Godzilla 2000 Millennium

— US poster tagline

 Directed by
Wataru Mimura
 Music by
 Running time
 Budget

Godzilla 2000 Millennium (also known as Godzilla 2000) is a 1999 kaiju film, Directed by Takao Okawara.

## Plot

a Godzilla that destroyed the fishing boat Daiichi Hokkai Maru has appeared in Nemuro City, Hokkaido . Yuji Shinoda, who presides over the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN), encounters Godzilla with his daughter Io and Yuki Ichinose, a reporter for the magazine "Opars" in close proximity, and sees Godzilla destroying the power plant. I hate the energy produced by."

Around the time , a strong magnetic block was discovered in the Japan Trench off Kashima Nada . Shiro Miyasaka of the Crisis Management and Information Bureau (CCI), who has discovered the possibility of new energy resources, advises the director, Mitsuo Katagiri, to raise. However, the rock mass floats by itself during the pulling work. Extraterrestrial life is presumed to exist inside the rock mass, which is estimated to be 60 to 70 million years old in the deepest part.

Godzilla moves southward in the sea, increasing the risk of targeting a nuclear power plant in Tokai-mura , Ibaraki Prefecture . Katagiri deploys a unit of the Self-Defense Forces at the mouth of the Kuji River, and seeks to defeat Godzilla with a new weapon full metal missile. During the battle between the landed Godzilla and the Self-Defense Forces, a rock mass flies and begins to attack Godzilla. Godzilla also responded to this with a heat ray, and as a counterattack Godzilla left to the sea, the rock mass crashed to Kitaura with a part of the metallic body exposed , and stopped its movement.

Shinoda, who collected Godzilla's epidermis at Tokai Village, focuses on the healing ability of Godzilla cells and tries to proceed with the analysis using Miyazaki's CCI facility, but Katagiri discloses the information on Godzilla's Godzilla's possession as a condition. To request. Shinoda, who scrutinized the cells, discovered a cell restorer and repairer, which he named Organizer G1 .

The next morning, the rock mass in Kitaura begins to move with sunrise. When the rock sticking to the outside was completely blown off by vibration, the air vehicle flew to Shinjuku and landed on the rooftop of the City Tower with the editorial department of "Opars". At night, the flying object stretches its tentacles invisible to the naked eye, cracking computers in the surrounding area to gather information about Godzilla and at the same time start changing the atmospheric composition.

Katagiri saw this huge UFO as dangerous and decided to destroy it with Blast Bomb. In place of Yuki, who had been staying in the tower just before the bombing and was searching for the alien's aim, Shinoda tried to escape with a mobile PC with data. Ignoring Miyasaka's voice, which stops him, Katagiri forcefully explodes.

Shinoda, who succeeded in getting out of the tower that is barely collapsing, has the alien purpose of "recreating the environment suitable for them" and "recovering the body lost in a long time from Godzilla's organizer G1". Katagiri et al. At that time, Godzilla appears in Tokyo Bay and aims for Shinjuku where U.F.O is located.

## Cast

* Takehiro Murata   as   Yuji Shinoda, President of the Godzilla Prediction Network
* Hiroshi Abe   as   Mitsuo Katagiri, Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Director of Crisis Control Intelligence
* Naomi Nishida   as   Yuki Ichinose, reporter for *OOPArts*
* Takeo Nakahara   as   General Takada, Ground Self-Defense Force First Division Chief
* Mayu Suzuki   as   Io Shinoda
* Shiro Sano   as   Shiro Miyasaka, CCI executive
* Takeshi Obayashi   as   Gonno, Defense Agency
* Shiro Namiki   as   Shiosaki, Science and Technology Agency
* Hisashi Kimura   as   Okawa, Guard Captain
* Bengal   as   Sonoda, GPN Fukushima Staff
* Kenichi Nagira   as   Shinoda Sake Brewery clerk
* Kenichi Ishii   as   *OOPArts* Editor-in-Chief
* Horyu Nakamura   as   Inagaki, Tokyo University Professor
* Masaru Shinozuka   as   Minagawa, Cabinet Research Office
* Toshihiko Sakakibara   as   *OOPArts* reporter (Chemical)
* Yoshimasa Kondo   as   Lighthouse staff
* Koichi Ueda   as   Voice of Director of Tokai Nuclear Power Plant
* Koichi Nihei   as   Party guest A
* Toshimasa Niiro   as   Goto, research ship captain
* Masahiro Kizawa   as   Sasaki, Kyoto University Professor
* Yoshiyuki Omori   as   CCI staff A
* Seiroku Nakazawa   as   Father in downtown
* Hakobu Okubo   as   Executive with Takada
* Toru Kodama   as   Executive with Takada
* Daisuke Honda   as   Kimura, GPN Matsushima staff
* Masaru Sakurai   as   Member of special work team
* Yuki Tanaka   as   CCI staff B
* Misaki Yoshikawa   as   CCI female staff member
* Makoto Horioka   as   X Building correspondent
* Kentaro Sakai   as   CCI executive with Katagiri
* Tomoyuki Inoue   as   Submarine crew A
* Yukimasa Natori   as   Party guest B
* Asahiro Nara   as   CCI staff C
* Yusuke Daimonji   as   Submarine crew B
* Matsutaka Yamanashi
* Ayumu Takase
* Daigo Fukanaga
* Akira Inoue
* Koichi Ishida
* Yukihito Tanikado
* Miyabi Morita

## Staff

* Directed by   Takao Okawara
* Written by   Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Wataru Mimura
* Produced by   Toshihiro Ogawa, Shogo Tomiyama
* Music by   Takayuki Hattori
* Cinematography by   Katsuhiro Kato
* Edited by   Yoshiyuki Okuhara
* Production design by   Takeshi Shimizu
* Assistant directing by   Toshimasa Miyamura
* Special effects by   Kenji Suzuki
* Stock Music by   Akira Ifukube

## Titles

* G2K (Abbreviated Title)
* Godzilla 2000 (United States)
* The Return of Godzilla (Powrót Godzilli; Poland)
* Godzilla 2000 vs. the Extraterrestrial Squid (Godzilla 2000 vs. El Calamar Extraterrestre; Mexico)

## Overview

The first work of the third Godzilla series. Throughout the entire series, it will be the first public release in about 4 years since " Godzilla vs. Destroyer ". Introducing Godzilla, whose dorsal fin is large and sharply emphasized and redesigned with a novel design  , and also the alien Millenian and Olga, which is a monster of it. The main attack points are Nemuro, Ibaraki, and Tokyo.

Emphasis was placed on how humankind counters Godzilla, which is a natural disaster such as an earthquake or typhoon. In addition to the Crisis Management Information Office (CCI) led by the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet, a private organization called the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) will appear.

The attention to the powerful image composition was seen, and CG was also used effectively, such as synthesizing Godzilla for aerial photography with a helicopter  . In addition, it is a scene where Godzilla, who was mainly represented by a costume, swims in the water, and it is the first full CG work in the series. On the other hand, in the Nemuro landing scene, there are scenes that were particular about live action, such as expressing the destructive depiction with a full-scale model, and reproducing the footprints of Godzilla on the beach with a power shovel  .

The screen, which was Vista-sized in the VS series, is now a cinemascope size using the full frame of Super 35  .

## Production

The Hollywood version " GODZILLA " released in 1998 after the " Heisei VS series " was successful, though it was a box office success, but it was significantly different from the conventional image of Godzilla ( see GODZILLA# evaluation ) ). Toho producer Shogo Toyama, who sensed the reaction of Japanese fans to the Hollywood version , planned the restart of the Japanese version of Godzilla immediately after the release of the work and led to the production of this work  .

Two screenwriters have been appointed because it requires a diversified perspective to build a completely different world view from the previous series  . In production, while the basic philosophy is "reproduction of the first Godzilla" and "mystery and threat" seen in the early Toho special effects movie, Olga reminiscent of Godzilla's design by a new interpretation and monsters of overseas SF works New elements such as design have also been incorporated  .

It was a revival just four years after the previous work, which was called the final work of the series, but the box office revenue was 1,650 million yen. The number of spectators was 2 million, which was the highest score.

In the United States, it was the first Godzilla series in 15 years since " Godzilla " (1984). Been screened in North America 2,111 Museum, across the country from the mass media " Korezo, entertainment. Big guy is getting it! Back ," but has been described as such  , box office lackluster in the final box office revenue is about It became 10 million dollars  . In addition, a number of BGM in the play has been changed, and it has been pointed out that Godzilla has been treated like a savior of humanity as a result of the heavy use and modification of slang . The US public version was later held in Japan as a Japanese subtitled super version under the supervision of Dave Specter at Odaiba Cinema Mediage, which was held for a week only from November 11 to 17, 2000  .

## U.S. release

TriStar Pictures, who had also distributed every Heisei film in the U.S. starting with *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah*, picked up *Godzilla 2000* for theatrical distribution in North America. Mike Schlesinger, who supervised the North American release, said, "It [*Godzilla 2000*] was such a spectacular success in Japan, we decided it was worth taking a shot, maybe the time was right for Godzilla to come back to theaters." Sony spent approximately $1 million to re-edit and dub the movie, and an additional $10-12 million to market. The edited film was released to American theaters on August 17, 2000.

Unlike in the past, TriStar chose to not simply distribute Toho's international export presentation of the film, but create their own version, a process that had not been done since New World released *The Return of Godzilla* in the U.S. as *Godzilla 1985*. According to Mike Schlesinger, TriStar was provided with the export version of the film containing Omni Productions' English dub, but he felt it was so bad it was unusable. As a result, *Godzilla 2000* was edited in the process of Americanization. The U.S. version of the film runs 99 minutes; 8 minutes shorter than the Japanese version. Most of the visual edits were minor cuts done to quicken pacing, and the sound design and music was overhauled heavily. Schlesinger specifically chose Asian-American talent for the majority of the roles in the new looping for the sake of vocal authenticity, and some inconsequential dialogue was "livened" to garner humor, in-line with the film's already prevalent physical and situational comedy. An excerpt of actor Paul Frees as the alien voice from *Earth vs. the Flying Saucers* was added to the background of a scene, as a tribute to his roles in many classic English dubs of Toho films. In a first, Toho and Takao Okawara approved all the changes to the film in advance on a step-by-step basis with Schlesinger, as previous Americanizations were done largely without the supervision of Toho. The U.S. cut of the film was given a one-week limited theatrical release in Japan with Japanese subtitles starting on November 11, 2000.

Among the other alterations:

* J. Peter Robinson was brought in to compose new music for the U.S. cut of the film. These new compositions are most prominent during the scene where Godzilla comes ashore at Tokai and Godzilla's battle with Orga.
* Shortened: the scene where Yuki seeks membership for the Godzilla Prediction Network.
* Added: A few more traditional Akira Ifukube themes were incorporated in Robinson's new compositions, specifically Godzilla and Rodan's themes from the main titles of *Mothra vs. Godzilla* and *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster*, respectively.
* Shortened: Godzilla coming ashore at Tokai and the luring operation. Medium shots and closeups of Godzilla powering up were removed from the sequence of the JASDF performing an airstrike to prevent him from discharging his atomic breath. Mike Schlesinger felt the sequence diminished the buildup and impact of Godzilla later using it against the Millennian UFO.
* Almost the entire sound design was redone. In particular, less realistic sound effects for mobile phones, computers and other technology were chosen. The U.S. cut is notable for being mixed and exhibited in 8 channel SDDS compared to Toho's original version, which has only received standard Dolby Stereo and 5.1 surround mixes. However, only the standard 5.1 mix of the U.S. cut has been released on home video.
	+ Some of the American Godzilla's roars from the 1998 film were given to Godzilla, although in the commentary for the film, Mike Schlesinger and Darren Pascal, perhaps erroneously, deny the same assets were used.
	+ Orga was given more of a low-pitched groaning roar, whereas in the original cut it was a higher stock roar, originally used for Cretaceous King Ghidorah in Rebirth of Mothra III.
	+ The humming sound produced by the Millennian UFO is replaced with a higher-pitched droning sound.
	+ The final battle between Godzilla and Orga features new sound effects aside from roars, most notably when the monsters make contact with each other.
* The translation team changed "Organizer G1" to "Regenerator G1," on the basis that the word "Organizer" made no sense within the context it was being used.
* Shortened: The scene where a bewildered taxi driver sees the UFO to prevent a continuity error involving a car with the same license plates standing in as two distinct vehicles.
* Deleted: A scene of two newscasters commentating on the UFO's arrival in Shinjuku airspace.
* Deleted: Exposition of the UFO lowering the oxygen content of the atmosphere around the City Tower.
* Deleted: Before escaping the building where the aliens are draining the information (just before the building is detonated), Shinoda sees the word "Millennium" on all the computer screens.
* Deleted: The Millennians broadcasting their declaration of conquest on all signs and monitors throughout Shinjuku. Mike Schlesinger explained his removal of the "Millennium" subplot as being out of not wanting to date the film's premise.
* Re-arranged: The scene where Shinoda goes down the elevator shaft while the building explodes.

In contrast to some past instances of Americanization of Godzilla films, the changes made to the U.S. version of Godzilla 2000 are generally well-received by fans. The new music and sound effects have been widely praised, as have the changes to the pacing. Toho and Takao Okawara were reportedly impressed by TriStar's edit of the film, and Toho even gave it a limited theatrical run in Japan, similar to what was done with Godzilla, King of the Monsters! in Japan in 1957.

## DVD

**Toho** DVD (2000)

* Region: 2
* Discs: 2
* Audio: Japanese (5.1 Surround)
* Special Features: Audio commentary by Shiro Sano, Shogo Tomiyama, Takao Okawara and Kenji Suzuki, trailers, TV spots, Godzilla theater etiquette spot, cast & staff biographies.
* Special Features (disc 2): The Making of Godzilla 2000: Millennium, Behind the Scenes.
* Notes: 2.26:1 aspect ratio (windowboxed), second disc only included in original release.

**TriStar** DVD (2000)

* Region: 1
* Discs: 1
* Audio: English (5.1 Surround and 2.0 Mono), French (2.0 Mono)
* Special Features: Audio commentary by Michael Schlesinger, Michael Mahoney, and Darren Paskal, behind the scenes footage (2 minutes), talent files, trailers for *Godzilla 2000* and *GODZILLA* (1998)
* Notes: Included in *The Toho Godzilla Collection, Vol. 2*.

**Madman** DVD (2005)

* Region: 4
* Audio: English