John and Eugene look at two more episodes of the cult classic, Ultra Q. This time we ponder the connection between rare butterflies and the Yeti, plus, what happened to the stunt octopus after filming his big scene.
Metamorphosis Episode Synopsis
A mountain expedition comes across some bones and footprints. Could it be the yeti?!
The editor sends a couple of reporters. Yuriko begs to be assigned but then is distracted by her friend Ayako who has come to her for help. She’s been lying about breaking up with her fiancé. She’s got a feeling that he’s the yeti!
Yuriko goes to Jun for advice, but he laughs her off, but eventually, they all go to see Professor Ichinotani. He listens to Ayako’s tale.
He fiancé, Koji, was an entomologist. They were in the mountains hunting butterflies when he spied what he thought was an Amazonian Morpho butterfly. He chased it and they became separated.
Ayako finds Koji face down on the floor of a cave being molested by a giant butterfly. Koji claims he’s been poisoned by the butterfly and runs off to find a drink of water. He ends up face down in a swamp.
Ayako searches the mountains for days when, eventually, she finds Koji, still face down in a swamp and giant-sized. We’re talking Incredible Colossal Man-sized. He seems almost subhuman and she runs away.
Now, months later, with the reports of the yeti in the same mountains, she’s convinced it’s Koji.
Jun transports the gang to the mountains.
Now bearded and sporting an impossibly-sized loin cloth, Koji – or should I say, the yeti her has become – is causing problems for a village. It doesn’t help that the police start shooting at him, causing him to trample the village in rage.
Yuriko gets the story and has scooped the assigned reporters, but she omits the detail of the yeti’s identity.
Ayako desperately wants help for Koji, and the girls convince Professor Ichinotani to deploy his Thermal Atomic X-Ray device.
They return to the mountains and first Ayako tries talking to Koji. Failing that, Ichinotani shoots him and he wanders off.
Later, they find him, back to normal.
Fury of the South Seas Episode Synopsis
At night, a fishing vessel is at sea in the Ocean Of Death. Aboard, the captain and his son, Yuzo. They are attacked by a giant octopus and the ship is sunk. Only Yuzo survives and he washes ashore on Compass Island where he is found and nursed back to health by Anita, a native of the island.
The editor gives Yuriko the plum job of going to the island to investigate the shipwreck and the legends of the Ocean of Death. He’s sending Jun and Ippei and even paying bonuses.
So, for some reason Yuriko doesn’t want to go, but she relents when they also send along Minami, a dynamic interpreter.
On the island, one of the locals doesn’t like Yuzo – perhaps he is jealous of the attentions Anita is paying to him. The beating of Yuzo is stopped when Jun and the gang arrive, because that gives the islanders someone new to dislike.
Things aren’t going well when Sudar, the giant octopus god of the island arrives and threatens Anita’s younger brother. No one will try to save him, except for Jun. His act of heroism gets them dispensation to stay on the island.
The find Yuzo, who is now obsessed with avenging his father’s death by killing Sudar with his own hands. Sudar has killed many people on the island, including Anita’s father and older brother, but he is also their god, and they worship him and do not bear him ill-will. For that reason, Anita will not tell them where Sudar’s nest is.
Yuzo uses the tried and true Christian Missionary argument with Anita: “Your beliefs are all wrong.” Like countless other native lambs throughout history, she agrees and gives them the info.
Jun and Ippei boat to another island to call in an air strike to kill the monster. In their absence, the villagers capture all the others and prepare to burn them to death.
When the air strike finally arrives, Jun and Ippei use the confusion to release Yuriko and the others. Unfortunately, the air strike only angers the monster, which comes ashore and starts trashing the village and the villagers.
Yuzo uses this opportunity to try to kill the massive beast with spears. When Jun and Ippei join in, along with playing accompaniment on a shotgun, they manage to kill the beast.
Having helped destroy their village, kill their god, and wipe out their dominant belief system, Yuzo is permitted to stay on the island to contaminate them further. Yuriko and the others return with a story for her newspaper.
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