April 19, 2005

Yeah, I missed my deadline by a week. I've been a bit under the weather, and this column mutated (appropriately enough) into a giant monster, but I'm back to spread the B-movie love. And to make up for last week's absence, I'll be running the second part of this week's jumbo-sized column next week.

Before diving into the reviews though, I'd like to touch on a couple of items of B-movie interest. Well, they interested me.

First is the future of MGM's essential "Midnight Movie" line of quality B-movie double feature discs. With the recent purchase of MGM by Sony, and the recent bizarre withdrawal of the latest Midnight Movie discs from U.S. distribution, the future of the line seems to be in the air. Rumor has it that the line may be discontinued.

Which is a real tragedy for lovers of mondo movie goodness. The line has been home to a number of films from the AIP, Cannon, and United Artists libraries – a wide variety of quality cult cinema, presented in their proper aspect ratios in pristine transfers. In most cases, these have been the uncut, international versions with their original music restored, versions previously unavailable on U.S. home video,

There's an online petition being floated to encourage Sony to continue the line. If you're a drive-in/late night b-flick addict like I am, you might consider adding your signature. I, for one, would love to see flicks like BLOOD & LACE, KONGA, WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS, MASTER OF THE WORLD, THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN, FOOD OF THE GODS, BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, and OCTAMAN get the Midnight Movies treatment.

So click on the link below and sign up. Can't hurt.

My second item of note is this: has anybody noticed that Michael Bay's upcoming new flick, THE ISLAND, appears to be a remake of the Seventies Peter Graves movie (and MST3K favorite), PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR?

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Well, CLONUS is just out on DVD from the fine folks at Mondo Macabro. This 1979 paranoid political sci-fi thriller is a minor gem, full of Farrah hair, plenty of disco-era ambiance, and a surprisingly topical storyline. After viewing the disc (another great MM transfer with great extras), and catching THE ISLAND trailer online, I was struck by the similarities in story.

It just goes to show that yesterday's B-Movies are the Summer tentpoles of the future…

Oh no! There goes Tokyo!

This week (and next) we'll be looking at a particular genre of fantasy filmmaking. Aficionados of the genre call it kaiju eiga, which means, basically, "monster movies." The genre (and basic formula) originated in America, with 1933's KING KONG, but it's the Japanese who have really made it their own, mixing cultural memories of atomic devastation with a Shinto mythology rich with demons and monsters.

To most Americans, the Japanese monster genre is synonymous with bad acting, cheap special effects and hokey stories, a belief held up by endless television airings of horrendously edited, cropped, and ineptly dubbed prints. U.S. distributors, in their efforts to make the films more palatable to Western audiences, were merciless with their scissors, excising subplots, re-arranging scenes, and sometimes adding new, quickly shot footage with minor Western actors. And the dubbing, no matter how carefully done (and usually it wasn't), always added an extra layer of cheese to the proceedings.

But thanks to DVD, we here in the West can finally see these films the way their creators intended. Many of the most recent batch of kaiju films to be released on disc have been presented in their correct widescreen aspect ratios, finally allowing the skillful compositions of the cinematographers to be seen and appreciated. They're also frequently available in their original language, with English subtitles. You'd be surprised how much better the acting appears when the dialogue matches the actors' lips! Even the high resolution of the DVD image sometimes helps these films, allowing viewers to fully appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into building all those finely detailed miniature skyscrapers and rubber monster suits.

Not all Japanese monster movies are created equal, though. While some, like Shusuke Kaneko's GAMERA trilogy from the mid-Nineties, are incredibly accomplished fantasy films, easily on the level of Hollywood's best Summer blockbusters, others are just as hokey as you remember. But even lesser entries, like some of the Seventies GODZILLA films and GAPPA, can be entertaining excursions into a wild and wacky world where towering behemoths are omnipresent threats, giant robots seem a reasonable way of battling them, and Japanese insurance companies are very unhappy.

So what's out there on disc?

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Well, to begin with, Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock offers the 1967 Nikkatsu production, GAPPA THE TRIPHIBIAN MONSTER (DAIKYOJÛ GAPPA).

Known to TV audiences of the Sixties and Seventies under the inaccurate title, MONSTER FROM A PREHISTORIC PLANET (and available under that title – in a pan & scan TV print from Retromedia Entertainment, among others), GAPPA tells the well-worn tale of a group of explorers who discover a giant egg on a South pacific island. Despite the protests of the natives, they bring it back to Tokyo, where it hatches, revealing a rapidly growing "triphibian" creature. (A "triphibian," according to the film, is a creature than can move and live on land, underwater and in the air. Never covered that one in high school biology.)

Well, before long, the comical little tyke's parents come calling – several hundred feet tall and righteously pissed off. The Gappas are odd-looking gargoyles – they look like some unholy union of a parrot and an iguana, with scaly hides and tails, bat-like wings and parrot-like beaks. And, sure enough, they can fly, swim underwater and tromp toy cars with the best of them.

Director Haruyasu Noguchi's spoof of Toho Studios' Godzilla films moves along at a sprightly pace, but doesn't have the production values of its big studio rivals. That's not to say, however, that the movie isn't fun. It is, and director Noguchi contributes some nice touches, managing to give the creatures some personality. But it's a lesser entry in the genre from a studio that never again attempted another giant monster movie.

The Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock DVD is a nice package. The film is offered in two versions: the dubbed English-language version and the original Japanese. Both versions are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen transfers, with good color and very little obvious print damage. Some scenes seem a little dark, and some parts are a bit grainy, but for a nearly forty-year-old film from a small studio, it looks great. The only extras on the disc are some very informative text liner notes by kaiju genre expert August Ragone and English subtitles.

Ultimately, GAPPA is an entertaining oddity, and if you're a fan of the genre, the Tokyo Shock disc is well worth picking up.

Some of you may remember a mutant turtle named Gamera, the featured creature of a series of kiddie kaijus that aired regularly on American TV in the Sixties and Seventies. Those films were, to put it charitably, goofy (which isn't to say they weren't fun), with the giant flying turtle portrayed as "friend to all children," and battling some of the weirdest, wildest monsters in the genre.

Well, in the mid-Nineties, director Shusuke Kaneko (NECRONOMICON) and screenwriter Kazunori Itô (GHOST IN THE SHELL), "reimagined" the titanic tortoise in a trilogy of films that many fans (myself included) believe are the absolute best in the genre. Action-packed, smart, dark, and visually exciting fantasy films, they've managed to make the idea of a giant flying turtle somehow, well, considerably less goofy.

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ADV Films has released all three of these movies – GAMERA GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE (GAMERA DAIKAIJÛ KUCHU KESSEN, 1995), GAMERA 2: ATTACK OF LEGION (GAMERA 2: REGION SHURAI, 1996), and GAMERA 3: THE REVENGE OF IRIS (GAMERA 3: IRIS KAKUSEI, 1999) – on DVD in the U.S., in an attractive boxed set. All three films are presented in beautiful letterboxed transfers (although, for some reason, the first one is not enhanced for 16:9 displays), and include the original Japanese language tracks with optional English subtitles.

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In GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, a trio of giant, bird-like carnivores hatch and indulge in a feeding frenzy – unfortunately, it's the good people of Nippon that fall prey to their voracious appetites. Ancient prophecy has foretold the coming of these creatures (called Gyaos) and states that a Guardian creature will appear to combat them. That creature turns out to be the original mutant turtle, Gamera, who rises from the sea ready to smackdown with the winged predators. Add in a young girl with a psychic link to the towering terrapin (which, yes, still flies by spinning around like a top), a lovely ornithologist and some kick-ass kaiju battles on the ground and in the air, and you have a masterpiece of monster mayhem.

When this film was released in '95, fans were blown away by the quality of the special effects. Rarely had monster suits looked so realistic or miniature cities so detailed. Subtle use of CGI effects enhanced the extraordinarily well-shot destruction scenes, and even more importantly, those scenes of devastation carried with them a surprising amount of power and drama. Also, for a change, the human characters were well delineated, and they didn't get lost amid the explosive action.

It's a great film, and, until the sequels came along, one couldn't imagine how it could be improved upon.

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Yet, ATTACK OF LEGION ups the ante considerably, with a more complex, solid science fiction threat – an alien life form that consumes silicon and is made up of multiple individual organisms – even better special effects, and a remarkably tense screenplay. Once again, the human characters are interesting and the cast's performances are surprisingly low-key and effective, lacking in the expected histrionics.

The nature of Legion (the space monster) lends itself to some surprisingly original battle sequences, as Gamera confronts the creature in its multiple forms. Once again, highly detailed suits and miniatures combine with effectively subtle CGI work and artful direction to produce a series of astounding "money" shots that will make most viewers' jaws drop.

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And things get even more mind-blowing in REVENGE OF IRIS, the concluding chapter in the greatest kaiju trilogy ever made. In this one, a young girl who blames Gamera for the death of her family during his battle with Gyaos in GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, discovers a strange, tentacled creature in a cave. She names the creature after her cat, Iris, and by the mid-way point of the film, she's bonded physically with the rapidly growing creature and set out to avenge herself on the titanic turtle.

Everything is bigger in this film: the monster battles are mind-blowing and remarkably realistic and brutal. When Gamera gets a spike through his arm, you can't help but wince. Many characters from the previous two films return, as do the man-eating Gyaos. The plot, which plays out like one of the most bizarre animes imaginable, grabs you and pulls you along in way that most of these films can't. The story is more personal, more human – yet the scale of the destruction is apocalyptic.

ADV's Gamera discs are fantastic. The prints are flawless and the Dolby Digital sound will give your home theater a workout. Each disc contains an abundance of extras, mostly Japanese EPK stuff: trailers, TV spots, outtakes and interviews with the special effects team. REVENGE OF IRIS also includes a jokey audio commentary track by Gamera himself. But even if these had been bare-bones discs, I'd recommend them.

The genre literally doesn't get any better than this.

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Columbia/Tristar's REPTILIAN (YONGGARY, 2001) requires some explanation. Made in South Korea, the movie is an updated remake of the 1967 flick TAEKOESU YONGGARY, known on American television and home video as YONGARY, MONSTER FROM THE DEEP. The new version was made by director Hyung-rae Shim specifically to prove that Korean productions could compete internationally with Hollywood films on a technical level. The dialogue was written by American Marty Poole, and it was shot in English with a no-name Western cast. The film was huge hit in Asia, and Columbia/Tristar released it on home video domestically, hot on the heels of their own inferior GODZILLA remake.

As a giant monster movie, REPTILIAN has all the right ingredients – they're just rather ineptly assembled. The film's got a prehistoric giant monster battling the armed forces, alien invaders, and a lot of footage of military bigwigs watching the monster on magical TV monitors…. but most importantly, it has jetpacks.

The plot – well, it makes virtually no sense at all. Characters are developed who disappear later without explanation. Plot threads are left dangling all over the place, and the dialogue is laughably bad. But I'm a reviewer, and I have to try to synopsize it, so (deep breath): aliens reanimate a giant dinosaur, called Yonggary, to wreak havoc and weaken our planet's defenses. They teleport him to a major (allegedly American) city, where he is engaged by helicopters, tanks, jets and (in a very cool idea) a group of soldiers with jetpacks and bazookas. Why the aliens need to reanimate Yonggary is never clear, since when they lose control of him late in the film, they send a giant monster of their own to Earth to fight him.

The effects are entirely computer generated and are about on the level of a PS2 cut scene – pretty good for a Korean studio in 2000, but kinda laughable by Hollywood standards. Columbia's transfer is flawless, with crisp images and no apparent print damage. The sound is full and robust. The disc includes a couple of text features that explain the film's convoluted production history and the fictional biology of the featured creatures, as well as trailers for the Matthew Broderick GODZILLA film and Toho's superior GODZILLA 2000.

If you're a fan of the genre, you might want to hunt it down. But frankly, the Koreans should leave giant monster movies to Japanese.

That's it for this installment – I'm exhausted. Next week, we go-go-Godzilla and take a gander at the latest batch of Big "G" flicks making their North American DVD debuts: GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA, SON OF GODZILLA, GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER, GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA, and GODZILLA: TOKYO: S.O.S. See you then.

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