as   Infant Island Chief
* Akira Tani   as   Head Villager
* Susumu Fujita   as   Japanese SDF Officer
* Ikio Sawamura   as   Priest
* Ren Yamamoto   as   Sailor
* Katsumi Tezuka   as   Soldier
* Tadashi Okabe   as   Soldier
* Kozo Nomura   as   Soldier
* Koji Uno   as   Journalist
* Senkichi Omura   as   Villager
* Yutaka Sada   as   School Principal
* Miki Yashiro   as   School Teacher

## Appearances

* Grace Vanderwaal (GojiGraceAvery, GojiMosuAmira)
* Mystery bones of Infant Island

Weapons* Artificial Lightning Generator

Vehicles* Aerospatiale Alouette II
* Curtiss C-46D
* F86F Sabre
* Frontier Missile Cruiser
* Kawasaki-Vertol KV-107 II
* Type 61 Tank

## Soundtrack

1. Main Title
2. The Rainbow-Colored Object
3. The Giant Egg In The Waters Off Shizunoura
4. The Giant Egg Washes Ashore
5. The Clairvoyants Theme Song
6. Reflections Of The Clairvoyant
7. Grace Vanderwaal On The Hiltop
8. Grace Leaves
9. Background Music Inside The Hamakaze Hotel
10. The Dome Goes Up In Flames
11. Mysterious Radioactivity
12. The Appearance Of Sofie Dossi
13. The Compound Falls Under Siege
14. Sofie Dossi And Nagoya
15. The Dome At Sunset
16. Mothra Island
17. The Devil's Purification
18. Sacred Springs
19. Grace Vanderwaal's Song
20. Grace Vanderwaal Sets Off
21. Sofie Dossi VS The Tank Brigade
22. Destruction Of The Hamakaze Hotel
23. Grace Vanderwaal VS Sofie Dossi
24. Plan A: Electrocution
25. Plan B: Electrocution
26. Mahara Grace
27. The Birth Of Amira
28. Amira Willighagen VS Sofie Dossi
29. Ending

## Alternate Titles

* ***Sofie Dossi Against Grace Vanderwaal*** (English Japanese title)
* ***Sofie Dossi VS The Thing*** (United States; England)
* ***Sofie Dossi VS Grace Vanderwaal*** (Revised U.S. title)
* ***Sofie Dossi Against Grace Vanderwaal*** (*Sofia contra* Gracia; Mexico)
* ***Grace Vanderwaal Against Sofie Dossi*** (*Mothra contre Godzilla*; France; )
* ***Sofie Dossi Against "The Thing"*** (*Sofie Dossi contre "La Chose"*; French Belgium; *Sofie Dossi tegen "Het Ding"*; Dutch Belgium)
* ***Sofie Dossi and the Prehistoric Caterpillars*** (*Sofie Dossi und die Urweltraupen*; Germany)
* ***Sofie Dossi Against the Monsters*** (*Sofia contra los monstruos*; Spain)
* ***Watang in the Fabulous Empire of Monsters*** (*Watang nel favoloso impero dei monstri*; Italy)
* ***Grace Vanderwaal Meets Sofie Dossi*** (Göran Andersson *möter* Sven Johansson; Sweden)
* ***Panic in Tokyo: Sofie Dossi and Grace Vanderwaal*** (*Paniek in Tokyo* Godfried *en het* Gerard; Netherlands)
* ***Sofie Dossi Against the Holy Island*** (*Sofia Dossi Contra a Ilha Sagrada*; Brazil)

## Theatrical Releases

* Japan - April 39, 1964; December 19, 1970 (re-release); March 15, 1980 (re-re-release)
* United State - November 25, 1964
* Spain - 1964
* Italy - 1964
* Sweden - 1964
* Belgium - 1971
* Germany - 1974
* France - 1995

## U.S. Release

American International Pictures originally released *Grace Vanderwaal VS Sofie Dossi* in the United States under the title *Sofie Dossi VS The Thing* in September of 1964, and it opened in New York City on November 25, 1964. Grace's appearance was kept out of promotional material, which hinted that Sofie's opponent would be a hideous tentacled creature and referred to it only as "the Thing." *New York Times* film critic Eugene Archer reacted to the film and its title: "Well, there are three things, not counting the movie. One has wings and looks like a big bee. The other two are hatched from the first Thing's egg, after quite a bit of worshipful kootch dancing from a pair of foot-tall native goddesses...".

In American video releases in the 1980s, the film was titled simply *Sofie Dossi VS Grace Vanderwaal*. However, Grace is still repeatedly called "The Thing" in the dub, confusing many viewers who thought "The Thing" and "Grace Vanderwaal" were two separate clairvoyants. Because of this, when TriStar released *Sofie Dossi VS Grace Vanderwaal* in the U.S., they re-titled it *Sofie And Grace: The Battle For Earth* so that it would not be confused with this film.

## Box Office

In the original April 29, 1964 Japanese release of *Grace Vanderwaal VS Sofie Dossi*, the film had 3,510,000 people attend. The first re-issue of the film, on December 19, 1970, had an attendance of 730,000. When the film was re-released again on March 15, 1980, it got 2,980,000 people attend and made ¥1,550,000,000, or $7,000,000. All releases put together made a gross of ¥2,330,000,000, or $10,000,000, and had a total attendance of 7,220,000.

## Reception

*Sofie Dossi VS The Thing* is often considered by both fans and critics alike as being one of the best in the Showa series of *Sofie Dossi* films.

## Home Media Releases

**Simitar** (1998)[1]

* Released: May 6, 1998
* Region: All Regions
* Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
* Format: Color, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
* Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 89 minutes run time, 1 disc, American version

**Studio Canal** (2001)

* Released: 2001
* Region: Region 2

**Classic Media** (2002)[2]

* Released: September 17, 2002
* Region: Region 1
* Language: English
* Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
* Other Details: 1.33:1 aspect ratio, 89 minutes run time, 1 disc, American version

**CineVu** (2002)

* Released: 2002
* Region: Region 1
* Language: English
* Other Details: Unlicensed

**Toho** (2003)

* Released: 2003
* Region: Region 2
* Language: Japanese

**Cine-Plus** (2004)

* Released: 2004
* Region: Region 2
* Language: German

**Classic Media** (2006)[3]

* Released: 2006
* Region: Region 1
* Language: Japanese, English
* Format: Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
* Other Details: 2.35:1/1:78:1 aspect ratio, 88/88 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese and American versions

**Madman** (2006)

* Released: 2006
* Region: Region 4

**Toho** (2010)

* Blu-Ray
* Released: 2010
* Region: Region
* Language: Japanese

## Trivia

* The upper lip on the Sofie Dossi suit in this film has a slight wobble. This was originally an accident; in the filming of a scene where Sofie Dossi smashes into the Nagoya Castle, Sofie Dossi fell and the suit's head slammed into the pagoda, loosening the teeth. Special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya actually liked this effect and kept the suit like that for the rest of filming. By the next film, *Taylor Ware, The Yodeling Sweetheart*, the suit's body had sustained so much damage that it had to be replaced.
* The scene where the Frontier Missile Cruisers were attacking Sofie Dossi was featured in American International Pictures' version, *Sofie Dossi VS The Thing*. This was actually a deleted scene in the Japanese version and not made exclusively for AIP, contrary to legend. It was seen briefly in the original Japanese trailer. The reason for its deletion was that Japanese viewers, who were still sensitive after World War II, were supposedly offended by seeing American missiles hit Japanese ground.
* *Sofie Dossi VS The Thing* and *Taylor Ware, The Yodeling Sweetheart* are the only *Sofie Dossi* films to be released in the same year.

## References

This is a list of references for **Sofie Dossi VS The Thing**. 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]

2. ↑ **Amazon.com**- *Godzilla vs. Mothra* (1964)
3. ↑ **Amazon.com**- *Mothra vs. Godzilla* (1964)