War of the Gargantuas (1966) film directed by Ishirō Honda

Ishirō Honda is a legend in kaju films and for good reason. Even though this film is a sort of hot mess in many ways it isn't without merit. A giant hairy apeman attacks a giant octopus that is attacking a boat and he attacks the boat. It's quite the opening scene. The monsters appears again and again causing destruction and literally eating people and spitting their remains out. It's quite horrific for this type of film at this time. 

Some scientists it seems had a ape kid at some point that ran away and was presumed dead in the mountains and the authorities think it is back, now gigantic on a killing spree. The scientists don't think so as their ape pal was kind and gentle. As it turns out, there are two of them one in the mountains and another from the the sea which... grew from cells of the other but in the ocean so it lived underwater and is sensitive to light? 

The two monsters are at odds, the nice one trying to stop to the mean one ending up in a battle that destroys (surpise!) Tokyo. The two take the fight to the ocean and a volcano suddenly appears from under the surface and maybe kills them both. 

This movie is interesting in that it tries stuff not seen in other giant monster films but it has the feeling it twas made up as they filmed. the "hero" Russ Tamblyn as Dr. Paul Stewart is a smarmy jerk in my opinion and his characters does next to nothing to help the situation. Apparently he was a nightmare to work with and it shows. 

While not a great movie, it does entertain and the model work is really good. The creatures are pretty basic and not the prettiest things you'll ever see. 

Ultraman Rising (2024) Directed by Shannon Tindle

Ultraman rising is reboot of sorts of the Ultraman franchise as an animated movie. The animation is very good as is the sound and direction. Likes most current films, particularly animated ones the story has something to be desired. 

In this version o Ultraman, Ultraman is the father of a small family fight kaju that attack Japan making somewhat of a absent dad. His kid grows up and he and his wife grow apart. The young boy moves to the United States and became a egotistical but excellent baseball player. He comes back to Japan to play for a Japanese team but also to take up his responsibilities as the new Ultraman. He isn't the best in the role and one of the monsters dies trying to get it's egg back after it was stolen by the villain who wants to kill all kaju after the death of his family. Ultraman find the egg, which hatches and he is no charged with raising a giant monster and trying to continue his baseball career. 

This sets up conflict between the hero and the villain who are at odds at what to do about the giant monster attacks. He also meets a reporter who becomes his love interest and begins to patch up his relationship with father. His mother "disappeared" many year before and is assumed dead. 

Sadly this all works out in ways you can easily predict including a post credit sequence. I was about to say as the credit rolled that at least we didn't find out the mother was actually still alive but... sequel set up. 

It's fun enough and visually interesting but dragged a bit especially you know nothing really out of the box is going to happen. Oddly enough I found the live action mess of a fim Shin Ultraman more fun because it was such a train wreck of multiple storylines and foot fetishes. 

Godzilla VS Biolante (1989) directed and written by Kazuki Ōmori

 

I recently caught this on a cable network just as it was starting and decided to watch. I swore I had not seen it but I think I did. I did remember it being one of the later Godzilla films people thought were good and above the earlier sillier films from the 70s but... I have to disagree. 

The film has some interesting elements, like the giant plant monster is at first OK except for the giant flower on top which makes it a bit silly but it transforms into a pretty awesome looking creature at the end. It doesn't move all the well I thought but it was pretty complicated and I give credit where it's due. 

The story which got such praise was simply ridiculous, complicated and with the same characters we have seen in other lesser Godzilla films. People we really couldn't care less about other what their stories are. There is an international spy thriller part that just made me laugh out loud and a "touching" story about a scientist father who loses his daughter in a terrorist attack and does what any loving father would do. He takes her DNA and misses it with a plant and Godzilla cells and turns her into a giant plant monster. For some reason she is conscious in the creature for a bout 5 minutes then she seems to fade away, probably so  no one will root for the plant monster over Godzilla during the fights. At the end her face appears in the sparkly remains of the monster and flies into space where the particles reform into a giant flower in orbit. 

The crazy earlier films from the 60s and 70s had a charm this one was missing as it tried to be a lot more than it was. 

Shin Ultraman (2022) directed by Shinji Higuchi

 While not as familiar as Godzilla, Ultraman was a huge hit in Japan in the 60s and has a continuing fandom to this day. When I was very young in the 60s my dad and I would go to church and then to my grandparents house. They had a TV, probably the first I ever saw, as we would watch Ultraman before my mom came by later for the Sunday family lunch. So I do have some nostalgia for this character and was happy to see some of the references that are al over this new reboot. 

Unlike Shin Godzilla, this was not a hardcore, serious reimagining of the franchise but more light-hearted. Also unlike Shin Godzilla it doesn't really work. The story follows the TV show lore with some nicely updated elements but it really goes all over the place. It starts with monsters attacking then moves into some sort of alien taking over the world by discrediting Ultraman, to another alien going to take over the work in another way to a giant robot spaceship showing up and about to destroy the planet. It's really a mess and too long. 

The cinematography has been given high marks and I honestly don't know why. 40% of the film takes place in a board room where people talk constantly and don't do anything while camera angle wildly change and they seem to be using webcams and surveillance cameras to do it. So much is shot through legs, chairs on the floor, at woman's feet... it is really hard to figure out what is happening. The characters have no real connection to each other and Ultraman love of humanity seems to have no basis. 

I HAVE to talk about to 2 super weird things you can't miss if you watch the film. The lead woman out of nowhere slaps her own butt hard enough to break a hip throughout the movies... for.. motivation? And the human form of Ultraman smells her for some reason, she look uncomfortable and she should he even smalls between her legs! WTF?

The fight scenes, monsters (who disappear after the aliens arrive) and other effects shots are well filmed. The look of the hero is a nice update but the movie itself is too rambling to hold your attention fr the over 2 hour runtime. 

Super fans of the TV show and other versions of Ultraman will surely get a lot to chew on some scenes are shot by shot from the TV show, there are graphic, sound and musical elements taken directly from the 60s as well and they might be fun to spot. 

Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965) directed by Noriaki Yuasa

 

Oddly this is personal film for me. I used to watched Creature Double Feature on UHF TV with my mother and this was her favourite monster.. it wears ridiculous and Gamera was "the friend of the children".As my mother died recently, it seem a homage to her to cover this here. 

Gamera was a direct response to Godzilla. Made by a rival studio it was pretty much a ripoff of the king of the monsters. No one wanted to direct it so they gave it to a failed director who was just happy to get hired again and to everyone's surprise it was a big hit! It led to a long series of films with Gamera some more serious than others but all of them fairly bizarre. Many of the films are pretty violent for children's films and many don't seem to make the slightest attempt to make sense. 

Regardless of your memory of Gamera, the Giant monster, this movie is a lot more random and ridiculous than you remember. The fact that there is a giant turtle the shoots fire from its leg holes when they are retreated into it's body and flies around is just the start of it. Why is he the friend of children? He save a kid in this movie. The kid love turtles but how Gamera would know that is never explained. Gamera must of killed 100s of kids on one of many rampages in the movie as well. The scientists come up with a a plan to get rid of Gamera, a "Z" plan... I guess because it's the last chance and last letter of the alphabet? They lure him in to a trap which consists of using fire to get him to stand on a platform which closes a huge container over him and sends him to Mars... I guess he will be Mars's problem from then on. How this thing was built and implements in what must have been a couple days at best is also not explained. In the end, it doesn't really work as the next movie starts with an asteroid hitting the spaceship, freeing the giant monster and he head immediately back to earth! 

Gamera was along running joke between my mom and I and as dumb as it is it will always have a place in my heart. My spouse watched it with me, he had never seen it and oddly enough found it fun! 

I made my own poster for the film not long ago. If I can get some money together I want to make a t-shirt from it. Miss you mom. 

Gorgo (1961) and Gappa (1967)

 I was working on a poster for Gorgo for fun and after rewatching the film I realized I had seen something else really similar.

Gorgo is the giant monster story of mercenaries finding a treasure and a giant monster who turns out to be a baby with parent that comes to find it after it has been put in a sideshow in London. The two main characters also just sort of kidnap/save a young Irish kid. Doing so saves his life but it still seemed sort of sketchy. In the end the monsters return to the sea from which they came. The effects are pretty good thought monster is sort of goofy looking. The giant props work well and there is enough monster on major city destruction to satisfy kaju fans. 

Gappa, goes by a few names but has a similar story. The detail are different and follow well established Japanese monster tropes closer than they follow the plot of Gorgo. This time an egg hatches as adventurers are looking for animals to exhibit in a theme park. they take it back but pretty soon its parents are flying to Japan looking for it and no building will stop stop them. In the end they all fly off, back to island they came from, one assumes. Though nothing amazing, it's not a bad giant mosnter flick with the sort of effects expected for a 60s Japanese film. 

Gamera the Brave (2006) directed by Ryuta Tasaki

 I admit I have soft spot for Gamera, the giant flying turtle, as it is my mom's favourite kanji. Why my mom has a favourite kanji is another story. Gamera has always been a softer, maybe more kid friendly than some of the Godzilla films and with even smaller budgets. 

This film has some interesting elements. A man who was saved by Gamera as a boy and has a young son with psychological problems after his mother died. He finds a weird egg that hatches into  turtle that exhibits all sorts of intelligence and powers... much like Gamera, who had sacrificed himself when he saved the man. The son and the turtle grow a bond as the animal grows to gigantic size just in time fight the newly emerged monster Zedus. With the help of the young boy and his friends, the new Gamera is given extra power by a magic stone that was found at the same time the boy found the egg.  An epic battlic ensues and the new Gamera wins the day while the children cheer him on. 

This film is fairly fun though pretty dumb in many respects.  It has the problem most Gamera films do, one or more annoying child actors that really get on your nerves. It does have a really cool monster in Zedus, maybe one of the best giant monster designed out there. The effects are better than you might expect but Gamera has the look of kid's plush toy with giant eyes and baby like features that just do not work. It's hard to recommend this as children's film - Zedus is blown to pieces at the end which is gross but before that we see him eating hapless like chicken nuggets people multiple times throughout the film! 

Following the current trend for Japanese monster films to have better effects and more complicated storylines that may or may not work, this movie hits enough marks to be an enjoyable watch as long as you remember that it's a film about a giant flying turtle who is "the friend of the children". 

Beat Takeshi at Cannes

Takeshi Kitano From MUBI (formerly The Auteurs)

Charles Bronson lets it all hang out.

A few ads for a Japanese cologne circa the 1970s. A side of Bronson that you've never seen before....

Death Panda

Marty Friedman used to play guitar for Megadeth and now he lives in Japan, so naturally he's involved in a cartoon called Death Panda. How could he not be?

Stacy

I have no Zombie lexicon - all non-supernatural permutations of Zombie are acceptable to me. Stacy might be described as uneven, but the intent is to really jam a lot of emotional vignettes into an absurdist framework, and have it all come out in the end. It's for people who realize that movies are not life and not every one of them has to be a life-examining masterwork. Plus as they say on League of Gentlemen, it has "loadth o' killinth"

Hausu

Long clip from crazy/fantastic Japanese horror movie - Hausu - the one in which a girl is eaten by a piano.