After 40 years, he's back! The space monster Guilala from Shochiku’s infamous 1967 feature GIANT SPACE MONSTER GUILALA (Uchuu Daikaijuu Girara), released in to US television as THE X FROM OUTER SPACE, will be featured in an all-new film from director Minoru Kawasaki, GUILALA STRIKES BACK: CRISIS AT THE LAKE TOYA SUMMIT (Girara-no Gyakushu Toyako Samitto Kiki Ippatsu, 2008).

Shochiku held a press conference to announce the production on January 29th. In this new kaiju eiga (monster movie), the greatest scientific minds in the world gather at the G-8 Summit at Lake Toya in Hokkaido, Japan -- but disaster strikes when a Red Chinese spacecraft plummets to earth, carrying spores of the space monster, and crashes near the city of Sapporo. Soon, Guilala grows, rising from the wreckage, and begins to terrorize the countryside, threatening the G-8 Summit. Kawasaki declared his hopes to ignite a new Kaiju Boom and spawn the revival of Japanese monster movie.

Director Kawasaki is a lifelong kaiju fanatic, and has directed a number of independent low-budget features, all of which were infused with his own brand of humor, such as IKO-CHAN: THE EARTH DEFENSE GIRL (1987). More recently, he has been garnering global attention via international festivals with his left-of-center comic sensibilities in titles such as THE CALAMARI WRESTLER (2004), EXECUTIVE KOALA (2005) and THE CRAB GOALKEEPER (2006) -- of the latter, Kawasaki said, "It's like Forrest Gump, but with a crab." Shochiku decided to let him have a go at reviving their Guilala after seeing his parody of Shinji Higuchi's THE SINKING OF JAPAN (2006), THE WORLD SINKS EXCEPT JAPAN (2006).*

Not one to waste time, Kawasaki has already cast members of the "Social Satirical Short Story Group," The Newspaper: Matabei Watabe, Akira Matsushita and Hide Fukumoto (pictured above), to parody real-life Japanese politicians. Matsushita has been cast as Prime Minister Junsaburo Koizumi, a pun on the real former Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi. Watabe and Fukumoto are also aping real-life Japanese politicos attending the film's summit when Guilala strikes. Kawasaki himself shares his name with a member of the House of Councillors, so could this film be a personal statement?

GUILALA STRIKES BACK: CRISIS AT THE LAKE TOYA SUMMIT commences lensing in March with an eye for a nationwide release in July to coincide with the planned G-8 Summit at Lake Toya. But, will a real monster crash the party at G-8? Can life imitate art? Ah, only in the movies...

*To promote the film, Shochiku and Kawasaki have produced a direct-to-DVD feature pitting his Den Ace superhero (featured in a series of DVDs) against Guilala, which went on sale January 30th. I WILL LOSE WEIGHT! DEN ACE: SHORT MARCH OF THE SPACE MONSTER (GUILALA APPEARS!):

Awesome! :)

Here are two short videos taken at the press conference for GUILALA STRIKES BACK:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eG5XE8t7auM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fCurx289i5M

A couple of more shots from the press conference:

The English-language title of Girara no gyakushû: Tôya-ko Samitto kikiippatsu is "The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit".

The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit official website

Thanks for posting this! Where is the official English title listed?

The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit apparently also stars Natsuki Katô, Kazuki Katô, Susumu Kurobe, Yôsuke Natsuke, and 'Beat' Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano).

Here's a synopsis for The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit from the production: "In the summer of 2008, the G8 Summit is held at Lake Toya, a beautiful resort near the volcano in Hokkaido. At the same time, a Chinese rocket falls onto the island, causing a monster to be born from a spore attached to the rocket. The monster, Guilala, moves toward the summit conference site in pursuit of volcanic energy. The U.S. president proclaims, 'I will never yield to any monsters! Nobody calls me a chicken.' Other leaders reluctantly switch the sign board from 'G8 Summit' to 'Guilala Task Force'. Now they have to terminate Guilala to show their countries' power and prestige. The first mission is a missile attack by Japan, then Italy, Germany, and.... Deadly combat between human beings and the monster from outer space continues. However, when everyone starts to give up, a journalist finds a strange group worshipping the traditional idol at the lakeside."


News source: GOMORRAHY.com

Below are two stills from The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit.






Source: GOMORRAHY.com

A teaser trailer for The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit was added last night to the official website for the movie.

The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit teaser trailer page


News source: GOMORRAHY.com

The X From Outer Space - Damon Alexander & Ten Cent Rentals on YouTube is a pretty cool song with clips of the original X The Monster From Outer Space in pan and scan glory.

"I always enjoy a good smoke after defeating a giant space monster myself" Ha ha!