Son of Godzilla

Son of Godzilla

Original Japanese poster
Directed by Jun Fukuda
Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Written by Shinichi Sekizawa
Kazue Shiba
Starring Tadao Takashima
Akira Kubo
Bibari Maeda
Akihiko Hirata
Yu Sekida
Seiji Onaka
Music by Masaru Sato
Cinematography Kazuo Yamada
Production
company
Distributed by Toho
Release dates
  • December 16, 1967 (1967-12-16)
Running time
 86 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Budget $900,000

Son of Godzilla, released in Japan as Kaijū-tō no Kessen Gojira no Musuko (怪獣島の決戦 ゴジラの息子, lit. "Monster Island's Decisive Battle: Son of Godzilla"[1]), is a 1967 Japanese science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho. Directed by Jun Fukuda with special effects by Sadamasa Arikawa (supervised by Eiji Tsuburaya[2]), the film starred Tadao Takashima, Akira Kubo, and Akihiko Hirata. The eighth film in the Godzilla series, it was also the second of two island-themed Godzilla adventures that Toho produced with slightly smaller budgets than most of the Godzilla films from this time period. Continuing the trend of shifting the series towards younger audiences, the film introduced an infant Godzilla named Minilla.

The film was released straight to television in the United States in 1969 by the Walter Reade organization.

Plot

A team of scientists are trying to perfect a weather-controlling system. Their efforts are hampered by the arrival of a nosy reporter and by the sudden presence of 2-meter tall giant praying mantises. The first test of the weather control system goes awry when the remote control for a radioactive balloon is jammed by an unexplained signal coming from the center of the island. The balloon detonates prematurely, creating a radioactive storm that causes the giant mantises to grow to enormous sizes. Investigating the mantises, which are named Kamacuras (Gimantis in the English-dubbed version), the scientists find the monstrous insects digging an egg out from under a pile of earth. The egg hatches, revealing a baby Godzilla. The scientists realize that the baby's telepathic cries for help were the cause of the interference that ruined their experiment. Shortly afterwards, Godzilla arrives on the island in response to the infant's cries, demolishing the scientist's base while rushing to defend the baby. Godzilla kills two of the Kamacuras during the battle while one manages to fly away to safety, Godzilla then adopts the baby.

The baby Godzilla, named Minilla, quickly grows to about half the size of the adult Godzilla and Godzilla instructs it on the important monster skills of roaring and using its atomic ray. At first, Minilla has difficulty producing anything more than atomic smoke rings, but Godzilla discovers that stressful conditions (i.e. stomping on its tail) or motivation produces a true radioactive blast. Minilla comes to the aid of Reiko when she is attacked by a Kamacuras, but inadvertently awakens Kumonga (Spiga in the English-dubbed version), a giant spider that was sleeping in a valley. Kumonga attacks the caves where the scientists are hiding, and Minilla stumbles into the fray.

Kumonga traps Minilla and the final Kamacuras with his webbing, but as Kumonga begins to feed on the deceased Kamacuras, Godzilla arrives to save the day. Godzilla saves Minilla and they work together to defeat Kumonga by using their atomic rays on the giant spider. Hoping to keep the monsters from interfering in their attempt to escape the island, the scientists finally use their perfected weather altering device on the island and the once tropical island becomes buried in snow and ice. As the scientists are saved by an American submarine, Godzilla and Minilla begin to hibernate as they wait for the island to become tropical again.

Cast

Box office

In Japan, the film sold approximately 2,480,000 tickets.

Reception

Son of Godzilla has received generally positive reviews. The film currently holds a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

English version

Sadamasa Arikawa gives instructions to Minilla (Marchan the Dwarf), during filming of the movie's climatic blizzard.

Shortly after the film's Japanese release, Toho had Son of Godzilla dubbed into English by Frontier Enterprises in Tokyo. As with nearly all Toho international versions, the dubbed version corresponds directly to uncut Japanese film. Frontier Enterprises owner William Ross dubs Dr. Kusumi (Tadao Takashima), while the part of Goro Maki (Akira Kubo) is dubbed by Burr Middleton, son of Charles B. Middleton. This version of the film was released on video in 1992 by PolyGram Video, Ltd. in the United Kingdom.

In the United States, Son of Godzilla was distributed directly to television by the Walter Reade Organization in 1969. The movie was re-dubbed by Titan Productions, Inc in New York. Peter Fernandez wrote and directed the dubbing script and voiced Goro Maki. Walter Reade Organization deleted almost all of the pre-credit sequence. All that remains in this version is a brief shot of Godzilla roaring and approaching the camera. The opening credits are also deleted, although the underlying footage is still present. In both English dubs, the monsters Kamacuras and Kumonga are called "Gimantis" and "Spiega", respectively. The character, "Saeko", is also called "Reiko" in both dubbed versions.

The original US version of the film was the one seen on American television and home video for over thirty years.

In 2004, TriStar released the international version on DVD with the original Japanese audio included as an extra audio track. However, this DVD (along with their Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla DVD) has been out of print for years, causing the price to shoot up. There are currently no plans for a future Region 1 DVD/Blu-ray release.

DVD release

Sony Pictures (Out of print)

References

  1. ↑ "怪獣島の決戦 : ゴジラの息子". CiNii. National Institute of Informatics. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  2. ↑ Ragone, August. Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books. 2007. Pg.169

Bibliography

External links

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