Gappa, the Triphibian Monster (1967)

I quite liked this non-Godzilla kaiju picture. A group of reporters find a baby monster they call Gappa, which they take back to Japan. Unfortunately these reporters never learned that you don't play with bear cubs because momma bear will come an maul you, because the momma and papa Gappa come to Japan and wreak havoc to find their offspring. Although the characters are all standard issue and not all that interesting or well developed, the humor is actually funny at times and there is a TON of kaiju monster movie destruction throughout the film, which is my main complaint about most kaiju pictures, that they make you wait until the end for a good monster fight. Released by Nikkatsu, this was their only kaiju picture (with terrific special effects by a former Toho SFX artist) and they unfortunately went out of business shortly thereafter. I'd have loved to see what else they would have come up with if they'd stayed in business.

Daikyoju Gappa introduces us to another of those Japanese monsters who delight in wrecking the urban areas of Japan. A great country apparently to be in the construction business.He's not the most fearsome of monsters. Imagine Godzilla with wings and a chicken head and you have Gappa. Scientists from Japan on another expedition to a south sea island come back with the recently hatched Gappa as the natives call him. They also don't take it away from them, but the scientists know better.Quite frankly the monster looks so ridiculous I can't imagine it scaring anybody above the age of 4. Still these Japanese monster films do have a goofy enjoyment factor in them no matter how bad they are.And they made tons of money back in the day.

This turkey involves a wealthy Japanese man recovering a bird-like monster from an expedition. Combining the "King Kong" and "Gorgo" story lines, they take the creature home for fun and profit. It turns out to be a baby, so mother and father chicken do a ballistic "Godzilla" walk over Japan. There are a lot of unbelievably poor "special effects". Toys go crash! Bang! Boom! Re-titled "Monster from a Prehistoric Planet" for English speaking audiences; it's laughable in some respects, offensive in others. Unfortunately, it's more offensive than funny, and only a cut above washing diapers.* Daikyojû Gappa (1967) Haruyasu Noguchi ~ Tamio Kawaji, Yoko Yamamoto, Yuji Okada

Okay, first of all, the "Prehistoric planet" of the English title is Earth. "Monster from a Prehistoric Planet" is, in fact, yet another Tokyo rampage style big monster film with lots of buildings being crushed, planes shooting rockets, and hysterical Japanese people running around aimlessly for hours on end. It's also, in my humble opinion, not only a lot of fun but good in it's own way, despite the fact that it definitely fits the MST3K style interest.Really, the movie is about familial piety in traditional Japanese society. The nervous explorers take the child Gappa away from the pious traditional family, and as a result they send Tokyo into flames. Their boss, who is shown refusing his daughter the opportunity to have a mother, never learns his mistake because he's blinded by greed. The woman explorer sums up the movie by stating, "I should be like other women and stay at home." Yes, it's sexist, ridiculous, and absolutely bizarre. But considering it holds on to those values while glorying in the imagery of men in rubber suits crushing models of cities, it seems more like the camp of this movie is a result of it coming from a perspective that has changed in society, both East and West. At any rate, it's not really that much worse than Godzilla.On the other hand, yes, mostly the reason why I like this movie is because I couldn't stop laughing during its entire play-length. Some of the most absurd situations are shown in this movie, one of the most bizarre being the, "This sound is hurtful to HUMAN ears..." dialog. A little girl running around a corner saying, "Wow, it's really big!" A comedic relief foolish person who constantly trips over everything. A "cannibal" parade on what is so obviously a sound-stage. The fact that the heroes decide that when rockets don't work, they should try again, this time with, you guessed it, rockets. It's all very laughable, but charming in its b-movie way.At any rate, I enjoy it.--PolarisDiB