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Saturday, January 12, 2013

CREATURE FEATURE : Space Amoeba


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 Kaiju"), 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. While some fans deride the film as a last gasp of the Golden Age of Kaiju films, others appreciate the fact that the monsters have been scaled down compared to creatures like Godzilla or Rodan, making their interactions with human characters more compelling.



Story
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/Yog, 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 photoshoot, 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 lour Ganimes into a pit and destroy it with explosives. The Amoeba survies a second time and fleas into the surrounding jungles plotting its revenge.
Space Amoeba decides to control two earth creatures this time. Another Ganimes, and a rock turtle named "Kamoebas." The two monsters raid the human camp. Luckily Kudo realizes the two monsters' weakness: supersonic waves. By releasing a storm of bats, the Amoeba loses control of its creations. Ganimes and Komoebas, no long under control, go beserk and begin to battle as Japanese giant monsters do. The humans, using more explosives, cause the volcano to erupt, engulfing the Space Amoeba and the two monsters.


Gezora (ゲゾラ) Mutated from an alien rogue virus, Gezora quickly established a reign of terror to a small island. The grotesque squid rose from the sea but few times, and murdered several people. Leaving only one to live, but forever scarred with horrible frost burns. It wasn't until its final show of power, was the end of the monster carried out. The natives, along with some members of a Japanese expedition, lured the creature into an open field, doused with gasoline. Then, they cast a torch, turning the ground and animal into a blazing inferno. Gezora's screams were more child than adult, as it fled back into the sea. Unfortunately for it, it was far too late, and the animal was mortally wounded. The ocean took back its flesh and blood, swallowing the dead monster with its watery embrace, but the Amoeba retreated. Casting off its deceased host, in order to find another.


Ganimes (ガニメ) Controlled and powered by the malevolent intelligence of the Amoeba being, a gigantic stone crab, Ganimes, attacked the island. Trying to finish the job that the now dead Gezora left undone, the monstrous animal wadded further inland, before it was met with machine gun fire. However, this does little to detour the creature. Yet the humans once again managed to outsmart the bulbous monster by luring it into a pit, laced with hundreds of sticks of dynamite. The resulting explosion tore his body apart, leaving smoldering bits of flesh. However, the spiritual Amoeba was still alive, and crawled from the open carcass only to assimilate another stone crab.

This duplicate Ganimes was sent to aid another infected animal, this time a jungle turtle named Kamoebas, to eliminate the human threat. Though the partnership was soon dissolved, when a horde of bats besieged the twin giants. The supersonic waves created from their cackling cries broke the hold that the Amoeba possessed, and drove the monsters to fight. Ganimes attacks relentlessly with its pinching claws, and spiting foams of blinding, coalesced seawater, but Kamoebas was able to hold its ground. So caught up were the monsters in their war, that they didn't notice the volcano that they fought on. So, they both proceeded to the lip of the mountain, and toppled inside. Killing themselves and the Amoeba beings that laid within.




Kamoebas (カメーバ) is a rock turtle monster that first appeared in Toho's 1970 film "Space Amoeba", and reappeared as a dead body in "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." in 2003.
Showa
After Ganimes was destroyed, Yog turned to a rock turtle and made Kamoebas. It also made another Ganimes. But bats fled from a nearby cave and made Yog lose control of the monsters. They battled each other up the mountain in the center of the island and both fell into the volcano, destroying themselves and Yog forever.
Millennium
The gigantic chelonian Kamoebas, long after his first appearance in the 1970 film Space Amoeba, made a brief appearance in the film Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., to the surprise of many fans.
In the film, news agencies and the JSDF swarmed to a small part of the coast of Japan. A dead Megalo matamata, or Kamoebas, had washed ashore in the night. As it was investigated they noticed large rips in its neck. It had been killed by none other than Godzilla.



Film appearances

Gezora 
Space Amoeba (A.K.A. Yog: Monster From Space) (1970)
Godzilla X Mechagodzilla (2002) - a short cameo via stock footage from Space Amoeba.
Godzilla Final Wars (2004)- brief appearance during the opening credits.

Ganimes
Space Amoeba (A.K.A. Yog: Monster From Space) (1970)

Kamoebas
Space Amoeba (A.K.A. Yog: Monster From Space) (1970)
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S (2003)







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