Atragon
	Japanese Release Date: 1963
	Japanese Title: Undersea Battleship
	Japanese Running Time: 96 minutes
	U.S. Release Date: 1965
	U.S. Title: Atragon
	U.S. Distributor: American International Pictures
	U.S. Running Time: 89 minutes
	Monsters: Manda
	My Rating:
My Comments
Not enough kaiju in this movie for my liking, but Manda was a lot better than I thought he would be, except for the part when he got frozen by Atragon. Ah well, the acting was very good though and a lot of familiar Toho faces showed up in this one. So anyway, here's the synopsis...
Synopsis
A commercial photographer named Susumu Hatanaka and his assistant Yoshito Nishibe are conducting a photo shoot for a magazine, the shoot being of a very lovely model in a bikini near the sea. Suddenly, a mysterious silver figure rises out of the ocean and Susumu quickly begins to take photos of it, but the bright flashes startle the silver stranger and it retreats back into the sea. Meanwhile, someone in a taxi unexpectedly speeds up and drives right off of the pier where the photo shoot was taking place! The police and a detective soon arrive and question Susumu and Yoshito about the accident and they also tell them about the strange silver figure. Later, they learn that similar events have been happening all over, but in the other cases, the sea people have kidnapped civil engineers. On their way back to work, Susumu spots a beautiful young woman, named Makoto Jinguji, that he wants to model for him and decides to take a picture of her and her license plate in order to track her down. Susumu finds out that Makoto has been in the care of retired Admiral Kosumi, a war hero and leading authority on submarines, since she was a child. Soon, a very curious journalist questions the Admiral about Captain Jinguji, Makoto's father, and some unaccounted for submarine that Captain Jinguji was in charge of, but the Admiral won't reveal anything. The Admiral then leaves with Makoto just as Susumu and Yoshito spot them and follow, but the driver of the Admiral's vehicle suddenly zooms off towards the sea in an attempt to abduct the Admiral, revealing that he was instructed by the Mu Empire to do this. The Mu then send a film to the Japanese government which tells all about who they are, their history, and what they want. They claim the Mu Empire was once located at the center of the Pacific Ocean and ruled over all of the Earth. The Mu Empire was cursed by the gods and sank into the sea, but their ancestors persevered and found a means of survival underneath the ocean. They also explained that they harnessed the Earth's core to provide energy needed to create a great underwater civilization. Now they want to reclaim their lost Empire, but they seem worried about one thing, the super-submarine dubbed Atragon! With the mistake of leaking that information to the surface world, the United Nations proceeds to seek out the super-submarine. The Admiral then finally seeks out Captain Jinguji and finds him working on a secret base in an uncharted island to build Atragon, which can also fly and burrow underground. The Admiral asks Jinguji for Atragon's help against Mu, but he refuses, saying he will use it as he intends it... for "glory of Japan!" However, when The Mu make the mistake of kidnapping Makoto, Captain Jinguji changes his mind and sets out in Atragon. Atragon battles the Mu's guardian monster, a large serpent named Manda and defeating him before attacking the Empire's central power complex. A strike team freezing everything with their Zero Cannon and the entire empire blows up.
Other Features: Behind the Scenes

Cast & Crew
Captain Jinguji Jun Tazaki	Director Ishiro Honda
Susumu Hatanaka Tadao Takashima	Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka
Makoto Shinguji Yoko Fujiyama	Screenplay Shinichi Sekizawa
Retired Admiral Kosumi Ken Uehara	Special Effects Eiji Tsuburaya
Umino Kenji Sahara	Music Akira Ifukube
Empress of Mu Tetsuko Kobayashi
Yoshito Nishibe Yu Fujiki
High Priest of Manda Eisei Amamoto
Police Inspector Hiroshi Koizumi