Frankenstein Conquers the World
Whereas the previous Kaijuega of Toho's conception were growing despondent of the seriousness of say, a 1954 "Gojira" in growing favor of the "sillier" conventions of contemporary television series like Ultraman, Toho had decided upon itself to utilize a classic creation of Western literature (now by this point largely realized within filmography from Universal Pictures' adaptation), Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Toho's attempt to bring the titular Frankenstein creation to life carries a humorous tone typical of the originators of kaiju media. In their portrayal Frankenstein's monster not only exists in Japan but is also scaled to the proportions of a Godzilla-sized creature. It faces off against a worldly competitor, the monster Baragon, original to this film. While Baragon would later appear in other Kaijuega films, notably the 2001 production "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack", also by Toho Studios, unfortunately, the sizeable Frankenstein Monster is absent.
Frankenstein vs. Baragon | |
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Template:Infobox Japanese | |
Directed by | Ishirō Honda |
Screenplay by | Takeshi Kimura |
Story by | Reuben Bercovitch[1] Jerry Sohl[1] |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Hajime Koizumi Sadamasa Arikawa |
Edited by | Ryohei Fujii |
Music by | Akira Ifukube |
Production companies | Toho Co., Ltd Henry G. Saperstein Enterprises |
Distributed by | Toho (Japan) American International Pictures (United States) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
Countries | Japan United States |
Language | Japanese |
Box office | ¥93,000,000 (equivalent to ¥391,184,805 in 2019) (Japan)[2] |
References
- Craig 2019, p. 154.
- Ryfle & Godziszewski 2017, p. 226.