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Monster Mondays: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)

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By Ben Dower

The United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Centre’s G-Force unit has built two new battle machines using the futuristic technology found in Mecha-King Ghidorah.  One is an aerial combat vehicle called Garuda, and the second is Mechagodzilla.

On Adonoa Island in the Bering Sea, an unfossilized Pteranodon egg is discovered.  As the research team is preparing to take the egg back to Japan, they are attacked by Rodan.  Suddenly Godzilla emerges from the sea and battles Rodan, killing it.  While the monsters are distracted by their fight, the team flees the island with the egg.

Back in Kyoto, scientist Azusa Gojo (Ryoko Sano) is studying the egg.  Mechagodzilla pilot Kazuma Aoki (Masahiro Takashima), who loves Pteranodons, skips out of work to see the egg.  The egg soon hatches, but instead of a Pteranodon, a Baby Godzilla emerges.

Godzilla appears at Yokkaichi and Mechagodzilla is dispatched.  A replacement pilot has to be found last minute for Kazuma, much to the frustration of his co-pilots.  Mechagodzilla battles Godzilla, but is defeated.  Godzilla heads to the Kyoto facility where Baby Godzilla is being kept.  Unable to get to the infant in the basement of the facility, Godzilla heads out to sea.

Psychic Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka) has found that some prehistoric ferns on Baby Godzilla’s egg shell contained some sort of psychic song.  She has a group of girls from an ESP centre sing the song for Baby Godzilla, but it seems to only agitate him.  On Adonoa Island, however, the song has revived Rodan.

A plan is made to use Baby Godzilla to lure Godzilla to a remote island where he can be killed by Mechagodzilla.  As part of the plan, Miki will be needed on Mechagodzilla to locate Godzilla’s secondary brain in his spine.  Miki and Azusa object to the plan, but are overruled.

Azusa gets clearance to travel in the container with Baby Godzilla by helicopter, but the helicopter is suddenly attacked by Rodan.  The container is taken to Chiba by the monster, who then tries to break it open to get Baby Godzilla out.  Mechagodzilla and Garuda are sent, and Rodan is seriously injured.  Before Azusa and Baby Godzilla can be freed from the container, however, Godzilla emerges.

Despite feeling uncomfortable with the plan, Miki helps Mechagodzilla kill Godzilla.  Hearing Godzilla’s cries, Baby Godzilla calls out.  Rodan awakens and sacrifices himself, transferring his remaining energy into Godzilla.  Godzilla revives, super-charged, and destroys Mechagodzilla.  He then collects Baby Godzilla and the two monsters head out to sea.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II is arguably one of the best Godzilla movies of the Heisei series, packed with likable characters, a fun story, great special effects, and a lot of monster action.  It also brings back three classic Toho monsters: Mechagodzilla, Rodan and Minya, here reimagined as the much more grounded Baby Godzilla.

Takao Okawara was given the director’s chair once again, and Wataru Mimura was given the writing duties.  Mimura’s story is fun and engaging, keeping a great balance between the human characters and their monster co-stars, something helped by the inclusion of Baby Godzilla within those more human-oriented scenes.

Akira Ifukube also returns to score his third Heisei Godzilla movie, and he delivers a fatastic soundtrack.  Not only are his classic Godzilla and Rodan themes back, but he also writes brand new themes for Baby Godzilla and Mechagodzilla.  His theme for Mechagodzilla is particularly good, balancing the sense of power and weight of the robot with the wonder such a device should inspire.  Another standout piece is the music for Godzilla’s battle with Rodan on Adonoa island, which alternates beautifully between Godzilla’s theme and Rodan’s theme as the monsters clash.

Mechagodzilla is a truly fantastic update of the character.  Rather than being built by alien invaders this time around, the film takes the more rational route and has Mechagodzilla produced on Earth as an anti-Godzilla weapon.  The idea of using the technology found in Mecha-King Ghidorah is a really good one as it helps explain how this high-tech super-weapon was able to be built in 1994.  Mechagodzilla is less angular than his 1970s counterpart in this film, and moves a lot slower and more robotic, giving a real impression of weight and strength.

Thematically, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II isn’t all that deep.  Though the theme of the film is stated outright by one of the characters rather awkwardly as “life against artificial life”, the movie really seems to be addressing the value of life.  When it is decided that Baby Godzilla will be used as an “asset” to lure Godzilla, Azusa remarks that he is not just an asset, but a living being.  Miki also has reservations about the plan to kill Godzilla, and though she ultimately does what her superiors command, it’s clear she feels great guilt for her role in it.

Toho had Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II dubbed into English in Hong Kong and the film was released to VHS in North America in 1999 by Columbia TriStar Home Video.  This release was an English dubbed full screen version of the film that cut off the end credits, which featured video of Godzilla and Baby Godzilla swimming out to sea.  The film was later released on DVD in 2005 in widescreen with both the English dubbed audio track and the Japanese audio, though the English subtitles provided on the disc are based on the dubbing rather than a proper translation of the Japanese dialogue.  There appears to have been another English dub produced for the film as well, though it doesn’t seem to have been released.

In 2014, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II was released to Blu-ray in a double-feature set with Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla(1994) by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Both films get their own disc, and are presented in widescreen with the original Japanese audio and English dub as audio options.  The full end credits are also preserved this time, though translated into English.  Unfortunately the subtitles are largely based off the dub again.  The DVD and Blu-ray releases appear to still be available.

Monster Mondays: Godzilla vs. King Ghidora (1991)

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By Ben Dower

In 1992, writer Kenichiro Teresawa (Kōsuke Toyohara) is working on a book called The Birth of Godzilla, which details his theory that a dinosaur on Lagos Island that saved a Japanese unit during WWII was irradiated by H-bomb tests and turned into Godzilla.

A time machine from the 23rd century appears in Japan and onboard are Wilson (Chuck Wilson), Glenchiko (Richard Berger), and Emi Kanno (Anna Nakagawa), as well as several androids, including one called M-11 (Robert Scottfield).  The Futurians warn that Godzilla will soon destroy Japan and offer to go back in time to prevent the monster’s creation.

Emi and M-11 go back to 1944, taking with them Teresawa, Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka), and Professor Masaaki (Katsuhiko Sasaki), and witness the dinosaur battle U.S. forces on Lagos Island, saving the Japanese unit on the island.  The unit, led by Yasuaki Shindo (Yoshio Tsuchiya), pays their respects to the injured dinosaur and leaves the island.  M-11 teleports the dinosaur away from the island and Emi secretly release three small creatures called Dorats there.  Upon their return to the present, Wilson and Glenchiko inform them that Godzilla is gone, but a new monster has appeared: King Ghidorah.

King Ghidorah attacks Fukuoka, devastating the city and nearly killing Yasuaki Shindo, who is now a very successful businessman.  It turns out Wilson and Glenchiko are controlling King Ghidorah, which was once the three Dorats, and want to use him to prevent Japan from ascending to economic world dominance.  Emi, not realizing the full extant of Wilson and Glenchiko’s plan, reprograms M-11 in a mission to stop them.

Teresawa does some investigating and finds out a nuclear submarine sunk in the area they had teleported the dinosaur too, creating Godzilla anyways.  Godzilla emerges in Hokkaido and the Futurians send King Ghidorah to attack him.  Emi, M-11, and Teresawa destroy the computer being used to control King Ghidorah, giving Godzilla the upperhand.  They then teleport the time machine to Godzilla, who destroys it, killing Wilson and Glenchiko.  Godzilla blasts King Ghidorah with his atomic breath, sending the dragon plummeting into the ocean, and then attacks Sapporo.  

Emi goes back to the 23rd century and turns the remains of King Ghidorah into a giant cyborg called Mecha-King Ghidorah.  She brings Mecha-King Ghidorah back to 1992 and confronts Godzilla in Shinjuku, Tokyo, eventually carrying the monster out to sea.  She ditches Godzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah in the ocean and heads back to 23rd century.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is a fascinating if somewhat muddled movie.  While The Return of Godzilla (1984) and Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) had been rather serious scifi films, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah injects much of the classic 1960s-style fun back into the series, and brings back arguably Godzilla’s most popular foe in the process.  The movie also maintains Godzilla’s core anti-nuclear themes while addressing Japan’s incredible post-war economic rise.

Composer Akira Ifukube returns to score his first Heisei Godzilla series film.  Ifukube had scored around half of the Showa Godzilla series films, including Godzilla (1954), as well as a lot of Toho’s other monster films.  His familiar musical cues for the monsters really add to the classic feel of this movie.

For his return to the big screen for the first time since the 1970s, King Ghidorah was given a makeover and all-new origin.  The new look is a rather simple but nice update of the Showa design, with horns replacing the hair behind each of the heads and spikes added to the two ends of the tail.  The new origin, in which King Ghidorah is the result of three small genetically engineered creatures mutating and fusing after exposure to an H-bomb test, is much more complicated than in the Showa series, and quite frankly just doesn’t work as well.

Godzilla also gets a revised origin, albeit a little less so than King Ghidorah.  In 1954, the big concern was nuclear weapons, but by the 1990s, nuclear energy was being used for all sorts of things and there had been a handful of nuclear accidents.  In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla being recreated after his removal from history through an accident involving a nuclear submarine is not just a warning against nuclear weapons, but also a warning against our increasing use of nuclear energy in our everyday lives.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah looks at Japan’s economic growth in the years since the war, particularly through the character of Yasuaki Shindo.  When the war ended in 1945, Japan was completely devastated.  By the mid-1980s, just four decades later, Japan was an economic powerhouse, with the Nikkei hitting its peak in late 1989.  By the time Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah hit theatres on December 14, 1991, the Japanese bubble economy had begun to burst.  Yasuaki Shindo is a World War II soldier turned businessman who helped rebuild Japan to prosperity in the decades after the war, only to live long enough to see Godzilla, the same creature who had saved him in 1944, begin to destroy everything he had worked for.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah sparked controversy in the United States upon its release in Japan due to its portrayal of Westerners trying to sabatoge Japan’s success and Godzillasaurus slaughtering U.S. soldiers on Lagos Island.  Tensions were high between Japan and the United States at the time due to Japan’s economic strength and some American news outlets ran stories about the film.

Toho had Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah dubbed into English in Hong Kong and the film was released to VHS and DVD in North America in 1998 by Columbia TriStar Home Video.  Both the VHS and DVD offer an English dubbed full screen version of the film that cuts off the end credits, which featured video of Godzilla under the sea.  To make matters worse, the DVD is a double-sided disc with Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992), making it difficult to handle and easy to get dirty or damaged. 

In 2014, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah was released to Blu-ray in a double-feature set with Godzilla vs Mothra (1992) by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.  Fortunately, both films get separate discs this time around, and are presented in widescreen with the original Japanese audio and English dub as audio options, though the end credits are still truncated.  All North American releases of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah are currently out of print.

Monster Mondays: Jurassic Park III (2001)

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With the success of The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), it seemed pretty obvious that film would not be the last in the franchise.  In June 1998, a third Jurassic Park film was confirmed by Universal Pictures, with a release targeted for the summer of 2000.  Unfortunately, the same big problem that faced the writers for the previous film remained: what could possibly happen next?

With no third novel on which to base the new film, the plan was to bring Michael Crichton on to write the script. Crichton, however, left the project very early on to continue working on writing novels.  Likewise, Steven Spielberg decided not to return as director, insteading becoming the executive producer and passing the baton to director Joe Johnston, who had made the successful Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and Jumanji (1995).

Writing the film proved to be a major challenge.  The script went through several reworkings, even after construction had begun on sets and casting had started.  In the end, principal photography commenced without a finalized script.

The basic premise of the film is pretty simple.  A wealthy couple hire Dr. Alan Grant and his assistant, Billy Brennan, to join them on a chartered flight over Isla Sorna so that he can teach them about the dinosaurs they see.  When they get to Isla Sorna, however, the plane lands.  The couple, it turns out, are not wealthy.  They are actually divorced and have come to the island to search for their missing son.  Of course, they all end up stranded on the island together and have to find a way to get off before they are eaten by the island’s dinosaur residents.

Despite the issues in the writer’s room, Jurassic Park III is a brisk and fun little adventure film.  Though it lacks the depth of the previous two movies, the film delivers on dinosaur action sequences.  Stan Winston’s animatronics are top notch, with the gigantic Spinosaurus being an awe-inspiring practical special effect.  The final encounter our protagonists have with the Spinosaurus happens in a river, and the animatronic is truly life-like as it thrashes and splashes around alongside the human actors.  The CGI is also pretty good for the most part, though it is noticeably weak in a few shots.

While The Lost World: Jurassic Park brought back Ian Malcolm and John Hammond from the first film, with Lex and Tim Murphy getting a small cameo, Jurassic Park III brings back Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, with both Sam Neill and Laura Dern returning to reprise their roles.  It is nice to be reunited with these two characters again, though fans were a little disappointed to learn that Dr. Sattler had married some boring bureaucrat rather than Dr. Grant.  

Replacing the Tyrannosaurus rex as starring carnivore this time is the Spinosaurus, a decision I think was a bit of a mistake.  Spinosaurus was first described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915 from very incomplete remains discovered in Egypt in 1912.  In April 1944, this only specimen of Spinosaurus was destroyed as Britain bombed Munich.  Only a handful of highly incomplete Spinosaurus specimens were found in the years between World War II and the making of Jurassic Park III, meaning very little was known about the dinosaur prior to the making of the film.

New discoveries in the years since Jurassic Park III was released has shown that the depiction of Spinosaurus in the movie is terribly inaccurate.  We now believe Spinosaurus was semiaquatic and hunted primarily fish.  In keeping with this semiaquatic lifestyle, Spinosaurus was adapted to live in the water much more so than it was for living on land.  It had shorter hind legs than most other therapods, meaning it was probably not a very fast runner, and it had a flat, paddle-like tail to help with swimming.  The shape of the sail on its back is now also believed to be much different than the semi-circle shown in the movie.  Perhaps one of the most controversial moments in a Jurassic Park film comes when the Spinosaurus battles and kills a Tyrannosaurus rex, impossibly snapping the Tyrannosaurus’ muscular neck with its narrow fish-catching jaws.

Also getting its chance to shine is the pterosaur Pteranodon, which briefly appeared in the final shot of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  Despite the name Pteranodon literally meaning “wing toothless”, the animals on screen are depicted as having sharp teeth lining the inside of their beaks.  Similar to Spinosaurus, Pteranodon was actually primarily a piscivore and spent its life in and around water.  Still, there is no denying the scene in the aviary is one of the highlights of the film. Interestingly, this scene is adapted from a scene in the first Jurassic Park novel that did not make it into the earlier movies.

Where Jurassic Park III really falters, however, is its ending.  After returning some stolen eggs to a Velociraptor pack, the characters run out of the jungle and are greeted by the military.  After all that had come before, including two major clashes with the Spinosaurus, it all just feels anti-climatic.  Worse yet is the reappearance of Billy, who is all bandaged up in the military helicopter after his encounter with the Pteranodon.  It feels a little too neat and tidy, and it lacks any final sense of tension.

Jurassic Park III is a deeply flawed Jurassic Park sequel which likely suffers from its inability to pin down a final script before shooting started.  Its portrayal of the Spinosaurus borders on crossing the line from animal to monster, and its lackluster ending sucks the air out of its sails rather than leaving a strong last impression with viewers.  Still, the film is fun, and its short running time keeps the movie from becoming bogged down.  While not as strong as the previous two films in the franchise, Jurassic Park III is an entertaining movie that is definitely worth watching.

Monster Mondays – The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

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By Ben Dower

When Jurassic Park hit screens in 1993, the film not only wowed audiences with its realistic looking dinosaurs, but also made a fortune at the box office. Almost immediately it seemed that a second Jurassic Park film would be inevitable, but there was a big challenge facing the writers: what could possibly happen next?

Author Michael Crichton was initially not too keen on writing a sequel for Jurassic Park, but he eventually decided to write a follow-up, titled The Lost World after the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book of the same name. Crichton’s The Lost World novel was loosely adapted to film by director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp, and was released to movie theatres in May 1997 as The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The film was an instant hit upon its release, smashing several box office records.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a mixed bag. The core of the film’s story is that two rival teams – the hunters and the gatherers – have arrived on Isla Sorna. The hunters come from InGen and they want to trap some of the dinosaurs to take them to a new Jurassic Park facility in San Diego. This would allow InGen to recoup some of the money lost by the failure of Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar. The gatherers, meanwhile, were sent by John Hammond in an attempt to thwart the hunters and allow the dinosaurs to live free on Isla Sorna. The gatherer team is meant to be our heroes and consists of Dr. Ian Malcolm, Dr. Sarah Harding, Nick Van Owen, and Eddie Carr. Kelly Curtis, Ian’s young daughter, also joins the gatherers after she stows away on the ship to Isla Sorna to be with her dad.

Jeff Goldblum returns to the role of Dr. Ian Malcolm for a second time. The character was very well- liked by audiences in the first film, with his funny but insightful philosophical musings helping to carry the key messages of the film. Crichton wisely resurrected the character for his The Lost World novel, and Spielberg and Koepp had the good sense to follow Crichton’s lead and keep Malcolm as the protagonist of their film adaptation.

Another standout from the cast is Pete Postlethwaite who plays Roland Tembo, an experienced hunter who has been hired by InGen to run their expedition to the island. The reason Tembo took the job is because he wants the chance to hunt the ultimate predator: Tyrannosaurus rex. Postlethwaite is fantastic in the role, and the character of Roland Tembo has become a fan favourite, even getting a new toy in 2022 as part of Mattel’s Jurassic World Legacy Collection line.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park also manages to keep the dinosaurs on screen looking just as realistic as they did in Jurassic Park, even with more screentime and more reliance on CGI. The film is bolder than the first in how it pushes the envelop of CGI effects, with the scene where the InGen hunters trap several herbivorous dinosaurs on a game trail being a highlight. Several new dinosaur species appear in the film: Compsognathus, Stegosaurus, Mamenchisaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus, as well as the pterosaur Pteranodon.

There are a few little homages to earlier dinosaur-related media sprinkled throughout The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The ship used to transport the adult Tyrannosaurus rex to San Diego is named the S.S. Venture, a call-back to the ship in King Kong (1933). The T. rex rampage through San Diego is an homage to the film The Lost World (1925), which has a sequence where a Brontosaurus escapes captivity and rampages through London. There is also a little wink at the Godzilla films in that scene as well.

Unfortunately, The Lost World: Jurassic Park also makes quite a few misteps, particularly with its handling of its characters. Perhaps the most poorly handled character by the script is Dr. Sarah Harding, who is portrayed by Julianne Moore. Though Dr. Harding is supposed to be very knowledgeable about research methods and animal behaviour, she foolishly interacts with a baby Stegosaurus. Dr. Harding also brings an injured baby Tyrannosaurus back to base camp, leading its parents to attack the trailer and kill Eddie Carr. After surviving that attack, she walks through the jungle with the infant’s blood on her clothes, which results in the adult Tyrannosaurus pursuing her and killing several members of InGen’s team.

Also problematic is the script’s handling of Nick Van Owen, played by Vince Vaughn. Though he is supposed to be one of the “good guys”, Nick Van Owen sabatoges InGen’s camp, allowing the dinosaurs they’ve captured to go free, and takes the injured young Tyrannosaurus rex to Dr. Harding. This ultimately leads to both groups being stranded on Isla Sorna with no way to contact rescue teams. Later in the film, he deliberately removes bullets from Roland Tembo’s gun so that he won’t be able to hunt a Tyrannosaurus. When the group is attacked by the two adult Tyrannosaurus, Tembo is forced to use a tranquilizer, which leads to the Tyrannosaurus being taken to San Diego and several lives lost on the U.S. mainland.

Then there is Kelly Curtis, Ian Malcolm’s daughter, played by Vanessa Lee Chester. As there really is no place for a child in this particular story, Kelly’s inclusion feels forced into the plot to provide a point of identification for younger viewers and to raise the stakes in a few scenes. Unlike Lex and Tim in the previous film, Kelly seems to get carried around by the plot as opposed to being an active participant in key plot points.

Lastly, there is the final act of the film, which features the adult male Tyrannosaurus loose in San Diego. Though a fun idea on paper, on screen it is a little silly and filled with ridiculous sight gags. It doesn’t really fit the darker tone of the island-set portion of the film.

In the end, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a worthy attempt at a sequel to one of the greatest movies ever made. It was never going to be able to live up to its predecessor, but considering how self- contained and outright spectacular the previous film was, it’s a testament to Spielberg’s skill as a filmmaker that The Lost World: Jurassic Park turned out so well and managed to recapture some of the magic from Jurassic Park.

Ambulance Digital Code Giveaway

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With sirens blazing, here comes the latest high-action thriller, Ambulance, from legendary director Michael Bay! For a chance to win your digital copy of the Universal film through Movies Anywhere, reply with your favorite Michael Bay movie!

One entry per person between now and June 10.

Monster Mondays: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) [aka Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster]

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By Ben Dower

Ryota Kane (Toru Watanabe) is desperate to search for his brother Yata Kane (Toru Ibuki), who has disappeared while at sea.  He tries to join a dance contest to win a boat, but is too late.  He goes with two men who lost the dance contest to the harbour, where they sneak onto a boat.  Inside the boat they find bank robber Yoshimura (Akira Takarada) hiding, but decide to spend the night on board.

The next morning, they awake to find Ryota has stolen the boat and is searching for his brother.  They get caught in a powerful storm, which washes them to Letchi Island.  As they near the island, the boat is attacked and destroyed by a giant lobster named Ebirah, but they all make it ashore safely.

On the island, they find a secret terrorist organization called Red Bamboo that is producing nuclear weapons.  Red Bamboo is enslaving people from Infant Island and using them to make a yellow liquid that keeps Ebirah away from their ships.  

A woman from Infant Island named Daiyo (Kumi Mizuno) manages to escape her Red Bamboo captors and joins with Ryota and his friends.  They find Godzilla sleeping on the island and awaken him.  Godzilla confronts Ebirah, and after a quick skirmish the two monsters go their separate ways.

Yata is found and the friends come up with a plan to sabatoge Red Bamboo, free the captured Infant Islanders, and escape Letchi Island.  The enslaved Infant Islanders create a fake yellow juice that won’t repel Ebirah.  Godzilla rampages through Red Bamboo’s base, activiating a nuclear self-destruct sequence.  As Red Bamboo flees the island, Ebirah attacks and sinks their boat, the fake yellow liquid doing nothing to stop him.

Godzilla fights Ebirah once more, ripping the giant crustacean’s claws off, and Mothra arrives in time to fly the film’s heros and Infant Islanders to safety.  Godzilla also manages to escape the island just before it is destroyed by Red Bamboo’s nuclear bomb. 

After the interplanetary special effects tour-de-force that was Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep feels a lot more low key.  The film is set primarily on tropical island locations and has a much simpler plot than the two Ghidorah movies.  There are no scenes of major urban destruction, and both battles between Godzilla and Ebirah take place primarily in the water, something entirely new for the Godzilla series.

Part of the reason for the simplified special effects scenes is due to budget restraints.  In January 1966, a new monster television show began airing called Ultra Q.  Ultra Q was followed up in July 1966 by Ultraman, the first in a series of TV programs featuring a transforming giant alien that fights giant monsters.  With televisions now common in Japanese households and giant monsters regularly on TV, people had less of a need to go to the theatre to see giant monsters on the screen.  Add to that the fact Ebirah, Horror of the Deep was not a partially American funded co-production like Invasion of Astro-Monster, and it’s easy to understand why Toho was cutting budgets on their Godzilla pictures.

That’s not to say Ebirah, Horror of the Deep is a bad movie, because it isn’t.  What Ebirah, Horror of the Deep lacks in big budget monster action, it makes up for in human action.  The film has a real James Bond feel to it, with the over-the-top terrorist organization Red Bamboo pursuing our main characters all over Letchi Island.  The whole movie is just a lot of fun, from the dance contest at the beginning to the nuclear explosive climax.

Interestingly, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep was initially planned to be a King Kong movie.  The film was intended to be a co-production with Rankin/Bass Productions as a tie-in with their King Kong cartoon series.  Rankin/Bass, however, apparently rejected the script, so Toho just replaced King Kong with Godzilla and produced the film themselves.  Clues that this was intended to be a King Kong movie still remain in the finished film, such as the scene where Godzilla becomes fixated on Daiyo at one point.  Toho would eventually produce King Kong Escapes with Rankin/Bass the following year.

While the whole film is pretty fast-paced and light-hearted, there is still some social commentary present.  The “Red” in Red Bamboo is clearly an allusion to communism and bamboo is a plant most commonly associated with pandas and China.  Red Bamboo’s Captain Yamoto (Akihiko Hirata) also wears an eye patch with a dragon on it.  In the mid-1960s, China became a nuclear-armed state.  Red Bamboo is clearly meant as a commentary on China’s nuclear weapons development.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep was released directly to television in the United States in 1967 as Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster by Walter Reade Organization.  It was edited slightly and given an English dub by Titra Studios in the United States.  This version was the only version distributed in North America for decades. 

In 2005, TriStar released Toho’s international version of Ebirah, Horror of the Deep on DVD.  This version had the onscreen titles changed to English, and viewers could choose to watch it with the original Japanese audio or Toho’s own English dub, which was produced at Frontier Enterprises in Japan.  The international version with the same two audio options was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kraken Releasing in 2014.  Both the TriStar and Kraken releases are out of print.  Only the original Japanese version of Ebirah, Horror of the Deep is currently available, and it is as part of The Criterion Collection’s Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975 Blu-ray set featuring the first 15 Godzilla movies.

SF Kids: The Wolf & The Lion

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By Anders (age 11)

The Wolf & The Lion is about a woman named Alma (Molly Kunz) who adopts a wolf and lion cub. When the mother of the wolf cub goes missing, Alma has to take care of them. When they grow up, the lion gets taken to the circus and the wolf goes to a habitat after Alma falls and hurts herself. After the wolf escapes and helps the lion escape, they try to find their way back to Alma.

What I liked about the movie was the beginning when the animals are growing up with Alma. I also liked when the wolf and lion escaped. Those were my favourite parts. I liked that they used real animals. I think it was probably really hard to do everything with the animals because its harder to communicate with them. But they did a really good job making the movie.

In the end, The Wolf & The Lion is a good movie because it gave an important message about animal cruelty. I think the movie was trying to say that animals should not be held captive and should be able to be in the wild, where they want to be. I hope that, after watching the movie, it helps people see how important that is so that they can stop mistreating animals.

To hear my interview with Molly Kunz, click here.

The Wolf & The Lion is available in theatres now.

Monster Mondays: Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster (1964)

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By Ben Dower

Naoko Shindo (Yuriko Hoshi) is at a UFO club meeting for her TV program.  Though no UFOs are seen, they observe a meteor shower over the skies of Japan.  One large meteor crashes into Kurobe Valley.  

Detective Shindo (Yosuke Natsuki), Naoko’s brother, is assigned to protect Princess Salno (Akiko Wakabayashi) from the country of Selgina.  She is at risk of being assassinated, and so has had to flee to Japan.  On her way to Japan, though, her plane explodes.

A woman appears in Japan claiming to be from Venus and she prophesies that all sorts of disasters are about to happen.  Naoko Shindo is interested in speaking to her for her TV program, while Detective Shindo is interested in speaking to her because she bears an incredible resemblance to Princess Salno.

Sure enough, the woman’s prophesies start coming true.  Rodan first emerges out of Mount Aso, and then Godzilla comes out of Yokohama harbour.  The two monsters begin to fight, smashing their way across Japan.  Also, the meteor that crashed into Kurobe Valley bursts open and releases King Ghidorah.

Detective Shindo takes the prophetess to Dr. Tsukamoto (Takashi Shimura).  She reveals that Venus used to have an advanced civiliation on it, but Ghidorah arrived and devastated the planet.  A remnant of that old Venus civilation now live on Earth, including her.

Japan asks the Shobijin (Emi Ito and Yumi Ito) if Mothra would be able to fight off Ghidorah.  The Shobijin say that Mothra is just a caterpillar and won’t be able to.  Instead, they suggest trying to convince Godzilla and Rodan to team up with Mothra.

The assassins targeting Princess Salno attack the prophetess at Dr. Tsukamoto’s lab, but are successfully thwarted.  With Godzilla and Rodan approaching and the threat from the assassins, the lab is evacuated.  During the evacuation, the Shobijin say Mothra has arrived.

Mothra has a lengthy conversation with Godzilla and Rodan, but fails to convince them.  In the end, she goes alone to fight Ghidorah.  Seeing Mothra bravely standing up against Ghidorah eventually convinces Godzilla and Rodan to join the fight.

As the battle rages, another assassination attempt is made on the prophetess.  A bullet grazes her head, snapping her out of her prophetess amnesia and confirming she is Princess Salno.  The assassin is killed in the monster fight.  After a viscious battle, Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra manage to force Ghidorah to leave Earth.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster hit Japanese theatres on December 20, 1964, making 1964 the only year two live action Godzilla movies were released.  While the previous movie brought Mothra into the Godzilla series, this movie brings Rodan into it, essentially creating a cinematic universe of sorts.  This movie also introduced Godzilla’s arch-enemy, the golden three-headed dragon King Ghidorah!

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster marks the beginning of Godzilla’s transition from destructive god to friendly Earth defender.  Unlike Mothra vs. Godzilla, which played the monster action straight, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster brings the comedic moments from King Kong vs. Godzilla back to the monster action, and ups them in intensity.  Rodan laughs at Godzilla at one point, and Ghidorah blasts Godzilla in the butt with its ray weapon.  

Perhaps the moment that anthropormorphizes the monsters the most is the monster conversation.  Mothra, Godzilla, and Rodan literally have a chat about whether or not they should team up against Ghidorah.  While they only speak in roars, chirps, and growls, the Shobijin translate the conversation, with Godzilla and Rodan expressing great bitterness towards humans.

Thematically, this movie is much lighter than the previous Godzilla movies, another trend that was taking shape as the 1960s progressed.  By the mid-1960s, Japan’s economic miracle was firing on all cylinders, and this is clearly evident on screen.  Like Mothra vs. Godzilla earlier that year, the film depicts a Japan that is wealthy.  The Shindos own a colour television and watch comedy programs on TV, while the cities Ghidorah attacks are full of stores and entertainment.

Though much of the war-themed doom and gloom from the 1950s films are gone, there is one scene that hearkens back to the war very effectively, and that is Ghidorah’s attack on Matsumoto.  The scene starts with an emergency vehicle racing down the street, a speaker on its roof broadcasting that Ghidorah is coming.  An air raid siren blares and people run through the streets in panic, while others board up their store fronts.  Some point to the sky at something flying toward the city in the distance.  Finally Ghidorah swoops over Matsumoto Castle, blasting it with his slipstream.

If there is one other thing that can be taken from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, it’s that sometimes monsters (and people) may need to put their differences aside to deal with a bigger threat.  Godzilla and Rodan don’t like humans or each other at the start of the film.  They have to learn to get over those disagreements and team up with Mothra to save their planet from destruction.  Indeed, we humans have to learn to put our differences aside to save the planet, and ourselves, both from climate change and nuclear annihilation.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was released theatrically in North America by Continental Distributing in September 1965.  The film was dubbed into English and had undergone some editing, with scenes and shots moved around or deleted outright.  Ghidorah’s name was also changed to Ghidrah.

As with previous films in the series, the edited U.S. version was the only version released in North America for decades.  The original Japanese version was finally released on DVD in North America in 2007 by Classic Media on a single disk with the U.S. edit.  The original Japanese version of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is currently available from The Criterion Collection as part of their Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975 Blu-ray set featuring the first 15 Godzilla movies.

Monster Mondays: Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

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By Ben Dower

In Mothra vs. Godzilla, a giant egg washes ashore during a typhoon.  Reporter Ichiro Sakai (Akira Takarada) and his assistant Junko Nakanishi (Yuriko Hoshi) head down to the beach where they meet Professor Shunsuke Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi), who has come to study the egg.  They are interrupted by Kumayama (Yoshifumi Tajima), who claims his company, Happy Enterprises, has purchased the egg.

Happy Enterprises plans to build a giant incubator and put the egg on display.  The head of Happy Enterprises is Jiro Torahata (Kenji Sahara).  Torahata and Kumayama are visited by the Shobijin (Emi Ito and Yumi Ito) who ask them to return the egg to its rightful owner, Mothra.  Instead, the two men try to capture the Shobijin. The Shobijin escape and meet with Sakai, Nakanishi, and Miura, but unfortunately they have no authority to return the egg.  In the end, the Shobjin return to Infant Island without the egg, leaving a warning that when the egg hatches, the Mothra larva will likely cause a lot of damage.

Godzilla appears and goes on a rampage through Nagoya, destroying Nagoya Castle.  The JSDF attempts to stop Godzilla, but the monster is too strong.  Sakai, Nakanishi, and Miura head to Infant Island and beg for the adult Mothra to come fight Godzilla, but the natives of Infant Island are reluctant seeing as Japan failed to return Mothra’s egg when asked.  Finally, an emotional plea by Sakai and Nakanishi convinces the Shobjin to send Mothra, but they say Mothra is very old and near the end of her life.

With Godzilla approaching the egg and Happy Enterprises’ construction site, Torahata and Kumayama turn on each other.  Torahata shoots Kumayama and tries to make off with the remaining money, but Godzilla smashes the hotel they were staying in, killing Torahata.  

Just as Godzilla is about to crush the egg, Mothra arrives.  After a quick battle, Godzilla manages to strike the giant moth with his atomic breath.  Mothra flutters over to her egg, puts her wing over it, and breaths her last.

Mothra’s egg hatches and two caterpillars emerge.  They follow Godzilla to Iwa Island, where a teacher and some students are trapped.  While the teacher and students are rescued, the Mothra larvae wrap Godzilla in a silk coccoon.  The encased Godzilla falls into the sea, and the Mothra caterpillars carry the Shobijin back to Infant Island.

Mothra vs. Godzilla is generally considered by fans to be one the best Godzilla movies.  While the light-hearted tone and colourful imagery of Mothra is carried over, the comedic antics of the monsters that were prevelent in King Kong vs. Godzilla are not.  In fact, this would be the last truly serious portrayal of Godzilla as an angry destroyer until The Return of Godzilla in 1984.

Though its easy to think a giant moth is a ridiculous opponent for a creature like Godzilla, in many ways the two monsters are the perfect contrast out of which all great rivalries are born.  Godzilla is a nearly invincible nuclear reptile, dark, angry, and deliberately destructive.  Mothra, on the other hand, is a fragile insect, colourful, benevolent, and not willfully destructive.  When they clash, there is an inherent conflict of their natures unlying the action and it just works.

The country of Rolisica is not mentioned in Mothra vs. Godzilla, but a handful of the political themes from Mothra remain.  Infant Island is still a contaminated nuclear wasteland, the natives that reside there the victims of nuclear testing.  In keeping with these anti-nuclear themes, Godzilla is detected before he is seen, radioativity providing the first clues that he is about to make his return to Japan.

Also carried over from Mothra and King Kong vs. Godzilla are the themes surrounding greed and exploitation. Mothra’s egg has barely touched land before a greedy corporation has swept in and bought it up, looking to make a hefty profit.  Happy Enterprises then stalls on making payments to the fishermen that had initially claimed the egg.  When the Shobijin appear in the hotel room to ask Torahata and Kumayama to return the egg to its real owner, Mothra, the two men instead attempt to capture them!  While giant eggs and fairies may be fantasy, this disgusting level of corporate greed and exploitation is anything but, and its easy to see equally atrocious parallels in the real world.

While King Kong vs. Godzilla forgot to show Mr. Tako receiving any kind of comeuppance for his greed, Torahata and Kumayama are eventually done in by theirs.  With Godzilla approaching their hotel and on a path to destroy their construction site, the two men turn on each other.  They fight over the money that remains, with Torahata finally shooting Kumayama in the head.  Torahata, delayed by the fight and scramble for the money, doesn’t make it out of the hotel in time and Godzilla brings the building down on top of him.

Mothra vs. Godzilla was released in Japan on April 29th, 1964 and AIP released the movie in the United States on August 26th, 1964 as Godzilla vs. The Thing.  For its North American release, the movie was dubbed into English and had only minor cuts made to it.  A scene was also added of the U.S. Navy attacking Godzilla from offshore.  This scene was shot by Toho, but not included in the Japanese version due to the sensitivity around showing the America military firing onto Japanese soil.

The dubbed U.S. edit of Mothra vs. Godzilla was the only version available in North America for decades.  In 2006, Classic Media released both the U.S. version and original Japanese version of Mothra vs. Godzilla on DVD in North America on a single disk.  Only the original Japanese version of Mothra vs. Godzilla is currently available, and it is as part of The Criterion Collection’s Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975 Blu-ray set featuring the first 15 Godzilla movies.

Ted K.: The Darkness Within

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Directed by Tony Stone, Ted K gives the viewer a look inside the life of Ted Kaczynski (Sharlto Copley), aka the infamous Unabomber. Once a genius mathematician, Ted now lives in insolation in the Montana mountains. Far from civilization, Ted grows an increasing contempt for women, technology, and modern society. Within the film, the viewer gets to see his declining mental state, and his life leading to his infamous killing spree. One of the most terrifying terrorist/serial killers to elude American authorities, Kaczynski kills with no remorse.

Beginning in the actual Montana land Ted was living in, the film explores Ted’s life and its affect on his psyche. A poor man with nobody besides his mother in his life, Ted has fallen to a low place. Once a math prodigy praised for his genius who became a young professor, Kaczynski now finds himself eating dirt, hitchhiking to payphones, and asking to borrow money from his mother. Over time, he slowly becomes more out of touch with reality, blaming it on technology. To him, technology is destroying nature and ruining the world. However, to the rest of the world, he sounds insane which sets him on a course to his infamous bombings and mind games with the police.

What makes Ted K unique is that it explores though his human side, beyond the bombings. Usually with films exploring serial killers and terrorists you empathize with them and see that they were just a product of society tearing them down. (After all, maybe if the world weren’t so cruel, they wouldn’t have lashed out against it.)

Well, that’s not the case for Ted.

Instead, Kaczynski is portrayed as an arrogant fool who believes himself to be better than everyone else. He treated women with disrespect. He talked down to his own family, as if he was the second coming of Jesus sent to save them from technology. While the film may show his human side, it also believes that he had no redeeming qualities at all.

In the end, Ted K is an interesting look at what motivates a man to commit the most unthinkable. Here, Kaczynski is detestable in every way, but that’s a testament to some solid work by Copley in the process. As such, Ted K shows what happens when someone succumbs to the darkness within and unleashes it upon the world.

Ted K is available in theatres on Friday, February 18th, 2022.