01.30.2014: Gamera The Super Monster Daikaiju Discussion

T’Igor, Cindy, Bryan and Rachel join Kyle to discuss the final Showa-era Gamera film! There are some movies which cannot be explained, they can only be experienced…. Gamera The Super Monster (1980) is such a film. Not because it is an amazing piece of filmmaking (far from it), but because the movie was made as an attempt to bring the film company, Daiei Motion Picture Company, out of bankruptcy and it really, really shows. It’s also pretty apparent why the attempt failed – Uchu Kaiju Gamera is an absolute train wreck of a film, culling together footage from every other Gamera film and blatantly ripping off a few others in the process! I was joined by Cindy, Bryan, Rachel and my son T’Igor to talk about this film. This episode was pretty packed with awesomeness: we had a great discussion, the homework submitted by the listeners was quite varied and such a fantastic response to such an obscure film! Plus we had some cool news to share, new Kaiju Corps members to announce and we introduced a new segment, too! All of that AND we managed to squeeze in some great audio excellence, too… GAMERA SUPER MUSIC: 1. Ultra Q Theme Song by the Surf Coasters from Surf Panic ’95 (1995) 2. King of the Monsters by Man… or Astroman? from Experiment Zero (1996) 3. Elvira’s Introduction to Gamera Super Monster from Elvira’s Movie Macabre (1983) 4. Mogera vs Spacegodzilla #3 by Takayuki Hattori from Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla (1994) 5. Godzilla Theme by The Edge & Yoshinobu Hiraiwa from Godzilla Island (1999) 6. Gamera Theme performed by Filmusik from Gamera vs. Guiron (2010) 7. Gamera March by Shunsuke Kikuchi, performed by Koichi Maeda & “translated” by Elvira from Movie Macabre: Gamera Super Monster (1983)  SUGGESTED READING: Godzilla Awakening Prequel Comic Announced 2 foot tall JAKKS Pacific Figure seen at UK Toy Fair New Godzilla DVDs & BluRays announced from Kraken Releasing on May 6th Universal Home Entertainment to release BluRays of  King Kong vs. Godzilla & King Kong Escapes on April 1st Battra & Mothra Larvae on deck for SH MonsterArts Toho’s Godzilla website gets makeover UPCOMING EVENTS: 2/07 & 2/08 – FEAR FESTEviL in San Francisco 2/08 at 8pm SF Listener Party 3/28 – 3/30 Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Wa THIS MONTH IN KAIJU HISTORY: Jan 1, 1929: Haruo Nakajima was born Jan 1, 1936: Kumi Mizuno was born Jan 2, 1926: Hideyo Amamoto was born Jan 2, 1945: Keiko Sawai was born Jan 2, 1966: Ultra Q Premiere’s on Japanese TV with Defeat Gomess! Jan 2, 1968: Agon the Atomic Dragon premieres on Japanese TV Jan 2, 1971: Spectreman appears on Japanese TV Jan 4, 1944: Masato Shimone was born. Jan 6, 1981: Rinko Kikuchi was born Jan 8, 1912: Susumu Fujita was born Jan 11, 1966: Shelley Sweeny was born Jan 14, 1981: Chiharu Niiyama was born Jan 16, 1979: Ted Cassidy dies during heart surgery Jan 18, 1947: Takeshi “BEAT” Kitano was born Jan 19, 1999: Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla & Godzilla vs. Destoroyah are released by Sony on DVD Jan 24, 1955: Masaaki Tezuka is born Jan 24, 2011: Gojira and Godzilla King of the Monsters are released on BluRay and DVD from Criterion Jan 25, 1970: Eiji Tsuburaya dies of a heart attack at the age of 68 Jan 29, 1927: Peter Fernandez was born Jan 29, 1981: Kipp Hamilton dies at the age of 45 in Los Angeles Check out Jay Grymyr’s Blog for more incredible date-based kaiju factoids! DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION: Next month’s movie is going to be a big one! The fan favorite Mothra vs. Godzilla aka Godzilla vs. The Thing (1964) will be our focus for the month of February and I am expecting a landslide of homework submissions. You need to turn in your homework by February 22nd to be included in the discussion and because I am expecting such a massive amount of thoughts, questions and reviews to sift through (and most likely edit down), please try to keep your homework brief and to [...]