All Hail, the Monster King!
Director
Jun Fukuda
Cast
Akira Takarada - Yoshimura
Toru Watanabe - Ryôta Kane
Toru Ibuki - Yata Kane
Kumi Mizuni - Daiyo
Pair Bambi - the Shobijin
Jun Tazaki - Red Bamboo Commander
Released in the United States as "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster," the world had seen four Bond films by 1966.
Even the soundtrack kind of resembles Bond's famous theme. And the overall plot could easily be a 007 mission if Godzilla and the sea monster were not written in. I watched the Japanese version for this post.
The movie takes audiences firmly back to Earth after the space adventure seen in the last movie, "Invasion of Astro-Monster."
The movie starts off with a guy (how all good movies start) named Ryôta (Tôru Watanabe) who's looking for his brother Yata (Tôru Ibuki) who is lost at sea.
Ryôta and some of his buddies steal a yacht that they don't realize belongs to a bank robber.
When they board the boat, the robber happens to be on board as well.
After a few moments, he invites them to rest up before kicking them off.
While they're all sleeping, the boat sails off and they run into a giant lobster creature called Ebirah.
After it attacks their boat, they wash ashore on Letchi Island, which they initially think is deserted.
How wrong they are.
A terrorist group called "The Red Bamboo" is occupying the island with manufacturing facilities to make WMDs.
They also make this yellow chemical used to keep Ebirah away from their ships.
Ryôta and some of his buddies steal a yacht that they don't realize belongs to a bank robber.
When they board the boat, the robber happens to be on board as well.
After a few moments, he invites them to rest up before kicking them off.
While they're all sleeping, the boat sails off and they run into a giant lobster creature called Ebirah.
After it attacks their boat, they wash ashore on Letchi Island, which they initially think is deserted.
How wrong they are.
A terrorist group called "The Red Bamboo" is occupying the island with manufacturing facilities to make WMDs.
They also make this yellow chemical used to keep Ebirah away from their ships.
The movie takes us to an island we've seen before. Infant Island.
We've been there already in the 1961 movie "Mothra" and in "Mothra vs. Godzilla."
Most, if not all, of the natives from Infant Island are enslaved to the Red Bamboo. They hope that Mothra will someday soon awaken and rescue them.
Ryôta and his crew find a native girl named Daiyo (Kumi Mizuno), whom they befriend.
Godzilla soon sets his eyes on Daiyo and falls in love. Human females must be attractive across the spectrum of all giant monster species.
Most, if not all, of the natives from Infant Island are enslaved to the Red Bamboo. They hope that Mothra will someday soon awaken and rescue them.
Ryôta and his crew find a native girl named Daiyo (Kumi Mizuno), whom they befriend.
Together, they happen to stumble upon Godzilla sleeping deep within a cave. He had fought against King Ghidorah in the previous movie, "Invasion of Astro-Monster" (aka "Monster Zero"). In that movie, the monster Rodan grabs Godzilla and flies directly into King Ghidorah, causing all three monsters to fall over a cliff and into the water below. I guess this is why he's asleep? Honestly, I don't know.
So, they come up with the "brilliant plan" to wake him up so he can attack the Red Bamboo and save all the natives.
They do this by harnessing lightening with a metal rod, hoping the voltage will wake him up. And it does.
As soon as he's up, Godzilla immediately attacks Ebirah by hurling a boulder at him.
When Ebirah escapes, a random giant bird suddenly attacks Godzilla. I don't know who this bird is, nor what his motives are. I guess monster birds don't necessarily need motives. He doesn't appear again in the rest of the film.
The Red Bamboo send out fighter planes to attack Godzilla. But Godzilla takes them down, including the giant bird, with his atomic breath. Classic!
 |
| Godzilla battles Ebirah in "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep." |
Meanwhile, Yata is found among the natives and reunited with Ryôta. Together, they free all the slaves as Godzilla attacks the facilities operated by the Red Bamboo.
He then sets his sights on Ebirah and the two battle it out.
Mothra finally wakes up, and the natives eagerly await her help. When she flies to the island, Godzilla attacks as the two already have a sour history as seen in "Mothra vs. Godzilla." I'll add here that in "Ghidora: The Three-Headed Monster" Godzilla helps Mothra after she's nearly killed by King Ghidora. But who cares about continuity?
Mothra manages to fight off Godzilla, save her people, and flies back to her island.
Godzilla also escapes Letchi Island just before a giant bomb destroys the entire island.
Rather than carry out a monster brawl in Tokyo, the story takes place on an island out in the Pacific.
The original concept for this movie was to have King Kong battle Ebirah.
Toho later put Godzilla in Kong's place.
Toho later put Godzilla in Kong's place.
After "King Kong vs. Godzilla," Toho had permission from RKO Pictures to use Kong for the next five years. It carried over into 1967 when Toho released "King Kong Escapes."
As I mentioned, lightening is used to revive Godzilla. In "King Kong vs. Godzilla," Kong is awoken the same way. Incidentally, Frankenstein was originally meant to face off with Godzilla in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" but he was replaced by Kong. Hence, the electricity.
Evidently, Godzilla was supposed to perform a helicopter spin on Ebirah. The image exists only as a publicity still. That would have been great scene to include. Oh, what could have been!
Also, Godzilla's romantic blossoming at the sight of Daiyo resembles King Kong's love for the lady as depicted in all the Kong movies from 1933, to 1976, to 2005. After all is said and done, the movie is a let-down.
After 40 minutes, the only monsters we see are a sleeping Godzilla, a few quick scenes of Ebirah's giant lobster claw, and a sleeping Mothra.
Finally, after close to an hour, Godzilla wakes up. Right away, he approaches Ebirah, throws a boulder at him, and the two literally play a game of catch. It's confusing.
In the middle of things, a random giant bird suddenly flies into scene and attacks Godzilla. The fight between the two is terrible with the constant closeups and rapid cutaways, I couldn't tell what was happening.
When jet fighters start flying in to attack Godzilla, some out-of-place 60s music begins playing.
And Godzilla blindly flails his arms.
Godzilla and Ebirah do take the fight underwater. I appreciate the work that went into this one scene in order to make the brawl different from what we've seen in the previous movies. Still, the camera work is bad making it difficult to watch.
One scene in which Ebirah attacks a military boat out in the ocean reminds me of childhood bath time.
Surely, many a child imagined themselves as a sea monster as they attacked their bath toys. This is the movie that planted that image...I'm sure of it.
Godzilla's costume looks like its falling apart. You can see pieces of rubber dangling off the suit in some scenes.
"Ebirah, Horror of the Deep" is the first in the franchise to have Jun Fukuda in the director's chair.
He went on to direct "Son of Godzilla," "Godzilla vs. Gigan," "Godzilla vs. Megalon" and "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla."
Story-wise, it's alright. But audiences want to see monsters, especially Godzilla. It's another wrestling match. The action doesn't happen until near the end of the movie. So, audiences who just want to see the fight have to sit through the rest of the movie before the real action takes place. That's disappointing.
No comments:
Post a Comment