Uchu daikaijû Girara (1967)

Country of Origin: Japan
Year of Production: 1967
Running Times: 89 mins
Format: colour     35mm     Shochiku Grandscope
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: mono

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Shochiku Films Ltd
Executive Producer: Wataru Nakajima

SCRIPT
Script: Moriyoshi Ishida, Eibi Motomochi, Kazui Nihonmatsu

DIRECTION
Director: Kazui Nihonmatsu

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Shizuo Hirase
Lighting: Tadashi Tsubuki

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Yoshi Sugihara

MUSIC
Music: Taku Izumi

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Hiroshi Nakamura

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Hiroshi Ikeda

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Shigemori Shigeta

CAST
Eiji Okada (Dr Kato)
Toshiya Wazaki (Captain Sano)
Itoko Harada (Michiko)
Peggy Neal (Lisa)
Franz Gruber (Dr Berman)
Mike Daneen (Dr Stein)
Shinichi Yanagisawa (Miyamoto)
Keisuke Sonoi (Dr Shioda)
Hiroshi Fujioka
Ryuji Kita
Takanobu Hozumi
Toshiyuki Watanabe
Torahiko Hamada
Toshinari Kazusaki (Captain Sano)

PLOT SUMMARY

Spaceship AAB-Gamma arrives on Mars to investigate reports of UFOs. An alien craft sprays the ship with spores which, when returned to Earth, grow into one giant creature, Girara, which starts to attack Japan.

AVAILABILITY

UK
Video Distributors: Video Unlimited

USA
Television Distributors: AIP-TV

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

UK
Rating: A

USA
Rating: PG

TIMELINE

1967
March
25: Japan – theatrical release

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Big Space Monster Guilala
Gilala
Girara
Guila - Frankensteins Teufelsei - West German title
Odissea sulla Terra - Italian title
The X from Outer Space - US title

LINKS

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
It Came from Hollywood (1982)
Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajiro shinjitsu ichiro (1984)

REFERENCES

BOOKS

Aurum Encyclopedia of Film: Science Fiction pp.268-269
credits, review

KEYWORDS

aliens, giant monsters, space stravel, spaceships, ufos

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009