Oh, there goes the other claw. We're just ripping
them off. Sorry. Yeah. Bag of melted butter.
I love crab legs. What can I say? But do you
like yellow liquid? That is the horror of the
deep right there. Hello and welcome to Camp Kaiju
Monster Movie Podcast. We are your hosts, Vincent
Hannum. And Matt Levine. And we are talking about
all of our favorite monster movies. The good,
the bad, and the downright campy. Asking if they
stand the test of time. Traditional Kaiju, creature
features, space invaders, the supernatural, and
everything in between. All strange beasts. Welcome
here. Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zack Linder
and the Zack Pack. Powered by Coldwell Banker
Realty. They are your source for real estate,
home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor
clients and residential buyers. So reach out
to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact
the Zach A Pack for investment opportunities.
Links in the show notes. in one of the most explosive
action pictures ever to hit the screen. From
the depths of the ocean comes the most terrifying
horror of the deep. From within the mountain
caves comes the dreaded monster Godzilla. See
the most titanic battle ever screened when the
monster of the deep challenges the mighty Godzilla.
Here we are. Hi, July. But Matt, it's good to
see you. Likewise, yeah. We got a heck of an
episode lined up for everyone out there listening.
We're going to talk about 1966. Ebira, Horror
of the Deep? I think it's Ebira. That's what
I remember from the movie anyway. In the movie,
I think they said Ebira. Oh, yeah. You're probably
right. Something like that. Somewhere around
there. Something like that. The big red lobster
versus Godzilla versus the sea monster, honestly.
Yeah, which I mean, like that tagline makes it
sound awesome. The movie, does it live up to
that potential awesomeness? I don't know. We'll
discuss soon. Yeah, lots of highs and lows, I
think. I think this is a mixed bag of crustacean
here. So expect more ocean puns to be forced
into this episode. But we also have a friend
of the pod, Beth Bredlaw. You all may remember
she just recently chatted with me about Godzilla
Day over in Bloomington, Indiana. Well, Beth
was recently at G -Fest as a panelist speaking
about this very movie. June Fukuda's Ebera, Horror
of the Deep. She is a June Fukuda super fan.
She loves Ebera, and we're very excited to have
her on in a little bit to talk about this movie
a little more in depth. So that's awesome. We
will take it from there. And then at the end
of this episode, everybody, stick around. Me
and Matt are going to reveal our picks for the
podcast August through December. 10 more movies
that we're going to reveal to each other. Matt
and I have no idea what we're going to say. So
it's kind of like opening some presents here
on our birthday. So we hope you stick around
to the end of the episode. I'm always so excited
for this part, like the reveal of like the upcoming
episodes for the rest of the season. It's so
fun. Can't wait. I was racking my mind. I went
back and forth so many times, but I've got my
five that I'm going to stick to. Yeah, that's
the only problem. How can you choose just five?
Like I had a long list of like 30 that I wanted
to choose, you know, at least. I know. Maybe
one day we'll go back to weekly episodes, but
we're going to need a lot more patrons. And if
you want to help us live the dream, be a part
of that dream, you can visit us at patreon .com
slash camp kaiju for as little as $5 a month,
maybe more, maybe $15 a month. You get a whole
host of extra bonus features, including priority
comments, VIP status to any live events we do
in the Twin Cities here in Minneapolis, St. Paul.
Speaking of the Twin Cities, since last time,
I just got to give a huge shout out to Zach Linder
of the Zach Pack and Max Hannum for contributing
support to getting us, Matt, an ad for Camp Kaiju
on the Riverview. movie theater screen here in
Minneapolis. We're on the big screen, everybody.
So cool. I love the Riverview Theater. I have
not seen our ad on the screen there yet, but
I hope to go back soon. It's one of my favorite
theaters in the Twin Cities. It's so cool that
the name Camp Kaiju is up there. Like you said,
our name up in lights. That's awesome. Yeah,
and it's running for four months right into October.
Wow. We hit the big time. Here we are. You know,
kudos to Zach and Max, but also literally our
patrons who I have to say the funds that me and
Matt have accumulated due to your generous support
also went into helping buy that ad. So we got
to give it up to our Patreon members, Jason,
Beast Drool, Chris B, Sean, Peggy, and our anonymous
patron. We really appreciate you. Wonderful.
Thank you. Keep it up. We hope you enjoy all
that's to come here on Camp Kaiju. Totally. And
you mentioned spooky season coming up and maybe
any other events that we have in the future.
I don't want to say anything for sure yet, but
we certainly hope that we have some kind of screening
or some other events, you know, sometime over
the next year. So stay tuned about that. 100%.
And you know what? Some other nuts and bolts.
You can follow Camp Kaiju on Instagram at camp
underscore. Kaiju underscore podcast. You can
hit us up at CampKaiju at gmail .com with any
listener comments. Superfan Don really takes
advantage of that. Thank you, Don. You can call
our voicemail and leave us a recorded message
about why you love Ebera Horror of the Deep.
You can do that at 612 -470 -2612. And you can
visit CampKaijuPodcast .com for all of this.
And... A bag of butter for your lobster. That's
why you had all those bags of butter at your
house. Now I understand. Bags of melted butter.
Gross. Well, you know, let's just breeze through
a little bit of monster movie history here in
July. Have I talked about Qui -Don? Or I think
it's actually pronounced Kaidan, the Japanese
horror movie. No, I would remember that. Yeah,
I really love that movie from 1965. It's by Masaki
Kobayashi. I really love Japanese new wave horror
movies. And that's one of the best. It's like
a triptych of horror tales. And I also like anthology
horror movies. So it kind of fits both of those
bills there. Just stunningly beautiful, colorful,
like very artificial sets. But that's kind of
the point. Just like very stunning to look at.
And you know a lot of stuff about Japanese culture
and history in that movie as well. A little element
of like social critique there too. So definitely
recommend Kwaidan or Kaidan. I wish I knew how
to pronounce that, but really, really great movie.
Yeah, I hadn't been aware of that movie until
now. That sounds great. Contrasting that, I have
to shout out a blaxploitation film from 1972
called The Thing with Two Heads. Do you know
this movie? I've heard the title before, but
I don't really know very much about it. So it
stars Ray Moland. And let me just read the synopsis
from Letterboxd because I actually have not seen
this movie. So a rich but racist man is dying
and hatches an elaborate scheme for transplanting
his head onto another man's body. His health
deteriorates rapidly and doctors are forced to
transplant his head onto the only available candidate,
a black man, a black man from death row. Whoa.
I yeah, you know, you got to you got to believe
and hope it has some sort of social critique
on civil rights era of the time. But you look
at a picture, it's literally Ray Milland and
this other actor sharing a big coat. I'm looking
at the same picture right now. Monty Python style.
Yeah. Wow. I am intrigued. It looks like the
reviews might not be glowing for this movie,
but that just makes me. More interested to see
it. I can't wait. One day. One day. That, you
know, broadly fits the monster bill, right? Like,
we could have that on the podcast someday, maybe.
And everything in between, right? That's our
catch -all. True, yeah. We are pretty loose with
that, for better or worse. I think for better.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'd be sad if I couldn't talk
about movies about men sharing the same body.
Yeah. You do talk about that an abnormal amount.
Just kidding. That's not true. But it would be
funny if that was like a frequent topic of conversation,
like out of the blue. Didn't even realize it.
You got to keep me on the straight and narrow
here. I'm veering off too much into two heads,
one body. There's Vincent. Yeah. Talking about
double -headed, single -bodied creatures again.
Male human creatures. Sorry, as usual, we're
going on a weird tangent. Sorry about that. Weird
is right. New and upcoming releases. Here's something
fun. Shin Godzilla is being re -released in North
America August 14th in 4K. So if you're like
me, I was not paying attention to Shin Godzilla
when it last was released in 2016. So if it's
around, maybe like Alamo Draft Houses might be
having it. Ooh, that would be fun. Yeah. I really
love that movie. Yep. Same. See it on the big
screen like that. That's what I was going to
say. Yeah. That would be a treat. Hopefully I
can make that. Yeah. Well, so yeah. Why not?
Listeners, if you're interested, if you happen
to be in the Twin Cities, hit us up. Maybe we'll
make a thing out of it. I love making things
out of things. Yeah. August 14th. Cool. I also
really want to see Shin Kamen Rider, which is
the third of that Shin series because Shin Ultraman
was great. You and I saw that. Yeah. I'd love
that one too. But Shin Kamen Rider, I don't know
if that's how you pronounce it, but I had not
seen that yet. So hopefully at some point. You
know, I haven't either. Maybe on the pod. Who
knows? Maybe. Yeah, we've covered the other Shin
movies. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't want to give
anything away. We'll see what happens in our
reveal coming up. Wow. Don't tease me with a
good time, man. You're absolutely not going to
talk about Shin Kamen Rider. Well, like I said,
I don't want to ruin anything. So time will tell.
All right. Let's get into Ebra Horror of the
Deep here, everybody. What's your personal history
of this film, Matt? Pretty much none. I love
the title. I had heard the title numerous times
and I knew that it came out in the mid 60s, 1966
to be exact. And that's kind of a hit or miss
period for kaiju movies for me because I really
love Ghidorah the Three -Headed Monster, which
came out in 64, I think, but not a huge fan of
Son of Godzilla, which I think came out in 67,
so one year after this. So I didn't really know
what to expect. Yeah, yeah. Eber, A Horror of
the Deep, I've always known about just as a Godzilla
fan. It's not one I watched frequently. And honestly,
on this most recent rewatch, there were things
I was like, oh, I did not remember that moment
or that moment. I think that's telling for me
why I don't really remember this movie too well.
With that said, I'm glad we have a podcast that
compels me to go back to some of these lesser
seen movies. A lot of love in my heart for the
franchise and for all the cast and crew involved.
But please, you know, listeners don't come at
me if I. If this is your favorite and I'm just
not as excited as you might be or Beth might
be in a little bit. Yeah, same. I, you know,
not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves.
I think you and I have kind of similar opinions
about this movie. Some things to love, a lot
of things to not love so much. But I definitely
do understand people who really enjoy this movie.
Like, no doubt about it. Totally get that. Yep,
yep, yep. Oh, okay. This is going to be a good
conversation. Great conversation. Behemoth. Goliath.
King Kong escapes and meets his greatest foe,
the Kong of Steel. A gargantuan duel unmatched
by any battle in history. Thundering 60 -foot
robot Kong of steel. Creation of the evil Dr.
Who. Criminal genius who stops at nothing. Kong,
once again, King Kong. King Kong shakes the earth.
King Kong fights for life against the Communist
Party. as King Kong battles the serpent of Mondo
Island. Not his Kong! Hits himself against a
nation's armament. And plunges a beautiful girl
into a world of terror. Bionic Monster, a menacing
giant, an awesome machine, unleashed with a deadly
task. Godzilla, the only hope for Earth's survival.
Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster. Godzilla strives
to win supremacy in a fight to the end. Will
Godzilla triumph? Will Earth survive? Godzilla
vs. the Bionic Monster, an Earth -shaking movie.
Rated G. The mightiest monster the world has
ever known. The mightiest egg the world has ever
known. Introducing me, son of Godzilla. The fantastic
red water. One of the many weird natural phenomena
on mysterious Solgale Island. A great scientific
experiment begins. Try another frequency. What
is it? It seems as though something's jamming
the wavelengths. Son of Godzilla, a rollicking
monster spectacular. See how a baby monster becomes
a monstrous monster. All right, so let's start
with Jun Fukuda. Beth will have a lot more to
say, and I'm looking forward to that. But just
in a nutshell, Jun Fukuda, he honestly is the,
after his Shiro Honda, he directed the most of
the Showa era Godzilla films. So we're talking
about Ebera, Son of Godzilla, but also things
like Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla,
a lot of the 70s Godzilla pictures. He was the
director behind it. So he fills his movies with
a lot of crime elements. You'll see spies and
agents. He likes to incorporate jazz scores into
his films, which Abira certainly features that.
Yeah, but he was Chinese born and he had been
working at Toho since 1949, just a contract director,
writer and producer. and also known for the TV
series Zone Fighter. Do you know anything about
that show? Because I love that title, Zone Fighter.
Oh, I know it's a cult classic. It's very well
loved. The series was also notable for its guest
appearances by Toho's own Godzilla, as well as
other two Toho monsters, King Ghidorah and Gigan.
So yeah, it's like tangential to the Godzilla
universe. Okay. Well, I haven't really seen any
like kaiju TV series, but I'm sure some of them
are pretty cool. Yes. And let me clear this up.
So Zone Fighter is the name of this character
who is like Ultraman. Okay. Ah, because remember
Ultraman was a Tsuburaya production. I see. So
Toho came up with its own called Zone Fighter.
Okay. And it wasn't, there were only 26 episodes,
so it didn't really last very long. We're learning
new things every day. Yeah, sometimes like on
the spot during the recording, which is great.
I love it. The screenplay for Eberra Horror of
the Deep is by Senichi Sekizawa. He's a familiar
name from kaiju films from around this time.
He also wrote Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah the
Three -Headed Monster, and Invasion of Astro
Monster. And, you know, kind of like I mentioned
before, I love Ghidorah. We talked about Invasion
of Astro Monster last. season. So we talked about
that one pretty recently. Between Sekizawa and
Fukuda, I feel like they have some shared crime
interests. Maybe that's where that comes from.
The music in Ebura Horror of the Deep is by Masaru
Sato. He has a really stacked resume, did the
scores for so many films, including other Godzilla
films, some of them, and some Kurosawa movies
like Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro. Love
the music for those movies. Sato is known for
implementing Western jazz themes into his scores.
And I do think that's one of the more effective
things about Eberra, like the first time we see
the titular creature, when we hear that kind
of Western jazz theme, very effective, I think.
And then the last crew member to shout out here
is Sadamasa Adikawa, who did the special effects
for the film. Eiji Tsuburaya supervised the special
effects on Ebura. He's credited with doing the
special effects and the credits for the film.
But in fact, Tsuburaya was kind of busy starting
his own special effects company at the time.
So it was really Adikawa who was mainly responsible
for the effects in this film. You know, a couple
changes here. Like, usually we have music by
Akira Ifukube. In this case, it's by Masaru Sato.
Normally, in Godzilla films up until this time,
we have special effects by Tsuburaya. In this
case, they're by Arikawa instead. So, you know,
a little bit of a different crew for this one.
That is a result of Invasion of Astro Monster
not making so much money as Toho would have liked.
And consequently, just slashing budgets. All
right. Well, leading the cast is Akira Takarada.
He plays a safecracker. He's a fugitive. And
he is the de facto leader of this gang of runaways
on the island. So if you don't know the story
of this movie in a nutshell, we have in a bag
of melted butter, we have some young people.
Well, first of all, we have one young person,
Ryoto, I believe. And he has lost his brother.
And his main goal, Ryoto, is to get a yacht or
a boat to go find his brother who was on this
boat that went down in the Pacific Ocean. Spoiler
alert, his brother is found alive on Infant Island.
Now, Ryoto joins up with a couple of other young
guys who do have a boat. Well, no, they get on
a boat. They're going to steal a boat. But who's
on the boat but an actual criminal, a safecracker,
Akira Takarada. Now the jig is up. He's on the
run. They're caught up in his story. So they
all head out in the high seas and they end up
running across Abira. Their ship sinks. They
end up on this island, Devil's Island, where
they run afoul of a secret paramilitary James
Bond -esque group called the Red Bamboo. Adventure
ensues. Godzilla shows up. Mothra saves the day.
There. That's a great synopsis. I love the fact
that Ryoto meets his two new friends at a dance
marathon. He's just like, I can't even remember
exactly why he's there. And they're suddenly
best friends. And another thing that I love is
that Akira Takarada as the safecracker, he has
so many lines of dialogue where he's like, I'm
an expert. I'm a pro. It's not as easy as it
looks, like over and over again. And I like to
imagine that he is just like very sensitive and
insecure about his safe cracking skills. He always
feels the need to like prove that to everybody,
you know? I was laughing at all those lines because
what he's doing is nigh impossible. And I think
even one of the young kids, he's not young kids,
they're like young men. He's like, wow, how'd
you do that? And he's a stand -in for the audience
because I'm thinking, yeah, how did you do that?
And Takarada's answer is, I'm just that good
kid. Yeah. Okay, I won't question it. Sure, it's
very entertaining, yeah. But yeah, he's a familiar
face. I'm sorry if you were about to get to this.
No, go for it, go for it. Familiar face from
the Godzilla series. We just saw him with Nick
Adams in Invasion of Astro Monster. And Takarada
goes all the way back to the original Godzilla
from 54, right? I think he's in that one as well.
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, you know, a legend in the
series. Mm -hmm. You know who else we just saw
in Invasion of Astro Monster? Kumi Mizuno. And
she is in Ibira playing Dayo, a woman from Infant
Island who's captured by the Red Bamboo. She
escapes and helps the group. She meets up with
them. She was in other Godzilla sci -fi films
like Matango, also known as Attack of the Mushroom
People, Frankenstein Conquers the World. Gorath
and the War of the Gargantuas. I am excited to
see the War of the Gargantuas someday. I just
want to throw that in there. Just want to throw
it out there. I came oh so close to offering
it up as a Kai July pick. I thought about it
too. Yeah, someday, if not for the second half
of season five, or maybe it will be, it'll be
on the podcast. I'm calling it now. It's going
to happen. Well, it better because you're just
like not so subtly throwing out so many movies.
I'm going to be sorely disappointed. Yeah, you
will be disappointed probably. Okay, Akihiko
Hirata. Akihiko Hirata plays Red Bamboo Captain
Ryu. He is a longtime player in the Godzilla
series. He played the doom young scientist Dr.
Serizawa in the original Gojira. and the doomed
old scientist, Dr. Mifune, in Terror of Mechagodzilla.
And then Jun Tozaki is another Red Bamboo commander.
He was a favorite actor of Honda and Kurosawa.
He pops up in a bunch of their films. Yeah, that's
the major cast. I couldn't find too much information
about the other cast members, but a lot of familiar
faces for sure. Yep. I mean, like the Red Bamboo
officers are in the movie for like less than
two minutes total probably, but you recognize
them anyway. I did recognize those actors. If
I hadn't, though, I will say a lot of the Red
Bamboo people just kind of blend together. Yeah.
Except the guy with the eyepatch, which is Hirahata.
Well, that'll probably be in my review towards
the end. I might bring some of that up again.
I look forward to it. Thank you. So, Ebura Horror
of the Deep was the seventh film in the Godzilla
franchise. One could also say the fourth film
in the Mothra series. Didn't even know Mothra
was going to be in this movie when I started
watching it. But now, in retrospect, what Beth
said about the color scheme does kind of make
sense. At the same time, it maybe kind of comes
out of nowhere a little bit, but we'll talk about
that later. Talking about a lot later. Sorry.
So, Toho wanted to make another King Kong movie.
They did have the rights to the character at
that time for five years in their contract with
RKO. Didn't really honestly do a lot with those
rights up until this point. But right around
the same time in 1966 -67, the American studio
Rankin -Bass were debuting their animated series
The King Kong Show and wanted to co -produce
this next Toho King Kong film as a sort of cross
-promotion. But that ended up not really working
out all that well. Rankin -Bass insisted that
the film have Ishiro Honda as director and Eiji
Tsuburaya as special effects director. Toho disagreed,
perhaps largely as a cost -saving measure. They
wanted Fukuda to be director and Salamasa Arikawa
to do the special effects. Toho wouldn't really
budge. Rankin -Bass pulled out. They would, however,
work with Toho on 1967's King Kong Escapes. And
in that film, Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya
would both be back to work on that one. Toho
went ahead with the script as written, though.
They really liked the script a lot. Didn't really
change anything. They simply inserted Godzilla
into the King Kong role. That explains some things
in Eberra Horror of the Deep that might seem
a little bit surprising. Godzilla's apparent
interest in the female character, Daioh, and
the role of lightning in Awakening Him, which
is a callback to King Kong's relationship to
lightning in King Kong vs. Godzilla. which itself,
and this is pretty convoluted, that itself only
exists because Toho had swapped King Kong in
place of Frankenstein's monster. I like what
you wrote here, Vincent. Do you mind if I say
this, or you can if you want? What did I write?
I forget. It's a regular Russian nesting doll
of kaiju and lightning. Oh my gosh, but it's
so true. It is. Not to mention, one of my favorite
scenes in Eber, a horror of the deep, is when
Godzilla is attacked by a bunch of... Planes,
like attack planes, which I think is a callback
to King Kong as well. And another callback to
King Kong is when Godzilla, he's ripped the claw
off of Ebura and Godzilla's just opening and
shutting it the way Kong does the T -Rex jaw
after breaking it in the movie. I didn't even
pick up on that, but you're absolutely right.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I don't think it's a critique
of the film. I don't think it detracts from what
we're watching. I just think it's fascinating
that Godzilla is playing King Kong in this movie.
Yeah, it kind of works like a, you know, if you
watch the movie and you don't know that backstory,
it's, you know, I'm sure still entertaining.
And like some of those things come out of nowhere,
but they're very surprising and amusing. But
if you know that backstory, it just kind of becomes
deeper and more like if you're a monster movie
fan, all this kind of like shared lore is so
fun, you know? Yeah. Also, Toho. Why did you
drop the ball on King Kong movies? You had five
years to make as many as you wanted, it sounds
like. What were you doing? Yeah, one can only
imagine all the cool crossover stuff that could
have happened, you know? Yeah. That's all right.
I'll write a letter to Toho executives complaining
about 1960s contract with RKO. This is what you
should have done 60 years ago, Toho students.
I guess we kind of have some of this stuff now
with the Monsterverse movies and Godzilla X Kong
and stuff like that, but not the same. Not by
a long shot. Not the same. Bring Eberra back
in the Monsterverse. Yeah. We can lead that campaign.
I'm up for that. Like a cameo, I think. I would
welcome that. The recycled suits in this film,
another indicator of the reduced budget. the
Mothra prop is looking a little ragged at this
point because it's, it's the same one they've
been using for, I don't know, before this, you
Mothra showed up in, or the flying Mothra was
in Mothra versus Godzilla because it was just
the larva in Ghidorah, the three headed monster.
Yeah. That's a few years old now. Yeah. Yeah,
indeed. And that was the only movie it had appeared
in before this one, I think, right? Right. And
the first Mothra, of course. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. But then the giant condor scene, the infamous
condor that just appears out of nowhere and attacks
Godzilla. That's actually a dressed up Rodan
prop. That was just kind of lying around and
available as far as I know. Yeah, they just put
a bunch of feathers on it. I, you know, I simultaneously
admire the attempts to like. They're working
on a small budget. They're probably speeding
through the shooting schedule a little bit. They
wanted to get this movie out there. So I kind
of appreciate the ingenuity in terms of still
providing all these fun monster fights on a low
budget and all that. And at the same time, it's
like, ah. you know, maybe there was a little
bit of like cutting corners and some of the like,
like screenwriting, some of the storytelling,
some of the monster fights, which may be, you
know, like the giant condor, I think lasts for
like two minutes and then it's over. So, you
know, it's, I'm ambivalent towards, towards some
of that stuff. Well, it's, this is actually a
pretty good point you bring up, Matt, because
I think when I, when I lend my critical eye to
a beer, a horror of the deep, there's, There's
two sides of this coin. Number one, I do believe
Jun Fukuda is making as good a movie as he can
with his limited resources. And I think that's
admirable. And I love that. I mean, I love Ed
Wood for the same reason. This is far better
than an Ed Wood picture. But to your point, where,
however, might that veer into cutting a corner
and taking a shortcut? I don't have an answer,
but it crosses my mind. Yeah. And I, you know,
I think in my review later, I'll probably talk
about that a little bit more, but I feel like
in some ways it does kind of feel like a movie
of potential, but like wasted opportunities in
some ways. Like I think of the scene where Godzilla
is resurrected by the bolt of lightning and that
should be such an awesome scene. Like, you know,
a throwback, not only to, sorry, the Frankenstein
conquers the world, right? Yeah. talking about
and also of course the original Frankenstein
it could have been such an exciting like suspenseful
moment but like really it's kind of just a couple
shots and like you know there's no there's not
much impact to it in my opinion so yeah you know
I think with a bigger budget more time no offense
to Jun Fukuda but like maybe with the Shiro Honda
and the director's chair maybe some of those
things might have been more effective but yeah
you know I felt like this I felt like this movie
was almost too economical. Like, it clipped by
at, like, a very business -like pace. I was tracking
plot points like, yep, we've established Chekhov's
sword. Oh, now we're using it. Boom, there's
the lightning. Great. We've got to move on to
the next story beat that connects the story.
And da -da -da -da -dum, da -da -dum, da -da
-dum. And it just, it was just, like, too lean.
Too lean of a film. almost. Now there were some
shots that I did find really effective, but overall
I found the pacing just businesslike. I blanking
on the word I do want to use, but I think you
catch my drift. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like.
haphazard maybe is the word that i would use
i don't know that's probably not the one that
you were looking for but it's like why is ryoto
like meeting guys at a dance marathon like why
do they just like steal this yacht who is red
bamboo like we get like maybe two lines of dialogue
about what this group actually is you know yeah
and yeah like i think you're right it just like
speeds through the story so fast it's like this
could have been more uh just powerful, suspenseful,
like surprising, shocking. It could have been
more, I think, you know? Yeah. I will say the
winner of the dance contest would receive a yacht.
Oh, you're right. Yep, yep. But when they show
up on the yacht that they're going to steal and
Takarada is on board, why does he let them stay?
Why does he say, he's like, beat it, scram. Nah,
stay the night. That you're just, you just have
a story to write and you're just, that's cutting
corners, right? That is a great example of Sakizawa
or whoever was just like, we don't have time
or maybe the interest in actually coming up with
something believable. Yeah. We're just going
to say he's changed his mind and now they can
stay. Yeah, right, exactly. And like, you know,
when the gang is all on Devil's Island later
on and they all split up for various reasons,
it's like, this is just to push the story along.
Like, why is this person rushing into an extremely
dangerous situation with no backup? Anyway, we'll
return to that later, perhaps. The release and
legacy of this film, it was released in Japan
in December of 66. It was only released to American
TV, and that was in 1968. It was renamed Godzilla
vs. the Sea Monster, which... You know, look,
if you're if you're if you're marketing a Godzilla
movie, I do think you should have Godzilla in
the title. Nothing wrong with but like, I don't
know, Ebera Horror of the Deep. Is this an Ebera
movie, a Mothra movie or Godzilla movie? Right.
Yeah. I mean, I love the title. It is misleading,
though. I mean, we Ebera's in this movie. This
is a consistent theme, but I feel like Ebera's
in this movie for like less than five minutes,
you know? Jun Fukuda was not fond of this film.
That's funny. He said in an interview that, quote,
Toho sent me a copy of the VHS tape edition of
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster when it was released.
It was like opening up an old wound. I didn't
watch the tape. Yeah, I don't think it's that
bad. No, yeah, there are lots of things to love
about it, but I'm sure it must have been frustrating
for him to, like, have to work with limited resources.
And I also read that maybe he wasn't always...
like he made a lot of kaiju movies and like some
of them are really good but some of the interviews
that i've read are like quotes that he said maybe
he kind of looked down on some of these movies
sometimes you know well that happened a lot actually
even honda right yeah you know toho sending it
fukuda tape the real the real problem was fukuda
didn't have a vcr i made that up Could be, could
be, yeah. Here's your bag of melted butter. Yeah,
maybe they should have sent him melted butter
and like, you know, four dozen shrimp or something
like that. Might have been more appropriate.
48 shrimp. Amazing. I don't know, sorry. All
right, on that note. Here's our sponsor break.
Cam Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the
Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty.
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opportunities. Links in the show notes. Well,
Matt, just want to let you know, I think we're
going to hold off on Mania's mailbox and Peter
Lorre's segment. on this episode, just because
we want to make sure we get to our reveal for
season five, part two. But rest assured, Peter
Lorre will return next time with a review of
The Ape Man about Bela Lugosi being a mad scientist
turning into an ape man. I can't wait, man. He
seems pretty excited in his room over there.
So yeah, looking forward to him talking about
that. You don't know, do you? I never know. He's
just like muttering in there. He's like talking
a lot of nonsense and he finally pulls it together
for for the recording. So I guess it's a good
thing he finally puts his act together, you know?
I guess so. I mean, I think I think he he might
be in dire straits with this lilac. I think I
think last time I I heard I have like a cycle.
I have like a telekinetic connection to Mr. Laurie.
I've never I've only met him once in person,
but like. Sometimes I feel a disturbance in the
force. I feel, I think I heard it. I think I
felt his bones crunching in the last episode.
So he might be in trouble there. Yeah. With a
mad ravenous plant. I think you're right. I hear
that a lot. I just choose not to go in and check
on him. So crossing my fingers. Hope you're all
right, Peter. Save Peter. That's going to be
our next t -shirt. Yeah. Hashtag save Peter.
It's a monster marathon, now all in one gigantic
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Godzilla. First thrill to Godzilla, Monster Island,
with more monsters than have ever appeared on
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finally, the classic Godzilla vs. Megalon. All
three in one colossal show. Rated G. From beyond
the stars come the most fearsome monsters of
the galaxy. Only Godzilla stands in their way
in Godzilla on Monster Island. Is even Godzilla
strong enough to defeat the invaders? Matching
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net daily grades. Don't miss Godzilla on Monster
Island. Rated G. Hi, Beth. Hi, Fred. How's it
going? Oh, good. Great. How are you? Good. I
am recovered, getting back to the swing of things,
working on my next research project. So back
from G -Fest with all the updates. Amazing. Can't
wait to hear about it. Yeah, it was, you know,
this year, the day sold out. And when I tell
you selling out the Hyatt is... more people than
you could imagine. I mean, it was, GFest was
crazy this year. I mean, it was so crowded. It
was really an accomplishment this year. That
is awesome. Vincent and I went to GFest, what
was it, like two or three years ago at this point?
But it's been a while for me. I loved it last
time I was there. Yeah, same. Been dying to get
back. So happy for you. So yeah, you had such
a great time. The Camp Kaiju Instagram feed was
blowing up with so many other Kaiju fans and
fans Folks just posting so many great pictures.
Beth, I think you were trying to do a Mothra
dance with the larva there. Good for you. Yeah,
my first talk, I was in the dojo room with Dojo
Studios, who does so many of the amazing suits.
So I ended up kind of meeting with the guy, and
I'm still friends with him on Instagram, Matt.
And yeah, so I got to like hang out with the
mantra suit and the mantra actor. So we were,
you were having a whole sing off. It was kind
of amazing. That is so cool. I wish I could have
been there. It was crazy this year. Cool. Yeah,
definitely next year. Cause Matt, I mean, Beth,
we only live, we live in the twin cities here.
So really we're close enough to make the trip.
We should do a panel next year. We should, we
should all do something next year. We absolutely
should. Yes, please. We did apply this year.
Matt and I wrote a proposal. So, you know, it's
something we definitely have up on our radars.
Yeah, I think kind of my approach to get in this
year was just kind of like rapid fire, almost
like wide net. Like I put in a whole bunch and
I just kind of saw what hits. So sometimes I
think it's like you have to like diversify and
wide net and then see where they can place you.
Yeah. Interesting. Have you done a panel before?
No, this is my first year. And then I put in
and I not only got it, I got two. It was really
funny. I felt like the bookend or the heels of
the bread because I literally talked the first
day, the first panel on Friday. Like I literally
opened it and then I literally closed it. Like
I was in the big room last panel on Sunday. So
I literally was like sandwiched in the event.
Yeah. I think that's fantastic. Yeah. Just happy
to be invited. Yeah. What were the panel? What
were your panels about? So the first one was
kind of like an impromptu casual talk. I was
with technically Dojo Studios. So there's a few
session rooms. I got picked with Dojo. So 10
in the morning on Friday the 13th. I mean, I
think the line was still like. in registration,
you know, but I still had a pretty good group.
So I was really happy about that. I talked about
the idea of movement and materiality within our
evaluations of Godzilla. The goal was kind of
to dismantle larger aesthetic ideas of like cheap
or silly. And I evaluated movements within the
franchise that like we, I really don't dive into
like. how the suit is working to give us that
moment. Like mostly a lot of it in Vera, like
when he scratches his notes, you know? So it's
like, how did the changes in the suit get us
there? You know? So I really, I tackled it practically
and theoretically. And the second talk was on
Sunday and this room was beautiful. The don't
like the session one room. They really redid
it this year. To be honest with you, I was a
little intimidated. I mean, you walk in as this
big amphitheater with Gaborah next to you and
these lights. I thought no one was going to come.
And we had hundreds of people like we were really
impressed. But I did me, my my husband, who,
you know, he's a film enthusiast and he works
in film. And my good friend, Olivia, who's a
critical theorist. We kind of did like a critical
engagement with Abira. And we just kind of looked
for the nuances within ideas of like Japanese
history and imperialism. Wow. Yeah. Could you
elaborate a little bit more? Because our episode
tonight is about Abira. Oh, perfect. It did win
our poll. And I'll tell you, it was actually
tied. It was tied. And I had to make the executive
choice because it tied with Gappa the Trifibian
Monster, which is a weird, obscure kaiju film.
That I love and will definitely want to talk
about on the show at some point. But at the end
of the day, I was like, well, Beth just did a
panel on Ibira. We have to go with the big G
on that one. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the way we
kind of approached the panel was. You know, we
kind of just approached it as, like, people that
were going to kind of go through the film and
kind of look for moments to kind of evaluate
and kind of see, maybe expand on in, like, a
critical sense where we're kind of going to look
at, like, the socio -political movement within,
like, you know, the time that the film was made.
And also, one thing that's really important to
me is to really champion the biography of Jun
Fukuda as a person. I think like, particularly
within Godzilla fandom, we have, I mean, we have
great work where we know about Honda's life,
which really adds a lot of color to his films.
We don't really know about Fukuda and, and there's
just a lot of complexities there within Japanese
imperialism. So really my goal was for not only
people to kind of take a look and see Fukuda
as kind of a person and the way he moved in his
life, but also to kind of read outside the archive
of the information that we have and then kind
of apply it within the 1960s of Japan. So I think
it was pretty successful. People seemed pretty
receptive to our ideas. Did you talk to a lot
of folks who this movie isn't their favorite,
that maybe they appreciated your ability to...
to put a different lens on it? You know, I think,
you know, when we got in to do our Sunday panel
at that point, we had to kind of go up on stage.
We really talked longer. And at that point, GFest
was ending. So we really didn't take a lot of,
we didn't really didn't take questions. And we
did have people come up to us after, but. Really,
it was my first panel talking about like movement
and materiality where I kind of went through
the Showa era and a lot of, you know, like Godzilla
doing the jig, Godzilla scratching his nose,
these things that are panned. And I kind of put
this lens of like, this is just evolution of
a series. And let's take a look at the way like
the costume changes. it was really in those moments
where I got people that were kind of like, okay,
maybe let's put a new light on the Showa era.
So it wasn't really so much a beer. Like I said,
Godzilla Fest was ending and by Sunday we were
all exhausted. Everybody was exhausted by the
end of it. So it was really in the beginning.
I kind of got it. That topic of that first talk
sounds so cool because I've had that experience
watching some of the, you know, some of the Showa
era, like. older kaiju films where some people
are like ah it looks so cheap it looks silly
and it's like well you're not totally wrong but
you're kind of like here's another way to look
at it sort of you know the color the movement
the materiality like you said i mean i think
it's so gratifying to look at these movies that
way and it always kind of pains me a little bit
when people are like oh it looks cheap it's a
man in a suit it's like yeah that's why i love
it you know yeah you know i um i posted all my
panels on my youtube channel at godzilla gale
so we can kind of see those but like that was
kind of my point is like I didn't lie about the
fact that like I'm coming here with an agenda
because I don't like the critique of the guy
in the suit and also that guy in the suit his
name is Haru and he's like a badass so let's
talk about these things he did in the suit like
and what these suits kind of work the idea of
taking that suit But jumping your full body with
that tail, kicking your legs up and going into
a pool is a feat of athleticism. And you can't
argue anyways. Absolutely. Oh, no. Yeah. Haruo
Nakajima, like he talks about the artistry and
the craft of his performance. He's an actor and
he, you know, the animals that he modeled Godzilla
movement off of. And in Ebura, it's the first
time that they filmed underwater. In the series
and just reading Nakajima's account of being
in the pool for eight plus hours a day. That's
not come on. Who can scoff at that? I dare you.
You know, I think particularly one thing within
my aesthetic work and my scholarly work is like
we tend to look at art as this like end product
and give this judgment. But like there's so many
moving parts that go in there. And the beauty
of like Toho and Godzilla is that we get behind
the scenes and we kind of start to look at these
moving parts. It just kind of dismantles these
like high art, fine art, blockbuster equivalents
that we give to it. We kind of appreciate it
a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah, that's what we
try to do on Camp Kaiju, right, Matt? Absolutely,
yeah. I mean, yeah, distinctions between highbrow
and lowbrow and mainstream and on the fringes
of film or whatever. Sometimes those boundaries
don't really seem to help too much. So it's better
to try to bring everything together a little
bit in a place of love. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
So Jun Fukuda. He directs Ebura Horror of the
Deep. It's his first Godzilla movie in the series,
right? And could you talk a little bit more about
what he's bringing to his direction? Honestly,
I don't know because I have books right now on
my shelf about Honda. I'm looking at Jun Fukuda's
Wikipedia page and there's nothing on it. Which,
you know, for someone so... so high up there
i mean he's he's he made godzilla what we know
it today arguably as much as honda so yeah i'd
love to hear you beth talk about fukuda a little
bit you know think about like fukuda's work like
you know for me like it's really his outside
stuff like he did a lot of like spy parody films
like 100 shot 100 killed like iron finger which
is now in the criterion collection you know That
is really, like, a showcase of what he wants
to do. He really, like, figured out his niche,
like, within movement. You know, all of his films
are really these high action, high movement,
high action. But also, like, he was, like, a
journeyman director. Like, he kind of got, like,
all of his films were meant to be kind of sequential.
It's not something like Honda, who could do these
one -offs. The moment he got Godzilla, he was
meant to do franchise and sequence. So it gives
a different evaluation. Secondly, he is now working
within the medium of TV and all of these other
ranges and films a way to do it. It's just a
whole different technical application of making
film. And really like him and because he was
kind of a younger director, he was the best one
to do it at that time. We kind of have this impression
that like, oh, there's no money coming in and
these are bad films. It's actually kind of like.
the opposite scope they knew they could bank
on fukuda to make films with less if anything
they knew they had their trust in him to deliver
the product because they knew his talent so that
kind of flips the scripts of how we've been talking
about the 1960s and he did particularly abira
you know It was like originally supposed to be
like three films. Like it was supposed to be
like a Caruso film. Then it was supposed to be
King Kong film. Then it became a Godzilla films.
But even that like critique of it, that's just
common in film. That's just how these things
happen. It happens all the time. And I've read
a lot of the literature on it. And that's like
one critique that's given to it. But like that.
also happened to honda and everybody else in
the series so like why are you using it against
him and then he did have that critique and he
still made like a great piece of art you know
he made something also too there's critiques
like like my husband he works in film he said
you know It takes a lot of talent to make cheap
look that good. And he did it, you know, the
idea of the lens flares when you're looking at
the sunset, you know, that's a technique we are
using now because we know it's in practical filmmaking.
And then the idea of like color technique, you
know, when you watch the film, it's mothra coated
from the beginning. All the colors are mothra
colors. So it actually leads you like a fairy
tale until we get there because technically she's
a savior. So there's all these little like narrative
color tricks that he was doing that if you're
only going to look at it, it's like cheap and
silly. You're going to miss this. Yeah, I, I
had, I mean, one thing that stands out to me
about this movie are the colors, but I, I hadn't,
I hadn't picked up on them tying those colors
into Mothra's palette. Yeah. They're all in yellows
and reds and oranges and black. I mean, these
are. choices that Fukuda was made and it is this
idea of like color narrative and uh so that's
doing that additionally the idea of like editing
you know the film actually starts off within
like a fairy tale narrative because we start
off with this idea of the brother at the shaman
with the mother and you know the shaman it's
actually this like kind of shinto religious ritual
where you have to travel through the underworld
to get this information from the spirits But
now we have the boys traveling through the water
to get there. So the film's actually set up like
a fairy tale. And that's it. All of these little
like narrative tricks that you don't realize
that you're not seeing it from the beginning.
You know, the idea, everybody, how do I say this?
The idea of what we think like a good film, a
political film tends to be kind of loud. And
if anything, what Fukuda is doing is very nuanced
and quiet. So you have to look for it. But once
you see it, you realize how good of filmmaking
it is. Yeah, you're talking about the Red Bamboo
story? Yeah, you know, that's like another thing
that like, you know, I kind of carefully brought
up, you know, I don't ever want to yuck anybody's
yum. You know, we're all fans of this thing.
I don't ever want to criticize anybody. But like,
you know, Fukuda made the choice. To put the
red bamboo in there. Like basically. Gunning
down the diasporic. Infinite. Like infinite island
people. Like that's a choice he made as a director.
And so that's like kind of something. That maybe
we should think like. Within that 1960s moment.
Also too like. There was like a conversation
in Japan. About like the Ainu people. Because
like the Japanese had been like. Kind of taking
out their numbers. So and then with him. Growing
up in like Manchuria. There's all these, like,
ideas about, like, the way the people in the
colonies have been treated. So, and he's also
the only one to bring up these, like, ambiguous
paramilitary groups, you know? There's kind of
this idea, like, Shinichi Sekizawa, who is a
screenwriter, you know, and maybe he would, like,
not get the credit for it. But he also wrote
Mothra. So that line doesn't work for me either,
because Mothra is an incredibly political film.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's, you know, under close evaluation,
which is pretty much what we did on the panel.
We just kind of went through and we pulled out
scenes and we were like, OK, let's evaluate this.
You kind of start to see this like subtle little
political inferencing that maybe he's seeing
within that moment. But you miss it as a viewer
because you're so busy looking at jazz music
and bright colors and the silliness, you know,
on so many different levels. Like if you're not
keyed into all the politics and. the subtle things
you are talking about, and I agree with, you're
still going to enjoy the movie because it's silly
and goofy and it's just like a campy Godzilla
movie. But if you want to look deeper into it,
it can offer that too. I think it's so important.
And horror and sci -fi just, I think, to go off
a little bit, are the genres to explore really
tough themes with all their metaphors. And you're
right, you're soaking it up as a viewer and you
don't even realize it. You just thought you were
watching Godzilla rip apart a giant lobster.
Yeah. And, you know, my my friend Olivia, who
is on the panel with me, like she made a really
good point. Like Godzilla doesn't even appear
to like almost an hour in. It's an hour, 20 minutes
movie. So it's like we actually like none of
this movie is actually about Godzilla. And then
actually the savior of our movie is Mothra. So
like it's just as like one off film. Like actually,
when you look at it, the movie is nothing about
Godzilla at all. And then, too, like, the through
threads of Fukuda's work, like, when you get
to, like, Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla, that's
about the Okinawans. And within the 1960s, the
Okinawans were having a whole bunch of political,
like, tensions within there with, like, the student
massacre crisis and all of this, too. So, again,
it's just while he did it in this very subtle,
ambiguous way so it was never loud, there's still
these political films that reflect the tensions
of the time. Beth, I was going to ask you about
how the Godzilla, you know, character in Emperor
Horror of the Deep was originally supposed to
be King Kong, which I just think is a fascinating
backstory. And I was just curious about your
thoughts on that. Do you think the movie improved
by, you know, featuring Godzilla instead of King
Kong? What are your thoughts about what it might
have been like if King Kong had been in it? I'm
curious what you think about that. You know,
I don't know how I feel about that. Now I have
to think about that. You know, I think. the idea
of what like there's an idea of monster island
versus skull island and like depending if you're
in asia or the united states these are two very
different application and anxieties you know
i think if it was a kong movie we would look
at something like they're like i don't know how
they would claim it like if they're on monster
island like a bureau we called it like leachy
devil's island i don't know what they would have
called it but it almost gives it like that exoticism
voyeurism orientalizing you know where it's this
kind of like othering thing and um like in abira
while that element still is there it almost like
again goes into this fairy tale nada like fairy
tale like narrative a little bit because of the
way it starts with like the psychic and the shaman
so Yeah, you know, that's a great question for
a parallel universe that I would love to answer.
Like, let's sliding doors it. Yeah, that's fascinating.
I think you bring up a really good point that
if it had been King Kong on Skull Island, there
would have been that othering element. I think
what we see with the Infant Island natives in
Ebra Horror of the Deep, they're kind of the
protagonists of the film in a way. We're rooting
for them to escape their oppression and their
entrapment. And it's hard to imagine that a similar
kind of effect would happen if King Kong would
have been featured in the film. Yeah. And, you
know, that's another thing that I think maybe
next year when I put in for panels, if we do
another critical one, you know, I think we really
want to do like Fukuda's Mechagodzilla. Because,
again, you see this follow through of Fukuda
really giving agency and voice to these like
colonized Pacific people, which is completely
like kind of unique and like, in my opinion,
kind of shows like. political ideologies maybe
within the 1960s a little bit. Also, you know,
China in 1960s had been having the culture revolution
and Mao Zedong and the Red Guard. So we knew
we kind of were reflecting these atomic anxieties
in the 1960s. But it's not Japan in this moment.
It's all these like others that kind of come
up. So, yeah, if it had been Donkey Kong, we
would have missed that. That is fascinating.
Yeah. Also, too, we realized, too, going through
it, France at that point in the 1960s had developed
nuclear capabilities as well. So it's not just
like, I mean, obviously China, who are their
neighbors and longstanding political relationship
with had developed these and successfully tested
nuclear weapons. 1966, successfully tested. So
like before they started this movie. they were
having that nuclear conversation. But again,
it was these other allies and non -allies in
the war in Europe that were also all developing
these nuclear capabilities. And like the last
dialogue and conversation in Avira, they're talking
about nuclear weapons. They're talking about
these things. So it's like, okay, we can really
pull this through now. This is becoming a little
less obvious. Yeah, I appreciate that backstory.
I mean, not backstory, but just background and
cultural context to this film. I think that I
think for me, that improves how I view this film
tenfold. And that was just really, really my
goal. I'm not here to change anybody's mind,
but like. You know, we can look at the original
film and other directors as these like heavy
political films and we pull these other sociopolitical
contacts like, let's do the same for Fukuda.
Like a lot happened in the 1960s, guys. A lot
happened. Let's go ahead and do this. Honestly,
whatever view you may have of Ebera, Horror of
the Deep, some of his movies are legitimately
among my favorites. Megalon and Mechagodzilla
and... I just want someone to write a book about
Jun Fukuda. Beth? I'm working on it. That's really
one of my goals. I'm fascinated by him. I think
we have almost wrote his movies. They need an
intervention. Let me just say it that way. I'm
not going to say if it's right or wrong, but
they're in dire need of an intervention along
with the lines of war memory and what Japanese
genre cinema was doing. I will do that for you,
Vince. Don't worry. Don't do it for me. OK, perfect.
I am but one person. I'll be one of the first
readers. Do it for me as well. And everybody
else. You have two readers who are going to preorder
that book. OK, perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
Oh, yeah. In the next 10 minutes, before we let
you go, we got to hear about Godzilla Day. How
was your weekend in Bloomington? It was crazy.
We sold out. First off. I'm in a college town,
so we lose half of our population when the kids
go home. We sold out. We sold out over 600 tickets
the first day. That's crazy. We only needed to
sell out maybe like 200, 300 in a 600 -person
theater. We sold out. And we sold out even before
the doors opened, the line was around the block.
We had to not let people in. Crazy. This is a
crazy event for Bloomington, Indiana. And then
the next two nights were just equally as successful.
We did not sell out, but we still had packed
houses with people wanting to do this. And it's
been nothing but a positive reception here. local
community facilities here like the public libraries
have reached out so in august we're going to
be starting programs to teach kaiju 101 through
the public library yeah i have a kids um i'm
right now getting a kids program i want to do
like a rocky horror style like engagement for
son of godzilla so we're right now in talks with
the library to do that yeah i can see that that's
fantastic congratulations oh my gosh Like whenever
like baby Godzilla starts to like learn to like,
you know, cause he blows these little like bubbles
out. I want to give the kids bubbles so that
they can do that. And all of these things, maybe
they can throw cotton balls. Just I'll, you know,
we'll figure it out as we go. I love it. That's
such a cool idea. Yeah. You know, it's all been
going pretty good. So we'll just see where it
goes. So yeah, of course. I like some of Godzilla.
Me and Matt covered that on our podcast a couple
of years ago. It's another one that gets mixed
reviews. I mean, I get it both ways. I just have
a it's just holds a special place in my heart
because I saw it young. Maybe I don't know. But
but I think it's a great movie to watch with
like a Rocky Horror style interactive thing.
That's pretty cool. You know, I think The Son
of Godzilla, again, is one of these movies that
gets panned that, like, maybe deserves more appreciation.
You know, kind of that sad ending where they're
just kind of freezing to death or hibernation.
That's kind of a rough scene. Yeah, it's very
poignant. Yeah. Especially considering everything
that comes beforehand, you know, it seems to
be very light and family friendly. And suddenly
there's this bleak ending. Really caught me off
guard when I saw that. Do for a rewatch for me,
I think. Yeah. And also that spider is awesome.
You cannot tell me that that's bad special effects.
That spider coming out of the ground and everything.
Awesome. Awesome. It's so fun. Yeah. That and
Eberra, just a great double feature there. Got
the island theme and all these kaiju that don't
really exist outside of those two movies. What
movies did you screen this past year for Godzilla
Days? Well, we did the first like Honda 1954
in the original cut. And then it was really great
because we had a post film panel and I had two
scholars of East Asian study there. So we were
able to really give kind of a really great scholarly
background in Q &A. And then we did All Monsters
Attack because we also made sure that we had
parents with kids. So it was really amazing because
actually the theater was full of kids. So and
they loved every second of it, you know. And
it's really funny because, you know, kids, they
don't really sit well through movies, but so
many of them were so engaged and it didn't even
matter. I was there with my friend Olivia and
she has a three and five year old and just watching
them, you know, just be like, use your breath
Godzilla and all of it. And it was just like
a really, even the adults were really happy to
be there to watch kids watch this movie. And
then Sunday was, we got weird and we did Godzilla
versus Hedera. So, and everybody, a rowdy drunk
crowd. I mean, people were screaming for this
film. It was a good night. Incredible. That sounds
so fun. Wow. Yeah. So I know, you know, the Buzz
Kirk has, we finished up and, you know, the director
has already kind of said, let's talk again in
August. I already am making plans. I will let
Camp Kaiju know exactly what the tea will be
when we know and we start planning again. Well,
thank you for that. We're honored. And where
can do you have a like a social media place people
can go to learn more about? My Insta is Godzilla
in Bloomington. And then my YouTube channel is
at Godzilla Gale. So you can kind of see a few
of my recent public speaking events and the Godzilla
Fest panels. Yeah. Well, we'll put those links
in our show notes. We can't wait to see what's
next. Me neither. I don't know. I got to get
through the summer. I have another speaking event
in about, oh shit, in less than two weeks. I
got to prepare for. I don't know if you guys
have Nerd Night in Minnesota. no so it's this
if you do you should do this so basically it's
this like local like what they do is they go
to bars and basically you register and it's like
people talking with powerpoint presentations
for 15 minutes then like q a it's basically like
powerpoints and beer so i'll be talking about
polgasari so but i know nerd nights are all over
the country so if they have them in in minnesota
there you should definitely do one So I'm doing
that. So I'll have that posted. I got to get
that. Oh, I got to get that presentation going
soon here. That's really cool. I've been now
starting to watch and get into North Korean kaiju
films and that. That's a lot. You got to do your
homework. That's the best thing about being an
academic type of person. We love the research.
Lots of political subtext on that topic for sure.
Oh my God. I watched it yesterday and like within
the credits, there was a whole bunch of North
Korean propaganda. I was like, how do I talk
about this film in 15 minutes is the next question.
It'll be a speed round. Yeah, it really will.
I mean, oh, the Kaiju in the beginning is like
a mix between baby Godzilla and the little demons
from the gate. It's so weird. It's like uncanny,
you know? I am looking up Nerd Night in Minnesota
as soon as I possibly can. Yeah, you know, it's
a great they're kind of like a grassroots organization
and they really put great speakers on. So I'm
again, I'm really honored to be speaking and
being the Godzilla expert of doing this North
Korean kaiju film. Heck yeah. Well, Beth, we're
going to get back to talking about Abira here.
But really, thank you so much for your insights,
for your fandom. for joining us here on Camp
Kaiju. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank
you guys for having me. Thank you, Beth. Nice
to meet you. All right. Nice to meet you. Your
cat is very cute in the background. Thank you.
He likes to perch up there during our recordings.
A little distracting to me sometimes. Hopefully
not to anybody else. We all have animal companions
for the show. All right, Beth. Have a good night.
We'll catch up later. Bye -bye. Thanks again.
Bye. Godzilla. Terror monster of the motion picture
screen meets The Thing. Godzilla versus The Thing.
Innocent looking, but so feared, pagan man worshipped
it. See the battle of gigantic forces spreading
terror across the world. Can man's inventions
conquer them? Godzilla versus the theme. Now,
what are some themes? We've already talked about
many of them. And with Beth's truly wonderful
insights, can think about some other ones, maybe
a little deeper. than I was going to. I won't
speak for you. I did think about the idea of
nuclear weapons falling in the hands of terrorists.
I think that is a legitimate fear we still talk
about today with whatever hostilities we feel
towards Iran, for example, or other states that
the fear is that they will propagate these weapons
to inflict So I take that very seriously. I will
note, however, this theme is literally brought
up in the last shot of the film. And somebody
literally says, wow, man, you can't get atomic
weapons in the hands of terrorists. And another
character genuinely dismisses that and says,
nah, let's just keep sailing or something. I'm
paraphrasing. But do you remember that? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I think like, you know, the one character
is like, you know, nuclear weapons should not
be in the hands of terrorists. Hopefully we can
live in a world where like nobody ever uses these
weapons. And then I think the other guy says
like, all right, is your lecture over professor?
Let's just get on with it. It's like something
like that, you know? And I, I would be real.
I, I really hated that, that the movie dismissed
its own theme. Right. It's like, then. then why
if you don't care why do i care yeah i i felt
the same way like it i feel like you should either
not have that line of dialogue at all and like
because you know earlier in the movie there is
a very brief moment where they're in the red
bamboo like lair headquarters whatever and there's
like a machine for creating like heavy water
which i guess is a way to create like atomic
weaponry through water yeah but that's similarly
that's like one line of dialogue about that and
then they like move on and they never really
mention it again until that the very last scene
that you're talking about and it's like if this
is going to be the main theme of your movie you
know on one hand i like subtlety i like not hammering
the point home oh but then can you know paradoxically
it does hammer the point home at the end through
like a very lazy line of dialogue so i don't
know if that's going to be the theme of your
movie i think you have to do it more carefully
than that either more carefully or Very heavy
handed. And and I don't think it did either.
Right. In accordance with you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know, I mean, in a way, it kind of seems
like a joke about how how many Godzilla movies
have this theme of like atomic weaponry in the
nuclear age and like because it goes back to
the original Godzilla and it's in so many of
them, you know? Well, that's true. Maybe I'm
reading it wrong. Maybe it is a jab at its own.
at its own series. That could be the case. And
it's Sakizawa, if he wrote that line, you know,
he had a flair for that kind of like political,
not political, parody. Yeah. In his films, the
satire. So this could be a satire, a meta satire
of its own film. It could be. It's very hard
to tell though. I mean, you know, at the same
time. There's like the jokey thing where Godzilla
touches his nose, which I think is something
that like a popular TV character did on a TV
show at the time. I can't remember which one.
And then in Son of Godzilla, also by Jun Fukuda
the next year, there's like the funny little
jig slash dance that Godzilla does. And it's
like, that's just a strange direction that the
series goes in. And like, of course it comes
down to personal subjective opinion. It's not.
the direction that I would like the series to
go in, but like, you know, what is it? Is it
like a jokey family friendly movie? Is it like
a meta self -reflexive commentary? Like you said,
is it meant in all seriousness about like the
proliferation of digital or sorry, nuclear weapons?
It's really hard to know what this movie is going
for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, yeah, I'm going
to leave it at that. You know, it is, I think
we've said what we said about that theme. Because,
you know, yeah, I'll talk more about this stuff
in my breakdown, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Anything
else you want to talk about? You know, I did
like what Beth said before about like the difference
between King Kong and Godzilla, those characters,
and maybe like the different ways that we perceive
native or indigenous characters in those two
different movies or franchises or whatever. That
is kind of interesting to me. And I do think
like the infant island natives being. enslaved
by the Red Bamboo. And then, you know, some of
the protagonists in Eberra Horror of the Deep
kind of join the Infant Island native crew. They're
sort of through a really convoluted series of
events that I won't try to explain. We're kind
of rooting for those characters to succeed and
escape for that reason. And I guess I kind of
appreciated that. I do think maybe there's some
subtext about... And I don't know, unfortunately,
I don't know Japanese history enough to like
know what was going on in the 60s in terms of,
you know, colonization, oppression of like populations
in other countries that Japan might have occupied
in the past. I wish I knew a little bit more
about that. But, you know, it's a powerful subtext.
I think that subplot does kind of work for me
in Abra Horror of the Deep. But again, it does
kind of seem tossed off and like not really very
well. I guess there's not a lot of substance
to it, but I did like that element of the film.
Yeah. And I do think it's, it is interesting
to note Fukuda is a Chinese born director, which
at the time of his birth in Manchuria, it was
a Japanese colony. He was a Japanese subject.
So I think that is a really powerful lens that
is in probably inherit. I won't speak to his
experience, obviously, but I do believe that
we all carry things in us as artists that come
out whether we want it to or not, that inform
our art whether we want it to or not. Yeah. Yeah.
Definitely, yeah. And I really hope Beth writes
that book on Jun Fukuda because it sounds fascinating.
And perhaps my opinion of this film will improve
over time. If she does or if I, you know, I can
take it on myself to learn more as well. So,
but yeah, I do think there's some subtext there
that maybe I'm not totally picking up on. Yeah.
But whether or not it's executed is a different
question, right? Indeed. Indeed. Like it may
be there, but if the filmmaker's making it difficult
for us to pull those threads, well, you know,
I can't forgive that either. Right. Yeah, that's
my thought too. And, you know, some other kaiju
movies do that more successfully, I think. It's
fairly clear what the political takeaway is in
a lot of different kaiju movies, you know? And
I think Fukuda does it better in other movies.
We haven't talked about Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla,
but like Beth said, the take on the Okinawans
in that movie and King Caesar being a protector
of their island nation, I think Fukuda does what
he's doing in Ebera. A hundred times better in
that movie. I don't know why we have to, maybe
we'll have to talk about Mechagodzilla, but I
think Bakuda himself does improve on this in
subsequent films. Well, let's get to our individual
breakdowns. You know, let's just spend a brief
amount of time on this and then we can get to
our announcements. Yeah. Preview of upcoming
titles. Can't wait. Yeah. Okay. I can go first.
Okay. What I like. Oh, yeah. So the good, the
bad and the campy for new time listeners, longtime
listeners. This is where me and Matt pretty much
get into our actual personal reviews of the film.
What did I like about this movie? Actually, quite
a bit. I love the score. I do like the jazzy.
I think it gives it like a real beach theme.
Like this is a summer movie to me. This is great.
It sets the mood. I think. Oh, the youth. This
is a theme we didn't talk on, but it's like the
movie is actually very youth centric with the
dance marathon. But our protagonists are all
very young, which I think is new to this series.
I love the photography of the ocean in the beginning
of this movie when they're sailing the yacht
and there's some beautiful sunsets. Really nice.
Just establishing shots of the ocean and the
horizon. I actually love Abira in. his appearance
when that monster first appears it's a dark and
stormy night and you just see this claw come
out of the ocean that to me is very menacing
there's a lot of atmosphere with those shots
the rest of the creature is kind of goofy to
me but the claw just the one claw you're thinking
what is underneath the waves if i'm seeing this
claw so that's cool i always love mothra i don't
think mothra does too much in this movie unfortunately
but i do Always appreciate a Mothra movie. When
Eber eats those two guys, the infant Islanders,
that was horrifying. That was a moment of, of,
of real horror. Cause it's, yeah, just the way
the effects are. It was like really kind of gruesome,
shocking. And yeah, there you go. Those are my
good notes for a beer. Well, I don't want to
just echo everything that you just said, but
that's, that's all my good stuff as well. It
does look really great. I love the colors in
this movie. You know, not just the ocean, but
also some of the, like, sunsets or, like, the
sun maybe rising or setting over the ocean. Pointless
thing to say, sorry. And, like, just some of
the, like, artificial sets look really great
in the kind of, like, really eye -popping, like,
you know, kind of cartoonish, very entertaining
style of this time. Really liked all that stuff.
Eber's first appearance, again, to echo what
you said, is really surprising. The music comes
out like it's it's not what you expect, but it
fits the scene perfectly. It's kind of like silly
and scary at the same time. I did really like
the scene where a bunch of I know I brought this
up before, but like a bunch of fighter pilots
are like attacking Godzilla. And he's just like
grabbing at the planes and like blowing them
up, smashing them together and everything. That's
a really exciting scene. I love that part. Yeah,
that might be about it for me, though. All right.
The quote bad for this movie. I'm just going
to pinpoint a few things here. For a very short
movie, I feel like there's a short runtime. However,
I felt like this movie got a little long in the
tooth at some point. Godzilla does take an hour
to show up, and even then when he shows up, he's
sleeping in a cave, but it just looks like somebody
draped the suit over a bunch of rocks. It doesn't
look good. For the King of the Monsters. And
I know it's supposed to be kind of like, oh,
Godzilla's sleeping. Better not wake him up.
I'm like, is he sleeping or is that guy dead?
Like, you need to check on him. Yeah. What's
going on here? You know, I think the Red Bamboo,
there's so much potential. Maybe that's the word
of the episode. There's so much potential for
like a James Bond type of organization. Because
remember, spy films were super popular at this
time because of James Bond. So you could have
a real specter organization. But it just kind
of served to move the story along, I feel like.
And I didn't really get any real espionage flair
that I really wanted with this movie. Yeah. What
say you? Yeah, I agree with that too. I definitely
think this is a movie of missed potential. To
use the Red Bamboo as an example, if we knew
more about what that organization did, maybe
this is a little bit too James Bond, revealing
your grand plan to everybody, but if we knew
what they were trying to do, then maybe we would
understand the political commentary a little
bit more. As it is, it's just like, there are
men with guns who enslave people, and that's
all we know about them. Yeah, we know nothing
about them. And of course, Eberra, the horror
of the deep, again, is in this movie so briefly.
it's you know all the monster fights and then
you know to again echo what you said are disappointing
they're so short like the first fight between
Godzilla and Abura they're just like throwing
a rock back and forth and that's it that's the
entire fight basically and then the second fight
they're they're splashing each other with water
Right, yeah. Yeah, which is funny at first, but
it's like, oh, is that all there is? I did think
the climactic fight between Mothra and Godzilla
was a little bit more exciting. There's a moment
where Godzilla is like knocked over and like
tumbles down a hill into the water. And Beth
kind of mentioned this before, but I was like,
wow, just the athleticism of that moment. That's
pretty cool. But, you know, another criticism
about that is like... Unless you've seen previous
movies in the series, you don't know why Mothra
and Godzilla are fighting each other. Like, they
don't really have an antagonism in this movie.
Ebra, I guess, kind of makes sense why he, she,
or it would attack Godzilla. But like with Mothra,
it doesn't make any sense. We don't know why
that's happening. And I guess, you know, for
me, this movie is kind of a case study in like
the importance of a film director. And again,
I don't mean to... disrespect Jun Fukuda. I know
he was like working with very limited budget,
very short shooting schedule. The odds were stacked
against him, but you know, there are so many
moments where like a different composition, like
different editing patterns, like, you know, like
visual scheme to like build up suspense in certain
moments. Like when they first see the safe cracker
on the boat. could have been really exciting,
suspenseful, thrilling. But it's like, oh, just
point the camera at the actors and let them do
their thing. And it's like, this is why film
directing is important. You need to storyboard
it. You need to plan out the shots. You need
to build suspense. And I don't think there's
very much of that in this movie, unfortunately.
Lack of suspense. I think that's the summation
for me and why this movie, to me, feels so much
longer than it should. Because it's, again, just
we're moving from one plot point to another.
But like you said, where's the, I don't know.
Yeah. Like, where's the suspense that I didn't,
I didn't get any. Right. For a movie. Oh, sorry.
Ouch. Ouch. Yeah. Brutal. Ripping off the claws
here. Yeah. And, you know, I mean. Certainly
a lot of this comes down to subjective personal
opinion. I'm like, it was awesome hearing Beth
talk about this movie and maybe my opinion will
improve on future viewings. I can understand
why somebody would find this really entertaining.
But yeah, again, for me, it didn't do it for
me. And for a movie that moves so quickly, it
just like hurdles through its plot. How can it
also feel so slow and boring at the same time,
you know? Honestly, honestly. Oh, there goes
the other claw. We're just... Ripping them off.
Sorry. Yeah. Bag of melted butter. I love crab
legs. What can I say? But do you like yellow
liquid? If I knew more about yellow liquid, maybe
I would like it. And this movie, it's like, what?
What is the yellow liquid? Tell me more. There's
a campy thing. The amount of times they said
yellow liquid. I was like, guys, could you have
made it another color? Like anything. Yeah, yeah.
That is the horror of the deep right there. All
the yellow liquid in the ocean now. No wonder
everyone's so mad all the time. He's like, you're
literally, I won't go there. That's my one campy
thing. Let's see here. I really did like, well,
maybe not like. I thought the dance marathon
stuff was like really silly and very campy at
the beginning. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Sorry.
I don't really have too much other, like, campy
stuff. I feel like there's, like, a campy vibe
through the whole thing just because, like, the
characters are so ridiculous. Their motivations
often are, like, sort of inscrutable. Like, especially
the two friends who are just like, yeah, let's
risk our lives and join this guy for no reason.
Like, it's just a very absurd plot. And maybe
that's not campy, but I did find it very entertaining
and also kind of maddening at the same time.
This movie sucks me in. I do. I love the dance
marathon and the boating and Abira's first appearance.
But then it just, for me, loses steam midway
through. And I'm still, first time we see Godzilla,
guess what? It's not exciting. And I'm like,
oh, how much more do we have to go with this
movie? Yeah. Then the Red Bamboo disappear. They're
defeated with like 20 minutes left to go. And
then you're just like, okay, like then what we're
just, we're just a car without gas idling down
a hillside. Like we're moving. There's no doubt
about that, but there's, there's no oomph behind
it. Like there we've, there's no gas in the tank.
Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Where are we going with
this for sure? And like, I really love Mothra
too, but I think in this case. I missed Mothra's
song. Like I love the music that usually accompanies
the character of Mothra, which is not in this
movie. And the Shobijin, the like two kind of
tiny mystical creatures who are like Mothra's
protectors. They're in this movie as well, but
like that stuff doesn't look all that great.
And then like, I don't know, usually like that
aspect is kind of surreal. And in this movie,
it's just like, ah, this is not very well done.
So even Mothra, who I love, kind of disappointing
in this movie. Yeah. All right. Well, let's get
to our final rating. Reveal our lineup. Drum
roll. Yeah. And, you know, folks, we'll see you
next time. Indeed. Should I should I read our
four rankings as usual? It would not be an episode
of Camp Kaiju without it. That's how I feel.
Our highest rating is it's a timeless classic.
It definitely stands the test of time. Number
two, there may be some antiquated moments, but
overall it's great. It stands the test of time.
Number three, it may be historically significant
or just fun, but it does not stand the test of
time. Number four, and our lowest rating, it
is not worth revisiting. It definitely does not
stand the test of time. Okay. You want to go
first? Sure, yeah. Well, you didn't bring this
to the podcast, which is what I was going to
say, but I'll still leave you with the final
word. So yeah, I'll go first. I was going to
give this the lowest rating, I have to be honest.
Like, while I was watching the movie, I was like,
oh, I don't like this. But I have reconsidered.
There are some things that I like. It looks pretty
great. It is... There's some fun moments for
sure. And like just hearing Beth talk about it,
hearing her love for it and all the subtext that
maybe I'm not totally picking up on, you know,
I got to bump it up a little bit. So I'm going
to say this movie, I don't know if it's historically
significant. It is fun at times. I don't think
it stands the test of time, but I'm going to
give it our second lowest rating. I think that's,
that's, I think you're on the money there. I
think as much as I want to like this movie more
and Beth, I think you're also right on the money
with all of your input, which means to me that
it is historically significant. And it's Jun
Fukuda's first outing in the series. So for all
of you wanting to do a dive into the arc of this
series of Godzilla, this franchise we all love,
Fukuda's footprint starts here. And I think that's
important to recognize. But for all the reasons
we just mentioned, I don't find this movie compelling
as many other Godzilla movies don't find it.
It is fun. It is campy, but only to a point because
then things just, just sort of happen. That makes
sense. And it, and yeah, I just needed more out
of this movie. Same missed, missed opportunities
and missed potential. I would say. Yeah. Yep.
Yep. Well, There it is, folks. Abira, Horror
of the Deep. Please let us know your thoughts.
However, we would love to hear from you. We'd
love to feature your thoughts on this film and
opinions on why we were wrong in our estimation.
That's cool. Let us know. We will gladly, proudly
feature your voice on the show. Please rate and
review wherever you do listen. You can also share
this podcast with a friend. Subscribe to the
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kaiju underscore podcast. Links in those show
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telling us about your favorite monster movies
and memories. Please check out our website, campkaijupodcast
.com, for more information. Camp Kaiju is recorded
in Minneapolis, St. Paul, with Minya's mailbox
music by Ben Cook -Felps. Thank you, friends,
and until next time, stay campy. Camp Kaju is
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in the show notes. And until next time, stay
campy. Say, I think we ought to think about it
some more first. How do we get in there anyway?
We'll get in. With this. Sure that thing will
work? I can open any kind of lock. You did steal
that money. A safe cracker. That's not very important
right now. I've been looking forward to this
for weeks now. Let me tell you. So let me pull
up my list here real quick. All right. And for
all you listening, this is subject to change,
of course. That has happened in the past. It
may happen now. But I have five picks. Matt sounds
like you have five. So I think our next episode
after a beer after a bit after the sea monster,
we'll go with that from now on will be a special
encore presentation of Peter Laurie's poverty
row picture show. Just recapping the past six
months of his misadventures. Then we can. release
or do an episode on your pick Matt. Okay. So
I should go first. So what would tell us what
we're to look forward to in August? All right.
My pick for August is the movie Congo from 1995.
This in a way is kind of a shout out to my friends
who I grew up with, went to school with in West
Bend. We all love Congo. We've seen this movie
many, many times. My friend Chris even made a
board game based on the movie Congo. I've wanted
to rewatch it for a long time. I think it's like
the height of mid -90s camp. I can't wait to
rewatch it. Dude, you've talked about it. I've
never seen this movie, but every time you talk
about it, I secretly think to myself, I hope
Matt brings this to the podcast. I hope Matt
brings this to the podcast. And you did. I am
so excited. I love 90s monster movies since The
Relic. When we watched that movie, The Relic,
Species. There's just a whole bunch of these
B movies that were given A -list production.
Totally. Yeah. Yep. And there are so many more
to talk about at some point. Like we could go
on and on only with like 90s B monster movies.
So I'm very excited for Congo as well. Amazing.
Condo. Congo. I like Condo though too. I hope
there's a monster movie out there called Condo.
I want to see that. Well, I am not bringing Condo
to the podcast. I am bringing Jaws 2. Nice. To
celebrate Jaws' 50th anniversary. I was like,
let's do the sequel because I think it's underrated
personally. It's been a few years since I've
seen it, but I think there's a lot to talk about.
Maybe it's only flaw is that it's a sequel to
Jaws. Honestly, maybe. So a good 70s creature
feature there. I can't wait. It's been a long
time since I've seen it too. And I have fond
memories of it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Great
start so far. Yeah, totally. My second pick,
which I guess will be for September, is the other
title that I threw into the mix for Kaijulai,
which was not chosen, but I'm really excited
about it. Space Amoeba from 1970, directed by
Shiro Honda. I just love that title, Space Amoeba,
so much. I don't really know a lot about it.
I know that there are gigantic monsters in the
Pacific Ocean. It's not a Godzilla movie, but
it is an Ashiro Honda monster movie, and I can't
wait to watch it. Oh, Lordy, it's happening,
everybody. Space Amoeba, hold on to your butts.
Hold on to your bags of butter. Sorry, I'm just
going to drill that one into as far as I can.
I love it. I was trying to think of more like
crustacean puns during the episode and none of
them came to me. So I apologize for that. That's
all right. There are crustaceans in Space Amoeba,
though, I will say. So get your bags of butter.
Yeah. Amazing. I love that. I'm bringing another
Kaiju film after that. It is going to be one
from 1986. It is another sequel, folks. It is
Godzilla. No, sorry. It is King Kong Lives, a
sequel to the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis King Kong.
So like Space Amoeba, not known as a great movie,
but we're going to talk about it. That seemed
like a great double feature. Those movies hopefully
will go together extremely well. King Kong lives
in space amoeba. Man, that's awesome. I actually
kind of like the 70s King Kong. So I assume hopefully
I'll like this one too. I don't know. I have
yet to see it. I got the DVD on my shelf about
time I watched it. Yeah. Cool. Well, that's great.
My third pick for this season is going to be
Prophecy from 1979. directed by John Frankenheimer.
A director I like a lot. This movie definitely
gets mixed reviews. It has a high camp reputation.
As far as I know, it's kind of monster movie
mixed with kind of like eco, like anti -pollution
theme. And I have to admit, I've seen one scene
from Prophecy, and it's the most hilarious death
I have ever seen in a movie. So if the rest of
the film is that crazy and campy, we're in for
a treat. Yeah, I know about this movie from Reputation.
It's a mutated bear, I think. I mean, this is
the same director of Island of Dr. Moreau, right?
Yes, yeah. John Frankenheimer was brought in
to replace Richard Stanley. Yeah, so he was the
replacement, yep. Okay. Yeah, like Frankenheimer
had like some classics early on in his career,
like The Manchurian Candidate, for example. But
then at some point, you could argue that his
career went downhill, maybe right around the
time of Prophecy, but we'll see. How prophetic.
Oh my God. That's amazing. You're bringing like
these movies that I've had on my radar for a
long time. I've yet to see them so far. I mean,
yeah. I mean, I haven't even seen King Kong lives,
so that's great. Love it. We're going to follow
up. I'm going to do it. So that's October. No,
that was, okay. I think that was October. Yeah.
Prophecy was September. Prophecy was October.
Space Amoeba was September. Gotcha. Yeah. Congo
Space Amoeba. Prophecy. My October pick. I always
love to go back to the classics come Halloween
time. I'm a big fan of the Universal Studios
classic monsters. I'm going to go way old school
to a film celebrating its 100th anniversary this
year. The Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney.
I'm very happy. I'm very happy about that. Yeah.
So we're bringing a silent film to the podcast
for the first time. I'm excited. But I think
this movie is, A, it is actually very accessible.
You could find it streaming anywhere. But it's
also a foundational, it's a very influential
movie. Let me just put it that way. So Lon Chaney's
Phantom of the Opera, 1925. I've been wanting
to bring a silent movie to the podcast and I
just haven't done it yet. I'm very, very happy
that you're doing it. Lon Chaney. I love this
movie. I haven't seen probably in like 20 years,
so it should be great. I'm very excited. Heck
yeah. All right. My fourth title for season five,
part two, which will be in November is 20 million
miles to earth. Yeah. Featuring Ray Harryhausen
stop motion animation. Alien from Venus crash
lands and Italy and grows to immense size. That's
all I know about it. And like an awesome poster
to one of my favorite posters. Oh, this is my
favorite movies. I had it on my shortlist for
next for season six. All right. I'm well, sorry
to, you know, get to it before you did, but I'm
really excited to see this. I've never seen it
before, so it should be great. I don't want to
overhype it. I hate it when people overhype it,
but I think you're going to like. I think you're
going to like this movie. I guarantee it. You're
going to like the way you look. Yeah, it sounds
great. I think I will too. Yeah. Great. Some
Harryhausen. Okay, November. So Guillermo del
Toro is releasing, or Netflix is releasing his
Frankenstein in November. So I thought, let's
talk about a Guillermo del Toro movie. look,
I'm not going to go deep on this. It's Pacific
Rim, everybody, because it is a kaiju movie.
And I was like, well, we have to talk about the
kaiju movie that Del Toro made. We do. Absolutely.
Yeah. It's kind of a nice parallel to Robot Jocks
as well, which we just talked about a couple
weeks ago. Right. So I was like, well, we have,
yeah, all the stars were aligning. And I was
like, Pacific Rim. You're right. We had to talk
about it at some point. Yeah. Yeah. And we love
Del Toro. I'm looking forward to that. Awesome.
My final pick for December, I'm making a spontaneous
switch. I had a title on my short list that I'm
now replacing with one that was on my long list.
So my choice is going to be Humanoids from the
Deep from 1980. It sounds like just a trashy,
gory, sleazy horror movie. And I can't resist
that kind of thing. The other one I was going
to pick is like a dark black and white moody
drama. And it's like, yeah, let's let's go with
like the fun campy one, you know, so humanoids
from the deep. I honestly don't know a lot about
it. Hopefully it will be a more accurate title
than ever a horror of the deep. I there's a double
feature. I have never heard of that movie. I
I'm so intrigued. Do you mind? I'm just going
to like take a quick look here. Yeah, 1980, Roger
Corman was the executive producer. But early
80s, it's like a very trashy Roger Corman production.
Yeah, we'll see what happens. Amazing. You're
kind of bringing a, and I say this with all due
respect, like a trashy vibe this season. That's
what I try to do. I bring trash wherever I go.
Proudly so. Oh man, our listeners are like, what?
You're going to make us watch all of these movies?
Yes. Indeed. You know, I feel like at least one
or two of mine are going to be legitimately good,
but I guess we'll find out. No, I mean, I'm bringing
King Kong Lives and... Well, Phantom of the Opera
brings class, obviously. If you bring a silent
movie, that's certainly classy. Instant class.
You could bring the... Not all silent movies
were good, lest we forget. Yeah. As always, I
think we have a good mix of class and trash.
That's what we go for. Well, I love that. That's
going to be the tagline. I'm going to say class
and trash. Perfect. Yeah, yeah. All right. My
next pick is also a movie I offered up for Chi
July. So Space Amoeba meet Gappa, the Trifibian
Monster. I was hoping that would make its way
to the podcast because I love that title too.
Yeah. In America, it was released as Planet of
the... prehistoric monsters. It takes place on
earth. So I don't know what that title is all
about, but it's an obscure, I mean, it's obscure,
but it's available anywhere. It's on Tubi. That's
where I watched it years ago for an obscure Kaiju
film. I found it surprisingly effective. So let's
do it. Nice. I'm glad we're both, both bringing
Kaijula picks to the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. That's
fun. Wow, I'm really looking forward to it. Let's
quick run it down again. We'll just go back and
forth real quick. What are you starting off with?
Congo from 1995. Okay, Jaws 2. Space Amoeba.
King Kong Lives. Nice. Prophecy. Phantom of the
Opera. 20 Million Miles to Earth. Pacific Rim.
Humanoids from the Deep. And Gappa the Trifibian
Monster. That's a season. Let's go. Oh, man,
I can't wait. This is nothing excites me more
than this moment of Camp Kaiju. I love that.
Honestly, good, good picks. I'm so excited to
get our classy trash on classy and trashy. Yeah,
it'll be on the new T -shirts that we make as
well. I can't wait. Those are good picks. Fantastic.
Well, thanks, man. I'll see you for. Congo.