Son of Godzilla
assistant: "Temperature falling rapidly. It's currently at 25 degrees Celsius."
Professor Kusumi: "Stop cooling. Stand by for heating. Launch the radioactive balloon."
release year: 1967
genre: Godzilla
viewing setting: home Bluray, 8/9/19
synopsis: Some scientists are on a remote island conducting an experiment, but they have all kinds of visitors.
impressions: It's true - the island had all kinds of things going on. Giant monsters who come to visit...check. Giant monsters who live there and got caused by the experiments...check. Giant monsters who live there, deep in a cave...check. Nosy reporter who parachutes in...check. Beautiful native girl who's lived there for years and nobody knows about her...check.
So this one was a bit of a challenge to acquire (because I don't stream, I buy and own.) It could only be bought for over $100 on eBay, and then suddenly there was someone with an apparently unlimited number of copies for sale for $20 each. Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, it took forever to get here, but it worked (for the record, in case you were wondering, yes, it's a pirated copy, but it works fine which is all I needed from it.) By then I had skipped its turn in the Godzilla saga because I got tired of waiting on it to arrive, and so I was on like the 15th Godzilla movie, and it had to wait even longer, until a good breaking point, which I had after the Heisei era ended with #22. And so here we are. Noteworthy features and events: a plane flying far too low and seeing the most interesting things a few hundred feet above sea level...a pretty goofy-looking Godzilla, walking on water by the way...a deserted island, upon which is a colorful base...a giant praying mantis...a happy girl swimming...a weather-controlling experiment...the experiment launches!...the mantis got even bigger...and now there are actually three of them...and they dig up a giant egg which they really don't like...the girl who was swimming before sneaks into the base and steals some clothes...what's inside the egg? maybe a baby Mothra? nope...Godzilla tromps right through the base.
The first battle! It's two minutes of Godzilla rescuing the baby from those angry giant mantises. Highlights: Godzilla bodyslams a mantis...the humans are cheering for him...Godzilla blasts one with his breath, sending a giant chunk of burning mantis leg flying through the air...Godzilla kicks a small boulder at the mantises, starting the rock game which ends with Baby Godzilla getting hit in the head with the rock...another bodyslam, this one a double, followed by torching of another mantis...the last mantis wisely flees...Godzilla accidentally knocks the baby over with his tail.
At this point, I must mention the extremely poor parenting skills of Godzilla. After saving the goofy-looking, freshly-born, and incompetent baby, Godzilla just leaves! Now, it's okay because the native island girl is around to sing to the baby and throw melons into his mouth and make his tail wag (hey, my tail would be wagging too...the girl is beautiful) but still. So then Godzilla comes back and the baby hitches a ride. Apparently Godzilla really just wants to take a nap, but the rather stupid baby interrupts that by JUMPING UP AND DOWN ON HIS FATHER'S TAIL during his nap! And when Godzilla fusses, the baby just...falls over. And then gets dragged away by his tail by the angry Godzilla. Shortly thereafter, Godzilla lies down for another nap. All of this very much reminds me of a father and son who I used to know; it's the same things: father lies around and doesn't give attention to son, who then acts up and gets yelled at in overreaction. But I digress.
In the world of the humans, the island girl and the reporter are really hitting it off. That lucky bastard. Some other notable elements: "Godzilla and his baby, Kamacuras and now Kumonga. This is a monster island!"...baby Godzilla sounds like a braying donkey...and needs his tail stomped in order to breathe real fire...the girl calls baby Godzilla for help...but he's overmatched against the giant mantis...absolutely ineffective...and now they've woken up the giant spider Kumonga...and it's roaming around...baby Godzilla continues to be a poor fighter...all the monsters end up in the fight...Godzilla has to throw a rock to get the spider's attention...even baby Godzilla joins in the fight, and tries to help...the humans finally get to do their experiment for real...Kumonga fakes being dead and stabs Godzilla in the eye...and gets set on fire for his troubles...and now it's snowing and the Godzilla family is going into hibernation.
number in Godzilla series: 8
previous Godzilla movie in series: Godzilla vs the Sea Monster
next Godzilla movie in series: Destroy All Monsters
other giant monsters appearing in this one: three Kamacuras (giant praying mantises), Minilla (a baby Godzilla), Kumonga (a giant spider)
total giant monster battle time: about 10 minutes
acting: Main characters: Professor Kusumi, a demanding boss who's never without his pipe...Goro, the adventurous reporter who parachutes in and is lucky enough to be the one whose clothes the girl steals...Furakawa, one of the men who does little except complain...and last but not least, Saeko, the wild island girl. Okay, she's not really wild; she's just been living on her own for seven years and has superior survival and fighting skills. I mean, this girl does it all: runs around barefoot in the jungle, faster than the guys with their boots...has a knife and knows how to use it...can sing and make friends with baby giant monsters...tends to the wounded...knows the herbal remedies to help them...always volunteers first to go out on important missions...and she's drop-dead gorgeous with a great smile too. Wow.
final word: This was a mix of a kids' Godzilla movie and a serious one, but there was some good human drama; a little odd and different, but interesting.
back to the main review page