Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

by **Xenorama** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 12:11 am

I love Yog, Monster From Space. saw it when I was about 8 years old and it amazed me (this would have been in 1973). I'd never seen anything like it before. or since, lol.

here's more on my feelings about the movie-
http://xenorama.blogspot.com/2010/01/am ... aaace.html

by **klen7** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 10:32 pm

This worked pretty well last time..

The Good
The Kaiju. When this was released we had already seen a daikaiju Octopus in GvsKK, a prominently featured crustacean in GvSM and an iconic turtle in the form of Gamera... so its interesting to see how different the creatures in this film turned out despite this being previously treaded material. Personally I like the designs for Ganime better than Ebirah and there is no denying how amazing Gezora is. Gezora is responsible for possibly the most amusing tentacle work to come out of Japan :wink:

to date. Kamebas is probably the weakest of three designs, but if you had to design a turtle kaiju that wouldn't be mistaken for gamera... well you would have still probably done something better than Kamebas.. but he does look pretty good in Tokyo SOS. Anyway, Kamebas does have the best introduction as he chases two of our protagonists through the island jungle

Bad
It fits well with the the rest of the Toho kaiju films from the 70s, the acting is good and the direction is fine, so what's the problem? The problem is that you have Ishiro Honda, Haruo Nakajima (in 2 suits!), Akira Ifukube and Kenji Sahara together for a non-Godzilla film, and the result is missing the magic of other genre entries. Maybe its the absence of Tsuburaya or maybe its the story but rather than the next Rodan or Mothra we get a film that falls into obscurity somewhere between the Gargantuas and Dogora.
(please see this authoritative looking chart as evidence)

Weird
As Xenorama mentioned in his blog post the marketing made this film look more awesome than it is. (I want to see the film from this poster!)

I give this film 3 out of 5 turtle head thrusts!

by **MekaGojira3k** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:06 pm

I really, kind of, genuinely love this movie:

I've yet to watch the AIP dub of this, but the international dub isn't that bad. Anyway, I really like the film. It may not be up to par with some of my other non-Godzilla favorites (Mothra/Rodan/Frankenstein Conquers the World/King Kong Escapes) but I still have a lot of fun. I think the Space Amoeba, or Yog as I tend to call him...becuz...is a cool idea. A alien that inhabits and mutates animals/people is great!

Kenji Sahara is one of the highlights of the film. I love him as the industrial spy/turned host for Yog. It really feels like Tsuchiya would have been more fun in this role, but Sahara does swell work here. It's just, the rest of the cast doesn't seem to pick up the slack. The story isn't really quite amazing, but the concept feels more novel than say Dogora.

Gezora never really impresses me, but I've always liked Kamoeba and Ganime. They look great, and Kamoeba is especially cool looking. VOLCANO ENDING! It's a cop-out, perhaps, but its used to better effect here than in War of the Gargantuas.

by **Alpha OTS** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:22 pm

by **klen7** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:31 pm

by **MekaGojira3k** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:36 pm

by **Alpha OTS** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:41 pm

by **klen7** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:47 pm

by **Alpha OTS** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:27 pm

by **klen7** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:37 pm

by **metal_bryan** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:58 pm

by **MekaGojira3k** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:16 pm

by **metal_bryan** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:34 am

No no no, you need to count ALL of the volcanoes of plot convenience.

by **MouthForWar** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:36 am

Latitude Zero had a volcano also!

by **MekaGojira3k** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:26 am

by **Alpha OTS** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:07 pm

I watched Space Amoeba before the following poll ended with The Host winning which I'm looking forward to watching tonight. I really like the TokyoShock Space Amoeba dvd. Excellent picture quality, great sound, and extras to boot. I watched the subtitled version.

The opening music is definitely unique. Kind of a mix of island music and a laboratory experiment, which fits.

The first time I ever saw this movie was about a year and a half ago via a criminally small dimensioned MP4 file. I bought the dvd very soon after watching. I don't remember this movie *ever* playing on tv when I was a kid. Every time I've watched it since I have always appreciated how much monster screen time there is. I know the kid me would have *loved* this even more than I do now, just for all the monster action.

So I want to talk about Gezora. While watching this time, I found myself trying to find the suit actor's actual feet in the tentacles. You know, it's actually not that easy, which is a credit to the suit actor and the creature design.

Out of the three monsters, Gezora is definitely my favorite. However, I'm still not sold on wanting to own a figure of him. All these creatures are just too.....ordinary? That's not the right word, is it? They're supposed to be giant sized versions of everyday creatures on the island, and on that the filmmakers have highly succeeded. Imo, there's just something missing that puts these monsters on the same level as other Toho kaiju despite how technically brilliant and executed they are.

by **klen7** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:20 pm

^ Gezora's suit actor was Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla himself) he also did the Ganime creatures.

As for them being large regular creatures, you could say the same about Mothra, Rodan, King Kong and Ebirah... but these are a bit on the obscure side so maybe they have less "character"

by **Alpha OTS** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:25 pm

by **MekaGojira3k** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:33 pm

by **klen7** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:44 pm

by **MekaGojira3k** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:16 am

Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Weekly Kaiju Movie Thread #19 (9/15)

Jimmy's counting on you!

Yog

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