| Daigoro vs. Goliath | |
| Director: | Toshihiro Iijima |
| Producer: | |
| Screenplay: | Kitao Senzoku |
| Starring: |
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| Music: | Toru Fuyuki |
| Cinematography: | Yuzo Inagaki |
| Studio: | |
| Distributor: | Toho |
| Runtime: | 84 minutes |
| Country: | Japan |
| Language: | Japanese |
is a 1972 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film directed and written by Toshihiro Iijima, with special effects by Jun Oki and Minoru Nakano. Co-produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Toho Studios, the film stars Hiroshi Inuzuka and Akiji Kobayashi.
Daigoro is a monster who was orphaned after the military used intercontinental missiles to kill his mother while she tried to protect him. Only one man stood against that decision. He pitied the infant, and took it as his own and raised him in Japan. But Daigoro grew too large and too expensive to feed. The man made Daigoro an icon for a business. Elsewhere Goliath, a monster who had been trapped in an asteroid for a long time, went to Earth and battled Daigoro. Goliath eventually defeated Daigoro by striking him with lightning from his horn. Goliath then left to pillage the world, leaving Daigoro to die. Daigoro recovered and practiced daily for his next battle against Goliath. After an intense fight, Daigoro breathed his fire ray and managed to defeat Goliath. The humans then grabbed Goliath while he was still weak and strapped him to a rocket and launched him into space.
Daigoro vs. Goliath was made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tsuburaya Productions.[2] Tsubaraya initially wanted to produce a historical drama to celebrate their 10th anniversary, but due to budget limitations and the excessive bureaucracy that would've been involved it was instead decided to produce a kaiju film[2] Due to his experience directing other Tsuburaya Productions such as Ultra Q and Ultraman, Toshihiro Iijima was selected as director and would also write the screenplay under the pseudonym Kitao Senzoku (his second writing effort under the name after an episode of Return of Ultraman).[2]
Daigoro vs. Goliath was released in Japan on 17 December 1972 where it was distributed by Toho.
After Daigoro vs. Goliath proved a commercial success, producer Noboru Tsuburaya made a deal with Toho to license Godzilla for a children's monster film recycling assets from Daigoro vs. Goliath which itself was reverse engineered from a Godzilla pitch rejected in favor of Godzilla vs. Hedorah.[2] [3] The film was to be titled Godzilla vs. Redmoon and came close to starting production with Shohei Tôjô as director and special effects by Kazuo Sagawa until ultimately being cancelled for unknown reasons.[3]