Gappa, los monstruos del Pacífico

Just wanted to comment on some of the other statements made by people on this board. First,yes the special effects do not look like todays..but I for one like the pre-CGI effects. The special effects people had to be much more inventive and creative in the pre CGI days. This movie doesn't have the great effects of some of the old monster movies such as the Ray Harryhausen(which are better than any CGI in my opinion)features and the Godzilla films,but it still makes pretty good use of miniature sets. Great movie for young kids or us older people who still remember what it was like watching these films as a child. I love watching these movies for nostalgic purposes as well. Sure it can be cheesy to some..but if you watch these films in the context that they were meant to be viewed..they can be very entertaining and enjoyable.

A group of intrepid explorers is sent on an expedition to find exotic animals (and people) for a new theme park to be built by a magazine tycoon who also happens to publishes Playmate Magazine. Soon, the group lands on an island in the South Pacific, where they discover an isolated tribe of natives who worship a mysterious God named Gappa. When the land is ruptured by an earthquake, the explorers come upon a cavern containing a reptilian egg. They take it back to a Japanese research center, where the creature hatches and is studied by a group of not too bright scientists. Unfortunately, the parental Gappas show up to claim their newborn lizard, trashing most of Tokyo in the process.

I had a great time watching this piece of nonsense. Just about everything in this film is a complete riot. After a somewhat slow first half, the action is almost non-stop and there's plenty of stupendous dialog to keep you entertained. The production values consist mostly of hilariously cheap-looking scale models, the story and the acting are ridiculous and most of the characters are empty-headed idiots, especially for a group of scientists. The monster, Gappa, is a kind of bird-lizard, basically a ridiculous looking over-sized chicken. When it flies, it sounds like an airplane, but that's probably the result of a slip-up in the sound effects, because the creature gets attacked by fighter planes a couple of times.

Made by the Nikkatsu Studios to make a late cash-in on the success of Godzilla- and many other monster movies and - what I understand - it was also meant as a kind of satire on the monster movie craze. Well, that aspect of the film was a bit lost on me, or probably got lost in time or translation, but then, I'm hardly an expert on Japanese old-school kaiju-flicks.

Camera Obscura --- 6/10

Long thought to be missing but.......here it is. (Apologies to the Ramones.)

This was a late comer to the U.S. video ranks because its script was hard to change to make it more 'American.' Japanese satire would be lost on anyone without a significant knowledge of the country. Most would see this as just another dude in a rubber suit burning Tokyo again.

The monster itself was a bit different. Like Godzilla and Rodan hybridized. The usual happens. Military comes...fails...but this guy knows the secret.

I have a Japanese video copy. It's the original version. But the DVD release was necessary. And the racist tag line never existed.

My youngest picked this one out...after a couple of weeks of sitting through subtitled movies that he couldn't read through fast enough...

He said, "Dad, I want a monster movie that will make me laugh" and laugh my seven year old did. It was a cute movie with a cute trio of monsters. Couple that with a high-powered business man who flies off the handle for absolutely no reason and you've got Japanese monster GOLD, baby! Look for the same special effects as in the early Godzilla movies and the same dead subplots...but, the quality of this picture makes it fun to watch and make fun of...for example, they are inside a cave...where does the light come from? The "night" shots obviously shot in broad noon with a filter. Hilarious!

If the plot seems a bit derivative, it was meant to. This was Nikkatsu studios first and only monster flick. It was produced strictly to cash-in at the height of the genre. The writers knew it had all been done before, so they took those cliches, and satirized them. Like the greedy entrepreneur, responsible for drawing the monster's parents to look for their baby. I like the extra touches, like the mother carrying an octopus in her mouth, (while stomping buildings) to feed her young. The effect scenes were shot at Eiji Tsuburaya's newly formed independent studio, which was producing the first UltraMan series at the time. Surprisingly, this film holds up very well, passing the test of time. Besides, these monsters show up only in one film. How many kaiju can you say that about ? This is also one of the few Japanese movies commercially available on video, widescreen and subtitled. Two appendages up !!!