© 1998 Lawrence Tuczynski

Title: Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla Against Gigan
Japanese Title: Chikyu Kogeki Meirei - Gojira tai Gaigan
Movie also known as: Godzilla On Monster Island
Godzilla vs. Gigan
CD Label: Futureland / Toshiba EMI Japan
CD Number: TYCY-5356
Music by: Akira Ifukube
Number of tracks: 36
Running time: 77:56
Number of discs: 1
Year of release/manufacture: 1993
Year Movie Released in Japan: 1972
Year Movie Released in U.S.: 1977

REVIEW

Updated 12/05/1999

Akira Ifukube is back for this soundtrack. Well..., sort of. By the time this movie was made Toho had severely slashed Godzilla movie budgets (and it showed) and had already started to reuse scenes from other movies. In this film they decided that instead of paying a composer for new music they would ask Akira Ifukube if they could reuse his music from past kaiju and non-kaiju films. He said yes even though he did not think his music was suitable for a cyborg kaiju.

This is also a very full CD clocking in at almost 78 minutes of music and only 36 tracks. This could almost be considered a "Best Of Akira Ifukube" type CD. It's great to hear some good score music again after the last couple using unknowns (at least to me) and doing contemporary (for it's time) type music. Akira Ifukube's music gives us a really nice sounding CD that works in the movie as well as a stand alone listening experience. Not very many really short cue's on this disc. Most of the music is fleshed out well. We get some nice long suites of familiar music here. This is one of the CD's in the series that if you spot it, GRAB IT.

Additional comments by Sam Scali (revised 3/3/08)

Thanks to drastic budget cuts at Toho during the early 70's, GODZILLA VS. GIGAN incorporated a great deal of stock footage, as well as a soundtrack pieced together almost entirely from Akira Ifukube's past scores (with several cues drastically edited). The original sources of many of the tracks are easy enough to identify, particularly those taken from GODZILLA VS. THE THING (1964) and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968). The soundtracks for FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD (1965), ATRAGON (1963) and GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964) were also heavily plundered.

A few pieces, however, may be unfamiliar to casual fans. The first of these appears at the very beginning of the "Main Title" - a dramatic fanfare taken from a 1959 Toho gangster film called THE BIG BOSS (aka BOSS OF THE UNDERWORLD). In that film the cue was used to score a chilling dream sequence, but in GIGAN it serves as a breathtaking prelude to the title music as the Toho logo appears onscreen. The version of the main title heard on Track 1 is actually a combination of three different cues - the aforementioned BIG BOSS motif, Godzilla's theme from GODZILLA VS. THE THING and the opening march from BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE. Curiously, this is not the version used in the film (more on that later).

Track 2, which scores the Children's Land construction scene, is from an obscure Japanese action film titled A LIFETIME OF BUSINESS SAVVY - THE TOUGHEST GUY AROUND (1970). Track 6 sneaks in a second cue from THE BIG BOSS; a melancholy, European-flavored theme played on accordion.

Tracks 30 and 31 have even more unorthodox origins. They were originally composed by Ifukube for a Toho-produced multimedia exhibit called "Nature in Japan and the Japanese Dream", held at EXPO '70's Mitsubishi Pavilion. These epic themes are as monumental as any of Ifukube's more familiar motifs, easily justifying their appearance in a Godzilla film (and arguably upstaging most of the other stock cues used in GIGAN). The first of these tracks, originally titled "Storm", scores the destruction of Godzilla Tower, and the second, "Volcano", is played during the final battle sequence. Both cues are extended to nearly three times their original length for these scenes.

For some unknown reason the actual film version of the GIGAN main title is relegated to Track 33. This version features an abbreviated edit of the "Volcano" cue instead of the BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE march heard on Track 1. The remastered PERFECT COLLECTION edition of this soundtrack (Box GB-3, Disc 2) corrects the error by moving the film version to Track 1 and eliminating the "BATTLE" variation altogether.

Trivia buffs may be pleased to know that "Volcano" was also used in the Japanese trailer for the previous Godzilla film, 1971's GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER. The audio of the trailer can be heard on THE HISTORY OF GODZILLA VOLUME 2 (APCF-9057) and SPFX FILM COLLECTION (SP/CR-71004~5). Additional music from THE BIG BOSS appears on FILMWORKS BY AKIRA IFUKUBE VOL. 3 (SLCS-5052), and a suite from A LIFETIME OF BUSINESS SAVVY can be found on FILMWORKS BY AKIRA IFUKUBE VOL. 7 (SLCS-5056). All eleven cues from the EXPO '70 Mitsubishi Pavilion exhibit are featured on Disc 2 of AKIRA IFUKUBE COMPLETE RECORDINGS: TOEI-DOGA FILM MUSIC (LD25-5065~6 or TYCY-5213~14).

For a comprehensive guide to all of the stock music used in GODZILLA VS. GIGAN, scroll down to the section at the bottom of this page.

Special thanks to Anthony Romero at Toho Kingdom for uncovering some fascinating details about the 'EXPO '70 exhibit. Check out his review at http://www.tohokingdom.com/tv/mitsubishi_pavilion.html 

U.S. Title:      Godzilla on Monster Island
Japanese Title:  Chikyu Kogeki Meirei - Gojira tai Gaigan

1	Main Title
2	The Construction of Kid's Land *1
3	Monster Island I
4	The Young Girl and the Tape
5	The Chairman of the Construction Committee
6	The Park at Night
7	Godzilla Tower at Midnight
8	Monster Island II (ending)
9	Godzilla on Monster Island
10	The Older Brother's Whereabouts
11	Identity Check
12	The Disaster of a Year Ago
13	The Defense Corps Swings into Action I
14	Angilas Driven Back
15	The Cigarette with the Built-in Transmitter *2
16	The Assassination Squad Attacks
17	Signal to Outer Space
18	The Rescue Operation Gets Underway
19	Infiltrating Godzilla Tower
20	The Race from Universe M
21	The Invader's True Identity
22	The Defense Corps Swings into Action II
23	Space Monster(s) Attack Tokyo
24	Fierce Battle Between the Four Monsters
25	Operation 'Escape from Godzilla Tower'
26	Earth Monster(s) vs. Space Monster(s)
27	Furious Attack of the Space Monster(s)
28	Operation 'Destroy the Tower'
29	Ending/Godzilla March
30	Operation 'Destroy the Tower' 
	(Mitsubishi Future Building/Storm)
31	Earth Monster(s)'s Major Counteroffensive 
	(Mitsubishi Future Building/Volcano)
32	Ending  (for use overseas)
33	Main Title
34	Godzilla March  (used during the performance)
35	Godzilla March  (the record version)
36	Down with Gigan! (the record version)       *3

*1  Alternative Translation:  The Construction of Children's Land
*2  Alternative Translation:  The Japanese word 'tabako' can refer 
    to cigarettes, cigars, the tobacco plant or the tobacco leaf.
*3  Alternative Translation:  Gaigan, Get 'em!


Guide to Stock Music Used on This Soundtrack

Research and information courtesy of Sam Scali

1.  The "Main Title" is actually edited together from three sources:
    a) THE BIG BOSS  - Cue M12T2 (title unknown)
    b) GODZILLA VS. THE THING - brief excerpt from "Destruction of the  
      Hamikaze Hotel" (M20)
    c) BIRTH OF THE JAPANESE ISLANDS  - shortened edit of "Volcano" 
    (M3)
2.  A LIFETIME OF BUSINESS SAVVY - THE TOUGHEST GUY AROUND (Japanese  
    title, "Shokon Ichidai Tenka No Abarenbo") - "The Meiji  
    Restoration"(M4)
3.  DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - brief excerpt from "Monster Land" (M3)
4.  ATRAGON - "The Film That Was Sent" (M5)
5.  FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - excerpt from "Main Title" (M1)
6.  THE BIG BOSS - Cue M15B (title unknown)
7.  ATRAGON - "The Submarine Returns to Port" (M11)
8.  DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - excerpt from "Monster Land" (M3)
9.  DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - excerpt from "Monster Land" (M3)
10. LATITUDE ZERO - "Mariku and Dr. Okada" (M21)
11. FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - excerpt from "Search March" (M21)
12. FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - "Encounter in the Rain" (M6)
13. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - "SY-3 Sortie" (M20)
14. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - "Escape From Monster Land" (M10)
15. ATRAGON - "The Film That Was Sent" (M5)
16. FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - "The Whereabouts of the Wrist"(M19)
17. BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE - edit of "Opening" (M1)
18. BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE - "Main Title" (M2)
19. FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - "The Whereabouts of the Wrist"(M19)
20. FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - "Search in the Fog" (M26)
21. GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER - "Discovery of the Meteor" (M6 - played twice)
22. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - edit of "Fire Dragon Pursuit" (M28)
23. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - "Major Battle at Fuji I" (M25)
24. GODZILLA VS. THE THING - edits together "Godzilla and Nagoya" (M14) and "Plan B: Electrocution" (M23)
25. GODZILLA VS. THE THING - excerpt from "Destruction of the Hamakaze Hotel" (M20)
26. GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER - "Godzilla Attacks Radon" (M19)
27. GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER - edits together "The Two Monsters Appear in Yokohama" (M11) 
    and "The Fury of the Gravity Beam" (M15)
28. FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD - "The Strange Person in the Cage" (M11)
29. Not a stock cue - original pop song written for the film 
    (Vocal:Ishikawa Susumu Lyrics: Sekizawa Shinichi Music: Miyaguchi Danro)
30. EXPO '70 Mitsubishi exhibit - extended edit of  "Storm" (M2)
31. EXPO '70 Mitsubishi exhibit - extended edit of  "Volcano" (M3)
32. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - "Ending" (M29)
33. Film version of "Main Title", edited together from three sources:
    a) THE BIG BOSS  - Cue M12T2 (title unknown)
    b) GODZILLA VS. THE THING - brief excerpt from "Destruction of the  
       Hamikaze Hotel" (M20)
    c) EXPO '70 Mitsubishi exhibit - shortened edit of "Volcano" (M3)
34. Not a stock cue - stereo version of original pop song written for 
    the film  (Vocal: Ishikawa Susumu/Lyrics: Sekizawa Shinichi Music:Miyaguchi Danro)
35. Not a stock cue - Toho Records single DU-1003, released 2/1/72
    (Vocal: Ishikawa Susumu/Lyrics: Sekizawa Shinichi/Music: Miyaguchi Danro)
36. Not a stock cue - B-side of DU-1003 (Vocal: Ishikawa Susumu/ 
    Lyrics: Sekizawa Shinichi/Music: Miyaguchi Danro)