Alternate Titles: Ebirah Horror of the Deep, Godzilla Ebirah Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas
Year: 1966
Director: Jun Fukuda
Special Effects Director: Sadamasa Arikawa
In The Suit: Haruo Nakajima (Gaira), Hiroshi Sekita (Ebirah)

This is a very different sort of Godzilla film. Actually, it wasn't meant to be a Godzilla film. This plotline was originally intended for King Kong, but for some reason Kong was switched out for Godzilla at the last minute. It wasn't because Toho lost the rights to Kong because King Kong Escapes will still come out next year. But for some reason Godzilla got put in this movie despite the plot being designed for Kong in some very specific ways, as we'll see below.

But even beyond that, the difference is highlighted by the soundtrack. Instead of the usual Akira Ifukube marching music, we have a very surfy, jazzy soundtrack that would be at home in a James Bond film. And the movie takes place pretty much out on an island far from Godzilla's (literal) stomping grounds.

This is the first Godzilla film to be directed by Jun Fukuda, who does bring the series in a more kid friendly direction (although Ishiro Honda had already moved the series in that direction in a major way), but i don't know if that's the reason for any differences. I think it's mainly the fact that a) this was originally a King Kong film and b) the times they are a-changin' and this move is just a reflection of that.

We watched the subtitled version of this but we also have the Mystery Science Theater 3000, which riffs on the English dubbed version. The one major difference is that the dubbed version starts off with a boat getting attacked by a giant lobster claw, which is actually a scene taken from later in the film in the Japanese version. A weirder thing about the dubbed version is that during the opening credit, it shows scenes from Son Of Godzilla (the Kamacuras attacking Minilla's egg).

On the boat getting attacked (not shown in the Japanese version) is Yata (played by Toru Ibuki), the brother of one of the main (human) characters of the film. The Japanese version opens with their mother getting confirmation from a psychic that the brother is still alive. When some villagers tell her that she has to give up on her son who has been reported dead, she says that her other son, Ryota (played by Toru Watanabe), is already at the police station asking them to help. The police refuse to help, but Ryota notices a sign for a Dance Marathon that is giving away a boat as a prize. The English version skips the police station and goes right from the psychic to the dance.

We're already three days into the dance, so Ryota is disqualified from winning, but he hooks up with two dancers that just dropped out and they take him to the docks, apparently because they think it's funny to just show him a boat. They go so far as to enter one of the boats and snoop around, noticing that it's fully stocked and ready to sail, and then they realize that someone is on the boat and is pointing a gun at them. Weirdly, he tells them that he'll let them sleep on the boat but they have to leave in the morning. And when they wake up, they find that they are already at sea because Ryota took the boat out to find his brother while the others were sleeping.

It comes out that the guy that was already on the boat isn't the owner. He's a thief who stole some money and was hiding on the boat. And eventually these guys run afoul of the giant lobster claw when they get near the area where Yata's boat was said to have been destroyed (this is the scene that was used earlier in the dubbed version to depict the brother's boat getting destroyed).

The four guys survive the claw attack but their boat is destroyed and they wash up on a tropical island. They climb up a cliff wall and one of them finds a sword and assumes there are cannibals on the island. They are mighty sophisticated cannibals if they are using steel weapons. In the dubbed version, he says "savages" instead of "cannibals". The four guys travel around on the island for a while and eventually see a boat coming in, spraying a yellow liquid into the water.

The boat is met by some soldiers, including Captain Ryuui, who is played by Akihiko Hirata, and he's got an eyepatch again like he had in the first Godzilla movie except this time it's on the other eye and it has a picture of a dragon on it. Ryuui formally tells the captain of the boat (played by Hideyo Amamoto) that "X-13 has been delivered" and the captain responds that it has been officially received, and in return the captain turns over a supply of pacific islander slaves. Our main interest here is Kumi Mizuno, the female Planet X alien from the previous movie, playing Dayo.

Nice tan.

A pair of the slaves escape and manage to avoid all the shots from the soldiers (especially the ones that are firing in such tight formation that if they were actually shooting bullets they'd be putting holes in the backs of their compatriots) and they flee to a conveniently placed dugout boat. However, they are stopped by Ebirah (named by the natives), the giant lobster.

Frankly, two measly humans seem to be too small to be worth the time of a lobster big enough that he'll be fighting Godzilla later. Toho also falls into the common trap of coloring the lobster red, which is actually only the color lobsters turn when they get cooked.

Dayo eventually meets up with Ryota and his friends, and it turns out that she and the other natives are from Infant Island, home of Mothra. She confirms that Ryota's brother Yata is on Infant Island and starts praying to Mothra, but nothing happens.

You have to sing for longer than that.

We switch over to a ceremony on her island.

We also see the fairy twins aaaand who the heck are these two ladies?

Min doesn't like how these fairies are dressed, by the way. Complained about it every time they were shown.

I guess the Peanuts decided it was time to move on. It isn't said who these guys are, but they aren't actually twins. It's one actress named Pair Bambi.

What the hell is this? What are they wearing!? Where are the Peanuts?

Oh by the way, the good guys all wind up hiding out in a cave where Godzilla is sleeping. Or more like passed out.

He works hard. He plays hard.

He is conked out, though, and doesn't even wake up when one of the doofus kids drops some rocks on him.

Dayo explains that the army guys are called Red Bamboo. Their leader is played by Toho regular Jun Tazaki.

And they've been kidnapping natives from Infant Island to use as slaves in a compound here on "Devil's Island".

I'm sorry, but Mothra would not allow that.

The slaves are put to work making yellow juice out of the local fruit. The juice keeps Ebirah away. The process looks pretty similar to how the natives make the red juice that cancels out radioactivity back on Easter Island.

Just like being at home.

Dayo says that "Mothra is sleeping now", which explains why she hasn't protected her islanders and maybe why she didn't appear in the last movie. One of the kids says, "You ought to get her an alarm clock or something".

While Mothra sleeps, the natives on Infant Island dance. And dance and dance and dance, and the fake fairies sing and sing and sing. I'll tell you, the one downside of a Mothra movie is all the dancing and singing.

It would be fine if they were the Peanuts and they were singing the real Mothra song. Someone ought to break it to these pretenders that they're singing to a painting of Mothra.

The teens decide to sneak into the Red Bamboo compound to rescue the natives. They use the old moving bush technique, hiding behind a bush and moving forward when no one is looking. When they make a noise and the guards turn the spotlight on them, Dayo releases a bird she's been holding so that the guards think the bird made the noise. Neat trick!

They manage to get into the compound thanks to the picklock skills of the thief in the party (87% chance to open locks). Then they make their way through the base, hiding behind columns when guards patrol past them.

Make sure when we build our secret fortress we don't have these columns to hide behind.

They discover that the base is made of Fisher-Price toys.

They also discover that Red Bamboo is making heavy water for nuclear bombs. The group on the island is part of a larger whole, and headquarters is demanding that they increase production and double the lab's output. We never do find out about the larger organization. Maybe it's a stand-in for China?

They manage to get around the base without being noticed for quite a while, despite bumbling around in brightly colored jackets...

...accidentally running into a nuclear reactor, and shouting in front of an unnamed scientist played by Hisaya Ito (Malnus from Ghidorah). They also manage to pick up some smoke grenades and Dayo acquires a loop of copper wire, but is admonished for "shopping". They do finally get noticed and chased by Captain Ryuui. During the chase, one of the two friends from the dance-a-thon gets captured and thrown in with the Infant Island slaves, and Ryota gets caught in a helium balloon which he very expertly secures himself in and navigates over to Infant Island to reunite with his brother, Yata.

Ryota and Yata confer with the Fairies who supply them with a raft, some yellow juice to repel Ebirah, and a message for the natives to build a big net for when they are rescued. They'll keep singing to Mothra and hope she wakes up eventually. Yata, by the way, had no idea that any of this was going on despite having been living on Infant Island since Ebirah destroyed his ship (and ate the rest of his crew?). I guess he's had other things to think about.

The remaining good guys - the thief, Dayo, and the other dance-a-thon guy - head back to the Godzilla cave to hide. Captain Ryuui has been leading the troops out to shoot randomly and excessively into the underbrush for what is apparently several days. Eventually, the dance-a-thon guy puts his head to the ground and realizes that he can hear Godzilla's heartbeat. This is apparently a shock, but why? If they thought he was dead, why were they so scared of him?

Speaking of shocks, they get the idea to revive Godzilla with lightning. Now, you might say that a nice electrical jolt would wake up anybody. But you might remember from King Kong vs. Godzilla that "As a reptile, Godzilla might shy away from electricity.". And that it was King Kong who drew strength from lightning and electricity. This is a reminder that this movie was originally plotted for Kong. Even the location, an island in the Pacific, works better for Kong. Godzilla was last seen falling into the ocean (with Rodan and Ghidorah), sure, but near Japan. It was King Kong who was last seen swimming home to Faro Island in the Pacific after his epic battle with Godzilla. Clearly after that fight and a long swim he climbed ashore and passed out from exhaustion. Heck, this might even have been Faro Island in the original script. But anyway, it's Godzilla we've got here, not King Kong, so i guess Godzilla just got swept out to sea after his fight from the previous movie. And the lightning does indeed wake him up.

The thief is initially against reviving Godzilla but Dance-A-Thon reminds him that they are going up against guys that are building nuclear weapons, and also that "Godzilla doesn't want to" destroy the world. I guess he saw Godzilla's face turn over the last two movies.

Now, as we've seen before, when Godzilla wakes up, his first thoughts are of breakfast. And lobster for breakfast may seem extravagant to you, but you're not King of the Monsters, are you?

Godzilla and Ebirah start things off with a goofy rock volley...

OMG this fight.

Eventually Godzilla loses the volley by smacking the boulder off the court, and into one of Red Bamboo's guard towers. Sorry about that, you guys! My bad!

Godzilla then decides to wade into the water to continue the fight with Ebirah, but Ebirah rudely splashes him before he gets in. No fair! I wasn't even in yet! So he blasts Ebirah with his breath.

Ok, now Ebirah can be red.

The fight continues underwater, but Godzilla is amphibious so that's no problem for him...

...and soon Ebirah is hightailing it away, as Godzilla laughs.

Red Bamboo calls in to headquarters for reinforcements and preps itself as best it can now that they know Godzilla is on the island.

Godzilla's fight with Ebirah was timely, because it prevented the giant lobster from eating Ryota and Yata as they were returning from Infant Island. Yata is apparently a real zealot and he berates the others for not having rescued the natives yet, and he runs off to go do it himself. The others go along.

Min would like to point out a clothing discrepancy between the kids, who wear long sleeves and jackets, and the natives who go around in skimpy clothes. The point is of course to have Dayo in a bikini. Even beyond that, you'd think the kids would ditch their outerware just because they are are bright yellow and orange, not exactly suited for stealth missions.

They sure are sneaky in their neon jackets!

Red Bamboo has microphones planted around their camp, so they are alerted to the kid's attempt at rescuing the natives, and they send a contingent of troops after them. Again, shooting into the underbrush with abandon. They obviously don't want from lack of bullets. But the troops' assault is cut short when Godzilla takes notice of the noise.

In a moment that is weird for Godzilla but which would be totally in character for King Kong, the giant monster becomes fascinated with Dayo. He's also got a weird growl that you don't normally hear from him.

Now, Toho has gotten somewhat better about having monsters and people on the screen at the same time, but they don't risk having Godzilla actually pick Dayo up or anything. But he does sit down and stare at her, mesmerized...

...while she (weirdly) crouches next to a rock and doesn't attempt to run away (what the hell are you doing???). This is probably an artifact of the original script; i'm sure King Kong would have actually picked her up.

Godzilla winds up falling asleep (ofc he does), and the boys make an attempt to rescue Dayo...

...but Godzilla is awakened by a giant condor.

One of the best jokes in MST3K's riffing on this movie is here, with them saying in Godzilla's voice, "Who am I, Tippi Hedren?" (the main character in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds). It's funny because, let's face it, this bird is absolutely no threat to Godzilla. It's big to a human, but to Godzilla, it's proportionately the same size as a regular bird. The scene was surely meant to recall King Kong's 1933 fight with a pteranodon. But Godzilla's awesomeness can override any script, so he just rolls his eyes...

...and blasts the thing. It was one brave condor, i'll give it that.

I'll admit that there's a little more headpecking in the movie than i'm letting on, but ultimately it's not much of a fight. Hence Godzilla's end taunt.

Ooh, he's touching his nose at you! Burn!

Godzilla nearly falls back asleep, but then planes sent by Red Bamboo's headquarters arrive. I was speculating earlier about who Red Bamboo might represent, and the fact that they are producing nuclear missiles en masse plus the fact that they have a fleet of jet fighters does seem to suggest a country, not some rogue terrorist group. Godzilla doesn't care about any of that, of course, but he knows planes, and immediately gets angry and ready to fight.

The plane battle is a joke. Deliberately. It's a surf music hootenanny, with the planes doing a typically poor job of actually hitting him...

...and Godzilla stomping around and swinging wildly.

They really wanted to show Godzilla reaching out and grabbing a plane, but in order to do that they had to have the plane fly right into his hand.

It's the only way they ever can hit Godzilla, cause they sure as hell can't manage with bullets and missiles.

All Godzilla has to do is stand there and the planes will decimate themselves. Some just fly directly into the nearby mountain wall.

With Godzilla all riled up, it's now time for his trademark city stomp. But there's no real cities on this island, so Red Bamboo's little lego fortress will have to do.

Red Bamboo responds by shooting their guns sideways, completely past him. This is, of course, completely ineffective.

Godzilla's rampage makes a mess of Red Bamboo's fortress, destroying their nuclear reactor and endangering the slaves. But Mr. Safecracker comes through again and is able to unlock the prison door and free the natives. The bad news is that the Red Bamboo leader has ordered an evacuation of his troops and had his scientist set up the island to explode in a nuclear blast. The kids are unable to stop the countdown.

Red Bamboo's evacuation doesn't go so well, because the Dance-A-Thon kid that was imprisoned with the natives got them to stop producing legitimate yellow juice and replace it with a fake substitute created with just the leaves of the fruit. So when Red Bamboo leaves in a boat, their spray fails to keep Ebirah away and they are all giant lobster food.

Godzilla spots Ebirah again, and reacts with outrage. I thought i kicked your ass! You're still hanging around here?

So they get back into it.

Meanwhile, Mothra finally shakes off the shackles of sleep and heads over to help her worshipers on Devil's Island

About damned time. Some guardian spirit you are.

The Godzilla/Ebirah fight gets pretty brutal...

...with Godzilla eventually ripping off first one and then two of Ebirah's claws, and then taunting him with it, snapping the claws mockingly.

Ok, that's kinda douchey, Godzilla. But it's Ebirah, so, i totally get it.

Ebirah knows defeat when he sees it.

Don't worry, lobster claws will grow back, given time.

At this point, Godzilla has the Warrior Madness, so he turns on his former ally Mothra when she arrives. Mothra is like, "Oh Godzilla, we've talked about your rage issues. When are you going to learn to control yourself?", and she just pushes him back with her wings.

The Natives and the teens finish constructing their net, and Mothra grabs it and picks them all up for the return flight to Infant Island. Godzilla looks on, confused.

Huh? Weren't we having a good time fighting? You're just leaving?

The teens start to worry that Godzilla will get killed in the bomb blast. After all, he helped them, and they don't want him to die. So they start shouting at him to leave the island.

Eh?

And he seems to heed them, and jumps into the water.

When you're Godzilla, you can just kind of jump out of the way of a nuclear explosion. As long as you're not at ground zero (and maybe even then!), you're fine.

The teens say, "Devil Island is gone forever but it's not the end of nuclear warheads. The future is in the hands of the people who use them." And that's your message of the day. Mr. Safecracker says that after the experiences here, maybe he'll go straight, and everyone laughs.

Continuity wise, it may be a little weird for Godzilla to be out in the Pacific Islands, but at least from this point Toho remains consistent and Godzilla will still be out in this general area for the next Godzilla film (Son of Godzilla).

This is not considered one of the classics of the Godzilla line, and it's not hard to see why. The monster threats (a giant lobster?!) aren't so spectacular, the environment doesn't allow for the usual destruction porn, and Godzilla is weirdly out of character at times. Min even wanted to skip it during our most recent marathon! Although not as much as Godzilla's Revenge. But some of the odder choices are understandable if you realize this was originally meant as a King Kong film, and it's definitely a fun movie if you like the goofier Godzilla films.

Godzilla Drinking Game
	Someone thinks it's a good idea to drag a giant monster across the ocean on a raft (giant eggs count).
	Attacking planes fly directly at a monster, with no possibility of avoiding a crash even if the monster didn't swat them down.	Right into his hands! And directly into mountains for no reason!
	People refuse to believe in the existence of a giant monster even though they've already acknowledged that Godzilla exists.
	A submarine explodes.
	Teens have a dance party on a boat. Two drinks/head smacks if they get attacked by a monster during the party.	Teens have a dance party FOR a boat. Teens STEAL a boat. Teens attacked by monsters while ON a boat. But no dance party on a boat.
	The government is completely ineffective when faced with a corporation doing something illegal.
	A humongous lumbering monster manages to sneak up on someone. Two drinks/head smacks if it's the army and they're supposedly using radar.
	A scientist suddenly figures everything out with little-to-no information and explains it all to everyone.
	A monster suddenly grows in size just because.
	People expose themselves to major amounts of radiation with no concern.
	Everyone suddenly knows a monster's name. Two drinks/head smacks if everyone else nods appreciatively and repeats it.	The Infant Island natives know Ebirah so that doesn't count. The giant condor isn't even worth a name.
	Army missiles can't seem to hit a 150+ foot monster and instead explode harmlessly around it.	C'mon, Red Bamboo! At least make Godzilla work for it a little!
	A woman falls down for no reason.
	Bad dinosaur science. You have to give a little leeway for the time period, but pretending a children's picture book is a scientific journal is always worth two drinks/smacks.

Monsters Appearing: Ebirah, Giant Condor, Godzilla, Mothra