Kaitei daisensô

Okay Japanese rubber suit/monster flick. Mad scientist plans to rule the world with his fishmen/water cyborgs from his underwater base. Sonny Chiba in an early role is the hero and American Peggy Neal plays the girl in trouble. Best viewed late at night with Attack of the Mushroom People.

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...

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.

This is a fun adventure flick that conjures up feelings of nostalgic Japanese horror. It's not scary but will keep you in stitches during the viewing and long afterwards. This film would fit nicely into a "films so bad...they're good!" library. It's worth at least one viewing if only for the laughs and the special effects.......oh, they're great!