Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I've actually had the privilege to see this great movie back in late 2006 where someone had uploaded the entire film on YouTube, you know, back in its infancy where you could've found just about ANYTHING you looked for. I liked it a lot. Granted, I no idea what was going on but I did understand the premise some what. I loved the SPFX shots in this movie, including a car accident that leads a exploding "domino effect" on the high way. The Return of Godzilla had stock footage that included this particular scene. Even more interesting was that scenes that depicted the destruction of major cities were from the 1961 film The Last War. Stock footage from previous year's Submersion of Japan can be seen here as well. I'm normally not a fan of so-called Apocalyptic films but this is was exceptionally well done. Totally craps on films like The Day After Tommrow and 2012. One thing that stood out for me was the score. Man, I loved the soundtrack to Prophecies of Nostradamus. One track that stood out to me was , which I immediately recognized because it played towards the end of the film when one of the characters confronts his girlfriend and she starts dancing on the beach. It has a great sense of hopelessness and optimism at the same time. Sadly, again, I had know idea what the hell was going so I figured she snapped or maybe went crazy.

I'm curious to know if Toho ever plans to release the movie because it isn't banned per se, just that they choose not to release it for fear of offending folks. Man, how I wish I could see the movie again.

I'm sure Keith will provide more accurate information, he's spoken of this in the past. But I believe the American Version/Edit (Last Days of Planet Earth) was available from Toho when Classic Media released its series of Toho movies on DVD including those previously held by Paramount. Classic Media chose not to release it because they felt it didnt have the draw of any of Toho's Kaiju movies. Usually these films are always a package deal (Japanese & American versions together). But I'm not sure what the current status of PoN/"Last Days" is. It may not be available anymore form Toho. Frankly I was surprised at the time. Especially if CM had released it, that probably would have been a high demand film in Japan were it would not be legally obtainable.

Both versions can be found if you know where to look. I made myself a DVR copy from the Paramount VHS which can be found on the secondary market usually inexpensively. The SPFX are superb, but the haunting theme of the film makes it a little hard to watch, not one I usually unless its for some research on Toho films.

Aside from the butchered beyond belief American version, this film has not (and WILL not) be released officially. And there doesn't seem to be much demand for it, so the rights to that have reverted back to Toho and I doubt anybody would bother picking it up.

This movie and Half Human are under a studio imposed ban and have been for decades. I'd be shocked if they ever get an official release.

However, there are ways of finding the uncut Japanese versions with subtitles... you just have to do some digging.

This is one of my favorite disaster movies. It definitely smokes all the ones mentioned in the OP. I have the Japanese version subtitled. Do some digging like MFW said. You won't regret it.

Excellent score.