# What's this C-grade 50's/60's Japanese kaiju movie with the family of Gapa monsters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861 "2008-10-21T05:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/1 "2008-10-21T05:57:29Z")
I saw a bit of it on TV last weekend. Giant monsters, rubber Godzilla-type suits. Model tanks, submarines and boats. It has a young scientist who works for a greedy businessman. The young scientist leads an expedition to a small island, where lives a family of giant flying monsters, who the locals call “Gapa”. The scientist and his group take the baby monster back to Japan, sneaking it past customs in a small motorboat. They keep the baby gapa in a cage, and it grows very fast. The young scientist expresses that it’s not humane to keep the baby Gapa caged up, and the selfish businessman says that the ‘stupid lizard’ doesn’t have any feelings. The selfish businessman does a magazine spread about the baby Gapa and sells millions of copies. A boy from Gapa island somehow comes to Japan. He looks like a japanese kid with shoe polish on his face. Mama and Papa Gapa come to Japan to rescue the baby, and on the way they crush a city, knock over some pagodas and high-voltage lines and fry some tanks with their fire breath before retreating into a deep lake. The sympathetic scientist and the pretty girl decide to disobey the businessman, release the baby Gapa, who rejoins his parents, they all fly off to their home island, happily ever after. I saw it on TV when I was a kid, and again last weekend. I didn’t catch the name of it either time. It wasn’t one of the major monsters like Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, Rodan, Angilas, Destroyer, Biollante… Any dopers know the title of this forgettable movie? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/2 "2008-10-21T06:18:56Z")
[Daikyojû Gappa](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061550/) (1967), better known in the US as [Gappa, the Triphibian Monsters](http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/gappa.html). This was the only monster movie made by Nikkatsu Studios. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/3 "2008-10-21T06:23:15Z")
Oh, I misspelled gappa. Thanks for that, all I could find in google was the Gay Asian Pacific Association, not the Triphibian monsters. I liked the mind-reading hat they put on Gappa junior. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/4 "2008-10-21T06:25:42Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Oh, I misspelled gappa. Thanks for that, all I could find in google was the Gay Asian Pacific Association, not the Triphibian monsters. I liked the mind-reading hat they put on Gappa junior. LOL …too many jokes… must. refrain. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/5 "2008-10-21T06:28:21Z")
YOU THINK I DON’T KOW WHAT A BURNT LIZARD LOOKS LIKE? Just last month at the G.A.P.A convention I burnt the hell out of my lizard! It’s barely healed up! ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/6 "2008-10-21T07:31:37Z")
Oh, man, I had a wee toy of those things when I was a kid…came in a 3-pack, with a Gappa, [Gigan](http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Gigan), and Godzilla…for the longest time I thought they’d just made Gappa and Gigan up for the toys…now, I know Gappa, and that inspired me to try to find Gigan… So, thanks to BMax for starting this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-c-grade-50s-60s-japanese-kaiju-movie-with-the-family-of-gapa-monsters/468861/7 "2008-10-21T08:07:10Z")
I was always partial to [Gamera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera_(film)), myself.