Godzilla: Son of Godzilla (Kaijuto no kessen: Gojira no musuko) (1967)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Poster Trailer-Madman Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	82:05
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jun Fukuda
Studio Distributor	Toho Company Madman Entertainment	Starring	Tadao Takashima Akira Kubo Bibari Maeda Akihiko Hirata Yoshio Tsuchiya Kenji Sahara Kenichiro Maruyama Seishirô Kuno Yasuhiko Saijo Susumu Kurobe Kazuo Suzuki Wataru Ômae Chôtarô Tôgin
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

     On the island of Sollgel in the remote Pacific Professor Kusumi (Tadao Takashima) and his team of scientists are preparing a weather changing experiment when reporter Maki Goro (Akira Kubo) quite literally drops in from the sky in search of a story. With no way of leaving the island he is accepted into the team but he quickly finds that they are sharing the island with giant preying mantis type creatures (called Kamacuras in the film and Gimantis in the trailer). The team’s radio equipment is also being plagued by occasional interference, and when it happens during an experiment intended to lower the island’s temperature to below freezing it has the opposite effect, boosting the island’s temperature above 40 C and creating torrential downpours. Mudslides that result from the torrential rain uncover a huge egg. The egg is cracked by three Kamacuras revealing the son of Godzilla (never named in the film but called Minilla in the trailer), and Godzilla arrives from the sea just in time to save his son from the Kamacuras. To complete the cast, Goro discovers on the island the beautiful Saeko (Bibari Maeda), the daughter of Professor Matsumiya who had gone missing almost 20 years before. Also on the island, they learn, is a giant spider, currently asleep (called Kumonga in the film and Spiga in the trailer).

     As his son grows, Godzilla becomes a loving, indulgent dad, teaching Minilla to roar and breath fire. Cue cute baby antics; Minilla playing with Godzilla’s tail, Minilla throwing a child like tantrum when he does not get his own way. Saeko also has an affinity with Minilla, able to call to him and feed him fruit. Then when Saeko is attacked by a Kamacura, Minilla intervenes and comes off second best until Godzilla lends a paw. But the battle between Godzilla and the Kamacura awakes Kumonga and the serious battle begins. To escape, the scientists launch another weather changing experiment, this time successfully reducing the temperature on the island to below freezing and creating a massive snowstorm in the South Pacific.

     To give the film its full title Duel in Monster Island: Son of Godzilla is more Bringing up Baby than monster movie. A lot of time is spent on the humans, and they are not all that interesting. A lot more time is spent in cutesy antics by the baby Godzilla that gets rather tiresome. There are a couple of monster action sequences but they are quite brief. It is all very small scale – where in the original Godzilla Tokyo was trashed while canons and rockets roared and fighter planes raged, here it is a small base that is damaged and only rifles as weapons. The model special effects are quite primitive, such as the scientists’ base trashed by Godzilla, but the monster effects, especially the massive insects, are quite good. In contrast, baby Minilla is clearly a person in a padded suit and is not very effective.

     The tone and context of the Godzilla series of 28 films can vary tremendously and Son of Godzilla from 1967 is about as far away from the original Godzilla concept as you can get; it tries to be cute and humorous, and has few reasonable monster fights but on the whole is not as tense or interesting as it should be.

Video

     Son of Godzilla is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced. While the back projection scenes and matte paintings lack sharpness, the rest of the film looks very good. Blacks and shadow detail fine, brightness, contrast and skin tones vary occasionally and colours are vibrant. There is mild grain and occasional film artefacts, such as vertical lines in two scenes (for example 78:21) but nothing serious enough to spoil the enjoyment of the film.

     The English subtitles are in a yellow font in American English. Except for the American spelling there were no other spelling errors and I noticed only one minor grammatical error.

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 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 224 Kbps. The 5.1 is the best I have heard so far in the Godzilla films. Dialogue was clear, it has separation and reasonable clarity, the surrounds are used for music and effects and the sub woofer did support the music. It is not particularly enveloping but is effective. The original theatrical release was in mono so we have this track on the DVD. It sounds more strident, rendering well the creature roars and storm effects, so it is also quite effective and I did prefer this track. The English dub is there if one just cannot read subtitles.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The music by Akira Ifukube is sometimes quite obtrusive and includes a theme that sounds as if it is from The Arabian Nights. Sometimes it is so breezy it lowers the tension of the scene, on other occasions it is effective enough.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Original Theatrical Trailer (2:27)

Poster Gallery

     5 colourful Japanese film posters.

Madman Trailers

     Trailers for other films from Madman. Included is Godzilla vs. Ebirah – Horror of the Deep (2:18), Godzilla: Invasion of the Astro Monster (2:24) and Seven Samurai (4:05).

     There is a Region 2 Japanese version with an audio commentary by Director of Special Effects Teisho Arikawa but neither the feature nor commentary is subtitled. The US Region 1 disc has only Japanese and English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio tracks. Region 4 is the best choice for English speakers.

     The tone and context of the Godzilla series of 28 films can vary tremendously and Son of Godzilla from 1967 is about as far away from the original Godzilla concept as you can get. While it has some interesting elements, it is more Bringing up Baby than monster movie. The film is presented on a DVD with good video and audio and minimal extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall