Girara no gyakushû: Tôya-ko Samitto kikiippatsu

What can I say? I thought this film was funny! Some of the humor may get lost in translation, and kaiju fans looking for epic scenes of city destruction will be disappointed. The locations are limited and the scope is small. I do not mean these as criticisms, just facts.

The acting from the Western stars is decidedly awful, but endearing in a hilarious way. The various schemes the leaders devise are quite comical and struck a humorous cord. There is enough tributes and homages to daikaiju eiga for fans to appreciate.

It's not always easy to track down a Minoru Kawasaki film, but it is always worth the effort. This one is exactly what it sounds like it would be from the title: The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit does indeed feature Monster X attacking the G8 Summit. I didn't even realize it was a sequel/parody of sorts to a much older giant monster movie I'd seen some time ago, but it was fun to learn that after the fact in any event.

This isn't as good as Calamari Wrestler or Executive Koala (those two are so slept on it's absurd), but it's still quite good. It's got some pretty funny satirical stuff on top of being an intentionally goofy homage/parody of classic kaiju flicks. It's pretty funny, and I found it entertaining for the majority of its runtime.

The monster Guilala was originally a monster made by now defunct Shochiku studio in 1967. This movie is somewhat of a remake, but the story is a camp satire of G8 summit and head of the states of the world, a giant monster, Kim Jon il and Korean nuclear missile, and can you believe - a Japanese comedian named Beat Takeshi who appears as Takemajin.

Monster Guilala lands near lake Toya in Hokkaido attached to Chinese space probe called Beta (which is the same design as the space ship Beta that appeared in the original 1967 movie). There was a G8 summit going on at lake Toya, and US president immediately after hearing the arrival of the monster vows to destroy the monster as an attempt to raise popular support. He recruits the efforts of other heads of the state to defeat the monster. Earth Defense Force (TDF) of Japan takes on the duty of actually carrying out the orders. The joke of TDF is is that it's comprised of only one tent and about a dozen men working around it. The commander is played by Susumu Kurobe who was a member of Earth Defense Force in the original Toho's Ultraman series back in 1966. Meanwhile in a near by village, there's a shrine that for some reason houses three objects. An ancient scroll depicting Guilala and another figure called Takemajin, a statue of Guilala,and the statue of Takemajin. Villagers gather at the shrine and chant "Nechikoma, Nechikoma" repeatedly, and Takemajin comes to life. Now its a showdown between Guilala and the Takemajin.

The intent of people who made this movie is not clear. While I was watching this movie, I was thinking this is a story I would have come up with. It was that bad. But obviously being camp was the intention of the producers.Special effect is homage to that of '60s kaijyu movie. They must have done this to appeal to the original viewers of 1967 version of Guilala.

Interesting and funny movie to come from Japan that parodies the original Guilala, politicians, and the Japanese culture.

Today I had the good fortune to catch the new "Monster X" flick on the big screen here in NYC. Although there could have been some more monster action, it definitely was not a disappointment.

The original "X From Outer Space" from 1967 starred newcomer Guilala, a monster who looked so ridiculous, that there was no way they could have made this sequel anything but a comedy. At least I think it's a sequel - while the title indicates Guilala does indeed "strike back" after being beaten 42 years ago in the first movie, there is a scene here with a kid (who looks like he walked out of a 60's Gamera movie) who names the creature "Guilala," as if he was never named or seen before.

As for the movie being a comedy, believe it or not, it's actually a decent comedy. Eight world leaders meet in japan for a summit, and take turns offering (failing) suggestions on how to kill Guilala. But the jokes aren't random - there's actually a lot of clever writing here. This isn't a movie full of dumb jokes.

There's also two reporters (including a hot girl) try to uncover the secret of Guilala through an odd jungle cult, who do a strange dance to worship a god named Take-Majin, who they later convince through their dancing and chanting to fight Guilala.

My main gripe is that there really isn't much destruction by Guilala. Actually, his best scenes come right at the beginning of the film, just minutes in - he lands on Earth, destroys some buildings and walks off. We then see Guilala fend off the occasional attempt to kill him, and of course his fight with Take-Majin, but the destruction ends right at the start.

The special effects are pure 1960's retro, from the buildings to the fire that Guilala spews out of his mouth, to the cheap-looking costume. This was all obviously done on purpose to pay homage to the charm of the original film.

Funny monster, pretty girls everywhere, and clever writing make "Monster X" a good bet for giant monster fans. And before the film, we had a 17-minute original giant monster comedy called "Gehara - The Long Haired Giant Monster" and a great preview of the new "Kappa" (Gappa) film coming out, and it won't be a comedy.

From time to time i like to immerse on films like this. Those are the moments in which one enters a film for pure relaxation. I guess it's the same kind of spirit such filmmakers as Kawasaki put into creating this.

Some of these rides are actually very profitable, and i think it is a mistake to excuse every unconsidered element of a film just because it is a B-flick or because the budget was close to zero. Some great, intelligent work has been that over that.

Here we have a film made out of two elements: the will to freely play with known faces of the political scene these days, and the will to produce special effects that deliberately looking false and old-fashioned. I think this crew must have had a lot of fun making this, and in certain moments i too enjoyed being there. But it is the kind of fun a group of adolescents has making fun of an unlikable teacher or painting obscene messages on a wall. I'm OK with that, but something better could be put into this. It was nice to be watching a Power Rangers kind of fight so many years later, but 'nice' is not good.

You know what this is now. It's your choice to embrace it or not. I did it with some interest, but i won't do it again.

The pace is slow, cinematic rhythm was not also in the mind of these folks.

My opinion: 1/5

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