Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

3 Tohos

Plot: Big Spoilers Ahead!

A guy named Ryota has a brother named Yata that is lost at sea. He tries to enter a dancing contest with his friends Ichino and Nita to win a sailboat, but they fail. Then Ryota and his friends go steal a boat to look for Ryota's brother. Along the boat is a bank robber named Yoshimura, who on the run from the police. All of a sudden a storm comes and the sailors see a giant claw. They wake up the next morning on an island. Ryota and his friends then find themselves on a military base that are building nuclear weapons and taking people from Infant Island (Mothra's island) to use them as slaves. They see some of the slaves try to escape but are killed by the same monster that attacked their ship. The monster, according to Toho, is named Ebirah (they never mention his name once in this movie). They only way to get past the monster is by using a special yellow liquid that the slaves are made to make. They meet up with a runaway slave from Infant Island named Daiyo. Then the military people chase after them. Ryota and his friends manage to escape in a cave where they find Godzilla asleep. Soon they become curious about the base and start to spy on the military people. Yoshimura uses a skeleton key he made to go through the military base. The military people catch and chase after them. Ryota escapes on a balloon that travels to infant island and Nita is caught and used as a slave himself. Ichino, Daiyo, and Yoshimura decide to wake up Godzilla by using lightning to fight Ebirah. so the military people would keep their minds off of them.

Meanwhile, Ryota finds his brother on Infant Island and then they decide to return to the military base to rescue the slaves on the military base. They row back and meet up with the monster during a thunderstorm. Godzilla is wakened by the lightning and attacks Ebirah. Ryota and Yata make it safe to the island. Godzilla and Ebirah fight for a while and then Ebirah retreats. Yoshimura, Ichino, and Daiyo meet up with Ryota and Yata the next day and the military chase after them once again. Godzilla scares the military people off. Then Godzilla fights a giant condor and some jets and then attacks the base itself. The people on Infant Island then wake up Mothra, who had been sleeping for the whole movie, to transport the "good guys" off the island.

Meanwhile, Nita has an idea. Instead of making the liquid that protects the military people from Ebirah, why not make a phony batch? Nita and the Infant Island slaves then make the phony batch. The scientists who are at the military base decide to blow up the island in a nuclear explosion. All of the military people evacuate on a ship and are killed by Ebirah because they used a phony batch of yellow liquid. Yoshimura rescues all of the slaves with his skeleton key. Godzilla meets up with Ebirah again and finishes him off by biting both his claws off. Mothra arrives and rescues the people. Godzilla tries to attack Mothra, but Mothra hits him with his wing and he falls down. All of the former slaves from Infant Island, and Ryota and his gang escape safely. Godzilla jumps off the island and the island blows up in a cheesy, '60's special effects, nuclear explosion. Godzilla, Mothra, and all the people obviously survive it.

This has got to be the best comedy Godzilla ever made. The lines and wise-cracks from the main characters are pretty darn funny! Originally this movie was supposed to star Toho's version of King Kong in here, but then they decided to use their more famous character instead (hmmm... who can that be?). I don't know why but some Godzilla fans take the character's jokes in here as if they're serious of something. It seems as if they expect "Citizen Kane," or "Seven Samurai" out of this. Yes I do know as a fact that Toho made Seven Samurai (I've got the DVD), but let me just remind you again that this is a Godzilla site and not one of wormy Leonard Maltin's (who hates Godzilla movies) movie critic discussions. One thing that I found really odd (not to mention stupid) was that the boat sinking scene in the beginning is later used as the boat seeking scene for the main characters later on! Probably explains why Mystery Science Theater made fun of this one. Anyway, besides that, this is a very entertaining feature. I always find myself quoting lines from there. ("One thing for sure, this place doesn't make toys!") ("So your the wobba' we heard about on the wadio!" "Do I look like a wobba' to ya', eh?" "Toy wifle! Skeleton key! Bweefcase! You sure look like it!") The fight scenes are very fun to watch, especially a "floating" rock fight between Ebirah (the Sea Monster) and Godzilla. One thing people get screwed about is what kind of an animal Ebirah is! Well I don't know what's wrong with those people, but Ebirah is a lobster. I've seen in books people calling Ebirah a shrimp, and a crab, but some of them have got it right and called him a lobster. One of the characters even calls Ebirah a "...mammoth lobsta'!" during the movie. Some of the scenes are later seen in Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Photos above are from my own video capture.