Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972)

Daigoro is an ugly mf

Made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tsuburaya Productions, Daigoro vs. Goliath is certainly a film that follows in the goofy, thoroughly ridiculous crater-like footsteps of other 70s kaiju films, one that I can't help but make the comparison with the latter Showa era Gamera films in all their painful child-centric antics. It's the kind of kaiju film that wouldn't appeal to anyone over the age of 6, despite being bright, colourful and laden with sing-along musical numbers, strained slapstick, crazy contraptions and abundant juvenile whimsy, there's certainly a crowd for this type of rubbish, unfortunately, I am not one of them. However, I can give credit to a lot of the special effects sequences, mainly the miniatures and pyrotechnics, both of which are top-notch, though they are few and far between the otherwise horrifically ugly kaiju designs (and I thought Minilla was the ugliest mf). The usually reliable director Toshihiro Iijima delivers some exceptionally heavy-handed social commentary, far from the more subtle approaches to his work on Ultraman, while Toru Fuyuki delivers a score that would make you think he fell asleep in the recording booth, the acting is no better and plays like a half-arsed classic sitcom. Daigoro vs. Goliath can be perfectly summed up as an experience in the scene where Daigoro uses a giant Toilet to do his gargantuan business while the human cast looks on in a bizarre fascination, this is not a film I can easily recommend and ultimately feels like a tax write off cause Tsuburaya couldn't make the historical epic they initially wanted.

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