Gappa: The Triphibian Monster (1967)

[JAGzilla]

A thread for the discussion of the only kaiju movie released by the studio Nikkatsu. It is also known by its international title, Monster From A Prehistoric Planet.

I'm starting essentially my first viewing of this right now, subbed, via the Media Blasters Blu-ray. I caught the last few minutes on TV in about 1999 or 2000, and then watched the first half of so on a low quality DVD in the mid-2000s before getting bored and giving up. My tastes and attitudes toward these lesser known Showa era movies have changed a lot since then, so it's time for a proper straight-through watch.

EDIT: The opening is my new favorite thing. Volcanoes! Boat! Funky '60s song that's actually about Gappa! Top kino.

EDIT: So our sleazy villain is here as a commentary on the unfortunate use of South Seas islanders as exotic spectacle for tourists (and perhaps in movies?). But we get a native village with spears and drums and dancing and the whole nine yards anyway. Guess we'll see how this plays out. Also, there's a pteranodon! I didn't expect anything like that. Cool.

EDIT: The cameraman likes to frame shots in fun ways. That's pretty entertaining. Just like a Honda movie. The shaky-cam earthquake in the cave was fucking awful, though. I couldn't even watch it without instantly getting dizzy and a headache. Must've been miserable on the big screen.

EDIT: The Gappa suits are pretty lame. Kind of an interesting design, though. The human characters and their story are ho-hum stock archetypes, but they carry things along okay. The 'American' submarine crew was funny.

EDIT: I got delayed for about an hour, but now it's over. Yeah, the human story is painfully half-baked and there's a lot of blackface... it's not one of the great kaiju movies by any stretch of anyone's imagination. It has a lot going for it, too, though. It's shot really well, with lots of interesting and memorable individual shots. The two Gappa rising out of the lake with Mt. Fuji in the background. The street level tracking shot of the helicopters carrying the baby. The main characters' car driving toward the glow of the burning industrial zone. Some moments of the Gappa rampaging through said industrial zone with one in the foreground and the other behind the buildings in the distance. The Gappa flying over the pagoda. The baby standing alone in the huge airport.

The Gappa family reunion was fun, too. You don't see kaiju cry very often. The father teaching the baby to fly was cute. Also, the Gappa songs were the shit and no one can tell me otherwise. For all the first attempt roughness of some aspects, there was some real talent involved in this movie, too. It's a shame Nikkatsu never experimented with the kaiju genre beyond this.

[edgaguirus]

Had Nikkatus tried their hand at more such films, they might have ironed out the wrinkles and made a great one. However, this is a good film, and has some standout scenes and visuals. One detail I like is when the Gappa first appear in Japan. One has an octopus in its mouth, probably because flying such a distance would make one hungry. It's a small detail, but a nice one.

[JAGzilla]

I interpreted the octopus as being delivered to the baby. And yeah, that was a nice detail.

[Vakanai]

I really liked this movie. Was it great? By no means. But was it good? I think so, especially for it's time and compared to some of its contemporaries. Weird they never made another - would be curious what the profit was on this. Maybe it just didn't make enough for another entry in the genre to be something interesting to them, I don't know. But it really was one of the better kaiju flicks outside of Toho, and better than a few from Toho.

[daveblackeye15]

Something about their sound design I like. Especially when the Gappas attack the city, their footfalls and the sound of buildings crumbling is so good. Editing wise we certainly saw too much of them wading towards the city.

[edgaguirus]

I'm not able to find any box office numbers on this film.

[Vakanai]

That's a shame, but I'm not surprised. Would be curious how it compared to it's kaiju film competition at the time, and how it stacked against the studio's other films.

I think, for me, the biggest flaw is that the story is something we had already seen so very often in the genre. Kid kaiju gets taken for a profit and parent kaiju/s show up to get baby back was also done in Gorgo and Mothra (fairies instead of kids in titular film, and egg in Mothra vs Godzilla). Which is itself just a variation of capitalists take monster from rightful place stories such as King Kong and Creature from the Black Lagoon (especially the second and third films).

[edgaguirus]

You might be onto something there. Before Gappa was made, Nikkatsu had four other kaiju film ideas that were rejected. These proposals sound like the films would have been more like G54, Rodan, or Varan; A single kaiju vs man. Then they came up with Gappa, which has elements of films they felt were successful.

[mikelcho]

I interpreted the octopus as being delivered to the baby. And yeah, that was a nice detail.

That's what I think, too. The parents bring their newborn offspring something to eat; however, IIRC, the octopus is only seen that one time and then it's never seen again, am I right?

[mikelcho]

I really liked this movie. Was it great? By no means. But was it good? I think so, especially for it's time and compared to some of its contemporaries. Weird they never made another - would be curious what the profit was on this. Maybe it just didn't make enough for another entry in the genre to be something interesting to them, I don't know. But it really was one of the better kaiju flicks outside of Toho, and better than a few from Toho.

What did you think of Shochiku's only kaiju film at the time, The X from Outer Space, or South Korea's Yongary, Monster from the Deep, both of which were released in the same year as this film (1967)? And how would you compare both of them to this film?

[Vakanai]

What did you think of Shochiku's only kaiju film at the time, The X from Outer Space, or South Korea's Yongary, Monster from the Deep, both of which were released in the same year as this film (1967)? And how would you compare both of them to this film?

I've only seen X once (streamed it a year or so back) and honestly can't remember it very well at all - not well enough to give any clear thought or opinion to it. Which in and of itself might be damning if it left such little impact on me, but can't say. However I like the weird design of basically having a UFO for a head. I don't remember thinking it was bad by any account, so that's something.

Yongary was not bad at all. If I had to describe it or rank it, I'd say it's very similar in style, tone, and general vibe and quality to Godzilla vs Megalon. That is to say, it's very much a kid's film at heart, but not egregiously so. The monster design was fine if clearly derivative, but the quality of the suit could've been better. If I were to compare Gappa and Yongary, I'd have to say that Gappa is the objectively better film overall, but that Yongary is the better children's film if that makes any sense.

In a perfect world, we'd have gotten more kaiju content from both Nikkatsu and Shochiku, as well as South Korea and other countries. But for what we do have I can't really complain too much. None of them feel cynical or soulless, or even that generic despite wearing their inspiration on their sleeves. They're interesting, flawed, fun films if you're in the right mind set for them. Had they been more successful or history had gone another way, I'd have been curious to see where they could've led and what would've come next. As it is though, they're quite the trio of one offs (altho I really need to rewatch The X from Outer Space) and an interesting bit of kaiju film history.

Also for those on the fence about seeing any of these - I can say that they're all better than the worst of Gamera's offerings, so if you've made it through Super Monster then you should find these alright easily.

[mikelcho]

What did you think of Shochiku's only kaiju film at the time, The X from Outer Space, or South Korea's Yongary, Monster from the Deep, both of which were released in the same year as this film (1967)? And how would you compare both of them to this film?

I've only seen X once (streamed it a year or so back) and honestly can't remember it very well at all - not well enough to give any clear thought or opinion to it. Which in and of itself might be damning if it left such little impact on me, but can't say. However I like the weird design of basically having a UFO for a head. I don't remember thinking it was bad by any account, so that's something.

Yongary was not bad at all. If I had to describe it or rank it, I'd say it's very similar in style, tone, and general vibe and quality to Godzilla vs Megalon. That is to say, it's very much a kid's film at heart, but not egregiously so. The monster design was fine if clearly derivative, but the quality of the suit could've been better. If I were to compare Gappa and Yongary, I'd have to say that Gappa is the objectively better film overall, but that Yongary is the better children's film if that makes any sense.

In a perfect world, we'd have gotten more kaiju content from both Nikkatsu and Shochiku, as well as South Korea and other countries. But for what we do have I can't really complain too much. None of them feel cynical or soulless, or even that generic despite wearing their inspiration on their sleeves. They're interesting, flawed, fun films if you're in the right mind set for them. Had they been more successful or history had gone another way, I'd have been curious to see where they could've led and what would've come next. As it is though, they're quite the trio of one offs (altho I really need to rewatch The X from Outer Space) and an interesting bit of kaiju film history.

Also for those on the fence about seeing any of these - I can say that they're all better than the worst of Gamera's offerings, so if you've made it through Super Monster then you should find these alright easily.

Have I got some info for you, my friend!

At one point (I think that it was the 1990s, but I'm not sure (can anyone please help me out with this?)), it was being said that Nikkatsu and Shochiku were going to make a crossover sequel to both of their sole kaiju films titled Gappa vs. Guilala. Unfortunately, it turned out to be only an urban legend.

[Vakanai]

What did you think of Shochiku's only kaiju film at the time, The X from Outer Space, or South Korea's Yongary, Monster from the Deep, both of which were released in the same year as this film (1967)? And how would you compare both of them to this film?

I've only seen X once (streamed it a year or so back) and honestly can't remember it very well at all - not well enough to give any clear thought or opinion to it. Which in and of itself might be damning if it left such little impact on me, but can't say. However I like the weird design of basically having a UFO for a head. I don't remember thinking it was bad by any account, so that's something.

Yongary was not bad at all. If I had to describe it or rank it, I'd say it's very similar in style, tone, and general vibe and quality to Godzilla vs Megalon. That is to say, it's very much a kid's film at heart, but not egregiously so. The monster design was fine if clearly derivative, but the quality of the suit could've been better. If I were to compare Gappa and Yongary, I'd have to say that Gappa is the objectively better film overall, but that Yongary is the better children's film if that makes any sense.

In a perfect world, we'd have gotten more kaiju content from both Nikkatsu and Shochiku, as well as South Korea and other countries. But for what we do have I can't really complain too much. None of them feel cynical or soulless, or even that generic despite wearing their inspiration on their sleeves. They're interesting, flawed, fun films if you're in the right mind set for them. Had they been more successful or history had gone another way, I'd have been curious to see where they could've led and what would've come next. As it is though, they're quite the trio of one offs (altho I really need to rewatch The X from Outer Space) and an interesting bit of kaiju film history.

Also for those on the fence about seeing any of these - I can say that they're all better than the worst of Gamera's offerings, so if you've made it through Super Monster then you should find these alright easily.

Have I got some info for you, my friend!

At one point (I think that it was the 1990s, but I'm not sure (can anyone please help me out with this?)), it was being said that Nikkatsu and Shochiku were going to make a crossover sequel to both of their sole kaiju films titled Gappa vs. Guilala. Unfortunately, it turned out to be only an urban legend.

Yesterday's urban legend might yet prove to be tomorrow's done deal. I'm just surprised that after Toho hitting it out of the park with two major successes in both Shin (Godzilla and Ultraman) and Minus One that no other Japanese studio is clamoring to play copycat and make their own big new entry in the new Kaiju Renaissance we're in. You have to imagine that whoever all owns the rights to these old kaiju characters have to at least be in closed door discussions about bringing them back to try and get some of that kaiju movie cash. But who knows. Just seems like with Godzilla's success in and out of Japan more studios would be trying to get into the genre, but it doesn't seem like it.

[JAGzilla]

It's really not much of a surprise that the other studios haven't attempted to make modern kaiju movies yet. Japan is still adapting to the CGI game and it may be that not every studio has the budget or (more importantly) talent on hand to seriously compete with the Shin movies or GMO.

[Vakanai]

That's a decent point - I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Toho is the largest and most successful studio in Japan. Which means they're flush with cash, in comparison to their rivals. CGI is expensive. Even so, however large the gap is between Toho and their competition, I still find it hard to believe the next richest studios aren't discussing it.

But this is getting off topic. Back on topic, something I've always found weird is the big CEO guy, not realizing the size of the baby kaiju while it's out at sea, dismisses it as just "a lizard bird." Like what on earth is a lizard bird supposed to be? Some kind of lizard bird here in the real world would be an insane find and the natural world discovery of the century. Like are lizard bird type creatures just some common thing there or what?

[edgaguirus]

This is just an idea, but lizard bird might be a result of dubbing the film. I've only seen the dub, and so if anyone has seen this in subtitle or the original language, do they say lizard bird or something else?

[barondoggy]

This is just an idea, but lizard bird might be a result of dubbing the film. I've only seen the dub, and so if anyone has seen this in subtitle or the original language, do they say lizard bird or something else?

The line is "maybe they all got sunstroke down there, and all they have is a burnt lizard from the volcano"

[Vakanai]

This is just an idea, but lizard bird might be a result of dubbing the film. I've only seen the dub, and so if anyone has seen this in subtitle or the original language, do they say lizard bird or something else?

The line is "maybe they all got sunstroke down there, and all they have is a burnt lizard from the volcano"

That makes much more sense then "lizard bird" - any clue why the dub went with something so wildly weird?

[Vakanai]

Oh wait, maybe I misheard burnt lizard as bird lizard. Huh...

[Ookondru99]

I don’t know why… but I find this film is a guilty pleasure of mine. Something about the way it was shot, to me feels exactly like the “Godzilla stereotype” movies often referenced/mocked by western media. It’s blatantly a ripoff, to the point where it’s debated of it’s meant to be a parody of the genre. Of all the Godzilla knock off this is the one I find myself coming back to the most.