Son of Godzilla (1967)
Produced and Released by: Toho Co. Ltd.
Director: Yoshimitsu Banno
By Dr Kain

Introduction

During the sixties, Godzilla had battled or was partnered with some the same few monsters throughout the first batch of movies. First it was Mothra, then Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah, then just King Ghidorah and Rodan. After “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero,” Toho changed the setting to and island where Godzilla fought a giant lobster named Ebirah. In 1967, Toho decided to give Godzilla an utterly too cute for comfort looking son named Minilla.

The Story

An airplane’s radar goes berserk due to interference and the plane almost crashes into Godzilla. The pilots first thought Godzilla was the reason for the problem, but it turns out it was coming from the opposite direction, leaving the pilots confused.

There is a team of scientists on an empty island called Solgel, where they conduct an experiment to control the weather. The men there are very hot, tired, and some of them want to go home no matter what.

Shortly after some regular tests on their machines, a plane appears in the sky and someone parachutes out of it and lands on the island. His name is Goro Maki (Akira Kubo), a journalist who has come to the island to get the inside story on what is being done there. The scientists do not like the idea and wanted him to go until they decided he would make a good housekeeper.

While on a walk through the jungle, Goro sees a girl swimming in the ocean and wants to take a picture of her. She sees him and disappears. Goro reports it back to the camp site, but they tell him no one is living on the island, so the experiment is scheduled for the next day. A human sized mantis is scene in the jungle but disappears.

The next morning, the tests are about to begin, but Goro left to try and find the girl to get her out of the cold since the experiment is to freeze the island. Everything seems successful in dropping the temperature, but then some interference causes one of the balloons to break too soon, causing an intense heat wave and boiling hot rains due to radiation.

Days have passed and the heat has gone down enough for everyone to go outside. Some of them want to leave, but they are told the radio was destroyed due to the heat. That night, the girl is found stealing one of Goro’s shirts and flees.

The human sized mantis has grown to the size of a huge monster, and there are three of them. They travel to a mountain and start to destroy it, revealing and egg. The scientists’ figure it was the egg that caused the interference. The monsters, called Kamakirasu, break the egg apart and a baby Godzilla emerges from it. The Kamakirasu attack the baby until Godzilla shows up to protect it. After two of them are dead, the third mantis flies away. Godzilla leaves the baby alone and walks away, so the mysterious girl gives it some food before Godzilla came back for it.

Goro wakes up in some cave he fell in during the attack, and finds his shirt that was stolen the night before by the girl. He goes to grab it, but the girl throws a knife at him and they argue with each other for a few minutes. Her name is Saeko, the daughter of a scientist named Dr. Matsumiya, and he died on the island a few years ago, leaving his daughter alone. Saeko and Goro go back to the camp, and he tells everyone that they can use her cave to store everything because it is cool enough to live in, which is how she survived the heat wave.

Most of the men have contracted a fever, so Saeko figures it would be best to get some red water from a special pond to cure them. It is by Kumonga though, a giant spider, and the only way to get out of its web is to burn it, and so Goro goes with her.

While getting the red water, the duo witnesses Godzilla training the baby, who has grown a bit, on how to blow fire. The baby only seems to be able to do a smoke ring until Godzilla steps on its tail. Kumonga wakes up after Goro and Saeko got the red water, but they are fortunate enough to escape. The red water heals everyone just as Saeko said it would.

The next day, Saeko is out gathering flowers to make medicine out of when she is attacked by the last Kamakirasu. She manages to call the baby before she is knocked unconscious, which comes to her rescue. Kumonga shows up and kills the Kamakirasu. Goro finds Saeko and takes her back to the cave, which is then sealed up by Kumonga. The weather equipment is now fixed, as is the radio, but they need to get a transmitter outside, so Saeko and Goro use an underwater route. Minilla (Toho’s name for the baby) shows up, but they do not have time to play with him, and they go back underwater. Kumonga nearly kills Minilla when Godzilla shows up ready for battle.

The scientists make contact with their headquarters, and they said they were sending a rescue party immediately. They escape the cave and use life boats to leave the ocean. It starts to snow during the monster battle, and Kumonga is giving Godzilla some troubles. He attacks Godzilla in the eye with a paralyzing needle-like object, but Godzilla gets angry and fries him. Godzilla and Minilla sit down in the snow to hibernate as a sub rises from the ocean to rescue everyone.

Review

Son of Godzilla has never been one of my favorite movies, but it was never as bad as some of the later ones. Unfortunately, this movie is still not quite good, especially since it was the movie that introduced Minilla. The movie’s story is average, but that is to be expected from a cheap movie that introduces an annoying monster.

Minilla is one ugly looking monster with a cute face. Now if that does not scream “Yuck” all over, I do not know what does. His body looks like he could be a relative to Godzilla, but the head is more like a humans. In fact, Minilla looks like a hybrid cross between Godzilla and a human. Maybe there is some hidden love of Godzilla we do not know about from the past, with an Amazon or something. :-) Godzilla also looks really ugly in this movie. The head has humongous eyes, giving him an anime feel because they are unnaturally large. His mouth also seems to have a happy-like grin to it, which is very scary. The neck is too long, and the rest of the suit looks too fatty. Kamakirasu and Kumonga are pretty basic being just mutated insects, so no originality was needed here. The humans are mostly in standard jungle shirts with white muscle shirts, while Goro has Hawaiian shirts, which are still worn today (I think).

Being on an island, with just a big jungle, one team of scientists, a journalist, a girl, six cheap looking monsters, a cave, and some electronic equipment calls for a small budget, this is what this movie seemed to have. Thanks to this, there was little need for explosions, just a bunch of falling rocks that can be used over. Everything is cheap, but effective.

The movie’s soundtrack was done by Godzilla Raids Again’s Masaru Sato. While not as good as his track in Godzilla Raids Again, nor as good as Akira Ifukube’s work, it is still a good one. The music adds some nice suspense to some scenes of the movie, which helps.

Conclusion

Even though the movie was cheap, no where near the best, and has an average story, it is still enjoyable, and recommended by Godzilla fans, especially if you really have the need to see the movie that introduced Minilla.

I give it a 2.5/5 stars.

Dr Kain