U 4000 - panic under the ocean

Movie
German title	U 4000 - panic under the ocean
Original title	Ido Zero Daisakusen
Country of production	Japan
original language	Japanese
Publishing year	1969
length	Japan: 89 minutes USA: 105 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Ishirō Honda
script	Shin'ichi Sekizawa , Ted Sherdeman
production	Tomoyuki Tanaka
music	Akira Ifukube
camera	Taiichi Kankura
cut	Ume Takeda
occupation
Joseph Cotten : Craig McKenzie Cesar Romero : Dr. Malic Akira Takarada : Dr. Ken Tashiro Masumi Okada : Dr. Jules Masson Akihiko Hirata : Dr. Sugata Linda Haynes : Dr. Anne Barton Tetsu Nakamura : Dr. Okada Mari Nakayama : Tsuruko Okada Hikaru Kuroki : Captain Kroiga Richard Jaeckel : Perry Lawton Patricia Medina : Lucretia Wataru Ōmae : advisor Susumu Kurobe : Chin Haruo Nakajima : Flying Lion / Giant Rat

U 4000 - Panic under the ocean ( Japanese 緯度0（ゼ ロ）大作 戦 , Ido Zero Daisakusen , literally: "The great operation from zero latitude"; US title: Latitude Zero ) is an American-Japanese fantasy film from 1969 by the Tōhō . It was directed by Ishirō Honda , creator of the Japanese film monster Godzilla .

Shin'ichi Sekizawa and Ted Sherdeman's script is loosely based on Sherdeman's radio drama series Latitude Zero about Captain Craig McKenzie and his futuristic submarine Omega from 1941.

action

While researching the Cromwell Current in the Pacific south of New Guinea , the research vessel “Fuji” is launching a mini submarine into the water. The science officer Dr. Ken Tashiro from Japan, the researcher Masson from France and the journalist Perry Lawton from America.

When an underwater volcano erupts, the crew is rescued by the submarine "Alpha". Craig McKenzie, the captain of the "Alpha", brings the three rescued people to the underwater city "Equatoriana" (in the original Utopia). This is populated by people of different nationalities who come from different epochs. McKenzie's opponent Dr. Malic and his lover Lucretia threaten the underwater city with their submarine U 4000 (originally Kurosame / Blackshark) and kidnap a scientist who wants to visit the city. During their rescue mission, McKenzie and the “Fuji” crew fight against monsters created by Malic: Malic has provided a hybrid of lion and eagle with the brain of his submarine captain Kroiga.

Frames

There were three different versions published: an 89 minutes long for the Japanese, a 105 minutes long for the US market and a 68 minute short version called Kaitei Daisensō ( 海底 大 戦 争 , "The Great War on the Seabed"), which in 1974 on the Festival Tōhō Champion Matsuri was shown. In 2006 a Collectors Box was released in Japan.

The US Version lacks the end of the film that tries to explain what kind of world the "Fuji" crew is in after the scientist has been rescued.

Reviews

"An action-oriented future film with a lot of trickery, naive picture book tension and a lot of ridiculousness."

- Lexicon of international film

“Utopian color film by the Japanese Honda in a peculiar mixture of the successful and the amateur, from which one could, however, also distil political things. Only something for the very stalwart with very low demands. "

- Protestant film observer

Premieres

• Japan: July 26, 1969
• USA: July 29, 1969
• Germany: April 3, 1970

literature

• Jörg Buttgereit : Japan - The Monster Island. Godzilla, Gamera, Frankenstein & Co. , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-927795-44-5

Web links

• U 4000 - panic among the ocean in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Dunning: On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio . Oxford University Press, New York 1998, ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3 , pp. 389 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
2. ↑ Jörg Buttgereit: Japan - The Monster Island. Godzilla, Gamera, Frankenstein & Co. , Berlin 2006, p. 233
3. ↑ U 4000 - Panic under the ocean. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
4. ↑ Critique No. 186/1970