Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Frankenstein Monsters: Sanda Vs. Gaira, June 12, 2006
As a youngster, this film disturbed me. When the evil green gargantua Gaira grabs the woman from the airport office buidling and proceeds to chomp her down then spit out her clothes, it's the thing nightmares are made of. In the USA, the title was changed from "Frankenstein Monsters: Sanda Vs. Gaira" to "The War Of The Gargantuas". It was originally released in Japan in 1966 and for us Yanks, 1970. The Japanese version is a sequel to an earlier film titled "Frankenstein Vs. Baragon" (US title: "Frankenstein Conquers The World"). The dubbed US version of "Gargantua" erases all connection to the earlier film and in both versions, American actor Russ Tamblyn puts in a rather lethargic performance. The US version has extra snippets of violence not used in the Japanese version. This includes Gaira spitting out the airport worker's clothing. In the US version, you actually see her shredded dress hit the ground. This sequel is an improvement over the first but why would use the name "Frankenstein" for these movies? Silly. I have read some of the reviews in here and some people are not recalling certain scenes correctly. The rotten singer who pukes out a horrible song titled "The Words Get Stuck In My Throat" is not on a cruise ship but rather atop a building performing in a penthouse restaurant. When she is finished making a fool of herself with this awful tune, Gaira sneaks up from behind and grabs her but does not get the chance to chew her up. The moment someone turns the lights on, he drops her back onto the stage and runs as he is sensitive to light. Gaira is the aquatic offshoot of Sanda, the brown and good gargantua. It seems that Sanda, after supposedly dying in the first film actually survived. The theory is that sometime between the two films, he may have scraped a bit of his flesh on a rock near or in a body of fresh water. That piece of skin could have found it's way to the ocean and gave birth to Gaira. When the military finally corners Gaira and do their best to electrocute him to death (deservedly), Sanda sees this from his mountain lair and comes running to Gaira's rescue. Gaira's humongous appetite for human flesh and blood is unknown to the people-friendly Sanda. However, things change when he sees chewed up clothing laying in front of a napping Gaira. Sanda is infuriated and slams Mr. Greenie with a tree and so begins "the war of the gargantuas". This film is actually one of the better releases from the Toho company.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Toho Production, October 7, 2006
This film was originally released in the states in the summer of 1970. It played on a double bill with Monster Zero. I saw it in a drive-in theater on my ninth birthday...still the best birthday presant I've ever recieved. I love japanese monster movies and War of the Garantuas is my personal favorite. Like its co-feature it was produced in 1966 by Toho Studios. Directed by Inoshiro Honda and scored by Akira Ifukebe, the men responsible for all the great japanese Sci-Fi films of the 50's and 60's, War of the Gargantuas is the scariest and most exciting of them all! Shot in Toho Scope this film can only be appreciated in widescreen.....so steer clear of all the cheap DVD products out there...get the japanese disc....This film is highly regarded in Japan.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Toho flick, December 12, 2005
A Kid's Review
I enjoyed this film a lot. It's about two decendents of Frankenstein (named Sanda and Gaira) who fight each other...to the death! Reccomended.
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