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is a 2020 Japanese crowdfunded ''
kaiju is a Japanese term that is commonly associated with media involving giant monsters. Its widespread contemporary use is credited to ''tokusatsu'' (special effects) director Eiji Tsuburaya and filmmaker Ishirō Honda, who popularized the ''kaiju'' ...
'' biopic film directed by Hiroto Yokokawa ( jp). The film was based on
Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, produci ...
's unfinished 1964 ''
Gamera is a fictional giant monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the Gamera, the Giant Monster, eponymous 1965 Japanese film. The character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' ...
'' precursor '' Giant Horde Beast Nezura'' ( jp) and stars
Yukijirō Hotaru is a Japanese actor. He is best known for the role of Gonza Kurahashi in the ''Garo (TV series), Garo'' television franchise. He has played Tsutomu Osako, a recurring role in the Heisei Gamera trilogy, along with the 2003 independent film ''GAME ...
as a character based on the president of Daiei, Mai Saito ( jp), Mach Fumiake ( jp), and
Shirō Sano is a Japanese actor. Career Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Sano lived in Tokyo and Matsue, Shimane as a child, before returning to Tokyo to enter art school. He joined several theatrical troupes, including Jurō Kara's Jōkyō Gekijō. He had h ...
. Yokokawa later reused its
prop A prop, formally known as a (theatrical) property, is an object actors use on stage or screen during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...
s for a 2021 short film , which was based on , a scrapped Daiei film before ''Giant Horde Beast Nezura''.


Plot

On July 25, 1963, assistant director Kazuaki Yukawa introduces a documentary about an upcoming Daiei film. At the company's first meeting, producer Shigeo Nagano, stresses the need to come up with a fresh idea to complement their existing franchises. Special effects director Yonejiro Tsukaji suggests a lavish ''kaiju'' movie. CEO Yuichi Nagano is impressed and approves it, although director Mitsuo Muraoka points out that one of their competitors just released its own ''kaiju'' movie. Tsukaji and Yukawa, tasked with deciding what kind of monster should star in the film, visit a zoo in Tokyo. However, none of the animals appeal to them. After Yuichi watches a movie featuring birds, he suggests that the monsters should be based on mundane animals. He and Tsukaji settle on rats and announce their decision at an August 5 meeting. The title will be "Giant Horde Beast Nezura", featuring a group of gigantic rats as its premise. Muraoka is skeptical that the rats will cooperate, so Tsukaji agrees to shoot some test footage. Daiei begins filming test footage on October 10, but the staff find controlling the domesticated rats and decide to use wild rats instead. Tsukaji captures wild rats in downtown Tokyo, which succeed as expected. Yuichi is delighted with the footage and allows the project to proceed, with Muraoka assigned as the director and Tsukaji as the special effects director. Tsukaji meets with sculptor Takiyama to commission a human-sized Nezura prop. Yuichi records a public announcement of the film, which is scheduled for a January release. To keep up with Muraoka's insistence on sets covered in rats, Daiei offers the public ¥50 for every rat they bring in. Cages of the animals soon fill a small warehouse. Takiyama completes the prop, and Daiei staff create a Mammoth Nezura puppet as well. The film's actors, including Utsumi, Michiko Ogata, Junko Kamei, and Schmidt, assemble for a table-read. Screenwriter Hasebe's story features the United States and the Soviet Union announcing a joint lunar expedition. Mikami Space Laboratory's experiments on rats, intended to create a new type of space food for the astronauts, instead produce ravenous monsters. The Nezura escape the lab and rampage through Tokyo. A Mammoth Nezura emerges and battles the smaller rats, with the
JSDF The are the military forces of Japan. Established in 1954, the JSDF comprises the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. They are controlled by the Ministry of Defense wi ...
ultimately killing them all. However, the rats eventually become infected with fleas and disease, with many crew members forced to wear masks in filming. Tsukaji watches a televised interview between a famous special effects director and his son Azuma, who agree that the public's attention has shifted from film to television, and Tsukaji's mood sours further. Citizens living near the studio interrupt the shoot on October 25 in protest, concerned about the rats spreading disease. On November 3, Daiei receives a stern letter from the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health recommending the termination of the film and the rats. A morose Yuichi complies. After Tsukaji immolates the rats the following day, he stands silently amidst one of the sets, then crushes one of the buildings in a fit of rage. Yukawa reflects in his documentary that even though Giant Horde Beast Nezura was a failure, it taught him a lot about filmmaking. Yukawa visits Yuichi, who has been in poor health, at his home on January 3. The CEO happens upon a small spinning firework and Yukawa offers to light it. The firework's motion gives Yuichi an idea for a new monster spinning through the sky, and they rush off to Daiei to get to work.


Cast

*
Yukijirō Hotaru is a Japanese actor. He is best known for the role of Gonza Kurahashi in the ''Garo (TV series), Garo'' television franchise. He has played Tsutomu Osako, a recurring role in the Heisei Gamera trilogy, along with the 2003 independent film ''GAME ...
as Nagano * Kazuma Yoneyama as Yukawa * Norman England ( jp) as Schmidt * Ippei Osako ( jp) as
Shigeo Shigeo (written: 樹央, 茂雄, 茂生, 茂男, 茂夫, 成雄, 成男, 重雄, 重男, 重夫, 繁雄, 繁男, 晟郎, 殖生 or 滋雄) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer *, Japane ...
* Yoshiro Uchida ( jp) as Takiyama *
Shirō Sano is a Japanese actor. Career Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Sano lived in Tokyo and Matsue, Shimane as a child, before returning to Tokyo to enter art school. He joined several theatrical troupes, including Jurō Kara's Jōkyō Gekijō. He had h ...
as Azuma *Noboru Sato as Muraoka * Mai Saito ( jp) as Junko * Mach Fumiake ( jp) as Monto * Masanori Kikuzawa ( jp) as Tsukaji *Himawari Ono ( jp) as Sachiko *Nōmaru Abe ( jp) as Mikami * Bin Furuya as Oyaji *
Akira Ohashi (born June 6, 1968) is a Japanese actor known in the west for his performances in ''tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects dire ...
as Mammoth Nezura


Production

On December 7, 2020, Takuya Imahori and Michiaki Watanabe were announced as the film's composers. The plot focused on the production of '' Giant Horde Beast Nezura'' before the ''
Gamera is a fictional giant monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the Gamera, the Giant Monster, eponymous 1965 Japanese film. The character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' ...
'' franchise, and various members of film crews and casts have previously participated in ''Gamera'' productions. Its theme song ''Nezura March'' by Mach Fumiake ( jp) was also a homage to '' Gamera March'' ( ja).


Release


Theatrical

''Nezura 1964'' was first released in
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
released on December 19, 2020. A month later, it was released nationwide on January 16, 2021.


Home media

The film was released to DVD in Japan in January 2021 and will soon be released in North America by SRS Cinema.


Giant Horde Beast Nezura

is an unfinished 1964 ''kaiju'' film directed by Mitsuo Murayama ( jp) and produced by
Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, produci ...
. The film's production was shut down by the health department because the wild
brown rat The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest Muroidea, muroids, it is a brown or grey ...
s used were escaping the set and had the potential to transmit disease to the surrounding area. Despite the project's cancellation, the studio was not dissuaded from producing more ''kaiju'' films, and released '' Gamera, the Giant Monster'' which reused ''Giant Horde Beast Nezuras sets. The film developers were inspired by Hitchcock’s '' The Birds'' "animal attack" concept, but decided to replace birds with giant rats.


See also

*
Gamera is a fictional giant monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the Gamera, the Giant Monster, eponymous 1965 Japanese film. The character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' ...
*
Daimajin is a Japanese ''tokusatsu'' series centering on an eponymous fictitious giant warrior god. It initially consisted of a film trilogy shot simultaneously and released in 1966 with three different directors and predominantly the same crew. The seri ...
*
The Whale God , alternatively as ''Killer Whale'', is a 1962 Japanese tokusatsu ( kaiju) film produced by Daiei Film based on the 1961 Akutagawa Prize winning novel of the same name by Kōichirō Uno. It was presumably inspired by the 1851 novel ''Moby-Dick ...
*
Yokai Monsters is a trilogy of Japanese horror/fantasy films written by Tetsuro Yoshida and released in the late 1960s. The films were produced by Daiei Film, and productions were largely influenced by ''Gamera'' and ''Daimajin'' franchises where Daimajin was ...
* Warning from Space * The Great Buddha Arrival


References

* Text was copied fro
Nezura 1964 (2021)
at Wikizilla, which is released under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license


External links


Official website
* {{IMDb title, id=11571408 2020 films 2020s Japanese-language films Japanese drama films 2020 biographical drama films Giant monster films Crowdfunded films Kaiju films 2020s monster movies Films about films Films about filmmaking Japanese prequel films Films set in 1964