Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto (1966)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Jun Fukuda

Writer:

Shinichi Sekizawa (writer)

Release Date:

1969 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

This is one lobster you don't want to order!

Plot:

A young man steals a boat to find his brother, but he and his shipmates become shipwrecked on a mysterious island inhabited by a giant sea monster and a slumbering Godzilla.

Plot Keywords:

Boat | Island | Godzilla | Monster | Mothra

Cast

Akira Takarada	...	Yoshimura
Kumi Mizuno	...	Daiyo
Chotaro Togin	...	Ichino
Hideo Sunazuka	...	Nita
Tôru Watanabe	...	Ryôta Kane
Tôru Ibuki	...	Yata Kane
Akihiko Hirata	...	Captain Yamoto
Jun Tazaki	...	Red Bamboo Commander
Ikio Sawamura	...	Elderly Slave
Pair Bambi	...	Mothra's Little Beauties
Eisei Amamoto	...	Red Bamboo Naval Officer
Hisaya Ito	...	Red Bamboo Scientist #1
Tadashi Okabe	...	Red Bamboo Scientist #2
Kazuo Suzuki	...	Escaped Slave
Shoichi Hirose	...	Escaped Slave

Also Known As:

Big Duel in the North (International: English title)
Big Duel in the North Sea (International: English title)
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (UK)
Ebirah, Terror of the Deep
Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster (USA)
Godzilla, Mothra, and Ebira, Horror of the Deep (USA) (subtitle)
Operation Robinson Crusoe (International: English title) (working title)
The Great South Seas Duel

MPAA:

Rated PG for sci-fi monster violence.

Runtime:

87 min | USA:83 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:PG

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Noriko Takahashi originally started the role of Dayo, but bowed out at the last minute due to appendicitis.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the beginning of the American version, there is a scene supposedly showing Yata's boat being destroyed. Yoshimura is on the boat which is called "Yahlen" and is the boat Ryota steals later in the film.

Quotes:

Yoshimura: [he has just opened a giant safe-like door] I did it, it's unlocked! Hurry! Let's go inside!
Ichino: [everyone scrambles to go inside until they hear Ichino] Ow! Don't come in! It's a nuclear reactor!
Yoshimura: So that's it, it's a heavy water factory.
Nita: Huh? What can they do with that?
Yoshimura: Atom bombs are made with it.
Nita: Huh? I'm getting out of here!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Angry Video Game Nerd: Godzilla (#4.15)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Samashite Mosura

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966) **

A step down from previous Godzilla films, but it occasionally has its moments. There has been some discrepancy as to what type of creature Ebirah the Sea Monster really is (a mammoth lobster? a giant shrimp? a humongous crab?), but I'd settle on lobster myself. Anyway, it's a really huge red sea beast with long claws that guards an island where militaristic bad guys toy with nuclear reactors and steal natives off of Infant Island (home of Mothra) to work as their slaves.

Meanwhile, a tiny band of unlikely heroes, one of them a fleeing bank robber, board a boat and somehow manage to get themselves shipwrecked on the island. After a lengthy wait of over 50 minutes (!), the slumbering Godzilla is mercifully awakened by a lightning storm and delivers a much-anticipated water fight with Ebirah, which is both fun and funny. Mothra and her two twin girls make a token appearance, but theirs is not much to get excited about if you're a fan.

This movie also features some groovy rock 'n' roll muzak as part of its soundtrack, and some amusing monster fights (you've gotta see the handball bit where Godzilla repeatedly bounces a boulder off his head while Ebirah keeps swatting it back to him). The series still has its 1960s charm and innocence, but this is one of the lesser adventures from that decade and is best appreciated by Godzilla completists only.