| Gorath | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Ishirō Honda |
| Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka Edward L. Alperson (USA) |
| Written by | Jojiro Okami (story) Takeshi Kimura |
| Starring | Ryo Ikebe Yumi Shirakawa Takashi Shimura Akira Kubo Kumi Mizuno Ken Uehara Paul Frees (USA) William Eidleson (USA) Virginia Craig (USA) |
| Music by | Kan Ishii |
| Cinematography | Hajime Koizumi |
| Editing by | Reiko Kaneko |
| Distributed by | Toho Brenco Pictures Allied Artists Heritage Enterprises (TV release) |
| Release date(s) | March 21, 1962 (Japan) |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Gorath, released in Japan as Calamity Star Gorath (妖星ゴラス Yosei Gorasu), is a Japanese science fiction tokusatsu film produced by Toho in 1962. The story for Gorath was by Jojiro Okami.
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The film depicts a runaway star on a collision course with Earth in the then-future decade of the 1980s. Even though it's smaller than Earth, with a mass over 6,000 times bigger than Earth, it will destroy the planet if it smashes into the planet. Now, as massive earthquakes and tsunamis crush Tokyo and kill millions, and as volcanic eruptions devastate entire areas around the globe, the people of planet Earth have to find a way to move the earth out of orbit before the star smashes it.
Maguma is a fictional kaiju (giant monster) featured in the Japanese science fiction tokusatsu film Gorath, released by Toho in 1962. Based upon the walrus and named after subterranean molten rock (magma), the Maguma suit was designed by special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, and worn by stuntman Haruo Nakajima, who frequently performed kaiju in Toho films of the era (including their most famous monster character, Godzilla). Maguma is the only monster in the film, the focus of which is a runaway collapsed star on a collision course with Earth.
As Gorath approaches, several enormous rocket boosters are constructed in Antarctica and other parts of the world to push Earth out of the runaway star's path. The heat from the rockets has an unexpected consequence: releasing Maguma from the polar ice. As the monster ravages the South Pole base, the plan to evade Gorath is imperiled. Maguma is ultimately killed by a laser.
The sequence featuring Maguma only makes up approximately six minutes of the finished film, but played a key role in the film's advertising. The character was a late addition, after insistence by producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, due to the box-office successes of Toho's kaiju eiga (monster movies) compared to its other mystery, horror, and science fiction offerings such The Mysterians and Battle in Outer Space.
Conversely, Maguma's role was completely removed from the U.S. release of the film.
The film was released in the US by Brenco Pictures. Most of the visual content was kept intact, but the six-minute sequence featuring the character Maguma was removed. The distributors found the character's appearance comical, even dubbing him "Wally the Walrus" (most likely inspired by Wally Walrus, an antagonist from the Woody Woodpecker cartoons popular at the time). As such, they removed the sequence for their cut of the film, and it has never been restored to the English-language edit, which was aired several times on television throughout the 1960s and '70s.
The English dubbing was done by Ryder Sound Services, and scripted by Star Trek writer John Lucas.[1] Only four voice actors were used to dub the film. Besides the voices, the audio track was modified, including adding a sound effect for the meteor which was not in the original Japanese version.
Brenco Pictures re-released the film on a double-bill with The Human Vapor in 1968, but between the two releases never turned a profit on their investment in Gorath. The company closed in 1969 soon after the death of co-owner Edward L. Alperson on July 3 of that year. The film was purchased by Heritage Enterprises and distributed to U.S. television. Presumably, it was seen by more people on TV than by people who saw it between its two theatrical releases.
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