Kudo, I think, is the one who sees him steal
those plans, and he calls him out on it. He's
like, hey, you stole those plans. And the other
guy's like, yeah, you're right, I did. Here they
are. And that's the end of that storyline, basically.
Then Obata is like, hey, we're all in a predicament
now. Let's work together. And Kudo's like, fine.
And that's it. That's the end of that storyline.
I expected Obata to pull a gun on them or something.
But it turns out he was a nice guy. Right. Hello
and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast.
We're your hosts, Matt Levine and Vincent Hannum.
And we're talking about all of our favorite monster
movies, the good, the bad, and the downright
campy, and asking if they stand the test of time.
Traditional kaiju, creature features, space invaders,
the supernatural, and everything in between.
All strange beasts are welcome here. Camp Kaiju
is sponsored by Zack Linder and the Zack Pack,
powered by Coldwell Banker Realty. your source
for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping
for investor clients and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate
services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media
and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.
Links in the show notes. A rocket ship to unexplored
planets captured by unknown powers. Yogg, monster
from space. You are powerless against me. An
irresistible, terrorizing monster. We have merged
ourselves into the giant crab and the jungle
turtle. Monsters never before seen. The unconquerable.
The unbelievable. Yogg, monster from space. We're
very excited tonight to welcome a special guest,
Sierra Parham. Thank you so much for joining
us tonight. Thanks for having me. So Sierra,
you have, I believe it's a new video store, maybe
it's not super new at this point, called Saturn
Video here in Minneapolis, as far as I know.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Yeah, so it's going to be a non -profit video
store and cafe. We don't have a brick and mortar
just yet, but hopefully trying to get that sometime
in 2026. We're just fundraising for that right
now. But yeah, that's what that's going to be.
We're mainly going to focus on like, like marginalized
directors and stories in addition to like films
that just aren't on streaming, you know, really
trying to bring back like video store culture.
I love that. That's amazing. I think Vincent
and I both agree. And I think everybody who truly
loves film probably agrees that like the era
of the video store should come back. You know,
it's sad that that no longer is really like an
important presence in the film viewing community,
but it should be. So it's so encouraging to hear
that, that you'll be opening up your own, you
know, hopefully in 2026 for brick and mortar.
That's amazing. Well, and like on Camp Kaiju,
I think I'll speak for myself a little bit. I
really especially love it when we can combine
monster movies, which of course is our forte
here on Camp Kaiju, with those directors who
are maybe a little bit under -recognized, maybe
a little marginalized, those voices that don't
always get uplifted in the mainstream media.
So I'm really happy to hear that you'll be focusing
on that as well. Yeah, yeah, there's a ton. Who
are some of your favorite? Or yeah, some of your
favorite filmmakers and movies and what's your
taste? Like if I come into the store, what are
you recommending to me? Oh, that is hard to say.
I really feel like I run the whole gambit of
genre. But yeah, like favorite directors. I try
to look for a lot of like international film
directors I like. Guillermo del Toro, Wong Kar
Wai films. Yeah, but I also have really low brow.
I would always say this, but my favorite movie
is Josie and the Pussycat. It's a good choice.
I love that. Yeah. Matt is the film snob between
us two. And I think he was nodding his head when
you mentioned that second name, international
filmmaker. Wong Kar Wai, incredible, huge fan.
Yeah, that's amazing. And I, you know, I kind
of alluded to this, but I think it's important
to like have a mix of highbrow and lowbrow. You
know, there are lots of different kinds of pleasure
that movies can offer. And I don't think it's,
you know, there's a lot to enjoy. So like, why
not embrace all of it, you know? Exactly. Sierra,
can you talk a little bit about just like what
made you want to open up a video store and what
your film background is? Totally. So this kind
of like came about because like the video universe
in Robbinsdale was closing and just like hearing
that news was really sad for me because that's
essentially the last video store in the greater
metro of the Twin Cities. So I really wanted
to help bring that back. And yeah, I really love
film. And it feels like the universal language.
And I'm very much big on community. I want people
to communicate and get together. So I feel like
the video store is the place where that can happen.
So it was really important for me to bring that
here. Again, in film background wise, I'm a editor.
I work on and off, but I went to film school.
That's really where I started to enjoy international
film a lot more. I don't have like the biggest
range of film I've seen. So it really opened
my eyes to a lot of stuff I was missing out on.
That's awesome. And that's, of course, one of
the great things about video stores. I feel like,
you know, you walk into this place and like everywhere
you look are new discoveries and new artists
for you to find out that you've never even heard
of before. So, you know, I think it's really
important work that you're going to be doing
in the Twin Cities community. Thank you. Yeah.
Yeah. Big fans, Matt and I, of Video Universe
before they closed. And I had just discovered
that store. A month before they closed. Oh, no.
I like signed up. I created an account. And the
guy told me, he's like, I'm happy to give you
this account. Just letting you know our plans
are what they are. I was like, I don't care.
Five movies, five dollars. Let's go. But then
I ended up buying a bunch of their liquidated,
you know, they were going out of business sale.
And if you see above my head, all these DVDs,
so many of those are from Video Universe. Yeah,
I did the same thing. We probably ran into each
other. Didn't even know it. But you said you
wanted to focus on movies that maybe aren't streaming
readily available. I think that's so important
in today's day and age. I've gone on that soapbox
on this podcast before about physical media.
And I went into the video store and I discovered
all these titles that. I never would have come
across had I been streaming. Because I could
flip through, I don't know, Hulu or Tubi or whatever
for hours. And I don't know, they just all kind
of blend together, just the little thumbnails.
But when I'm in a video store, I can pick out
the box. I can read it. I can like chew it over
almost. And there's something very tactile about
that experience that I think we as human beings
really love. like the collectors in us. So I'm
so excited that you want to bring this back to
the twin cities. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. 100%. Like,
I feel like the biggest thing about video stores
is like going in, seeing the film and like just
taking a chance on something you never know.
And like, Especially with friends, like it's
a Friday night, you want to watch something and,
you know, laugh at it or experience something.
And, you know, that's really, that's video store.
That's not something you can do on a streaming
service, really. Yeah. So you have plans to open
the physical location, like you're fundraising,
right? Can you talk more about that, where you
are at in your journey, how we can support, how
listeners can support that? Yeah. So we're trying
to fundraise around $10 ,000. That's going to
pay rent at the place while we're doing the making
of the store. And we're getting there. It's going
to take a while, but we're going to get there.
So any help? Monetarily, that would be great.
We have GiveMN fundraisers going on right now,
and that's linked on my Instagram page for Saturn
Video. Other than that, if anyone feels like
they want to donate DVDs, VHS to us, I'm always
asking for that. That's something we definitely
need. I only have less than 300 titles, and people
are going to get bored of that. very quickly
that's an interesting logistical question like
where do you source your your stock all the dvds
and vhs yeah i i'm at the thrift stores a lot
otherwise i did get a lot of stuff from video
universe i try to keep up to date with like the
new distributors like vinegar syndrome. And yeah,
I try to keep up to date what they're doing,
their sales. I get them in a lot of stuff from
them. So it sounds like Instagram maybe is the
best form of communication. If people do want
to donate, whether that's monetarily or if they
have movies that they want to donate, then Instagram
probably is the best way to get in touch with
you. Would you say that is correct? Yeah. Yeah.
We're at Saturn video dot cafe. Cool. And I'm
sure we can throw some links on our page as well
and, you know, hook listeners up that way as
well. Do you already have a location in mind
or is that still maybe not totally figured out
yet if that's still to come in 2026? That's still
to come. I would ideally like to be in the Longfellow
neighborhood just to get that cross audience
from the Trilon and the Riverview. Awesome. I
volunteer at the Trilon, so I'm there all the
time. I love that neighborhood. So this will
be a new place for me to stop in all the time.
That's exciting. Can't wait for Saturn Video
and Cafe. Yeah. Want a place for people to sit
down. They're going to be there for a while.
It's going to be probably later night. So, yeah.
Movie screenings, perhaps? Of course. I don't
know. I don't want to be there. Okay, great.
Don't let me business plan for you. Yeah, that's
definitely something I would love to do. Yeah.
Well, if you ever need a couple of guys to program
some monster movies, me and Matt are happy to
do that. I would love it. Awesome. Do you have
any favorite monster movies that come to mind
right away? I know you mentioned Guillermo del
Toro before. Yeah, I really loved The Shape of
Water. And Pacific Rim. Yeah. And like weird
ones like Ginger Snaps. And I think Turning Red
is a monster movie. There's a monster in it.
Yeah. We've talked about Disney Pixar movies
before on the show. Yeah, we did an episode on
Luca. Love that movie. It's a good one. Turning
red is a good reminder. I still haven't seen
that and I've wanted to ever since it came out.
So Vincent, I think we might have to bring that
to the podcast at some point. Sierra, do you
have any like events or fundraisers or anything
coming up? There's a few things like in the works,
but nothing quite announced yet other than North
Minneapolis Open Streets on September 6th. I
will be there. I will be selling VHS and DVDs.
Are you familiar with the film friends trivia?
Yeah. Instagram. Yeah. I go to it all the time.
Cool. Oh, awesome. Yeah. So Naomi's a friend
of ours and she's been on the show a bunch. So
I was like, well, if Naomi's into something,
it's going to be worth it. So I'm really glad
that I reached out and you were willing to do
this. It was our pleasure. So thank you. Thank
you guys so much. Thank you, Sierra. Yeah. We'll
put your links in the show notes and listeners.
Support Saturn Video and Cafe. Sierra, we hope
to have you back on the podcast someday if you're
willing to give us updates, to talk about monster
movies. Anytime. Awesome. Thank you so much,
Sierra. Again, just like personally, I'm so excited
to have a new video store in the city. So really,
truly, thank you. I can't wait to check it out.
Thank you so much. That's amazing. Yeah. No,
I mean, not to, not to beat a dead horse, but
like video stores are a dying breed and I'm,
they're so important. Like just the excitement,
the energy when you go into one and like there
are limitless possibilities everywhere around
you. Like that is amazing. I love that. And you
know what I thought of during our conversation?
Like we have bookstores, which does the same
thing. Like you go in and there's a community
and people are talking about, like strangers
are talking to each other about like, oh, I see
you're looking at. That section, I have a recommendation.
I go into bookstores all the time, but that doesn't
exist with video anymore, with movies. Right.
Yeah, which is kind of inexplicable in a way
to me. Bookstores, and then you also have record
stores and the community around that, even though
you can stream music pretty much anywhere. I
feel like video stores probably are due for a
renaissance. I hope that happens soon. You know
that we're talking about it? I think you're right,
because who loves movie people? Love to talk
about movies. Too much, maybe. How many times
have you been with a friend, us included? We'll
spend an entire afternoon talking about movies.
Yeah, right. yeah and like to to recommend one
of your personal favorites and like have somebody
new like experience that for the first time is
like nothing compares to that feeling you know
and video stores provide that all the time like
that's that was my cinematic upbringing basically
like walking into a video store and just like
seeing what you could find you know so yeah i
think and hope that's that's gonna that's gonna
be like on the way back you know it's on the
come up well We ought to support Sierra. And
listeners, even if you're not in the Twin Cities,
if you could just follow the Instagram page,
like that would be such a boost to what Sierra's
got going on. Please, folks, check it out. And
if you're willing to shell out a few bucks, I
think I am. Just, you know, whatever you can
give, I think would be worth it because I just,
that sense of community is real and so important.
For sure, yes. Shell out a few bucks or even
donate some movies if you have some that you're
trying to donate, like you were going to take
them to the thrift store. Maybe this is an even
better destination for those movies, you know?
We'll definitely shout out Saturn Video. We'll
include all the links and stuff like that. Stay
tuned for more updates. I know I'll stay tuned,
and I'm sure we'll find out more soon. Heck yeah.
Atragon, the ninth wonder of the world. Atragon,
an earthen world. A flying fortress. A submarine.
Atragon, technology's newest, fights all the
powers of black magic. The mysterious submerged
continent of Mu attacks our world. I am agent
number 23 of the Mu Empire. This earthquake is
not accidental. Terror panics civilization. As
cataclysmic forces clash, Atragon in color. Godzilla,
champion and defender of Earth in The Terror
of Godzilla. Titanosaurus, look at Godzilla.
Destroy them. He holds the front line of battle
while in their spaceships, aliens command a deadly
duel. Will the powerful serpent Titanosaurus'
cyclone tail and the robot monster Mechagodzilla's
lethal rays destroy Earth? See this ultimate
test of power, the terror of Godzilla, rated
G. Now, giant entertainment, giant terror, the
war of the gargantuas, and Monster Zero. Do you
see anything? From a planet 50 million miles
beyond the stars came a strange message. Lend
us your Rodan and Godzilla to fight our Monster
Zero. Earth answered. And the most dreaded creatures
ever to walk our planet are lifted into outer
space. The stage is set for the mightiest battle
ever seen by the universe in Monster Zero. All
forces on Earth ready to attack. What started
out as a call for help from space turns into
a nightmare of terror on Earth, Monster Zero.
And the War of the Gargantua. It began with a
mysterious, wild storm at sea. And before the
night was over, the whole world would hear of
the Terror of the Gargantua. Where had such a
monster come from? What forces created such a
devastating destroyer? Who or what could stand
up to it? Armies fought the monster with million
-volt laser beams. Hey, look! Another one! You'll
see all of their terrifying battle to the death
when you come to the greatest monster movies
ever made. The War of the Gantuas and Monster
Zero. What a cool way to start this episode.
Also, how are you doing, Vincent? I'm good. I'm
good. As of this recording, we are one week away,
T -minus one week from students returning to
classes. My work life has been a... Whirlwind,
back to school meetings, ad nauseum, getting
my room back together, lesson planning. My head
hurts, but I am so excited to talk about Space
Amoeba and forget about work for a couple hours.
Yeah, yeah, totally. Me too. Yeah. Space Amoeba
is more exciting than any, you know, work related
things we have going on right now. I'll speak
for myself. I don't want to speak for you. But
yeah, excited to talk about this movie directed
by Shiro Honda from 1970. Perhaps the last gasp
of the classic Toho Studios Kaiju era. Fun, fun
movie. It'll be fun to talk about. Yeah. Before
we begin, just real quick, how are you doing?
I'm doing all right. Yeah, I mean, summer's winding
down, which is always a little bit bittersweet.
The weather's getting colder. You know, work.
Yeah, I share your lack of excitement to talk
about my nine to five day job. I'm more excited
to talk about monster movies. So yeah, that's
the most exciting thing I have going on right
now is Space Amoeba. Let's do it. Yogg, you might
say. Yeah, for sure. And I also do love the original
Japanese title as well, which is... That's a
great title as well. I feel like they should
have just stuck with that for all versions of
this movie, you know? Man, that's like Godzilla,
King Ghidorah, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah,
giant monsters all out of tech. Yeah. You have
to love the word vomit movie titles. That's always
fun. I don't know. Hollywood movies love to call
things like one word. Like you have so many movies
that just one word. Yeah. Us. I mean, like Jordan
Peele has a lot of like one or two word titles.
Get out us. Nope. I guess that's all of them
right there. But yeah, it's, you know, what if
us was called like the doppelgangers from down
the street who suddenly invade your home? Like
that's a good title to, you know, tell us exactly
what's going to happen. That's what I want. Not
really. As usual, we're starting off on a tangent
right away. That's what we always do. Sorry.
Focus up. Yeah, focus, focus. Space Amoeba. All
right. Thank you all for hanging out, friends.
Please rate and review Camp Kaiju wherever you
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If you would like to be a featured voice on the
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Your support means a lot. And if you're interested
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website is patreon .com slash campkaiju. Woo.
Yeah. So this episode will come out early September,
right around the start of fall, as summer is
giving way to fall. October, the best time of
year, is only one month away, so we're getting
to Halloween. So many good monster and horror
movies have come out around this time of year
throughout cinema history. Vincent, do any of
these titles on this list kind of jump out at
you here? What is Kinky Kong? I put that title
on this list. That actually sounds like kind
of a... softcore Cinemax adult movie, I believe
is the proper term for it. But I love that title.
It's like a parody of King Kong, of course, but
it's like, you know, you would see it on Cinemax
at like two in the morning or whatever. And I'm
very intrigued. I want to see this. You know
how many stars it had? Like the average rating
is on Letterboxd. Oh, like one, less than one.
It is one. No, it's my, it's, it's half a one.
I didn't realize it went that low. It goes to
half a one. Yeah, I give a half a star sometimes,
very, very rarely. But I kind of doubt that Kinky
Kong is deserving of half a star. I don't know.
I don't know. It takes place on Bone Island.
Yep. And I think the main character from the
synopsis that I read online is named Seymour
Butts, which is great. I mean, how could you
not love that? Well, I'll leave it up to you
to bring it to the podcast. I don't know. I mean,
you remember that I initially proposed Humanoids
from the Deep to bring to the podcast, and then
I read more about it, and I was like, ooh, this,
I don't know, that might not be the best choice.
That's still to be determined, but, you know,
a little bit of sleaze is a good thing. Too much
sleaze can be disturbing, but that doesn't mean
it's off -limits to Camp Kaiju. That's true.
That's true. Everything in between. Yep. My real
pick, though, I gotta... I have to talk about
The Brother from Another Planet from 1984. This
movie is written by John Sayles. It might be
directed by John Sayles as well. But it is about
an alien who crash lands to Earth. And actually
the alien is on the run from some captors, some
would -be captors. But the alien happens to be
in the form of a black male, a black man played
by... I love this actor. I got to get his name
right. Joe Morton. Joe Morton. Fantastic performance
because he's mute for a lot of the films. So
it's like a great physical role that he does.
But because the alien is in the form of a black
man, suddenly the alien has to deal with racism
in America, in New York City in the 1980s. And
it is a powerful movie for that messaging. It
is an extraterrestrial movie that I think you'll
be pleasantly surprised by on a multitude of
levels. Yeah, I'm really glad that you mentioned
that title. I really love that movie. Like you
said, it's a perfect balance of genre, entertainment,
and social commentary, and I think John Sayles
is very good at that. He wrote... Right. Joe
Dante directed Piranha, but I believe John Sayles
wrote it. And I think he wrote Alligator as well.
I could be wrong about that. But, you know, Brother
from Another Planet, I feel like is one of the
first. He did direct it as well. And like, you
know, I feel like we see his different interests
as an artist coming together and like his his
balance of like B movies, but also like more
in -depth social commentary that movies. It does
it really well. And Joe Morton's fantastic. He's
the kind of actor that people have probably,
like they would recognize him from like Terminator
2. He was in Speed also, a lot of other movies.
So a familiar face, but Brother from Another
Planet might be his best performance. It's great.
Love that. So thank you for mentioning that.
I think the one that I'm going to shout out is
a movie from 1960 called The City of the Dead.
The original title was Horror Hotel. But then
they changed the name to City of the Dead, which
is a more appropriate title. Christopher Lee
is in it. An actress who I had never heard of
named Venetia Stevenson is also in it, and she's
really great. It's basically about, like, it's
set in New England. It's a very, like, foggy,
atmospheric movie. It's kind of about witchcraft.
A young woman goes there to study witchcraft.
and then realizes before too long that she is
in over her head. She did not know what she was
getting herself into. So this is kind of a low
-budget, sort of forgotten horror movie that
I watched a couple years ago around Halloween,
and it's fantastic. Cannot recommend it enough.
So City of the Dead from 1960. Check it out.
I will, because I love finding those diamonds
in the rough, especially from back in the day.
Where you'll watch something maybe on Tubi and
just like, I don't know, I've never heard of
this movie. And then you think, why haven't I
heard about this movie? There's so many films
like that worthy of reconsideration. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Kinky Kong is one of them.
Who knows? No, I refuse. I'm probably not. Yeah,
that's going too far. There are a couple of monster
movies coming up or recently released. The Toxic
Avenger was recently remade, and that's in theaters
right now. I'm a little bit intrigued by that,
directed by Macon Blair, who also directed Green
Room, Blue Ruin, I believe, two pretty good movies.
Yeah, we've talked about the original Toxic Avenger
on the podcast before. Here's a headline from
Screen Rant, just from today, August 26th, about
the Toxic Avenger. Highly anticipated 88 % rated
superhero movie. is causing lots of walkouts
and early screenings. Nice. I feel like the original
like trauma filmmakers would be very happy to
hear that. Because you, that, I mean, the original
Toxic Avenger is brutal. Very gross. Yeah. Imagine
what it's like in today's day and age. Yeah,
right. I am like, I'm curious about the tone
too. Are they like trying intentionally to go
for that like schlock Z grade sort of like intentionally
offensive approach? Or are they trying to like
be a little bit more refined with it? I don't
know. I kind of want to find out, you know? Mm
hmm. More to come. I'm gonna look into this.
Yeah, yeah, me too. And so this episode will
come out in early September. So for anybody that's
in the Twin Cities, I did also want to shout
out a movie that's going to be playing at the
Trilon September 19th through 21st called Incubus.
William Shatner is in this movie. It's in the
language of Esperanto, one of the only movies
ever made in the language of Esperanto. It sounds
really crazy. So I'm very, very excited for that
one as well. Whoa, I'll look into that too. It
is about an actual incubus, so it fits. It's
a monster movie. Oh. Yeah. Ooh. Yeah, Incubus,
Trilon, September 19th through 21st. Very cool.
Tonight, though, again, we are talking about
Space Amoeba by Shiro Honda from 1970. What,
Vincent, is your personal history with this movie?
My personal history in this... Summer of 2019,
I want to say. It's either 18 or 19. I was living
in an apartment in South Minneapolis, and that's
when I truly rediscovered my love for kaiju movies.
And I was watching anything I could find online.
And I came upon Space Amoeba. I'd never heard
of it before. And I watched it, and I thought,
oh my goodness gracious. this this is something
this is something else yeah and i hadn't watched
it since then so it's been a while and i'm glad
i revisited it and i have thoughts to share about
that later all right nice i still can't really
tell if that's a compliment or a critique but
we'll probably find out soon yes nice I didn't
really have any personal history with this movie
until I watched it two days ago for the first
time. I love the title. I love Ishiro Honda.
And I was intrigued by a relatively late period
Ishiro Honda movie. Like, we'll talk about this
more soon, but like, you know, towards the tail
end of Toho's heyday, this is kind of a movie
that's like... one of the swan songs or whatever
and i knew that before even before watching it
so i've always been excited to see it but finally
just watched it for the first time a couple days
ago and yeah i it is something for sure i mostly
in good ways i would say but i don't want to
spoil our our main takeaways too early yeah no
i'm happy i mean it is a classic kaiju movie
that i'm excited to talk about it's about time
we got to it here on the podcast Yeah, and this
was one of the titles I was going to bring to
the pod for Kaijulai, and then instead I suggested
Ebira Horror of the Deep, which is what we talked
about for Kaijulai. But this one might be better.
I'm just going to throw that out there. In my
opinion, it's better. That's a good question.
Listeners chime in. Yeah, yeah, let us know.
So we can talk about the crew, some of the crew
members of Space Amoeba here a little bit, and
we already talked about him a couple times, Ishiro
Honda. The OG, director of the original 1954
Godzilla, a legend in kaiju films. This was his
second last kaiju movie as he would retire after
1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla, which he also
made for Toho Studios. That was the one other
movie that he came back for after this. Honda
did also direct some TV episodes during the 1970s,
and he served as assistant for Akira Kurosawa.
So he didn't officially retire, but this is one
of his last monster movies. For sure. It was
produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and Fumio Tanaka,
who are unrelated, as far as I can tell. Tomoyuki
Tanaka was one of the original creators of Godzilla,
produced most of the installments for Toho. from
the original 1954 film through 1995's Godzilla
vs. Destoroyah. He produced over 200 films, including
some by Akira Kurosawa. So, you know, just as
much as Ishiro Honda, if not more so, a legend
in the history of kaiju movies. The co -producer
Fumio Tanaka joined Toho Studios in 1964 and
specialized in sci -fi and horror movies. While
the film was officially co -produced by both
of them, Tomoyuki Tanaka was actually busy with
what was called Expo 70, the world's fair that
was held just outside of Osaka, I believe, in
Suita, Japan. So really, Fumio Tanaka was kind
of the only producer on this movie, or at least
by far the primary producer, even though Tomoyuki
is also credited in that role. Special effects
are by Sadamasa Arikawa, and he was the former
pupil of Aiji Tsuburaya. And Tsuburaya actually
died two days after filming started in January
of 1970. Arikawa then started as a cameraman
who shot effects sequences for most Toho sci
-fi films from 1954 through 1965. Ebura, Horror
of the Deep, was his unofficial debut as special
effects director, but he officially took on this
title with Son of Godzilla in 1967. Matt, those
are two of your favorite Godzilla movies of all
time. Well, I don't know about that. It's weird
because, again, I don't want to get into this
a little bit too early, but the special effects
in Space Amoeba, I feel like are pretty heavily
criticized from what I've read, but I think they're
great. I think they're better than they are in
Abura or Son of Godzilla, in my opinion, but
that's a lot of personal preference. So who am
I to say? Totally, totally. The music is by Akira
Ifukube. The cinematographer is Taichi Kinkura.
And the editor is Masahisa Hime. And I wanted
to call those out because I feel like this is
a very formally accomplished movie. Cinematography,
music, editing, all pretty great, I would say.
Yeah, for sure. Space Amoeba stars Akira Kubo
as a character named Kudo, a photojournalist.
Akira Kubo appeared in over 70 films since 1952,
including Throne of Blood, Invasion of Astro
Monsters, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters,
and Gamera, Guardian of the Universe. So definitely
a legend in his own right in kaiju movies. Similarly,
we have Kenji Sahara as Obata, a kind of villainous,
unscrupulous, you know, businessman character
in Space Amoeba. He played the lead in Rodan
14 years earlier, and he appeared in more Godzilla
films than any other actor. He also played the
lead in the first Ultraman TV series, Ultra Q.
So Kenji Sahara, also a legend among kaiju character
actors. We also have Yoshia Tsuchiya as Dr. Mia.
Once again, Tsuchiya loved appearing in sci -fi
films and acted in so many of them, including
Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah. One of my favorite stories
about him is that he could not appear in the
original Godzilla because he was starring in
Seven Samurai at that time, but he really wanted
to be in Godzilla. He loved monster movies and
visited the set of Godzilla as often as he could,
even though production on Seven Samurai was taking
place at the same time. And I just love how enthusiastic
he is about monster movies. It's so cool to read
that. It is. And what's interesting about this
cast is... You see so many returning actors,
like fan favorites, I would say. There is, is
it Akira Kubo? I have to, I don't always recall
them by name, or sorry, by face all of a sudden.
But there was an actor in Space Amoeba who's
one of the reporters in Mothra vs. Godzilla,
I think, or King Kong vs. Godzilla. He's always
eating an egg in one of those movies. That does
sound familiar. Yeah. In that case, it must be
Mothra versus Godzilla because of the whole egg
bit. Yeah. Yeah. So it was just like fun to see
so many familiar faces. Totally. In a way, like,
you know, Space Amoeba kind of seems like getting
the band back together for one last hurrah, you
know, even though Tsuburaya, of course, cannot
do the special effects for it. Otherwise, a lot
of like the cast and crew, very familiar faces
from kaiju cinema lore. The actor is Yu Fujiki
that I'm talking about. Yes. And he was in movies
such as, well, Throne of Blood, speaking of Kurosawa,
but King Kong versus Godzilla, Mothra versus
Godzilla, Atragon, and Space Amoeba. Yeah. Another
kaiju alum. So many familiar faces. We do also
have Atsuko Takahashi as Ayako, who is Kudo's
kind of love interest, not really love interest.
Her character is quite underdeveloped, but wanted
to throw her name out there as well. Yeah, yeah.
And the character of Riko, I don't know who plays
Riko, but Riko is that love interest. Yeah. You're
talking about? Yeah. Oh, no, sorry. I, so. The
character of Ayako is kind of Kudo's love interest,
sort of. Like she's the other journalist who
sort of like tags along with him to the island.
And like, we don't exactly know why she's doing
that. Although she's like, she's working for
a corporation that's trying to open like a tourist
resort on this island. But I think you're talking
about Saki, a different character who is Riko's
love interest. Right, right. They're natives
on the island. Yeah. And she's played by Yukiko
Kobayashi. And Yuriko is played by Noritake Saito.
I could not really find a lot of information
about either of them, unfortunately. That's all
right. Now, yeah, so Space Amoeba. The screenplay
was originally written by A .E. Ogawa in 1966.
It was called Great Monster Assault at that time.
It was supposed to be a co -production between
Toho Studios and United Productions of America,
or UPA, which was an animation studio and distribution
company that released most of Toho's films in
the United States in the 1970s and 80s. I also
read that UPA created the Mr. Magoo character,
so that's one of its claims to fame, for better
or worse. That ended up not happening, though.
UPA and Toho did not actually collaborate on
this movie. That original draft that Ogawa wrote
back in 1966 was a lot more ambitious than the
finished film that we have before us. Ogawa's
original draft had alien monsters invading the
entire planet, conquering entire continents,
and being attacked with nuclear weapons at the
end of the film. So the version that we see in
Space Amoeba is quite a bit more concentrated
on, is it Sulga Island? Yeah, Sulga Island. Yeah.
Wow. Would have been something, that original
movie, probably. Production finally started in
1969, though Ogawa's script was heavily altered,
confining the action to Selga Island. Although
I .G. Tsuburaya's health was in bad condition,
he did express interest in doing the special
effects. He was supposed to be the special effects
supervisor, while Sadamasa Arikawa was to be
credited as special effects director. But Tsuburaya...
died, as we mentioned before, just two days after
the filming started. This is interesting. Several
crew members wanted the film to be dedicated
to Tsuburaya, but Toho did not allow this, maybe
because he, meaning Tsuburaya, had actually left
Toho in 1963 to start his own company, Tsuburaya
Productions. Either way, Toho's decision to not
dedicate the film to Tsuburaya enraged several
crew members, including Honda. who only directed
one more movie for Toho, and Arakawa, who angrily
quit the studio after Space Amoeba. It is surprising
that Toho wouldn't allow that. It just seems
like it would be sort of an obvious thing. But
yeah, one of many, as we'll talk about soon,
one of many interesting things about Toho Studios
around this time, it was in rough shape, I guess,
in a nutshell. Yeah, corporate restructuring.
Do you have notes about? the state of the Japanese
film industry later on? Yeah, I mean, like limited
notes, not as much as I would like, but we can
talk about that a little bit more in a bit. Assistant
director Saeji Tani said that Toho constantly
pressured the filmmakers to reduce the budget,
maybe because kaiju movies had started to become
less profitable for the studio and also due to
competition from TV. The production schedule
was rushed as a result. Yeah, that came up in
my notes too a lot. This was just kind of a limited
budget type of project. Yeah, and a rushed production
schedule as well. Oh, they had originally intended
to film this movie in Hawaii or Guam? I thought
it was Guam. Yeah, Guam, but that was not in
the budget. So instead they filmed in Japan,
but on an island. like 100 or so miles off the
coast. So they were still able to get that island
location. So yeah, this was kind of the last
sci -fi film made at the height of Toho's studio
system. Profits were steadily decreasing around
this time, like movie studios pretty much throughout
the world. Toho, you know, Daiei Film Studios
in Japan also faced a similar thing. They produced
the Gamera film series. And we're not doing financially
all that well around this time. But, you know,
they had to compete with television. You know,
like the content, the subject matter that movies
could depict were becoming a little bit more
adult, complicated, sophisticated. Everything
was changing. It was a tough time for movie production
and distribution in general throughout the world,
really. So facing all of that, Toho Studios made
a lot of changes. cut budgets across the board.
They had a bunch of labor disputes. And for that
reason, they had to get rid of a lot of actors
that were under contract to them. They just like
voided those contracts, some of them. And they
also started like an offshoot company called
Toho Eizo. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that
right. But that sort of spinoff company specialized
in kaiju and tokusatsu movies thence forward,
which is why, you know, Space Amoeba is kind
of the last kaiju movie that Toho Studios proper.
ever made. So it's a landmark in that way, for
sure. Yeah. It sounds like you're getting your
info vis -a -vis the Shiro Honda biography by
Steve Reifel and Ed Gazzuzzi. But I am going
to read you some specific numbers to the well
-put information that you just laid on us. That
was well said. But in this book, between 1960
and 1970, National attendance in Japan, the film
-going attendance, dropped from 1 billion to
about 250 million annually, and it was still
falling in 1970. Kind of reminds me of today's
current cinematic movie theater landscape. Yeah.
Then speaking of those contract disputes and
renegotiations you were talking about. Here we
go. The number of actors under contract, which
had exceeded 200 as recently as 1965, would fall
to 11 by 1972. Wow. Yeah. Over the same period,
roughly, the number of Toho -produced films fell
about 50%. Yeah. Daiei declared bankruptcy. Nikatsu,
which had dominated the youth market with popular
gangster films. they shifted gears to soft core
roman porno quote -unquote features that's some
kinky kong stuff there maybe i don't really know
but it wasn't pretty for the japanese film landscape
yeah yeah and you know like it's kind of fascinating
the first of all those are drastic numbers thank
you for like you know, putting statistics to
the, to what was going on. Cause that's, that's
pretty dire for sure. And I just think it's fascinating.
Cause like, again, so many studios throughout
the world, we're facing similar predicaments
at this time. And in the United States, you know,
that's the era of new American cinema in the
late sixties, early seventies, you add, you know,
breakthroughs in film production, like The Graduate
was the late 60s, The Godfather the early 70s,
you have The Last Detail by Hal Ashby a couple
years later. It's just an unpredictable time,
and a lot of great art came out of many different
nations' cinematic industries around this time.
But financially... you know, things were not
looking all that great. So just a fascinating
time. I don't know, I'm rambling a little bit,
but like a lot of, like everything was changing
and I'm sure it was kind of like a frightening
time for movie producers, you know? Yeah, yeah.
So that's, yeah, that's the context that Space
Amoeba came out in. And it's, yeah, not surprising
maybe that it was a rushed production, maybe
not as polished as some of the earlier Toho productions,
but still a lot to like about it. The movie was
released by Toho in August of 1970. It was released
theatrically in the United States as Yogg, Monster
from Space in 1971 through American International
Pictures. Yeah. Have you seen Yogg, the American
version? No, I don't think so. I don't know.
I never thought about it. I never thought about
it being a different cut. Yeah, well, it's like
81 minutes, the American cut is, and Space Amoeba
is slightly longer, I think. I'm just curious.
Sorry, one second. Oh, it's three minutes shorter.
That's not that bad. I don't know. I'm probably
not going to watch Yogg anytime soon, but maybe
down the road I will, and we'll see how they
compare. Although by then I won't remember Space
Amoeba, so who knows? How did you watch this
movie? Because I quickly discovered, and listeners,
maybe you found yourselves in a similar situation.
It's not streaming anywhere except the Criterion
channel. But I had already used my free trial
like five years ago and they remembered. I was
like, dang it. But then I found it on the Internet
Archive. I found an English dubbed version. Maybe
that was Yogg. Yeah, that could be. I did watch
it on the Criterion channel. I apologize. I should
have reached out to make sure you had access
to the movie. But yeah, so I watched the Japanese
language version of it. All right. So you might
have seen Yogg. I saw Yogg. We're covering all
of our bases here on Camp Kaju. Did you remember
to get your big bag of melted butter for the
crustaceans in this movie? I forgot about that.
Yeah. I had a Ziploc bag full of melted butter
and I poked a hole in it and I just like squirted
it into my mouth while I was watching it. It
was great. Highly recommended. That's the ideal
way to watch this movie. The only way to watch
basically, but I still have butter all over my
face and my clothes. It's I'm a total master.
Yeah. That's not true. Sorry. I'm glad you brought
back the melted butter though. That's good. It's
good. Well, let's get us back on track here.
It's time for our sponsor break. Camp Kaiju is
sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered
by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real
estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor
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follow the Zach Pack on social media, and contact
the Zach Pack for investment opportunities. Link
in the show notes. Vincent, do we have anything
in Minya's mailbox today? Yeah, since I feel
like Space Amoeba is kind of light on, it's more
light on production history than some of our
more recent films. Let's read a longer email
from Don, Superfan Don. This is in response to
our Gamera episode way back in May, June. So
Don says, hey there, campers. I really enjoyed
this episode. I was certainly familiar with Gamera,
but had not watched any of the movies, so I wanted
to watch it before this episode aired. I started
watching Gamera the Invincible, but soon realized
how bad it was. I'm going to interrupt. I think
this is exactly what we're talking about, Matt.
The American cut versus the Japanese. Yep. All
right, I continue. I started watching Gamera
the Invincible, but soon realized how bad it
was. Fortunately, I was interrupted by something
and I turned that sorry bit of cinema off. After
a while, I returned to YouTube and this time
I started up Gamera the Giant Monster. What a
difference. I enjoyed it very much. I certainly
agree with you both. It's a great movie. Not
perfect, but definitely a classic. I read somewhere
that they made a Gamera trilogy in the 90s. I've
been listening for a while. I started with the
Beast from 20 ,000 Fathoms episode. I have always
loved the work of Ray Harryhausen and done some
animation, both stop action and hand drawn, and
that made his work even more impressive to me.
I have since caught up to the current episodes,
obviously. I am now listening to some earlier
ones. You guys really impressed me with your
depth of knowledge in the background of the movies
and the casts and crew. Keep up the great work.
Don. Thank you, Don. Yeah, that's awesome. He's
totally right that there's a vast difference
between Gamera the Invincible and Gamera Guardian
of the Universe. That's the Japanese title, right?
No, Gamera the Giant Monster. Oh, that's what
it is. I'm sorry. Yeah, but there's a vast difference.
You know, they shot some new scenes for the American
version. They, like, obviously dubbed a lot of
it. And it's, like, significantly worse. It's
amazing how different those two movies are. Yeah.
How dull the American one is. Yeah. Like, board
meetings. Just inane jabber. You're just like,
what? You've lost all the momentum. You've lost
all the suspense. Get back to the giant monster.
What are we doing here? Right. That's the main
attraction. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fully agreed, Don.
Yeah. That's fun. Thank you, Don. We always appreciate
your comments. Keep them coming. Folks listening,
don't let Don be the only one writing to us.
Join in on the fun. Let us know your thoughts
on Space Amoeba on any of our past episodes.
You can listen to wherever you podcast. Go back
to the catalog. Be kind. Please rewind and let
us know what you think. Man, be kind, please
rewind. Even that makes me excited about video
stores, you know? Yeah, I know. I love to hear
it. That's great. How's Peter Lorre doing? He's
alive. God, still? Hey, whoa. What's his beef?
Does he have to come live with me for a little
bit? That might be a good idea, actually, yeah.
Oh, okay. Well, before I make any promises, you
know. I'm sorry, Peter. I didn't mean it. You
know, it could be a Patreon perk. You can sponsor
Peter Lorre and let him crash at your house.
But it has to be in a dank cellar, and you have
to lock him up and feed him fish heads. Those
are the requirements. Well, you know, he escaped
the lilac. He was swallowed, and then he cut
himself out. All right. Well, I'm glad he's okay.
I'm glad he's still alive. That's good. I take
it. Yeah, I don't think he's happy with you,
though. No, I'm sure he's not. Yeah, that's fair.
It's it's only going to get worse. That's all
right. So it goes. Well, we'll see what happens
tonight. He's talking about another poverty row
picture show movie called Revenge of the Zombies.
Dead men can't die, but live to follow a madman's
will. Cool. Hmm. I'm intrigued. Yeah. John Carradine.
He's going to be doing some crazy mad doctor
things. And I think, Oh, they're Nazis involved.
Oh man. And 43. Wow. Timely. Not spreading. When
Dr. Von Alterman's wife, Lila dies mysteriously
at his spooky mansion, her relations suspect
murder. They also suspect the doctor is turning
her into a zombie to join the army of living
dead he hopes to devote to the Nazi cause. However,
Lila, though dead, has developed a will of her
own. Man, I'm pretty intrigued by this movie.
It reminds me of Shockwaves, which is also about
zombie Nazis that played at the trial on a couple
weeks ago, maybe like a month ago at this point.
That's right. Yeah. So zombie Nazis, apparently,
you know, a recurring theme throughout film history.
Yeah, who knew? There is a rich cinematic tradition
of zombie Nazis. Oh, wow. I cannot wait to hear
Peter Lorre hold forth on this topic. Let's give
it to him. Welcome to the Poverty Row Studios.
on the other side of Hollywood, where the stars
were dimmer and the red carpets dripped with
blood. Together, we will watch the best of the
worst. Movies known for their limited budgets,
outlandish concepts, and questionable performances,
but with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape
men, and devil bats to keep you up at night.
This is the Poverty Row Picture Show, and I dare
you to sleep through these nightmares. Greetings,
ghouls and gals, monsters and madmen. My name
is Peter Lorre, and I am back, you dirty, rotten
scoundrels. Oh, you thought you had heard the
last of me? You thought a puny petunia could
finish me? The excrement of a horticultural kaiju?
Well, allow me to defy the odds. Once more, I
returned to review monster movies for Camp Kaiju,
and with no help from that rat bastard Matthew
Cole Levine. Sure, he goes to the fisherman's
docks each and every morning to gather the delectable
fish heads, but at what price to my dignity?
When I needed him most, he was not there. This,
dear listeners, is unforgivable and I will have
my day. You hear me, world? I will have my day.
But until that day when Matthew knows the cost
of his negligence, I will continue to review
monster movies of the poverty row studios of
classic Hollywood. This week, we feature a zombie
thriller from Monogram Pictures. 1943's Revenge
of the Zombies, starring John Carradine as a
Nazi scientist hell -bent on creating a zombie
army to crush the Allies. The story bears a strong
resemblance to previous films featured on the
Poverty Row picture show The Mad Monster, George
Zuko creating a werewolf army, and King of the
Zombies, the latter also featuring African -American
actor Mantan Morland. In Revenge, Morland plays
the same comedic relief, albeit less incorporated
into the overall plot, but no less the saving
grace of this film. Overall, however, Revenge
of the Zombies plays like a reprint of King of
the Zombies, but with a sense of been there,
done that. Nevertheless, the picture has some
wicked moments of camp and visual thrills. Rare
elements indeed in these movies of the poverty
row. For that reason, I would recommend Revenge
of the Zombies. Perhaps a Mantan Moreland double
feature is in store with King of the Zombies
playing first. Yes, yes, this is shaping up to
be quite the movie night. If anyone out there
wishes to have me over, I will bring the popcorn.
I will also never leave, especially if I shuffle
off to the bathroom. and happen to open the wrong
door and discover a guest bedroom with a firm
mattress and throw pillows and a sultry silk
count and no potted plants. Oh, yes. Well, until
then, we will discuss our next film on the Poverty
Row Picture Show, a little film called Voodoo
Man. Yes, it stars the Unholy Three, The Mysterians!
You are now inside a flying saucer. Our destination,
the planet Earth. We are the Mysterians. Our
race is old, dying, our planet dead. Only you
of Earth, you and your women, can give us life.
And what we want, we take. The Mysterians, the
greatest science fiction picture man's imagination
ever conceived. The Mysterians, swooping down
from outer space, blowing up from the lower depths.
The Mysterians, creatures who knew the uttermost
secrets of the atom before our planet was born.
Love -hungry spacemen come to seize our women
that their dying race may live. It started in
the east, soon it swept the west. The all -out
horror of interplanetary war. See giant robots
no earthly weapon can destroy. Rip a path of
destruction across the land. See the forces of
nature harnessed to the invader's will. Wipe
entire cities from the face of the world. See
the earth itself crumble beneath your feet. The
Mysterians. Threatening our civilization with
weapons beyond the relief of modern science.
Flying ray guns that blast everything before
them. An impregnable fortress that hides in the
earth. Gamma rays that melt the heaviest elements.
As men and machines disintegrate before your
eyes. The Mysterians. What power can stop their
ruthless advance? See the blazing holocaust of
an Earth gone mad. See on the giant screen in
flaming color. The Mysterium. Thank you, Peter.
Glad you're still alive. I'm sorry. I take it
back. We're back to Space Amoeba. This is probably
a movie that is not very heavy on themes. But
are there any that you want to talk about? Well,
I think there are. Well, here's the thing. I
think this movie presents some themes in some
of the dialogue. But. Does it carry enough weight
to devote the proper space to discussing those
themes, to honoring those themes? I don't think
so. But let me give you a couple of examples.
So first off, there is a commentary about the
Japanese homeland and its relation to these island
communities. The Empire of Japan at one point
in this film and Selga Island is fictional, but
the Japanese characters go to Selga Island and
they talk about how despite the colonization
that had happened during the war, these islanders
are still willing to help us out. So I think
there's a, on the surface, there's commentary
about the push and pull between colonizers and
native communities. Yeah. Do you have any thoughts
about that? Yeah, I think you're right. I think
that is one of the more compelling themes about
the movie. There's even a moment where the doctor,
I can't remember exactly what kind of doctor
he is. I don't know if it's ever said, but like
he is talking to one of the Islanders. There
are other people on the boat as they're going
towards Selga Island. And he turns to, I think
it's Rico is the, or Reco? Rico? Rico, sorry.
He's like, oh, yeah, the natives on this island
are very peaceful. There are no hostilities.
Isn't that right, Rico? And then he looks behind
him, and Rico just looks away. He's totally silent,
and he seems kind of angry, and he doesn't say
anything in response. And I thought that was
an interesting moment. You know, it seems true
that the islanders are very peaceful. They have
no reason to fight with one another. And then,
of course, you have all these Japanese mainlanders
who, you know, took part in World War II, obviously,
and are trying to open up a tourist resort on
this island. They're very capitalistic. They're
in it partially for the money, maybe not entirely.
That brief moment, I thought, was very illuminating.
I think there's a lot of tension between the
natives on this island, on Selga Island, and
the Japanese characters from the mainland. It's,
yeah, like those hostilities are never extremely
clearly elucidated, but they're there. And I
feel like it's one of the more interesting subtexts
about the movie. For sure. And it's like, to
me, it's typical Honda. Like I know this is a
different screenwriter than say with Mothra versus
Godzilla, but, or King Kong versus Godzilla,
but you've got the same ideas of capitalism and
greedy business people versus more traditional.
cultures on that note there's there is another
dichotomy between the scientists and then the
islanders witch doctor which is at least in the
in the dub that's how they refer to the the shaman
type character yeah just a skepticism of traditional
medicine and traditional healing powers which
again is you know prejudiced and and short -sighted
From the Japanese mainlanders. Yeah. You know,
there's an interesting moment with the female
character. I'm going to look at the character's
name again here real quick. Ayako, like she's
a very thin character, but like there's a moment
where they're on the island and there's like
a ceremony where the islanders are like praying
to their witch doctor to like protect them against.
the monsters that are like suddenly surrounding
them. And one of the characters, I think it's
Obata, is like kind of dismissive of the ceremony.
And he's like, oh, what are these weirdos doing
now, basically? And she's like, oh, I think it's
great. They're like, you're so cynical. They're
praying for luck. And I want to pray with them,
you know? Like, that's maybe the only moment
in the movie where Ayako has a little bit of
depth. And I feel like she's presented as like...
one of the few Japanese characters who has sympathy
and compassion and tries to have understanding
for this community. It's very brief, but I like
that moment as well. Yeah. You mentioned Obata.
At the end, he is mind -controlled by the space
amoeba. And I don't think the movie pulls it
off successfully. It comes off rather cheesy,
but I appreciate what it's going for, and Honda's
going for it. And it is... in the dialogue where
they talk about Obata's internal struggle between
his soul and his humanness versus this extraterrestrial
force. I think that's a theme worth talking about.
What makes a human human? Space Amoeba argues
we're more than just organs and nerves and body
parts. We have a soul, as stated in Space Amoeba,
makes us more than just any other living creature
so i found that interesting and then obata does
overcome this alien force in his brain and he
he sacrifices himself and he jumps into a volcano
which again i don't think is pulled off very
well i think it's rather campy but i deeply admire
what the attempt is because it, it reminds me
of like terror of Mechagodzilla. I just watched
it, but the Dr. Mufune's daughter, she's the
Android. At the end of that movie, she also sacrifices
herself. So I think that's a recurring theme
in Honda's work, sacrificing yourself for the
greater good. But in terror of Mechagodzilla,
the whole movie is grounded in a very dramatic
weight, maybe to its detriment, but it's like
a very serious movie. But when Space Amoeba,
it's just the tone. It's just like such a campy
kaiju movie. And then at the end, we try to do
something serious with sacrifice. And for me,
it's not pulled off effectively. Yeah, I think
that's fair. I do really like his sacrifice,
though. And I, you know, Obata is like the story
in this movie doesn't make really any sense at
all. Like, at least it. Like, especially with
the human characters. Like, early on, Obata just,
like, shows up in an office where there's no
reason why he would be there. And, like, all
these characters are, like, just suddenly, like,
thrust together. And it's like, wait a minute.
Why is this photojournalist and this woman who
works for this corporation and this, like, anthropologist
who's apparently also a corporate spy, they just
suddenly show up together? So yeah, that's one
of the reasons that the story does not work and
the characters are pretty hard to buy. But then
the movie does try to deepen the characters,
at least the Obata character with that ending
that you talked about. I don't know. It's pretty
touching. I think the actors do what they can.
I think they know that like the screenplay doesn't
make a lot of sense. And probably they were like
so rushed in the shooting of this movie that
they didn't even have time to care. They were
like, let's just shoot this scene and get it
over with. You know, they kind of had to do that.
But like, yeah, I don't for me, it kind of works.
And I like the conflation of like camp, but also
like an attempt at, you know. like human character
or whatever and like i also picked up in the
line of dialogue that you talked about where
it's like is a is a man more than just a collection
of cells you know like he has a soul also and
you brought up terror of mecha godzilla but that
actually reminded me of godzilla versus bialante
where there's the young like psychic woman character
who can like telepathically communicate with
godzilla and then i don't remember all the details
but at the end there are like all these spores
kind of that like fly into the air. And to me,
that's like a depiction of a soul, you know,
like maybe even Godzilla's soul. And it's probably
giving Space Amoeba a little bit too much credit
to like connect those themes because I do Godzilla
versus Biollante is great. I love that movie.
And I feel like that's 1000 times better than
Space Amoeba. Maybe that's an exaggeration. But,
you know, I mean, like there are some cool ideas
in Space Amoeba and it doesn't totally pull them
off, but I'm glad that it tries, you know. I
am with you 100%, 1 ,000%. Yeah, but I liked
that line too. And the Obata character, initially
pretty ridiculous, but ultimately kind of touching,
you know? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I agree those
are the main themes. This is not necessarily
a theme of the movie, but as we already talked
about, I also just think it's such a fascinating
reflection of where the studio system was at
in 1970. Definitely in Japan, but also really
kind of throughout the world. It's fascinating
for that reason as well, I think. I do want to
mention, though, like, the form and the aesthetic
in this movie is really beautiful. Like, especially
considering, like, how rushed the production
was, it's really a formally impressive movie,
in my opinion. And, like, maybe that sounds ridiculous.
There's so much that's, like, campy and ridiculous
and over the top in this movie. But, like, I
have a lot of examples here on our Google Doc
of, like, individual scenes that are just, like,
perfectly shot and edited and scored. And like,
and I know I was maybe like a little bit too
hard on Eberra Horror of the Deep and Jun Fukuda.
And we talked about that whenever that was like
a month ago. But I think then you watch a movie
like this and you're like, oh man, a Shiro Honda
knows how to make a movie. Like it's, you know,
it's, it's, it's suspenseful. It's like funny,
sometimes unintentionally, but sometimes very
purposefully, I think. So I'll just choose one
of these examples to talk about here because
I put too many in here. But I'll use the example
of like when the Japanese mainlanders go to Selga
Island, the first time they see the space amoeba.
when it's not actually possessing any sea creature,
is like a blob of blue light underneath the water,
basically. And it's stunningly beautiful. There's
this atmospheric cave, and we cut from a sort
of distant shot of the characters to a close
-up of the blue amoeba, and the water's bubbling
up, and there's this cool neon glow. It reminded
me a little bit of The Fog by John Carpenter,
which in my opinion is like a horror movie about
light and shape and color and movement, like
pure formal cinematic properties, you know? And
this might, I don't know, it sounds a little
over the top, but I feel like Space Amoeba is
kind of the same thing where it's like, you know,
at least in that scene, the threat is just like...
pure visual cinematic form. It's gorgeous. And
I love that scene. And there are a lot of other
moments like that in this movie. And Shiro Honda
is just a wonderful filmmaker. And even if the
plot of the movie is pretty ridiculous, he's
still able to make a pretty great movie, I think.
Dude, I think you just sold me on this movie.
Give it up. That was awesome. Well, I don't know.
I mean, maybe I liked it a little more than I
should. But it's... I just love it. It's extremely
well made in my opinion. But you're right. And
it's just because like I watched this movie having
seen almost every other Ishiro Honda kaiju movie.
So like my bar for him is so high that I think
Space Amoeba is a very uncharacteristically subpar.
But then what you're talking about, there are
absolutely truly memorable. compositions in this
film and the one of your examples also is on
my list when Rico he suffers like PTSD he's in
shock after surviving the Gizora attack and he's
brought to the native village and the whole like
the lighting in that scene is perfect it's dark
but like torchlight is lighting the scene and
the music the There's like a swell of drums and
like very, very like heart palpitations. Like
you're just like, this is something, something's
going on here. Yeah. And then as what your example
is a series of closeups as natives spy through
holes in the wall. Man, it's Kudo actually, not
Rico. But yeah, you just get a series of quick
shots. Or is it Rico? It might be Rico. Sorry,
I think I'm wrong in my note here. Sorry about
that. Okay, no, it's okay. Just a series of quick
shots of eyes through peepholes. And I'm like,
oh, oh, this is this is interesting. This is
visually thoughtful. This is awesome. Yeah, I
think that's exactly right. Visually thoughtful.
Like you can tell how much care and preparation
is put into like the entire construction of the
movie. And like, you know, plot characters, some
other stuff is maybe not quite as impressive
in this movie. But the formal craftsmanship is
fantastic. There's another note I wrote. And
I got a sense, because of scenes like that, I
got a sense that, look, Honda knows he's working
with constraints. He knows this script is not
where it should be. But he, as I wrote, is shooting
the heck out of Ghizora. He's doing all he can
to, like, punch it up, to do something interesting
with nothing. Script -wise, this movie offers
hardly anything. To depict Ghizora, there's a
lot of POV looking up at the monster to establish
size and scope. There's a lot of rear projection
to depict the monster. He is just doing all he
can with the camera. It's admirable. Yeah, totally,
yeah. I always like it when skilled directors
are maybe assigned something, you know, like
you said, it could use some work. The script
is in kind of rough shape, but I always love
it when skilled directors are assigned something
that is not in great shape, and they still treat
it like it's going to be the greatest movie ever
made, you know? I love it when directors do that.
Yeah, and you can tell. Yeah. Yeah. And there
are other examples too, but I might save a couple
of those for my breakdown towards the end. Same,
same. Yeah. But yeah, formally a really beautiful
movie. Speaking of which, should we jump into
our individual breakdowns? I think that's a good
call. Okay. Well, yeah, that's a good segue.
Maybe I'll just kind of jump right into my good
stuff. And then you can talk about what you like
about the movie. But there's another example.
It's when Obata is first possessed by the space
amoeba. And there's like a series of dissolves
where it's like Obata is lying down on the ground.
And there's like a menacing voiceover that like
the space creature is... is giving on the soundtrack
which doesn't make a lot of sense why would the
space amoeba speak in japanese and how anyway
like that's that's just like it doesn't make
any sense but anyway like visually like it's
a series of dissolves where like we start kind
of farther away from obata and then we just get
closer and closer and he's like lying still on
the ground as this like space creature is like
speaking from inside of him And it's a very poetic,
nightmarish moment. I really love that scene,
too. And like you were saying, again, the screenplay
doesn't make any sense, but Honda really makes
that as good as it can possibly be, just through
visual form alone. So I love that. Ifukube's,
sorry, Ifukube's score, I think is especially
great this time around. And I read some reviews
that kind of criticized it a little bit for not
really being very original. And I guess that's
probably valid, but like there, I don't know,
like it's really evocative. There's sort of like
an island drumming theme, which sounds vaguely
offensive and maybe it is, but it's also like
extremely rich and kind of like imaginative.
I didn't really expect that. So that's very cool.
And then I think like the creature effects are
actually pretty great in this movie. So shout
out to, make sure I get his name right, Sadamasa
Arikawa. I think the creature effects of the
three animals that we see in this movie, which
are a cuttlefish, a crab, and a snapping turtle,
they're a lot of fun. I think like some of the
closeups of the turtle, especially when it's
like neck elongates and it kind of like shoots
its head out, you know, like alien style from
the movie Alien. You know, campy and frightening
at the same time. I think Gezira, the cuttlefish,
actually looks pretty great. You know, it's like
kind of seamless editing between like underwater
footage of Gezira and then like some closer shots
of stuntmen like inside of a creature suit, basically.
All that is edited together really well, in my
opinion. And I love the close -ups of Gezira's
like red -yellow eyes, you know? Like they just
look so cool, so stylish, so fun. So, yeah, again,
just in a nutshell, I'll say this is like a beautiful,
very well -made movie, and there's so much imagination
in the visual style of it. Nice, nice. Do you
have any more? That's it for my good category.
Yeah, I'll second you in terms of Gizora with
the tentacle puppets, like the props that come
in through the huts to scoop up characters. Like
those are really good looking and very real.
And those are fun scenes to watch. I loved seeing
these actors doing their thing, familiar faces.
I liked, yeah, like the characters didn't make
sense, but they were all doing their own thing.
They stood out enough to me. Yeah, and I think
what Honda's doing with his direction. is dramatic
and dynamic. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of
repeating myself, but they're all things worth
repeating. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I agree.
The actors are very charismatic. I think the,
like there's a scene where, again, I have to
get the names right. Sorry. Kudo and. So Kudo
and Ayako are, like, on a ship on their way to
Selga Island, and they haven't gotten there yet.
And they're kind of, like, having this fun, flirtatious
conversation. And Kudo's like, oh, I'm an expert
at speaking with monsters. And she kind of laughs
a little bit. And she's like, oh, yeah, you're
going to write a great book about this, right?
And, like, the movie kind of slows down to just,
like, show their relationship. And it's really
charismatic. Like, I think those two actors are
great. And I really appreciated that, like, for
just a minute. The movie is like, hey, look at
these two people having fun with each other.
Maybe they're developing feelings for each other,
you know? Like, I wish the movie had gone more
in that direction. But I like that little bit
of that that we get. Yeah, yeah. But there's
a lot of bad stuff too. You know, it does kind
of seem like a movie of like wasted potential.
Like I'm sure like the rushed production schedule
again, kind of impacted that a little bit. I
think as usual, the human characters are not
really very interesting compared to the monsters
that are around them. Again, the construction,
like the building of the plot early on is just
like, wait a minute, who are these people and
what's going on? Kind of a little bit all over
the place. You know, I mean, yeah, plot and screenplay,
really no effort was put into them at all. Towards
the end, it's like, wait a minute, why are bats
so important? Why is echolocation or sonic waves
or whatever, why is that the thing that defeats
the monsters? You can tell they did not think
that through. You know, like in a way, I think
the movie moves fast enough that like it's OK,
like you kind of don't totally care about that.
But if you think about it for even like two seconds,
you're like, oh, this. Yeah, this does not hold
together, you know? Oh, I immediately latched
on to that. Like it was just such a shortcut
of science mumbo jumbo. Like, yeah, echolocation.
That's that's the thing that will stop the monster.
And you're as an audience just like, OK. Sure.
I've seen enough of these movies. I'll buy it.
Let's continue. Right. It might not be the most
ridiculous thing in any kaiju movie, but it's
up there. Yeah. Yeah. I was not as taken with
the Gezora suit, it seems like, as you were,
which is ironic because I like the later suits
for the turtle and the crab. I feel like those
suits are very detailed and realistic, but Gizora
to me, it comes down to the eyes. Like the eyes
are so googly eyed and fake. It's just rubber,
like painted rubber. But then you look at the
turtle, Kamibus, those eyes are like glass and
they're properly made up props. And I don't know,
it's just like. You know, I think this movie
missed Tsuburaya. I think had Tsuburaya been
involved, it could have been even even more like
top tier where you want a Honda movie to live.
And I think it suffers without Tsuburaya. And
I just my biggest thing, my biggest thing. Oh,
this is a fun thing. This is a and this might
be a Yogg specific note because the dub is so
bad. Not the dub, like syncing, like the syncopation
is really good, actually. But the voice actors
sound like Americans trying to do English and
Australian accents. Like the accents are bad.
And it was very campy and funny. I do like watching
the American version and the English dub sometimes
for that reason. But it's distracting sometimes
too. But I've never heard an English. I swear
one of these characters was Australian or trying
to be Australian. It was weird. It was like a
weird choice. Why would you choose to do that?
Just make them American. Okay, my biggest thing
is... Sorry, one more. Obata, he's this corporate
spy. And it's revealed that his whole plan of
villainy is to steal the hotel plans. And I kind
of went... okay like that's it yeah i don't i
don't care about your capitalist schemes right
who cares yeah and if i can just add on to that
real quick like i i just think it's funny that
like And Kudo, I think, is the one who sees him
steal those plans. And he calls him out on it.
He's like, hey, you stole those plans. And the
other guy's like, yeah, you're right. I did.
Here they are. And that's the end of that storyline,
basically. Then Obata is like, hey, we're all
in a predicament now. Let's work together. And
Kudo's like, fine. And that's it. That's the
end of that storyline. I expected Obata to pull
a gun on them or something. But it turns out
he was a nice guy. Right. He's just a capitalist.
You can't blame him. Yeah. So that's actually
pretty funny now that we're laughing about it.
Okay, my big general note is that I don't think
there's enough script here to sustain a feature
-length movie. And it goes back to Honda doing
all he can. I think the pacing of this film is
very languid to me. It's slow. And I think it's
because Honda is literally just trying to fill
runtime. Yeah, I bet the printed copy of the
script is like 50 pages. hondo's like oh my god
there's also a lot of like repeat scenes like
how many times does a monster come ashore we
have an attack and then we have a debrief and
then the same thing happens again and the same
thing happens again i just like this is indicative
of a very shallow script yeah yeah Which was
probably made even like shallower throughout
the production process as the producers like
cut scenes over and over again, you know? Yeah.
I will say the underwater scene is also cool.
That's a good thing. I'm glad it went there with
the budget they had. Yeah. Like the moment where
Gezira is burned and then like goes underwater
and like it kind of has like a trail of smoke
behind it underwater. Looks fantastic. I love
that whole scene. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah,
no, screenplay -wise, it's just like, man, you
needed to spend, like, there were three drafts
of the screenplay, and I feel like there needed
to be, like, 20 more to get this to, like, a
filmable spot, you know what I mean? Yeah, and,
like, the opening is pretty impressive. Like,
we have this space probe flying into outer space,
and it's flying up to Jupiter, and then this,
like, blue phantasmal force seeps into the rocket.
or the probe or whatever. And you're like, Oh,
that's a cool idea. Like that's a good start
to a monster movie. And then that opportunity
is wasted. So you're, you're right. I agree with
you there. Yeah. Yeah. I could, I could pick
it apart a little bit more, but why, why beat
a dead, a dead Kaiju? You, you certainly can
pick it apart more if you want to. We have a
little time. We're good. All right. It's yeah.
Suffice it to say it's a rough movie. It could
have used a lot more polishing for sure. Yeah.
And there is so much camp in this movie. Like
all of it is campy, but let's see here. I'm trying
to find one of my favorite examples. There's
early on. There's a scene where like a guy like
puts his hand in the water and he's like, it's
ice cold. And the other guy's like, yeah, the
temperature drops at night. And I just thought
that was a really funny line. Like, yeah, of
course it does. Like everybody knows that, right?
The temperature drops at night. There's another
moment where Saki is like consoling Riko once
they find Riko and he's like very, he's in shock
at this like monster attack. He can't speak.
He's in a daze, all this stuff. And Saki is like
very tearfully trying to console him. And one
of the other characters is like, that's too bad.
They were probably lovers. And I thought that
line was really funny too. Why do you feel the
need to say that out loud? My campy is also related
to Rico because this poor man is in need of emergency
services, medical help. Yeah. He's just getting
pushed along through the plot. At one point,
it might be a wedding. I don't know what it was.
It was like some sort of formal ceremony at the
village. And he's donned up in flowers with his
girlfriend. And if they're not getting married,
I still thought to myself, they're marrying the
poor guy. He can't speak like he's just being
pushed along. And then he wakes up or he snaps
out of it. But that was very funny to me. Just
come along, Rico, you poor bastard. We'll just
guide you through life. We'll push you to whatever
new big life event you have going on. Oh, my
gosh. Poor Rico. I did also like the line where
like. You know, we're dealing with Gezira for
like the first maybe 45 minutes or hour of the
movie, which is like a scuttlefish, octopus type
thing. And then like the next monster is like
a crab thing. And one of the characters is like,
now what? It's a crab. I really like that line
a lot as well. Yeah, there are a lot of other
ones, but like also just like, you know. When
Gezira, like, grabs somebody in its tentacles,
like, it's kind of frightening at first because,
like you said before, we have these close -ups
of these, like, scaly, gross, slimy tentacles,
and it looks pretty, maybe not convincing, but,
like, effective, you know? And then there's,
like, a wider shot where you can tell it's just,
like, a small doll or, like, action figure in,
like, the octopus's tentacle. And it's, like,
just that combination of, like, horror and silliness
is one of my favorite things about kaiju movies.
I love that. Yeah, yeah. But there are a lot
more examples of camp. So anybody out there,
if you haven't seen this movie, you are in for
a treat. Let us know your favorite campy moments.
That's true. All right, any other campy stuff
or good or bad that you want to bring up? Nah,
I'm good. All right. Well, we're at the part
of the episode where, as always, we give the
film a rating. Number one, it's a timeless classic
and 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. And our
lowest rating, it is not worth revisiting and
definitely does not stand the test of time. What's
your verdict, Vincent? You know, I was really
torn. I was torn between the bottom two, but
you and your, you're preaching the word of space
to me, but it converted me. Not too much, but
I will say that this does have a lot of fun moments
and some great directorial effort from a great
director in the later stages of his career, battling
corporate forces beyond his control, trying to
subvert his work in every way they can. And he
pulls it off. Enough. I think there's still way
too much to be desired with this movie. You can
see it. Like it, it also seems like the last,
the last gasp of a dying tradition. And it's
a little sad. Yeah. It's kind of a sad movie
in that way. So I'm going to say there's a lot
of fun moments. It is historically significant,
but I don't think it ultimately stands the test
of time. That's kind of a perfect review. I don't
think I can top that. I think that's very well
said. I do agree with everything you said, but
I kind of love this movie. There were times when
I was watching it where I was like, I'm going
to give this our highest rating. It's perfectly
made. It's so fun. It has so much imagination.
With a little distance and semi -objective criticism
or analysis or whatever, it's like, oh, this
screenplay is rough. Could have been a lot better
than it was. Like, it faced so many production
hurdles like we already talked about. So it's
compromised. It's not a masterpiece. It's not
at the level of the original Godzilla, of course,
or even like Ghidorah the Three -Headed Monster,
in my opinion. My second favorite Ishiro Honda
kaiju movie. But it's great. I love it. It's
beautiful. It's well -made. I like the actors.
I like the music. I like the creature effects.
It does kind of drag at times, but then some
new image, I think, will come along to grab your
attention. So I didn't think it was too boring.
So as tempted as I am to give this our highest
rating, I'm going to give it our second highest.
There may be some antiquated moments, some rough
moments, but overall it's great. I think it stands
the test of time. I hope to watch it again someday.
And yeah, I love Ishiro Honda. He's just such
a good filmmaker. You know, like, yeah, it is
kind of like the dying gasp of a certain cinematic
tradition, but then, like, as we know, the next
era of Godzilla movies, which I think is the
Heisei era, right, has a lot of good movies,
like the 1984 return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs.
Biolante, King Ghidorah vs. Godzilla, or maybe
that's swapped around. Anyway, you know, this
was not the end of kaiju movies, of course, just
the end of a certain era, so fascinating movie,
and mostly I loved it. That's fantastic. I, I
love that. I, yeah, I, if, if, if I've gotten
one thing out of this episode, it's a deeper
appreciation for a Shiro Honda, which was already
pretty deep to begin with. Yeah, man, this, this
guy is so thoughtful even when he's given something
like this. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Totally. Yeah.
And that's like true auteur filmmaking where
it's kind of like assembly line corporate filmmaking,
but you're still able to inject your own personal
style into it. That's the sign of a good director.
I got to watch it on the Criterion channel in
the Japanese dub, or sorry, the Japanese language.
I feel like that's going to enhance my experience
even more. Yeah, I would think so. And maybe
I'll watch Yogg, Monster from Space. See how
I feel about that one. Hopefully it won't be
another Gamera the Invincible incident. Maybe
that's the difference here. Yeah. All right.
Thanks, man. Why don't you wrap this bad boy
up? Yeah. By the way, what are we talking about
next time on Camp Kaiju? I can't remember. Do
you remember your next? Yeah, we're talking about
King Kong Lives from 1986. So cool. I've never
seen it. I can't wait to see. Talk about Kinky
Kong. Kong has a girlfriend in this movie. Whoa.
I don't hear good reviews. This movie, by all
critiques, is a bad movie, but maybe we'll love
it. And Ben Cook -Felts is going to join us for
that episode. Oh, good. Nice. I can't wait. I
mean, it'll be something. It'll be memorable,
I'm sure. Maybe I'll watch Kinky Kong as a companion
piece as well. We'll see. Doing the hard work.
Yeah, exactly. Yep, yep. 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 -Felts.
Thanks, friends. And until next time, stay campy.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Winter and the
Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty.
Your resource for real estate, home rehab, fixing
and flipping for investor clients and residential
buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for
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social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment
opportunities. Link in the show notes. I feel
cold already. The temperature drops at night.
Stop worrying about everything. Piyama. No water.
All right. Peel it. Cool as ice. Just a current
of cold water. Nothing to worry about.