Drive in Sci-Fi: Atragon (1963)

TohoScope is back with another Japanese treat. A photograph doing a porno movie sees a car entering sea and swimming away.
Then an old world war 2 Marshall gets blamed about having a secret submarine I-403 which the allies does not know about. They deny it and after that they are being kidnapped. the kidnapping fails as the two photographs we met earlier interfere. They try to tell the police what happened, and they seem to think it is from "mu empire", an empire that sunk under the sea 12.000 years ago. Sounds like Japanese version of Atlantis.
so MU sends a movie to these people bout themselves. supposedly it was in pacific ocean, the size - larger than Europe. and it was supposed to be future technology, similar to what our technology is nowadays from what they show, save for the flying metro. They also tell about their plans to build the best submarine - underground battleship called Atragon. why tell your enemies about your war plans - i dont know. To prove it they sink a cruise ship, though it probably is supposed to be battleship.
And then, they destroy (offscreen) Venice and Hong Kong. so its a global threat now. So U.N. decide to meet in a battleship. great choice guys. At least they are using satellites to search for it. They find one of enemy submarines and follow them. well, the Americans do. But the enemy runs so deep that the American submarine gets crushed by water pressure. So they ponder about ability to use hydrogen bomb.
What they decide they need to call in the I-403 back to service. However they soon learn he has revolted. The Mu also seems to be able to use earthquakes. They want earth to be their colony now. Humans obviously don't want to be slaves. They find an old friend of the sub captain mentioned before and he tells them he would lead them to him. they use plane, ship and the jeep to do it. But the cow, erm, MU people seems to be having a spy in the party. When they finally meet the old captain hes in the phase of denial and think they are still in war. So he reuses to help them because Japan isnt still warring. What a prick. He shows them the ship, and it looks like a plane without wings that can go underwater. it also has a drill at the front so supposedly it can go though rock too, nice. Apparently it can also fly. what a submarine indeed.
Afterwards during celebration they get into argument why isnt Japan still in war. The old captain gets hotheaded and shouts "you call patriotism nonsense" and i just so wanted the visitor to answer yes. sadly he doesnt. but they seem to have a interesting idea in this movie. Japan always managed to get political issues across in b-movies. Afterwards others join in and go "you are a gohst of the past wearing rusty armour called patriotism". They still cant get though the thick skull of the captain.
The MU spy uses tihs confusion to kidnap captains daughter and a reporter that tries to stop him. So they get into their ship, dig their way though rubble and decide to go and take revenge. so hes not ok with fighting for world but hes fie with revenge? yet he manages to pretend he actually changed his mind, and its not like his daughters kidnapping had anything to do with it right?
They chase the MU submarine. Kill the giant "monster" that looks like a worm and free the kidnapped people, who are about to free themselves anyway. Then they turn back and drill thier way, 6 miles, into the power room. they use their instant- freeze gun to destroy the locals and are more effective than the enemy were in their attacks. They blow it up and save the day. Then fly up an watch the explosions with same face as lovers watch sunset.


Story: 6/10. japan atlantis comes to attack. they have many movies with underwater creatures attacking. but this wasnt bad.
Acting: 4/10. bit wooden but works. the leads are ok.
Sound: 3/10. better than usual but still pretty bad.
Sci factor: 3/10. cant say much here. they dont try to put a lot though but what they do mostly fails.
Lasting Appeal: 5/10. Worth remembering for Japanese Atlantis perhaps.
Overall rating: 4/10.