Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds

Intro:

This is a series on old dinosaur movies. Specifically, I am looking at anything released before 1990; before Jurassic Park revolutionized cinema with its CGI animation. I will not be covering anything "dinosaur-adjacent", such as kaiju monsters like Godzilla or the creature from The Giant Behemoth, which are perhaps inspired by dinosaurs, but clearly not meant to represent any real world genus. I will also be skipping over films that are heavily dependent on "borrowed" footage from other films, such as the Valley of the Dragons / Prehistoric Valley.

Also known as:

Legend of Dinosaurs
The Monsters of Prehistory
Earthquake 10°
God of the Sea
Giants of Prehistoric Times
The Giant Monster Bird vs. The Giant Dragon God
The Monster Birds Against the Island of the Dinosaurs

Runtime: 1 hr 34 min

Background:

Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds is a 1977 Japanese film produced by Toei Company. The idea for the film reportedly came from Toei's president Shigeru Okada, who thought Japan should adopt America's film making trends after the success of Jaws. There was also increasing worldwide interest in Scotland's Loch Ness monster at the time. A 24-meter (78 foot) pool was built for water scenes and four different kinds of plesiosaurus props were created, along with life-size heads and fins. Footage of the plesiosaurus and the rhamphorhynchus was used in the final episodes of the MegaBeast Investigator Juspion series.

Legend of Dinosaurs would end up performing only modestly in Japan and was never released theatrically in the United States, although it was released as a TV movie. The film was a surprising cult hit in Soviet Russia where it was the only Japanese monster movie to see a release before the 1990s, becoming the 19th highest-grossing foreign film of all time. It is said the modern advancements of a foreign capitalist country is what caught moviegoers attention there.

Plot Summary:

In the Sea of Trees region of Mount Fuji, a barefoot woman stumbles into an icy cavern with large eggs that begin to hatch. She hysterically flees in terror and is found by a construction crew. Her story is broadcast on television, gaining the attention of geologist Takashi Ashizawa who travels to Mount Fuji to find the eggs. An earthquake knocks Takashi out and he later awakens in his father's old cabin near Saiko Lake, having been retrieved by Shohei Muku, an old friend. Takashi then meets Akiko, a former lover, and another woman named Junko.

Around Saiko Lake, rumors spread of dragons and sea monsters in the water after a young couple disappear without a trace. When Junko finds a headless horse-corpse in the road that is mysteriously moved to a tree, Takashi speculates that a living plesiosaurus is responsible. His theory proves correct when a plesiosaurus eats a prankster at the local festival.

"They told their babies to stop crying or they'd put them in the lake and the dragon with red eyes like the Chinese lantern plant would eat them up. The people of this area were very superstitious about dragons." -Singing Woman

Akiko watches the serpent devour two female divers, one of which is Junko. Meanwhile, the young rhamphorhynchus that hatched from the eggs takes flight. It terrorizes the local community before engaging with the plesiosaurus. The plesiosaurus is gaining the upper-hand when Mount Fuji erupts, sending both reptiles into a fiery chasm. Akiko almost goes with them, before Takashi grabs her hand, leaving the two of them hanging.

Thoughts:

I really don't like this one. Everything is so drawn out and there are long stretches where nothing interesting happens. The first good look at the prehistoric creatures (neither of which is a bird or dinosaur) doesn't occur until nearly an hour in and the human characters aren't interesting enough to carry the film. And oh God, there is so much screaming. It hurt my ears every time a woman shrieked because she saw an egg, an eel, or some other animal.

Related Articles:

• Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955)
• One Million B.C. (1940)  / One Million Years B.C. (1966)
• Dinosaurus! (1960)
• Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
• The Last Dinosaur (1977)
• Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds (1977)
  
• Planet of Dinosaurs (1977)
• Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985)