Known in Japan as Uchū Daikaijū Girara (Giant Space Monster Guilala), this film is Shochiku’s first monster movie and very well may be the first Japanese film to feature a woman — Peggy Neal — with blonde hair.
It’s also the first appearance of Guilala, one of the wackiest looking kaiju you’ve ever done seen.
The spaceship AAB Gamma is on its way to Mars to check out UFO sightings when it gets sprayed with spores that develop into the giant lizard known as Guilana, a monster that spits fire, eats nuclear power, can turn into a burning ball of light and can only be defeated by Guilalalium, which turns it back into a spote that gets shot around the sun.
In the 1990s after Nikkatsu Co. — who made Gappa, the Triphibian Monster — out of business, Shochiku announced Gappa vs. Guilala, which sadly never happened.
There was, however, Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit, a movie in which Guilala attacks world leaders and KIm Jon Il tries to fire nukes at him.