Quest for the Masks


 * This article is about the 1981 film. For the 1998 film, see The Quest for the Masks.

Quest for the Masks (also known as Bionicle 1 and Bionicle: The Coming of the Toa in Europe) is a 1981 Vlokozuian science-fiction action tokusatsu superhero film. It is the sixth Technic Heroes installment and the first Bionicle installment. Quest for the Masks is considered to be El TV Kadsre's greatest film ever made and saved the studio from bankruptcy, and it spanned six sequels, two prequels, one reboot and one remake.

The film was a critical and financial success, and received universal acclaim from critics. USAToday stated that this was one of the greatest films ever made. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Best Visual Effects.

Plot
The Fujioka family members, Icriro, Mizuki, Ren, Jiro and Hana travel to the local hall near El Kadsre City. They soon run into trouble when the mysterious force occur, which almost made Ichiro collide with a truck, then barely getting the group to safety to the hall. As they entered the hall, Jiro encountered Andy, one of his friends, who gave Jiro an audio cassette player and the blank clear compact cassette.

As Jiro enters the restroom, he inserts the compact cassette and played it. However, when Jiro plays it, he hears an unknown man who recorded the tape, reciting a series of incantations, resurrecting the all-powerful being known as the Makuta - alleged to have cast the Great Spirit Mata Nui (a venerated being of whom the island is named after) into a deep sleep. A large group of Rahi crashes the ball party in the hall and attacking everybody in the hall.

Now, Makuta has taken control of the Rahi, the island's fauna, to attack the people and the suburbs of El Kadsre City.

Tahu - Toa of Fire; Gali - Toa of Water; Lewa - Toa of Air; Onua - Toa of Earth; Pohatu - Toa of Stone and Kopaka - Toa of Ice. Carrying formidable tools to channel their elemental energies and donning great 'Kanohi' masks of power, the Toa remember nothing of their former lives except their names. Prior to meeting each other, they rebuild themselves on the seashores and travel to one of the six villages in the country, where they learn of the people's war against the Rahi.

The Toa soon join the conflict, and with the aid of the people and their Turaga leaders, begin searching for more Kanohi masks, each of which possesses a different ability. Collecting six each, they exchange their masks for Golden Kanohi that carry the power of all their former ones and descend underground to face Makuta.

Prior to arriving at the villain's lair, they form two Toa Kaita (titan beings created when Toa fuse together) to challenge Makuta's Manas crabs and battle dark manifestations of themselves dubbed "Shadow Toa". When the Toa arrive, Makuta appears in the form of a Matoran to trick them, but then transforms into a swirling vortex of tentacles and rusty machine parts. They defeat the Makuta by combining their elemental powers onto him.

Triumphant, the heroes return to the surface. But Jamie, having secretly followed the Toa down, discovers a large hive of cocoons hidden away from the battle site. He sees one burst open but quickly escapes back to the surface before he can learn more.

Cast

 * Hideki Hamasaki as Jiro Fujioka/Tahu
 * Jonacus Reinder as Adam Jullen/Kopaka
 * Yasi Tanaka as Hana Fujioka/Gali
 * Sylvester Jalen as Andrea Hashimoto/Lewa
 * Hank Jeroem as Mick Kendal/Pohatu
 * Dean Norman as Jarrod Baxter/Onua
 * Heinrich Hashikawa as Turaga Vakama
 * Bruno Jones as Turaga Nuju
 * Maja Prebensen as Turaga Nokama
 * Taichi Yamaguchi as Turaga Matau
 * Stephan Parke as Turaga Onewa
 * Noach Irwin as Turaga Whenua
 * Andy Wilson as Jamie Howard
 * Antanico Matsushita as Akita Maximino
 * Goro Yukimura as Hiroshi Yoshimura
 * Phillip Stringer as Leo Terrell
 * Zlata Lugnov as Irwin Davey/The Unknown Thief
 * Shota Kita as Yasu Yoshimura
 * Kruku Makusa as Em Yoshimura
 * Norm Linville as Branson Ward
 * Darren Nye as Andie Wilson
 * Kornel Sasha as Vít Zelenka
 * Halcyone Ferrara as Aquila Hadaway
 * Ryouichi Andrews as Kouji Nishimura
 * August Andreasen as Darren Lange
 * Velibor Košar as Bož Bo Petrović
 * Mark Fitzroy as Derrick Jennings
 * Geoffrey West as Andy Patterson
 * Hiroshi Fujioka as Icriro Fujioka
 * Susumu Takahashi as Ren Fujioka
 * Tomomi Koizumi as Mizuki Fujioka
 * Dani Wolters as Dirk Brant
 * as Hiro "Grandpa Hiro" Fujioka

Filming
The movie was filmed from October 29, 1979, to January 10, 1980, and again from April 22 to August 20, 1980. Elkan thought the film would likely be in development limbo or more likely to be cancelled due to the death of Hayato Nakahara, the original actor of Jiro Fujioka aka. Tahu, in which he and his girlfriend were killed in the car collision on January 12, 1980.

After El TV Kadsre's reaction to Hayato's death, El TV Kadsre set up the audition contest to take the role of Jiro Fujioka including Ryoichi Yamaguchi, Kuro Yukimura, Kouki Yamashita, Gerald Hayashi and Donald Hijoshi. The winner of the contest was Hideki Hamasaki, who was at the film class in North Cliffstown Secondary College at the time.

Some of the actors were redubbed by American crew for the North American release (Example: Geoffrey West is redubbed by Dwight Schultz)

Box office
The film was released on May 12, 1981 in the Vlokozu Union. The film was originally going to be released on December 25, 1980 but it was pushed back after the death of Hayato Nakahara. The film grossed $104 million on its opening weekend and grossed $1.005 billion that year, making it the first-ever highest-grossing film to reach the one billion dollar mark and it is El TV Kadsre's highest-grossing film to its day adjusted for inflation.

Home media
The film was first released on VHS, CED, Betamax and Laserdisc by El TV Kadsre Home Video on October 16, 1981 in the Vlokozu Union while it was released in the United States by MCA Videocassette Inc on December 3, 1981. It was first released on DVD on June 10, 1997.

Reception
Quest for the Masks was met with universal critical acclaim, and was highly regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. Quest for the Masks revolutionized the Vlokozuian film industry and saved El TV Kadsre from bankruptcy. The film holds 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, 99% on IMDB and 98% on Google. Additionally, the film got a perfect score of 100 on Metacritic, making this the first film on Metacritic to get a perfect score. The film was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture at the 54th Academy Awards, but lost to David Puttnam's Chariots of Fire.