Review of “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” (1965)

For our Saturday pizza and bad movie, we enjoyed a return to the classics—a Kaiju flick that managed to squeeze in an alien invasion.

Plot:

The World Space Authority is sending two astronauts, Glenn Amer (Nick Adams) and K. Fuji (Akira Takarada), to explore the newly discovered Planet X, located beyond Jupiter. (… maybe wedged in between it and Neptune? No one says.) Before they leave, Fuji scolds his sister, Haruno (Keiko Sawai), because she’s seeing the inventor Tetsuo Teri (Akira Kubo), a nerd with thick black-rimmed glasses who hasn’t sold a single invention so far. How will he support his sister in the style to which she’s become accustomed?

However, while the two astronauts are in space, a charming Miss Namikawa (Kumi Mizuno) shows interest in a particularly annoying alarm clock Tetsuo has developed. Miss Namikawa is also dating Glenn. Unlike Haruno, who gazes modestly toward the ground when speaking to men, Miss Namikawa looks them in the eyes. She wears lots of makeup and tight dresses. Hmmmm…. Could she be a fast woman? Could she have ulterior motives for purchasing Tetsuo’s device?

Glenn and Fuji find that Planet X is inhabited by people forced to live underground. A three-headed dragon, King Ghidorah (Shôichi Hirose), flies around the planet, blowing up things. The Controller of Planet X (Yoshio Tsuchiya) welcomes our heroes and asks only that they allow Godzilla (Haruo Nakajima) and Rodan (Masaki Shinohara) to come to Planet X to defeat King Ghidorah. In return, the inhabitants will give the people of Earth a formula for the treatment of all diseases. (In the original Japanese, they promise a cure for cancer.)

The Controller and all inhabitants dress identically: black, fitted leather shirts and helmets, with a neck wrap and a plastic band over their eyes, which must have made seeing difficult.

What a bargain! The Earth astronauts have to return to Earth to ask permission first, though.

Will Godzilla and Radon never threaten Tokyo again? Will the people of Earth find a cure for what ails them? Or will this be another case of what your mama told you: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is?

Thoughts:

This goofy film is, first and foremost, a lot of fun unless the viewer is expecting something like reality. The two astronauts (in the Japanese version don’t even speak the same language) seem to be good friends. They exchange hand gestures and grins. The only villain to speak is the Controller. He also has a great villain laugh. The bad guys all dress alike—and weirdly. I half-expected them to break out in a Devo song.

The special effects have high hopes. The bad guys find Godzilla at the bottom of a lake and fish him out. They find Rodan snoozing in a rock formation and break him out. They transport the monsters back home in giant bubbles attached to their spaceships by buzzing tractor beams.

And then there are their spaceships. On the outside, they look kind of like the spinning tops I had as a kid, except they’re white and appear inflatable. On the inside, they look kind of like stage spaceships. The bad guys control them by brain waves. And they can haul monsters from Earth to Planet X beyond Jupiter.

Once on Planet X, there is the monster smackdown, complete with Godzilla roars and bangs, rockfalls, etc. Godzilla even performs a victory dance:

Apparently, it was born of an effort to make the monster more kid friendly. The moves came from a character named Iyami from a manga titled Osomatsu-kun. It’s a thing of controversy among the Godzilla fanbase because it is so goofy and reputedly despised by the original creator of the beast. I just think it’s silly.

While I know these types of movies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, I found it delightful fun.

Unfortunately, I could not find this gem available for streaming for free, but places like YouTube will rent it or sell it to you. Max will let you watch it if you want to subscribe. If you’re lucky, maybe you can find it at your library.



Title: Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (AKA Invasion of Astro Monster) 1965
original: Kaijû daisensô

Director
Ishirô Honda (as Inoshirô Honda)

Writer
Shin’ichi Sekizawa

Cast (in credits order)
Nick Adams…Astronaut Glenn Amer (as Nikku Adamusu)
Akira Takarada…Astronaut K. Fuji
Jun Tazaki…Dr. Sakurai
Akira Kubo…Tetsuo Teri
Kumi Mizuno…Miss Namikawa
Keiko Sawai…Haruno Fuji
Yoshio Tsuchiya…Controller of Planet X
Haruo Nakajima…Gojira
Masaki Shinohara…Rodan
Shôichi Hirose…Kingugidora

Released: 1965
Rated: G
Length: 1 hour, 33 minutes