playmate land what are we doing like this you
hefner he creates an island for tourists but
it's an animal themed island yeah it makes no
sense i'm like no wonder your daughter doesn't
like you you're a dirty old man yeah you're kind
of a sleazeball Hello and welcome to the Camp
Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast. We're your hosts,
Vincent Hennem. And Matt Levine. And we're talking
all 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 welcome
here. 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 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. Link in the show
notes. Today, modern man is preoccupied by the
mysteries of outer space. Scientists are probing
farther and farther away from Earth. And yet,
here on this very world we live in are hidden
mysteries. Mysteries better left alone, for if
they are disturbed, they could destroy the world.
And now, an expedition goes to a strange South
Sea island. To a forbidden jungle. To a forbidden
village. Breaking taboos that anger the gods.
of the monsters. The selfish whim of a magazine
publisher. In this park, I will have strange
tropical animals. Results in horrible destruction.
The monsters can actually think. And in addition...
They can communicate with others of their own
species. Matt Levine, yo, gaba, gaba, yo, gaba,
gaba. Should the tri -phibian monster himself.
Are you, what element are you tonight? Are you
sea, sky, or land? Hmm. Let's say sky. I'm feeling
that way today. All right. All right. I'm going
to say sea. I'm the ocean. Maybe drowning a little
bit, but I'm holding my own. All right. Nice.
Is that a reference to Trifibion? I have to admit
I don't know exactly what that means. I believe
that is the root origin of Trifibion because
they can travel in those three elements. Yeah,
that makes a lot of sense. I should have thought
of that before now. I was just like, I don't
know what triphibian means. Oh, well, who cares?
But I probably should have thought about that
a little bit more. But yeah, that makes sense.
And it makes sense given the gap of monsters
in the movie, too. I don't know if anyone knew
really what it means. Your guess is as good as
mine. Yeah. Did they make up that word for this
movie? Or is that... I should have done this
research already. Sorry. You didn't look up the
etymology? Of Trifibian? I should die. Let's
do it. Let's see here. Listeners, this is going
to be a good episode. Today we are talking about
Gappa, the Trifibian monster, a 1967 kaiju picture
from Nikatsu Studios, a rival studio of Toho
and Daiei. And we're going to get into this.
under -seen, maybe under -appreciated kaiju movie
and talk about kind of the oddities of this film,
including Trifibion. Where did it come from?
Where did it go? We'll find out. I think it is
an actual word in my very quick research that
I did. It's in Merriam -Webster. It doesn't really
have a lot in the word history section, but yeah,
it's a word. That's all I can tell you. It is
a word. Okay. It means something that can operate
on land, sea, and in the air. Like a giant monster.
Yep. Like a mom and dad monster that just wants
to get their baby back. Who doesn't? Yeah. You
know, they can team up with Mama Gorgo, too.
Yeah, since this movie is perhaps just a ripoff
of Gorgo, but we'll talk about that more, I'm
sure. Perhaps. Who did it better, though? That's
going to be the question. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
All right, well, how the hell are you? I'm doing
pretty well. This is pretty much my favorite
time of year. We're recording this in early November,
so Halloween just happened. The fall colors are
bright and beautiful. Today was like in the mid
-60s in the Twin Cities. It was also voting day
in the Twin Cities and obviously a lot of other
places as well. So yeah, beautiful day today.
I love this time of year. This is also my favorite
time of year. Every Tuesday night, sitting down
to record. I shucks this particular Tuesday night
though. This is our first recording after Halloween.
So I'm still feeling the post Halloween glow.
Yeah. Yeah. And we're, our last episode was 20
million miles to earth with Naomi. Loved recording
that. Love that movie. Um, I, I am such a huge
fan of all monster movies, the universal movies
off the wall kind of. offbeat types of films.
But this is Camp Kaiju. And it is always great
to get back to the traditional Kaijus. And I
am including the Ymir from 20 Million Miles to
Earth. But Gappa, it's Japanese Kaiju. We're
getting back to the home country. And I think
it's a fun movie to talk about. You know, flaws
and all. Yeah, I agree. It's good to get back
to like the genuine, true definition of kaiju.
It's good to get back to like, you know, a Japanese
monster movie where there's no question these
are kaijus in this movie. I almost feel like
the movie is a little bit too content to be like,
yeah, we're going back to basics. We're just
going to repeat all the cliches of every kaiju
movie you've ever seen. I think Gap of the Tri
-Fibian Monster definitely does that, but that's
not necessarily a totally bad thing. Yep. Yep.
I've felt that the whole time watching it, but,
but we'll get there. We'll get there. Got some
nuts and bolts to get through first friends.
We do not take you for granted. All you listeners
out there. Thank you for listening to every episode.
We really appreciate it. And if you could leave
us a rating and review to express that joy and
that appreciation, we would be eternally grateful.
You can send us listener comments at campkaiju
at gmail .com or Instagram at camp underscore
kaiju underscore podcast. I love reading those
here on the show, sharing them with everybody.
If you'd even like to go one step further and
feature your own voice on the show, you can do
that with a voicemail. 612 -470 -2612. Tell us
about your favorite monster movies. What element
are you feeling tonight? And check out our website,
CampKaijuPodcast .com. Subscribe to the website.
We have subscribers on there. So thank you, specifically,
listeners, for doing that on the website. You
can hit up our Threadless store, CampKaiju .Threadless
.com, for t -shirts, mugs, stickers, a whole
host of things. You can become a patron. Yes,
all you super listeners out there. who have not
yet made the switch to even just a $5 a month
patron, you can do that at patreon .com slash
campkaiju. Now, I will tell you right now, we've
got discounts on all that merch. If you leave
a comment as a patron, we'll shoot your thoughts
right up to the top of our list. If we do have
live events, I know we say this often, we're
always working on things, but we really are.
And one day when they happen. We'll treat you
like the VIP that you are. Now, what I'll say
is season six is coming up, Matt. And I do want
to revamp our Patreon a little bit. All TBD.
But let's have a Patreon drive starting now in
November and December of 2025. If you sign up
at any level for Patreon, all you listeners who
I know are out there wanting to do it. we will
send you a tote bag. How do you feel about that,
Matt? Would you like a tote bag with Camp Kaiju's
logo on it? I would love one. Man, this is all
news to me. This is exciting. I've been looking
for a way to carry around my belongings whenever
I leave the house. That's perfect. Yes, and you
can tell people about monster movies and they'll
say, what is that awesome logo on your bag? And
you'll say, it's Camp Kaiju. They talk about
all of our favorite movies. And then you're boom,
you've made a connection, you've made a friend
and you're just growing the love for giant monster
movies. Yeah, I think I have to do that. Maybe
in the tote bag, I'll put nothing but like monster
figurines just to like continue the conversation,
you know, to get whatever you put in your tote
bags, everybody. That's on that's on you. We
won't we won't you don't need to share what's
in your tote bag. But if you want a tote bag.
Join us at Patreon. Any level gets you in. And
then and then I am toying around with the idea
of a once a month happy hour where on Zoom, if
you are a Patreon, we can have a hangout for
an hour answering your questions about the show,
just chatting about movies, nerding out like
a movie club once a month for Patreon members.
How do you feel about that? I like it. I like
it. All kaiju all the time. That's cool. I'm
excited about that. I like that. Maybe that'll
be the name of the happy hour. All kaiju all
the time. That could be on your tote bag. Oh,
I love it. Yeah. I do too, actually. I'm legitimately
writing that down. Our new slogan. I didn't even
mean to come up with it, but there you go. So,
listeners, what are you waiting for? Visit Patreon
.com slash Camp Kaiju today for all that and
a tote bag of chips. Amazing. I didn't know there
were changes to Patreon coming up. This is news
to me and very pleasant news, I might add. Yes,
all of our patrons are amazing. Jason, Chris
B., Sean, our anonymous patron, and Peggy. All
right. And don't you fret, loyal patrons. you
will get your tote bag as well. Okay. Well, ring
a ding. It is November. Let's talk about some
monster movies that came out this month in monster
movie history. Ooh, we got some known titles
here. What's catching your eye? I think the one
that I'll shout out, even though I haven't seen
it in a very long time, is called At Midnight,
I'll Take Your Soul. It's a Brazilian movie from
1964. I haven't seen it since I was an undergrad
in college. So that was, I'll just say a long
time ago now at this point. And I don't really
remember it all that well, but it's the first
appearance of a character named Coffin Joe, who
became sort of like a popular figure in Brazilian
horror cinema. And from what I remember, he's
kind of like a, he's an undertaker, but he's
also kind of a mix of like a vampire and a zombie
a little bit who wants to achieve immortality.
I just remember it's very creepy, has very beautiful
black and white cinematography, and again, kind
of gave rise to this phenomenon in Brazilian
cinema, even though I haven't seen any of the
other Coffin Joe movies. I would like to at some
point, and it all started with At Midnight I'll
Take Your Soul. Very cool. I love that. Wow.
There's just so many little rabbit holes to go
down in our favorite genre. That's crazy. Absolutely.
Yeah. And I'm due for a rewatch on that one.
That reminds me of the Mexican hero El Santo,
the Mexican wrestler who turned movie star in
the 60s and 70s with a series of horror films
called Santo vs. the Evil Brain from 1961. Let's
see, Santo vs. the Zombies, 1962. Santo vs. the
Mummies, the Vampires, like this guy. It's like
if The Rock was making these movies. And I want
to watch these movies, too. I know El Santo is
huge, and I just haven't gotten into those yet.
But real quick, I was watching Coco, the Pixar
movie, the other night. And in the afterlife,
where everybody lives while they wait for their
Day of the Dead return, El Santo shows up as
a little cameo character. But he's trying to
get into a VIP party. And I was just, you know,
the last time I watched Coco, I had no idea who
El Santo was. But there he was. I feel like I
vaguely remember that because I've known about
El Santo for a long time. And I think when I
like I only saw Coco when I came out. So kind
of a long time ago at this point. But I feel
like I remember that joke. It's a good one. Yeah.
But anyways, what was released in November? Probably
an El Santo movie. But what I'm going to shout
out is a film called The Land That Time Forgot
from 1974. It is based on a novel by Edgar Rice
Burroughs. So it's an adventure fantasy movie
with dinosaurs and cave people. I've never seen
it, but I have always had like the bargain bin
DVD. And before I got into Camp Kaiju, it was
just like a DVD I never paid attention to. But
now that I'm into monster movies, I'm like, oh,
I have that. I should watch that at some point.
But you've never seen it before? Nope. Gotcha.
Yeah, I've heard that title. It's kind of like
a cult classic in a way, right? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry,
I feel like you kind of just said that. No, it's
all right. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll bring it to
the pod someday. Maybe. I've got a lot of movies
like that in my collection that I've never watched.
But they're waiting. I'll get to them at some
point. Who knows what treasures await? Including
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet, which is the
title of the AIP American release of Gappa, the
Trifibian Monster. Matt, I have two copies of
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet. I've had these
for years. I had no idea what I was sitting on.
It was Gappa. Yeah. And like the American version
is pretty similar, right? From the little bit
that I've read, like it's dubbed into English.
And like the title over the opening, sorry, the
song over the opening credits is different. But
other than that, there aren't too many changes.
Am I correct about that? It's largely the same.
There are some, they're just minor differences.
And I gotta be honest with you. I tried to watch
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet. And because
it's a bargain bin DVD, the transfer was atrocious.
Apparently most of these AIP additions, these
days they're in the public domain, so they're
just copied of a copied of a copied dupe of a
16mm TV viewing from 30 years ago. So it's all
very terribly, yeah, just rendered. Honestly,
I couldn't watch it. But if you watch Gappa on
Tubi... The original just Gap of the Trifibian
Monster. Night and day difference. It's in lush,
beautiful, vibrant colors. It's like a real movie.
So be forewarned out there, folks. If you, too,
have a copy of Monster from a Prehistoric Planet.
The same exact thing happened to me. The first
version I saw online was Monster from a Prehistoric
Planet. I started it. Could not handle how terrible
it looked. And then, yeah, found Gap on Tubi.
So I did exactly what you just mentioned. And
yeah, the version on Tubi is, it looks pretty
great. It's a good transfer and everything. I
usually tend to prefer the subtitled version
anyway. And in this case, it just looked infinitely
better than the American one that I found. Oh
my gosh, it's astoundingly different. Yeah, right.
It's amazing how much of a difference it makes.
Like, what? ah i couldn't get through it so yeah
and also gap of the triphibian monster is just
a way cooler title i mean monster from a prehistoric
planet is a pretty good title don't get me wrong
but like the japanese title is way better in
my opinion both don't make sense in their own
ways but i feel like gap of the triphibian monster
makes less sense but in in a truly intriguing
way like i'm like oh what what what does that
mean yeah Monster from a prehistoric planet.
I'm like, I don't know. Is it just like a dinosaur
movie? I'm not really invested in finding out
what that means. Right. Yeah, exactly. Well,
there's the end of the podcast, everybody. Links
to the show notes. The end. We're not going to
tell you if it's good, bad, or can't be. You'll
have to find out for yourself. All right. What's
coming up here on the show and in the world?
Well. Today, as of yesterday, yesterday was Godzilla
Day, November 3rd. Happy 71st birthday to Godzilla.
But it was announced the sequel to Godzilla minus
one will be titled Godzilla minus zero. And the
assumed release date will be sometime late next
year, 2026. Not much is known. The plot is not
known about this story, about this movie. Although
I did hear that some shooting locations will
happen in Norway and somewhere else, which is
like a big deal because usually Godzilla movies
aren't shot outside of Japan, like the Toho productions.
So I don't know. I don't know. Will there be
another monster involved? Ooh, I hope so. I hope
so too. Cool. That's exciting. I don't want to
sound like a hater. I feel like I don't love
Godzilla minus one quite as much as most other
people do. Still a good movie in my opinion,
but I'm excited for the sequel. I have high hopes
for it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We love our solo Godzilla
movies, but I think we all actually really love
when there's more than one monster in the movie.
Yeah. Yeah. If it goes that way, I hope so. We'll
see. Yeah. Yeah. Coming up on Camp Kaiju, your
pick. What do you got for us? Yeah, the next
one that I'm bringing to the podcast is The Addiction,
directed by Abel Ferrara from 1995. I've been
curious about this movie for a long time. It's
very well reviewed, and it's technically about
vampires, but I've read that that's kind of a
metaphor for drug addiction in this movie, as
the title implies. And Lily Taylor is the lead
actress in the movie. Excited to watch it. And
I believe Frank Olson will be joining us. 90
% sure that that's the case. So excited to have
him back on the podcast. Fantastic. And then
following that, we will get back to our kaiju
offerings with Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim.
And along with that episode, we will also have
our traditional holiday episode. With returning
guests and you and I can reveal the first six
months worth of films for season six of Camp
Kaiju. Season six. Amazing. How you must be so
proud that this is going to be the sixth season.
Six seasons. I think this is going to be my fifth
year doing this. And you've been we've been doing
it for like four years. Yes. Yeah. Couldn't do
it without you. Oh, well, thank you. But, you
know, thank you for inviting me four years ago.
And I didn't know what I was in for all the fun
conversations we would have. But congratulations.
This is your brainchild, of course. And it's
been a lot of fun. Well, seriously, congrats
to you, too. There are episodes now like there
are movies I watch. I'm like, yeah, the last
time I saw that was for the podcast four years
ago when me and Matt did an episode on it. Yeah.
man time flies oh it really does like that's
yeah but no it feels good it feels good so i'm
excited i'm still kicking around some titles
but i'll be ready i might try to do a certain
theme to my picks for next season but we'll you
know to what's the word to be continued i'll
talk we'll talk more about that soon okay more
kaiju all the time i already forgot the slogan
all kaiju all the time All kaiju all the time.
100 % kaiju. Pounding across the motion picture
screen comes the most terrifying monster of them
all. Gamera, the invincible. Gamera, the super
monster that even the H -bomb cannot destroy.
Gamera, the invincible. Gamera, consuming raw
atomic power. Power to destroy entire cities.
Open fire! Man's most destructive weapons have
no effect on Gamera the Invincible. The mightiest
nuclear weapons ever devised are powerless against
Gamera the Invincible. Is humanity doomed? Will
the world be destroyed? The United Nations is
called to emergency session in a last desperate
effort to save the world. We have one plan that
we think might work. We have discussed Plan Z
with the Japanese authorities, and they agree
it is the best of our alternative plans. Is that
correct, sir? That is so. Plan Z is hope of the
world. A cast of thousands at the mercy of the
most terrifying monster that ever lived. Brian
Donrevy as General Arnold. Beyond comprehension.
He must be stopped now. Albert Decker as the
Secretary of Defense. Will Plan Z stop Gamera?
Gamera, the invincible. Ebira and Mothra 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. such scope and realism,
as up from the depths of prehistoric mystery
rages Virgo. The headlines of the world blazed
the fabulous story of this monster from another
age, catapulted from some vast sub -ocean cavern
by unprecedented volcanic action. And the headlines
screamed the story of the reckless skin divers
who captured the monster and put it on exhibition.
Stop! Come out! Drop the nets! I can't let him
go back to the sea where he belongs. Why? Maybe
to save his silly skins for you. But the headlines
do not record the story of a little boy who had
a curious sympathy and understanding for the
fantastic creature. What strange secret does
he know that scientists only suspect? You're
trying to say there may be a fully grown one
of these things around somewhere? How big would
a full grown one be? An approximate guess. The
infant. The adult. That'll make it nearly 200
feet tall. Wreaking terrible vengeance against
the civilization that has captured its offspring.
Powering over the cities of the world as millions
flee its awesome terror. Defying the force of
the army, the might of the Navy. Fire number
one, Terry. Ready to open fire, sir. Fire one.
Even the fury of the jets. gentle sights never
before beheld by human eyes, and adventures never
before experienced by any man or woman. Alright,
well, Gap of the Trifibian Monster, not one,
not two, but three kaiju in this film. What is
your personal history with this movie? Pretty
much zero. I knew nothing about this movie until
watching it for this episode. And you've talked
about it a little bit in the past. And then the
title, again, just jumps out at me because it's
so unique. But beyond that, I have zero history
with this movie. You and most of the world, honestly.
This movie just doesn't get talked about outside
of... diehard kaiju film nerds. And I don't know
if that's entirely merited. Regardless, I came
upon this movie six years ago when I was doing
my deep dive into the genre. And I was honestly
surprised by the film. I didn't expect much.
And I threw it on on Tubi. And I was pleasantly
surprised. So I have been wanting to talk about
it for a while. But because it's so underseen,
Like my producer hat was like, well, maybe maybe
I save that one. Do we have a little bit of an
audience and they can they can go on that journey
with us? So here we go. I'm ready for it. That
makes sense. And probably a good idea to like,
you know, we'll be talking about Pacific Rim
in a couple episodes and probably good to balance
out like the obscure deep dive titles with like
the blockbusters that everybody knows about,
you know? I think so. You got to give and take
a little bit. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, but we're
good at that. That's what I love about our show,
too, that we cover all types, underseen, overseen,
maybe. Yeah, right. For sure. Can I, this is
going back to what we were just talking about,
and I apologize, but I'm just curious, with Pacific
Rim and Guillermo del Toro, have you seen Frankenstein
yet? No. Have you? No, I have not. Yeah, just
curious. And Predator Badlands is coming out
too. So anyway, sorry to go back to that tangent.
Just curious if you had seen those yet. No, I
haven't. Listeners, if you had, please let us
know. The thing is, I'm pretty bad at getting
to the theater these days, just with my limited
free time. And I don't have Netflix, which is
maybe a surprise. But this might be what gets
me back onto Netflix just for a little bit, because
I'm dying to see it. Yeah, me too. Sorry not
to spend too much time on Frankenstein, but I'm
guardedly excited about it. I definitely want
to see it. Again, I sound like such a snob, but
Guillermo del Toro, usually I'm like, oh, that
was okay. I'm not super excited by his movies,
and Frankenstein is like... It seemed like this
is the movie that he was born to make and that
he's wanted to make for a very long time to the
extent where I'm like, oh, yeah, kind of obvious.
Like we all knew he was going to make this movie,
you know, but I'm sorry. That all sounds like
so negative. I am excited to see it and I've
heard good things about it. So it should be good.
Well, let's save our del Toro talk for Pacific
Rim. Yeah. And actually, I think we will be joined
by Sean Childers, big mech giant robot fan. Yes,
that'll be a good episode. We'll talk about the
Toro more then. Yeah. Thank you. Awesome. Sorry.
Jumping around a little bit. That's okay. Yeah,
let's just dive into the cast and crew of Gappa.
These are all Nikatsu studio actors and crew.
The film was directed by Haruyasu Noguchi. The
screenplay was by Iwao Yamazaki and Ryuzo Nakaishi.
Vincent, like you just said, these are kind of
crew members at Nakatsu Studio, kind of on their
roster of crew members there. The story and special
effects were by Akira Watanabe, a former employee
at Toho Studios and collaborator of Eiji Tsuburaya,
who we know from doing the special effects for
many of Toho's kaiju movies. Watanabe left Toho
in 1966 after serving as Tsuburaya's art director
on Invasion of Astro Monster. I can read off
some of his other credits here real quick. Just
pulling up the list here. Yeah. The more of the
kaiju films that you mentioned helps me target
any of the trailers that I'm going to include
in the episode. Okay. Well, I'll pick some of
the better known ones, the ones that I know anyway.
He was the special effects art director for the
original Godzilla, Godzilla Raids Again, Rodan,
The Mysterians. Battle in Outer Space, Mothra,
Gorath, I feel like I've heard of that, King
Kong vs. Godzilla, Matango, which I just watched
recently and loved. That's a great movie. Atragon,
Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three -Headed
Monster, another one of my favorites, Frankenstein
vs. Baragon, Invasion of Astro Monster, I think
I mentioned that one, Ultra Q. And that's just
some of the highlights. So he definitely has
a lot of titles on his filmography. Definitely.
And then just finishing out the crew here real
quick, the film was produced by Hideo Koi, and
the cinematography was by Muneo Ueda. Yeah, and
then the cast, big cast, but our main cohort
here, Tamiyo Kawachi as Hiroshi Kurosaki. Kawachi,
the actor. Long career in TV and film. I happen
to see that he was on a couple of Ultraman series
in the late 90s. So just, you know, highlighting
a kaiju connection there. He in the movie. Oh,
he plays one of our our young male leads. That's
right. There's like a love triangle between two
young men and our female lead. Itoko Koyanagi
is the name of the character. played by Yoko
Yamamoto. And she is joined by Yuji Okada as
Daizy Tonoka, and Koji Wada as Mashida, and Tatsuo
Fuji as George, which is strangely American there.
But there's our main cast. Now, the production
backstory. I think this is where it gets interesting.
So 1967, peak kaiju cinema in Japan. on the success
of the Godzilla series, and even Gamera the Giant
Monster, which was released by Daiei Studios
in 1966. So with especially Gamera's success,
other studios jumped on the bandwagon. Nikatsu
produced Gappa, its only kaiju film. And another
one worth shouting out is a movie called The
X from Outer Space from studio Shochiku. Now,
Nikatsu... Matt, do you have any familiarity
with this studio? Yeah, a little bit. Mostly
because of the next bullet point that you have
here. But I can just cover this bullet point
real quick if you'd like me to. So yeah, Nakatsu
began making movies in 1954 with a lot of historical
and samurai films. I don't think they were any
of the Akira Kurosawa ones because I think Kurosawa
was a Toho director. But if I remember right,
Nakatsu maybe did like Sword of the Beast. Samurai
Rebellion, possibly? That might have been later.
So don't quote me on that. But yeah, they started
making historical and samurai films in 1954.
By the 60s, they were focusing more on urban
youth drama. If I remember right, I believe Nagisa
Oshima was an early director for Nakatsu. And
I love Nagisa Oshima, a really good Japanese
new wave filmmaker. But Gappa was Nakatsu's biggest
budget film ever. and like you just said, Vincent,
their only kaiju film, the 1970s saw them move
into the sexploitation market to stay profitable.
Yeah, a term that I think we've used on this
show before, Roman porno? I don't know exactly
what that means. That does sound kind of familiar.
I don't know that subgenre very well either,
though. Okay. I've also heard them referred to
in the context of Japanese cinema as pink films.
I don't know if that extends to other national
cinemas as well, but I've heard some erotic Japanese
films referred to as pink films before. Interesting.
Maybe it was our Kinky Kong jokes. I don't remember.
That could be. Yeah. We still got to work on
our Kinky Kong movie that we're making. We got
to work on that script. Anyways, the Akatsu was
bankrupt by the 90s. So they are no longer a
functioning studio. Maybe another reason why
Gappa has just kind of been lost to time because
the studio behind it is lost to time. And whoever
the rights holders are clearly aren't interested
in promoting it. So I just think that alone is
an interesting quirk of history that corporations
shift and disappear and what's left with their
art and who's to curate it. If nobody cares.
Right. Yeah. And we've seen that with a lot of
Hollywood studios too. Like, you know, RKO studios
obviously isn't around anymore. Some of the old
like Republic pictures, like B movies from back
in the day had went through like extremely convoluted
rights ownership and just archival issues, you
know? Yeah. So that's a little bit on Nikatsu.
Can I correct something I said before? Sorry.
I don't want to say anything blatantly wrong
on the podcast. So Nagisa Oshima was not well
known as an Akatsu director, but looking at their
lineup of directors right now, I feel like the
best known ones are probably Seijun Suzuki, who
made really psychedelic crime movies like Branded
to Kill, for example. And then Shohei Imamura,
who made some really great movies also like Vengeance
is Mine is one of those. another Japanese New
Wave director. Those two were Nakatsu directors,
but Nagisa Oshima was not. Just want to correct
that. Have you seen those movies? Some of them.
I've seen several Seijun Suzuki movies, which
I like a lot. They're very strange. If you're
looking for like cohesive plot, they're definitely
not very satisfying movies, but they're just
like insanely stylish. And they kind of epitomize
the Japanese New Wave, which was like very abrasive
and in your face. And I like a lot of those movies
very much. Very cool. And I'm just asking just
as a friend now, like, did you just make time
to watch those movies or were they part of your
film education in school? A little bit of both,
I guess. I feel like I wanted to explore them
because like so many people getting into film
at an early age, like you start with Akira Kurosawa
and Yasujiro Ozu, who are amazing filmmakers.
And then you kind of want to understand a little
bit more about Japanese cinema. Like for me,
I was just curious why some of the like Kurosawa
and Ozu movies kind of indirectly led to these
like really weird Japanese new wave movies from
the 60s. And I was just like, how did that happen?
These movies are so different than like the more
classical style movies, the classics that we
know from, again, Kurosawa and some other directors.
So I was just like personally interested in it.
And then. I did see some Japanese movies in college
when I was a film student. I remember I took
a horror cinema class and we watched a lot of
Japanese horror movies from the 60s, which are
very political and very much about the fallout
after World War II and trauma from the atomic
bombs and stuff like that. So yeah, mostly a
personal interest, but did watch them a little
bit in college as well. That's great. That's
really cool. There's just so much. There's so
many movies from so many countries. that from
so many different from a century or more of filmmaking
i guess it just takes time right and it's it's
kind of daunting it's like how it's hard to specialize
in one thing if you want to see it all you know
yeah and that's that's kind of how i feel like
i want to And I think you feel the same way.
But I, you know, I want to watch the Hollywood
classics and like the indie movies and Japanese
cinema. And then like the more sort of like under
celebrated movies like African cinema after a
lot of different African countries started gaining
independence. I love those. Egyptian cinema is
fantastic. So, yeah, I'm kind of rambling a little
bit. But just to your point, it's like there's
so much out there. How do you find time for all
this stuff? You host a podcast. And it forces
you to watch things. Yeah, exactly. It's a good
problem to have, I would say. Yeah. I mean, honestly,
something like the addiction, for example, I
would be, it might be on my list, but I would,
I would never prioritize it if it weren't for
this podcast. So I am appreciative of that. Same.
I don't know if I ever would have seen Gappa
if it weren't for, for the podcast. So, so thank
you for that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Japanese
government, who in the late 60s and early 70s
had a financial program to give grants to the
studios to make movies that could be then exported
to international markets. So that's kind of also
what led to this boon in kaiju cinema at the
time. Yes, there was the audience want for it.
but there was also financial backing from the
government. So Nikatsu took this, ran with it.
Gappa was their highest budgeted film ever. This
one source says 500 million yen, which is today
$1 .4 million. You know, not a lot by today's
standards, but at the time, huge budget. And
I think it's reflected in the final product.
You could tell that, wow, these effects have
money behind them. Nikatsu had bandied about
other ideas for their kaiju movie, including
a giant squid that attacks a Nazi U -boat in
World War II. You had a giant alien spider that
invades Earth. And then you had one idea about
a giant flying squirrel. Eventually, they settled
on what is now known as the Trifibian monster.
Do you have any thoughts about those other ideas?
I think the giant squid attacking a Nazi U -boat
sounds especially awesome. I would love to see
that movie. It's like the historical context
that that would bring up, like kind of boggle
the mind a little bit, you know? That would have
been a very cool movie. And as we've talked about
on the podcast, I'm terrified of spiders, so
I feel like the giant spider idea would have
been cool too. I don't know about the giant flying
squirrel, but who knows? That might be awesome.
It's just weird enough that that could work.
Just weird enough. I I'll tell you, I think that
the triphibian monsters are pretty weird in and
of themselves. I don't know if they always work
for me just as like a concept. It just seems
like like somebody in a room just was like, well,
I'll add a beak. I'll add some wings. I'll add
a tail, you know, just like that's what they
came up with. Yeah, I know what you mean. It
kind of reminded me of Gauss a little bit. The
monster Gauss, who we've talked about in the
podcast before. Gauss looks a little bit cooler,
I would say, but just like the avian look of
it, you know, and maybe also a Rodin a little
bit too. Oh yeah. Yeah. I could see all that.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you want to talk about the
release in legacy a little bit? Yeah. Yeah, for
sure. So Gappa, the tri -phibian monster was
released in April, 1967 in Japan. American TV
rights were purchased by American international
pictures. As we talked about before, it was dubbed
and retitled Monster from a Prehistoric Planet.
And yeah, Vincent, like you said, the fact that
American International isn't around anymore means
that it's in the public domain. And a lot of
those transfers, unlike the bargain DVDs that
you find now, are definitely not very good. But
yeah, the one on Tubi looked very good, I thought.
And I think Tubi has both the subtitled and the
dubbed one. So for viewers out there interested
in either one, Tubi will have them. Variety kind
of surprisingly gave the film a positive review
at the time. I think it's surprising. Well, I
do too because they're probably, I think, reviewing
the AIP monsters from a prehistoric planet. I
would assume so, yeah. Because I don't even think
that was released in American cinemas at all.
It was only shown on TV in America. So yeah,
that must be the one that they were reviewing.
And again, like the dubbing, you know, some other
dubbed movies are decent. I don't think the dubbing
was very good in this case. Granted, I didn't
watch the whole dubbed version of the movie,
but yeah, that's what makes it so surprising
that Variety gave it a good review because that's
the dubbed version that they must have watched.
And Variety wrote that the creature Gappa makes
an auspicious debut and reveals itself as the
best monster so far. I don't know exactly what
that alludes to, though. If it's like the best
monster of the year or just like among recent
Japanese movies, it's kind of hard to tell from
that review. Variety, just to finish this little
excerpt here, Variety concluded that these are
the only Japanese monsters one might like to
see again, and that most effects are well done,
a few superb, noting the destruction of the city
of Itami as one of the highlights. And I find
that kind of baffling. There are many other Japanese
monsters that I would probably want to watch
before I watched Gappa, but maybe that's just
me. yeah i mean i don't know i like you know
i could see it but you know does this movie get
lost the time for other reasons beyond its control
yeah and i you know we'll obviously talk more
about our subjective responses to the film in
a moment here but yeah i i can see the the charm
in the movie and i can understand why like you
know like coming at a coming across it on tv
and being like, whoa, what is this weird creature
movie? That would be kind of fun. I can see the
appeal of that. But I'm just saying, like, to
compare this to, like, Gamera and even some of
the Godzilla movies from the 60s and say that
Gappa is, like, the best of the Japanese monsters
is, like, Variety, what are you talking about?
What are you doing? No, I agree. I'm playing
devil's advocate a little bit. But let me ask,
Gappa or Ebera Horror of the Deep? Ooh. That's
a tough choice, to be honest. I like the design
of Eberra more. I think Eberra looks really weird.
We don't really get a good look at it in that
movie, Eberra, Horror of the Deep. Yeah, I feel
like maybe the movie gap is a little bit better,
but the monster Eberra, I probably prefer a little
bit. Yeah, sure. I can be down with that. But,
you know, I'll take Gamera. Thank you very much.
Like, if the choice is between those three, I'd
rather have Gamera, I think. Yeah. Gappa or Ebera,
the answer is Gamera. Right. None of the above.
I'll take Gamera, please. Yeah. 100%. Well, I
added a little bit here that this movie does
get compared to Gorgo a lot. Just a basic conceit
of... The parent version of the monster coming
to rescue its offspring. I want to push back
on that one, if I may, and say that I don't,
I, after watching Gappa, it's never a twist that
it's the parents. Like in Gorgo, we have the
monster, and it's a twist in the film that, oh
no, this is actually the baby, and the bigger
one is coming. Gappa never plays it for a twist.
So to all you out there arguing this one, I'm
going to push back gently on you. I think that's
fair. I like your note on the document here that
like, maybe this is just a classic Kaiju story
that like a lot of different productions and
writers and directors kind of latched onto, you
know? And I feel like it's very likely that both
Gorgo and Gappa kind of are recycling some of
the earlier stories that we see. I feel like
Mothra has that a little bit, because the Shobijin
are taken from Infant Island and then taken back
to Japan, and then Mothra kind of has to rescue
them a little bit. So I feel like it's kind of
that vibe, you know? Definitely. I didn't even
think about Mothra, because I was just thinking
about King Kong, which is the obvious taking
a monster from its homeland to exploit it on
the entertainment stage. But no, you're right.
Mothra does dabble in the monster coming to rescue
its brethren, in a way. Yeah, if not its offspring,
then, like, just another, you know, its wards
or whatever. Yeah, it's Ken and its brethren,
like you said. But yeah, Ken Kong, too, definitely
has that element to it. I know it's, like, the
one topic everyone's talking about these days.
Where did Gappa get its influences? What? We're
here to talk about it. Yeah. It's lighting up
all the Reddit boards. We're moving right along.
Oh, yeah. 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 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. Link in the show
notes. So what do we got in old Minya's mailbox?
All right, so in Minya's mailbox, we have a comment
from Don Long -S3K. Don Long says, Daiei wanted
to compete with Toho's Godzilla at the time.
Their first kaiju project, Gamera the Giant Monster
from 1965, turned out to be more of a success
than they had initially expected. Gamera had
many traits that separated him from Godzilla.
While he is more antagonistic in his debut film,
he becomes more of a good guy monster in the
sequels. He is best known to be a guardian and
friend to all children. After Gamera vs. Ziggura
from 1971, Daiei had put the series into hiatus
until Gamera Super Monster from 1980. The eighth
film of the Showa era was a box office failure,
and the series went on hiatus again until Gamera
Guardian of the Universe in 1995. Thank you,
Don Long. That's a fascinating history. And I
think I've seen the first two Gamera movies.
And then we did talk about another later one
on the podcast at some point, right? Yeah, Guardian
of the Universe from the 90s. Right. And I like
them. I like that series, what I've seen of it
so far. You are riding high. You've seen the
best of the best. Okay. The 90s movies. are all
top notch. After the third entry in the Showa
era, it goes downhill pretty fast, but might
still offer plenty of camp, but less, less, just
less quality, cheaper budgets, lots of stock
footage type of stuff. Okay. That doesn't sound
great. But I feel like I like the first two well
enough that I do want to continue going with
them. So hopefully. And you should. Because Gamera
is always better than Gappa and Eberra. Yes,
that's the main takeaway of this episode. And
I actually feel like maybe Gappa rips off Gamera
more than it does Gorgo, because Gamera definitely
has the friend of the children, and Gappa certainly
has that as well. The baby Gappa especially has
this kinship with all these human kids in this
movie. So that is taken directly from Gamera,
I would say. And I think that goes back to your
point of Nikatsu just including every trope they
can. Oh, this worked for Gamera. Let's put a
kid in this movie with some sort of connection.
Yeah. That stuff is kind of boring in this movie,
in my opinion. Yeah, because it just feels surface
level. Like they never really utilize it as much
as they can. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it's
so sentimental. And I think like the main kid
in this movie is in blackface and that's obviously
not good. So there are many things that are just
like not enjoyable about that theme in this movie.
We'll get there. We'll get there. Getting ahead
of ourselves a little bit. That's like the biggest
thing in this movie. Okay. But Peter Lorre, he
was at the Halloween party. He was busting a
move. He. He got a hold of some sort of jack
-o' -lantern alcohol pumpkin thingamajig that
he was drinking all night. I still haven't seen
him. That was two weeks ago. He had to disappear
for a little bit. But it was great. It was great
fun. Wish he could have been there. Yeah, I wish
I could have too. It's hard to imagine Peter
Lorre cutting a rug, but that must have been
something. He got down with all the monsters
that night. man it was just like a universal
reunion at your house i bet i had a little i
had my vcr tv here i had it set up in the kitchen
a little corner like rip to vhs corner cool and
people could just the idea was people could play
their play whatever tapes were available nice
at their leisure uh we ended up I put in Young
Frankenstein to start the night. And then it
was really funny because me and Gary and some
others, you go get a beer in the fridge and then
you find yourself just watching Young Frankenstein
for five minutes. Yeah, that's a good choice.
Young Frankenstein's awesome. Yeah. Whenever
that's on like TV or whatever, like you can't
pull yourself away from it, you know? Yeah. That's
cool. What else did other people play on VHS
that night? It's actually a friend of mine wanted
to play the thing, the 1951 thing. Oh, nice.
But then it wasn't working because the tape was
locked. If you recall the tapes, they'd have
like a little lock button mechanism on the side.
Yeah. Kind of forgot about that till right now.
Yeah. So we had to fiddle with that and then
just pivoted and put in Bride of Frankenstein.
Oh, Bride of Frankenstein. One of my favorites.
That's a great choice. Yeah. Cool. Did you have
any games or activities or anything that night?
Yes. Eyes the Phantom of the Opera hosted a night
of fate and madness. So I concocted some games,
three rounds of games, like a dance of doom,
I called it, where everyone had to dance. And
I called out people who kept moving after I stopped
the music. I whittled them down to three. And
then the three of them had to complete. the lyrics
to the monster mash, the best of their ability.
That's amazing. I'd be terrible at that. And
then the final two, it was like a relay race.
I have like a little toy heart that I had placed
in a hidden box and they had to find the phantom's
heart and bring it back to me. Oh man, that's
awesome. You're really good at party planning.
That's creative. I love that. Thank you. It was
very silly. I led each round with a quote from
the 1925 movie. Cool. Including the one you mentioned
in our episode. Like a toad, I secrete the venom.
Something, something, something. Yeah. I was
trying to remember what it was. Yeah. It rings
a bell. What I said that there was an audible
visceral reaction from the party goers. I love
it. It's 100 years old and it still holds up.
Yeah. They're like, what? In the what? That's
the correct response, I would say. That probably
sounded way cooler in that character's head before
he said it out loud, you know, in a silent movie
or whatever. But it's such a weird, weird choice
for dialogue. Back on track. The Girl Who Dared
from 1944. Our letterboxd synopsis reads, A group
of people are invited to a party at a creepy
mansion where legend has it a ghost appears once
a year. And the tagline of the film is, Your
blood will run cold. It's got those chills and
thrills. Chills and thrills. Nice. The girl who
dared. Sounds good. Kind of sounds like The House
on Haunted Hill a little bit. Yeah. A little
bit. We'll see. Can't wait to watch that and
hear Peter Lorre's take. Yeah, if he can find
him and like if he's not still on a bender, you
know. Well, that's that's always the catch, isn't
it? I don't know how you lived with the guy for
a year. Oh, man, I'm glad he's not here anymore.
Like I'm, you know, good riddance. I wash my
hands of him. Yeah, man, I didn't know you held
grudges like this, but. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, the
next time I see Peter, it is not going to go
well. I'll just say that. Yikes! 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. Yes, this is the Poverty Row Picture
Show, and I dare you to sleep through these nightmares.
Oh, my aching pirate's booty. What a couple of
weeks it has been. Friends, I am sorely, sorely
deeply sorry for my behavior at Vincent's Halloween
party. Yes, I do not even remember leaving, but
I do remember waking up on this beach. Yes, the
crashing waves were a cold and crude wake -up
call. And as I sat there, sat there holding my
troublesome temples in my hands, my costume clinging
to my perfectly sculpted body, a shadow, appeared
over me. I looked up into the beaming sun and
saw reflected in the sun the raven circling up
above. It cawed, it cawed to me, demanding the
continuance of the poem. Well, I have never been
one to disappoint an audience, so there, on the
pebbles, I began the words. Ah, distinctly I
remember it was In the bleak December, and each
separate dying amber wrought its ghost upon the
floor, eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I
had sought to borrow from my book's surcease
of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore, for the
rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name
Lenore, nameless here forevermore. and the silken
sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
thrilled me filled me with fantastic terrors
never felt before so that now to still the beating
of my heart I stood up I stood repeating tis
some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber
door some late visitor entreating entrance at
my chamber door this it is and nothing more Recently
my soul grew stronger, hesitating then no longer.
Sir, I said, or madam, truly your forgiveness
I implore, but the fact is I was napping, and
so gently you came rapping, and so faintly you
came tapping, tapping at my chamber door that
I scarce was sure I heard you. Here I opened
wide the door. Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood
there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming
dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness
gave no token, and the only word there spoken
was the whispered word, Lenore. This I whispered,
and an echo murmured back the word. Lenore, merely
this and nothing more. Back into the chamber
turning, all my soul within me burning. Soon
again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than
before. Surely, I said, surely that this is something
at my window lattice. Let me see then what thereat
is, and this mystery explore. Let my heart be
still a moment, and this mystery explore. Tis
the wind and nothing more. And then I woke up.
And my raven companion led me back to my basement
dwelling in Vincent's home. And there waiting
for me was my life's work. A box of Poverty Row
video cassettes. And lying on top, Republic's
1944 picture, The Girl Who Dared. This film,
This film is a typical old dark house whodunit,
but at the brisk 56 minutes, it is enjoyable
enough. Yes, the action begins with a party of
socialites who have gathered at a remote seaside
home for a ghost hunt. Out on the beach, amidst
the crashing waves, is a pirate ship haunted
by the spirit of a buccaneer. Sadly, this does
not go anywhere, but... There remains a mystery
to be solved worthy of Scooby -Doo and the gang,
so listeners, check out The Girl Who Dared for
an easy, albeit slightly forgettable, little
thriller. But next week, on the Poverty Row Picture
Show, uh -huh, yes, yes, we are talking killer
brains. Yes, killer brains are on the loose.
In 1944's The Lady and the Monster. It must have
been a little after three o 'clock in the afternoon
that it began. The afternoon of June 3rd, 1916.
Fire one. Fire two. This could have been the
end. The end of just another tragic episode in
War at Sea. But for the few survivors of a torpedoed
merchant ship and the crew of a German U -boat
lost in the frozen South Atlantic. It was the
beginning of an incredible adventure. For this
was the day the 20th century met the primeval
world face to face. American International presents
The Land That Time Forgot. An astounding motion
picture based on the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
creator of Tarzan, and the most thrilling science
fiction stories ever written. Travel through
an underwater passage and discover an awesome
prehistoric world. Fight for your life against
the terrifying creatures of a lost continent.
Come face to face with primitive man and learn
the secret of evolution. The land that time forgot.
Mr. Tyler! Starring Doug McClure. There's a secret
to this island. Something that we haven't been
able to fathom yet. And whether we stay or get
away may depend on it. It's action, danger, and
adventure on an epic scale. How much longer do
we keep them? We're not leaving without them!
You will never forget. Edgar Rice Burroughs,
the land that time forgot. Well, let's get back
to Gappa the Trifibian Monster. Let's talk about
some themes about this movie. You know, this
is one of those movies where I honestly, you
know, I could give it like the film school critique
treatment. But like we've talked about, it just,
it does try to include everything. So I'm like,
well, of course it has themes, but I don't know
how seriously I should take Gappa, the triphibian
monster. You know what I mean? I do. I feel the
same way. The themes are so obvious that it's
like, well, do we even have to talk about them?
I guess you have science versus entertainment
is one of them. Kind of like the corporate sort
of head honcho in the movies. Like he leads a
company called Playmate, which I thought was
kind of funny. I didn't know if that's like a
Playboy parody or something. But, you know, he
wants to open up a theme park with all these
exotic animals. And that's clearly like both
King Kong and Jurassic Park, of course. So, yeah,
to your point, it's like, yeah, there are themes.
And like they're ripped off from like every other
monster movie you've ever seen before. The biggest.
theme if you will that i wanted to bring up was
at the end as sentimental as the ending is everyone's
crying there's just like sappy lighting and you
know i think it's lit really well it's shot really
well i don't want to take away from that but
it is very sappy and the little girl the daughter
of the you know the the corporate head honcho
she's like Daddy, the monsters are together,
like the family's together. I miss mommy. And
it's just, you know, as sentimental as it is,
the family unit that are the Gappas is mirrored
by this broken family between the daughter and
her dad, who in one scene, the daughter looks
up at him and says, I don't like you anymore.
Yeah. Heartbreaking. Yep. Very sappy, but pretty
heartbreaking. Yeah. Yeah. Right. She just went,
went, cut him to the quick on that one. Yeah.
But I mean, that guy that like her dad is like,
so just like blatantly villainous for much of
the movie. He's like. You know, what would taking
the baby Gappa back to the island do? Like, you
idiot, that's not going to do anything. And he's
just like so blatantly just like, no, I'm not
doing that. Like, this is our one chance to like
make money off of this thing. And it's like,
well, no wonder your daughter hates you. You're
like a terrible person, you know? But of course,
there's the inevitable change of heart at the
end. So it all works out. But yeah, it is kind
of touching in a way. And like you also like
you mentioned the love triangle before. You know,
I think it's the reporter and the woman scientist
who kind of do have like a little fling going
on. And then there's like a conflict between
them. Like he's totally focused on his work and
he, you know, doesn't really care about the baby
Gappa at all. And that kind of drives them apart.
And then. You know, like there's there's another
sappy line at the end where that guy is like,
well, I've learned that one should not be totally
selfish in their life. And it took the and it
took Gappa for me to learn that. It's like the
quote is something like that. I don't remember
exactly what it is. And it's like that obvious
of a moral lesson. Like, that's pretty much how
it's voiced in the movie. But it's like, oh,
OK, like he's he's learned some lessons and now
they're getting back together. Like that is kind
of sweet and a little like a little bit, you
know? Yeah. There's one theme that I don't jibe
with, but it's a theme of the movie. The our
female lead and the character's name is Itoko
Koyanagi. She is an independent woman. She don't
need no man. And she's just like, bah, bah, stay
away from me. All your advances in your in your
flirting. And, you know, because the guys, you
know, they're. They're giving her a hard time
a little bit, joking around like, oh, you're
22. You've got gray hairs. And she says something
like she really holds her own. And she's like
it. It just rolls off her back, which like I
really appreciated this empowerment, which was
very in with the times 1960s, you know, at large
female independence. But then at the end, her
character's arc is to actually settle down. and
just be a home wife a housewife which no shade
if that's what you want to do but to me in this
film it just torpedoed everything she had going
for herself it's kind of confusing though because
at the end of the movie she's like Oh, well,
I guess I will just go like find a man and settle
down and be a housewife, like you said. And then
she walks away and it's almost like she's testing
one of the guys to see if he'll like chase after
her and be like, no, don't do that. You're like
this great reporter. Like, we need you. Or a
great scientist. I think she is. Sorry. But so,
yeah, the ending is confusing and it's either
so vague that it's kind of frustrating or actually
offensive. Like either way, it's like not a great
ending for her, you know. You know, as we talk
about like 1950s monster movies, even 20 million
miles to earth, it's such, it happens in every
movie with every female lead. It's a trope in
and of itself where the female is a scientist,
a biologist, a doctor, like in 20 million miles
to earth. And then over the course of the movie,
that character loses all of her. all of her professional
ambition and eventually just settles and into
a romantic relationship with the male lead whoever
that is the soldier the newspaper man whatever
so in a way gappa is also just just copying a
trope scene in every other giant monster movie
yeah and you're right that's one of the more
unfortunate tropes for sure i can't like I don't
know. I'm trying to think of like any female
lead in a kaiju movie with agency and like it's
hard. I like honestly, I don't know if a single
one is coming to mind, you know? I mean, yeah,
I mean, they're they're they're going to be there.
I mean, the like we talk about the Heisei movies.
There's the the one girl, the woman who has that
telepathic link. Yeah. Those are still from the
90s. Right. Yeah, it's definitely in that later
period. And like Godzilla vs. Biollante, I think.
Is that the one that you're talking about, I
think? Yeah, and maybe a little bit in Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah from 1992. I think there might
be some strong, very empowered female characters
in that movie. But either way, yeah, it's much
later. It's not until after this period. Do you
remember in Them, our female lead, James Arness
tries his hardest to woo her? And she's the daughter
of the main scientist. They might end up together
in the end, but the sense is it's so forced because
that actor plays such a good, strong character.
I just remember that movie came to mind if you
want to revisit that one. Yeah, I do kind of
remember that. I like her character in that movie.
Yeah. Attack of the 50 -Foot Woman. Yeah, that's
probably the best example. Literally a strong
female character. Yeah. Yeah, I'll have to think
about that a little bit more because I'm not
thinking of too many examples, but I'm sure there
must be some earlier ones too. But too far and
few between. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, just
one more theme. I kind of alluded to this before,
but just like the depiction of the native islanders.
And I think it's called Obelisk Island, where
the Gappa monsters are taken from. And like ostensibly
the theme is that the natives on the island are
mistreated by all the Japanese reporters and
scientists that go there. And then like the Japanese
characters exploit the island and the people
and its creatures and then just leave and try
to make money off of it, basically. which hypothetically
is an admirable theme. But then of course the
depiction of the Islanders is like, you know,
there's, there's blackface, there's like tribal
dancing. There's like extremely cliched costumes
and sets and everything. So it's kind of like
those themes and depictions like balance each
other out in the long run. You know, it's, it's
hard to see it as very admirable in the end.
Yeah. It's just, it's just your classic, classic
meaning like also dated. exoticism these are
japanese actors in this japanese film but to
liken it to our own culture you know the great
white hunter goes into africa and you know encounters
mysteries beyond their wildest dreams which we
know is dated and talked about it in congo yep
that goes back to king kong like you were talking
about before like Probably just yet another example
of Gappa just like taking every possible monster
movie cliche it possibly can, you know? Yeah,
right. Like you see that stuff in King Kong and
you're like, yeah, that's not great. But this
is like 1933 and there's like enough other stuff
in the movie to kind of like understand why that's
such a classic, you know? But by this time in
1967, maybe not so much. Did you raise your hand?
I did raise my hand. I want to point out that
we had actual black actors used in King Kong.
For what it's worth, at least the casting was
respectful in that way. That doesn't even sound
right, but I think you get my point. Yeah, for
sure. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, just like
the, yeah, the disturbing makeup and disturbing
in many ways in this movie in Gappa is just hard
to watch. And like, you know, on a young child,
it's like, ah, what are you teaching this kid?
You know, like he's probably not learning very
many good lessons from this. Yeah, and this came
up in Mothra too, Ashura Honda's Mothra. The
depiction of the islanders, they are put in like
a brown makeup, their whole skin and everything,
which is bad enough. But this boy character in
Gappa, just like that's full on black. Yeah.
And he's even wearing a wig. Right. And it's
just so... It's stupid, honestly, like I'm not
even like I'm upset by it, but I'm also angry
at like how it just looks bad. It's just like
such an obviously bad makeup job as well. Right.
Yeah, it's bad in like every conceivable way,
you know, and like it doesn't even really make
narrative sense because if they're in the South
Seas, I think that's where Obelisk Island is
supposed to be. It doesn't like, yeah, it doesn't
even make narrative sense that that character
would be there, you know, it's yeah, it's ridiculous.
Yeah, it's, yeah, inexcusable in every facet,
every way possible. Just, yeah. And it is disappointing
because I do enjoy so much of this movie. But
would I ever show this movie to a class of my
students? Absolutely not. And the same thing
with Mothra, too. Like, I just can't. Absolutely.
Yeah, pretty much inexcusable. And like, you
know, I again, like movies from the 30s and the
silent era don't get a free pass. We should definitely
hold them accountable as well. But like, you
know, 1967, like ridiculous. There's no reason
for it. Like and I don't know. I guess I was
kind of thinking like maybe there are cultural
differences between like American attitudes.
towards blackface and like Japanese attitudes
towards that. But that's irrelevant. It's, you
know, it's bad either way. So the cultural differences
don't really like obviate that point, you know?
Yeah, that is a such a large web that you tapped
into that I'm not even gonna pretend like I could
be an expert on talking about anything. All I
can speak to relatively confidently is Japan's
history as an imperial And like its Western counterparts
going into a quote unquote exotic land and rating
it for its resources, taking advantage of its
quote unquote primitive peoples. Yeah. I mean,
it's still an icky colonial mindset. Yeah. Even
if it's from the Japanese point of view. Totally.
And that's why it's frustrating that Gappa seems
to like, make that critical point i mean like
the japanese characters do that in this movie
they exploit the resources and the people there
on the island but like the way it's achieved
it like totally defeats that purpose you know
and also as we already talked about like i don't
know how much complexity there really is there
they're just like repeating other points that
were already made in previous movies so yeah
it's i i would say probably the one of the worst
aspects of this movie is is the depiction of
the native people oh man okay i'm just i'm just
groaning because my final rating i think is is
fluctuating by the moment here which is what
i love i love because you know i i have an impression
of a movie i just watched but in conversation
you know you learn things and your your perspective
starts to shift so yeah it's good That's definitely
happened to me a lot on while we record. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, we were already talking about this
a little bit earlier too, but just like how blatantly
obvious and sentimental the dialogue is. And
like most of the characters, like it is not believable
for a second. And then like any of these people
are actually saying the things that they say
in this movie, like they're not really characters.
They're kind of just like tropes, you know, to
push the story along. Yeah, I mean, from the
sort of like crude, vulgar, capitalistic like
company man to the like scientists who like only
care about the facts and like don't really care
about other people or other animals to these
kids who are just like, you know, like saying
literally every thought that's in their head.
You know, like I'm not saying that it has to
be like naturalistic, realistic dialogue all
the time, but it's just like impossible to believe
in this movie, you know? Yeah, it is, yeah, sentimental,
over the top, heavy -handed. How do you feel
about the monster design itself? And I have,
if I may, the baby Gappa, to me, has like a,
its face has like a, this is not a smart critique,
but it has a dumb look to it. Like something
with the eyes, like they're forward set. I don't
know. The baby doesn't work for me, but the adults
do. They do look fearsome in the right light,
in the right angle. They're like a chimera. They
have lots of different aspects of different creatures.
But I don't know. Ultimately, I'm like, this
is kind of, I don't know, a weak monster design.
Yeah, I agree with everything you said. I think
like the adult Gappas work a little bit better.
I mean, like the some of the like attack scenes
are off. Sorry, my cat scared the hell out of
me. He does that a lot, surprisingly, while we
record. But yeah, like the attack scenes that
the you know, because it is like the adults are
triphibian monsters, right? They fly around.
They're underwater. They're like on land. And
that's kind of cool. And I think that's why.
The design, for me, works a little bit better
on the adults because, like, they're just doing
cooler things, basically, you know? Like, it's
fun to watch and exciting and visceral, to use
that word I use all the time. But, yeah, the
baby... I don't know. Like at first I was like,
this baby looks sad and like kind of disturbing
in a way, like it hatches from its egg. And then
there's this shot of like the baby surrounded
by all this like yellow mustardy liquid and it
just looks depressing. And I'm like, Oh, is this
intentional? Like, are we supposed to be like
really, uh, convinced that this baby is like
in peril immediately, but then it becomes clear
that that's, I don't think it's really intentional.
That's just kind of bad creature design. I think
for the baby version of the monster. yeah you're
right it does look very pathetic and sad in the
beginning yeah yeah maybe maybe again it's like
all right you're just playing with my heart here
i don't know but yeah yeah like you know i like
even with the adults like it's very kind of like
what's the word, chintzy design, like very spare
and minimalist, you know? And I feel like in
a way that kind of works just because like there's
so much other crazy stuff happening when like
they're being shot by lasers and tanks and they're
flying around and stuff like that. But the design
itself is like probably not very creative or
elaborate, you know? Maybe not elaborate. I don't
know. I'm really torn, clearly. Listeners, please
let us know your thoughts. Yeah, I don't love
it, but I don't hate it either. I'm just somewhere
in the middle, I guess. Yeah, same. Again, in
comparison to like Gauss and Gamera and some
other monsters around this time, I feel like
Gappa pales in comparison. Yeah, yeah. I don't
think Gappas would win in a fight with any of
those monsters. Right. Yeah, they don't even
seem to have any like special moves or anything
really. Like maybe they have like red laser eyes
or something. Their eyes do glow red. But they
also, they do have like an atomic breath sort
of thing. Okay. I honestly think I missed that.
Like there's just so much going on in those attack
scenes. And like, you never really know if like
they're being shot by missiles or if they're
shooting something at the military tanks. I think
I might've missed the atomic breath, to be honest,
which probably does not reflect very well on
the movie. Well, yeah, I can talk about those
scenes as something I like, actually, if you're
cool to transition. For sure. I like. How the
attack sequences with the missiles and the jets
are so chaotic and frenetic. And a couple of
times you get the POV of the jets swooping in
on the Gapas, which I liked. A couple of times
you get the POV from the Gapas themselves, which
I found really interesting. There's one shot
there. They're lording over the beach back on
Obelisk Island. And you see from their point
of view, like the humans running away like little
ants. I thought that was really cool. I don't
know. You may disagree, but I really like the
way this movie is generally lit and shot and
the photography. I think it's action -packed.
I think it moves at a quick pace. I think the
colors, anytime there's a sunset, it just, to
me, it's like really just pretty to watch. No,
I actually totally agree with you that like it's
very well shot. It's a surprisingly good looking
movie, I would say, at least in like the restored
version and not the really terrible monster from
a prehistoric planet one. But it looks really
good. There's like an early shot where. the Japanese
characters have just arrived in Obelisk Island
and they're going into the village, like the
native village, but nobody seems to be there
and it seems like the place is totally abandoned.
And there's like a really quiet, long tracking
shot. And it's from the character's POV, I think.
And it's very mysterious and kind of eerie. That's
my favorite part of the movie. And I was like,
oh yeah, I'm excited to see where this goes.
And then it goes downhill kind of quickly after
that. But at least in that particular scene,
because then like the native characters come
out of the woodwork and it's... questionable
but but that shot is great there's an earlier
shot where one of the characters on the ship
before they arrive on the island sees these like
glowing eyes underwater i thought that was a
very cool moment and yeah i actually like the
attack scenes too i know i was kind of criticizing
them a little bit but there are a lot of really
just dynamic images in those scenes There's one
shot where like the two adult Gappa monsters
like fly into the fog. And it's just like a very
striking, like atmospheric moment. I love that
part too. So yeah, it's a pretty good looking
movie. I wouldn't say it's always entertaining.
I was pretty bored by the end. And I was like,
come on, let's wrap it up already a little bit.
Especially with like the long scenes where all
the characters are like delivering very preachy
moral lessons. But the attack scenes themselves
are very entertaining and very exciting. I like
the song over the opening credits too, which
is kind of silly, but very amusing. It reminded
me of the blob theme, the blob theme song. It's
kind of hard to say, but yeah, I like all that
stuff about it. The stuff on the island in the
beginning, very captivating, very quickly, very
dreamlike. They go underground into a cave and
there's just like great shrouds of mist and an
underground lake that the blue, it's just, yeah,
I agree with you there. I think where this movie
gets long, to your point, is there is a noticeable
lack of score underlining a lot of the action.
And I think that is a detriment in this case
by the end of the film. I think any kind of score
would liven things up a bit. That's a really
good point. I don't think I really... focused
on that too much, but you're totally right. I
feel like I thought maybe it was dragging for
narrative reasons, but I think it's also for
formal reasons like that. So that's a really
good point. Just quiet. Yeah. Even if there's
like a lot of sound effects in the movie, like
they're not really like tied together sometimes,
you know, by the music. Yeah. Yeah. The effects,
the special effects. I think Akira Watanabe does
a great job. the pyrotechnics i found really
impressive at the end when the gappas are stomping
through and i'm realizing that those are actors
in a suit just being surrounded by explosions
and fire yeah i hope those suits i hope there
was a man with a fire extinguisher right off
camera right Yeah, those actors in the suits
must kind of go through hell. You know, we've
talked about that a little bit on the podcast
before, but it cannot be comfortable in those
suits for like whatever, 10 hours a day while
they're shooting, you know? Yeah. But yeah, I
love all that, too. There are like a lot of pyrotechnics,
like you said. The volcano on the island, I thought,
looked pretty cool. And that's, you know, there
are a couple eruption moments that were kind
of fun. So I love all that stuff. Pretty exciting
at times. What about campy stuff? I think it
would be easier to find moments that aren't campy
in this movie. You know, again, just like every
line of dialogue is like saying exactly like
what the theme is or like what the characters
are, are thinking. Like, so I guess the one example
that I'll bring up is like the character that's
intended to be comic relief towards the beginning.
Who's like, I think a photographer and like,
he like hooks his shirt on a like fishing. fishing
line when he's like fishing off of the boat and
then he like is like looking for treasure on
the island and he accuses the other characters
of like trying to steal his treasure from him
or whatever and it's it's supposed to be funny
but it's one of those examples of like comic
relief that's like unintentionally funny if that
makes sense because it's so over the top and
ridiculous you know yep there was a moment when
the gappas the two parents first come ashore
and one of them has an octopus in its beak And
it's attacking the whole city with this really
dumb looking octopus prop in its mouth. Eventually
it falls away. But I was like, that's a choice.
That is a funny choice that you're you're making
right here. Yeah. Yeah, that's I think that's
an example of intentional humor that actually
kind of works. I think it's supposed to be intentional
anyway. But yeah, that's a really campy, like
very humorous moment for sure. Oh, man. Playmate
land. What are we doing? Like this? You Hefner.
He creates an island for tourists, but it's an
animal themed island. I don't I don't know what
they were going for. Yeah, no idea. Maybe it's
not supposed to be a Playboy reference, but I
just feel like it must be in the late 60s to
like use that kind of like tycoon sort of character,
you know? And what else would Playmate refer
to? I just can't think of anything. Yeah. It
makes no sense. No wonder your daughter doesn't
like you. You're a dirty old man. Yeah, you're
kind of a sleazeball. There's a lot of stuff
with that character that's just so ridiculous.
When they're first trying to research the gap
of monsters and one of the other characters,
one of that guy's employees, sorry, the main
guy, the corporate guy is like, what's the height?
And then the other guy is like, five feet. And
then the other guy is like, oh, well, it's not
like how tall a person is that matters. And then
the other guy is like, oh, it's referring to
like Gappa's height. And then the corporate guy
is like, you idiot, why didn't you tell me that?
It's a drawn out way of describing that scene,
but it's like, the dialogue is ridiculous. And
like, I don't know, that's a very campy moment
too, where like everything is painted in very
broad strokes, you know? yeah last thing at the
end everybody is crying including the gappas
themselves these giant kaiju have tears coming
down their cheeks it's like all right we we have
now left the realm of plausibility here oh yeah
even even more than we already had yeah Right.
And I, I mean, I think that's why the ending
feels so drawn out to me because like every character
has their like, you know, sentimental thing that
they have to say. It's like, oh, we get it, man.
Like we get the point. And yeah, the tears do
make it even more obvious. Oh my gosh. All right.
Well, that's, I think, I don't know. Can we say
anything more about this movie or should we just
give our final ratings? I don't know how much
more there is to say about it. It's just such
a hodgepodge of cliches, you know? So I feel
like we can move into our ratings. Let's do it.
All right. Yeah, so as usual on Camp Kaiju, we
have four ratings for our films that we talk
about. Number one, 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.
And our lowest rating, it is not worth revisiting.
It definitely does not stand the test of time.
Oh, boy. Oh, boy. This is kind of a tough one.
I imagine that you and I are both gravitating
between two particular ratings. I get that sense.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to go first? I'll
go first. I'll go first. Okay. Watching this
movie, my first instinct was there are some antiquated
moments. The black face, terribly dated and offensive.
The female character arc, terribly dated, offensive.
Yeah. But, you know, I said to myself, I think
the special effects are so good. And I think
the technical aspects are so good. that I think
it does stand the test of time as an underrated
entry in the genre. Now, after we've talked about
it, and I'm saying how offensive all these aspects
are, I think I got to go one below. That the
exception is the technical aspects, but I think
the overwhelming lasting impression of this film
is, oh, it's the one with the kid in blackface.
And that, my friend, means this movie does not
stand the test of time. It's fun. It has some
redeeming qualities, but overall, I don't think
this does stand the test of time. Yeah, I think
you're right that if that's the main thing it's
known for, that probably has to go in that category.
For you, it's the second lowest rating, right?
It has some fun moments, but okay. Yeah. I'm
still having trouble deciding, but, you know,
I so rarely give movies our lowest rating. I
think Killdozer is the only one that I've given
our lowest rating to so far. But I think this
is going to be the second one. I'm sorry to say.
I mean, like you said, I do like some of the
special effects. I do think it's well shot. And
I do think there are some individual moments
that look really good and are very atmospheric.
But I think those are such notable exceptions
to an overall like pretty cliched, offensive,
like drawn out movie that had completely lost
me by the end. I'm sorry to say it is just not
worth revisiting for me. It definitely does not
stand the test of time. I'm not saying that people
shouldn't see it once for those like individual
moments that are kind of like striking looking
and to have, you know, like a magical sense to
them, a sense of visual style. But yeah, I, if
only to make a decisive stand, I think I have
to give this our lowest rating. And I'm not arguing
with you on that. It's derivative. It's cliche
written. I've seen it twice now, but this movie
is for fun. those of us who have gone through
our starters and even the B squad. And we're
like, you know what, what else is out there?
Yeah. Who made it late to practice. They showed
up and you'll give them a shot. Go take what
you got. The emergency third stringer. Yeah.
Yeah. And I could kind of see somebody like you
kind of talked about this before sticking up
for this movie a little bit and saying like,
Oh no, it's underrated. There are good things
about it. I can understand somebody making that
point, but I just don't agree. And, uh, yeah.
Um, so watch it once, but for me, it's probably
not going to be worth revisiting. There you go.
There you have it, folks. Please let us know
what you think about Captain to Try 15 Monster.
and tell us about it. Leave us a positive rating
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I already said that. Camp Kaiju is recorded in
Minneapolis, St. Paul with Minya's mailbox music
by Ben Cook -Felts. Thank you, friends. And until
next time, stay campy. Camp Cadre is sponsored
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show notes. And here will be an outdoor restaurant.
The visitors. We'll be able to enjoy a meal in
tropical splendor. And on the stage, we will
have primitive dances from the islands. Well,
that's the entire plan. Very good. The publishing
business is now getting into the tourist business.
You're right. And every one of you will be able
to enjoy a southeast trip without leaving the
country. Right here. Here. Here. Right here.
Oh. Very good. Wonderful. It's terrific.