Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1969)

Simply Perfect

Powerful

Excellent but underrated film

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Indeed, this one takes me way back. I first saw this film on Disney Channels "Cool Nights" back in the late 90's. I recorded it on VHS and since then, I've rewatched it again and again. One part that I do like about the film is that it seems to delve right into the monsters, and that's something that any Godzilla fan can really appreciate. It's kinda weird though, soldiers who are apparently inherently evil are kidnapping natives of Mothra's island (who makes an extremely brief appearance in this film) and using them as slaves to grind fruits into a liquid. The soldiers use this liquid as a natural repellent against the Giant Lobster, Ebirah. To my knowledge, they never actually call it "Ebirah", they simply call it "the giant lobster". It contains a few interesting scenes not found in any other film. We have Godzilla fighting a Giant bird whose origin is unknown, and we also have a scene where a giant monster actually devours a person. It's really neat to see Godzilla fight underwater as well. I wouldn't put this as one of the top Godzilla films, but I would definitely say it's worth the watch.

This movie featured the monster tennis match between Godzilla (Giant, mutant lizard with atomic breath capability), and Ebirah (Giant, mutant shrimp with ability to annoy). I was there, reporting this epic match for KOOK TV (channel 5). Here is the play by play as I called it back in 1966.************************************************** Having just been awoken from a sound slumber by some blatantly prearranged lightning strikes, Godzilla came storming out of the side of a mountain, understandably ticked off. The big guy spotted Ebirah just a few thousand yards out at sea, and blamed him, incorrectly, for the whole incident (Note: Ebirah is known for his prank of putting sleeping, giant monsters hands into bowls of warm water. This has not endeared him to the other monsters).Godzilla kicked up a huge boulder for his first serve. A high, hard, straight shot, right at Ebirah's head. Ebirah, looking intent, shot the boulder back with a right backclaw smash. Godzilla caught this and fired it back with a crisp two-handed throw. Ebirah tried another backclaw return, but it went off the edge of his claw and the boulder went wide and out to sea, almost hitting two Japanese spectators inexplicably swimming out at sea during a raging storm. Point Godzilla.Ebirah started taunting his opponent by clapping his claws together, and Godzilla (never one to let a challenge go unmet) picked up another boulder and fired a mighty two-handed serve. Ebirah returned this with another hard backclaw. Goddy returned with a well aimed head butt. Ebirah, another backclaw. Goddy, a head butt. This looked like it was going to be a good volley. Alas, Ebie, caught this with his claw, in blatant disregard for the rules of monster tennis (Rules section 981(c), subsection iii, which states, "no sea monsters can catch boulders with their claws").Ebie wound up and fired a hard one at Goddy, and the now enraged lizard backhanded this one away and into the stands, killing untold numbers of spectators. An angry Godzilla then waded out to sea to register a complaint, but Ebirah splashed him twice with his mighty right claw. This so infuriated Godzilla that he gave Ebirah a taste of his atomic breath as punishment. Or, maybe he just wanted some shrimp tempura. Hard to tell. (Godzilla refused all requests for interviews after the match.)At this point a monster mêlée broke out as the two giants went at it hammer and tongs. Godzilla grabbed another boulder and started pounding Ebirah on the head. Ebirah punked out and swam off to sea. Godzilla threw up his arms and let out a huge roar of triumph, but this match went down in the record books as a double disqualification.NOTE: Ebirah showed up later in the day for a rematch, but since their first match, Godzilla had been attacked by a giant bird, fighter jets with missiles, been electrocuted and shot at with machine guns. He was in a foul humor, and in NO mood for Ebirah. A fight quickly ensued, which ended when Godzilla ripped off both of Ebirah's claws, which pretty much compelled Ebirah to quit the tournament. ********************************************* And that's the way it was, April 23, 1966. And I know because, I WAS THERE!

This is the second Godzilla movie to this point that wasn't directed by Ishiro Honda (first being Godzilla Raids Again), and was directed by Jun Fukuda. Fukuda chose Masaru Sato to compose the music instead of Akira Ifukube, and overall contributes to the lighter touch. Shinichi Sekizawa's screenplay continues on the trend of humanizing the monsters, and Ebira's pose before the battle is a caricature of the then popular professional wrestler Toyonobori, and Godzilla rubbing his index finger on his nose is a caricature of Yuzo Kayama's character in Wakadaisho series which usually played at same time as the Godzilla movies as a double feature. The cinematography is noticeably brighter and the characters are also bit more easy going than Honda's version of Godzilla movies.Ryota (Tetsu Watanabe) who lost his brother in the South Pacific in a fishing boat accident believes in the prediction made by a spiritual medium in Mt. Osore that his brother is still alive. He comes out to Tokyo to look for a way to get to his brother. There he meets few college students and later a thief named Yoshimura (Akira Takarada) in a sailboat they've snuck into. While everyone's asleep, Ryota sets sail to the south pacific to search for his brother. In a stormy sea the sailboat runs aground on an island occupied by a gang who calls themselves the "Red Bamboo". Red Bamboo is kidnapping the residents of Infant Island (Mothra Island) as slave labor to further their cause. Dayo (Kumi Mizuno) a girl from Infant Island escapes into the jungle and meets Ryota and Yoshimura's crew. There they hide in a cave to escape Red Bamboo's pursuit. Unbeknownst to them, that cave contained a hibernating Godzilla. Yoshimura comes up with a novel plan to wake Godzilla and turn it against the Red Bamboo.In this movie, the fairies that talks to Mothra also changed from The Peanuts (Emi and Yumi Ito) to another twins Pair Bambi (Yuko and Yoko Okada - born 4/19/1944 Nagoya Japan). They were already 15 year veteran in the show business when they stared in this movie. Originally, Noriko Takahashi was to play the part of Dayo, but fell ill to appendicitis so was changed to Kumi Mizuno at the last minute. Mizuno who was 29 at the time played the role written for a 19 year old girl. Takahashi 6 month earlier played a similar role in Tsuburaya Production's Ultra Q series as a native girl who lost her brother to a giant octopus.In the mid to late sixties, Godzilla movie started to slide to a lighter stories. This movie took the formula one step further from the previous Godzilla move the "Monster Zero", and continues the humanization of Godzilla and the monsters. Jun Fukuda's directing isn't up to par with Honda's and the props look cheezy by comparison which took away from the story, but most likely the movie was intended for kids and this was part of their production plan. The good in this movie was Akira Takarada and Kumi Mizuno that brought character to acting. Overall the movie succeeded because these two characters kept the focus. Good entertainment from the '60s Toho studio.

This was one of my child-hood favorites. It's Jun Fukuda's first chance to direct and he actually did an okay job. Masuro Sato scored the film and while its intention was to provide something new to the series, it was too "Hawaii-Five-o" for me. Several Toho stars are in this flick, among them Kumi Mizuno, who looked finer than ever! Akihiko Hirata and Jun Tazki both played bad guy roles as commanders of the secret terrorist organization the Red Bamboo. Akira Takarada was a bank robber who later decides to "go straight from now on." All had interesting roles and like the human characters and the story is a fun one at best. Most of the SFX look good, all EXCEPT for the low budget Godzilla suit. And this time no stock footage at all is used, yeahhhh!! Starting from when Godzilla attacks the Red Bamboo base, the suit looks like straight up *&^%! Excuse me, but I could've said worse. You can see damage from the pyrotechnic explosions from "Invasion of Astro-Monster" and the face is repulsive. The shoulders are a real pity and the overall posture and baggy look of the suit, plus the pants- like legs, create the worst suit of the Showa era. The story was actually intended for Kong after the success of "King Kong vs. Godzilla" back in 1962. This explains why Godzilla is revived by lightning and attracted to Dayo (Kumi Mizuno). He doesn't pick her up and climb onto the nearest tall building, but he does fight some jets. Of course, he massacres them, one of my favorite scenes in the film.There are two major things, besides the music, that really bring this film down: Ebirah and the Giant Condor. A giant shrimp and a giant bird. This was a very pathetic sense of creativity on Sekizawa's part. Let's do better in the future (he only does to a degree). None the less, the giant lobster looked good in the Toho pool and his duels with Godzilla were entertaining. The best part is Godzilla ripping off his claws obviously. The music really doesn't match the film here ( or anywhere for that matter) And how I wish so dearly Ifukbe had scored it! The Giant Condor is just an annoying pigeon that gets fried pretty quick, nothing much to talk about. Mothra manages to star in the film and when Godzilla attacks her it shows he still isn't a hero quite yet. Plus there we're no low blows, but Godzilla kind of 'dancing', and some brief boulder volleyball. Damn,...I couldn't enjoy the destruction of the Red Bamboo base because Godzilla was so damn hideous and yeah that pretty much sums up this movie. From here, not including 1971 and'68, the series will go lower and lower till its reprisal in 1975. Although I can't judge "Son of Godzilla" because it's the only one in the original series I have yet to see. It's a rehash of this film; Godzilla on an island with slightly better monsters but Minilla arrives . Oh, *&^% I can only assume I might be a wee bit disappointed...