In the mid 1960's, there was a boom of pathetic Japanese monster movies. Movie companies would suddenly form up a division on Kaiju, make a single movie, and then never put a guy in a rubber suit ever again. This movie is one of them.

The owners of "Playmate Magazine" want to make a "Playmate Island" where everybody can come and enjoy themselves. No, it's not a "Playboy" theme park; it's more like one of those nature parks, with a bunch of tropical animals being the main scenery. Anyways, in order to get the animals necessary an expedition is sent to a South Seas island known as Obelisk. After being greeted by the natives with dances and constant "Gappa Angry" comments, they eventually find a cave with a big lake in it. They witness the hatching of some sort of bird-like lizard-thingy, and of course they decide to bring it to Japan. Well the parents of this thingy are still alive, and so they fly off to save their baby. The Triphibian part refers to the fact that they can swim, fly, and walk on land (not an actual word derived from amphibian, but oh well). They also of course shoot out a heat ray reminiscent of Godzilla's. Anywho, after lots of destruction and failed attempts to kill the Gappa, they decide to give the baby back. The movie ends with the heart-warming reunion of parents and child. Everybody lives happily ever after, of course.

This is the first and only Kaiju movie made by Nikkatsu Studios. Like most one-shot deals, it shows a lot of effort in making the thing work but lacks refinement from experience. It's also a cliché filled blatant rip-off, in this case on "Gorgo". It follows a pretty standard plot line with a lot of standard stuff, and not much really stands out. The special effects are actually on par with the Kaiju flicks off the time, and if you didn't know better you'd think Toho did this. Then again being average and uneventful is better then being bad. Still, there are some things that stand out slightly. The "Gappa are people to" story-line somehow gets more sentiment then you might think at first, even though they do look like big ugly chicken monsters. There is everything from a scene where one of them carries a giant octopus to feed it's young to a scene where they teach the baby Gappa how to fly. In the meantime, there is lots of trashing of fairly well done model buildings, a bunch of explosions, and some pretty good looking model tanks. One interesting plot note is the fact that seemingly, nobody dies in this movie. Even the main person behind the whole "capture the Gappa" thing is spared. Unbelievably, he's treated as a real person who just got greedy for a moment, as opposed to the classic evil entrepreneur approach. Despite these slight differences, it's still your standard kaiju movie.

All in all it's not a bad one-shot, non-Toho, non-Daiei, Japanese monster movie. Then again, it's not all that good either. There is not much to remember but not much to bash either. The plot is good but unoriginal. The special effects are good for it's genera but bad almost everywhere else. It is a pathetic campy movie but not laugh-out-loud hilarious either. Essentially it boils down to being an average kaiju film. I don't really recommend it but I don't recommend against it either. If you’re a big Kaiju fan, go ahead and watch it if you feel like it. It's an average movie that is neither good nor bad.

Good, but unoriginal plot.

On par special effects.

Fairly good model tanks, buildings, and explosions.

Not one, not two, but three, count em', three kaiju!

Average is a good thing.

Average is also a bad thing.

Rip-off of "Gorgo".

Gappa are people to! Just rubbery.

So, just why is your magazine called "Playmate" anyways?

During the submarine scene there's, get this: Japanese subtitles!

"Gappa angry! Gappa angry! Gappa angry!" Oh shut up; we get the point!

Credits