Mosura
aka: Mothra
TOHO 1961 COLOUR 100 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda  Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka  Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Katawa, The Itoh sisters

Mothra is a giant moth which lives on an island irradiated by H-bomb tests along with its human companions the 'fairies' - the Peanuts sisters Sakai and Yoka. When its huge egg and the fairies are abducted, Mothra trails them to Tokyo where its huge size causes immense damage. The egg hatches producing a gigantic caterpillar which adds to the destruction before being rescued by mum. Mothra, its offspring and the fairies are allowed to return to the island where the sisters undertake to control the creatures to prevent further demolition. A voice-over version was released in the U.S. directed by Lee Kresel and produced by David Horne from a screenplay by Robert Myerson.

King Kong Tai Gojira
aka: King Kong Versus Godzilla
TOHO 1963 COLOUR 99 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Tadao Takashima, Yu Fujiki, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata, Ichiro Arishima

A U.S. atomic submarine causes the destruction of a huge iceberg in which a Godzilla has become entombed. True to type it heads straight for Tokyo in order to do a bit of landscaping. Meanwhile, King Kong is living quietly on an island in the Solomons, fighting with the odd giant octopus and suchlike in order to protect the local fishermen. He is found sedated from the effects of a drink made from local berries and transported to Tokyo. On awakening, his hangover isn't helped by Godzilla demolishing buildings all over the place and he promptly escapes and proceeds to sort him out. After the initial skirmishes they finally meet in a battle on Mount Fuji where an earthquake throws both antagonists into the sea. Godzilla decides he has had enough sightseeing at this stage and disappears, leaving King Kong to wade ashore victorious and resume his day job on the remote island that he had been taken from. The U.S. version was directed by Thomas Montgomery and produced by John Beck. It was cut to 91 minutes including added scenes featuring actors Michael Keith, James Yogi and Harry Holcombe. This completed a 'round trip' for the original storyline which was titled variously 'King Kong Versus Frankenstein', 'King Kong Versus The Ginko' and 'Prometheus Versus King Kong'. It was purchased from America by TOHO and converted into a Godzilla movie.

Uchudai Dogora
aka: Dagora; Space Monster Dogora; Dogora the Space Monster
TOHO 1964 COLOUR 83 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Yosuke Natsuki, Yoko Fujiyama, Akiko Wakabayashi, Hiroshi Koizumi

Radiation-exposed cells mutate into giant tentacled floating jellyfish which hang around over Japan feeding on carbon and other elements through their tentacles. They have a particular partiality for diamonds which is hard luck on a couple of thieves who have acquired a truckload of the things. As they grow, their hunger develops and they advance through the consumption of ships and trains until they decide to have a real blow-out with the Wakato bridge as the main course. They are discovered to be vulnerable to a type of wasp venom and the stuff is gathered from all over Japan until scientists eventually have enough to destroy the creatures. The U.S. version was cut to 80 minutes.

Mosura Tai Gojira
aka: Gojira Tai Mosura; Mothra Versus Godzilla; Godzilla Versus the Thing; Godzilla Fights the Giant Moth; Godzilla Versus the Giant Moth
TOHO 1964 COLOUR 94 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaki   Special Effects: Eije Tsuburaya, Sadamasa Arikawa, Akira Watanabe, Motoyoshi Tomioka, Kuichiro Kishida

Cast: Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yu Fujiki, The Itoh sisters

A hurricane washes away Mothra's latest egg and it ends up on the mainland seashore where it is found and stolen by the owners of a carnival. The fairies try to persuade them to return the egg in vain. In the meantime, Godzilla decides that the Tokyo skyline needs further alterations and arrives for another visit. The fairies are asked to persuade Mothra to help the city, which she does, but is defeated by Godzilla. The giant egg hatches, producing two gigantic caterpillars that enclose Godzilla in a sticky web of silken threads and push him over a cliff. Once again, the fairies return to their island with the two offspring to nurture them into new Mothras. Two versions were released in the U.S. cut by 4 minutes and 7 minutes.

Katei Gunkan
aka: Atragon; Ataragon; Atoragon the Flying Supersub
TOHO 1964 COLOUR 96 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Tadao Takashima, Yoko Fujiyama, Hiroshi Koizumi, Jun Tazaki, Ken Uehara, Kenji Sahara, Tetsuko Kobayashi, Akemi Kita, Akihiko Hirata

Another in the 'not quite' Kaiju Eiga film category but close enough to warrant inclusion, as the monster in the film was to be resurrected in a later film to celebrate the genre. The Earth is threatened by the evil empire of Mu, an underwater civilisation and its god, the giant sea serpent Wenda. Earth's only chance lies in the atomic supersub Atoragon, a combination airship/tunnelling machine/submarine under the command of an admiral who refused to surrender the ship when 'the war' ended. Mu threatens to destroy the world unless the supersub surrenders but the admiral has different ideas and eventually triumphs after a battle with Wenda. This movie was the first to use enemies on a global scale rather than just as a threat to Japan. The U.S. version was cut by 8 mins.

Ghidorah Sandai Kaiju - Chikyu Saidai No Kessan
aka Ghidrah; Monster of Monsters; Chikyu Saidai No Kessan; The Biggest Fight On Earth; The Biggest Battle On Earth; Ghidora the Three Headed Monster
TOHO 1965 COLOUR 85 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Yosuke Natsuki, Yurihiko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Takashi Shimura, Eiji Okada, The Itoh sisters

Old laser breath is back! Ghidorah the three-headed space dragon raises its ugly head again and threatens the Earth in its usual destructive fashion. Mothra is called in to help out but, finding that she cannot defeat the monster by herself, enlists the help of Godzilla and Rodan. Poor old Mount Fuji sees the final action again when Mothra envelops Ghidorah in a silky cocoon allowing Godzilla and Rodan to despatch the unfortunate invader into the sea.

Kaiju Daisenso
aka: Monster Zero; Invasion of Planet X; Battle of the Astros; Invasion of the Astro Monster; Great Monster War
TOHO 1965 COLOUR 96 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Akira Kubo, Keiko Sawai, Kumo Mizuno, Jun Tazaki, Yoshio Tsuchiya

The inhabitants of an alien planet are being plagued by Ghidrah, a giant laser-breathing three-headed dragon capable of supersonic flight and emitting death rays from its eyes. They solicit help from Earth in the form of Rodan and Godzilla, transporting them to their own planet in cocoons of energy. An evil group on the aliens planet try to capture and combine the power of the three monsters in a bid to invade Earth resulting in a space rescue mission being launched, led by Nick Adams, to bring 'our monsters' back home. Ghidorah holds the distinction of being the first 'real' monster from outer space in Kaiju Eiga films. Although Nick Adams appeared in the original Japanese version he also made extra new scenes for editing into the U.S. release.

Furankenshutain Tai Baragon
aka: Frankenstein and the Giant Lizard; Frankenstein Conquers the World; Frankenstein vs the Giant Devil Fish; Frankenstein vs Baragon; Frankenstein vs the Subterranean Monster
TOHO 1965 COLOUR 95 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Tadao Takashima, Nick Adams, Kumi Mizuno, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Takashi Shimura

Frankenstein's heart is shipped to Hiroshima by the Nazis where the box is opened just as the atomic bomb detonates. A starving survivor - a small boy - eats part of the irradiated flesh and is mutated into a 30ft monster with a Frankenstein-like appearance. He is called Frankenstein by the locals and finds a home on the slopes of Mount Fuji where he is cared for by an American scientist. The boy comes to the rescue of Japan when it is attacked by a Godzilla-like giant reptile called Baragon. The oddity of the alternative titles is due to the fact that the original planned adversary was a giant octopus but only a few scenes were completed before Baragon was substituted in place of the unfortunate cephalopod. These scenes were later used in 'Furankenshutain No Kaiju - Sanda Tai Gailah' in 1966. This film was a co-production with American International producers Reuben Bercovitch and Henry Saperstein with the actor Nick Adams appearing in the original Japanese version instead of edited-in scenes for the U.S. market as was the normal practice up to then. The U.S. version was cut to 87 minutes.

Furankenshutain No Kaiju - Sanda Tai Gailah
aka: Duel of the Gargantuas; The War of the Gargantuas
TOHO 1966 COLOUR 88 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Kipp Hamilton, Jun Tazaki

This film was intended to be a sequel to 'Furankenshutain Tai Baragon', hence the name, but the American producer decided to have references to the previous film removed when it became apparent that the monsters bore more resemblance to King Kong than Frankenstein. Included in the 'lost' scenes was an explanation of how the monster's 'twin' came into being. In the original film the monster lost a hand which regenerated itself a complete new body. The original, Sanda, is brown in colour and friendly while the regenerated twin Gailah is green and pretty tetchy. The Japanese military defeat Gailah when he goes on the rampage but he is nursed back to health by his good 'brother whom he then, thanklessly, tries to destroy. The subsequent battle demolishes most of Tokyo before both the twins disappear when they are caught in a volcanic eruption. The opening scenes of the film showing Gailah coming out of the sea are accompanied by the giant octopus ship attack scenes edited out of the original movie. The film was made in association with American Intnl producer Henry Saperstein for co-release on the U.S. market hence the inclusion of the American actors.

Nankai No Daiketto
aka: Big Duel in the North Sea; Ebirah, Terror of the Deep; Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster
TOHO 1966 COLOUR 87 minutes

Director: Jun Fukuda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Akira Takarada, Toru Watanabe, Hideo Sunazuka, Kumi Mizuno, Jun Tazaki

An evil organisation called Red Bamboo attempts to take over the world. Godzilla is unable to help much as he is otherwise engaged fighting off the threat of Ebirah, a giant crab-like creature which is guarding the organisation's illegal nuclear weapons factory on a remote island. He eventually dismembers the monster in their final big showdown fight but this doesn't seem to present too much of a problem for Ebirah as he managed to regenerate himself from the leftovers for an appearance in a later film. Mothra is called on from the substitute's bench to assist the island's beleaguered humans under threat from Red Bamboo and manages to evacuate them from the island before it disappears in a huge explosion. Scenes from this film were used by Ishiro Honda in 'Oru Kaiju Daishingeki' (1969).

Gamera Tai Barugon
aka: Gamera Versus Barugon; The War of the Monsters; Gambara Versus Barugon
DAIEI 1966 COLOUR 101 minutes

Director: Shigeo Tanaka   Producer: Hidemasa Nagata   Special Effects: Noriaki Yuasa

Cast: Kojiro Hondo, Kyoko Enami, Akira Natsuki, Koji Fujiyama, Yuzo Hayakawa, Ichiro Sugai

In his previous appearance Gamera ended up by being launched into space on board a rocket. This film explains how the ship was hit by a meteorite, sending it off course and back to Earth. During this brief excursion Gamera seems to have magically obtained the ability of jet-propelled flight. Meanwhile, in New Guinea, a mysterious opal egg hatches into a reptile which grows into the 130ft monster Barugon, a creature with a large spike on its head and more spikes on its back which radiate a deadly rainbow-coloured energy field. Gamera is attracted to the power in this energy field and launches an attack against the beast, laying waste to Tokyo and Osaka in the process. The monster turtle eventually triumphs after dragging Barugon into Lake Biwa where he apparently expires, unseen, in a spreading cloud of blue 'blood'. Barugon is not the same creature as TOHO's Baragon and this appears to be the only time where one studio's creation was ripped off by another. TOHO responded to this move by making more films with ever-increasing combinations of its own range of monsters, culminating in their 20th movie 'special' which included virtually all of them together.

Uchu Daikaiju Guilala
aka: Girara; Guilala; Guirara; The X From Outer Space
SHOCHIKU 1967 COLOUR 89 minutes

Director: Kazui Nihonmatsu   Producer: Akihiko Shimada   Special Effects: Hiroshi Ikeda

Cast: Eiji Okada, Toshiya Wazaki, Peggy Neal, Itoko Harada, Torahiko Hamada, Shinichi Yanagisawa, Franz Gruber, Keisuke Sonoi, Mike Daning

A strange substance becomes attached to a Mars-Moon space shuttle which mutates into the monster Guilala. It continues to grow in size, absorbing all energy from the weapons directed against it. Scientists discover an anti-matter substance they call Guilalium which they can only obtain from deep space. By the time they return to Earth from their collecting expedition the monster has flattened a fair amount of Japanese real estate and is in the process of attacking the Astroflying Centre situated on the slopes of Mount Fuji. The anti-matter substance is dropped all over the monster and causes it to degenerate back to its original cell size which is then tied up in a shoebox and shipped back into outer space. SHOCHIKU's first Kaiju Eiga film was a production aimed at both the Japanese and American markets hence the mixed cast list.

Gojira No Musuko
aka: Son of Godzilla
TOHO 1967 COLOUR 86 minutes

Director: Jun Fukuda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya, Sadamasa Arikawa

Cast: Tadao Takashima, Akira Kubo, Beverly Maeda, Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kenji Sahara, Susumu Kurobe

The island of Zorgel's temperature rises dramatically as a result of weather experiments being conducted by a Dr. Kashumi. This causes all the flora and fauna on the island to grow at a fantastic rate to giant proportions. It also causes a dormant Godzilla egg to hatch, producing a baby which is looked after by its father ( this raises the interesting question - why are there no female Godzillas? Kaiju Eiga films are notable for steering clear of tacky distractions like romance and connected activities, either monster or human). The little Godzilla becomes friendly with Reiko, one of the humans on the island and they both come to her aid when she is attacked by the giant spider Spigon. They also have an altercation with a few giant praying mantises. The wildlife on the island becomes increasingly dangerous and uncontrollable which prompts the scientists into a decision to freeze the whole place, sending everything, including Dad and Baby Godzilla into hibernation, and abandon it for a safer location. This film was cut to 71 minutes for the U.S. market despite containing arguably the best special effects in the entire original Godzilla series.

King Kong No Gyakushu
aka: King Kong Escapes; The Revenge of King Kong; King Kong's Counterattack
TOHO 1967 COLOUR 104 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada, Eisei Amamoto

King Kong returns in a battle with, and the defeat of, a giant dinosaur. He is befriended by a group of people on a scientific expedition and becomes very fond of its female member. Meanwhile, evildoers Dr. Who (no, not that one!) and Madame Piranha are carrying out the mining and extraction of a radioactive ore with the help of a giant robotic King Kong lookalike. When the monster machine starts to malfunction they kidnap the real thing in order to keep up their production quota. King Kong manages to break out of his prison and comes up against the giant robot, Mechni-Kong, finally defeating him in a titanic battle on top of Tokyo tower. To add to the destructive entertainment the film also includes some scenes of a submarine being attacked by a sea monster which is only mildly incidental to the storyline. The U.S. version was cut to 96 minutes and included extra scenes featuring much more English dialogue than the original. This version was directed and produced by Arthur Rankin from a screenplay by William Keenan.

Gamera Tai Viras
aka: Destroy All Planets; Gamera Versus Viras; Gamera Tai UchukaijuBairasu; Gamera Versus Outer Space Monster Viras
DAIEI 1968 COLOUR 75 minutes

Director: Noriyaki Yuasa   Producer: Hidemasa Nagata   Special Effects: Kazafumi Fujii, Yuso Kaneko

Cast: Kojiro Hongo, Toru Takatsuka, Carl Crane, Michiko Yaegaki, Mari Atsumi, Junko Yashiro, Peter Williams

At the start of the film Gamera is seen defeating an alien invasion ship but all is not as it seems. The children-loving Gamera subsequently captures a couple of boy scouts who had unwittingly caused a submarine to submerge while playing about in it. They realise that Gamera is not quite himself and discover that he is being subjected to a form of mind control by the 'defeated' aliens. They manage to release Gamera from the aliens' control and he heads into space to do battle with them and their ship's protector, the three-tentacled six-legged Viras, defeating them all in the climactic battle at the end of the film. The films around this time started to move away from 'pure' Kaiju Eiga, introducing different contextual elements such as alien invaders, space monsters and mechanised creatures. They also contained a greater degree of individual human involvement in the main storylines.

Kaiju Soshingeki
aka: Destroy All Monsters; Operation Monsterland; The March of the Monsters
TOHO 1968 COLOUR 89 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya, Sadamasa Arikawa

Cast: Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kyoko Ai, Yukihiko Kobayashi, Kenji Sahara, Andrew Hughes, Nadao Kirino, The Itoh sisters

This film was made to celebrate TOHO's 20th 'monster' picture and starred eleven of their creations. Set in the year 1999, the monsters suddenly move away from the island where they have been living in peace, and where they are studied by the UNGCC, to set about the destruction of the world's capital cities. This is not in their true nature and it is subsequently discovered that they, and the scientists who 'guard' them, have been taken over by Kilaaks, an alien race who have planted mind control transmitters in their necks. The Kilaaks, a female race, have bases both on the moon and in a secret underground location on Earth. When they consider that the monsters have caused enough destruction they try to get rid of them by unleashing the awesome Ghidorah against them. The ensuing battle for supremacy takes place on Mount Fuji with baby Godzilla leading the cheering onlookers. After their final victory the monsters return to their island home.

Gamera Tai Guiron
aka: Gamera Versus Guiron; Attack of the Monsters
DAIEI 1969 COLOUR 88 minutes

Director: Noriyaki Yuasa   Producer: Hidemasa Nagata   Special Effects: Kazafumi Fujii

Cast: Nobuhiro Kashima, Christopher Murphy, Miyuki Akiyama, Yuko Hamada, Eiji Funakoshi, Ken Omura

Gamera's fifth outing continues to display his love for children. Flying to a planet on the far side of the sun he battles against Guiron, a monster who looks like a living knife with arms. He has undertaken the trip to rescue a couple of children who have been abducted by gorgeous female aliens whose intentions are to eat the childrens' brains which they consider a great delicacy. Have they tried sushi?

Oru Kaiju Daishingeki
aka: Godzilla's Revenge
TOHO 1969 COLOUR 92 minutes

Director: Ishiro Honda   Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka   Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Cast: Kenji Sahara, Tomonori Yazaki, Machiko Naka, Sachio Sakai, Chotaro Togin, Yoshibumi Tajima

Ichiro, a young boy who is the victim of bullying, is also on the run from bank robbers after being a witness to their crimes. He falls asleep and dreams of visiting monster island, Ogasawara, to talk and play with his hero, Minya, Godzilla's son. In his dream, seeing Minya battling an imaginary Godzilla-like monster much larger than himself gives Ichiro the courage to face and fight his own enemies when he awakens. This film virtually marked the end of an era. It was the last Kaiju Eiga film of the Sixties and the last monster film to benefit from the special effects expertise of Eiji Tsuburaya who, sadly, died in 1970. Ishiro Honda was to make only two more monster films himself - 'Yog - Monster From Space' in 1970 was his last 'regular' film but he came out of retirement in 1975 to direct 'MekaGojira No Gyakushu' which was a celebration of twenty years of monster movies.