Gappa, the Triphibian Monster

A Japanese expedition to a tropical South Pacific island encounters natives who worship a deity called Gappa. An earthquake exposes an underground cavern, and inside it the visitors find a newly hatched reptile. The islanders warn them to leave the creature alone, but the expedition takes it back to Japan, where it is placed in a zoo and studied. Before long, two enormous monsters arrive and lay waste to Tokyo in search of their offspring.

Haruyasu Noguchi directed the film, the twenty-second of twenty-two features he made in chronological order, following Dreams Come True at Night the same year. Ryuzo Nakanishi and Gan Yamazaki wrote the screenplay, and Eisei Koi produced for Nikkatsu Corporation with Far East Laboratory and Manson International. The cast of twenty-four includes Tamio Kawachi, Yōko Yamamoto, Yuji Okada, Kōji Wada, Tatsuya Fuji and Keisuke Inoue. The film runs eighty-four minutes.

Released in Japan in April 1967, the film is rated 4.4 out of 10 on IMDb from around 1,900 votes and 5.6 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample. The gap suggests the two audiences differ, though both point to a modest reception overall.