Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

Ebirah, a giant lobster, is, apparently, a horror of the deep. At least that is the premise of the movie titled Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. Directed by Jun Fukuda, this is the first film in the mainline Godzilla canon to not be directed by Ishirō Honda so hopefully some distinctions in their direction style will be clear here. Haruo Nakajima is once again Godzilla, with newcomer (?) Hiroshi Sekita playing the titular Ebirah. Writing this without having seen it yet, I am dubbing this current era of Toho releases "the dark times" due to my general underwhelming response to the last couple of movies we have seen. Hopefully Ebirah breaks this streak, but word on the street is this is not one of the beloved films of the Showa era. Crossing fingers!

Also, humorous (or foreboding?) side note: this movie was originally supposed to start King Kong against the dreaded Ebirah. But when the rights owners of Kong rejected the concept Toho gladly took up the task and cast their homegrown monster in the role. Word on the street is that the script was changed very little given this change of concept, so we might see some reverberations of that through this film.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Searching for his missing brother whom he is certain is alive, Ryota steals a boat from a dance marathon competition and goes searching.

- Things do not go well, as he and his companions come across the giant lobster Ebirah and nearly die.

- Stranded on an island, they come across a native woman from Infant Island and make friends. She tells them that the terrorist organization Red Bamboo has kidnapped some of her people and forced them produce a special yellow liquid to help control Ebirah.

- Meanwhile, the people still left at Infant Island pray to Mothra in the hope she will awaken and rescue their kidnapped brethren.

- The gang finds Godzilla sleeping in a cave. They wisely try to avoid waking him up.

- Moving on, they sneak into a Red Bamboo building by hiding behind a movable bush they've made in an effort to defeat Red Bamboo so they can escape.

- When that goes predictably poorly, one of the men accidentally floats away on a giant balloon which takes him to Infant Island.

- Deciding to wake up Godzilla as a weapon against Red Bamboo and their dastardly desires, they make a lightning rod which awakens Godzilla from his resting state just as Ebirah attacks them.

- Still on the run from Red Bamboo, the remaining core cast barely escapes Red Bamboo before Godzilla appears and puts the fear into them. He is distracted/infatuated by the woman the boys met earlier, apparently a plot holdover from when this was a Kong movie.

- Interrupting Godzilla longingly looking at her, a giant bird and then some planes attack Godzilla only to be soundly and easily defeated.

- Godzilla destroys the Red Bamboo base after they empower him using high voltage electricity (not how Godzilla works) and the humans find out that the entire island is going to be completely destroyed in a mere two hours.

- Godzilla and Ebirah rematch, this time taking the fight underwater where Ebirah may have the advantage.

- Godzilla wins anyway, easily.

- With 6 minutes runtime remaining, Mothra finally leaves Infant Island to retrieve her people.

- Godzilla and Mothra fight, briefly, despite being allies in their last meeting, before Mothra runs away with her Infant Island people in tow.

- Godzilla jumps off the island just as Red Bamboo's plan to destroy the island comes to fruition, narrowly escaping the giant explosion and swimming off into the ocean.

Kaiju Notes

- Ebirah's introduction is as nothing more than a giant claw destroying the boat our human leads are on. Outside of the very fake lightning effect, this introduction is very well done. Menace and mystery but without too much uncertainty about what it was: a giant claw.

- Ebirah's screech is one of the more effective roars we've heard so far.

- On his reintroduction, Ebirah literally spears two men floating near him, making it very clear that he's giant and red because of the fiery rage inside him.

- Godzilla is awaken by lightning in this movie, apparently recovered from his injuries by it. This is not a power Godzilla has ever had, and in fact appears to be a holdover from when this movie was Kong-centric.

- Ebirah and Godzilla play giant rock volleyball on multiple occasions when they first fight, it's cute and also ridiculous.

- Godzilla vastly outpowers all of his enemies in this movie except Mothra. Even his Atomic Breath is used only sparingly because it would clearly decimate all of his foes. His fights are much more human than normal, using rocks, his tail, and even kicking objects over either because it's fun or to use as weapons. 

- Godzilla continues to adopt human-like mannerisms: examples being the aforementioned volleyball squence and most notably when he rips off Ebirah's claw and claps it together in a taunting fasion.

- Mothra is perhaps at her most majestic, appearing larger than before and with more realistic colors. The closeup shots allows a better look at the "fur" on her face better than ever before.

First thing to note: this movie is much more comical than almost any of kaiju flicks we've seen thus far. While comedy is not an unexpected element in the series thus far, the first 60 minutes are almost entirely farce. The humans are bumbling even when competent, and the plot comes together almost as a series of unfortunate events, including one man accidentally floating away on a balloon. The humans using a mobile bush to infiltrate the Red Bamboo stronghold is hilarious to watch even if you think it's a good idea. It reminds me of Metal Gear Solid's Ultimate Weapon, even if this movie did come decades before the cardboard box of doom was invented.

Perhaps due to budget cuts, this movie focuses much more on the human story than any kaiju movie we've seen thus far. While I will almost always argue for more monster focus, this movie in particular gets the note as it spends a huge percentage of its time building up to Godzilla's awakening. With Ebirah being a mostly unseen force until he and Godzilla face off, the movie crams all of it's kaiju into the last 3rd or so of runtime, limiting how much they really feel like part of events even when they finally show up. While one argument could be made that the human characters are getting the kaiju tops into place before releasing them and letting them spin toward each other, another argument could be made that a Godzilla movie should have Godzilla wake up from his slumber before the 3rd act.

A few notes on the direction, things I think I noticed being different between Fukuda and Honda. Long, extended shots of the entire kaiju, showing off more detail of the suits than previous entries in the series. Scenes of destruction and the consequences are now back in the series, not truly being focused on since the original Gojira. There are also significantly more shots of human characters interacting in the same space as the kaiju, helping to create a greater sense of scale. This is one of the highlights of this movie, making the giant monsters seem giant and monstrous in a way we haven't really seen before.

Strangely, this movie comes in almost opposite of Invasion of Astro-Monster. While I found it a bit more interesting from a storytelling perspective it ultimately didn't work for me for some intangible reason. This is the opposite: an empty headed comedy that I still somehow enjoy despite the lack of time for my favorite part of any monster movie, the monsters. As you can see by me ending here, this movie isn't exactly the most intriguing (versus the paragraphs I wrote on the previous post), but I somehow enjoyed it nonetheless. Maybe I just like my monster movies stupid and think I like them smart because it makes me feel better about myself.

Next: King Kong Escapes!