Gigantis the Fire Monster
| Godzilla Raids Again | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Motoyoshi Oda |
| Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Shigeru Kayama |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Masaru Satō |
| Cinematography | Seiichi Endo |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Toho |
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Release date
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Running time
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81 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Godzilla Raids Again (ゴジラの逆襲 lit. "Counterattack of Godzilla") is a 1955 Japanese science fiction kaiju film. It is the second film in the Godzilla franchise. An English dubbed version, titled Gigantis the Fire Monster, was heavily re-edited and released theatrically in the United States by Warner Brothers in 1959 on a double bill with Teenagers from Outer Space (or with Rodan in some areas). The English dub was later retitled Godzilla Raids Again.
Two pilots named Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi are hunting for schools of fish for a tuna cannery company in Osaka. Kobayashi's plane malfunctions and is forced to land near Iwato Island, an uninhabited strip of rocks formed by volcanic eruptions. Tsukioka then looks for Kobayashi and finds him safe, with only a wrist sprain. While talking, the two men hear some strange sounds and find two monsters fighting. Tsukioka immediately recognizes one of the monsters to be Godzilla. The two monsters then fall off a cliff, into the ocean.
Tsukioka and Kobayashi report to the authorities in Osaka, and find out that the other monster Godzilla was fighting is Anguirus. A group of scientists with the two pilots research Anguirus in a book written by a Polish scientist. Godzilla and Anguirus lived around the same time millions of years ago, and there was an intense rivalry between the two monsters.
Archaeologist Kyohei Yamane, who experienced Godzilla's attack in 1954, is also present at the meeting, and shows a film (composed of clips from the 1954 film) of the original Godzilla attacking Tokyo. He confirms that this Godzilla is a second member of the same species, and that it and Anguirus were probably brought back to life by the same hydrogen bomb tests that awoke Godzilla. Yamane states that there is no way to kill Godzilla, and that Daisuke Serizawa, the inventor of the Oxygen Destroyer, had died and burned the formula. Yamane, though, suggests that the military should use flares on Godzilla to attract the monster away from the shore as Godzilla becomes angry when it sees lights because the hydrogen bomb's bright explosion had awakened and mutated it.
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Wikipedia