Raiga: God of the Monsters (2009) (Japan)

aka Raiga: The Monster from the Deep Sea

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Global warming disrupts the Earth’s ecosystem, unleashing various prehistoric monstrosities from their watery slumber. As would be expected, Japan is a prime target for these colossal creatures, led by the electrically-charged super-beast Raiga. The Deep Sea Marine Life Research Center has their hands on one of the so-called “Devil Fish” popping up in the Sea of Japan and it’s not as dead as believed. The scientist studying the prehistoric monster finds this out the hard way. Along with the murder, an exploded boat and a submarine’s encounter with a ginormous beast has the Taito Defense Force getting antsy. While the main narrative is going down we also meet a widower and his three daughters who are constantly making sure he stays loyal to their mother’s memory using their… super powers? It’ll be important later… maybe. Anyways, back to the plot. Under the tactical command of eye-patched Kito, the small and drunk-filled town of Asakusa is turned into a battleground once evacuated. The beast puts up a fight but eventually the might of the Japanese Air Force puts a stop to the terrifying tomfoolery. Months pass and things go pretty much back to normal. The widower is illegally selling commemorative monster merchandise along with his daughters and the Town Planning Committee is getting ready for their annual festival. The relative calm is disrupted when those nasty “Devil Fish” pop back up, jumping out of the river and chowing down on some poor locals. Raiga soon follows. The military hits back but this time it looks like that big-old sea reptile ain’t backing down. The film zips along, never shying away from rubbery monster loveliness (fuck, there’s a monster clash during the god damn opening credits) and sprinkled with humor (a couple white guys mistaking Raiga for Godzilla had me laughing way too hard) and bizarre characters doing things just slightly off enough to make them interesting. Oh, and it ends with a monster marking his territory and wandering back into the sea. Standup routines, people acting like idiots, a callback to Reigo (filling out some time with footage from that lovely flick), green screen hijinks, the head-scratchingly odd subplot with the three daughters which involves hefty appetites, pop star idol dreams and super powers keep things off. Another low-budget kaiju winner from Shinpei Hayashiya.