“In two hours, the island is going to be destroyed.”
During a storm Ryota’s (Toru Watanabe) brother Yata (Toru Ibuki) was lost at sea. Believing his brother may still be alive, Ryota and a couple of his friends Nita (Hideo Sunazuka) and Ichino (Chotaro Togin) steal a boat. On board is a bank robber Yoshimura (Akira Takarada). When they run into a storm and a giant monster at sea the boat sinks and the four men wash ashore on an island.
On the island is a band of terrorists building atomic weapons. In the sea is the giant lobster-like creature called Ebirah. The terrorists are also creating a yellow liquid that when sprayed on the water keeps Ebirah from attacking them. With this protection they can sail to Infant Island and steal islanders to use as slaves. One of the people they take is Daiyo (Kumi Mizuno). She escapes into the jungle. The four castaways find her in the jungle. The five of them team up and hide from the terrorists in a cave. While they are there they find the hibernating Godzilla.
The group sneaks into the base to try to free the islanders. Things don’t go as planned. One gets caught by the terrorists and Ryota grabs a weather balloon and is taken off to Infant Island where he finds his brother Yata. They return to the island where the terrorists are based to try to free the islanders.
Meanwhile the remaining castaways waken Godzilla using a makeshift lightning rod. Godzilla fights Ebirah. Ebirah retreats back to the sea. Godzilla is then attacked by a giant condor from out of the blue and a squadron of terrorist’s fighter jets that came from who knows where. Using its atomic ray, Godzilla destroys the jets and kills the giant bird. Then he gets pissed.
“Ebirah, Horror of the Deep” was released in 1966 and was directed by Jun Fukuda. It is the seventh in the Godzilla series. In the US the film was titled “Godzilla vs The Sea Monster” and was released directly to television in 1968. The film was also released prior to the previous Godzilla movie of the series, “Monster Zero”. The US version is basically the same as the Japanese version with few changes.
There isn’t as much monster on monster action in this movie despite the fact that there are several monsters in the film. Besides Godzilla and Ebirah there is the giant condor that came out of nowhere. Even Mothra puts in an appearance at the end.
There is some camp in a few of the previous Godzilla movies. Here it is kicked up just a notch. The film was originally written to feature King Kong but Rankin/Bass didn’t like the project. TOHO on the other hand used it for Godzilla. Ebirah's name came from the Japanese word ebi, which means "shrimp," so technically, Ebirah is a shrimp and not a lobster. He is also one of my favorite Kaiju.
Kaiju is a Japanese word meaning "strange creature" or “strange beast”. In essence, in English, it means "monster" or "giant monster", referring to creatures of a large size seen in movies from Asia. Godzilla himself is regarded as the first Kaiju character in film. Sometimes Kaiju characters are somewhat metaphorical in nature. For example Godzilla is a metaphor for nuclear weapons resulting from the post-war atomic bomb devastation done to Japan. Mothra represents mother Earth and the balance of nature. Mothra is the only female Kaiju. Gamera is the defender and friend to children.
Mothra’s tiny Shobijin are played by “The Pair Bambi”.
English dubbed