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. 

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.

Review #1668: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.

Cast: 

Akira Takarada (Yoshimura), Toru Watanabe (Ryota Kane), Toru Ibuki (Yata Kane), Chotaro Togin (Ichino), Hideo Sunazuka (Nita), Kumi Mizuno (Daiyo), Pair Bambi (the Shobijin), Jun Tazaki (Red Bamboo Commander), Akihiko Hirata (Red Bamboo Captain Ryuui), Hideyo Amamoto (Red Bamboo Captain Naval Officer), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla) and Hiroshi Sekita (Ebirah) Directed by Jun Fukuda.

Review: 

"All I can remember is that making GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER was like pouring two cups of water into one. I had to cut one sequence after another."

The funny thing to remember about Godzilla is that most of the movies end up with him fighting a big monster for perilous enjoyment, and they all build up to it in their own respective ways (i.e. cliché) that can lend for distinct movies. So far, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and Invasion of Astro-Monster have proven better in the first few of the Godzilla sequels, although obviously Godzilla vs. Mothra is also up there. Most of those films took place within military settings or within a city to build the set-up, which got considerably lighter after the first film. All is not quite what it seems with the island setting for this film. For one thing, the original working title was "Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah"; Rankin-Bass Productions, who was working on The King Kong Show (1966-1969) with Toei, rejected the idea, but Toho liked what they saw while replacing Kong with Godzilla. At any rate, Toho and Rankin-Bass would team up for King Kong Escapes (1967), which combined elements from the show alongside the spy genre as the second and last film that Toho made with the license on the character. Unlike other movies of the series, this movie was distributed in the States only on television, for which it was known as "Godzilla versus the Sea Monster". At helm for director is Jun Fukuda. Born in Japanese-occupied China, Fukuda studied in Japan with Japan Art University before serving in World War II. He was hired to work with Toho in 1951, where he would start as an assistant director. For the next ten years, he worked under directors on films such as So Young, So Bright (1955, directed by Toshio Sugie) and Rodan (1956, directed by Ishirō Honda) before getting his chance to direct in 1959 with Osorubeki hiasobi. He would do a variety of genres until his retirement in 1977 that ranged from action to comedy to science fiction. He was the third person to direct a Godzilla film and the first one to replace Ishiro Honda since Motoyoshi Oda helmed Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Over the next eight years, he would be tasked to direct four more Godzilla features from Son of Godzilla (1967) to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). Over the course of his career with Godzilla, he would approach the films as action dramas, albeit ones that would be tightly filmed in budget and shooting. A modest man, Fukuda enjoyed working with the cast of this film (singling out Hirata and Mizuno), but he did not find any of the Godzilla be his favorites in his career. In one interview, he even was asked if there should have been any sequels to Godzilla in the first place, and he actually answered no (he also noted that he enjoyed making his comedy films more so than the monster movies), where even being sent a copy of the film he made by Toho was "like opening up an old wound."

For the first time in the series, Eiji Tsuburaya was not the director of special effects, since he shifted to supervisor; instead, it was Sadamasa Arikawa that served as special effects director, although he did not take kindly to the cheap demands by Toho, which Arikawa felt was because he could pushed around by them more so than with Tsuburaya (who had his own company and reputation by then). This was the fifth writing effort out of ten Godzilla features done by Shinichi Sekizawa. So instead of Godzilla rampaging the countryside of Japan, he is instead dormant for most of the movie on an island that also has Mothra in the distance in slumber while the focus is on a quartet of humans that are there after being shipwrecked by the title character (Ebirah; ebi incidentally is a shrimp prominent in Japanese cuisine) after looking for a missing brother...after losing a dance marathon contest that would've won a sailboat. Oh, and the island has a group of militants exploiting the land for a formula that keeps the crabby monster at bay. So...yeah, we are talking about a movie where Godzilla eventually fights a shrimp/crab that only seems to fight in the water and can be repelled by militants with a special island powder. I guess Mothra (making her fifth of six appearances in the original series, albeit with a somewhat deteriorating costume) fights Godzilla, in that it involves dust. Godzilla isn't exactly at the "Earth's defender" stage yet, merely placed in the "Well, I destroyed cities, but now I have shifted my interests to being my monster self, so muck off Mothra/Ebirah". Of the cast, Takarada, Hirata, Mizuno, Tazaki, and Nakajima are the most seasoned actors present in this film, and they are fine here, with Takarada and Hirata generally being the most interesting (although Mizuno makes impressions here and there, although the scene spent with Godzilla looking at her like Kong is a bit...weird). The others aren't boring, but the light pace mixed with its tone doesn't exactly make them quite interesting. I admire the scene where they think about their escape and about Godzilla "helping" them before they yell at him to jump off the soon-to-be exploding island; one could find it cynically amusing and ponder the fact that Godzilla lives on again to potentially "visit" another place in time only because someone told him to ump.

So yeah, one is really here to see what stuff will happen with Godzilla, for better or worse. Did I mention there is a condor fight? It actually is the worst fight scene of these films so far, mostly because one can't even see the fight clearly, and it seems appropriate that Godzilla fires it out of existence. Godzilla awakens in a sequence clearly meant to evoke other monsters: a lightning strike. I suppose it goes along with all the non-Godzilla aspects that make for a really cheesy pastiche of clichés, all of which start with comic bumbling and lead right into playing rock volleyball with Ebirah (the icing on the cake is a tribute shot to another movie with a character rubbing their nose...Godzilla, having just done a dance in the film before that). The pace is lighter, but it doesn't mean the movie moves any faster for enjoyment, particularly if one desires to see some interesting Godzilla action, and I suppose it could only set the stage for weirder entries in the series that will range from the offspring of Godzilla to a monster mash to children getting involved with the monsters - there were eight of these films made in the 1960s, and this was the fifth of those released.  If the music by Masaru Sato (a favorite of the director) is memorable for any reason, it is probably because the electric guitar manages to reverb like the James Bond theme, which can either be thought of as distinctive or distracting. In general, the movie acts as yet another cut into the burrowing decisions by Toho and others to shift Godzilla for children with a goal of doing it as fast and cheaply as possible. That isn't to say that Fukuda failed in brining in a new perspective with the film, because he does do a fine job here, but as a Godzilla movie it certainly does fall a bit flat in the lasting enjoyment department. If one can get through some filler to get to parts involving rubber suit monsters, you might have a time here, although the 87 minutes will either feel really short or tolerable enough to finish yet another Godzilla adventure. I can't give it a positive notice, because it doesn't exactly prove a triumph, but I can acknowledge it as a curiosity that may suit others in mind, five decades after the fact. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

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.

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.