Godzilla: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daik (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Poster Trailer-Madman Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	82:05
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:14)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jun Fukuda
Studio Distributor	Toho Company Madman Entertainment	Starring	Akira Takarada Kumi Mizuno Chotaro Togin Hideo Sunazuka Toru Watanabe Toru Ibuki Akihiko Hirata Jun Tazaki Ikio Sawamura Pair Bambi Eisei Amamoto Hisaya Ito Tadashi Okabe
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Masaru Satô

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     When his brother’s boat goes missing in the South Seas and the authorities refuse to search further, Ryota (Toru Watanabe) more or less steals a sail boat and sets out to conduct his own search. Also on board (accidentally) are Yoshimura (Akira Takarada), a safe cracker on the run from the police, and friends Ichino (Chotaro Togin) and Nita (Hideo Sunazuka). In a storm their boat is destroyed by Ebirah, a gigantic lobster, and the four washed ashore on an island. They discover a factory area on the island protected by electrified fences, machine gun towers and armed guards. When they rescue escaped native girl Daiyo (Kumi Mizuno) they learn from her that the factory is run by the secret Red Bamboo organisation and that natives are being brought from nearby Infant Island to work as slaves. The natives of Infant Island pray to their god Mothra for help, but the giant moth is asleep. Meanwhile, Ebirah is very much awake and protects the factory island by destroying any boat that enters the surrounding sea.

     Using Yoshimura’s lock picking skills, the five castaways enter the factory area and find out that the Red Bamboo are manufacturing a nuclear weapon. But they are discovered, and hunted by guards. On the run in a cave they stumble upon the sleeping Godzilla and make the momentous decision to awake the monster. When they succeed, mayhem results. As Godzilla battles Ebirah, and also takes the time to devastate the nuclear plant, the castaways must try to avoid the monster, free the slaves and escape the island dodging Ebirah before a timed nuclear device explodes, destroying the island and all upon it. Can the natives awake Mothra in time to help?

     Godzilla vs. Ebirah – Horror of the Deep aka Gojira, Ebira, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto which translates as Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra – The Great Duel in the South Seas from 1966 is great fun. For a change, the human characters are quite interesting, especially safecracker turned lock-picker Akira Takarada and Kumi Mizuno as the feisty native girl. The script also contains a lot of humour, such as when Nita suggests that Mothra needs an alarm clock to wake up instead of prayers! The special effects are over 40 years old and look, not surprisingly, quite primitive, especially the model planes, boat and the model nuclear plant buildings. However, the monster effects are great for their time, especially Ebirah, and the monster fights are vastly entertaining. In one priceless sequence, Godzilla and Ebirah swat boulders back and forth between them like a tennis match! The film plot-wise is also more coherent than others in the Godzilla series, and builds to a tense and exciting conclusion amid the mayhem of monster fights, exploding buildings and native rites attempting to awake Mothra. There also remains a charm about these special effects that seems entirely fitting in a B grade monster movie of the 1960s; a charm that is totally lacking in more recent, CGI dominated, Hollywood films.

     Godzilla vs. Ebirah – Horror of the Deep from 1966 is great fun; an entertaining romp in the South Seas featuring Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra, twin 15 cm fairies, an evil terrorist organisation with a nuclear weapon, slaves and a beautiful native girl. This is unashamed B-grade schlock – but what else could you want in your B-grade monster fare? One of the best in the series.

Video

     Godzilla vs. Ebirah – Horror of the Deep is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced. While back projection sequences lack sharpness, the majority of the film has good clarity and contrast, blacks are fine although shadow detail is a bit hazy. The colours are quite vibrant, almost garish but skin tones are good. There is mild grain and very occasional film artefacts but nothing to spoil the enjoyment of the film. This looks very good indeed for a 40 year old B movie.

     I did not notice any issues with lip synchronisation.

     The English subtitles are in a yellow font without any obvious spelling or grammatical errors.

     The layer change at 54:14 created a slight pause on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice between Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps, Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 224 Kbps or English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 224 Kbps. Both Japanese tracks are acceptable. The 5.1 has some separation and reasonable clarity, the surrounds are used for music and creature effects and the sub woofer supported the explosions. I did not notice any panning effects. The film was originally shown in theatres with a mono sound mix and the track available on this DVD does a good job as well. It is robust and renders the creature roars, effects and explosions in a very satisfactory manner. The effects in the English dub are similar; the dubbed voices what one would expect.

     The music by Masaru Satô is a mish-mash of drums, spaghetti westerns, US guitar surf music and Japanese monster cues. Sometimes it works, sometimes the themes seem to belittle what is happening on screen with inappropriate jaunty airs in serious conflicts!

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Original Theatrical Trailer (2:10)

Poster Gallery

     6 colourful Japanese film posters.

Madman Trailers

     Trailers for other films from Madman. Included is Cromartie High School Volume 1 (1:30), Howl’s Moving Castle (1:38) and Seven Samurai (4:05).

     The US Region 1 version has a Japanese mono track and trailers as extras. The Region 2 Japanese version includes an audio commentary by Godzilla suit actor Haruo Nakajima but neither the feature nor commentary is subtitled. Region 4 is the best choice for English speakers.

    Godzilla vs. Ebirah – Horror of the Deep is one of the best in the series. It is great fun; an entertaining romp in the South Seas featuring Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra, twin 15 cm fairies, an evil terrorist organisation with a nuclear weapon, slaves and a beautiful native girl. The film is presented on a DVD with good video and audio and minimal extras.

     Godzilla vs. Ebirah - Horror of the Deep is included in the Madman 6 disc box set Godzilla Showa Classics Volume 1 along with Godzilla (1954), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), Godzilla: Invasion of the Astro-monster (1965), Son of Godzilla (1967) and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (1968). For a RPI of $49.95 this set is a fabulous way to get to know “the original monster of mass destruction”.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall