Space Amoeba (1970)
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- 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
Helios 7, an unmanned probe dispatched to Jupiter, is commandeered months into its spaceflight by a formless alien entity. The alien force reroutes the probe back to Earth, where its crash in the South Pacific is observed by Taro Kudo, a photojournalist returning from an unsuccessful shoot in Brazil. Desperate for an exciting story, Kudo brings the scoop to his editor, who dismisses it as science fiction. Kudo is approached by Ayako Hoshino, representing the Asia Development Company. The tourism firm hires Kudo to take scenic shots of Sergio Island, which the company hopes to develop into an exotic high scale resort. Working as a zoologist for the company is Dr. Miya, a colleague of Kudo's. Dr. Miya hypothesizes that Sergio Island may be home to giant monsters, while Kudo believes Helios 7 crashed near the island.
En route to the island, the group is joined by Makoto Obata, a mysterious man introducing himself as a social anthropologist. Dr. Miya informs the others that one of the members of the advance team has been apparently killed by a large creature. This is confirmed at the island by Yokoyama, the company engineer who reported the monster, and Rico, one of the god-fearing natives of Sergio. While conducting a survey of a large cavern, Yokoyama is spooked by a bright light emanating from the water. He drives off in a panic with Rico, leaving the rest of the expedition behind. The monster, called Gezora by the natives, comes ashore and wrecks the camp and kills Yokoyama before being inexplicably driven back to the ocean. When the rest of the group returns some time later, they find Rico alive but in a state of shock and suffering from frostbitten wounds caused by Gezora. With their camp in ruins, they are invited back to the native village by Saki, Rico's lover. Later that night, Kudo reveals that he observed Obata stealing the company's development plans from the wrecked hut. Obata drops the ruse and confirms he is an industrial spy working for a rival firm but proposes they still work together until they can get off the island.
The next morning, Kudo and Dr. Miya discover the wreck of Helios 7 off shore. They are attacked and nearly killed by Gezora, but they're able to escape when a school or porpoises swims by. The angry monster makes landfall again and heads to the native village. During its rampage, the expedition observes Gezora recoil when burned by flames from the natives' prayer ceremony. Deducing that the low-temperature monster is critically vulnerable to intense heat, the group sets the monster on fire using gasoline and torches. Badly burned, Gezora retreats to the ocean. Underwater, and unseen by the men and women on the island, Gezora succumbs to its wounds and an alien life force exits the monster's corpse.
Not knowing that Gezora has died, the group plans a counterattack using an Imperial Army weapons cache. Ganimes, a new giant monster resembling a crab, surfaces and attacks. The monster's assault forces the group into the jungle, but Kudo leads Ganimes into a pit where it's annihilated by the WWII explosives. This time, however, the alien energy possesses Obata, who had abandoned the others in an attempt to escape the island. The aliens inform Obata that they plans to conquer Earth, and they will use him to infiltrate and undermine the expedition's efforts to defeat the monsters.
After examining Ganimes' remains, Dr. Miya determines that the monsters must not be natural lifeforms. Although they both resemble ordinary species on the island, he theorizes that they've grown monstrous under alien influence. Meanwhile, with no present threat of monsters, the Asia Development group attends a wedding celebration for Rico and Saki. Kudo snaps a photo of the couple, startling Rico back to consciousness with the camera's flash. Able to recall the events of Gezora's attack for the first time, Rico tells the others how a swarm of bats forced the monster to retreat. Dr. Miya concludes that ultrasonic waves from the bats and porpoises must be the key to defeating the alien monsters. While searching for bats, Kudo and Ayako are chased by a third monster, Kamoebas. They discover a cave housing the flying mammals. The bats' sonar repels the monster, proving Dr. Miya's theory.
By the next day, the group has relocated to this cave. Obata reappears and lights the entrance on fire in an attempt to kill the bats. He reveals his alien possession to the others, but an emotional appeal by Ayako allows Obata's human side to resurface long enough to let the bats escape. The aliens take control once again and summon Kamoebas and a second Ganimes to the island to finally destroy the humans. The bats swarm around the two monsters, disrupting the extraterrestrial influence. Now no longer controlled by the aliens, the monsters fight. Their battle leads them to the island's active volcano. The conflict ends in defeat for both monsters as Kamoebas drags Ganimes into the eruption. Obata, himself locked in battle with the aliens for possession of his body, jumps into the volcano. His act of self-sacrifice brings the invasion to its end. A passing ship, having noticed the eruption, arrives to rescue the men and women on the island as Kudo jokes that without his camera, and with no more physical evidence of the monsters, no one will ever believe his story.
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 |
Weapons, Vehicles, and Races |
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)
U.S. Release
Space Amoeba was released theatrically in the United States in 1971 by American International Pictures, under the title Yog, Monster from Space. The film was lightly edited, running three minutes shorter than the Japanese version. The English dub was recorded by the New York City-based studio Titan Productions.
In June 1972, Space Amoeba played at the Toho Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii, in Japanese with English subtitles.
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
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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
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