All Monsters Attack.

Review #2391: All Monsters Attack.

Cast: 

Tomonori Yazaki (Ichiro Miki), Kenji Sahara (Kenichi Miki), Machiko Naka (Tamiko Miki), Hideyo Amamoto (Shinpei Minami), Sachio Sakai (Sembayashi), Kazuo Suzuki (Okuda), Junichi Ito (Sanko Gabara), Hidemi Ito (Sachiko), Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Marchan the Dwarf (Minilla; Midori Uchiyama as the voice of Minilla), and Yasuhiko Kakuyuki (Gabara)

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, #1623 - Invasion of Astro-Monster, #1999 - Matango, #2250 - Destroy All Monsters)

Review: 

"When I make a monster film, I never think that it will be for children. As a director, I’m a man who wants to imagine and express a story. But when it’s distributed to the theaters it’s always the children who are the most interested ... particularly those in the primary schools.”

You might think I am perhaps a bit generous to select films of the Godzilla franchise, at least within its early years. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) was the low point for me in the first batch of movies*, if I remember correctly. Anyway, let's deliver some context to what the hell this movie is in the first place: Destroy All Monsters (1968) was planned to be the final Godzilla film at one point in time...until it wasn't the plan. They thought of developing an animated series with Filmation and while that collapsed, the idea to do a Godzilla movie centered for the children's market with a focus on doing it fast and cheap was an obvious one for Toho to latch onto. Outlandish ideas for young audiences wasn't a new concept for Honda anyway, as evidenced by films he did such as King Kong Escapes (1967), a co-production with Rankin/Bass Productions that dealt with North Pole hideouts and guys named "Dr. Who". The movie started production...in October 1969. For release in late December 1969. Ishiro Honda directed his eighth (out of nine) Godzilla movie, one that saw the special effects scenes shot alongside the drama sequences (Eiji Tsuburaya was given credit out of respect), with each being filmed in the same (small) studio. For whatever reason, when the movie was released in America (with edits and dubs, naturally) in 1971, it was called "Godzilla's Revenge", complete with being on a double feature with Island of the Burning Damned. According to one Honda book, the film was the first of a new breed of Godzilla films that would be part of the Toho Champion Festival, which dealt with entertaining children with films (some re-edited, like King Kong vs. Godzilla) that would occur three times a year - the festival would run for nearly a decade. This was the penultimate Godzilla script that Shinichi Sekizawa did all by himself while Honda (who stated his liking of the finished film) directed two further movies in the 1970s. The next Godzilla movie would be Godzilla vs. Hedorah in 1971.

Sure, the movie can have a few neat little moments, mostly in the fact that it does have some moments that are shot well, and it does try its best to aim for its selected audience. And the acting in the film is generally about what you would hope for a goofy little movie that surely wouldn't be subject to heavy editing for audiences in distant places, suffice to say. Now let's take a hammer to the egg: it easily is the lamest film of the Godzilla movies in the 1960s. I'm not sure how low it will rank among the lesser of the films of the ever-expanding series (does one count the 1998 American abomination in rankings because of the name?), but it fundamentally is just not a consistent movie in its ambition and execution. It may have a few nice shots, but you can still see the seams in this being a fast-and-cheap rush job. It isn't so much that the movie is expressly terrible in action or in its story, it just so happens that it fundamentally doesn't have enough its foundation to make a whole film. It tries to cover an actual issue (note: latchkey kids) but just comes off as short of making it seem authentic beyond "be more assertive" that comes off as hollow, the kid just seems a bit "timid" more than really troubled. Calling it a movie for kids almost sounds like a shield for something that is packaged like a product ready to be churned and churned over than an actual experience. I wonder if one could re-imagine the film to involve a person (young or not) being so gloomy or so warped that they resort to fantasy to try and cope with their life**. Yazaki may not have become a noted name, but he did fine here for a kid actor, which mainly involves seeing a young soul that is caring and imaginative enough to make you want to root for him in his curious trails (spent in his imagination or otherwise). Amamoto is encouraging enough to make an adequate support (remember that you see more of a neighbor than the parents of the lead character, so that tracks), while the paper-thing characterization of Sakai and Suzuki is about what you expect (incidentally, there are a few folks you might recognize from prior Honda productions). There isn't anything worth going volcanic over, even when you consider that going from Godzilla having a son to having said son depicted as talking is not nearly the worst thing possible. I also think it is a bit funny to have a kid-monster talking about being told to fight one's own battles only to have a climax where the kid ends up helping the poor bastard (catapults, rocks, and stuff) anyway. You'll see a few familiar elements from older films without groaning at it being just a "Greatest Hits" collection, at least.

I particularly find the climax ludicrous, nitpicky or not. So you have a kid cornered by robbers (sure) who decides to take action and goes at one of them while it keeps cutting from the robber to Gabara. Cowardly or not, it seems strange to imagine fighting someone that has a knife by pretending they are a monster (to say nothing if it was an adult being shown imagining it). After this and getting to go home, the kid then goes and has a scuffle with that bully by slideshow presentation (get it, because showing violence by kids isn't as ideal as showing monsters doing it to each other) before the kid decides to honk the horn (get it, because it will lead to an adult getting a bit distracted and goof up in paint, get it). I guess one could replace timidness with brat-nature, but whatever. As a whole, this is a movie removed from the usual Godzilla experience that may or may not be worth a watch for its sheer, well, curious strategy for entertainment. It's not a good movie, but you at least see where one could justify spending 69 minutes maybe once.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

*For the purpose of just outlining every Godzilla movie of the 1960s, here's a list with a blurb: 

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Godzilla fights King Kong to a relative draw.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Mothra joins the mash!

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) - A monster so important it made the title

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) - Nick Adams in: Spaceman's Adventure

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) - Terrorists, lobsters, and more.

Son of Godzilla (1967) - A real family drama

Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Mash like it's 1999 in Monsterland

**Taxi Driver came to mind, imagine a Godzilla-Taxi Driver mashup. I may be an idiot, but at least I try to throw you a curveball.

Redux: Godzilla (1954).

Redux #167: Godzilla (1954)

Cast: 

Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata), Momoko Kōchi (Emiko Yamane), Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Daisuke Serizawa), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Kyohei Yamane), Fuyuki Murakami (Dr. Tanabe), Sachio Sakai (Hagiwara), with Ren Yamamoto (Masaji Yamada) and Haruo Nakajima & Katsumi Tezuka (Godzilla) Directed by Ishirō Honda.

Review:

"Having seen the terror of the atomic bomb in real life, it is most important to weave this element into the film well, so that everyone will understand."

From my review on June 16, 2012:

This is the first world cinema film to come from Japan [on Movie Night]. Gojira (also known as Godzilla) is a film franchise over 50 years old with 28 films in exactly 50 years (1954-2004). This film is chilling, with good atmosphere, with some night scenes that are genuinely frightening. The effects look good to this day, giving you a scare and two. The setting in Japan with the black and white color of the film make it even more threatening as the effects could be hide any mistakes visible in color. Setting it in Japan after the devastation from World War II only adds to it more. The scene that is chilling is at the near end is with the choir girls singing as the city is in peril. This film may be a bit slow at times, but it is still an achievement in filmmaking to this day after 58 years.

I had been waiting to look back at the original Godzilla (known in the Hepburn romanization as Gojira and occasionally released on home media as such) for a long time. After all of these years, I looked forward most to covering it again probably more than seeing the follow-up films that came in its wake. But to know it is to understand how it came together so curiously: Tomoyuki Tanaka had first come up with a idea to do a giant monster film after the failure to make a film in Indonesia (set during the Japanese occupation the previous decade, incidentally). He was flying back on a plane, and it came to him to basically take inspiration from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and the Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident, in which a boat had suffered from contamination after the Bikini Atoll was going through nuclear testing in March of 1954 (one crew member died from radiation sickness, the others survived). Shigeru Kayama was hired to do the initial treatment (which had ideas such as featuring footage of the Maru that went by the wayside) before Takeo Murata and Ishirō Honda wrote the screenplay; Honda had been hired to direct after people such as Senkichi Taniguchi declined. Teizō Toshimitsu and Akira Watanabe designed the creature under the supervision of Eiji Tsuburaya while two performers would be in the suit. Toho actually had a radio drama air during the summer in order to try and build interest for audiences before eventually showing photos of the monster in newspapers prior to release. The movie was first released in one city (Nagoya) on October 27, 1954 before getting a nationwide showing on November 3, 1954, to profound success in its native country. As people already know, an Americanized version of the film was released in 1956 that was trimmed and re-edited, although Toho would later use the "King of the Monsters" label to refer to the character to go along with even showing the edit as "Monster King Godzilla (Kaiju o Gojira)" in theaters. While he didn't direct the 1955 sequel, Honda would direct various other productions for Toho, such as the color monster movie Rodan (1956) and seven of the follow-up Godzilla films from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) to Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975).

 

Admittedly, it is a movie that is more historical for what it spawned in its wake more than just being a perfect movie. It is easy to see where the American edit found the 96-minute runtime something to try and edit down for some sort of idea of standards in getting to the point, and one might wonder what the fuss is in that buildup to destruction. But admirers (such as the one I grew up with) see those composite shots mixed with miniatures and can enjoy the craftsmanship anyway for a movie that is sobering in its spectacle and depiction of sacrifice that is moody and capably made in a manner that set a blueprint worth cribbing from in the years to pass. In the seven decades since its release, technology has improved in making a movie monster look more "real" and for some there have been some quality follow-up Godzilla films (perhaps in story or otherwise), but the power of the original still manages to strike a nerve in terms of the sheer curiosity it generated in how it all came to be. Even trying to make an American rendition (1998, 2014) only shows that big money isn't everything (I say this as someone who likes some of those films in selective ways). The acting works with the bleak atmosphere in sheer confidence for what its director wanted to do in humanism, working its main triangle (Takarada-Kochi-Hirata) to worthwhile drama, particularly with Hirata in terms of conflict for what is most important when it comes to technology and the face of danger. Shimura just provides the established presence of worried curiosity that makes the mark handily. Sure, you would see some of these actors again in other Godzilla films, but they really did just hit out of the park in tension on the first try in ways that is easier to celebrate rather than replicate. The movie has carefully dedicated angles, as worked on by Masao Tamai with the cameras of the time (namely old ones) to go alongside a dazzling musical score by Akira Ifukube to accentuate the terror. It just manages to balance the fine line of showing terror (mostly in the reactions rather than directly interacting with the creature) without testing one's patience for the matters at hand. The prayer-for-peace sequence is especially startling in its sincerity. The climax itself is carefully curated in a way that you don't always see in impactful decision-making without needing bombast to drive it all home, particularly in those last moments musing about the nature of where nuclear testing or war may go if left to certain hands. Far from exploitive, there is real passion at hand from Honda and company in what we end up celebrating as a whole rather than simply going right in on just the effects. Metaphor or monster, the power of Godzilla is in just how enduring it all is as the years go on in humanistic filmmaking that made for worthwhile entertainment in ways that we still marvel at to this day.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

Destroy All Monsters.

Review #2250: Destroy All Monsters.

Cast: 

Akira Kubo (Captain Katsuo Yamabe), Jun Tazaki (Dr. Yoshido), Yukiko Kobayashi (Kyoko Manabe), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Dr. Otani), Andrew Hughes (Dr. Stevenson), Kyoko Ai (the Queen of the Kilaaks), Kenji Sahara (Nishikawa, Moon Base Commander), Chotaro Togin (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Ogata), Seishiro Kuno (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Tani), Wataru Omae (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Arima), Yasuhiko Saijô (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Fujita), Naoya Kusakawa (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut), Yoshibumi Tajima (General Sugiyama Tada), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Hiroshi Sekita (Anguirus), Marchan the Dwarf (Minilla), Teruoshi Nigaki (Rodan), and Susumu Utsumi (King Ghidorah) 

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, #1623 - Invasion of Astro-Monster, #1999 - Matango)

Review: 

Admittedly, the Godzilla series might have needed a bit of a rest. Ever since the roaring hit of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Toho had managed to cultivate a hodgepodge of features involving the title monster, with this being the seventh of eight Godzilla features of the 1960s (to recap: Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and Son of Godzilla) with the last few being island-bound. Ishiro Honda had even directed a few of those films, so naturally, Toho had him and Takeshi Kimura (writer of films such as Matango and Rodan) do the screenplay (this was the only Godzilla film of the 1960s to not be written by Shinichi Sekizawa, who returned for a couple more of the films). Of course, the film was thought of at one point to be the closing film of the series because, well, one can be worn out when ticket sales slowly decline from film to film. Incidentally, this was also near the tail-end of Honda's career as a director, with this being the 15th feature film he did in the 1960s. Of course, Honda and Godzilla would re-unite quickly enough with All Monsters Attack, a feature aimed directly for the youth that would be made on the cheap (filmed in less than three months for release in late 1969) to go with a different tide of success in the next decade (more on that in the future). 

So, what better way to throw a curveball in the series by setting oneself in the latter end of the 20th century (let's just say 1999, but with trips to the Moon as opposed to the actual, sort of disappointingly real 1999) with a place called "Monsterland" that is basically one straight plot with no side characters and, well, a dry tone (the idea of monsters being controlled in some way reminds me of Invasion of Astro-Monster, the one where Planet X wanted to borrow monsters to fight one off their planet). The last film had Godzilla confront fatherhood to go along with some sort of weather device plot and spiders. Watching the film with the knowledge that Honda's intent to show what is basically a "monster farm" basically got cut to just the basics is, well, easy to spot. One just goes with jumping from seeing monsters (featuring a few in close shots like Angurius, back for the first time in a decade, and others in shots totally not to hide further inspection) being given plenty of food to consume to alien women (well, slugs, but they show up as women most of the time in the film) mind-controlling people into slaves. In that sense, it is a bit more impressive than the lightweight charm seen in the last two films (for me, I haven't seen a bad one of these features, but of course that doesn't include the insane idea of watching a dub - in this film though, the dub is apparently not that different). This is the kind of movie that sees a guy jump out of a window and a skirmish breaks out not long after that. The cast here is about on par for what you usually see from people mostly near the end of appearing in these films (most also happened to reunite with Honda with 1970's Space Amoeba). It is pretty easy to say the monster mayhem (the climax being the emphasis) outweighs the invasion, but the 88 minute runtime mostly goes without a hitch, at least for those who are fine seeing a few miniatures (which seems more clear than usual) as one sees a straight-to-the point narrative of trying to get the status quo back that happens to dovetail with seeing monsters stomp eventually. I think the earlier 60s films had a better hold of mayhem (Kong is probably the one people remember by default) but if the series really did take a break after this, one would be pretty content with that here, because it is pretty fun to see coordinated mayhem all in the name of heightened engagement in clear-as-day vision. It isn't merely a film you just knock as "kid stuff", unless one happened to live in a house of seclusion with no figures to imagine growing up. As a whole, Honda and company made a serviceable feature that relies on a few familiar tricks to maneuver a usefully solid time that basically serves as a nice bow to the 60s rendition of Godzilla as one knows it.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Matango.

Review #1999: Matango.

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. 

Invasion of Astro-Monster.

Review #1623: Invasion of Astro-Monster.

Cast: 
Akira Takarada (Kazuo Fuji), Nick Adams (Glenn), Kumi Mizuno (Namikawa), Jun Tazaki (Dr. Sakurai), Akira Kubo (Tetsuo Torii), Keiko Sawai (Haruno Fuji), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Controller of Planet X), Takamaru Sasaki (Chairman of Earth Committee), Gen Shimizu (Minister of Defense), Yoshifumi Tajima (General), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Masaki Shinohara (Rodan), and Shoichi Hirose (King Ghidorah) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla, #1225 - Mothra vs. Godzilla, and #1226 - Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster)

Review: 

The sixth film in the Godzilla franchise continued the progression of the series into keeping with the times and desires from audiences and promoters in more ways than one. The film started as a co-production between Toho and America, a most unusual venture. Henry Saperstein had acquired United Productions of America (known for its animation shorts such as Mister Magoo, which reportedly was the reason Saperstein bought it, as he specialized in tie-in merchandise) and marketers eventually wanted monster movies for distribution in America. After doing research about who was proficient in doing such films and doing training in Japanese, he talked to Toho about doing a venture together, and he provided a significant portion of funding and input. For one thing, the budget would be a bit smaller, with a variety of footage re-used from earlier films to make up for less elaborate models, while the script would take different cues from the usual conference meeting type of movie like the previous ones, where it takes place later in the film after one has already seen a new face to the film: aliens. When it came for distribution in America, there would not be as many edits this time around (i.e. no Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) kind of staging), with a few edits and dubbing from Marvin Miller (alongside Nick Adams retaining his voice) being the key points by Glen Glenn Sound. This version (called  Monster Zero) wasn't released until 1970. The advent of home media has evolved since VHS and dubs, since one can find it on DVD and Blu-Ray in its original version (Criterion Collection even did an entire box set of the first fifteen films just two years ago, for the collectors that are curious).

Oh, so what is the plot about? Aliens are in trouble on the hidden planet by Jupiter, so a Japanese-American space ship (which flies both flags alongside one from the United Nations) that lands there is approached to bring them Godzilla and Rodan to fight the not quite mole people in exchange for the cure for cancer (the edit changed it to all known diseases, as if to make it even more suspicious). The film continues the monster mash-up from before in returning Godzilla with Rodan and King Ghidorah, albeit in the year 196X, and this was the fourth straight film written by Shinichi Sekizawa. The core is composed of seven actors, with Takarada and Adams playing the opening, Mizuno playing the alien love interest, Tazaki playing the main conference room focus, Kubo and Sawai playing the would-be couple, and Tsuchiya playing the main alien. The cast generally does well in this regard, since Takarada has to just make sure he keeps a collected presence without seeming wooden. When it comes to Adams, it is interesting to note his career trajectory through a career plagued by highs and lows (after struggling to self-promote himself) and a life cut short at the age of 36. He is most known for his starring role in The Rebel (1959-1961), and he starred for Toho with Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965), which also featured Mizuno, Tsuchiya, Tajima, and Sawai while Honda directed. He seems to be having a good time with this role, one that leaves him some room to roll with the others and not be constrained by being dubbed (unless one sees the edit) too much, and while the parts with Mizuno may be easy to see coming, they go off without a hitch. Tazaki plays the exposition decently enough, while Kubo does alright with light relief next to Sawai. Tsuchiya made the hand gestures for his character on improvisation while combining a few languages for the alien dialect at Honda's request, and while he is playing the role with a black visor around his eyes (amid a whole bunch of stuff that means only his face isn't all covered in black or grey garments), he does well with keeping a balance of deceptive benevolence and cold menace for what is needed enough to make a worthy adversary in a franchise that a greedy entrepreneur and an assassin for adversaries in previous sequels (besides the obvious big-headed monster). 

Of course not everything is toned to serious space opera stuff. It was Tsuchiya that suggested the "Godzilla dance", doing so to a supportive effects man in Eiji Tsuburaya, which won out over the objections of Honda. This dance was inspired by a dance done in a manga called Oso Matsu-kun (although at least Godzilla doesn't shot "Shie!" like the manga). This happened to be the last time that Tsuburaya served as the director of special effects (he would serve as the supervisor with his own company for Ebirah, Horror of the Deep the following year while Sadamasa Arikawa directed the effects, however). For me, the dance is fine, because we are talking about a quasi-space opera with aliens that harmed by soundwaves and other strange things, which is a far cry from the original but still just as interesting. Honda lamented the film in later years, calling the production a "vicious cycle of time and budget", since the recycled scenes could only fool audiences for a while before they would eventually notice. At least the effects look well enough to keep me interested, and the film runs efficiently at 94 minutes to not drag before settling on Godzilla. Honestly, I thought the movie worked fine in keeping consistency, where it keeps the exposition concise enough to not seem slogged down in repetition, and the space sequences seem refreshing without looking ridiculous (this is 1965, after all). When comparing the film to the previous three films released in the 1960s, I would say that this one ranks right up with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) in keeping the entertainment value consistent with a refreshing story to make a worthwhile successor to the series without leaving any seams of doubt to start tearing up. Regardless of the troubles that Honda had with the film, it serves as a good effort from a director proficient in balancing effects with fair drama into well entertainment for audiences across the globe.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Review #1226: Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Cast: 
Yosuke Natsuki (Detective Shindo), Yuriko Hoshi (Naoko Shindo), Hiroshi Koizumi (Assistant Professor Murai), Akiko Wakabayashi (Princess Selina Salno of Selgina), Emi and Yumi Ito (Shobijin), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Tsukamoto), Hisaya Ito (Malmess, Chief Assassin), Akihiko Hirata (Chief Detective Okita), Kenji Sahara (Kanamaki), Susumu Kurobe (Assassin), Ikio Sawamura (Fisherman), Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Masanori Shinohara (Rodan), and Shoichi Hirose (King Ghidorah) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla, and #1225 - Mothra vs. Godzilla)

Review: 
Well, here we are. Essentially this has become like a Godzilla Week (with one obvious next step to come), although I do intend to cover a different sort of monster movie for June. Hope you folks enjoy film, for which all four monsters showcased here are also happening to be featured in the new Godzilla film.

As one might say, once you find gold (in case, box office dollars), you go off to search for more gold mines (in other words, bigger spectacle pieces) to scrounge around for. For the fifth film in the Godzilla franchise, there would not be just two monsters this time around; four monsters would be featured (Rodan had its own feature film in 1956 by Toho, right in the middle between Godzilla and Mothra's debut), while the big highlight is the introduction of the three-headed King Ghidorah. The monster was based off of Japanese mythology, such as the tale of Yamata no Orochi, which had featured an eight-headed (and eight-tailed) dragon. Eiji Tsuburaya's design for Ghidorah was modified to have just three heads. If operating the Godzilla costume seems grueling, the costume for King Ghidorah was not much better, owing to the fact that Hirose spent hours being hunched over in a costume with only a crossbar for support, while numerous men in rafters helped worked plastic wires for the neck, tails and wings - which would get stuck together on occasion.

The cast handle their responsibilities with enough conviction to go around; they aren't necessarily aiming to win awards as much as they are playing with familiar kinds of roles (after all, half of these actors have been in other Toho sci-fi films). Highlights in the cast include Natsuki and Hoshi, giving off light charm and rolling with the plot just as normally. Wakabayashi, cast as someone believing themselves to be from Venus (like that famous book, only 30 years early) shines just as well, reserved yet capable at letting this role seem more than a offbeat standout. As per the course, there's plenty of oddball sci-fi/fantasy meshes to go along with the monster mashing, and the human story doesn't tread too much water. I do appreciate the effort to push a bit of an message regarding the Earth and trying to help the planet one lives on, even if it's regarding a giant monster. In general, the series was soon shifting towards having Godzilla be more of a defender of the Earth than a simple towering beast over all, which reflects the lighter tone undergone. The fight between Godzilla and Rodan (turning up just before the hour mark) is a bit amusing, what with a giant flying reptile facing off against Godzilla with one move involving him dropping Godzilla into an electrical tower while they also flail their arms about and bash rocks against each other like volleyball (resolved of course by Mothra spraying the two of them with some pollen). Highlight two involves the monsters speaking...through the translation of the fairy guardians. If one has accepted tiny twin guardians of a giant moth creature by this point, one could probably accept (or expect) anything, so having someone claiming to be from Venus show up is quite a curve-ball. The designs for the creatures are fairly well done, with King Ghidorah looking like a suitable beastly threat with a nice golden polish (changed from suggested ideas of green or red) to go along with it.

Despite the rush to make sure that this film was released on the heels of a film released only eight months prior, it does seem that Honda and his crew (which was the same from the previous film with regards to direction, writing, music, effects, producer) have managed to do good craftsmanship once again with making a workable monster movie. It is a neat grand mess of ideas that I find to be quite wonderfully amusing to go along with. It works as a fine-tuning of the monster mash formula for the series while also having plenty of charm to go alongside a capably consistent feature well worth checking out.

Next Review: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964).

Review #1225: Mothra vs. Godzilla.

Cast: 
Akira Takarada (Ichiro Sakai), Yuriko Hoshi (Junko Nakanishi), Hiroshi Koizumi (Professor Shunsuke Miura), Yū Fujiki (Jiro Nakamura), Emi and Yumi Ito (The Shobijin), Kenji Sahara (Jiro Torahata), Jun Tazaki (Maruta, Chief Editor), Yoshifumi Tajima (Kumayama), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, and #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla)

Review: 
It is easy to see where the Godzilla films started to make their next step of evolution when it comes to this film. Oh sure, Godzilla had significant shift in tone (alongside being in color and widescreen) with the previous film, and its success led to further Godzilla films, but this was the first one to make a monster mashup between Toho properties. The film shares the same director, screenwriter and even the same cinematographer and effects director (Honda, Shinichi Sekizawa, Hajime Koizumi and Eiji Tsuburaya, respectively) from both Mothra and King Kong vs. Godzilla, while certain actors make repeat appearances playing different characters - except for The Peanuts (a vocal group consisting of the twin Ito sisters, who had similar timbre), of course. The stories between the films do have a few similar beats to them as well with regard to parts involving a mysterious island and some fairy guardians, so it's more of a sequel to Mothra than to Godzilla but expecting a grip on continuity between movies can prove a bit silly when faced with monster mashing each other like presented here. The original intent was to have Godzilla be the one to wash ashore instead of Mothra's egg, but it was scrapped in part because of the logistics of a character trying to exploit a huge radioactive body for any sort of money (as opposed to just doing an enterprise about a big egg). It holds itself better story-wise when compared to the previous Godzilla movie, holding off on its headline battle long enough to make a worthwhile 88-minute movie seem like a breeze. It makes a kaiju (giant monster) fight between Godzilla and a colossal moth like Mothra seem actually feasible and not completely ludicrous - watching the former try to stave off two big larvae with spray is amusing and fairly satisfying for a climax that leaves the door open for further ideas (with a sequel released eight months later after release). In American releases, it was distributed as Godzilla vs. the Thing (as ridiculous as that sounds) by American International Pictures, including footage shot by Toho specifically for its release while shortening or removing certain sequences (such as cutting out the use of a gun by one of the characters on the other). In any case Mothra vs. Godzilla is a nicely done installment in the Godzilla series, taking the entertainment levels to comfortable heights with a serviceable foundation in story and a well-earned climax to go alongside its predecessors without trouble. It delivers with excitement for the audiences it aims for with no sense of wanting to stop giving treats of folks in rubber suits beating each other down.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).

Review #1224: King Kong vs. Godzilla. 

Cast:  

Tadao Takashima (Osamu Sakurai), Kenji Sahara (Kazuo Fujita), Yū Fujiki (Kinsaburo Furue), Ichirō Arishima (Mr. Tako), Mie Hama (Fumiko Sakurai), Jun Tazaki (General Masami Shinzo), Akiko Wakabayashi (Tamie), Akihiko Hirata (Shigesawa, Doctor), Somesho Matsumoto (Onuki, Doctor), Akemi Negishi (Chikiro's Mother, Faro Island Native), with Shoichi Hirose (King Kong) and Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath)

Review: 
I suppose if there is any Godzilla film that gets mentioned quite a bit by monster moviegoers, it would be this one - after all, it remains the highest attended film of the franchise in Japan, having sold 11.2 million tickets on original release, with release in other countries (such as America) to follow. It is the third film of the franchise, released seven years after Godzilla Raids Again. The genesis for the film took place over a span of two years, evolving from the original proposition from effects animator Willis O'Brien (known from his work on King Kong) that he dubbed King Kong meets Frankenstein, for which a big fight between Kong and a giant Frankenstein would occur in San Francisco, with a script eventually being fleshed out by a writer named George Worthing Yates. Attempts to ship the idea to other studios did not pan out well in part because of the intent to do the film effects in stop-motion (deemed too costly), but Toho eventually acquired interest in the idea of making a film with King Kong, albeit through replacing Frankenstein with Godzilla to be released in 1962, Toho's 30th anniversary as a company. Honda returned as director alongside Eiji Tsuburaya directing the special effects, with a new writer in Shinichi Sekizawa; this is contrast to the first two films - the first film had a screenplay from Takeo Murata and Honda with a story from Shigeru Kayama, while the second film had Murata and Shigeaki Hidaka do the screenplay with Kayama as story writer. With this new writer came a light shift in tone. This shift also applied to the action with the monsters, such as when the two monsters volley a boulder back and forth. Nearly half the budget (roughly $200,000) dealt with paying RKO Pictures for the rights to King Kong. The film takes its time in setting the stage for its two monsters with its plot of the humans, for which Honda intended to be a satire on the Japanese TV industry. After all, there is quite a bit of humor on the attempts to drive up ratings (for a pharmaceutical company sponsoring TV programs). In that sense, it comes off as a bit silly, but at least it gives you a glimpse at what is to come without having a complete tonal shift when the monsters show up, with it being half an hour before either Kong or Godzilla show up, and the former monster has more to do with the plot for the opening hour before the latter monster makes more of an appearance. In that regard, the acting is just fine, playing itself a bit tongue-in-cheek with a bit of energy to try and make sure things aren't being wobbily held before its key players come in to show their hand. Arishima is the key highlight in giving off a bit of amusement amongst a minimal but passable story.

It does have some of the beats from the original King Kong, such as a trip to a mysterious island with natives that holds Kong defending them against other monsters (in this case, octopuses) along with bringing him back for publicity sake, and he even takes a girl with him while climbing up a giant building. I do applaud the look given to Godzilla, which certainly looks wonderful for his first foray in color. King Kong doesn't come off as well, mostly because the face looks a bit closed in, and the fur does seem a bit too distracting when wondering what kind of fur carpet they cut it from. Admittedly, it proves pretty amusing when it actually builds up to the two monsters meeting for their big final battle in the 85 minute mark, what with Kong being transported there by a stack of big balloons while asleep (the less said, the better). I applaud the idea to try and freshen up the films by going for a bit lighter fare, even if it does come at the cost of the characters; it certainly sticks out in the evolution of these films from films about a radioactive monster that attacks Japan to one involving a monster that encounters other particular monsters in a mashup, which is quite enjoyable to look at. The American edit that followed included removal and re-cutting of certain scenes, making the action seem like it was from a newscast, while utilizing music from older movies (a good deal of them from monster movies) that was shot for three days and $15,500 that was eventually distributed by Universal-International in American theaters in 1963. The versions differed only slightly in the climatic battle, with the edit including footage from The Mysterians (1957) to make a earthquake sequence seem more destructive, slight differences in dialogue regarding speculation over Godzilla surviving or not, and hearing only Kong's roar in the end. The success of this film prompted Toho to propose a sequel (which would've been called Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla), but the project did not come to fruition (they did however help co-produce King Kong Escapes in 1967, based off an animated series that Rankin/Bass had done earlier in the decade). They also had ideas about pitting Godzilla versus Frankenstein's monster, but this was scrapped instead in favor of pitting the monster against a familiar creature in Mothra, which was released two years later. Over a half century later, there will finally be a matchup of Godzilla and Kong, this time by Legendary Pictures. One would expect they will come up with a servicable story that isn't just repeating the same beats like other certain studios - at least monster movies inspire plenty of imagination. In any case, this is a fairly entertaining spectacle piece, having light fun with its big mashup between people in rubber suits that appeals well to both adults and kids alike, whether having popcorn at hand or not.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Review #1223: Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Cast: 
Raymond Burr (Steve Martin), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Yamane; dubbed by Sammee Tong), Momoko Kōchi (Emiko), Akira Takarada (Ogata; dubbed by James Hong), Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Serizawa; dubbed by James Hong), Sachio Sakai (Hagiwara), Fuyuki Murakami (Dr. Tabata), Ren Yamamoto (Seiji), Toyoaki Suzuki (Shinkichi), Tadashi Okabe (Dr. Tabata's Assistant), Toranosuke Ogawa (President of Company), and Frank Iwanaga (Security Officer Tomo), with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka (Godzilla) Directed by Terry Morse, as originally directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla, #711 - Mothra, and #1092 - Gorath)

Review: 
The original Godzilla was a success upon release in 1954. Over nine million tickets were sold in Japan upon initial run in Japan (which remain the second most attendance for a Godzilla film in Japan) - it soon found its way to being distributed to the United States - in Japanese-American neighborhoods. In 1955 (the same year that Toho would release Godzilla Raids Again), the international rights for the film would be sold to an American group interested in adapting it for further audiences in America, led by Joseph E. Levine, who was involved in over 400 films in his life-tiem as either producer, distributor, or financier (ranging from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians to The Producers). 20 minutes of footage with Burr, alongside stand-ins were edited into the feature, trying (for 1956 standards) to make it seem that he is part of the action, with a bit of dubbing involved when not having Burr just ask someone that he knows to help translate what is going on. The run-time is obviously different from before, with Gojira running at 96 minutes and this lasting 80 minutes. It feels strange to see this one after nearly seven years since I viewed the original - so it is interesting to see what I viewed once again (for the most part), if only to remember how serious it had taken itself (such as shots involving people trapped under rubble), with the black-and-white cinematography helping to make the sequences with Godzilla really stand out in terror. A good deal of the subtext involving the horrors of nuclear testing (along with character elements) is cut out, which admittedly does make for a more stream-lined movie, which I suppose is preferable to dubbing the whole dialogue - even if it does undercut the ultimate decision made in the climax a bit. Burr gives a fairly wooden performance with such a strange role of being in the background of impactful events in the film and occasional dialogue to other characters (one sequence amusingly having him talk to the back of someone's head) that would probably work better for an audio play than anything. He doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the actual film, which in its own right still holds up well. If given the choice between watching the original film with subtitles, a dub, or this, the easy choice for me is still the film in its original 1954 film, but this manages to be a fair second choice. After all, this is the version that audiences outside of Japan were introduced to, lingering as a drive-in favorite and in TV syndication for years on end. It treats the original (and its cast members) with respect, letting them be in the forefront (beside sequences with Godzilla, naturally) just as before.

Believe it or not, this isn't the last time the film would receive edits for release in another country. Italian filmmaker Luigi Cozzi made further edits in 1977 to this film, colorizing the film (hence why it the credits list it as presented as in Spectorama 70) along with adding new scenes (such as Godzilla destroying a train and various stock footage) that made it last 105 minutes; it is referred to as "Cozzilla" in most circles, with limited availability besides the Internet Archive. In 1985, New World Pictures released Godzilla 1985, a re-edit of Toho's The Return of Godzilla (1984) that served as a follow-up to the original film, including additional footage with Burr reprising his role of Martin from this feature. It shouldn't be forgotten that Godzilla, King of the Monsters! soon found its way to Japan, being released in 1957 under the title Kaiju Ō Gojira (translating to "Monster King Godzilla"). In any case, while this film loses some of the underlying structure that made the original Gojira a riveting monster movie, it holds itself well enough with its foundation to make for an interesting piece of entertainment nonetheless.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Gorath.

Review #1092: Gorath.

Cast: 
Ryô Ikebe (Dr. Tazawa - Astrophysicist), Yumi Shirakawa (Tomoko Sonoda), Akira Kubo (Tatsuma Kanai - Cadet Astronaut), Kumi Mizuno (Takiko Nomura), Hiroshi Tachikawa (Wakabayashi - Pilot of Ôtori), Akihiko Hirata (Endô - Captain of Ôtori), Kenji Sahara (Saiki - Vice Captain of Ôtori), Jun Tazaki (Raizô Sonoda - Tomoko's Father), Ken Uehara (Dr. Kôno - Astrophysicist), and Takashi Shimura (Kensuke Sonoda - Paleontologist) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla and #711 - Mothra)

Review: 
Note: I watched the English dubbed version of this film, which I happened to encounter on television last night. However, I have found a source or two that have compared the original version and the English dubbed version (which features Paul Frees for some of the voices), which are slightly noticeable in its editing, and I hope that seeing the English dub doesn't affect the quality of this review, since I generally try to watch a world cinema film with its original language and subtitles. In any case, I hope you enjoy this review.

With this science fiction film (also known as Yôsei Gorasu), you get the best of both worlds (of sorts): You get your share of shots in space involving either rockets or a planet and you also get your share of scenes involving exposition and occasional story bits with characters. Whether that makes for a serviceable time is up to you, but I found it be okay if not too particularly exceptional. The actors are fairly okay, but because of how the film likes to jump around between numerous people (generally ones in some sort authority), there isn't anyone who sticks out too particularly well, although Tazaki commands a bit of attention for the brief time he is on screen. The strangest moment of the movie isn't even involving the deadly planet, it's actually a part where one of the characters (played by Kubo) takes a framed photo of someone who died and throws it out the window. A close second involves the planet apparently having the power to give someone who gets close to it some sort of amnesia - which is cured by looking at it again apparently. There isn't really too much to the story other than just the incoming planet (which you get to hear is 6,000 times the mass of Earth a few times) and some exposition on the solution to said planet: move the Earth. In a worse movie, it'd probably be easy to pick at that and probably get mad for being insulting to the mind, but in a movie as okay as this, it doesn't feel too terrible to go through, perhaps since it doesn't feel too deceptive in being entertainment - success or not.

The effects are pretty nice to look at for the time that they were created in, having some model shots that seem pretty convincing at moments, particularly during the climax with a flood, which is quite striking. At the head of the department behind the visual effects for the film along with Toho as a studio was Eiji Tsuburaya (who you may know as one of the creators for Godzilla). One interesting thing about the film is a giant walrus named Maguma that appears near the end of the movie, which was added in at the last minute due to influence from one of the producers. Most of the sequence was actually cut out of the English-dubbed version, believe it or not, with the result being a bit disjointed and probably more amusing to giggle at than the original. There exists numerous run-times for the film, with the original being 88 minutes long, the German version being 84 minutes, the American version being 83 minutes, and the American VHS release being 77 minutes. The movie doesn't try to be just one of those sci-fi movies that throw random situations at an audience, having an aim for presenting a message involving cooperation between humans and achievement against all odds, which at the very least is something worth presenting. It isn't a complete success, but it isn't a complete failure either. It won't be known as a great classic, but it is something that you could encounter late at night and probably have some enjoyment with in you're in the right mood.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Mothra.

Review #711: Mothra.

Cast
Frankie Sakai (Zen-Chan Fukuda), Kyoko Kagawa (Michi Hanamura), Hiroshi Koizumi (Dr. Shin'ichi Chujo), Ken Uehara (Dr. Harada), Jerry Ito (Clark Nelson), Yumi Ito & Emi Ito (The Shoubijin), Takashi Shimura (Sadakatsu Amano), Masamitsu Tayama (Shinji Tyuujou), and Tetsu Nakamura (Nelson's Henchman) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla)

Review
It has been way too long since I've reviewed a world cinema film, and what better one to do than Mothra, a Japanese film involving a monster (also known as kaiju), in this case a caterpillar/moth. Unlike Godzilla, the movie is less grim with regards to the monster and more light on the tone, with vocal group The Peanuts starring as twin fairies. Strangely enough, it all works well. It's a fun flick mainly because it manages to just be itself without going overboard in silliness. The color of the movie looks good, especially with the sets, looking so crisp. I like the effects on Mothra, especially after she transforms. Is it dated? Sure, but sometimes dated can be a good thing, and with this movie, it's a plus mainly because it's too much joy to dislike. The characters seem to be having a good time, and I like the main three actors (Sakai, Kagawa, Koizumi), who seem to click well. The villain (Itou) is hammy, but perfect for something like this. It may not be as thrilling as Godzilla or have the same impact, but Mothra makes up for it by just being a movie filled with bridled joy.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.