Special Effects
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Eiji Tsuburaya
Eiji Tsuburaya was the special effects director for many of Toho's classic
movies. Including all the Godzilla movies up to 1969, 11 of them. He also
did the special effects for Rodan, Mothra 1961, Frankenstein Conquers the
World, War of the Gargantuas, King Kong Escapes, Varan, Atragon, and many
other films.
Eiji Tsuburaya was born on July 7, 1901 in Sugakawa City, Japan. Mr.
Tsuburaya had an intrest in making special effects at an early age. At the
age of 10, he purchased a toy film viewer, by taking coins from his
father`s shop, however, he realized, his parents would obviously know how
he got it -- so, he took it apart, studied, and then destroyed the device.
He then built his own from scratch. His machine not only worked, but so
amazed his family, that his "crime" was overlooked.
In 1919, he was offered a job, as an assistant cinematographer, by Yoshiro
Edamasa of the Tenkatsu Film Company in Kyoto. Mr. Tsuburaya went off to
war in 1921, as part of the mail corp. After the war he joined the staff
of
Shochiku Kyoto Studios in 1926, leaving to join Ogasawara Productions, and
then the Kinegasa Film Union, working on pre-WWII classics. It was during
this period that he became a full-time cameraman for director Chojiro
Hayashi. While in this position he developed many innovations to the
industry,
including the first use of the camera crane and expanded on
under-developed film techniques such as slow-motion, double-exposure and so
on. By 1930, Eiji had started doing the special effects work which
would become the mainstay of his career. Experimenting in the area of
special photographic techniques, Tsuburaya continued to pioneer new
developments in the use of the motion picture camera. Many directors were
infuriated by his "attention to detail" and "meticulous camera setups", but
others had taken careful notice of the impetuous Eiji Tsuburaya.
In 1933, Mr. Tsuburaya saw King Kong and was so impressed, that he began
developing his own screen processes for domestic pictures. On the urging
of Iwao Mori, Eiji moved to head up the department at the new Tokyo film
studio in 1938. Eventually, he was in charge of over sixty craftsmen,
technicians and cameramen -- running the entire rear section of the Toho
lot at his kingdom.
Eiji provided specials effects for Toei, Shintoho and Daiei before
returning full-time to Toho in 1952 for two Ishiro Honda films. Back for
good, Eiji once again took the reigns as the head of the Special Effects
Department; it was only two years later that, Tsuburaya, Honda and Tanaka
created the movie that was heard around the world with Godzilla. For his
efforts on that ground-breaking film, Eiji received his first "Japanese
Film Technique Award."
After directing the special effects for many highly successful
motion pictures, and given lots of awards, Eiji established
"Tsuburaya Special Effects Productions" with his sons in 1963. Together
they created the first monster television series, Ultra Q which premiered
in 1966. This was followed by UltraMan, establishing Tsuburaya Productions as the leader in fantasy entertainment for Japanese television.
After directing the special effects for Latitude Zero and Battle of the
Japan Sea in 1969, Tsuburaya became seriously ill in the later part of the
year, and passed away on January 25, 1970 from pneumonia at the age of 69.
Overall, he worked on over 250 motion pictures and dozens of television
shows, in a career which spanned 50 years.
Filmography
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1954)
Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
Rodan (1956)
The Mysterians (1957)
Varan (1958)
Mothra (1961)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Gorath (1962)
Atragon (1963)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)
Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
War of the Gargantuas (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
King Kong Escapes (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla's Revenge (1969)
PLUS MANY MORE!!!
Teruyoshi Nakano
Born on October 1, 1935 in Manshu, Korea, Teruyoshi Nakano graduated from Nippon University’s film department in 1959. He quickly joined Toho Studios afterward, assuming the role of a low-level assistant director under Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki among others. After about five years of doing this, Mr. Nakano was handpicked by special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya to be the first assistant director of special effects. He worked with Mr. Tsuburaya on several Toho films including; “Mothra vs. Godzilla” (1964), “Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monsters” (1964), “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” (1965), “Frankenstein Conquers the World” (1965), and “War of the Gargantuas” (1966). Mr. Nakano first assumed the role of Toho’s special effects director (although uncredited) in 1971 for Godzilla’s latest film, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, taking over after the untimely death of his mentor, Eiji Tsuburaya. He was officially granted that title two years later, after the disaster film “Submersion of Japan” became a blockbuster hit in 1973. But after working as the director of SFX on “Godzilla vs. Gigan” and “Godzilla vs. Megalon”, critics dismissed Mr. Nakano as an unworthy successor to Tsuburaya and accused him of having wrecked the quality of the genre due to the heavy use of stock footage in those films. This could also be blamed partly on the high inflation and deep-economic recession, which crippled Japan’s once thriving film industry during that time. On the other hand, many new fans all over the world were introduced to Godzilla through the films of the 1970s, where the King of the Monsters was more of a defender of the Earth than a horror of the atomic age, and feel that these films are the most entertaining of all the Godzilla films. After keeping the Godzilla series alive through “Terror of MechaGodzilla” (1975), when series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka decided to bring the King of the Monsters back in 1984, Mr. Nakano was the obvious choice to be the special effects director. He was also given the studio’s largest special effects budget to date for the film (except for perhaps 2004’s “Godzilla: Final Wars”), with which he created elaborate miniatures of Tokyo’s new buildings and the five-meter tall “Godzilla Cybot”. Teruyoshi Nakano is currently retired from motion pictures and now helps to create effects-oriented rides for children’s amusement parks.
Bio information obtained from G-Fan Magazine
Filmography
Submarine I-57 Will Not Surrender (1959)
The Telegian (1960)
Storm Over the Pacific (1961)
Devil in the Castle (1961)
The Last War (1961)
Gorath (1962)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)
Atragon (1963)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)
Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
War of the Gargantuas (1966)
King Kong Escapes (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla's Revenge (1969)
Yog: Monster from Space (1970)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Submerssion of Japan (1973)
Zone Fighter - TV Series (1971)
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (1974)
Terror of MechaGodzilla (1975)
Deathquake (1980)
The Return of Godzilla (1984)
Kaguya (1987)
PLUS MANY MORE!!!
Koichi Kawakita
Koichi Kawakita was the special effects directer for Godzilla vs.
Biollante, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs.
MechaGodzilla, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, and many
other science fiction films. He also directed the special effects for the
non-kaiju war films, Samurai of the Big Sky and Zero.
Mr. Kawakita was born on December 5th, 1942. He started working for Toho
in 1962, taking a job in the photography department. He made rapid
progress in the
special effects department, and he finally earned the director's chair in
1972 on the tv series Ultraman Ace. He got experience from several tv
shows such as Zone Fighter and Megaroman, and he became Teruyoshi
Nakano's chief assistant for Catastrophe 1999 (1974), Godzilla vs
MechaGodzilla (1974), Tokyo Gulf Burns (1975), and The War in Space (1977). His film sfx director debut came in 1976 with the war film Samurai of the Big
Sky. Although Mr. Kawakita was not involved with the production of
Godzilla (1984), he did put together the Making of Godzilla special for the
1984 film. He used this assignment to present his idea of what
Godzilla should be like and also served as director of special effects on
the war film Zero Fighter Burns (1984), Love:Take Off (1985), and Bureau of
D Agency (1988). The prolific amount of realistic mechanical effects which
he
produced for Gunhead (1988) convinced Toho officials to hand Kawakita their
next Godzilla project.
Kawakita's involvement with Godzilla traced back to his first days on the
Toho lot. Monster actor Haruo Nakajima remembered how a young Kawakita
would often visit the set, very interested in watching the film crew
lensing the special effects for King Kong vs Godzilla. One of his first
trips to the set had him witness Kong and Godzilla being pushed from a
cliff and into the water. Mr. Kawakita is genuine fan of the Godzilla
character. He brought a fresh approach and an injection of innovation to
the
realization of Godzilla as a living creature. Building a robot Godzilla to
the same scale as the costume, Kawakita was more able to duplicate the
suit's features and add a variety of lifelike movements and facial
expressions to the character's portrayal. He also built several
modifications into the Godzilla suits of his films for adding realism,
including the ability for the neck to tilt up and down and to swivel from
side to side. His style for staging monster battles differed greatly from
that of his predecessors, concentrating more on optically rendered energy
rays and less on physical contact such as wrestling and punching. His
innovative filming technique even earned him the
Japanese Academy Award in special effects for Godzilla vs King Ghidorah.
When
asked of his vision of the King of the Monsters, Kawakita answered,
"Godzilla is an enduring symbol of
Japan's dreams and nightmares. His purpose is not random destruction. He
seeks out places in which nature has been remolded by man and destroys them
for nature's sake."
Filmography
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II (1993)
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995)
The Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
The Rebirth of Mothra II (1997)
The Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)
PLUS MANY MORE!!!
