This is another very nifty release from Media Blasters, who have been targeting a lot of the more obscure (i.e., non-Godzilla) giant monster and sci-fi stuff from Japan. Even better, I’d never seen this one, so it was cool to cross off another giant monster movie.
This non-Toho entry has a pretty bad rep, with most of the complaints arising from a lack of monster action. However, I found it pretty amusing, despite some definite lull periods. (Including, oddly enough, an extended monster attack scene, which is one of most languorous such I can recall.) I liked the ’70s funk and bad pop ballad score, the typically awful clothes, the anti-hero character, etc. The middle part does drag, and the ‘epic’ finale, featuring, of course, a volcanic eruption, goes on entirely too long. Still, I had a pretty good time with it. Obviously mileage varies, though.
Also, high on my personal charm list are monsters represented by actual props, and we get both puppets and life-sized prosthetics here. These are all goofy as hell, but I’ll still take them over 99% of CGI monsters. Due to the enhanced clarity of the digital format, you can often see the strings manipulating the puppets, but again, that’s OK with me.
Basically, as with Rodan, the plot features long-dormant dinosaur eggs that are uncovered and begin to hatch. Meanwhile, the local lake has long had legends about monsters living in it. Sure enough, there’s a plesiosaur on the lake, and a pteranodon hatches from one of the eggs. (Although the latter not until late in the picture, part of a lot of people’s grumbling.) Since this came out soon after Jaws, there’s a lake festival to be threatened, although gladly not your typical cover-up angle. (This as the Japanese are entirely less prone to cynicism about government.)
Since this was made in the late ’70s, there’s a tiny bit of nudity and some gore. Better, though, is the typically inane ‘science’ content:
Scientist: “The reason [the anti-hero’s] father’s theory about a live dinosaur wasn’t accepted was out of fear that it would throw the world into a total panic. [Uhm…] Franklin, who discovered electricity, found a frog one day that had been hibernating for several million years and he brought back to life again. So finding a dinosaur is within the realm of possibility. But keep in mind, if a dinosaur appears, we’ll also have magnitude 5 earthquakes.”Well, duh.Later, before either one is definitively found, someone asserts that “if there’s dinosaur is here, it wouldn’t be very strange if there was also a pterodactyl here.” Because, you know, they go together like milk and cookies.
Inevitably, the recent rise in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and (of course) giant monsters is all due to Man’s abuse of the environment. “It’s nature’s way of retaliating against a stupid human race, isn’t it?” Our Anti-Hero muses. Meanwhile, his constant talk of wanting to make money is what makes the geologist protagonist an anti-hero to start with.
As you’d expect from Media Blasters, the widescreen presentation of the movie is terrific. It’s fairly bareboned, extras-wise, but does have both the original Japanese and the typically funny English dub tracks, and nice yellow subtitles available under the picture frame.
Things I Learned (Concept used with the permission of Andrew Borntreger:
- Wait, giant monsters can be found around Mt. Fuji? Who knew?
- Ah, more evidence that giant monsters always have glowing eyes.
- I realize this was made before Alien, but still, I’m not sure there was ever a time I’d go stick my face into a giant, cracking egg located inside a mysterious, fog-enshrouded cavern.
- Not many men can pull off a dark blue shirt with a white polka dot pattern.
- “Long worms” is a regionalism for snakes.
- Not many men can pull off a short-sleeved white mesh shirt.
- No matter where you go in the world, you are bound to run into an ex-lover.
- A writhing bunch of snakes is not conducive to the seduction process.
- “Every lake is supposed to have a monster in it.”
- Every scientist and naturalist disdains anyone who cares about making money.
- There’s no way having tons of money could in any way help some hypothetical person survive increased earthquake activity.
- The citizens of, say, Wichita, Kansas would go into a total panic if a living dinosaur was found in Japan.
- You shouldn’t encourage atonal old Asian woman to sing. And no, I’m not necessarily talking about Yoko Ono.
- OK, maybe I am.
- A good way to get young children to stop crying is to tell them you’ll throw them into the nearby lake where a sea monster will eat them.
- Ah, so that’s what the Godfather did with the rest of that horse.
- People who think American country western music is bad should try the Japanese version of it.
- Japanese people will clap to any band, no matter how bad, but might subtly signal their displeasure by doing so out of rhythm.
- If a young couple disappears, and the earth’s crust has been moving, and you saw a headless horse, it can only mean there’s a living dinosaur in the area. As our hero notes, “I think it’s obvious.” I mean, put the pieces together, man!
- Plesiosaurs are surprisingly good music critics.
- Being a prankster in a giant monster movie is seldom conducive to living a long life.
- If you are involved with a prank involving a faked dinosaur, people might not believe you when you ironically see your friends eaten by a real dinosaur.
- If you are a young woman and take a shower in a giant monster movie, it is seldom conducive to living a long life.
- Being the best friend of the heroine of a giant monster movie is seldom conducive to living a long life.
- However, if you’re a cute little dog, you’ll probably be OK.
- If you film it exactly right, seeing somebody being eaten by a dinosaur can be surprisingly dull.
- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: scuba diving scenes do not make for exciting cinema.
- Dinosaur hibernation patterns and seismology are intimately related.
- If you want to score with a chick, slap her around a bit and then reveal your secret emotional side.
- Being the mentor of the hero of a giant monster movie is seldom conducive to living a long life.
- If you come across a nice, clean human skeleton laying in the woods, you can safely assume it’s the remains of a suicide victim.
- A pair of small motorboats dropping two depth charges each are enough to saturate a gigantic lake.
- Having a panicked mob shooting off guns while crouching behind stacks of surplus depth charges is counter-indicated.
- If a pteranodon sees a plesiosaur lumbering around on land, it will instantly attack.
- Pteranodons might have gone extinct because, when sitting on the ground and caught in an earthquake and/or lava-spewing volcanic eruption, they were prone to forgetting they can fly.
- If you film it exactly right, an extended climax involving a dinosaur, a pteranodon, two endangered lead characters and an erupting volcano can be surprisingly dull.
- When the film itself apparently doesn’t care whether the hero and heroine lived or died at the end, it turns out the viewer doesn’t overmuch either.
