Latitude Zero

This late Sixties tokusatsu film has acquired a bit of a legendary status among Japanese sci-fi fans in the West, as it has never before been available in the U.S. Fortunately for us, Tokyo Shock has done their usual first-rate restoration job on this East-West mashup that features one of the most unusual casting combos you'll ever see. It's also a bold stretch by Toho to have their A-list actors trying to speak English phonetically--albeit with mixed results. The film itself actually falls somewhere into the "it's so ridiculous it's great" category, as this is wildly fun schlock in the same vein as "Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero" (same director, crew and SFX team), and that's definitely not a knock against it. I mean, where else can you find Cesar Romero transplanting a human brain into the body of a lion/hawk hybrid? Classic! The crew interviews also provide some highly desired insights into the making of the film, although their omissions are somewhat telling--they go into no detail about how the American funding for the film fell through, and how Joseph Cotten was taking a perilous chance by making the film while suffering from severe liver disease. One look at Joe's face during certain scenes and you can see how he was struggling to keep himself propped up. All in all, a long-awaited (and long overdue!) filling in of a big hole in Toho's sci-fi canon.

Oh, and BTW, I got both English & Japanese versions :)

My original review was more of an alert to the fact that I had gotten 2cds of the US version and wanted to let people know just in case it became a widespread issue.. Amazon quickly corrected tht problem. So I wanted to retract the 1 star I origianlly gave it and state that having never seen the movie ever, one of the few Toho productions to escape me since its release I have to say its a rousing good old fashioned Science Fiction story, carried along well by Joseph Cotten and a great Japanese cast to boot. Its different, and Cesar Romero as the villian was not cheesy at all but playfully menacing, which makes for a as a good old popcorn and coke session. I was impressed also by the dubbing which felt natural and fit the actors persona very well and didnt sound silly like the dubbing can be in the early Toho releases. Worth your time.

Can you really rate these films on a 1 to 5 scale? They're all 5's in my book. This is a rather rare Japanese take on that whole "secret" place where everything is better located somewhere on earth, in this case latitude zero. This film is somewhat "normal" until the last 1/3 when it explodes in a burst of insanity right around the time Cesar Romero - in a wonderfully crazy scene only the Japanese can pull off, "creates" a griffin with a human brain. Miniatures galore - this time futuristic submarines; assorted monsters - a giant sized one (though small by Toho standards) and human-sized ones; explosions, explosions, explosions; Akira Ifukube score (not his best - lots of rehashed themes from earlier movies but it's still Ifukube); typically uneven but always way fun "old school" Eiji Tsburaya effects; directed by Ishiro "the keeper of the grain" Honda (Kurosawa's dubbed him this name when Honda was an assistant director working under him); an insane trippy plot. What can I say? Only saw this one once - on UHF TV many a moon ago. It never re-aired for some reason and just popped up on DVD this year. Beautiful transfer, and this rare film is really a treat for Tohophiles. Instead of dubbing, the Japanese actors (see if you can spot "Hiata" in a bit role) including "Miko's dad from Space Giants" all spoke English - didn't know a lick of what they were saying. Great stuff and a "must see". If you bothered to look up this obscure title on Amazon, ya know ya gotta.