Kaitei daisensô

1966's "Terror Beneath the Sea" is a forgotten sci-fi from Japan, less surprising once you learn it's from neither Godzilla's Toho, or Gamera's Daiei. It's actually a Toei production, one of three that made it to American shores, with "Magic Serpent" and "The Green Slime" better remembered. Apart from future martial arts star Sonny Chiba, we have teenage blonde Peggy Neal, who went on to star in Shochiku's "The X from Outer Space," who promptly disappeared from the scene. The Gill Man costumes are initially intriguing, but become obvious through repetition, though the prospect of human beings being transformed into amphibian cyborgs manages to produce some effective moments. Director Hajime Sato really struck paydirt with his final film, 1968's "Goke Body Snatcher from Hell" (also from Shochiku), as nightmarish a combination of horror and sci-fi as any made in Japan. "Terror Beneath the Sea" aka "Water Cyborgs" was frequently seen on television through the late 70s (not much since), airing three times on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater from 1974 to 1978.

While this movie has all the elements that make old sci-fi movies suck,it somehow doesn't suck. The creature from the black lagoon has been cloned and is now in Japan,so of course two reporters must investigate.They immediately go scuba diving because what is a movie without scuba diving?I swear I can't remember the last time I saw a movie without scuba diving.Of course one of the reporters is a woman and wouldn't you know it...she sees the monster first.Two times when the camera cuts to him it's extremely clear that he's not underwater.As the woman swims away they superimpose the monster over her.Not content with nearly being killed, they must investigate further.That's when they discover that a guy has figured out how to transform humans into any form he wants.He explains how but then they just put what looks like a few human organs sewn together into a guy and the transformation begins.It's long,tedious and boring and the woman gasps constantly at the extremely slow process.At one point the guy even gets tiger feet before becoming a CFTBL clone. Did I mention that this guy has made a whole army of these things? And that he calls them cyborgs even though they have nothing robotic about them?And that he controls the entire army with a big knob that has settings like "work" and "fight"?And when he needs them all to stop he has to make a pa announcement so the guy standing next to him can turn the knob. I'm sure I didn't mention that he looks like Kevin Spacey in sunglasses.How do I even know who that is?? You would think that one of the monsters having his armpit "skin" ripped open would be the funniest thing in the movie but you'd be wrong.The funniest, and therefore best part of the movie, is all the underwater fire.What?I didn't mention that most of the movie takes place under water?Or that this guy has built his own Epcot center in the ocean? Doesn't matter. All that matters is this movie has more underwater fire than you will see everywhere else for as long as you live.

Ken and Jenny, a doctor and a reporter (Shin'ichi (Sonny) Chiba and Peggy Neal), stumble across the undersea lair of a megalomanic and his army of surgically-modified amphibious cyborgs with which he plans to conquer the world. This juvenile offering from Toei Studios features a mostly Western cast alongside action-hero Chiba (chop-socky fans will be disappointed at the dearth of athletic fights) with a near amateur performance by Neal (to be fair, she has little to work with and spends most of her screen time trying to look horrified). The film contains some reasonably well done underwater miniature work but the centerpiece, the scaly cyborgs are laughable when seen clearly, especially when their costumes are torn. The gilled minions are controlled by the chortling villain through a control box with apparently three settings (off, work, and fight) and are ostensibly brainless (or so we are told) yet seem to know how to effectively use guns. There is an entertaining (if not very convincing) transition scene in which nefarious Doctor Heim (Mike Daneen) creates a cyborg (courtesy of a lot of squishy stop-motion shots intercut with numerous close-ups of Jenny looking increasingly horrified). A later transformation scene involving the heroes leaves the two leads running around with what appears to be pieces of latex stuck to their chins (much to Jenny's horror). There a couple of action sequences involving the undersea-base's defenses vs. An attacking submarine (apparently armed with the X4, a weapon that could "blow up the whole ocean") leading to a finale that includes all of the expected climactic tropes. The film suffers from some editing problems (the scenes in which the heroes are to be transformed seem to be out of sequence or partially deleted) and the overall production including the sound, music, and cinematography, is substandard even for a low-budget Japanese techno-adventure targeting a young audience. I have a fondness for (and a high tolerance of) Japanese science fiction films but 'Terror Beneath the Sea' is pretty awful, even when compared to Toho's dreadful 'Latitude Zero' (1970) or Peggy Neal's other tokusatsu outing, the extremely goofy but entertaining 'The X from Outer Space' (1967).

This is no CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, but I had extremely low expectations going in. The movie was a little better than I anticipated, but not by much.

The film concerns two journalists who realize there is something amiss going on in the waters off of Japan when they view an informational film done by the military and see something that they shouldn't. When they try to investigate, they unwillingly become part of a mad scientist's master plan to build and rule an underwater kingdom.

There are a variety of actors in TERROR BENEATH THE SEA, both Japanese and non-Japanese. Most of the film is dubbed which can always lend itself to overacting a bit - there is no exception here. I also found that the roles were somewhat one dimensional - the mad scientist was the stereotypical mad scientist (complete with dark sunglasses), the lead female was the stereotypical woman from the 60's (outside of having a job) who looked to her man to save her and whined and cried a lot, the military guys were as formal as you would expect, etc. The monsters were fairly well done for the time and not as bad as some others I've seen but their costumes were obviously cheaply made. Interestingly, throughout most of the film they are programmed to act in a certain way, but towards the end, they have a mind of their own.

The plot line is rather slow and the special effects were really saved for the end of the film. There are lots of underwater explosions that were actually pretty well done for the time although some other reviewers would disagree. The other effects were really chintzy though. The soundtrack was the typical "mod" type common in the 1960's.

This is really a movie for either kids or fans of old Japanese monster movies. I wouldn't be able to recommend it to a horror fan.

In AGENT X-2: OPERATION UNDERWATER, a mad scientist is bent on world domination through his army of cyborg-mutant fish-men. Only Sonny Chiba and his scuba partner can save the Earth from hideous totalitarian control.

They'll have to stay strong as they encounter the scientist's terrible gun-toting sardines!

This movie is loaded with enough cheeeze to fill 10 nuclear submarines! Is it absurd? Of course, but it's also highly entertaining...