Son of Godzilla
A father-son bond between monsters on a remote island.
The eighth Godzilla film, released in Japan in 1967, was directed by Jun Fukuda. Special effects were handled by Sadamasa Arikawa under Eiji Tsuburaya’s supervision. It introduced Godzilla’s son, Minilla, and received mixed reviews. In the United States, it went straight to television in 1969.
Quick Facts
- Starring
- Akira Kubo
- Tadao Takashima
- Bibari Maeda
- Akihiko Hirata
- Distributor
- Toho
- Released
- 16 December 1967 · Japan
- Country
- Japan
- Language
- Japanese
Facts from the source article.
Plot
A team of scientists attempts to perfect a weather-controlling system on a remote island, but their work is disrupted by a nosy reporter and giant mantises. The reporter, Maki Goro, arrives and is allowed to stay as a maintenance worker. He glimpses a mysterious woman living in the jungle. The first test of the weather control system fails when a radioactive balloon's remote control is jammed by an unexplained signal from the island's center. The woman, Saeko Matsumiya, is the daughter of a previous researcher who warned about a giant spider species. The balloon detonates prematurely, creating a radioactive storm that enlarges the mantises, named Kamacuras. The scientists find the insects digging an egg from under earth. The egg hatches into a baby Godzilla named Minilla. His telepathic cries caused the interference. Godzilla arrives, demolishes the scientists' base, and kills two Kamacuras while one escapes. Saeko bonds with Minilla, feeding him a mango. Godzilla adopts Minilla as his son. Minilla grows to half his father's size and learns to roar and use atomic breath, initially producing only smoke rings. Kumonga attacks the scientists' cave, and Minilla stumbles into battle.
Production
For the second consecutive Godzilla film, Toho produced an island-themed adventure on a smaller budget. While the a-list crew worked on King Kong Escapes, the second-string crew—director Jun Fukuda, special effects director Sadamasa Arikawa, and composer Masaru Sato—handled this project. This was the first film where Arikawa was officially listed as special effects director, though he received some supervision from Eiji Tsuburaya. An early draft by Kazue Shiba, titled Two Godzilla's: Japan S.O.S., had the same plot but lacked Kumonga and Kamacuras. Filming took place in Guam and areas in Japan including Gotemba, Lake Yamana, the Fuji Five Lakes region, and Oshima. Toho created a baby Godzilla to appeal to the date crowd, with the idea that girls would like a cute baby monster. The budget was 260,000,000 yen. Upon its December 16, 1967 release, it sold 2,480,000 tickets; a 1973 re-issue added 610,000 attendees, for a total of 3,090,000.
Release
Toho brought Son of Godzilla to Japanese theaters on December 16, 1967. In the United Kingdom, it played in August 1969 alongside Ebirah, Horror of the Deep as a double bill. American audiences never saw it in theaters; instead, Walter Reade Sterling and American International Pictures sent a trimmed 84-minute version to television in 1969. Sony Pictures issued the complete, uncut film on DVD in 2005, featuring both the original Japanese track and Toho’s international English dub. The Criterion Collection later included the Japanese and export English versions in a 2019 Blu-ray set covering all fifteen Shōwa-era Godzilla movies.
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin praised the film as out of the top drawer of Toho's monster file, noting the special effects department achieved their best results in monster locomotion, and that it had a more soundly constructed story than most predecessors with a delightful vein of humor allowing gentle parody. Polish journalist Melchior Wańkowicz, as recorded by Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm, was delighted with the technique of realization, having never seen the genre before.
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