Son of Godzilla (1967)

Scientists experimenting with changes in weather on a tropical island get more than they bargained for when Godzilla shows up to battle humongous insects and protect his newborn child.

Director:

Jun Fukuda

Writers:

Shin'ichi Sekizawa, Kazue Shiba

Stars:

Tadao Takashima, Akira Kubo, Beverly Maeda

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tadao Takashima	...	Dr. Kusumi
Akira Kubo	...	Goro Maki
Beverly Maeda	...	Riko (Saeko) Matsumiya (as Bibari Maeda)
Akihiko Hirata	...	Fujisaki
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Furukawa
Kenji Sahara	...	Morio
Ken'ichirô Maruyama	...	Ozawa
Seishirô Kuno	...	Tashiro
Yasuhiko Saijô	...	Suzuki
Susumu Kurobe	...	Navigator
Kazuo Suzuki	...	Pilot
Wataru Ômae	...	Radio Operator
Chôtarô Tôgin	...	Surveyor
Osman Yusuf	...	Submarine Captain
Haruo Nakajima	...	Gojira

Storyline

A group of scientists are on tropical Solgel Island in the Pacific to conduct weather control experiments. Just before they begin, they find giant preying mantises measuring 25 feet tall called Kamakaras. They decide to go ahead with the experiments, but a malfunction in one of the devices and as a result a radioactive storm that pushes the temperature up to two hundred degrees. The storm also causes the mantises to grow even bigger to 100 feet tall. The mantises then make their way to a huge mound where they uncover a giant egg which contains a young Godzilla, later named Minilla. Eventually, Godzilla shows up and saves his offspring. The rest of the movie features Godzilla taking care of and teaching his young son the skills that will eventually help him to become the new "King of Monsters" as well as fighting the Kamakaras and a giant spider named Kumoga.

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Plot Keywords:

godzilla | kaiju | weather | island | scientist | 

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Taglines:

Ever see a monster hatch from a monster egg? You will!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some sci-fi monster violence

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

16 December 1967 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Son of Godzilla

Box Office

Budget:

$900,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,625,778

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Unusually, in the course of his tenure as Godzilla, Haruo Nakajima only played the monster in this film for the water scenes (using the "Daisenso-Goji"/"Nankai-Goji" suit), as a taller actor was needed for the majority of the film to make Godzilla seem even bigger than his son Minilla (thus the new "Musuko-Goji" suit). Tall actor/baseball player Seiji Onaka played the role of Godzilla, but after doing a quarter of his scenes, he had an accident while playing baseball during filming, breaking two fingers. After Onaka bowed out, Nakajima's protege Yû Sekita carried the rest of the role (besides being a good fit for the Godzilla suit).

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Goofs

Black vertical connection lines are clearly visible on the sky backdrop in every shot during the monster scenes.

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Quotes

Fujisaki: [referring to Goro's refusal to leave] Do you still insist?
Goro Maki: Yes.
Dr. Kusumi: We don't need any publicity.
Goro Maki: Who said I was doing this for your publicity? I'm working for myself. The smell of a story...
Fujisaki: The smell of a story?
Goro Maki: Yes. The smell of a story attracts me. The readers will decide whether to read it or not. I report what I see.

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Alternate Versions

USA DVD is uncut, featuring the original opening listed above. It is also letterboxed and features the original Japanese language Track with Optional Subtitles (with the original names intact).

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Connections

Featured in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (2008)

User Reviews

A pleasant surprise

Wow! I expected something along the lines of GODZILLA'S REVENGE, what I got instead was a pretty exciting giant monster film. Sure Minya does make for a few cutesy moments but I didn't feel these were overdone as badly as they could have been. Plus I thought the ending embrace was quite moving..of course it does work to take some of the hard edge off of Godzilla so some may hate it for that. I'd recommend this one mostly to older kids who love science fiction adventure stories and who won't be frightened by all the cool-looking giant insect critters. Too bad Minya and Godzilla look so thoroughly silly and goofy in comparison.