Nezura 1964

Nezura 1964
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanjiネズラ1964
Transcriptions
Revised HepburnNezura Ichikyūrokuyon
Directed byHiroto Yokokawa
Written byHiroto Yokokawa
Kensaku Sakai
Based onGiant Horde Beast Nezura
Produced by
  • Hiroto Yokokawa
  • Kazuma Yoneyama
  • Takuma Asai
  • Avery Guerra
Starring
Music byTakuya Imahori
Michiaki Watanabe
Production
companies
3Y Film
Kadokawa
Distributed by3Y Film
Release dates
  • December 19, 2020 (2020-12-19) (Tokyo)
  • January 16, 2021 (2021-01-16) (Japan)
Running time
55 minutes[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Budget¥3.5 million[1][2]

Nezura 1964 (ネズラ1964, Nezura Ichikyūrokuyon) is a 2020 Japanese crowdfunded kaiju biopic film directed by Hiroto Yokokawa. The film was based on Daiei Film's unfinished 1964 Gamera precursor Giant Horde Beast Nezura (jp) and stars Yukijirō Hotaru as a character based on the president of Daiei, Mai Saitō, Mach Fumiake, and Shirō Sano. Giant Horde Beast Nezura itself was a successor of a scrapped project Giant Sea Demon Dagora,[3] and the director Yokokawa produced a 2021 short film based on it by reusing props of Nezura 1964.[4]

Plot

On July 25, 1963, assistant director Kazuaki Yukawa introduces a documentary about an upcoming Daiei film. At the company's first meeting, producer Shigeo Nagano, stresses the need to come up with a fresh idea to complement their existing franchises. Special effects director Yonejiro Tsukaji suggests a lavish kaiju movie. CEO Yuichi Nagano is impressed and approves it, although director Mitsuo Muraoka points out that one of their competitors just released its own kaiju movie.

Tsukaji and Yukawa, tasked with deciding what kind of monster should star in the film, visit a zoo in Tokyo. However, none of the animals appeal to them. After Yuichi watches a movie featuring birds, he suggests that the monsters should be based on mundane animals. He and Tsukaji settle on rats and announce their decision at an August 5 meeting. The title will be "Giant Horde Beast Nezura", featuring a group of gigantic rats as its premise. Muraoka is skeptical that the rats will cooperate, so Tsukaji agrees to shoot some test footage.

Daiei begins filming test footage on October 10, but the staff find controlling the domesticated rats and decide to use wild rats instead. Tsukaji captures wild rats in downtown Tokyo, which succeed as expected.

Yuichi is delighted with the footage and allows the project to proceed, with Muraoka assigned as the director and Tsukaji as the special effects director. Tsukaji meets with sculptor Takiyama to commission a human-sized Nezura prop. Yuichi records a public announcement of the film, which is scheduled for a January release.

To keep up with Muraoka's insistence on sets covered in rats, Daiei offers the public ¥50 for every rat they bring in. Cages of the animals soon fill a small warehouse. Takiyama completes the prop, and Daiei staff create a Mammoth Nezura puppet as well. The film's actors, including Utsumi, Michiko Ogata, Junko Kamei, and Schmidt, assemble for a table-read. Screenwriter Hasebe's story features the United States and the Soviet Union announcing a joint lunar expedition. Mikami Space Laboratory's experiments on rats, intended to create a new type of space food for the astronauts, instead produce ravenous monsters. The Nezura escape the lab and rampage through Tokyo. A Mammoth Nezura emerges and battles the smaller rats, with the JSDF ultimately killing them all.

However, the rats eventually become infected with fleas and disease, with many crew members forced to wear masks in filming. Tsukaji watches a televised interview between a famous special effects director and his son Azuma, who agree that the public's attention has shifted from film to television, and Tsukaji's mood sours further. Citizens living near the studio interrupt the shoot on October 25 in protest, concerned about the rats spreading disease.

On November 3, Daiei receives a stern letter from the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health recommending the termination of the film and the rats. A morose Yuichi complies. After Tsukaji immolates the rats the following day, he stands silently amidst one of the sets, then crushes one of the buildings in a fit of rage. Yukawa reflects in his documentary that even though Giant Horde Beast Nezura was a failure, it taught him a lot about filmmaking.

Yukawa visits Yuichi, who has been in poor health, at his home on January 3. The CEO happens upon a small spinning firework and Yukawa offers to light it. The firework's motion gives Yuichi an idea for a new monster spinning through the sky, and they rush off to Daiei to get to work.

Cast

Production

On December 7, 2020, Takuya Imahori and Michiaki Watanabe were announced as the film's composers.[19]

The plot focused on the production of Giant Horde Beast Nezura before the Gamera franchise, and various members of film crews and casts have previously participated in Gamera productions.[20] Its theme song Nezura March by Mach Fumiake was also a homage to Gamera March.[21]

No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Nezura March"Hiroto YokokawaTakuya Imahori1:21
2."Giant Horde Beast Nezura"Takeyuki TanokuraMichiaki Watanabe1:40
Total length:3:01

Release

Theatrical

Nezura 1964 was first released in Tokyo released on December 19, 2020. A month later, it was released nationwide on January 16, 2021.[1]

Home media

The film was released to DVD in Japan in January 2021[2] and will soon be released in North America by SRS Cinema.[22]

Giant Horde Beast Nezura

Giant Horde Beast Nezura[23] (大群獣ネズラ, Daigunjū Nezura; lit. 'The Great Rat Swarm') is an unfinished 1964 kaiju film directed by Mitsuo Murayama and produced by Daiei Film.The project was influenced by the concerned rat plague since 1949. The film's production was shut down by the health department because the wild brown rats used were escaping the set and had the potential to transmit disease to the surrounding area.[24] Despite the project's cancellation, the studio was not dissuaded from producing more kaiju films, and released Gamera, the Giant Monster which reused Giant Horde Beast Nezura's sets.[20]

The film developers were inspired by Hitchcock’s The Birds "animal attack" concept, but decided to replace birds with giant rats.[20]

Giant Sea Demon

As a precursor of Giant Horde Beast Nezura, there existed previous attempts by Daiei to produce its own monster movie since 1962, the year in which the company yielded the kaiju film The Whale God.[25]

The company was originally aiming to produce Unsinkable Battleship Musashi (Japanese: 不沈艦武蔵, Hepburn: Fuchinkan Musashi), a 70 mm film following Buddha (1961) and The Great Wall (1962). This project was eventually terminated due to a failed consensus to borrow a battleship from West Germany, with the purpose of replicating the Japanese battleship Musashi. In response to this, Daiei launched a tokusatsu project Giant Sea Demon (Japanese: 大海魔, Hepburn: Daikaima), in which a semiaquatic, giant mole monster "Moguran" the strange marine beast (Japanese: 怪海獣モグラン, Hepburn: Kaikaijū Moguran)[note 1] appears and battles a "Giant Octopus" (Japanese: 大ダコ, Hepburn: Ōdako). This again faced a course change, and its production was resumed as Giant Sea Demon Dagora (Japanese: 大海魔ダゴラ, Hepburn: Daikaima Dagora), alternatively as "Giant Demon Beast Dagora" (Japanese: 大魔獣ダゴラ, Hepburn: Daimajū Dagora),[4] a kaiju film theming a giant octopus "Dagora" (Japanese: ダゴラ).[26][3]

Following the failure to film it by using a live octopus, Giant Sea Demon Dagora became a basis for Giant Horde Beast Nezura, which eventually got derailed by repeating the same mistake to use live animals.[26][3]

In 1962, the year in which the project Giant Sea Demon was initially launched, Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla, and Ōdako a recurring octopus kaiju made its debut. There are several similarities between the both kaiju projects;[27] the two octopus monsters by both companies share the Japanese name "Ōdako", with the Toho character also having a similar subtitle "Sea Demon" (Japanese: 海魔, Hepburn: Kaima),[28] and both Giant Sea Demon Dagora and the 1962 Godzilla film utilized live octopuses for filming.[3][29] Following Daiei's termination of the Dagora project, Toho produced Dogora in 1964, where one of its English title was Dagora, the Space Monster.[27]

In the Gamera franchise, the term "Giant Demon Beast" (Japanese: 大魔獣, Hepburn: Daimajū) was also used for the Japanese title of Gamera vs. Jiger (1970), and Zedus, the antagonist kaiju of Gamera the Brave (2006) was also similarly entitled as "Sea Demon Beast" (Japanese: 海魔獣, Hepburn: Kaimajū) where the reptilian monster was also initially designed as a cephalopod.[3]

Yatsuashi

Following Nezura 1964, the director Yokokawa reused its props for a 2021 short film Yatsuashi (Japanese: ヤツアシ), which was based on Giant Sea Demon Dagora. It depicts a gigantic octopus to cause a havoc in Tokyo, where the monster was originally a titular company employee, who had been suffering strenuous power harassments and went missing at the seashore on the previous day. While originally scheduled to be released theatrically,[30] it was eventually released on YouTube.[31] Akin to both its motifs and Nezura 1964, the production was filmed with a live octopus.[4]

Legacy

A 2026 crowdfunded short film Uchinā Heroes introduced a brief reference to Nezura 1964.[32]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Moguran was supoosed to be a "kaijū" (Japanese: 海獣),[26] and the term itself signifies marine mammals in the Japanese.

References

 This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

  1. 1 2 3 "ABOUT". nezura1964.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  2. 1 2 Miller, Stephen (2020-01-25). "Lost Projects: Giant Horde Beast Nezura". The Kaijuologist. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Gamera the Brave Official Guide Book. ASCII Media Works. April 17, 2006. p. 60-64.
  4. 1 2 3 Nezura 1964 [@nezura1964] (February 10, 2021). 大映は『大群獣ネズラ』以前に本物のタコを用いた『大魔獣ダゴラ』という企画がありました。『ネズラ1964』では、この「ダゴラ」については割愛しましたが、代わりに同ミニチュアセットで横川監督による短編『ヤツアシ』を撮影しました。 (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved 2026-03-21 – via Twitter.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Makuake｜ガメラの原点！製作陣の挫折と奇跡を描く『ネズラ1964』を映画化したい！｜Makuake（マクアケ）". Makuake(マクアケ) (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  6. ↑ "米山冬馬インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  7. ↑ "大迫一平インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-10. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  8. 1 2 Natasha Inc. "「ネズラ1964」に佐野史郎と古谷敏が出演、「いちファンとして楽しみ」（動画あり）". 映画ナタリー (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  9. ↑ "佐野史郎インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  10. ↑ "佐藤昇インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  11. ↑ Natasha Inc. "「仮面ライダー555」の斉藤麻衣、「ネズラ1964」で約17年ぶり映画出演". 映画ナタリー (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  12. ↑ "斉藤麻衣インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  13. ↑ "Gamera Legend Mach Fumiake Joins Cast of NEZURA 1964!". SciFi Japan. 15 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "マッハ文朱インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-10. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  15. ↑ "菊沢将憲インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
  16. ↑ "小野ひまわりインタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-10. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  17. ↑ "古谷敏インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2023-03-16. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  18. ↑ "大橋明インタビュー". 映画『ネズラ1964』公式サイト (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  19. ↑ Natasha Inc. "串田アキラがシャウト、渡辺宙明とのタッグ曲を「ネズラ1964」に提供（動画あり）". 映画ナタリー (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  20. 1 2 3 Keith Aiken. "NEZURA 1964 -- Exclusive First Look At Concept Art For New Kaiju Movie!". SciFi Japan. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
  21. ↑ Nezura1964 Official X account, November 27, 2020, 本日11月27日は『大怪獣ガメラ』公開日！祝ガメラ55周年！そんな記念日に「ガメラマーチ」をオマージュした「ネズラマーチ」を大公開！是非お聴きください♪、X（Twitter）
  22. ↑ Keith. "SRS Cinema Secures THE GREAT BUDDHA ARRIVAL and NEZURA 1964 For North American Distribution!". SciFi Japan. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  23. ↑ LeMay, John (2019). The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films. Roswell, NM: Bicep Books. ISBN 978-1701683945.
  24. ↑ Supekutoru man vs raionmaru : Ushio sōji to pī puro no jidai. Tomio Sagisu. 太田出版. 1999. ISBN 4-87233-466-3. OCLC 676157356.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  25. ↑ Masumi Kaneda [@KanedaMasumi] [in Japanese] (July 15, 2021). "本日7月15日は『鯨神』公開59周年！1962年大映作品。芥川賞・宇能鴻一郎の原作を新藤兼人が脚色、田中徳三が監督。音楽・伊福部昭。造形は『マグマ大使』の大橋史典と『ウルトラマン』の高山良策。出演・勝新太郎、本郷功次郎、藤村志保、江波杏子、志村喬。見よ！夏の文芸怪獣映画！ #妖怪特撮映画祭" (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via Twitter.
  26. 1 2 3 Masumi Kaneda [@KanedaMasumi] [in Japanese] (March 19, 2026). "1963年の大映企画『大海魔ダゴラ』。タコは無理ということになり正月映画『大群獣ネズラ』の製作が決定。しかしネズミは更に難しく「ダニがわいた」を口実に中止。実際はこのまま撮影しても無理という会社判断。やがて1965年。今度はカメの怪物を、ということで11月に『大怪獣ガメラ』が誕生しました。" (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  27. 1 2 Masumi Kaneda [@KanedaMasumi] [in Japanese] (March 19, 2026). "かも？しれませんね。『大海魔ダゴラ』の企画翌年に東宝が『宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ』。さらに海外題名がドゴラではなくDAGORAだったりします。" (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  28. ↑ Cast Official [@kmff_n] (March 19, 2026). "【特撮のDNA】平成に受け継がれた"匠の夢"(7/14～明石市立文化博物館) 販売品の一例：明石と言えばタコ！会場限定ゴジラオーナメント特撮大百科Mini 海魔大ダコ1962、1965、1966！そしてちょっと遅れてあのタコも!? ご来場のお土産に是非。" (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  29. ↑ Yōichi, Iwasa [in Japanese] (2021-07-02). "『ゴジラvsコング』の原点『キングコング対ゴジラ』撮影秘話……敵の大ダコはその日のスタッフの夕食になっていた". Bunshun Online. Retrieved 2026-03-21.
  30. ↑ Nōmaru, Abe [@noumaruisgod] [in Japanese] (March 17, 2021). 以前ツイートでお知らせした、横川寛人監督のワークショップ制作映画「ヤツアシ」の3月の劇場公開は諸事情で延期になりました。でも近いうちには上映されると思います。今、色々横川監督が映画のグレードアップ中だそうです！私もラッシュを荒編した物しか観てないので、完成作品が本当に楽しみ！ (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved 2026-03-21 – via Twitter.
  31. ↑ Pal Entertainments Production [in Japanese] (February 4, 2026). "ショートムービー「ヤツアシ」" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2026-03-21 – via YouTube.
  32. ↑ Yokokawa, Hiroto [@hiroto3y] [in Japanese] (February 4, 2026). 沖縄発のオリジナルCG短編映画『ウチナー★ヒーローズ』! 只今クラファン中です! 実は予告4分の動画の中に、監督作『ネズラ1964』のポスターも映り込んでいます! ぜひ見つけてみてください (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved February 6, 2026 – via X (formerly Twitter).
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