|
Hot Picks
| |
|
Gojira no Musuko
Son of Godzilla
Frankensteins Monster jagen Godzillas Sohn
Japan 1967
produced by
Tomoyuki Tanaka for Toho
directed by Jun Fukuda
starring Tadeo Takashima, Akira Kubo, Beverly Maeda (= Bibari Maeda), Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kenji Sahara
written by Shinichi Sekizawa, Kazue Shiba, special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, music by Masaru Sato
Godzilla, Son of Godzilla, Spigas, Gimantis
review by
Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Professor Tadeo Takashima & his team are conducting top secret
experiments to control the weather on a deserted island paradise. When
one day, nosy reporter Goro (Akira Kubo) lands on the island, this is
bad news, for the experiments are top secret, & good news, since
they needed helüp in the kitchen anyways. Soon Goro finds Reiko (Beverly
Maeda), the jungle girl & wants to bring the experiment to a halt to
save her, but the scientists - not believing the girl is real - go on
anyways ... & the experiment goes terribly wrong, instead of just
freezing the island a whole range of natural desasters is caused, &
the local, already some feet tall, mantisses (called Gimantisses from
here on) grow to supermonster-height due to a radiation leak.
Furthermore, a giant egg is found & opened by the Gimantisses,
& out comes - Son of Godzilla (Minya to you). Brutally tortured by
the Gimantisses, it's only a matter of time until Minya's cries for help
bring Godzilla to the island, brutally beating up the Gimantisses but
also wreaking havoc on the scientists' place. Good thing that Reiko,
having survived the natural desasters in her cave, finally meets up with
them, offering them said cave for shelter. Godzilla meanwhile tries to
teach his cowardly son a thing or 2 in fighting skills, while Reiko also
befriends him & gives him some motherly love. This comes in quite
handy when she & Goro are attacked by the Gimantisses & she
calls for help from the little one. Minya gets another sound beating
though, but Godzilla does show up again & wrestles the insects down
- more than a little displeased with his offsprings cowardice. It's not
until the 2 of them have to fight the giant spider Spigas that Minya
proves he can stand on his own. The scientists meanwhile have decided
to give the idea of freezing over the island another try, & they are
successful this time. The last shots show Godzilla & Minya wandering
through a snow-covered island, finally embracing each other & giving
in to hibernation - actually a pretty atmospheric, almost poetic scene
you wouldn't expect in a giant monster movie. The humans, by the way,
are saved by a submarine.
Jun Fukuda's Godzilla-movies were never quite on par with Ishiro
Honda's: While Honda usually had a big city for his monsters to destroy,
the Fukuda-Godzilla-backdrop was often an island paradise (see also Nankai
no Daiketto/Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster), & also, in his
movies Godzilla had increasingly become the good guy. Still, if you like
giant monster battles, preferably tag-team, these movies have a certain
naive charm, as does Son of Godzilla. The idea to give the giant
dinosaur a cute-ish son though is not all that great, & to
even show him educate Minya almost human-like is just pure camp.
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Son of Godzilla at adultvideouniverse.com
