Terror of Mechagodzilla | |||||
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Japanese name | |||||
Kanji | メカゴジラの逆襲 | ||||
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Directed by | Ishirō Honda | ||||
Written by | Yukiko Takayama | ||||
Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka Henry G. Saperstein | ||||
Starring | Katsuhiko Sasaki Tomoko Ai Akihiko Hirata Katsumasa Uchida Gorō Mutsumi Tadao Nakamaru Toru Kawai | ||||
Cinematography | Sokei Tomioka | ||||
Edited by | Yoshitami Kuroiwa | ||||
Music by | Akira Ifukube | ||||
Production company | |||||
Distributed by | Toho | ||||
Release date |
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Running time | 83 minutes | ||||
Language | Japanese | ||||
Budget | $1.2 million[1] | ||||
Box office | ¥330 million (Japan rentals)[2][3] <$20 million (worldwide)[1] |
Terror of Mechagodzilla (メカゴジラの逆襲, Mekagojira no Gyakushū, lit. 'Mechagodzilla's Counterattack') is a 1975 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, written by Yukiko Takayama, and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and Henry G. Saperstein, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Distributed by Toho and produced under their effects subsidiary Toho–Eizo, it is the 15th film in the Godzilla franchise, serving as a direct sequel to the 1974 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and the penultimate entry of the Showa Era of the franchise, followed nine years later with The Return of Godzilla. It was the final film directed by series creator Ishirō Honda before his death.
Terror of Mechagodzilla stars Katsuhiko Sasaki, Tomoko Ai, Akihiko Hirata, and Gorō Mutsumi, and features Toru Kawai, Kazunari Mori, and Tatsumi Nikamoto as the fictional monster characters Godzilla, Mechagodzilla 2, and Titanosaurus, respectively. The film was released theatrically in Japan on March 15, 1975, to mostly positive reviews. It was released in the UK in June 1976 under the title Monsters From an Unknown Planet. It received a limited release in the United States in 1978 by Bob Conn Enterprises under the title The Terror of Godzilla. The film remains the least financially successful entry in the Godzilla franchise to this day.
By the late 1970s, Godzilla films settled down to a comfortable formula. Toho was making two films a year. Each cost in the neighborhood of $1.2 million and could be counted on to earn about $20 million.