Synopsis
Remote Obelisk Island in the South Pacific. Representatives of Playmate Inc. arrive to retrieve animals and "South Seas beauties" in the words of the kind of sleazy company president (played by Keisuke Inoue) for "Playmate Land", an island theme park he plans to build. While on Obelisk Island, the research team finds a giant egg, out of which hatches a baby gappa - a 6 foot tall (but rapidly growing) bird-beaked lizard. The team takes the new-born back to Tokyo where the head of Playmate wants to put it on display. They are followed by two very angry parents. Parents who are 200 feet tall, fly and breath fire. Will civilization fall before the family reunion?
Analysis
Gappa is pretty entertaining, more so if you are familiar with the tropes of kaiju eiga of the time. Screenplay writers Gan Yamazaki and Ryuzo Nakanishi dump every cliche of the genre into the mix, adding the missing baby angle and a wry, if at times broad, sense of humor to a story that seems very familiar to fans of the genre.
The cast does a nice job, although Keisuke Inoue doesn't just chew the scenery; he hacks it up with a chainsaw while it's begging for mercy. The quality of the isn't significantly inferior to what was coming out of Toho at the time. The design of the gappa is a little silly (the beaks make them look like giant chickens), but the suits aren't badly made and move fairly well.
The plot - dealing with a lost child and upset parents, was put in by the writers because;
"We felt that kids could relate to the kid monster and the drama of him being separated from his parents and put on display in a carnival"This plot point works since it gives the creatures some motivation beyond "I'm big and scaly and therefore must destroy Tokyo."
There are a few standout scenes. The first shot of the baby gappa, still covered in amniotic fluid and writhing on the ground is a little creepy. The emergence of the adult gappa from an underground lake, with the suits wrapped in shadows, is an effective way to introduce the monsters. The first adult gappa attack on a Japanese city has a nice mix of men-in-suits wiping out miniature buildings and street level views from the terrified population. During this attack, the female gappa has an octopus in it's mouth, a meal for baby, one assumes, and a very nice touch.
There are a few things that detract from the film. The miniature work is uneven, with the model ships looking particular bad. The volcano on Obelisk Island is on screen for too long, given that it resembles something a high school student would make for a science fair. The flying gappa (they are "triphibian" after all) look bad, in part because of the effects, in part because the creature designs don't lend themselves to flying. There is some poorly realized rear screen projection. However, keeping in mind when the film was released and the budget, the effects generally look dated, not bad. Other notes
Although the film's plot resembles that of Gorgo - with an infant monster being found and exploited, only to have mom come and, in the case of Gorgo, level London to retrieve it - the screen play writers claim not to have seen the 1961 British film. While the plots do have similarities the idea of a monster being put on display for the public goes back at least to The Lost World (1925). Even the idea of monsters hzving offspring goes back to Son of Kong (1933). If any movie did have an influence, it was probably Toho's Son of Godzilla which was in production around the same time as Gappa and was released the same year.
Although giant monster movies didn't suit Nikkatsu, they did find a lucrative niche in another film genre, the Pinku eiga of the 70s and 80s. These films are softcore pornography, although they often were cross genre with some being period pieces, crime dramas, yakuza movies, etc. Many mix sex, violence and sexual violence. Nikkatsu's Pinku eiga generally had higher production values than their competitors.
Stuart Galbraith's book Monsters are Attacking Tokyo contains the interviews with Gen and Ryuzo. It is a great book for those who are interested in Japanese sci-fi, although it is out of print and was published in 1998, so it is, understandably, a bit out-of-date. Still, if you can pick up a copy, do so.
Verdict
Gappa is a lot of fun. While not the best kaiju eiga it is an entertaining monster film with good acting, decent effects and monsters who have some motivation beyond "crush, kill, destroy." Check it out. You can buy Gappa at Amazon.
The trailer for Gappa:
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