Godzilla VS King Ghidorah

Directed by
 Produced by
 Music by
 Budget

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah is a 1991 toho kaiju film, Directed by Kazuki Omori it is the 3rd Godzilla film in the Heisei series.

## Plot

In July 1992, a huge UFO suddenly flew over Tokyo . Eventually, the UFO landed at the foot of Mt. Fuji, and Wilson, Glenco, and Emmy, who were messenger of the 23rd century Earth Federation agency, appeared. Non-fiction writer Kenichiro Terasawa wrote in his book The Birth of Godzilla, "A dinosaur that lived on Lagos Island was transformed into Godzilla by a nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in 1954. " Based on the hypothesis that "the dinosaur moves to another place before it encounters a nuclear test, it will erase the existence of Godzilla itself". The Japanese government accepted this, and Terasawa, Miki Saegusa of the National Center for Superscience and paleontologist Hironori Masaki, together with the futuristic Emmy and M11 of the android, timed to the Lagos island of Marshall Islands in 1944 with the time machine **KIDS.** To slip. What they witnessed was the dinosaur **Godzillasaurus** . Godzilla Zaurus attacked the US troops who broke his territory, eventually saving the Japanese Lagos Island garrison led by Yasuaki Shindo from a predicament, but he was damaged by the gun fire and fell down. After Shindo and his colleagues withdrew, Terazawa and his colleagues transferred the dying Godzillasaurus to the Bering Sea using a mass transfer device . Due to this, Godzilla seems to have been completely erased from history. However, in 1992, when Terazawa and his friends returned, Japan was under threat from the newly emerged three-headed giant monster King Ghidorah .

In the 23rd century, Japan had grown into a superpower that surpassed the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, and had enslaved the countries of the world with overwhelming military and economic power. Therefore, Wilson and his colleagues, who belong to a group that seeks to reduce the gap in national power, attempted to use the controllable monster King Ghidorah to threaten Japan in the 20th century and weaken Japan in the 23rd century. King Ghidorah flew to Fukuoka and destroyed the entire area. On the other hand, Emmy, who was drawn by the Japanese, was shocked by the tragedy of her motherland, and later became familiar with Terazawa and his friends.

In response to this crisis, Shindo, who is the commander of the giant Konzern group and once saved by Godzilla Zaurus, will dispatch a nuclear-powered nuclear submarine Musa No. 2 hidden in a Southeast Asian country to the Bering Sea in order to revive Godzilla . Plan. Meanwhile, Miki sensed a huge shadow different from Godzillasaurus in the Bering Sea due to her telepathic ability. Godzilla Zaurus had already been mutated to Godzilla under the influence of illegally abandoned nuclear fuel. The revived Godzilla sinks Musashi No. 2 and meets King Ghidorah in the wilderness of Hokkaido . Shindo muttered, "He will fight for us again...". Godzilla is forced to struggle with King Ghidorah, which Wilson controls, but the formation reverses when the rebellious Emmy destroys King Ghidorah's control device, Godzilla sinks King Ghidorah in the Sea of Okhotsk , and Wilson's UFO is destroyed. However, Godzilla started invading the capital Tokyo this time, as if he turned his fangs to Japan .

Terazawa and his team come up with a plan to regenerate King Ghidorah with 23rd-century technology and save Godzilla from fighting against Godzilla in order to save Japan from the threat of Godzilla. Emmy promised a return and went back to the future to carry out the plan. Japan, which had been completely destroyed by Godzilla in the 23rd century, was the poorest country, but King Ghidorah had a little life force in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Godzilla who overruns the capital approaches the Teiyo Group headquarters building in Shinjuku. Godzilla, who witnesses the new Shindo, remains silent for a moment, but destroys the building with the huge roar. Before Godzilla continues to invade, Mecha King Ghidorah, which has regenerated over time and space, appeared.

## Cast

* Anna Nakagawa   as   Emmy Kano, Futurian
* Kosuke Toyohara   as   Kenichiro Terasawa, writer for *Mu* magazine
* Megumi Odaka   as   Miki Saegusa
* Kiwako Harada   as   Chiaki Moriyuma, editor for *Mu* magazine
* Shoji Kobayashi   as   Ryuzo Dobashi, Cabinet Security Director
* Katsuhiko Sasaki   as   Professor Hironori Mazaki
* Chuck Wilson   as   Wilson, Futurian
* So Yamamura   as   Prime Minister Hayashida
* Koichi Ueda   as   Masukichi Ikehata, former Lagos Island Japanese Army soldier
* Richard Berger   as   Glenchico, Futurian
* Robert Scott Field   as   M11
* Tokuma Nishioka   as   Professor Takehito Fujio, Director of National Institute of Science and Technology
* Yoshio Tsuchiya   as   Yasuaki Shindo, Chairman of the Teiyo Group
* Saburo Tokito   as   Reporter
* Junichi Yaoi   as   Himself
* Kent Gilbert   as   U.S. Navy Colonel
* Daniel Kahl   as   Major Spielberg
* Jeff Berklund   as   U.S. Navy Aide
* Ginnosuke Azuma   as   Morrys
* Shinji Morisue   as   Photographer
* Shingo Kazami   as   National Institute of Science and Technology staff member
* Ryoto Yoshimitsu   as   Shindo's secretary
* Kenji Sahara   as   Defense Minister Takayuki Segawa
* Susumu Kurobe   as   Fuyuki Takaoka, Air SDF Chief of Staff
* Kazuyuki Senba   as   Integrated Chiefs of Staff Conference chairperson
* Kenzo Hagiwara   as   Takeo Shimura, Ground SDF Chief of Staff
* Shin Tatsuma   as   Daisuke Hirata, Maritime SDF Chief of Staff
* Tetsu Watanabe   as   Lagos Island Japanese Army Sergeant
* Shigemitsu Ogi   as   JSDF Information Office member
* Shoichiro Sakata   as   JSDF Information Office member
* Yasushi Inoue   as   JSDF Information Office member
* Muneyoshi Akita   as   JSDF Information Office member
* Michael Foucannon   as   M101
* Mark Foucannon   as   M102
* Chuko Fujimoto   as   Newscaster
* Kenpachiro Satsuma   as   Godzilla
* Hurricane Ryu Hariken   as   King Ghidorah
* Wataru Fukuda   as   Godzillasaurus

## Staff

* Directed by   Kazuki Omori
* Written by   Kazuki Omori
* Produced by   Tomoyuki Tanaka (Draft Story), Shogo Tomiyama
* Music by   Akira Ifukube
* Cinematography by   Yoshinori Sekiguchi
* Edited by   Michiko Ikeda
* Production design by   Tadashi Sakai
* Assistant directing by   Okihiro Yoneda
* Special effects by   Koichi Kawakita

## Titles

* Godzilla vs. King Ghidora (U.S. VHS title)
* Godzilla: Duel of the Megasaurians (Godzilla – Duell der Megasaurier; Germany)
* Godzilla Against the Evil Monster (Godzilla Contra o Monstro do Mal; Brazil)
* The War of the Dinosaurs (La Guerra de los Dinosaurios; Argentina)
* War Dragon Godzilla (戰龍哥斯拉; Hong Kong)

## U.S. release

TriStar Pictures released Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah to VHS on April 28, 1998, along with Godzilla vs. Mothra. The film was titled Godzilla vs. King Ghidora for this release, though only on cover art (later releases would correct this to "Godzilla vs. King Ghidora**h**"). Like what Miramax had done for Godzilla vs. Biollante in 1992, TriStar elected to simply use Toho's international English dub for the film, which was done by Omni Productions. The only edits TriStar made to the film involved on-screen text and the end credits. Rather than use Toho's international title card, TriStar included the Japanese title card with "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" in parentheses at the bottom of the screen. TriStar also provided its own English-language opening credits and cut the end credits, replacing them with a black screen including copyright information.

A fullscreen DVD release followed on November 3, 1998, on a double-sided disc with Godzilla vs. Mothra. This DVD is also included in The Toho Godzilla Collection, Volume 2, along with Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Rebirth of Mothra, and Rebirth of Mothra II, along with the 13-Film Collection, which adds Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and the six Godzilla films from the Millennium era, and a Triple Feature with Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. Sony paired it with Godzilla vs. Mothra again for a two-disc Blu-ray release on May 6, 2014. Aside from presenting the film in its original aspect ratio, the Blu-ray includes a Japanese audio option, although some lines in the subtitles are copied verbatim from the English dub. Sony recreated the English visuals in the TriStar version, including the truncated end credits. Changes include the misspelling of Koichi Kawakita's name ("Kopichi Kawakita") and a repositioned English title card.

In 2013, SciFi Japan co-founder Keith Aiken disclosed that Sony's rights to Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Mothra would be up for renewal in 2019. Sony appears to have let their rights lapse, as prices for the film's individual DVD and Blu-ray releases have begun to climb on Amazon and eBay, and it is no longer available for digital rental or purchase on any platform.

## Production

### Conception

Although the previously filmed Godzilla vs. Biollante had been the most expensive Godzilla film produced at the time, its low audience attendance and loss of revenue convinced executive producer and Godzilla series creator Tomoyuki Tanaka to revitalize the series by bringing back iconic monsters from pre-1984 Godzilla movies, specifically Godzilla's archenemy King Ghidorah.

Godzilla vs. Biollante director and writer Kazuki Ōmori had initially hoped to start a standalone series centered on Mothra, and was in the process of rewriting a 1990 script for the unrealized film Mothra vs. Bagan. The film was ultimately scrapped by Toho, under the assumption that, unlike Godzilla, Mothra would have been a difficult character to market overseas. The planning stages for a sequel to Godzilla vs. Biollante were initially hampered by Tanaka's deteriorating health, thus prompting the takeover of Shōgo Tomiyama as producer. The new producer felt that the financial failure of Godzilla vs. Biollante was due to the plot being too sophisticated for child audiences, and thus intended to return some of the fantasy elements of the pre-1984 Godzilla films to the series. Ōmori himself blamed the lackluster performance of Godzilla vs. Biollante on competition with Back to the Future Part II, and thus concluded that audiences wanted plots involving time travel. His approach to the film also differed from Godzilla vs. Biollante in his greater emphasis on developing the personalities of the monsters rather than the human characters.

Akira Ifukube agreed to compose the film's score on the insistence of his daughter, after as he was dissatisfied with the way his compositions had been treated in Godzilla vs. Biollante.

### Special effects

The Godzilla suits used in Godzilla vs. Biollante were reused in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, though with slight modifications. The original suit used for land-based and full body shots had its head replaced with a wider and flatter one, and the body cut in half. The upper half was used in scenes where Godzilla emerges from the sea and during close-ups during the character's first fight with King Ghidorah. The suit used previously for scenes set at sea was modified with rounder shoulders, a more prominent chest, and an enhanced face, and was used throughout the majority of the film's Godzilla scenes.

The redesigned King Ghidorah featured much more advanced wirework puppetry than its predecessors, and effects team leader Koichi Kawakita designed the "Godzillasaurus" as a more paleontologically accurate-looking dinosaur than Godzilla itself as a nod to American filmmakers aspiring to direct their own Godzilla films with the intention of making the monster more realistic. Ōmori's original draft specified that the dinosaur that would become Godzilla was a Tyrannosaurus, though this was rejected by creature designer Shinji Nishikawa, who stated that he "couldn't accept that a tyrannosaur could become Godzilla". The final suit combined features of Tyrannosaurus with Godzilla, and real octopus blood was used during the bombardment scene. Because the Godzillasaurus' arms were much smaller than Godzilla's, suit performer Wataru Fukuda had to operate them with levers within the costume. The creature's distress calls were recycled

## Remarks

* The images of some past works have been diverted and incorporated into the scenes of residents who evacuated.
	+ The scene where King Ghidora attacks Fukuoka and evacuates-A part of the scene in which Godzilla is likely to attack Osaka in " Godzilla vs Biollante " released in 1989 and evacuate .
	+ Godzilla is to evacuate more likely to hit the Sapporo scene - "of 1984 published Godzilla part of the scene nuclear missiles by mistake from the Soviet satellite" is to evacuate to underground because it was fired towards Shinjuku.
	+ The scene where King Ghidora destroys an oil complex in Chukyo- "Diversion of Tokyo Bay Flame "  . Originally, the scene did not exist in the storyboard, but there is a scene in the storyboard where Godzilla landed in Tokyo Bay and destroyed the complex (this was not filmed).
* A part of the scene where the building is blown up by King Ghidora's gravitational ray due to budget reasons blows up a picture of the stretched building on a plaster board, but the cut was newly made after the movie hit It was also aired on TV advertising.
* In the decisive battle scene in the Shinjuku buildings , there is no Shinjuku Sumitomo Building , Shinjuku Center Building , Shinjuku Nomura Building , Hilton Tokyo , KDDI Building , Shinjuku Green Tower , or Tokyo Medical University Hospital (which is of course present in the live-action scene). This is due to the art setting that switches the set after each scene and each cut.
* It seems that this movie was a hit more than expected, new advertisements were made even after the release, and in addition to the TV commercial about King Ghidorah's urban destruction scene mentioned above, Terazawa and Emmy were published in the newspaper. A sci-fi movie-like advertisement (monochrome) with a gun and a rare human in a monster movie was also made.
* Godzilla and King Ghidorah's eyes on the photo poster were added because they were dark in color. Originally, in order to give Godzilla a biological feeling, the white eyes became difficult to understand, continuing from the previous work, but this led to Godzilla in the next work and later being shaped so that the iris is bright and the eyes are easy to understand. It was
* In addition to complaints from US veterans' groups regarding the depiction of the US military on Lagos Island in this work  , the reason for the birth of Godzilla was clearly stated as an American hydrogen bomb test, and it was worsened by trade friction at that time. The American distributors also showed disappointment due to their sentiment toward Japan, and even the English version was not produced, let alone the theater release  . It was only in 1998 that this work was released and made into software in the United States.

## DVD

**Universe Laser & Video** DVD (1994)

* Region: 3
* Discs: 1
* Audio: Japanese (2.0 Mono), Cantonese (2.0 Mono)
* Special Features: None
* Notes: Includes traditional and simplified Chinese subtitles. Out of print.

**TriStar Pictures** DVD (1998)

* Region: 1
* Discs: 1
* Audio: English (2.0 Stereo)
* Special Features: Trailers for *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah* and *Godzilla vs. Mothra*
* Notes: Cropped to 1.33:1. Packaged with *Godzilla vs. Mothra* (same disc). Also included in *The Toho Godzilla Collection - Volume 1*. Out Of Print

**Toho** DVD (2002)

* Region: 2
* Audio: Japanese

**Madman** DVD (2006)

* Region: 4
* Discs: 1
* Audio: Japanese (5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo) and English (2.0 Mono)
* Special Features: Trailers for *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah* and other Heisei Godzilla movies, galleries of production stills and posters

**Toho** Blu-ray (2009)

* Region: A/1
* Language: Japanese

**Sony** Blu-ray (2014)

* Region: A/1
* Discs: 2
* Audio: Japanese (2.0 Stereo) and English (2.0 Mono)
* Special Features: 4 *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah* trailers and 5 *Godzilla vs. Mothra* trailers
* Notes: Packaged with *Godzilla vs. Mothra*. Out Of Print.