| Giant Horde Beast Nezura | |
| |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Mitsuo Murayama |
| Produced by | Hidemasa Nagata, Noriaki Yuasa, Kazumasa Nakano (organizer) |
| Written by | Kimiyuki Hasegawa |
| Cinematography | Kimio Watanabe |
| Distributed by | Daiei |
| Released | 1964 (television) |
| Running time | 20 minutes (0 hours, 20 minutes) |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Giant Horde Beast Nezura (大群獣ネズラ Daigunjū Nezura?, lit. The Great Rat Swarm) is an unfinished 1964 tokusatsu kaiju film replaced by the first Gamera film. Giant Horde Beast Nezura was going to be about giant rat monsters called the Nezura and a monster called the Nezoorabat.[1]
The success of The Birds and Toho's Godzilla films influenced studio head Masaichi Nagata to produce a similar film. Due to a low budget and tight schedule, Yuasa was forced to use outdated equipment, faulty props, and faced belittlement from colleagues. Yuasa was determined to complete the film with Daiei's resources, despite brief talks of hiring Tsuburaya Productions to finish the film.
Plot[]
in 1964, at the Mikami Space Food Research Institute located on one of Japan's surrounding islands south of Tokyo, scientists develop a revolutionary high-calorie food source labelled the "S602." One of the scientists discovers the nutrient has terrible side effects that cause mutation in those who consume it. Plans to continue with the experiments of S602 are halted and the current supply is supposedly disposed of. An infestation of rats on the island leads to a number of disappearances. An investigation uncovers giant rats attacking and eating livestock, as well as human victims. One of the dead man-sized rats is dissected for study, and a decision is made to spray poison gas on the island to kill all the rats. Many of them escape to the sea and Tokyo is invaded by a horde of rodents as well as an enormous mammoth-sized rat. The rats eventually cannibalize each other, thus eradicating the threat on its own.
Staff[]
- Directed by Mitsuo Murayama
- Written by Kimiyuki Hasegawa
- Produced by Hidemasa Nagata, Noriaki Yuasa, Kazumasa Nakano (organizer)
- Cinematography by Kimio Watanabe
- Assistant directing by Kozo Sugano
- Modelling by Ryosaku Takayama
Cast[]
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Ken Utsui as
- Keizo Kawasaki as
- Michiko Sugata as
- Tatsuo Matsumura as
Production[]
Nezura was an attempt by Daiei to capitalize on the monster movie trend kicked off by Toho's Godzilla. Several still shots and promotional photos for the Nezura movie were produced and released, but the film was cancelled by Kojima, the executive at Daiei, due to very bad conditions (lice, ticks, and germs) brought on by the live, untrained sewer rats which they caught to shoot the movie, plus the worry caused for the neighbouring town of Daiei Studios.
Daiei did not give up on making a kaiju film, however, and came up with Gamera by the next year.
Availability[]
At least 20 minutes of footage were shot; Noriaki Yuasa, future director of Gamera, supposedly compiled the shot footage into a trailer, but the whereabouts of this footage is unknown. Publicity stills of the film still exist; however, these are not stills from the shot film.
Trivia[]
- Some elements of Nezura and its scrapped film were incorporated into the 2002 Japanese film, Nezulla the Rat Monster.
- a remake of the film will be released in December 2020 to 2021 called Nezura 1964.