What's the connection between these two movies???!
Question: I'm a big fan of the Japanese giant monster movies, and two of my favorites are "Frankenstein Conquers the World" and "War of the Gargantuas"; I've seen these two movies several times, and until recently, I always thought that they were two separate films. I just found out that per the original Japanese versions of these film, "War of the Gargantuas" is supposedly the sequel to "Frankenstein Conquers the World"; now, despite that fact that both movies have an American actors, both of which played in those old rebel teenage movies of the 50's and 60's, and who are paired with the same Japanese actress playing the similair (if not the same?) female scientist character, I still fail to see how the two films connect. Someone please enlighten me.
Answers: I'm a big fan of the Japanese giant monster movies, and two of my favorites are "Frankenstein Conquers the World" and "War of the Gargantuas"; I've seen these two movies several times, and until recently, I always thought that they were two separate films. I just found out that per the original Japanese versions of these film, "War of the Gargantuas" is supposedly the sequel to "Frankenstein Conquers the World"; now, despite that fact that both movies have an American actors, both of which played in those old rebel teenage movies of the 50's and 60's, and who are paired with the same Japanese actress playing the similair (if not the same?) female scientist character, I still fail to see how the two films connect. Someone please enlighten me.
...well, my fellow Godzilla movie fan, there have been many people who have questioned the supposed connection between these two films, and to start off, it is a solid gold fact that "War of the Gargantuas" is INDEED the sequel to "Frankenstein Conquers the World", at least in the Japanese versions; when the films were imported into the States, an American producer/distributor re-edited the movies to play as separate films, and any direct connections between the films were excised. However, if you paid attention to the storylines of both films, there is still a vague thread, connecting the films...
...in "War of the Gargantuas", at a certain point, when it was revealed that there were two giant hairy monsters, one green and one brown, it was hypothisized that the brown creature, which lived in the mountains, had once been in the sea, and scraped off part of it's flesh beneath the waters; after the brown monster retreated to the mountains, it was suspected that the bit of flesh left behind, still lived, in some way, and fed off the ocean's plankton. As a result, the flesh grew and grew, until it achieved the gargantuan size of the original giant creature, albeit being green, instead of brown...
...now the connection: for years, it had always been rumored by fans of this genre, that there was 'urban legend' footage of an original ending of "Frankenstein Conquers the World", where the creature survives a potentially fiery demise, goes to the ocean, battles a giant octopus on land and sea, and finally disappears into the ocean (...in the American version, as you may recall, the Creature dies in a fiery mountain forest fire, doing battle with a dinosaur creature called Barugon); that so-called 'urban legend' footage became reality, when TNT, years ago, showed the American version of "Frankenstein...", but tacked on the original Japanese version's ending, which surprised many folks, who were fans of the film...
...flash forward to a couple of years ago, when the distribution company, Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock, released a two-disc special edition of "Frankenstein Conquers the World", which contained not only the American edit of the film, but also the Japanese version, containing the original ending...
...and to the future, specifically in the coming year, when a distribution company called Classic Media, who will be releasing a special edition of "War of the Gargantuas", which will bear both the American and Japanese cuts of the film (...which they have done with several of the classic Godzilla films); at that time, in watching the Japanese versions of these two film, will the connection between the two, become absolutely clear and unanimous.....
...stay tuned!!!
Trivia for "War of the Gargantuas"
This film was a sequel to the film Furankenshutain tai chitei kaij? Baragon (Frankenstein Conqeurs The World) (1965). However, all references to the previous film were cut from the American version of this film
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060440/triv...