Dogora: The Giant Space Monster

Directed by
 Music by
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Dogora: The Giant Space Monster (also known as Dogora) is an 1964 toho kaiju film, Released directly to television in the United States in 1966 by American International Television, under the title of Dogora, the Space Monster.

## Plot

A TV relay satellite orbiting over Japan loses its cause. At the same time, jewelry stores around the world are attacked, and many diamonds are stolen. The Metropolitan Police Department started the investigation by deciding that the diamond theft case was the work of the gem robbery group who was wanted around the world, but in fact the gem robbery group was disturbed by another unidentified robbery group, and it is annoying. Was there.

Detective Komai of the Metropolitan Police Department's Foreign Affairs Department visited Dr. Munakata, who is conducting diamond research, who seems to have escaped while pursuing a mysterious foreigner named Mark as a member of the gem robbery group. When he discovers Mark, he is taken out one step later and is robbed of Diamond, but Mark is also suspected to be a member of another robbery group and is abducted by a robbery group, and Diamond is robbed. However, it was discovered that the diamond that Mark had robbed was an imitation "artificial diamond" that Dr. Munakata was developing and researching, and Mark also escaped by the gap of the bandits. The robbers decide to rob the diamonds from Yokohama a few days later. On the other hand, in front of Komai who was escorting the woman Masayo who is the assistant of Dr. Munakata and Kirino who was investigating radio wave anomalies, there was a case where coal in the coal accumulation plant was sucked into the sky ..

A few days later, the robbers who attacked the truck that was transporting the diamond had a gunfight with Mark who was following them. In the meantime, an anomaly occurs in which the truck suddenly floats and falls onto the truck that was transporting the diamond. Although the robbery robbed Diamond, it was hard sugar this time . Mark, who joined the Metropolitan Police Department and other detectives Komai who visited Dr. Sokata at a later date, revealed that he was an investigator (Diamond G Men ) of the World Diamond Insurance Association, and will jointly confront the bandits.

Shortly thereafter, investigations by Dr. Munakata and the United Nations Scientific Committee revealed that both cases were the work of mutated space cells. Space cells, which use carbon as their energy source, needed substances such as diamond and coal that contained a large amount of carbon for energy supply. And the giant space cells are named "Dogora". Dogora began to attack the world one after another, especially in Kitakyushu city of Fukuoka prefecture which was famous as a coal producing area, the Self-Defense Forces gathered to attack Dogora with anti-aircraft guns, but Dogora continued to suck up coal without moving at all, Raise the tentacles, lift Wakado Bridge , and hit it against the surface of the water. There, the SDF fires anti-aircraft missiles to crush Dogora, but Dogora transforms into a myriad of small glowing cells, making the situation worse. However, when swarms of wasps appear in the sky, Dogora crystallizes. In fact, Dogora's cells have the weakness that they crystallize due to the poison of the wasp, which is revealed by the attack of the wasp attacked by Dogora on the nest in the coal mine. Dr. Yano, who was keen on fighting against Dogora, ordered the mass production of the wasp poison in the world. In this way, the counterattack from the ground to Dogora was started, and all the Dogora on the earth was crystallized and completely destroyed.

## Cast

* Yosuke Natsuki – Inspector Komai
* Robert Dunham – Mark Jackson (as Dan Yuma)
* Nobuo Nakamura – Dr. Munakata
* Hiroshi Koizumi – Kirino
* Yoko Fujiyama – Masayo Kirino
* Akiko Wakabayashi – Gangster Natsui Hamako
* Susumu Fujita – General Iwasa
* Seizaburou Kawazu – Gangster Boss
* Yoshifumi Tajima – Gangster Zenichi Tada
* Hideyo Amamoto – Gangster Joe Maki Safecracker
* Haruya Katou – Short Gangster Sabu
* Jun Tazaki – Chief Inspector
* Jun Funado – Inspector Nitta
* Nadao Kirino – Gangster Gen
* Akira Wakamatsu – Gangster Pine

### International English dub

* Ted Thomas   as   Dr. Munakata / Police chief / Ginza policeman
* Nick Kendall   as   Mark Jackson

## Staff

* Directed by   Ishiro Honda
* Screenplay by   Shinichi Sekizawa
* Based on the story *Space Mons* by   Jojiro Okami
* Executive producers   Tomoyuki Tanaka, Yasuyoshi Tajitsu
* Music by   Akira Ifukube
* Cinematography by   Hajime Koizumi
* Edited by   Ryohei Fuji
* Production design by   Takeo Kita
* 1st assistant director   Ken Sano
* Director of special effects   Eiji Tsuburaya

## Titles

* Giant Outer Space Monster, Dogora (宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ Uchū Daikaijū Dogora, Original Japanese title Japanese title)
* Space Monster Dogora (Japanese poster title)
* Dagora, the Space Monster (United States)
* X 3000 - Phantoms Against Gangsters (X 3000 - Fantome gegen Gangster, Germany)
* Dogora: The Monster from the Great Swamp (Dogora: Il Mostro Della Grande Palude, Italy)
* Dogora, The Space Invader (Dogora, O Invasor Espacial, Brazil)

## Production

In 1962, following the completion of Gorath, Toho commissioned science fiction writer Jojiro Okami to write an original story for an alien invasion monster movie. Shinichi Sekizawa adapted the story, titled Space Mons, into a film treatment which was never produced. Two years later, the Space Mons treatment was revisited and reworked by Sekizawa into Earth Martial Law (Chikyū Kaigenrei) and produced as The Space Monster ( Supēsu Monsutā).

The film is unusual for Toho's giant monster series in that the creature is non-anthropomorphic and not portrayed by an actor in a costume. For scenes of it in its full form, the Dogora prop was placed in a small vat of water and puppeteered by people holding wires. This gave it the impression of it floating like an airborne jellyfish.

Originally, Dogora was titled Space Monster and was meant to be released in 1962. The monster's name was changed to "Dagora" in the English-dubbed prints.

Dogora's roar was reused for the Tsuburaya Production's TV show Ultraman, as the monster Bullton in episode 17, "Passport to Infinity".

There were originally plans to feature Robert Dunham in a series of films based on the "Mark Jackson" secret agent character he played in this film. However, they never came to fruition.

## U.S. release

Toho had an English-language version of *Dogora* prepared in Hong Kong by Ted Thomas's Axis Productions. Because Robert Dunham primarily spoke Japanese for his role in the film, his voice was dubbed into English by another actor.

In April 1965, *Dogora* played at the Toho Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii, in Japanese with English subtitles. A newspaper ad in the *Honolulu Advertiser* referred to it as *Space Monster Dogora*.

*Dogora* was licensed for U.S. release to American International Pictures. Its television unit, American International Television, first offered the film to television stations as *Dagora, the Space Monster* in the "Amazing '66" syndication package starting in 1965. It would later be included in AITV's "SciFi 65" package. *Dogora* was not re-dubbed for AITV's release; this version featured no on-screen credits of any kind, only the new opening title.

As *Dagora, the Space Monster*, the film was never officially issued on home video, although unlicensed copies from Video Yesteryear were produced in the 1980's and 90's. Media Blasters released the film on DVD on July 15, 2005 under its Tokyo Shock label; audio options on the disc included the original Japanese audio with removable English subtitles and the original Toho international dub.

## DVD

**Tokyo Shock** DVD (2005)

* Region: 1
* Discs: 1
* Audio: Japanese, English (Mono 1.0)
* Special Features: Original trailer, production gallery, previews for other Tokyo Shock kaiju releases
* Notes: Out of print. Picture is slightly cropped.

**Toho** DVD (2005)

* Region: 2
* Discs: 1
* Audio: Japanese (Mono 1.0 and Surround 5.1)
* Special Features: Audio commentary by Yosuke Natsuki, original trailer, interview with Teruyoshi Nakano and Keizo Murase (26 minutes), photo gallery, booklet
* Notes: Does not include English subtitles.

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