"Yog- The Space Amoeba" ..... 1970 movie review, part one

 

 Release Date: August 1, 1970   Length: 83 minutes  Subs from the DVD

Director: Ishiro Honda Special Effects: Sadamasa Arikawa  Music: Akira Ifukube

 

In Japan this movie just went by the title of "Space Amoeba", in the West(America) the Yog was added in. Also added in above who did the music for this movie as it was so superb and perhaps the best of any horror or Sci-fi movie I've viewed. Ikufhube was so respected for his film scores and did too many to count for these kinds of Toho monster films. Which were usually directed by Honda and he was at the helm again though for the first time without his longtime partner. Who was the special effects master Eiji Tsubaraya who passed away in January of 1970. His protege' Arikawa took over for him and I thought did a solid job with the special effects and there were three kinds of new monsters.

 

Have on occasion talked about how older B/W films seemed to be of higher quality than color movies and that truly was the case in Japan for so long. But by 1970 when this film was released the quality of color surpassed B/W films and I thought the quality of this was quite good but it was from the DVD so that may have made a difference. A nice advantage in doing somewhat newer films is most should have a trailer or two, this film does and below is one of them. Will leave this up for part two of the review but will try to hunt for some sort of other video for that post, if successful it will be further on down.

 

 When the year hit 1970 the film industry changed quite a bit in Japan and perhaps America too. TV had become more popular so many cinemas did close down plus the viewing habits of movie fans changed. To me it seemed Yakuza films became much more popular, so didn't Pinku movies which was a newish genre and also the most popular for most of the 70's. Which means other movies lost many fans and would have to say Sci-Fi ones such as this film were the biggest losers. very few of these kind came out after this one but the genre did make a rebound. However there were of course many fans who still loved these types of films and and there was a 50th anniversary celebration for "Space Amoeba" and below are some collectables re-released in 2020.

 Main Cast: This wasn't the most known of the Toho Sci-Fi movies but was the last one they released for five years. Talked about why above and since 1955 Toho had to release at least five of these kinds of movies each year. The top three male characters are well know to me and most other horror/sci-fi fans as they starred in so many of these movies and still did up until 2000 or so. Kenji Sahara was in the "Ultra Q" drama that I recently recapped and he had the starring role in that series. Because of the beard he looked so different in this film playing a villain named Obata, appearing as guests in that TV series were also the first two characters. On another note the trio also had huge roles in the 1963 movie "Matango" which I mention often and for good reason as it's a must watch!!!! As usual this is part one of the review, will go up to about the forty minute mark or hopefully 2-3 minutes past that, of course the next post has the other half of the review. The setting for this movie was the fictional island of Sergio which was at the halfway point between Hawaii and the Mariana Islands though of course the eighty residing on the island all spoke Japanese! That was because the Navy occupied the island during the war and there weren't all that many characters with huge roles in the film.

 Below is a screenshot from early on showing the unmanned Japanese spacecraft called Helios 7 and is the main part of the story. The ship was sent on a four year voyage to Jupiter, unmanned as it's 440 million miles from Earth! In 1970 no ship had ever been sent to Jupiter so the Helios 7 would have made history but after four months it disappeared as it no longer showed on radar and there was no contact of any kind. So on Earth it was presumed that the space lab had blown up but that was not to be for some months later it landed near the Pacific island of Sergio, somehow it was never detected but the below character had seen it land in the ocean. The Helios 7 had been invaded by some sort of Bluish slime/vapor which we learned at the end was a very different new kind of life form. An evil one also as this form wanted to conquer the Earth and don't all Aliens!????  The form can take over the body of a human or animal but not many as the Bluish form was so small, of course will discuss much more about this life form in the two posts. **** The key detail is that this life form took over three everyday sea animals and made them into massive creatures but this life form did have some weaknesses....

Akira Kubo as Taro Kubo.... Freelance photographer who was hired by Asia Developments to help them with their new campaign, mainly because of Ayako's urging. But the main reason for Kudo wanting to travel to Sergio Island was that he had been on a recent assignment, on his trip back home he could have sworn he witnessed a spaceship(Helios 7) dropping into the sea near the island. That's in the first screenshot below and no one saw what Kudo did, he was irate for not getting a picture. So he jumped at the chance to return to the area and was good friends with the below man Miya, the pair actually led the search for Helios 7 and where was the Japanese equivalent of NASA?

Yoshio Tsuchiya as Kyouichi Miya.... A Biologist but actually more of an advisor for Asia Developments. He will scout out their projects to help preserve Animal Life and was so key to saving the world from this Space Amoeba though Miya admitted he was no expert on the matter. He seemed to be good friends with the photographer Kudo on the left below, once he heard the story of Helios 7 from his friend was dying to visit Sergio Island. Miya for many years had believed there was a so-called Monster Island in that area and could he finally prove his theory to be correct?

 Kenji Sahara as Makoto Obata.... A corporate spy who quickly became close to Kudo and Ayako on their cruise to Sergio Island which I was surprised at though Kudo was quite leery of this man.... for good reasons! Obata had claimed to be an Anthropologist but of course wasn't, his unnamed company had sent Obata to find out the details of the resort that Asia Developments was planning to build on Sergio Island. One thing was an underwater hotel(!), towards the end of the movie Obata was taken over by the Space Amoeba but somehow survived and actually in a way turned out to be the hero!

 Atsuko Takahashi as Ayako Hoshino.... One of the key PR employees at Asia Developments and her assignment in this movie was to scout out the island of Sergio for a new resort. Can't say this character was important to the story but always need at least one female in these kinds of movies! Atsuko was only twenty in age when this movie was filmed but had started her career in 1965 appearing in a Godzilla flick. It wasn't a long career for her as it only lasted two more years as she got married and retired which seemed to be fairly common back then and she was a cutie!

Yoshitake Saito as Rico.... Sergio Island native who was very helpful to the pair of Asia Developments employees stationed there and was often the island's guide for visitors. Somewhat early on Rico had been attacked by the creature Gezora, after that he was very subdued and had a case of amnesia. But by the end of the movie he had recovered, his girl was the below character and while a wedding ceremony had begun for the pair in the movie it never finished so the pair remained unwed.

Yukiko Kobayashi as Saki.... Rico's girlfriend and they did come so close to being married n the film but a Space Amoeba attack prevented that. Think she also served as a tour/visitor guide and was the most friendly of the island people. Yukiko was 24 in age when this movie was filmed, she was very busy up until 1974 but because of an illness retired and never attempted a comeback.

Tetsu Nakamura as Ombo.... The Priest/Shaman of Sergio Island, it wasn't an important nor big role and Ombo did not like these newly arrived Japanese visitors.

 Togin Chotaro as Yokoyama.... Survey engineer for the Asia Developments company. He and his partner were sent to Sergio Island to survey the land, water, etc. for buildings but he wasn't seen after the 25 minute mark. For Yokoyama was killed then by the Gezora monster, at about the ten minute mark his partner Sakura had also been slain by the creature! Yokohama is in the left in the below top screenshot, in the second is Sakura.

 Of course actors wore rubber suits to portray these three creatures but won't list their names though do have some info on these monsters. All three were ordinary sea animals but when the Bluish slime/vapor from the Space Amoeba enters any kind of living body it changes shape but in this case the only difference was these creatures grew in size but were very strong. None had any kind of special powers but being that huge size did make them very powerful and seemed bullets couldn't penetrate their outer skin, remember these are sea animals. 

 Below have a screenshot of the three creatures we saw in this movie, none were all that scary but I thought the special effects were quite good. None of them had any special powers but when the Space Amoeba entered their body they grew to about ten times its normal size, perhaps even more. So that meant all were so much stronger but all did have a weakness which was fire and light. Living in space meant this life form had adapted to cold temperatures, even on Earth its body temp remained at zero. So light and heat were key to defeating the creatures but it took more than those, such as certain noises can be harmful and more about that in the next post. The first sea animal to turn into a creature controlled by the Space Amoeba was Gezora in the top screenshot, he became a giant Squid. As a matter of fact Gezora also made a guest appearance in two Godzilla flicks. He died in the middle of the film and when that happened the Bluish fluid entered the body of a Crab who the Sergio Island natives dubbed Ganime. That monster is in the middle screenshot and the bottom one belongs to the third creature who was named Kamoeba. He was a Turtle though no relationship to Gamera, while not overly scary will give a thumbs up to the special effects team for creating three new monsters.

 Am curious of what would happen if I stopped the writing at this point and had eighty screenshots below of what took place? They do go in order of the action so that would make the story easy to follow. Plus the above has such a vast amount of info so wonder if that with many screenshots would be enough to understand what happened? That is a good question and bet many of you could follow things well enough but there are also many things that need to be explained. Not patting myself in the back but I think the above may be the best of these intro sections to date, better be as it took so long! As is the case for almost all movie reviews will break it down into two posts, each will have three segments and have been good at just having two paragraphs in those.

 The movies I pick to review are always ones I had never seen which was the case for this flick. Another is that I try to make it one that isn't too well known with not many posts or reviews of it already done on he internet. There are a few other reviews for this film but not a huge amount and none are as detailed as this one will be! Didn't read those other reviews too closely as not to spoil anything but for the most part it seemed others thought this was just a so-so film so went in under the impression to expect that. However I thought this was rather good, not at the level of the classic Toho Sci-Fi flicks but all in all found this quite enjoyable and interesting, will talk more about that in the next post. Almost all of this movie will take place on the island of Sergio located halfway between Hawaii and the Mariana Islands. But in the first ten minutes we did see an outer space scene, a short one set in Tokyo and then on a cruise ship, the remainder of the film took place on the remote and not well known island.

 The year is 1970 and no country had ever sent a spaceship to Jupiter to research it, did find out many interesting tidbits about the planet. One being on average it's 440 million miles from Earth but that changes often because of their orbits and at times can be close to 600 million miles away!!!! So that's a key reason why no ship had been sent there but the Japanese government sent the unmanned Helios 7 spaceship to the planet. That's in the top screenshot and it was expected to be a four year journey but after four months all contact with the ship was lost so it presumed Helios 7 had blown up. Some months after that the main star/hero of the movie Taro Kudo was returning to Japan from an overseas assignment, he's a photographer and is in the fourth screenshot. In the third was what he witnessed from the window of his plane, the capsule of a spaceship dropping into the ocean and he wondered could that possibly be the Helios 7? It happened so quickly Kudo was unable to take a photo and was kicking himself for days as what a scoop that would have been if it truly was the missing Helios 7! Though he had wondered and so didn't I why no one else had seen the spaceship such as the pilots of the airplane he was on nor the Japanese equivalent of NASA? The capsule landed off the shores of Sergio Island, that's in the middle screenshot above and wasn't a well known isle, Kudo at the time had never heard of it. Back in Tokyo Kudo told his editor/agent about what he had viewed and was laughed at, get that foolishness out of your head and report to his next assignment was the man's order which did not interest Kudo in the least

  Kudo was a freelance photographer so walked away from that job and heard about a company called Asia Developments which was looking for a photographer. That company builds hotels, golf courses. resorts and the such, of all places the company wants Kudo to travel to Sergio Island to help them promote their new project!!!! The above woman talking to Kudo was named Ayako Hoshino and was a PR officer at Asia Developments, she showed him where Sergio Island was located. Kudo jumped for joy as that's where he saw the Helios 7 drop into the ocean and he quickly signed up to be their photographer. Also going along will be Kudo's friend Kyouchi Miya who is a Biologist working at Asia Developments, he checks that the wildlife won't be affected, the terrain is suitable and other various things, the trio will be leaving for the island the next day. Unknown to them tragedy had struck Sergio Island and what took place is in two above screenshots. On the island were two Asia Developments engineers who were creating the plans for the new hotel, golf course and and any other buildings needed for this massive project. The two men were named Sakura and Yokoyama who suggested the pair take a break and go fishing one morning. According to Sakura that's taboo with the island inhabitants who only numbered eighty, what took place is something neither could have imagined. For appearing out of the ocean was a massive Squid and the islanders have named it Gezora, within seconds its long tentacles had grabbed Sakura and the creature made him its breakfast! Escaping barely was Yokoyama and he remained shook up for the rest of his life which wouldn't be lasting too long, in the bottom screenshot is the island Shaman Ombo who was furious that these creatures had made Gezora so angry!

 I did wonder about the massive Squid Gezora and why the Sergio Island residents had feared it? We do learn that the creature grew so large because of what was in the Helios 7 spaceship but that had just crashed near the island a few days before, the way the Shaman talked it seemed as though it was a centuries old legend. The cruise ship Kudo, Miya and Ayako were on didn't go all the way to Sergio Island, a boat with a native named Rico went out to bring the trio to the island and he spoke perfect Japanese. The trio had become a quartet on the journey as forcing himself into the group was the man with a beard whose name was Makoto Obata. You could tell he was one slimy man and Kudo had the same feeling, Obata claimed to be an Anthropologist though in reality was a corporate spy. His mission was to steal all of the info on Asia Development's new project which included an underwater hotel! So Obata was able to work himself into getting invited to the island though Kudo kept close tabs on him. On the trip from the cruise liner to the island Rico told the group of what had taken place with the two engineers, Sakura was killed and Yokoyama was going insane! At first the group didn't know what to believe, a massive Squid had killed an Asia Development(?) engineer and Obata thought Rico was pulling their legs which infuriated the islander.

 But believing Rico was Kudo who above told Yokoyama him, Miya and Ayako would do all they could to find out how/why his partner was killed and the truth behind this creature. The hunt for answers began immediately and the search at first led the group to a cave as it may have been the only place where a massive creature such as Gezora could hide when not in the island's bay, Luckily for them no monster was there but a Japanese watch was found, a recent make so how did it get there? That I confess to not knowing and wonder was my mind somewhere else for a few moments? For now the four newbies to Sergio Island have to set up camp in the beach as the Shaman Ombo is still furious at the two engineers for the awakening of Gezora and the Shaman won't give them any lodgings. Only eighty natives reside on the island and Yokoyama did have his own hut. Kudo and Obata visited the place and to Obata's glee he saw plans for the new Asia Development project! Thinking he wasn't seen Obata grabbed some of the blueprints and stuffed them into his pocket but unknown to him Kudo was lurking nearby and took a photo of the act. Shortly after the pair returned to the beach, it won't be the last we hear of Obata's theft but it will be the last we hear of Yokoyama's life!!!! For appearing in the small village was the monster Squid Gezora, he killed Yokoyama by throwing him abut a hundred yards in the air into a ravine which was a bit exciting, somehow Rico survived the encounter. But he was just a shell of his former self as Rico could barely mumble a word and couldn't recall one thing about the attack as Miya surmised he had amnesia. Plus one other unique feature Miya discovered was that it appeared a wound on Rico may be frostbite and how could that happen on a tropical island?

 Did say the theft of the Asia Development plans would be brought up again, that's in the top two above screenshots. The mainlanders were having a meeting on what steps to take next, for some inane reason Obata thought these tales of a giant Squid were a hoax yet there's two dead men! Kudo brought up the fact of him stealing the new resort plans from Yokoyama's hut and the cat was out of the bag for Obata who did come clean and confess to being a corporate spy. Obata did give Ayako back the Asia Development plans but did those really matter at the time for now the main focus was of the four staying alive and somehow leaving Sergio Island without being slain by the giant squid Gezora! Up until now the four of Kudo, Miya, Ayako and Obata hadn't been the main part of the story but will be from here on out. Especially Kudo and Miya as it will be up to them to save themselves and the islanders, though not an expert on animals and such Miya did have some sensible theories. To begin off with he suggested looking for the secret hiding place of Gezora, to leave the island he first must be defeated and being a squid must mean his lair is in the sea. Two screenshots above show Kudo and Miya scuba diving in the ocean and while they didn't find the location of Gezora's home they did discover some future useful life saving info.

 The pair did run across the gigantic squid under the water but were able to elude the sea creature, being large meant Gezora was stronger but also meant it wasn't as agile. There was a brief skirmish with the monster who could have crushed Kudo but backed off and swam away, what brought that departure on? Miya had some ideas at the time but wanted to make sure of his theory, it has to do with the body temperature of the squid plus a unique sound and what Miya's theory is will be talked about in part two of the review. But the pair did deduce the monster was a massive squid, both Kudo and Miya believe the Helios 7 spaceship was the cause of its growth but how? Part two will have much info jammed into it, even though we're at about the halfway mark of the movie what Gezora really is has remained a mystery. That's the squid leaving the ocean right above, it was an odd looking creature but so powerful as the Sergio islanders were about to find out. For Gezora launched his most violent attack upon the islanders to date, that's in the bottom three screenshots above and the first three below. During the attack many islanders were killed and most of their small village's huts suffered the same fate, what had made the monster suddenly get so out of control? Will save most of the details for part two but here's when the biologist Miya began to explain some of his theories though did tell all he was no expert on such matters. He felt Gezora was being controlled by some other kind of life form, Kudo believed that fully also but how will that help in defeating Gezora? It might not but Miya did notice another strange reaction the monster had towards something, the first was in the ocean and had to do with noise. This time Gezora appeared to be so frightened of Fire and before he could destroy the whole village the monster retreated back into the ocean to escape the burning village's flames. With that will end part one of the review as we're at the halfway point of the screenshots, with each passing minute the movie has bene getting better. Did leave out much info about the theories off Miya and thought it'd be better to have them all at once which will be in part two of the review which is the next post, also will be introducing two more monsters!!!!