Gappa: The Triphibian Monster

Gappa
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHaruyasu Noguchi[1]
Screenplay by
  • Iwao Yamazaki
  • Ryuzo Nakaishi[1]
Story byAkira Watanabe
Produced byHideo Koi[1]
StarringTamio Kawachi
Tatsuya Fuji
Yoko Yamamoto
Kōji Wada
CinematographyMuneo Ueda[1]
Edited byMasanori Tsujii[1]
Music bySaitaro Omori[1]
Production
company
Release date
  • April 22, 1967 (1967-04-22) (Japan)
Running time
84 minutes (Japanese)[2] / 90 (international)[3]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Budget¥500 million[4]

Gappa (Japanese: 大巨獣ガッパ, Hepburn: Daikyojū Gappa, lit.'Giant Beast Gappa') is a 1967 Japanese kaiju film directed by Haruyasu Noguchi.[1] The film is about a group of Japanese reporters who discover an infant monster called a Gappa on Obelisk Island. The reporters cage the creature and take it to Japan where it becomes a media attraction. This angers the natives of the island and Gappa's full-grown parents, who head toward Japan to find their child. Its plot virtually duplicates that of the 1961 British film Gorgo.

The film was released theatrically as Daikyojū Gappa in Japan in 1967, but only received a direct-to-television release in the United States as Monster from a Prehistoric Planet. It received positive reviews from Variety and Phil Hardy.

Certain shots of the Gappas attacking Japan were used in the 1991 Red Dwarf episode "Meltdown".[5]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Galbraith IV 1994, p. 314.
  2. ^ Galbraith IV 1998, p. 188.
  3. ^ O'Neill 1994, p. 235.
  4. ^ Stuart Galbraith IV (1998). Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films. Feral House. p. 110. ISBN 0-922915-47-4.
  5. ^ "In the Stocks". Red Dwarf. Retrieved March 20, 2017.