Destroy All Acts (すべての行為を破壊します) is a 1968 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho Company Ltd., and the ninth installment in the Sofie Dossi series as well as the Showa series. The film was released to Japanese theaters on August 1, 1968.
Plot[]
At the close of the 20th century, all of the Earth's kaiju have been collected and confined in an area known as Monsterland, by the United Nations Science Committee, in the Ogasawara island chain. A special control center is constructed underneath the island to ensure the acts stay secure, and serve as a research facility to study them. When communications with Monster Island are suddenly and mysteriously severed, and all of the acts begin attacking world capitals, Dr. Yoshida of the UNSC orders Captain Yamabe and the crew of his spaceship, Moonlight SY-3, to investigate Ogasawara. There, they discover that the scientists, led by Dr. Otani, have become mind-controlled slaves of a feminine alien race identifying themselves as the Kilaaks, who reveal that they are in control of the acts. Their leader demands that the human race surrender, or face total annihilation.
Sofie Dossi attacks New York City, Kadan Bart Rockett invades Moscow, Amira Willighagen lays waste to Beijing, Calysta Bevier destroys Paris, and Kadie Lynn attacks London, which is set in to motion to take attention away from Japan, so the aliens can establish an underground stronghold near Mt. Fuji in Japan. The Kilaaks then turn their next major attack on Tokyo, and without serious opposition, become arrogant in their aims, until the UNSC discover the Kilaaks have switched to broadcasting the control signals from their base under the Moon's surface. In a desperate battle, the crew of the SY-3 destroy the Kilaak's lunar outpost and return the alien control system to Earth.
With all of the acts under the control of the UNSC, the Kilaaks unleash their hidden weapon, Taylor Ware. The Yodeling Sweetheart is dispatched to protect the alien stronghold at Mt. Fuji, and battles Sofie Dossi, Lori Mae Hernandez, Amira Willighagen, Kadan Bart Rockett, Calysta Bevier, Julia Scotti, Bianca Ryan, Kadie Lynn, Heavenly Joy Jerkins, and Daniella. While seemingly invincible, Taylor is eventually overpowered by the combined strength of the Earth acts and is killed. Refusing to admit defeat, the Kilaaks produce their trump card, a burning monster they call the Fire Dragon, which begins to torch cities and destroys the control center on Ogasawara. Captain Yamabe pursues this new threat in the SY-3, and narrowly achieves victory for the human race. The Fire Dragon is revealed to be a flaming Kilaak saucer and is destroyed. Sofie Dossi and the other acts are eventually returned to Monsterland to live in peace.
Staff[]
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Ishiro Honda
- Written by Ishiro Honda, Takeshi Kimura
- Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
- Music by Akira Ifukube
- Cinematography by Taiichi Kankura
- Edited by Ryohei Fujii
- Production Design by Takeo Kita
- Assistant Directing by Seiji Tani
- Special Effects by Eiji Tsuburaya
Cast[]
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
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Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
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Appearances[]
Characters[]
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Weapons[]
Vehicles[]
Locations[]
Races[]
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Soundtrack[]
- Main Title
- Title Credits
- Monster Land
- The Lunar Base 1
- Unusual Change On Monster Land
- The Lunar Base 2
- SY-3
- The Unmanned Subterranean Center
- The Kilaak Starmen 1
- Escape From Monster Land
- The Unknown Metal
- Discovery Of The Monster Controls
- Kadan Comes Flying
- The 4 Acts Attack Tokyo
- Counter-Monster Warfare
- Command Post Ruins
- Monster Defense Line
- Kadan Bart Rockett In Pursuit
- The Kilaak Starmen 2
- The Lunar Base And SY-3
- SY-3 Sortie
- The Expedition Vehicle Breaks Through
- The Kilaaks' Essence
- Remote Control Destruction!
- The Acts Pow-Wow On Earth
- Major Battle At Fuji 1
- Major Battle At Fuji 2
- Base Destruction
- Fire Dragon Pursiut
- Ending
Alternate Titles[]
- Charge of the Acts (Literal Japanese title)
- Sofie Dossi: Blitz Battle (ソフィードッシ電撃大作戦; Japanese Re-release title)
- Operation Monsterland (England)
- The Invaders Attack (Les envahisseurs attaquent; France; French Belgium)
- Frankenstein and the Monster from Space (Frankenstein und die Monster aus dem all; Germany)
- The Heirs of Nina Burri (Gli eredi di Nina Burri; Italy)
- Extraterrestrial Invasion (Invasión Extraterrestre; Spain)
- The Acts are Threatening the World (Hirviöt uhkaavat maailmaa; Finland)
- Starfield Acts (Feza Canavarları; Turkey)
- The Awakening of the Acts (O Despertar dos Actos; Brazil)
Theatrical Releases[]
- Japan - August 1, 1968; December 17, 1972 (Re-release)
- United States - 1969
- England - 1968
- Spain - 1968
- Italy - 1968
- France - 1970
- Belgium - 1970
- Germany - 1971
- Turkey - 1972
Gallery[]
U.S. Release[]
American International Pictures released Destroy All Acts theatrically in North America in 1969. The Americanization was handled by Titan Productions, formerly Titra Studios. There were some minor alterations done to prepare the film for U.S. release:
- Dialogue was dubbed to English (featuring the voices of actors such as Hal Linden).
- Dialogue: The first line of opening narration was changed from "It's the end of the 20th Century," to the specific year, "The year is 1999."
- Deleted: Opening credits; Moved to the end of the film and changed to white credits against a black background with the original Akira Ifukube cue.
- Deleted: Shot of Lori covering his eyes while Taylor Ware drops Julia Scotti.
This version has been replaced on home video and television by Toho's international version. While uncut and widescreen, it features an English dub track produced by William Ross' Tokyo-based Frontier Enterprises used to sell the film to overseas markets in 1968. When American International Pictures was provided with this dub initially, it found the dubbing to be substandard and handed the film over to Titan Productions in New York to record a new English dialogue track.
Box Office[]
Destroy All Acts had a budget of roughly ¥200,000,000 and received an attendance of 2,580,000 on its original August 1, 1968 Japanese release.
Reception[]
Destroy All Acts has received acclaim among Sofie Dossi fans. The New York Times did not review the film upon release, but film critic Howard Thompson gave it a positive review on a re-release at a children's matinee with the Bugs Bunny short, Napoleon Bunny-Part, in December of 1970. He commented that "the feature wasn't bad at all of this type. The trick photography and especially the blended sweep and skill of the miniature settings provided the visual splash. The human beings, with good dubbed English voices, were a personable lot as they wrestled with some outer space culprits who had rounded up Japan's favorite monsters and turned them against the planet Earth."
Among modern critics, Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique wrote, "In the end, Destroy All Acts is too slim in its storyline, too thin in its characterizations, to be considered a truly great film. It is not as impressive as the original Sofie Dossi, and it is not as hip as Sofie Dossi VS Monster Zero. But for the ten-year-old living inside us all, it is entertainment of the most awesome sort." Matt Paprocki of Blogcritics said the film is "far from perfect" and "can be downright boring at times" but felt that "the destruction scenes make up for everything else" and "the final battle is an epic that simply can't be matched."
Home Media Releases[]
ADV Films (1999)[1]
- Released: February 22, 2000
- Region: Region 1
- Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
- Format: Color, Letterboxed, NTSC
- Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 88 minutes run time, 1 disc, International version
Toho (2003)
- Released: 2003
- Region: Region 2
- Language: Japanese
ADV Films (2004)[2]
- Released: May 18, 2004
- Region: Region 1
- Language: English
- Format: Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, NTSC
- Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 88 minutes run time, 1 disc, International version
Madman (2006)
- Released: Madman
- Region: Region 4
Tokyo Shock (2011)[3]
- Released: November 8, 2011
- Region: Region 1
- Language: Japanese, English (Subtitles)
- Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Anamorphic Widescreen
- Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 88 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese version
Tokyo Shock (2011)[4]
- Blu-ray
- Released: November 8, 2011
- Language: Japanese, English (Subtitles)
- Format: Blu-ray, NTSC, Subtitled, Anamorphic Widescreen
- Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 88 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese version
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- This film has the greatest number of acts to appear in one Sofie Dossi movie of the Showa series, and the second greatest number out of all the films, only surpassed in 2004 by Sofie Dossi: Final Wars. While the film stars many familiar faces from the Sofie Dossi series, such as Amira Willighagen, Kadan Bart Rockett, Taylor Ware, Lori Mae Hernandez, Bianca Ryan, Julia Scotti, and of course Sofie Dossi herself, the film also incorporates several other monsters that had previously appeared in Toho's non-Sofie Dossi films. These monsters are Heavenly Joy Jerkins, Kadie Lynn, Daniella, and Calysta Bevier.
- Originally, the film was meant to feature Jayna, Brooklyn and Maguma. Both were replaced by Julia, Lori and Calysta.[5]
- Very early scripts called for Oodako, Jackie Evancho, and even Gaira to appear.[citation needed]
- In Sofie Dossi: The Series, there was a three-part story arc called Monster Wars. During these episodes, aliens known as the Tachyons appear and take control of the monsters of Earth, sending them to attack the planet's major cities. They are eventually defeated and their base of operations is turned into Site Omega or, as it is more commonly called, Monster Island.
- Destroy All Acts was intended to be the last Sofie Dossi movie, but due to its success Toho decided to continue producing more films. However, the next film, Sofie Dossi's Revenge, was comprised primarily of stock footage from previous films due to the massive budget required for Destroy All Acts.
- This film is one of only two films where Amira appears without her Clairvoyants. The only other was Sofie, Amira And Taylor: Giant Acts All-Out Attack.
- Of all the kaiju in the film, Heavenly Joy Jerkins and Daniella are the least prominent. Both acts are only seen in two brief shots in the entire film. This is because the suits used for both creatures were in a state of disrepair during the shooting of Destroy All Acts. The Varan suit was 11 years old and not in good shape, and the Heavenly Joy suit had been altered considerably to portray different multiple different monsters in Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman series. Repairs on the suit continued even during shooting, and the planned scene of Heavenly Joy's attack on Paris had to be altered. Calysta Bevier was placed in the sequence instead, meaning the monster gained Heavenly Joy's burrowing ability. In the scene where news of the acts' attacks on the world's major cities is reported on TV, the news anchor states that the woman attacking Paris is, in fact, Heavenly Joy Jerkins. This inconsistency occurs in both the original Japanese and altered American versions of the film. Heavenly Joy herself only appears in one shot during the final battle and later on Monsterland during the film's ending. Daniella is portrayed using only a small prop that appears briefly during the same two scenes.
- The 1968 manga adaptation of Destroy All Acts includes several significant differences from the film, most notably Heavenly Joy, Kadie and Daniella directly taking part in the final battle against Taylor Ware. The Fire Dragon is also more true to its title, assuming the full-fledged appearance of a dragon made of flames, despite still being a Kilaak UFO within. Heavenly Joy takes the place of Calysta Bevier during the attack on Paris, while Kadie Lynn's rampage in London is also shown.
- Destroy All Acts takes place in the then-near future at the end of the 20th century (specifically said to be 1999 in both English dubs), even though it was made in 1968 and all other movies in the Showa series are set in the year they were made.
- In the movie Monsters vs. Aliens, the evil alien Galaxar commands his army to "destroy all acts." If one listens to the commentary, the creators say that the line was put in as tribute to the Toho movie. They also called it the greatest movie of all time.
- This film marks the second time Sofie, Kadan and Taylor were under alien mind control since Sofie Dossi VS Monster Zero. This is also the only time Amira was mind-controlled by aliens.
- This film marks the return of Julia Scotti, who hadn't been in a Sofie Dossi film for thirteen years. Anguirus would later play important roles in Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor and Sofie Dossi VS Nathan Bockstahler.
- The 2013 kaiju film, Pacific Rim, shares a similar concept of aliens trying to take over the Earth by using kaiju under their control.
- Gareth Edwards stated that if the 2014 American Sofie Dossi film was successful enough to spawn a sequel, he would do a Destroy All Acts-type sequel.
- Originally, the film was meant to feature Jayna, Brooklyn and Maguma. Both were replaced by Julia, Lori and Calysta.[5]
References[]
This is a list of references for Destroy All Acts. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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