I think I got that right....Anyways i'm talking about Japanese monster movies. Other then the staples (Godzilla, Rodan) what are some other good ones to seek out?
I see TCM is showing one Sunday night at 2 AM. Just by reading the synopsis it seems like something ludicrus and fun LOL! Anyone ever seen it before?
I put this here because I don't think there's another subforum this would fit in.
Kaiju movies
I've claimed to be a long-time monster movie fan but, over the past few years, some outstanding but unknown-to-me DVDs arrived. 1960's MANTANGO (Attack Of Mushroom People) has a fungus slowly consuming humans. It's a bit more creepy than the ordinary costume-monster flick.
1962's VARAN is fairly interesting. But starting in 1963, ATRAGON and DOGORA heralded the demise of good Japanese monster films and into the Shirley-Temple-esque/kiddie style. While the '60s films were sometimes fun, few ever matched their '50s originals.
That said, I still collect all I can find. X FROM OUTER SPACE is set for recording on the 10th. It's sound fairly dumb so naturally, I can't resist!
I keep hoping the original MOTHRA will be released with the same aplomb that GOJIRA and RODAN DVDs were. (Y'know, MOTHRA might be the original "kiddie-ization" of Japanese Monster Movies, as I think about it.
1962's VARAN is fairly interesting. But starting in 1963, ATRAGON and DOGORA heralded the demise of good Japanese monster films and into the Shirley-Temple-esque/kiddie style. While the '60s films were sometimes fun, few ever matched their '50s originals.
That said, I still collect all I can find. X FROM OUTER SPACE is set for recording on the 10th. It's sound fairly dumb so naturally, I can't resist!
I keep hoping the original MOTHRA will be released with the same aplomb that GOJIRA and RODAN DVDs were. (Y'know, MOTHRA might be the original "kiddie-ization" of Japanese Monster Movies, as I think about it.
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cinemalover
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X from Outer Space has been shown before on TCM. Here's what I wrote when I watched it back in 2006:
I have the Godzilla DVD release that has the original Japanese version with restored footage and no Raymond Burr (as well as the American release, Godzilla, King of the Monsters), but still haven't got round to watching it. I'd prioritise but I have too many priorities! I noticed the other day that the second Godzilla movie has been given the same treatment. I presume from Ollie's comments that Rodan has a similar release. That's awesome.
It always amazed me that in Japan, there's no stigma attached to kaiju movies and in the original versions, you can see that they weren't always made as kiddie movies. And yes, I'm talking about the originals from the '50s here not things like the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. As I wrote in a review of Rashomon:
Should you watch it? That depends on your taste. It's terrible but it could easily be a guilty pleasure.I'm really enjoying myself lately. Not only did TCM's Robert Osborne have to introduce Creature with the Atom Brain, but also The X from Outer Space, a truly ludicrous kaiju movie starring a half lizard, half chicken alien monster. Because this is a TCM Import brought to the States by Janus Films, it's widescreen and subtitled, exactly how I'd like to see the rest of the kaiju movies, not least the Godzilla films. As many of them were altered by the Americans to include name actors like Raymond Burr, cut sequences and add others, it's easy to see something like Godzilla, King of the Monsters but not see Gojira itself. And I wanna! Instead we have the refreshing experience of American actors like Peggy Neal dubbed into Japanese.
This isn't a Toho film, rather a Shochiku movie, the oldest Japanese studio that dates back to 1895, who also produced Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell that I watched recently, but also serious work by Ozu, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and others. The Japanese are heading for Mars but something keeps stopping them. Now they have a nuclear powered rocket they try again but encounter a UFO which selectively cripples them. They finally return home but bring with them some great luminous attachment that on entry into our atmosphere turns out to be Guilala the monster who naturally goes Tokyo-stomping.
It starts off with a bizarrely Japanese theme song and continues with a highly sixties camp score, as well as some bizarrely stylised graphic design and highly kaiju miniature modelling, an interracial love triangle, an irresponsible scientist called Dr Stein who doesn't want to go to Mars, some gratuitous bouncing up and down in the Moon's low gravity, an asteroid puncture and repair during flight, tractor beams, some stunning pseudoscientific nonsence and of course the giant radioactive dinosaur chicken monster who doesn't even appear until two thirds of the way through the movie. Awesome. And yes, it's as bad as it sounds, but there's a lot worse out there.
I have the Godzilla DVD release that has the original Japanese version with restored footage and no Raymond Burr (as well as the American release, Godzilla, King of the Monsters), but still haven't got round to watching it. I'd prioritise but I have too many priorities! I noticed the other day that the second Godzilla movie has been given the same treatment. I presume from Ollie's comments that Rodan has a similar release. That's awesome.
It always amazed me that in Japan, there's no stigma attached to kaiju movies and in the original versions, you can see that they weren't always made as kiddie movies. And yes, I'm talking about the originals from the '50s here not things like the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. As I wrote in a review of Rashomon:
One of these disreputable characters is the woodcutter, played by Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura, as it's here that he tells his tale. Shimura was one of the greatest actors of Japanese film and to me he epitomises the ease with which eastern actors often tend to alternate between what many in the west would deem serious art and trash cinema. In the west it always seems to be a downslide where stars of the stature of Joan Crawford or Basil Rathbone would descend to the depths of Trog or Queen of Blood because their careers were over and they either didn't know it yet or they were willing to do almost anything for the paycheck. Yet even while Shimura was appearing as a lead actor on a regular basis in world-renowned masterpieces for Kurosawa and other great Japanese directors like Hiroshi Inagaki and Kenji Mizoguchi, he was also playing key parts in Toho monster movies without any loss in respect. In 1954 he was the leader of The Seven Samurai and a doctor in the original Godzilla. In 1955 it was Throne of Blood and The Mysterians, in 1961 Yojimbo and Mothra and in 1964 Kwaidan and Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster. Could you imagine Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable doing this sort of thing?
Nice...I knew about the original Godzilla being restored to it's original glory but not of the 2nd Godzilla movie and the first Rodan. I'll definitely have to go bargain hunting for them 
As for my taste in these movies....Well I like a little silliness in my viewing so i'm always up for something a little off center. The CBC here in Canada usually has a 2-3 week stretch in the summertime where they show Godzilla movies! I always love that time of year.
As for my taste in these movies....Well I like a little silliness in my viewing so i'm always up for something a little off center. The CBC here in Canada usually has a 2-3 week stretch in the summertime where they show Godzilla movies! I always love that time of year.
The RODAN and GODZ 2 ("Gigantis Fire Monster") both have Jap/USA versions.
GOJIRA has been making local film festivals since maybe 2003? 2002? That's where I first saw it, and was/am amazed at the social and political issues that are demonstrated on-screen. For such a male-dominated society to undergo devastation, defeat, occupation and then a new constitution, here's a film that only 5-6 years later encapsulates all of that. There's a great townhall meeting scene in a village where the town-leaders - men - refuse to tell the citizens about Gojira. The women are the ones leading the rants and tirades against these men.
Six years earlier, they didn't have the right to vote. But the men seem to prevail except Gojira shows up in Tokyo Bay in the very next scene and illustrates how worthy mere men's decisions about information-dissemination is. ha ha
GOJIRA has been making local film festivals since maybe 2003? 2002? That's where I first saw it, and was/am amazed at the social and political issues that are demonstrated on-screen. For such a male-dominated society to undergo devastation, defeat, occupation and then a new constitution, here's a film that only 5-6 years later encapsulates all of that. There's a great townhall meeting scene in a village where the town-leaders - men - refuse to tell the citizens about Gojira. The women are the ones leading the rants and tirades against these men.
Six years earlier, they didn't have the right to vote. But the men seem to prevail except Gojira shows up in Tokyo Bay in the very next scene and illustrates how worthy mere men's decisions about information-dissemination is. ha ha
Well I saw the movie last night....I know someone here Tivoed it so I wont' spoil it but it was no great shakes. Although the guy that plays Dr. Kato gives a very good workman-like quality to his role.
As for the monster itself...I wish it was around longer.
Oh well, some elements of the movie are interesting in a sci-fi way.
As for the monster itself...I wish it was around longer.
Oh well, some elements of the movie are interesting in a sci-fi way.
Yes, this is a film takes us into the deep end of the Hokey pool. These are why I lost all interest in this class of films - well, the monster costume is rather interesting to dissect - "Where did they get that part? A 1964 Datsun pickup's radio antenna? No, I think it was a '65..." That's about as interesting as it got for me.