The producers apparently couldn't decide so they blended the two genres. The monster and the CGI are well done, while the actors ham it up beyond ridiculous. Viewers who appreciate traditional Kaiju films may be put off by the slapstick jokes and grimaces, while those who watch for the humor may be offended by the horror aspects.
7 Reviews
Entertaining Off-Beat Slice-of-Life Sequences Meet Average Monster Fights and a Ridiculous Plot
kluseba9 January 2022
Raiga: The Monster from the Deep Sea is a Japanese monster movie that follows the dreadful Reigo: King of the Sea Monsters released roughy four years earlier. While the latter was disappointing regarding production values, plot and acting performances, this second film is a slight improvement but still suffers from a low budget that makes the movie look like a monster film from the late nineties in the key of the worst Gamera flicks.
The movie essentially follows an elderly widower who barely makes ends meet. He illegally sells t-shirts and other merchandise to make a living. Along with his drunk friends, he is involved in a festival focusing on traditional Japanese acting, dancing and music performances. He is elected as the treasurer for this organization against his will. When he is not out drinking and eating with his friends and wasting the little money he has, he is trying to get romantically involved with a mid-aged lady who is living next to a shrine. The most interesting element about this strange man are his three quirky teenage daughters. The eldest walks around in skeleton clothing and regularly criticizes her father. The second daughter is quite energetic and dreams of becoming an idol. The youngest daughter is rather childish but always happy and playing with a teddy bear she even brings to restaurants. This set of characters witnesses how a monster from the sea devastates their beloved hometown. At its first attempt, the monster gets chased away after a stressful evacuation and the use of military technology by two aggressive commanders and four clueless politicians. However, the monster soon emerges again and fights a second monster during an explosive showdown.
Let's stat with the positive elements worth mentioning. First of all, the characters are quite quirky, memorable and charismatic. Most parts of the movie feel like comedic slice-of-life passages. Many viewers didn't think the film was funny and thought several elements were lost in translation. I have to disagree and found some jokes truly entertaining, such as when the widower stupidly insults himself, randomly proposes elephant meat for dinner or clumsily tries to hide his love interest from his daughters. Another positive element is the colourful locations that vary from traditional restaurants over old-fashioned theaters to religious shrines that are intertwined with modern hotels and military headquarters. Up next, the monster looks quite decent even though it obviously rips off Godzilla's characteristics. Its fights against military tanks and planes as well as against the second monster are quite entertaining. The use of electricity and lightning by the monster blends in well but is at times repeated on too many occasions.
The film is however not without its flaws. The ending of the film is completely botched as it comes to a random conclusion with an even more random moral. It almost seems as if the makers of the movie had run out of money and simply shot a weird five-minute collage to conclude what should have been an extra hour of entertainment. The special effects look dated, especially the fake military planes and tanks that look as if they had been taken from the toy box of a child's bedroom. Explosions are overused in this film to a point that in certain scenes we see so many fireballs that we lose track of the monsters. The light effects could have been better as well since several scenes look either much too dark such as in the hotel or exaggeratedly bright such as on the hill in the conclusion.
At the end of the day, Raiga: The Monster from the Deep Sea is interesting for its quirky and comedic slice-of-life sections with a weird widower, his quirky daughters and their amusing friends. The monster fights are also decent but nothing to write home about. Despite cheap production values and a plot that is all over the place, this movie manages to entertain from start to finish and to stand out with its off-beat style.
The movie essentially follows an elderly widower who barely makes ends meet. He illegally sells t-shirts and other merchandise to make a living. Along with his drunk friends, he is involved in a festival focusing on traditional Japanese acting, dancing and music performances. He is elected as the treasurer for this organization against his will. When he is not out drinking and eating with his friends and wasting the little money he has, he is trying to get romantically involved with a mid-aged lady who is living next to a shrine. The most interesting element about this strange man are his three quirky teenage daughters. The eldest walks around in skeleton clothing and regularly criticizes her father. The second daughter is quite energetic and dreams of becoming an idol. The youngest daughter is rather childish but always happy and playing with a teddy bear she even brings to restaurants. This set of characters witnesses how a monster from the sea devastates their beloved hometown. At its first attempt, the monster gets chased away after a stressful evacuation and the use of military technology by two aggressive commanders and four clueless politicians. However, the monster soon emerges again and fights a second monster during an explosive showdown.
Let's stat with the positive elements worth mentioning. First of all, the characters are quite quirky, memorable and charismatic. Most parts of the movie feel like comedic slice-of-life passages. Many viewers didn't think the film was funny and thought several elements were lost in translation. I have to disagree and found some jokes truly entertaining, such as when the widower stupidly insults himself, randomly proposes elephant meat for dinner or clumsily tries to hide his love interest from his daughters. Another positive element is the colourful locations that vary from traditional restaurants over old-fashioned theaters to religious shrines that are intertwined with modern hotels and military headquarters. Up next, the monster looks quite decent even though it obviously rips off Godzilla's characteristics. Its fights against military tanks and planes as well as against the second monster are quite entertaining. The use of electricity and lightning by the monster blends in well but is at times repeated on too many occasions.
The film is however not without its flaws. The ending of the film is completely botched as it comes to a random conclusion with an even more random moral. It almost seems as if the makers of the movie had run out of money and simply shot a weird five-minute collage to conclude what should have been an extra hour of entertainment. The special effects look dated, especially the fake military planes and tanks that look as if they had been taken from the toy box of a child's bedroom. Explosions are overused in this film to a point that in certain scenes we see so many fireballs that we lose track of the monsters. The light effects could have been better as well since several scenes look either much too dark such as in the hotel or exaggeratedly bright such as on the hill in the conclusion.
At the end of the day, Raiga: The Monster from the Deep Sea is interesting for its quirky and comedic slice-of-life sections with a weird widower, his quirky daughters and their amusing friends. The monster fights are also decent but nothing to write home about. Despite cheap production values and a plot that is all over the place, this movie manages to entertain from start to finish and to stand out with its off-beat style.
MAN IN SUIT!
kirbylee70-599-5261794 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Not long ago in a Facebook page I belong to discussing exploitation and drive-in movies someone mentioned that there were no longer companies like American International Pictures (AIP) that created some of the most enduring low budget horror and monster movies of all time. Those movies have given way to bloated budget films and an overuse of computer generated images (CGI) with little creativity to be seen. Sure those old movies had some terrible acting but at least they tried to do something new.
I thought about all of that while watching RAIGA: GOD OF MONSTERS. The movie is an obvious rip off of the classic Godzilla movies complete with an energy spewing dinosaur type creature who rises from the sea instilling fear in the people of Japan. This time around the cause for his rising is global warming, just to keep things current.
After destroying much of the nearby town near the waters he rose from, Raiga returns when new giant monsters threaten the area. Now he goes from monster to savior as he saves the town from being completely destroyed while doing a little damage along the way.
It's difficult trying to decide just what kind of movie this is. While the obvious choice is a kaiju (Japanese giant monsters) film most of its time is played for laughs coming from a character who sells t-shirts of the monster, seems to be in charge of the town council and runs around with a group of young just past teen groupies. To say something in lost in translation here is an understatement.
At the same time the movie has that simplistic charm of those old Godzilla movies most of us grew up with on Saturday mornings and afternoons. They were unbelievable and not to be taken seriously. This one definitely falls into that category. My guess is if you grew up with those films you'll find something to enjoy with this one. The rest of the world maybe not quite.
I thought about all of that while watching RAIGA: GOD OF MONSTERS. The movie is an obvious rip off of the classic Godzilla movies complete with an energy spewing dinosaur type creature who rises from the sea instilling fear in the people of Japan. This time around the cause for his rising is global warming, just to keep things current.
After destroying much of the nearby town near the waters he rose from, Raiga returns when new giant monsters threaten the area. Now he goes from monster to savior as he saves the town from being completely destroyed while doing a little damage along the way.
It's difficult trying to decide just what kind of movie this is. While the obvious choice is a kaiju (Japanese giant monsters) film most of its time is played for laughs coming from a character who sells t-shirts of the monster, seems to be in charge of the town council and runs around with a group of young just past teen groupies. To say something in lost in translation here is an understatement.
At the same time the movie has that simplistic charm of those old Godzilla movies most of us grew up with on Saturday mornings and afternoons. They were unbelievable and not to be taken seriously. This one definitely falls into that category. My guess is if you grew up with those films you'll find something to enjoy with this one. The rest of the world maybe not quite.
For hard-core daikaiju-completists and (maybe) for fans of silly comedies
jamesrupert201413 December 2020
A monster, accompanied by deadly fish, shrugs off mankind's puny attempts to destroy it, fights a second monster that appears out of nowhere, and moistly lays claim to the city of Asakusa. The plot is incoherent, the acting is clownishly awful (likely not helped by being watched via subtitles) and the special effects are rudimentary (and very repetitive). Clearly made for laughs, the film lacks the goofy but earnest charm of the more juvenile entries is the Showa-era Godzilla series. Humour doesn't translate well (especially through subtitles) and I suspect that I am not the target audience at several different levels, but I found the 'comedy' excruciatingly unfunny. Most of the kaiju sequences seem to be setting up the 'climatic' shot, in which Raiga bends over and anoints his newly claimed turf (the resulting rainbow is the best part of the film). The film should have ended on that high-note rather than drift into some nonsensical sermon about the monster and climate change, which seems to have been appended either to pad the running time or somehow give an aura of seriousness to an otherwise loopy, jejune fantasy (if the latter, the effort was a failure). A bit better made and more true to classic kaiju eiga than the creature's first outing (Reigo, the Deep-Sea Monster vs. the Battleship Yamato (2005)) but less imaginative.
Toho is going to sue someone!!!
JoeB13115 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Or they should.
This movie is a parody of Kaiju films, but I am thinking a lot of the humor is lost in translation. I have to assume this was actually very funny in Japanese. So they follow the exploits of some people who live in a town where a creature that is just slightly this side of copyright infringement of Godzilla, and their whacky reactions as their city is being destroyed . I don't think it takes itself very seriously...
This movie is a parody of Kaiju films, but I am thinking a lot of the humor is lost in translation. I have to assume this was actually very funny in Japanese. So they follow the exploits of some people who live in a town where a creature that is just slightly this side of copyright infringement of Godzilla, and their whacky reactions as their city is being destroyed . I don't think it takes itself very seriously...
Excruciating
office-48911 November 2021
Fun!
BandSAboutMovies24 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The sequel to Reigo: King of the Sea Monsters, this was also directed and written by Shinpei Hayashiya. Ten years later, there was a sequel, God Raiga vs. King Ohga: War of the Monsters.
Global warming has melted the ice caps in the South Pole and disrupted Earth's ecosystem. This also brings long-sleeping sea creatures back to life, including Raiga, which instantly decides to destroy the city of Asakusa while avoiding destroying any temples. There's also a father (Yukijiro Hotaru) and his three daughters (Miyu Oriyama, Mao Urata, Manami Enosawa) who use the monster's attacks to create merchandise and sell it, like something out of Yeti Giant of the 20th Century when father isn't trying to get a new girlfriend to the anger of his children.
The Defense Force has a new weapon, KAMIKAZE, as well as cluster bombs and stealth fighters. But they can barely stop one monster, much less two. I mean, have you ever seen a kaiju piss all over some rubble to mark its territory? Watch this and you can say that you have.
This feels very close to the original Godzilla but in a way that lovingly echoes that movie. I had a lot of fun with this and found it way better than the first movie.
Global warming has melted the ice caps in the South Pole and disrupted Earth's ecosystem. This also brings long-sleeping sea creatures back to life, including Raiga, which instantly decides to destroy the city of Asakusa while avoiding destroying any temples. There's also a father (Yukijiro Hotaru) and his three daughters (Miyu Oriyama, Mao Urata, Manami Enosawa) who use the monster's attacks to create merchandise and sell it, like something out of Yeti Giant of the 20th Century when father isn't trying to get a new girlfriend to the anger of his children.
The Defense Force has a new weapon, KAMIKAZE, as well as cluster bombs and stealth fighters. But they can barely stop one monster, much less two. I mean, have you ever seen a kaiju piss all over some rubble to mark its territory? Watch this and you can say that you have.
This feels very close to the original Godzilla but in a way that lovingly echoes that movie. I had a lot of fun with this and found it way better than the first movie.
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