Space Amoeba (1970)

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Space Amoeba
The Japanese poster for Space Amoeba
Alternate titles
Flagicon Japan.png Gezora, Ganimes, Kamoebas:
Battle! Giant Monsters
of the South Seas
(1970)
Flagicon United States.png Yog, Monster from Space (1971)
See alternate titles
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Fumio Tanaka
Written by Ei Ogawa
Music by Akira Ifukube
Special
effects by
Sadamasa Arikawa
Distributor TohoJP, AIPUS[1]
Rating GUS
Running time 84 minutesJP
(1 hour, 24 minutes)
81 minutesUS
(1 hour, 21 minutes)
Aspect ratio 2.35:1JP
2.39:1US
Rate this film!
4.00
(25 votes)

For the titular creature, see Space Amoeba (creature).
Amazing! Strong! New monsters (凄い!強い!新怪獣だ)
An alien aiming for the Earth transforms monsters to attack!
(地球を狙う宇宙人が怪獣になって襲って来る!)
„ 

— Japanese taglines

HIDEOUS CREATURES FROM OUTER SPACE ADVANCE TO INVADE THE EARTH!
„ 

— International tagline

SPEWED FROM INTERGALACTIC SPACE to clutch the planet earth in its... TERROR TENTACLES!
The most fantastic science adventure ever filmed!
„ 

— American taglines

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, Kamoebas: Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas") is a 1970 tokusatsu kaiju film directed by Ishiro Honda and written by Ei Ogawa, with special effects by Sadamasa Arikawa. Produced by Toho, it was Honda's last film before he left his contract with the studio and the first kaiju film made after the death of longtime special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, with Arikawa, one of his protégés, acting as the director of special effects for this film. It stars Akira Kubo, Atsuko Takahashi, Yukiko Kobayashi, Kenji Sahara, Yoshio Tsuchiya, and Tetsu Nakamura. The film was released to to Japanese theaters by Toho on August 1, 1970, as part of the Summer Toho Champion Festival. American International Pictures released an edited English-dubbed version titled Yog, Monster from Space to theaters in the United States the following year.

The story is set into motion when a mysterious alien lifeform takes command of the unmanned probe Helios 7, splashing down near a South Pacific island called Sergio. Mutating a cuttlefish, two stone crabs, and a mata mata turtle into giant monsters, the Space Amoeba wages war against the island's inhabitants and a group of Japanese visitors, who must stop it before it can escape the island and conquer the entire planet.

Plot

Helios 7, an unmanned probe dispatched to Jupiter, is commandeered months into its spaceflight by a formless alien entity. The space amoeba 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 sometime 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 are able to escape when a school of 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 the space amoeba 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 is annihilated by the World War II explosives. This time, however, the space amoeba possesses Obata, who had abandoned the others in an attempt to escape the island. The aliens inform Obata that they plan 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 have 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, a giant turtle called 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 each other. 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

Main article: Space Amoeba/Credits.

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

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   Yokoyama, engineer
  • Wataru Omae   as   Sakura
  • Yukihiko Gondo, Shigeo Kato, Rinsaku Ogata   as   Sergio Islanders
  • Ichiro Murakoshi   as   Space Amoeba / narrator (voice)
  • Haruo Nakajima   as   Gezora / Ganimes / underwater stunt double for Akira Kubo
  • Haruyoshi Nakamura   as   Kamoebas

International English dub

  • Barry Haigh   as   Taro Kudo
  • Barbara Laney   as   Saki
  • Saul Lockhart   as   Rico / chief editor / islanders
  • Jack Moore   as   Asia Development Promotion Division manager / Sakura


Appearances

Monsters

Weapons, vehicles, and races

Production

Ei Ogawa wrote the original script for this film in 1966 as a proposed joint production between Toho and UPA, under the title Great Monster Attack. This script was considerably more ambitious than the finished product, featuring alien monsters invading the Earth and submerging entire continents. Production on the film did not begin until three years later in 1969, when the project first appeared on Toho's production lineup, still under its original title. Ogawa's script was heavily altered, removing the global scope of the original story and moving the setting entirely to the fictional South Seas island of Sergio Island. Producer Fumio Tanaka later said he believed the film went through three drafts, and stated that the original draft featured the alien invaders being attacked with nuclear weapons.[2] Despite his failing health, Toho's longtime special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya expressed his desire to be involved with the production and as such was to be credited as the film's special effects supervisor, while his former pupil Sadamasa Arikawa acted as the director of special effects. However, Tsuburaya passed away just two days after the start of filming on January 25, 1970, and is only credited in early promotional materials for the film.[3] Toho rejected a proposal by some staff members to dedicate the film to Eiji Tsuburaya. Arikawa was especially angered, refusing to talk about the film later in his life.[4]

The film's script was finalized in January, and shooting began that same month. Assistant director Seiji Tani remarked that Space Amoeba was burdened by constant pressure from the studio to minimize the budget, and that as a result the staff was forced to rush through filming.[4] Ishiro Honda originally planned to shoot the film in Guam, but due to aforementioned budget restrictions shooting was relegated to Hachijo Island, located about 700 miles south of Tokyo. The film was shot in the middle of winter, even though the cast was dressed for a tropical location. Underwater scenes were shot in one of Toho's studio pools and Yomiuriland's Ryugu Palace. Producer Fumio Tanaka recalled that he had to personally transport the film negatives back to Tokyo on a prop plane. While Fumio Tanaka officially co-produced the film with Tomoyuki Tanaka, the latter was busy with Expo '70 at the time and as a result had very little to do with the production.[2]

Space Amoeba was the last science-fiction film made under Toho's studio system. Facing declining profits, Toho took several steps to reduce the power of labor unions: establishing a subsidiary called Toho Eizo to specialize in tokusatsu films, releasing most of its actors from their contracts, and dissolving Tsuburaya's special effects department.[4] It would also be Honda's last film under contract with Toho, although he returned in 1975 to direct Terror of Mechagodzilla.

Gallery

Main article: Space Amoeba/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: Space Amoeba/Soundtrack.

Alternate titles

  • Gezora, Ganimes, Kamoebas: Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas (literal Japanese title)
  • Great Monster Assault (怪獣大襲撃,   Kaijū Daishūgeki, first draft title)[3][5]
  • Attack of the Giant Sea Monsters (海の大怪獣 大襲撃,   Umi no Daikaijū Daishūgeki, second draft title)[5]
  • Battle: Giant Monsters of the South Seas (決戦・南海の大怪獣,   Kessen Nankai no Daikaijū, third draft title)[5]
  • Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas (決戦!南海の大怪獣,   Kessen Nankai no Daikaijū, fourth draft title)[5]
  • Jumbo Monster Island (ジャンボ怪獣島,   Janbo Kaijūtō, Japanese 8mm title)
  • Monsters from Space (early unused U.S. title)[6]
  • Yog, Monster From Space (United States)
  • The Challenge of the Monsters (O Desafio dos Monstros, Brazil)
  • The Invaders from Space (Les Envahisseurs de l'espace; France; French Belgium)
  • The Danger Came from Space (Het Gevaar Kwan uit de Ruimte; Dutch Belgium)
  • Infernal Monsters (Monstruos Infernales; Mexico)
  • Pentaculus and Atom - The Monster of the Galaxy (Pentaculus e Atom - Il Mostro della Galassia; Italy)
  • Atom - The Monster of the Galaxy (Atom - Il Mostro della Galassia; Italy)
  • Space Monster (Uzay Canavari; Turkey)
  • Monsters of Horror Attack (Monster des Grauens greifen an; West Germany)

Theatrical releases

  • Japan - August 1, 1970
  • United States - June 9, 1971
  • Canada - September 21, 1971
  • Belgium - 1971
  • Brazil - December 1971
  • France - December 5, 1971
  • West Germany - 1972
  • Mexico - 1973
  • United Kingdom - 1973

Japanese release

Space Amoeba headlined the Summer 1970 Toho Champion Festival. It played with Star of the Giants: Fateful Showdown, Attack No. 1: The Tearful Roll Reception, and The Ugly Duckling.[7]

Foreign releases

U.S. release

U.S. Yog, Monster from Space poster

Space Amoeba was released theatrically in the United States in 1971 by American International Pictures under the title Yog, Monster from Space.[1] Producer Fumio Tanaka speculated that the title was chosen in reference to the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth featured in the stories of the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft.[2] 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. This version was produced by Salvatore Billitteri, edited by Eli Haviv, and directed by Helen Gary.[1] In June 1972, the film played at the Toho Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii, in Japanese with English subtitles.

The voiceover narrating the Helios 7 countdown was recycled in the U.S. release from Toho's export version, which was dubbed in Hong Kong. The possibility of reusing the audio for that sequence was noted in the dubbing script.[8] The audio for this version was synced to the Japanese visuals and first heard in the U.S. on Voom HD Networks' Monsters HD satellite channel, followed by a 2006 DVD release from Media Blasters under their Tokyo Shock imprint.[9]

Reception

Genre fans and critics generally regard Space Amoeba as a lesser entry in the Toho kaiju canon, recycling concepts from previous films while adding few new ones. "Some scenes and ideas are so familiar — a man struck with amnesia after seeing a monster (Rodan), alien possession of monsters and people (Destroy All Monsters, etc.), a giant squid destroying a thatch hut, body-painted natives attacking the monster with spears (King Kong vs. Godzilla) — that it seems like a greatest hits reel," wrote Steve Ryfle and Ed Godzizewski in Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa.[4] Stuart Galbraith IV gave it a 1.5/4 rating in Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!, describing it as "pretty wretched", with monsters "particularly colorless and more annoying than threatening, save perhaps for the goofy but likeable Gezora the Cuttlefish."[10] In G-FAN reader polls, its rating has trended slightly upward, from 5.04 (out of 10) in 1996 to 6 in 2014.

Video releases

Trans-Atlantic Video VHS (1987)

  • Tapes: 1
  • Audio: English (Titan dub)
  • Notes: Cropped to 1.33:1. Out of print. The video and audio during the entirety of Ganimes' attack are out of sync.

Amvest Video VHS (1988)

  • Tapes: 1
  • Audio: English (Titan dub)
  • Notes: Cropped to 1.33:1. Out of print.

Toho DVD (2004)

  • Region: 2
  • Discs: 1
  • Audio: Japanese
  • Special features: Audio commentary by producer Fumio Tanaka
  • Notes: Re-released on February 7, 2014 and on August 19, 2015 as part of the Toho DVD Masterpiece Selection.

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.

Toho Blu-ray (2022) [Toho Monsters & Special Effects][11]

  • Region: A
  • Discs: 2
  • Audio: Japanese (DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 and 5.1)
  • Subtitles: Japanese
  • Special features: Two Japanese trailers and international trailer, audio commentary by producer Fumio Tanaka, "Meet the Marine Animals Behind the Monsters" featurette (9 minutes), photo gallery
  • Notes: Packaged with Varan, Gorath, and Dogora. Due to the large number of special features in this set, only the supplements relevant to Space Amoeba are described above.

Videos

Trailers

Japanese trailer
International trailer
Japanese teaser
U.S. Yog, Monster From Space trailer
U.S. Yog, Monster From Space TV trailer
U.S. Yog, Monster From Space TV spot
West German trailer
French trailer

Miscellaneous

French opening credits

Trivia

  • Space Amoeba was released as part of the Summer 1970 Toho Champion Festival, alongside Attack No. 1: The Tearful Roll Reception, Star of the Giants: Fateful Showdown, and The Ugly Duckling.
  • The prayer song of the Sergio Islanders is an arrangement of "The Giant Demon God" from King Kong vs. Godzilla, though the lyrics are changed.
  • Posters, promotional materials, and even the opening credits for Space Amoeba show Gezora fighting Kamoebas and Ganimes, though the giant cuttlefish never meets the other two monsters in the film proper.
  • In the audio commentary included on Toho and Media Blasters' DVD releases of the film, producer Fumio Tanaka speculated that the island's primary location of Sergio Island was named after the famous Italian film director Sergio Leone.[2]
  • A calendar at the Asia Development Company office places the start of the film in May 1970.
  • 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 SOS.
  • Space Amoeba was spoofed in episode 57 of the anime Sgt. Frog, "Old School Monster Battle: Keroro Style!" (巨大カエル対南海の大怪獣 であります,   Kyodai Kaeru tai Nankai no Daikaijū de Arimasu, lit. It's the Giant Frog vs. the Giant Monsters of the South Seas). The episode features obvious parodies of Gezora, Ganimes, and Kamoebas, named Ikara, Kanime, and Gameba, respectively. In addition, the episode's opening credits are an homage to the opening of Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman.

External links

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]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Craig, Rob (2019). American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 421. ISBN 9781476666310.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Space Amoeba DVD commentary by Fumio Tanaka
  3. 3.0 3.1 Toho Special Effects Movie Complete Works. villagebooks. 28 September 2012. pp. 140–143. ISBN 9784864910132.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ryfle, Steve and Ed Godziszewski (3 October 2017). Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. Wesleyan. pp. 259–261. ISBN 978-0819570871.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "電脳小僧の特撮映画資料室". Cyberkids1954. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
  6. Yog art pre-release.jpg
  7. Godzilla Toho Champion Festival Perfection. ASCII MEDIA WORKS. 29 November 2014. p. 34. ISBN 978-4-04-866999-3.
  8. YOG: The Titra dubbing script· Monster Zero x SciFi Japan
  9. DVD: Space Amoeba (Tokyo Shock)
  10. Stuart Galbraith IV (1998). Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films. Feral House. p. 183. ISBN 0922915474.
  11. "東宝 怪獣・特撮Blu-ray 2枚組". Amazon.co.jp. 30 March 2022.

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