Invasion of Astro-Monster
Encyclopedia
Invasion of Astro-Monster (known in Japan as ; Monster Zero and Godzilla vs. Monster Zero in the United States; and Invasion of the Astro-Monsters in the United Kingdom) is a Science Fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 kaiju
Kaiju
is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....

 film released in 1965 as a direct sequel to Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, released in Japan as and originally released in the US as Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster, is a 1964 science fiction kaiju film, and is the 5th film in Toho's Godzilla series...

. It is sixth in the Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

 series, popular in the West for having the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese series' only Hollywood lead, Nick Adams. It is the second film to feature King Ghidorah
King Ghidorah
is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...

 and the third film to feature Rodan
Rodan
is a fictional Japanese mutated pterosaur introduced in Rodan, a 1956 release from Toho Studios, the company responsible for the Godzilla series. Like Godzilla and Anguirus, he is designed after a type of prehistoric reptile...

. It is the first Godzilla film to feature alien invaders and the last to feature the popular 1960s tokusatsu
Tokusatsu
is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

 team of director Ishirō Honda
Ishiro Honda
Ishirō Honda , sometimes miscredited in foreign releases as "Inoshiro Honda", was a Japanese film director...

, screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa
Shinichi Sekizawa
was a Japanese screenwriter. His very first screenplay was for the Shintoho Studios film Fearful Attack of the Flying Saucers, which is now considered to be lost. He went on to script several films by Ishirō Honda, including several classic Godzilla films...

, and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya
Eiji Tsuburaya
was the Japanese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, including the Godzilla series...

; Sadamasa Arikawa took over as the effects director for the next three Godzilla films, with Tsuburaya only supervising his work.

Plot

In 196X, the two-man spacecraft, crewed by one Japanese and one American (Fuji and Glenn), is approaching Jupiter to visit the newly-discovered Planet X, which maintains a position directly behind Jupiter. The planet is rather dark, but still lit up enough to be visible and for it to be possible to navigate its surface. The spacecraft lands, and the astronauts disembark.

One astronaut vanishes, and the other wonders where he, and the spacecraft, have gone, and then a flat voice intones to him, instructing him where to go. The astronauts are led through subterranean corridors to the office of the Controller of Planet X.

The spacecraft is safe, he assures them, and indicates that they are about to be attacked. The astronauts recognize the attacking monster is King Ghidorah
King Ghidorah
is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...

, the three-headed space dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...

. After a brief black-out, when the astronauts are cut off from being able to see and hear the Controller, they are assured that Ghidorah, known to the Xians as Monster Zero, has left.

The Controller says that they want Earth's help: to be allowed to capture Godzilla and Rodan, known to the Xians as Monster Zero-One and Monster Zero-Two. In return, Planet X will gift humanity with a wonder drug that cures all diseases (in the original Japanese version, it is simply the cure for cancer). The astronauts agree to return to Earth with the proposal. As they lift off, they say on the radio to the Controller, "We're glad we found friends on Planet X."

Meanwhile, Fuji's sister's boyfriend, Tetsuo, has invented a personal alarm he thinks women could use to summon assistance if they're attacked. It creates a horrific loud noise that can be heard blocks away, and Tetsuo wonders why nobody's interested in buying it, but then a Miss Namikawa comes and makes an offer to buy it as an educational device, though she keeps putting Tetsuo off on completing the deal. In truth, her boss is intent on destroying the plans for the device.

Fuji and Glenn arrive home, and tell their superiors of the offer by Planet X. Scientists begin searching for Godzilla and Rodan. Then, the Controller of Planet X makes a mysterious appearance on Earth, and both Glenn - who is in a relationship with Namikawa - and Fuji become suspicious about Planet X. The Controller finally makes his appearance overt, "apologizes" for his unannounced presence, and offers to help locate the two monsters. Two Planet X spacecraft rapidly fly off and extract the two monsters.

Glenn, Fuji, and Dr. Sakurai are invited aboard a spacecraft to accompany the Controller back to Planet X, a trip that takes only a few hours; the Controller says that soon they'll be able to travel as fast as light. On reaching Planet X, there is almost immediately an attack by Ghidorah, and the two from Earth are released to battle it. Ghidorah is driven off, and the Controller exults. He presents a box that, he says, contains information about the miracle drug, and presents the three men with a faithful duplicate of their spaceship so they can fly home.

On arrival, the box is taken to a special international meeting and is opened to find a reel-to-reel tape. It is loaded onto a machine and set up to play. When the speakers remain silent for a long period, some wonder if the systems are compatible, but others say their system is exactly the same as ours. Finally, there is a beep, and the voice begins. "This is the Controller of Planet X. You will listen to my instructions..." It is an ultimatum to surrender to Planet X, or be destroyed at the hands of the monsters.

The Xians arrive, destroy the spacecraft, and threaten to release King Ghidorah, Godzilla, and Rodan, which are now all under Planet X's control. In a show of confidence, the Xians even betray the method of control: magnetic waves. The Earth scientists realize that they could exploit this information, and work rapidly to find a way to disrupt those magnetic waves, while in the meantime, Earth's armies fight nearly in futility with conventional weapons as the monsters wage most of their destruction against Japan.

Tetsuo, meanwhile, is dissatisfied with the lack of progress on his device, and his inability to get Miss Namikawa to tell him what's happening. He follows her and is imprisoned by the Planet X soldiers. In the course of pursuing his interest in Miss Namikawa, Glenn learns that she's from Planet X and all their women are virtually identical. Fearful of what he knows, the Xians arrest him and place into the same cell as Tetsuo. However, this proves to be their undoing as he and Tetsuo put their clues together. Before being disintegrated by a Planet X soldier, Namikawa gave Glenn a letter in which she told him the weakness of the people of Planet X: the sound made by Tetsuo's lady guard alarm. Tetsuo, still in possession of the prototype, takes it out and sets it off. It upsets and paralyzes the Planet X soldiers, enabling Glenn and Tetsuo to escape.

They reach the space center scientists and explain about the device. Arrangements are made to broadcast it on all radio and television stations, a tactic that will be employed when the magnetic disruption devices are deployed.

The three monsters are removed from Planet X control, as Planet X spacecraft explode and personnel escape the noise by blowing up ships. Planet X withdraws its attempts to conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Godzilla attacks Ghidorah with the aid of Rodan, forcing the three to fall into the sea. Ghidorah emerges from the water and flies away, but Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

 and Rodan
Rodan
is a fictional Japanese mutated pterosaur introduced in Rodan, a 1956 release from Toho Studios, the company responsible for the Godzilla series. Like Godzilla and Anguirus, he is designed after a type of prehistoric reptile...

 never resurface, leading the humans to believe that King Ghidorah
King Ghidorah
is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...

 defeated them.

Glenn and Fuji are to be sent to Planet X again as ambassadors to seek peaceful relations.

English version

The film was released in North America by UPA
United Productions of America
United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...

 in 1970 under the title Monster Zero. It played on a double bill with War of the Gargantuas
War of the Gargantuas
The War of the Gargantuas, released in Japan as , is a 1966 Kaiju film, sequel to Frankenstein vs. Baragon.It introduces two giant, hairy humanoids called Gargantuas, which spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster from the previous film and are described as brothers...

.

There were several alterations made:
  • Dialog was dubbed to English.
  • The opening theme was changed, and some of Akira Ifukube
    Akira Ifukube
    was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies by Toho.-Biography:...

    's score was re-arranged. Several sound effects were also added.
  • Deleted: Several shots of Godzilla's foot stepping on houses and huts. Some short shots of flying saucers. Rodan blowing away tanks from the top of a hill. Several scenes with the Xians speaking in the language of Planet X.
  • Scene where Godzilla does his dance, that scene has stomping noises in the English version, while in the Japanese version there isn't.


The English version runs 93 minutes, three minutes shorter than the Japanese version. In his book Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: An Unauthorized History of 'The Big G, Steve Ryfle says "The Americanization...is respectful to the original Japanese version."

Also, in the original Japanese version of the film, the drug the Xians promised was a cure for all forms of cancer. However, in the English version of the film, the cure was for all forms of disease (perhaps due to a translation mistake interpreting the Japanese term for cancer as being equivalent to the English term for disease).

During production, Nick Adams spoke his lines in English, while the Japanese actors spoke their lines in Japanese, in order to retain his voice for the English-language version. For the Japanese-language release, Adams' was dubbed by the noted voice actor, Goro Naya
Goro Naya
is a Japanese actor, voice actor, narrator and theatre director from Hakodate, Hokkaidō. He is a drop-out of the legal education division of Ritsumeikan University. He is connected to Theatre Echo. He is the older brother of actor and seiyū Rokurō Naya. He is the husband of actress and seiyū...

. The English-language version was prepared by UPA at Glen Glenn Sound
Glen Glenn Sound
Glen Glenn Sound was an audio post production company.The company was founded by Glen R. Glenn in 1936 and provided creative audio services to the television and film industry for five decades....

 in Hollywood, and Marvin Miller
Marvin Miller (actor)
Marvin Elliott Miller was an American film and voice-over actor. Possessing a deep, baritone voice, he began his career in radio in St. Louis, Missouri before becoming a Hollywood actor...

 provided the English voice for Akira Takarada as Astronaut Fuji. The remaining voice talent is unknown.

This dubbed dialogue was also used by Toho for its official international version, Invasion of the Astro-Monsters, which was released in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Unlike later Toho international versions, Invasion of the Astro-Monsters is slightly edited from the Japanese version and the dubbing was not commissioned by Toho or produced in Tokyo or Hong Kong.

Titles

  • Great Monster War - Translated Japanese title.

  • Invasion of Astro-Monster - Toho's official English title and current home video title.

  • Invasion of the Astro-Monsters - Title on original international prints.

  • Monster Zero - Original U.S. title.

  • Invasion of the Astros - Armed forces circuit title.

  • Godzilla vs. Monster Zero - Previous home video and TV title.

DVD release

Classic Media
  • Release date: June 5, 2007
  • Special features: Audio Commentary by Stuart Galbrath IV, Tomoyuki Tanaka
    Tomoyuki Tanaka
    ----Tomoyuki Tanaka was a Japanese film producer, most famous for creating the Godzilla series. He was born in Kashiwara, Osaka, Japan on April 26, 1910, and died in Tokyo on April 2, 1997. He died of a stroke at the age of 86....

     biography, and original trailer.
  • Note: Contains both original Japanese and English versions of the film.
  • Note: Part of the Toho
    Toho
    is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...

    Collection

External links

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