Yoko Yamamoto Movies

This combination of a wartime drama and children's film paints an effective depiction of misery as seen through the eyes of a young boy. He has no trouble with his vision, so the picture that emerges is sadly accurate. The time is early 1944, and the 10-year-old Bokuchan (Takanori Kurumagi) has been sent to a children's camp outside the city of Osaka for his own protection. The fire-bombing of the city and its environs has already begun. The frail Bokuchan is in no physical shape to stand up to the camp bullies who demand extra food rations from the children and otherwise harass them. The camp manager is almost a bully himself, yet he knows Japan is losing the war and also realizes that the bombing and destruction is going to get worse. In the face of oppression on all sides, Bokuchan's personal and family situation steadily deteriorates until the young lad faces obstacles that would flatten most adults, and in so doing, he gains new respect from everyone.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The sole foray into the giant-monster arena from Nikkatsu Studios (producers of the classic The Burmese Harp) presents a cutesy clone of Toho's Rodan with a plot lifted from British city-stomper Gorgo. Unfortunately for monster fans, there is little of the earlier films' creativity on display. An infant version of the title creature (only one of an apparent species) is found on Obelisk Island by a group of Japanese reporters, caged and spirited away to Japan to become a media attraction. Naturally, this incurs not only the ire of the island natives, but the wrath of Baby Gappa's full-grown parents, who storm off to Tokyo to inflict rubber-suited mayhem on some particularly cheap-looking model buildings. Nikkatsu's lack of experience with the genre shows in the goofy-looking monster suits, shoddy effects and exaggerated cuteness. It's also evident from the film's tongue-in-cheek approach that the producers had no illusions about the inherent silliness of this project -- an attitude somewhat less prevalent in Toho's monster series. Also known as Monster from the Prehistoric Planet. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi