MartinHafer Minoru Kawasaki is a filmmaker who just ain't right. His films are ultra-bizarre and are not for normal people. And don't worry...the same strange guy who brought us "Executive Koala" (about a guy in a koala suit who works in corporate Japan) and "Rug Cop" (about a cop who fights crime...along with help from his sentient toupee) is pretty much in form with this strange picture.This film is a sendoff of the guy in a giant monster suit films that made Japanese films so famous (or infamous) in the 1950s-70s. You either love 'em or you hate 'em, but they made a ton of them. In this case, Kawasaki made a follow up to The X From Outer Space...a film made decades earlier. Why they chose to make a follow up, I don't know...perhaps they used some old footage or perhaps they just had the monster suit lying around.The film begins at a summit in Japan of the G8 leaders. During this meeting, a monster arrives from outer space in Sapporo and the Japanese try to get these heads of state to leave the country. However, in a show of solidarity (as well as stupidity) the eight world leaders vow to stay and help the Japanese rid their country of a weird monster named Guilala. And how do we know its name? Because one of the silliest clichés in Japanese monster movies, a cute little boy wearing a baseball cap appears and tells everyone about the beast...and they soon slap the kid and tell him to get lost! What follows are attempts by the various leaders to kill the monster using missiles, poison gas and the like...but the monster only grows stronger.At this point, the film goes from a nice little parody to ultra- bizarre, as the Japanese leader yanks off his disguise to reveal that he's...Jim Jong Il?! Yes, this crazy North Korean dictator has arrived to kidnap the summit and he vows to use his nuclear missile to rid the world of the monster once and for all. But scientists soon inform them that the nuclear payload will actually make Guilala stronger as well as multiply! So, it's up to the ancient god, Take- Majin to appear and try to save the day as well as President Sarkozy to flash the summit! What happens to that nuclear missile? You wouldn't believe me if I told you...you just have to see it for yourself!Compared to other Kawasaki films, this movie is downright normal...but it still is very strange and very funny. I especially love the way the various world leaders are parodied. It's all in good fun and is a treat for anyone who could use a laugh. Then, perhaps you could try some of the director's other films. In a way, I see "Monster X" as a gateway film...if you can handle that, you'll soon go on to the 'hard stuff'--Kawasaki's weirder movies!

ebiros2 The monster Guilala was originally a monster made by now defunct Shochiku studio in 1967. This movie is somewhat of a remake, but the story is a camp satire of G8 summit and head of the states of the world, a giant monster, Kim Jon il and Korean nuclear missile, and can you believe - a Japanese comedian named Beat Takeshi who appears as Takemajin.Monster Guilala lands near lake Toya in Hokkaido attached to Chinese space probe called Beta (which is the same design as the space ship Beta that appeared in the original 1967 movie). There was a G8 summit going on at lake Toya, and US president immediately after hearing the arrival of the monster vows to destroy the monster as an attempt to raise popular support. He recruits the efforts of other heads of the state to defeat the monster. Earth Defense Force (TDF) of Japan takes on the duty of actually carrying out the orders. The joke of TDF is is that it's comprised of only one tent and about a dozen men working around it. The commander is played by Susumu Kurobe who was a member of Earth Defense Force in the original Toho's Ultraman series back in 1966. Meanwhile in a near by village, there's a shrine that for some reason houses three objects. An ancient scroll depicting Guilala and another figure called Takemajin, a statue of Guilala,and the statue of Takemajin. Villagers gather at the shrine and chant "Nechikoma, Nechikoma" repeatedly, and Takemajin comes to life. Now its a showdown between Guilala and the Takemajin.The intent of people who made this movie is not clear. While I was watching this movie, I was thinking this is a story I would have come up with. It was that bad. But obviously being camp was the intention of the producers.Special effect is homage to that of '60s kaijyu movie. They must have done this to appeal to the original viewers of 1967 version of Guilala.Interesting and funny movie to come from Japan that parodies the original Guilala, politicians, and the Japanese culture.

Perception_de_Ambiguity Seen at the Vienna International Film Festival in October 2009. - During a G8 summit Japan is attacked by a Godzilla-like monster from out of space and all the attendant heads of state decide to stay and help kill the monster, pretty much because they want to prove to the US-president that they aren't pussies. Utterly uncinematic, beyond silly and often boring. One element that reflects this is that although the heads of state are all named after the real people they bear close to no resemblance to them, neither visually nor otherwise, and instead are just amateurishly acted, cheap stereotyped representatives of their respective countries.One by one they come up with methods to kill the monster, resulting in one failure after another. It's like Coyote and Road Runner with a more powerful but also more incompetent Coyote; when the monster is down and defenseless, instead of covering it in bombs they wait until it recovers again to move on to the next plan. In the other plot line we have a female journalist who finds a small town near the G8 summit where the people "pray" to their monster god which will eventually defeat "Godzilla" in a fistfight. Overall the film dedicates about ten minutes to showing the forcefully silly dance of those people (their "praying"), which serves to materialize their god and save the world. Useless to say the film didn't have a single actual character. Everyone was just there to spout whatever unoriginal line the filmmakers could come up with and to finally SOMEHOW arrive with the plot at the inevitable conclusion.I found it to be bad and an unpleasant experience. The film got laughs from the audience, especially in the first five minutes, and continued to get laughs throughout, often with big gaps in between and never any big laughs. I assume much of it was the forced kind (many of them were drinking beer there, which needs to be considered as well). As for me I had a little laugh about every ten minutes. (There is the occasional apt and unexpected stereotype joke.) It wasn't all bad, it could have made an OK 20-minute film. The monster scenes with its destruction of the city are old-school Godzilla fare. In fact it's so old school and unoriginal that they might as well could have used footage from old Godzilla movies. Except that most of the time the monster just stands around acting exactly like Joe Cocker (no kidding). Such a thing can't be funny for long. Not for me anyway.But I'll be the first to admit that usually I don't much like B-movie comedies as they often turn out overly shallow and silly, so if you know you like that kind of thing don't let this user comment stop you.

RResende From time to time i like to immerse on films like this. Those are the moments in which one enters a film for pure relaxation. I guess it's the same kind of spirit such filmmakers as Kawasaki put into creating this.Some of these rides are actually very profitable, and i think it is a mistake to excuse every unconsidered element of a film just because it is a B-flick or because the budget was close to zero. Some great, intelligent work has been that over that.Here we have a film made out of two elements: the will to freely play with known faces of the political scene these days, and the will to produce special effects that deliberately looking false and old-fashioned. I think this crew must have had a lot of fun making this, and in certain moments i too enjoyed being there. But it is the kind of fun a group of adolescents has making fun of an unlikable teacher or painting obscene messages on a wall. I'm OK with that, but something better could be put into this. It was nice to be watching a Power Rangers kind of fight so many years later, but 'nice' is not good.You know what this is now. It's your choice to embrace it or not. I did it with some interest, but i won't do it again.The pace is slow, cinematic rhythm was not also in the mind of these folks.My opinion: 1/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com