A rather humorous send up of kaiju movies done by the producers of such films as
The Machine Girl and
Tokyo Gore Police. While it never reaches the level of insanity that those films had, it does have its own sense of humor about the genre.
Spoilers below
Main heroine Kanako returns to her small hometown after failing to make it big as a pop star in Japan. As she returns home, her grandmother is accidentally killed by some teenage delinquents (as you so often see in these types of movies). The teenagers also knock a shrine containing a mummified kappa ( a monster of Japanese folklore) into the lake where it revives.
The kappa, which essentially looks like a frog/turtle hybrid is drawn to Kanako by her offerings of cucumbers and her music makes friends with her and her...brothers..cousins..friends...the movie really didn't say. The four dance and have a good time, almost ET style.
Then the kappa is kidnapped by an evil scientist working for a militant group, so she can use it to finish her grandfather's work of creating mutant fish super solders to take over Japan and then the world.
Soon Kanako finds herself at the group's mercy and the Kappa comes to rescue her, using its skills at sumo wrestling to fight off the fish men. The mad scientist
detonates an atomic bomb to kill them all, but the radiation apparently mutates one of the fish men into a daikaiju called Hangolyous which goes on to attack the city. All seems lost, until Death Kappa-(the kappa mutated to giant size by the blast) shows up and defeats the monster.
When its done with Hangolyous, Death Kappa turns its attention to the city. Fortunately Kanako -who is unharmed despite just being at ground zero for an atomic blast and uses her song to calm Death Kappa's rage and save humanity.
End Plot Synopsis.
I did enjoy this movie. Its one of those films that really has its own sense of humor. You need to go in to it knowing that this is not a film to be taken seriously. For example, during the city battle, the film makers make sure you see that the plane models are attached to strings, and that dolls are used for stand ins for people. It never goes as crazy as you think some of the makers wanted. But there are times, when it just sort of tip-toes into that direction.
And for fans of practical effects, I think they said there's no CGI in this movie. Its all suitimation, models, and optical printing and animation for the beam and fire effects.
One of my favorite parts of the film was the lyrics to Kanako's one and only hit
Tonight, with you Tonight. I've listened to practically zero J-Pop. So I don't know how good a riffing of the genre it is, or there was just a horrible job done on the translation. But either way, these are some of the best lyrics ever.
Tonight with you tonight
I had a dream last night, a melody,
Someday we'll be together you and me,
I'm wearing panties again today
The stars above are all lucky , happy
I'm going to end up putting our secret inside a treasure chest
I'll promise I'll bleed wwith a smile on my face near the seashore
And so...
tonight with you tonight
I'm sure tommorrow will be tommorrow
The blue sky's such a blue sky.
Let's have some tea. Coffee time's lucky happy
Over the rainbow, its fancy
We're allways together, you and me.
Its so tender inside, softly
The moon above us, is just so lucky, happy
You're so wonderful, I give you preasants yesterday and tommorrow
So please have some of this sweat lovely candy
This evening, tonight with you tonight
I'll change my hair style, a permannet
The blue sky's such a blue sky
Everlasting love is lucky, happy
