Alternate Titles: Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda versus Gaira
Year: 1966
Director: Ishiro Honda
Special Effects Director: Eiji Tsuburaya
In The Suit: Haruo Nakajima (Gaira), Yu Sekida (Sanda)

Toho is not very good with direct sequels in the Showa period. Generally speaking, the actual Godzilla films fit together, but there are some exceptions and questions that get raised as we go from film to film. And we already saw how Battle In Outer Space ignored everything about The Mysterians. And this sequel to Frankenstein Conquers The World is the weirdest of the bunch. In a certain sense, it's the most direct sequel of the period besides Terror of MechaGodzilla and it references and recaps the previous film in a way that no other does. But at the same time it completely retcons the previous film for reasons that are unclear.

The move does start with the return of the giant octopus that appeared in the alternate ending of Frankenstein Conquers the World

Min: So much work to eat a few sailors. Why would it bother?
Fnord: Well maybe it's just evil.

The sailors are "rescued" by a giant monster...

...but it turns out that they've just traded one threat for another.

Why didn't he eat the octopus? Cereally? You're going to opt for tiny human sailors over giant octopus?

Hisaya Ito reprises his role from the Frankenstein as Cop #1 and is partnered by Godzillaverse regular Yoshifumi Tajima as Cop #2

...but when the one survivor of the attack wakes up from his coma to say things like, "That is... Frankenstein", and "Gargantua looks like a Frankenstein", they find the idea preposterous.

However, they do call the supposed expert on Frankenstein, Dr. Stewart. His reply is hilarious.

Seconds later, a herd of reporters come in to ask if Frankenstein could be alive. "It's possible", he replies. There's no contradiction with his statement to the police, though, because he says that while Frankenstein may be alive, he's absolutely not in the ocean.

Now there's a lot to unpack here. First of all, Dr. Stewart has replaced Dr. Bowen from the previous movie. Different actor (Russ Tamblyn), different name. But it's confirmed right away that he is nonetheless playing the role that Bowen played in the last movie. His associate, Akemi, is played by Kumi Mizuno, who played the same role (with a different character name) in the previous movie. And there's a third scientist, Kenji Sahara, playing a very similar role to the one played by Tadao Takashima last movie. His name is Dr. Majida this time.

It's like when Stan Lee couldn't remember what he first name he gave Banner.

One actor remains the same and the one American actor has been replaced by another, and all the names are different, although, it's pretty clear that they are playing basically the same characters.

Beyond that, the Frankenstein they raised did indeed spend time in the ocean in the last movie. There was the teen dance boat sequence, with Frankenstein displaying full comfort with being in the water. And in the alternate ending, the creature was last seen getting dragged into the ocean by the octopus. Even if we're assuming the theatrical ending is canon, the location was clearly right near the ocean. They do say that "the Frankenstein we raised died at Mt. Fuji"; not sure if that's where the ending of the last movie was meant to take place. But regardless, the idea that Frankenstein could now be in the ocean doesn't seem so easy to dismiss out of hand the way Dr. Stewart does.

Things get weirder when they go to the flashback showing Akemi raising their young Frankenstein. In this telling, he's more of a monkeystein.

Really weird! They're telling basically the same story but completely re-writing the details at the same time. And why would you make Frankenstein a monkey? We've seen that the word Frankenstein is used pretty freely in other countries, but Toho is certainly aware of what Frankenstein really was and they went through a lot of effort to put Frankenstein into a movie. And this movie was made in a partnership with an American movie company, who should have had an interest in presenting a Frankenstein that American audiences would recognize (instead it seems they just removed all references to Frankenstein from the English dub). As we'll see, instead of a Frankenstein, we really have a Bigfoot. A SuperMegaMonkey, even.

Min: It makes sense. The previous movie made a big deal of Frankenstein being a "full-blooded white boy". This is what Asian people think you white people look like. White people are hairier.
Fnord: We can't put that on the website. It's inflammatory.

After Dr. Stewart dismisses the idea that there's a Frankenstein in the ocean, there are more attacks. First a second boat is destroyed. Then, some villagers that seem to be engaged in a tug-of-war with the ocean turn out to have caught the creature in a giant net, to their dismay. When Dr. Majida goes to investigate the latter incident, he finds a green gunk that he says is like the mucous membrane that covers sea creatures, and he at least now seems convinced that the creature is Frankenstein. He's supported by a fourth scientist, the guy on the left here:

That guy doesn't get much play, however. He's been in a couple of previous movies, where he played much more cranky characters. He's pretty subdued in this one.

I love him, and it's sad see him being used without giving him a chance to be disdainful to anyone.

Dr. Stewart and Akemi, meanwhile, decide to go up into the mountains to investigate reports of giant footprints. They do find footprints, but no Frankenstein.

While they are in the mountains, the creature attacks Haneda airport.

Our first daytime view of the creature, obviously different looking than Frankenstein from our previous movie with a guy wearing more prosthetics, but not quite the usual Toho rubber suit. Even more human looking than King Kong, although that's probably the closest analogue.

The creature is extremely violent and definitely on the hunt for people He grabs a lady (doll)...

...and we see him put her in his mouth, chew her up, and spit out the clothes. Probably the most gruesome thing we've seen a giant monster do in a Toho movie. The creature then flees back into the water when the sun comes out from behind some clouds.

The relentless pack of reporters attack the scientists. Earlier, the scientists refused to say it was Frankenstein. They denied it was Frankenstein. And now that it turns out to be Frankenstein, the reporters want to know: if the scientists had told the truth, would the government have been able to prepare better?

Dr. Stewart humbly agrees. But that's crazy. Who cares if the monster is or isn't Frankenstein. The fact that a giant monster is on a rampage was pretty much confirmed at this point. Does it matter which monster it is? It's not like the army tried to stop him but failed because they didn't have the crucial information about Frankenstein's weaknesses (hint: at least according to the last movie, he doesn't have any). So why is it the scientists' fault?

The scientists confer with the army general, who, as is often the case, is played by Jun Tazaki. He's already got a plan, the tried-and-always-fails method of building an electric fence.

The scientists are asked, "Do you still intend to raise Frankenstein for your experiments?", and they reply that they do. "Raise" is a questionable word here, but it's not the last time it'll be used in this context. But the idea is that the scientists don't think Frankenstein should be killed.

Even after it's confirmed that there's a Frankenstein on the loose, life goes on as usual, and that means rooftop dinner parties and singing.

The song is Feel in My Heart (The Words Get Stuck in my Throat), which would be funnier if this movie referenced Frankenstein's immortal radioactive heart from the last movie.

There's nothing funny about having to sit through the singing.

The Frankenstein shows up and attacks the singer...

...but he's scared away when they turn the lights on.

The monster winds up going further inland, apparently in search of pigs, and the army cuts off his return to the sea, assisted by locals who have been told to turn on lights or create bonfires to keep the creature away. The creature makes horrible high pitched shrieking noises when it gets outraged. The army also deploys these awesome weapons, which i think are called masers, with parabolic mirrors, but which, per our tradition, we will call FAHPs.

The army is preparing to launch Operation L, which involves a laser arsenal. But they aren't ready for that yet.

They actually start with some trucks that have nothing more than spotlights, but that does manage to stop the Frankenstein...

...and drive him back into the forest where of course he is able to hide. When he emerges again, some eager soldiers launch an unauthorized attack. It's funny how the first volley is always machine guns. Not tanks, missiles, or their fricking lasers. It's always puny little guns that have no chance of hurting a creature that big.

I was impressed with their hit rate, but i didn't realize how close he was.

The Frankenstein starts picking up tanks and tossing them at nearby houses.

Fnord: What a jerk. He's going right for the houses. Even when there's other people shooting at him...
Min: Yeah but they're using hand guns.

Eventually the Frankenstein retreats into the woods again. The army continues with its preparations, and we start seeing these things getting deployed.

This turns out to be Operation L, and it's an arsenal of lasers, as promised.

They are supplemented by the maser/mirror vehicles, which i wanted to make sure to get a few screengrabs of, since the footage is reused in later films, notably Godzilla vs. Megalon.

The Frankenstein, meanwhile, is cut off and trying to rehydrate himself in a river. I mean, it's a stream, clearly, but considering his size i guess it's supposed to be a river. He eventually comes out, though, and then lasers and masers attack.

The army's hit rate with the maser-FAHPs is really impressive. The laser arsenal is more like a fence; it's not targeted at all but designed to hit the Frankenstein as he walks in front of them. But the follow Frankenstein wherever he goes. It's useful to be able to animate the army's attacks instead of relying on actual toy missiles and firecrackers.

As Frankenstein is hit, he falls down, destroying acres of forestland.

In addition to the above-mentioned weapons, the army has also put big electrical devices in the river, so when he wades in, he gets zapped from that, too.

Um...what about the fish and frogs and other wildlife that live in/drink from the river?

Overall, it's the most sophisticated and science-fictiony attack on a kaiju so far, even counting the Atomic Heat Cannon from Mothra. And this would have been the end of the movie, if it wasn't for the arrival of a second "Frankenstein". "Another larger Frankenstein has emerged..." is the exact wording.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised that the army is taken completely unawares by this second 100+ foot monster. They couldn't even keep track of the first one. And of course with the arrival of this new one, the army is in complete disarray. They seem to have turned off the electricity devices and the laser fence, and they've stopped shooting. And best of all, they just let the second creature lead the first one away, with no attempt to even track where they are going.

The defense force regroups and starts planning things out, reacting to the new monster. Min is disappointed because they no longer have table maps with little figurines on them.

How are you going to track your monsters without little figurines?

Official orders are issued from the Ministry of Defense: "From now on, sea Frankenstein will be called Gailah, and mountain Frankenstein, Sanda". The naming of the monsters is a very solemn and important thing and i'm sure there was a lot of thought and debate that went into that. It's funny to think that a Frankenstein is a type of thing. I've been enjoying typing "the Frankenstein" all along throughout this review. But it's true, the Frankenstein is a type of monster, and you've got your sea and mountain variety. And don't forget the earlier comment that the "Gargantua looks like a Frankenstein". So there seems to be a pretty strict taxonomy here. Generally speaking, you've got your Kaiju, which refers to all Toho monsters, including non-giant varieties like the Matangos. Then there's the Daikaiju, which is limited to your giant varieties. Within that, you have a few specific orders, like your Space Monsters and your Radioactive Dinosaurs (and within that, don't forget that both Godzilla and Anguirus are "of the Angilas family of fire monsters"), and i guess your Pacific Island Deity Monsters King Kong and Mothra. Then there are your Gargantuas, and one type of Gargantua is the Frankenstein. So we have Kaiju> Daikaiju> Gargantua> Frankenstein> sea & mountain varieties.

Contemplating this, the scientists wonder "How was sea Gailah born? Or has he crossed the ocean?"

You know, the ocean. On the other side of which is the Land of Gargantuas.

Min: White people again?
Fnord: That's still inflammatory.
Min: No, no. This explains everything. You're hairier, and you're bigger, and you're destructive.

The scientists also wonder, "Why did Sanda come to help? I wonder if they are related." It's an incredible question and it seems to forget the entire premise of the first movie, wherein it was said that if you cut off the arm of Frankenstein he will grow back the arm and the arm will grow an entire new body. Two giant hairy monsters with regenerating attributes, and you wonder if they are related?

The scientists do tell the military that Gailah can't live without water. Which you would think would pretty much settle where he is, since there can't be that many locations capable of hiding a creature this big. And they are indeed recuperating at a mountain lake. I guess it doesn't matter if he gets fresh or salt water.

I do have to admit they are pretty good at hiding when the helicopters come by, though.

The scientists go out to the general area (no military escort) and spend the day looking for cell scrapings from the Frankensteins. Dr. Majida had already found cell samples of Gailah's mucous membrane, but i guess that doesn't count. They do eventually find fresh samples of both monsters, and they return to the lab and find that the cells are "identical". They first say the creatures are "brothers" but then clarify that they are "not exactly father and son, or brothers. It is more like cloning". At this point they've remembered that the Frankenstein can regenerate, and they also remember that Frankenstein spent some time in Lake Biwa (was that the site of the teen dance boat from last movie?) where it's now speculated that he accidentally tore off a piece of his flesh on a rock, and the flesh eventually got washed out to sea where it grew by feeding on protein-rich plankton. The concern now is that all the bombing and shooting at these creatures could result in countless more Frankensteins. The army decides that the answer to that is napalm.

But since the Frankensteins are so adept at hiding, there's no action for a while and it's time for a downtime scene. Dr. Stewart and Akemi go for a walk in the woods near where the creatures were last seen. Also on the trail is a weird group of kids singing some kind of quasi-religious/patriotic song. Akemi asks why the hikers aren't afraid of Gailah? Stewart says it's because they are young and goes into some weird story about kids in cafes during the Nazi invasion of Paris or something. A better question might be why isn't the area cordoned off, and the answer is that it would be a headache for the self defense force.

The hikers, further up on the trail, see Gailah, and turn around and run. They pass Stewart and Akemi, who start going back also. But then Akemi just veers wildly off the trail, just makes a 90 degree turn for no reason, and then she drops like a rock off what turns out to be a huge mountain. She just falls straight down. It seemed like such an idyllic, safe hiking trail. Who knew that one false step to the left meant your death?

She eventually catches a tree branch, but i mean, what are you going to do about that?

Wear more appropriate hiking shoes, for one.

As is often the case, this was completely unforced. Gailah wasn't hot on their heels or anything and indeed he never catches up with them. Instead, Sanda comes to the rescue. Well, sort of. He drops down a cliff but accidentally causes an avalanche, and he gets pounded with rocks, one of which injures his leg.

But he does manage to limp over and rescue Akemi.

Unfortunately, meanwhile, two people previously shown to have been rowing a boat on a nearby lake disappear. Akemi tells the general that Sanda is good and still remembers her and rescued her, and that the Gargantua that killed the two boat rowers must have been Gailah. The General kind of nods, yeah yeah yeah, and says they're just going to electrocute the lake and napalm the forest.

Meanwhile, Sanda returns home to find the clothes of the boaters strewn about while Gailah lays there in a satisfied stupor. Sanda is angered by this and uproots a tree to pound into Gailah.

Gailah kind of opens his eyes and just sort of dismisses it, goes back to sleep. But Sanda does pound him, and so we finally have the first part of our War of the Gargantuas.

Sanda was described earlier as being bigger than Gailah, but his leg is injured, so after fighting for a while, Gailah is able to escape. And, being a jerk, his idea of escaping is to charge directly through a series of buildings.

Gailah rampages through nearby towns on his way back to the sea.

He has forgotten his fear of fire and light, and we're now told that he's actually attracted to these things, since he's learned that that's where food is. This is new information being passed to us as revelation; we never saw anything like that, and in fact, based on what we've seen, you'd think the fear of light would only have been reinforced after the lasers and masers and stuff.

The military, meanwhile, feels that they've been "outsmarted" because their plan to napalm the forest is no longer operative since Gailah is out of that area. So the concern is back to what to do about the possibility of torn flesh regenerating into new creatures.

This is a weird problem. I don't mean to alarm you, but we lose cells all the time. Our hair and skin and other little bits of us fall off all the time. It's not said that the chunks have to be over a certain size for them to be a concern. So why aren't the Gargantuas just constantly producing new monsters? This is why i made the comment in the Frankenstein Conquers movie that it really should be just the heart that causes the regeneration.

I think the bits have to have access to a sufficient amount of protein? Maybe? My head hurts.

The point about the accidental duplication is brought up in one of the scientist/military conferences, and the scientists say that's why they want to take Sanda into captivity, so they can "raise" him (again) in a controlled environment. It doesn't really answer the question, and in any event the military has decided to just kill them all and the consequences be damned.

Gailah eventually makes it to Tokyo, and the sirens go off, and people start turning on their lights. The military complain about that - don't they know he's attracted to light? - seemingly forgetting that the last official announcement that went out was to do exactly that to keep the creature away. Not everyone receives this information by divine revelation, you know.

So Tokyo has to do a hasty evacuation, and in that panic, Stewart and Akemi wind up getting pursued by Gailah. Akemi gets picked up...

Yes, yes, everybody loves King Kong. Can we stop having the giant monster pick up the girl?

..and is saved just in time by Sanda, who limps into the city after Gailah.

Well, saved is probably the wrong word, since Gailah drops Akemi and she's in traction for the rest of the movie.

Speaking of limping, why is Sanda still injured? The whole point of these guys is their amazing regeneration capabilities, right? That's why the cell dispersal thing is such a big deal? So why hasn't it fixed his leg?

We are into the final battle here...

...although Sanda doesn't seem to want to fight. He keeps shaking his hand and making a kind of "cut it out" motion.

Hey, you started it with that tree, dude (Only cause you ate PEOPLE.). So they do fight, and the army gets into the action with their masers as well.

I just like writing "masers".

Any semblance to Frankenstein is long gone. This is a fight between two giant cavemen. At least they are fighting in a great model city. One of the reasons the fight between Frankenstein and Baragon was so boring in the last movie was because of the very static environment. In this, there are plenty of building to get destroyed. In fact, i swear the army just blows up a building with its tanks in a scene that doesn't even include any Garganutas. It's just fun to blow up buildings!

The fun continues as the fight extends to a cool sequence in the harbor. Wikipedia says that this is Guillermo del Toro's favorite kaiju movie, and i couldn't help think of the scene in Pacific Rim where a Jaeger picked up a battleship and wielded it like a club.

I'm impressed you were able to see anything happening in that movie.

Back in the hospital, Dr. Stewart wakes up Akemi by dragging a flower across her face. Let the woman rest!

Yeah, that's nice. I'm in a lot of pain.

I would hit you with my broken arm.

The scientists say that it's all but over now, and all they can hope to do is collect cells for research. That's surely a comfort to Akemi, who actually had a bond with Sanda, not his cells.

Then things get weird. Instead of the Gargantua fight ending with one killing the other or both getting killed by the army or something, suddenly a volcano forms in the harbor.

It forms "in a matter of seconds". I didn't think it could happen that fast. I guess a volcano could just spring up anywhere. We are all in great danger. The volcano soon destroys both Gargantuas. Off camera. In the most bizarre and anti-climactic ending we've had yet (still better than the end of Frankenstein with the crazy octopus fight in my book). It's like someone saw the end of Son of Kong or something but didn't understand what was happening.

The Wikipedia entry at least explains why there's a volcano: "The original ending of the film was to not only have Sanda and Gaira swallowed up by the new volcano, but the lava was to have spread to Tokyo where it was to destroy the city as well as the remaining cells of the monsters." But not only does that not happen, it still doesn't explain why a volcano of that magnitude would just suddenly form. And you can see why they backed away from that; ending the movie with the utter destruction of Tokyo would be a bit of a downer. Wikipedia also says there was the possibility of another sequel, this time including Godzilla, but that never happened.

Continuing to look at the variations on how these films were brought to America, this one has yet another twist. Dr. Stewart played a larger role in the American version. There are new scenes with him talking to the police captain at the beginning of the film.

The scenes contain more exposition which i guess helped cut down on the dubbing, but also intriguingly mention a "dessicated hand... found in Penbosh. It's still a mystery. Science isn't able to relate it to any known creature." Stewart says the hand was found by a mentor that he worked with; the name he mentions isn't Dr. Bowen or anyone else from the first movie. But it almost sounds like a reference to the hand from the first movie.

When told about the students that saw the footprints in the Alpines, in the dubbed version, in a new scene, Stewart says, "Yeah, they were probably on a bad LSD trip." Not only is that hilarious, but in the Japanese version Stewart immediately took the reports of the footprints as a sign that Sanda was still alive; in this one he's initially dismissive of the idea.

The weirdest thing is that Director Ishiro Honda actually re-shot some of the scenes of the movie to include Stewart. So for example this scene, where the police come to talk to the survivor of the initial octopus/Frankenstein attack, has only the cop in the Japanese version.

But the scene is completely reshot to include Stewart for the American version.

Here's another even clearer example:

Hey, where did *i* come from?

Pretty interesting. Would the more prominent presence of the American actor just have been unacceptable to a Japanese audience?

Oh well. Unlike del Toro, this is not my favorite kaiju film. It's definitely a step up from Frankenstein Conquers, but i'm still not able to accept the two basically human characters as real kaiju. And the ending is just a disaster. That said, there are definitely some fun parts here, especially with all the weird new army tech and the end battle with the buildings and the boats. And at least Oodako gets an appearance. It's also worth noting that as far as i can tell, this movie had all new footage, which is actually pretty impressive for this time period (a lot of this footage will be itself reused though, certainly in Godzilla vs. Megalon if not elsewhere).

By the way, the spelling of the Sea Frankenstein's name is definitely "Gailah" in the subtitles of our DVD, but the online consensus is that the creatures name is Gaira, so that's how i've tagged him.

Godzilla Drinking Game
	Someone thinks it's a good idea to drag a giant monster across the ocean on a raft (giant eggs count).
	Attacking planes fly directly at a monster, with no possibility of avoiding a crash even if the monster didn't swat them down.	There are two helicopters that are sent to distract Gailah that just keep diving at him, begging to get swatted. And they do both eventually get swatted. But the criteria for this is that they would have to crash even if the monster didn't swat, and that's not what happens. No no no! If you fly your helicopter at a giant monster with arms you will get swatted down. It's not a great mystery. Only an idiot would do that. It counts. You are breaking the rules but tie goes to the runner. I'll tell you what's breaking the rules. This movie. The rules of sanity.
	People refuse to believe in the existence of a giant monster even though they've already acknowledged that Godzilla exists.	Cross out Godzilla and replace with Frankenstein and we have a winner here.
	A submarine explodes.
	Teens have a dance party on a boat. Two drinks/head smacks if they get attacked by a monster during the party.
	The government is completely ineffective when faced with a corporation doing something illegal.
	A humongous lumbering monster manages to sneak up on someone. Two drinks/head smacks if it's the army and they're supposedly using radar.	Repeatedly. They're not even trying any more.
	A scientist suddenly figures everything out with little-to-no information and explains it all to everyone.	The Lake Biwa origin for Gailah comes a little too quickly after rejecting the existence of a Frankenstein in a sea for so long.
	A monster suddenly grows in size just because.
	People expose themselves to major amounts of radiation with no concern.
	Everyone suddenly knows a monster's name. Two drinks/head smacks if everyone else nods appreciatively and repeats it.	The army names the monsters. That's legit.
	Army missiles can't seem to hit a 150+ foot monster and instead explode harmlessly around it.	The masers do well, but there's still that scene where the tanks just straight up bombs a building no where near the Garganutas.
	A woman falls down for no reason.	Yeah, she falls down. She falls ALL the way down. There should be some extra penalty for every meter over her height that she falls.
	Bad dinosaur science. You have to give a little leeway for the time period, but pretending a children's picture book is a scientific journal is always worth two drinks/smacks.

Monsters Appearing: Gaira, Oodako, Sanda