‘Spewed from intergalactic space to clutch the planet Earth in its… terror tentacles!’
Space Amoeba, released in Japan as Gezora, Ganime, Kamoeba: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas (ゲゾラ・ガニメ・カメーバ 決戦! 南海の大怪獣 “Gezora Ganime Kameba Kessen! Nankai no Kaijuu”), is a 1970 Kaiju film produced and released by Toho Studios. In the USA, American International Pictures released the film as Yog Monster from Space.
This was one of director Ishirō Honda’s last giant monster films, and the first such film made after the passing of special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya. This was also the final Toho film for which Sadamasa Arikawa acted as director of special effects.
Plot:
The Helios 7 space probe is sent on a mission to study the planet Jupiter. While on its outward journey to the gas giant, the probe is overtaken by the Space Amoeba, a parasitic extraterrestrial. The probe returns to earth and crashes into the South Pacific, where the Amoeba leaves the device and inhabits the body of a cuttlefish, causing it to mutate into what is called “Gezora.” The tentacled kaiju begins attacking ships and islands in the area.
A photographer named Kudo and his entourage land on Selga Island for a photo shoot, but their camp is attacked by Gezora. Because of its mutation, the creature can create extremely cold temperatures with its body. When the survivors discover that Gezora is vulnerable to high temperatures, Kudo and his friends use a leftover Japanese World War II munitions bunker to set fire to the monster. Severely burned, the creature retreats to the water where it dies.
Later, the Space Amoeba possesses a stone crab, mutating it into “Ganimes” and attacks the surrounding islands. Luckily the humans manage to lure Ganimes into a pit and destroy it with explosives. The Amoeba survives a second time and fleas into the surrounding jungles plotting its revenge…
Release:
The film was released on DVD in the USA in 2006 by Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock as Space Amoeba. The dubbed version presented on this disc is the “international version” English audio track recorded by Toho in Hong Kong rather than the dubbed track recorded in 1971 by AIP and Titan Sound Corporation (formerly Titra Sound Studio) in New York.
