MONSTER X STRIKES BACK: ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT (Japan, 2008)
Directed by: Minoru Kawasaki
Starring: Yosuke Natsuke, Susumu Kurobe, Takeshi Kitano

Best-known for absurdist, special effects-heavy comedies such as EXECUTIVE KOALA and THE WORLD SINKS EXCEPT JAPAN, director Minoru Kawasaki has re-teamed with screenwriter Masakazu Migita (CALAMARI WRESTLER) for a hilarious long-awaited romp through kaiju territory with MONSTER X STRIKES BACK: ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT!

World leaders have assembled in Kyoto for the annual G8 Summit Meeting, but as the assembly spirals into bickering; an enormous alien being appears in the distance and begins to lay waste to Japan. It’s now up to Earth’s eight greatest leaders to devise their best possible plan of attack to stop this beast – or the civilized world could collapse under the creature’s might.

First seen in 1967’s THE X FROM OUTER SPACE, Guilala (who occasionally goes by easier-to-pronounce Monster X) makes his welcome return to the big screen with ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT… but this alien behemoth has picked up a fair amount of slapstick in the 42 years he’s been gone. Playing on his comedic strength, director Kawasaki delivers this giant monster attack purely for yuks, complete with a fresh version of Guilala who laughs, dances, and passes sizable amounts of gas in-between destroying high-rises and spitting napalm.

The cast (which contains, among others, BATTLE ROYALE 2’s Natsuki Katō and pop star Kazuki Kato) have a blast hamming it up, while veteran kaiju actor Hurricane Ryu’s Guilala manages to be half-homage while consistently remaining all-funny. The largely English-speaking members of the G8 Summit won’t be winning any Oscars for their repartee, but when the French President asks a translator if he can put his Eiffel Tower in her Arc de Triomphe, its time to turn off your brain, toss your preconceptions out the window and wallow in the most politically incorrect heads of state ever set to screen. 

During the film’s equally over-the-top finale, as X faces off against the similarly powerful kaiju Takemajin (voiced by the legendary Takeshi Kitano), it’s genuinely hard to decide just what monster you’re rooting for… but as long as you’re laughing at the lunacy of it all, ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT is accomplishing precisely what it set out to do.