Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

DVD Drive-In reports that Dark Sky Films, a new division of MPI Video, will release Toei's TERROR BENEATH THE SEA (KAITEI DAISENSO). No release date or specs yet.

This isn't a Kaiju film, is it? I've heard the name many times over the years, but I don't think I've read much info on the story/plot.

The release date on DVD Drive-in is October 25, here's the page that has it-

Okay... here's the real scoop; TERROR BENEATH THE SEA was originally filmed as KAITEI DAISENSO or "Battle Beneath the Sea". Toei's Overseas sales titles was "Water Cyborg". The film was part of an original five picture deal between Toei and Ram Films -- made up of American and Italian investors, who co-funded several Italian Space Operas (like PLANET ON THE PROWL and WILD, WILD PLANET).

The cast for TERROR BENEATH THE SEA was mostly expat Euros and Americans living in Japan -- very few Japanese appear in the film, and Sonny Chiba is the only Japanese actor with real screen time (the other is the late Hideo Murota). The film was indeed shot entirely in English to sell the film to European and American distributors -- it was still dubbed, ala Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, since many of the principal thespians were German, like Franz Gruber. TERROR BENEATH THE SEA is a "who's who of background "gaijin tarento" -- people you've seen in numerous Toho and Daiei Daikaiju Eiga.

Mike Daneen, who had a non-speaking cameo in RODAN, plays the evil scientist, and Andrew Hughes, the British Scientist from DAM, plays the good scientist. Sure, the film is formulaic and "campy", but it's not meant to be anything else -- it was intended for children's matinees in Japan. Recommended for a number of reasons, including the weird Creature from the Black Lagoon-inspired "water cyborgs", and Shusuke Kikuchi's wonderful score.

About this upcoming DVD... I doubt that this is anything but a release of the 16mm television version, since there was no other version of the film released in the US... unless these guys went to Toei and got a new master -- they would need to, since the original was shot in widescreen, and the US version is pan-and-scan.

The original Japanese version runs 84 minutes and, again, was shot in widescreen/scope. If this MPI disc is not legit and widescreen/scope, you might want to stay away... I'm sure that someone will get the rights to this film was Toei and release it in its proper aspect ratio.

@August:

> I just checked my copy of the Japanese version and cross-checked
> with two reference books, and the film was indeed shot in Academy
> Ratio -- aka "Standard" -- not widescreen/scope.

Thanks for checking this! I always wanted to know for sure whether this was shot in fullscreen or in widescreen, so now another puzzle is solved.