Cast:
Akira Kubo (Professor Kenji Murai), Kumi Mizuno (Mami Sekiguchi), Kenji Sahara (Senzō Koyama), Hiroshi Tachikawa (Etsurō Yoshida), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Masafumi Kasai), Hiroshi Koizumi (Naoyuki Sakuda), and Miki Yashiro (Akiko Sōma) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla, #1225 - Mothra vs. Godzilla, #1226 - Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, and #1623 - Invasion of Astro-Monster)
Review:
Did you know that among all filmmakers classified as part of world cinema, the most prominent one among Movie Night is Ishirō Honda? A director is never thought of by the amount of films they do, of course, but it seemed just right on this occasion to pick a quality choice to spotlight a eighth Honda film. What better film than one that was basically ignored for decades? Sure, folks might remember him for his work within the kaiju and tokusatsu (special effects) features, but he directed a wide variety of genres in a 23-year career from comedy to drama, and one of those includes horror. The film was inspired by the 1907 short story "The Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson. It was the second adaptation of the story, with the first having been a 1958 television episode of the series Suspicion (with direction by Arthur Hiller). However, it is the first and only film adaptation of the short story, albeit with modifications made. As such, the story for the film was done by Shinichi Hoshi and Takeshi Kimura, which then saw a screenplay composed by Takeshi Kimura. Evidently, the film had to avoid the rigors of censorship when it came to the makeup that is seen at select times that involved features to the face that looked like the disfigurements suffered by victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The release of the film saw mixed reviews (as quoted by Honda, who described it as not really fitting the usual Japanese mainstream films) and not even a theatrical dubbing in America, since it was released straight to television by American International Television as "Attack of the Mushroom People". Honda stated that the film was both inspired by a story he read about rich kids that had to be rescued from their adrift yacht along with being a comment on the era when it comes to drug abuse.
Slow and tense works out just fine as long as one is fully invested in what is going on without finding holes to poke in the attempts at "serious drama" (i.e., if you know what you are getting into with a film like this in effects, how patient will one be to watch drama before that first reveal). In that sense, anyone who thinks they will get an odd little film about mushroom people will likely find a pretty grim and intriguing feature that actually proves the merits of having a dedicated director like Honda at the helm to make things stick. This is accomplished not by simply just cutting the time seen of the title being as it is a movie that finds the real villain in us, where our impulses and our differing moral qualities are more of a threat than the question of what lies beneath tasting a mushroom. At 89 minute, it sure is paced about right while balancing the expectation for mushroom havoc, which certainly does creep in the right spots (whether involving ones that grow quickly or, well, makeup). Interestingly enough, every single one of the main seven actors had worked with Honda at least once, whether that meant stuff such as Song for a Bride (1958) or Gorath (1962). Nobody really stands out among the cast when it comes to trying to play the angles of desperation, but the film is all the better for it to see a slow burn of strife that doesn't need to spoon-feed one with cheap jokes or hammy-ness. Of course, Kubo is a quality actor to start and end the film on a strong note when it comes to the setup, which reminds me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), although I suppose movies about folks becoming one with a similar-thinking blob is surely ripe for countless interpretations. One would probably say that the people in the film are there to represent the various professions that were thriving in Japan at the time and it thus makes sense to see what could happen to them when faced with an island filled of just themselves with an outlet like art or trade to interact with. If one is patient for what the film is looking to say about the nature of people when faced with a withered sense of responsibility and an even more withered sense of what makes one happy. Grim as it may be, Matango is done by a responsible filmmaker to hit most of the marks needed in carefully developed horror that might make a useful recommendation for the curious at heart.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
Tonight: The march to 2,000 ends.
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