Space Amoeba

Space Amoeba Directed by Ishiro Honda Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka Fumio Tanaka Written by Ei Ogawa Music by Akira Ifukube Distributor TohoJP American International PicturesUS Rating GUS Running time 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes) Aspect ratio 2.35:1

• For the titular space amoeba, see Yog.

Space Amoeba (ゲゾラ・ガニメ・カメーバ 決戦! 南海の大怪獣,   Gezora Ganime Kamēba Kessen! Nankai no Daikaijū, lit. Gezora, Ganimes, and Kamoebas: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas) is a 1970 tokusatsu kaiju film produced and released by Toho. It was released to Japanese theaters on August 1, 1970.

This was director Ishirō Honda's last monster movie before he began writing scripts for television as well, and the first such movie made after the death of special-effects director Eiji Tsuburaya. Teisho Arikawa did the special effects for this film.

Plot

A space probe, dubbed "Helios 7," is sent to study Jupiter. En Route to the planet, the probe is invaded by Yog, an extraterrestrial being of pure energy. The probe lands in the South Pacific, where the disembodied alien leaves the device and invades the body of a cuttlefish and causes it to grow to a huge size, becoming a monstrous creature named Gezora which proceeds to wreak havoc. When a photographer named Kudo and a small entourage landed on Sergio Island, they are likewise menaced by Gezora. Gezora can generate extremely cold temperatures with its body, either naturally or due to Yog. When it is discovered that Gezora is vulnerable to fire, Kudo and his allies use a leftover Japanese World War II munitions cabin discovered on the island to set the monster aflame. Severely burned, the creature retreats to the water to die.

Shortly after this, a giant rock crab climbs out of the ocean and begins to menace the oceanic idyll. Yog had returned to continue his assault, having carried out a similar process on the crab to create Ganimes. The crustacean launches an assault on the island, but gets destroyed by explosives.

Yog continues its attack by simultaneously mutating and controlling the bodies of two other creatures, a second Ganimes and a gigantic predatory water turtle that is christened as Kamoebas. The two monsters are coaxed into battling each other through the use of bats' natural sonar, which Yog has an aversion to. The two monsters stumble into an erupting volcano and meet their end, destroying Yog in the process.

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Directed by   Ishiro Honda
• Written by   Ei Ogawa
• Produced by   Tomoyuki Tanaka, Fumio Tanaka
• Music by   Akira Ifukube
• Cinematography by   Taiichi Kankura
• Edited by   Masahisa Himi
• Production design by   Takeo Kita
• Assistant directing by   Seiji Tani
• Director of Special Effects   Sadamasa Arikawa
• Assistant Director of Special Effects   Teruyoshi Nakano
• Optical Photography by   Yoichi Manoda and Yoshiyuki Tokumasa

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Akira Kubo   as   Taro Kudo, Journalist
• Atsuko Takahashi   as   Ayako Hoshino　
• Yukiko Kobayashi   as   Saki, Daughter of Sergio Island
• Kenji Sahara   as   Makoto Obata
• Yoshio Tsuchiya   as   Dr. Kyoichi Miya, Biologist
• Tetsu Nakamura   as   Onbo, Elder of Sergio Island
• Yu Fujiki   as   Asia Development Promotion Division Manager
• Noritake Saito   as   Rico, Youth of Sergio Island
• Yuko Sugihara   as   Stewardess
• Sachio Sakai   as   Topics Chief Editor
• Chotaro Togin   as   Engineer Yokoyama
• Wataru Omae   as   Sakura
• Ichiro Murakoshi   as   Yog (voice)
• Haruo Nakajima   as   Gezora / Ganimes
• Haruyoshi Nakamura   as   Kamoebas

Appearances

Monsters Gezora Ganimes Kamoebas

Weapons, Vehicles, and Races Yog Helios 7

Gallery

Main article: Space Amoeba/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: Space Amoeba (Soundtrack).

Alternate Titles

• Gezora, Ganimes, Kamoebas: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas (Literal Japanese title)
• Yog, Monster From Space (United States)

Reception

While some fans deride the film as a last gasp of the kaiju eiga genre, others appreciate the fact that the monsters have been scaled down (only being 20 to 30 meters tall), making their interactions with human characters more compelling.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases

Tokyo Shock DVD (2006)

• Region: 1
• Discs: 1
• Audio: Japanese (2.0 Mono, 5.1 Surround), English (2.0 Mono, 5.1 Surround; international dub)
• Special Features: Audio commentary by producer Fumio Tanaka, Meet the Marine Animals Behind the Monsters featurette (9 minutes), trailers
• Notes: Out of print.

Though Space Amoeba is not available on Blu-ray, an HD version can be rented or purchased on the Japanese version of Amazon Video.

Videos

Trailers

Japanese Space Amoeba trailer American Yog, Monster From Space trailers

Trivia

• Akira Ifukube experimented with synthesizers for the first time in his score for this film.
• On the poster, Gezora is seen fighting Kamoebas, although the two beasts never come into contact in the film itself.
• Ganimes, Gezora and Kamoebas appeared in episode 57 of Keroro Gunso, though their origins are different.^{[citation needed]}
• Space Amoeba was the last non-Godzilla kaiju movie to be directed by Ishiro Honda.
• Although Godzilla does not appear in Space Amoeba, this story does take place in a version of the Godzilla universe, as it is referenced in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S..

References

This is a list of references for Space Amoeba. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

External Links

• Comparison of the film's two English dubs