Raiga is Here!

We've been talking about Raiga, the Monster From the Deep Sea [aka Shinkaijû Raiga] (Japan-2009; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya) for sometime now -- just check out these posts from Undead Backbrain and Undead Brainspasm!

Hayashiya's follow-up to his own confusingly titled Shinkaijû Reigô [aka Deep Sea Monster Reigo; Reigo vs. Yamato; Reigo the Deep Sea Monster vs. The Battleship Yamato] (2008/2005) is at last coming to DVD.

Synopsis:

Sixty years after the monster Reigo battled the famous Yamato battleship on the high seas, global warming causes the southern polar ice cap to gradually melt, disrupting the ecosystem and luring ancient sea monsters to Japan. An enormous sea monster called Raiga enters Asakusa from the Sumida River and begins to rampage through the city. The army is called into action.

Already available even in the West, is the soundtrack for Raiga -- and Kaiju Search-Robot Avery reckons the image suggests the existence of a "Mecha-Raiga" who "flies like Gamera":

Hmmm, I guess we'll see.

You can download the album from Amazon UK now.

Meanwhile, here's the main theme song, performed live by a typically perky J-Pop girl group, the members of whom also feature in the film:

Beloq are some production pics. It's always cute to see shots of the director and crew interacting eye-to-eye with giant monsters:

Raiga to Hayashiya-san: "Hey, can't you read no-smoking sign!"

"Help! I'm being absorbed into Raiga!"

On set

"Can someone show me to my dressing room?"

Raiga has already inspired some excellent fan art, not least of which is this sculpture by "Fossy" (see more of it here):

And for those of you who can read Japanese, here's a one-sheet advertisement for the film (click to enlarge):

• Sources: Raiga Blog; Starchild Raiga Pages; Official Raiga website; Magical Face and various other.
• Research: Avery Guerra  |  Writing: Robert Hood

Addendum:

Update: Death Kappa images

Death Kappa (Japan-2010; dir. dir. Tomoo Haraguchi) is a new kaiju film that uses traditional suitmation methods to create its giant monsters in retro 1960s style and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray in the West. Check out the original Undead Backbrain article and these Brainspasm postings for details on this most recent Gojira wannabe.

Below we provide a bunch of images from the film, including funky new cover art, though I'm uncertain what it's for as the DVDs are already out and appear to sport the above image.

Image Gallery:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Sources: SciFi Japan; Subway Cinema; DeVilDead (which includes a review, in French); Variety
• Images gathered by Avery Guerra (aka Kaiju Search-Robot Avery). Text: Robert Hood

More Shark Bait

If it's not snakes, it's giant mutated sharks! After Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus (US-2009; dir. Ace Hannah), Sharktopus (US-2010; dir. Declan O’Brien), and news of Swamp Shark (US-2011; dir. Griff Furst), Ghost Shark 2: Urban Jaws (NZ-[in development]; dir. Andrew Todd and Johnny Hall) and Fred Olen Ray's Super Shark, now we're told that the less-than-awesomely-titled Psycho Shark -- a Japanese addition to the meme -- is about to be released to DVD.

The question is, does this poster give a true indication of the shark's size? If so, I'm there!

Addendum: Apparently the size as indicated here is accurate. Here are a few indicative screenshoots, courtesy of Agressions Animales:

Called "Jaws in Japan" in its home country, the film has been given the title Psycho Shark to avoid unnecessary litigation problems that might arise from copyright infringement relating to Mr Spielberg's 1975 mega-hit. Meanwhile, Japanese publicity for Psycho Shark (Japan-2009; dir. John Hijiri) is emphasising the non-acting attractions of its two female leads more than it is the actual title monster -- both of them (Nonami Takizawa and Airi Nakajima, that is) being "bikini models" (see SciFi Japan for visual details, plus the image above).

They may very well provide some compensation in the event that the film is otherwise as bad as Japanese reviews have suggested it is.

• Source: SciFi Japan