Raiga: God of the Monsters, If Shonen Knife Made Godzilla

This Japanese monster film has the feel of a Shonen Knife music video. You'll be smiling throughout. The monsters will attack and level a Japanese city and you'll be waiting for an all-girl band to break out in a sickeningly sweet ballad. Not in English (you'll have to use closed-caption), this may be a horror-comedy, but 2009's "Raiga: God of the Monsters" (aka "Raiga: The Monster from the Deep") will have you laughing and keeping the beat as skyscrapers are pushed over and tanks are melted. 

Hajime (Yukijiro Hotaru) has just lost his wife. He's making the move on a babe, Masumi. His three lovely daughters, Hibari (Mao Urata), Matsuri (Miyu Oriyama), and Akira (Manami Enosawa) are determined to keep him pure to his wife's memory. Then their lives change. A swarm of sea creatures eat fishermen and a 200 foot monster comes to shore in Asakusa. It destroys buildings, shoots electrical bolts, melts tanks, and goes to the bathroom in the center of the city. Commander Kito (Makato Inamiya), the deranged leader of the Japanese Defense Forces acts. His fighters kill the thing. All celebrate. Hajime gets rich selling tee shirts commemorating the monster. Uh oh...his daughters announce they want to try out for Japanese Idol.

Another monster attacks. Hajime must decide between his three daughters and his beautiful and younger girlfriend. His daughters choose for him. As Asakusa is destroyed again by the behemoth, Hajime must keep his girl-band-wannabe daughters safe. Commander Kito is in his glory and dispatches a secret weapon, the KAMIKAZE machine. But wait! A third behemoth monster comes ashore. Now the two behemoths fight and piss...really! The city is flattened and looks like Tokyo just after World War 2. Now it seems the humans are defenseless against the monsters. But where there is fatherly love, and a new girl-band brewing...anything is possible.

Will Matsuri be able to put a band together that replaces Shonen Knife in the hearts of Japanese youth? Will Hajime find love during the monster invasion? Can Japanese all-girl bands and behemoth sea monsters co-exist in post World War 2 Japan? This is a fun one and the ending might be the greatest ending ever put on film. You'll be screaming! You'll be humming! You'll be tapping your feet! Watch "Raiga: God of the Monsters," directed by Shinpei Hayashiya.