Half Human But All Monster!

I've long wanted to see one of Toho's oldest monster movies, a black and white flicker from 1955 called Half Human. This is the first fantasy movie Ishiro Honda made after the success of Godzilla, and I've always wondered what it must be like. The movie was adapted to Western screens in 1957 with John Carradine and Morris Ankrum among a few others supplying a talky frame for the action shot by Honda. Toho's original clocks in at over ninety minutes and the adaptation trims at least thirty minutes off that. It's not ineffective as monster movies go, but it's not the movie that Honda and others made for Japanese audiences. 

In the original we follow the travails of an assembly of students. Some of their number go missing on a ski outing and turn up dead while a third remains missing. Giant footprints in the snow and strange hair on a nail are the only clues. This mystery takes up the first thirty minutes or so of the movie and it's what mostly got cut out for U.S. audiences. When spring comes, an expedition goes to look for the missing man and also perhaps the creature who might be responsible. A carnival operator gets wind of this and mounts his own trip following the students now led by a respected scientist. There is an encounter where the Snowman comes into the camp and is chased out by our hero. He runs into the carnival camp and is beat up and left for dead. He's found by a beautiful girl and taken to her village which is made up of isolated people of low caste. There is lots of turmoil but eventually we see the creature's gentle nature before the carnival crew find him and all hell breaks loose. When a young creature is killed the "snowman" gets well and truly "abominable".

Now the English-language version takes this story, strips out most of the beginning mystery and jumps right into the antics following the creature's first appearance on screen invading the student camp. John Carradine waxes on with actually a pretty decently done narration which takes the place of all of the dialogue from the original. There is one scene shift in the Carradine portions of the movie and that is to head down to the morgue where Morris Ankrum is doing an autopsy on the body of the child creature. So Carradine's listeners have absolute proof of the "Abominable Snowman's " existence right there on the table. (I think Toho actually sent the suit of the small creature to America for these shots.)

Now for the controversy. The reason I cannot buy a copy of the original Japanese version of Half Human is the presence of the "Burakamin". This is what remains of a low caste society in Japan made up of people who did jobs deemed unworthy for filthy somehow. These folks were looked down upon and it's the notion that this bigoted notion informs the film in regard to the villagers that keeps Toho from making it available for home viewing. It's not at all unlike what Disney has decided to do in regard to Song of the South, a movie adapting Uncle Remus stories to the screen., Having now finally seen the movie, I think releasing the movie with provisos would be fine. The critique seems a bit overblown. Whatever poor decisions were made in 1955, they can be well left in the past. 

I'd love to have a copy of Half Human, but I'll settle now for just getting to see it. If you'd like to see the movie, then go to this link for the original Japanese version and this link for the Westernized Carradine version. Thanks to the Internet Archive for making these rarities available. 

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Godzilla Reads Again!

Before I get into my thoughts on the book Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama, indulge me in a little cinematic history. When they made King Kong in 1933 it was a revolutionary film, a movie that pure cinema with a star that did really exist in the real world save as a tiny model, and despite that handicap thanks to stop-motion magic made many in the audience cry when he tumbled from atop the Empire State Building.

King Kong was such a success that they made a sequel, Son of Kong, in six months-time but while still impressive it lacked the emotional potency of its predecessor. And that was it for giant monster movies for quite some time because the movies were so labor intensive. In fact, it was the 1950's when King Kong was released again that folks saw just how popular it was. 

Beast from 20,000 Fathoms arrived, powered by stop-motion and Toho Studios had an idea. But they couldn't do it in stop-motion, but they could put a man in a monster suit. and they did. So was born Godzilla. 

A great many talents worked on Godzilla. Ishiro Honda directed the movie, Ikira Ifukube created a masterful score, but it was Shigeru Kayama who wrote the story treatment. And it's that same Shirgeru Kayama who went on to write novelizations of the story, the first titled Monster Godzilla based on his own radio adaptation, a comic book version known as Monster Picture Story: Godzilla, and most importantly for this review two novels adapting the debut film and its sequel. The sequel story treatment Godzilla Raids Again (released in the United States as Gigantis the Fire Monster) was also written by Kayama. So, he's an expert on all things early Godzilla, though he'd not write another Godzilla movie until 1971's Godzilla vs. Hedorah.  

The novel version of Godzilla has now been translated after all these decades. It is basically the same story, an unknown dinosaur is exposed to radiation thanks to atomic testing and rises from the depths to wreak havoc on ships and eventually on land as well. A scientist named Yamane is torn between dealing with the threat and saving the creature so that mankind might benefit. He has a daughter named Emiko, but she's not engaged to another scientist named Serizawa. There is not romantic angle at all in this story. The hero is Shinkichi Yamada who fans of the movie will know as the young boy who survives the attack by Godzilla on Odo Island and comes to live with Yamane in Tokyo after his brother and mother are killed. In this story he is older and already working in Tokyo when the story starts. Another big change is that Godzilla glows pretty much all the time, evidence of his radioactive nature. Other than that, the story rumbles along pretty much the same. One critical difference in the ending is that Serizawa says point blank that he will kill himself to keep the secret of the Oxygen Destroyer out of evil hands, so few should be surprised by the ending. 

Not at all unlike King Kong, the success of Godzilla prompted a hectically produced sequel titled Godzilla Raids Again. It was with the release of the sequel in 1955 that Kayama adapted both stories to novel form. 

The original Japanese title to the movie Godzilla Raids Again literally translates to "Godzilla Counterattacks". Int he sequel we get two kaiju with the introduction of Anguirus. Notably in the novel Anguirus also has the same atomic breath ability as Godzilla, which is not the case in the movies. This second novel follows along with the movie quite well with only a few changes of any consequence. Godzilla is discovered by an airplane pilot working for a fishing company and soon enough so is his rival the new monster Anguirus. Osaka is the city picked for destruction this time and both monsters end up there soon enough. The sequel lacks the thematic depth of the original, possibly due to the director, but also one can see that the scenario designed by Kayama is much simpler as well. Eventually Godzilla defeats his rival and soon after that the military buries him under a mountain of ice. (It should be noted that this is a second animal named Godzilla, but as fans know this Godzilla will break out of his icy dungeon just in time to battle the might King Kong in the third movie in the series.)

Shigeru Kayama also wrote the scenario for another Toho monster flick titled Half-Human. (You can catch that one at this Internet Archive link. I'll have to do a review sometime.) Kayama was quite a well-respected author when he was tapped to devise the scenarios to these two movies, so it's perhaps not that unusual that he stepped away from the franchise. He was not happy to see Godzilla become so kid friendly, and as we all know that's just what happened when the popularity of the mighty monster overwhelmed his dangerous nature.  When he did come back to the franchise, it was to highlight another world crisis, this time pollution instead of atomic weaponry. These are light novels written for younger audiences, but I found them a fun way to revisit the classic story in a new way. 

Tomorrow is my review of Godzilla Minus One. 

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Godzilla Animated!

It seems that every twenty years or so there's a need for some new Godzilla cartoons. I had the distinct pleasure of recently watching a trilogy of feature-length Godzilla movies from Japan made in 2017 and 2018  which put the story far into the future. It's essentially the story of mankind attempting to reoccupy the Earth after having to abandon it because of the influx of monsters, the most powerful of which was Godzilla. The people of Earth were helped to make the faster-than-light quest by two alien races -- the technological and warlike "Bilasaludo" and the extremely religious "Exif". While it has been twenty years in space for the people aboard their space ship nearly twenty thousand have passed on Earth and it's a much changed environment the humans find on their return. This is a Godzilla movie unlike any I've ever encountered with the titular "King of Monsters" portrayed as something beyond the ken of people both in scale and purpose. Godzilla reminded me most of Mount Fuji in fact, a dominant part of the landscape and central to the understanding of the world itself for the people who live there. There are three movies in this series: Godzilla - Planet of Monsters (which tells of how Godzilla has changed), Godzilla - City on the Edge of Battle (which offers a different take on MechaGodzilla), and finally Godzilla - The Planet Eater (which brings Ghidorah into the epic tale). 

Twenty years before in 1998-1999 following on after the American Godzilla movie which is so much decried in these modern times, came Godzilla- The Series. This was a joint venture from both American and Japanese producers and featured the more nimble Godzilla seen in that movie starring Matthew Broderick. One change though is that this Godzilla has imprinted on the lead character and can also spew flames unlike the original film which so many people disregard. This band of researchers called H.E.A.T.(Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team) travel the globe aboard the high-tech ship "Heat Seeker" which is provided by the French government. These are sturdy adventures with some real range on the kinds of threats that the team with the help of Godzilla face. The monster designs are really creative and evoke memories of the classic Toho beasts just barely here and there. We have spins on giant bugs (beetles, bees, mosquitos, scorpions, etc.) , the Loch Ness Monster, the Mexican Firebird, an ancient sphinx, an enormous armadillo, and giant fish, others I cannot figure out how to describe, and even a cyborg "Godzilla". One funny ongoing gag is the destruction of NIGEL, a robot used for analysis and such who gets destroyed in just about every episode.  For many Godzilla fans this era of the King of Monsters is one they would  like to forget. Me, I rather enjoy it. And watching after seeing the most recent Japanese films, I get the sense I am seeing the mutation monster plague begin which drove humans away from Earth finally as reflected in the movies discussed above.  

 

Twenty years before the original Godzilla -The Animated Series I know of dropped onto television screens. This was a joint venture between the Hanna-Barbara studio and Henry G. Saperstein and featured character designs by Doug Wildey of Jonny Quest fame among other things. This is a story in which Godzilla works in league with a team of humans who live aboard the Calico, a hydrofoil research ship. Also on board is "Godzooky", a humorous small-time version of Godzilla. The team travels the globe and manages usually to scare up a giant monster here and there for Godzilla to rise from the depths of the ocean to confront. But the show was mired in a TV environment where any sort of violence was virtually forbidden so Godzilla couldn't even step on a building. Not much for a giant monster to do after that edict has dropped. Sadly only the first season has been presented in DVD and those are hard to find. 

And before I sign off a final time for this month filled with Godzilla let me remember the first Godzilla cartoon of them all from 1969, the totally awesome Bambi Meets Godzilla!  

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Terror Of MechaGodzilla - The Criterion Collection!

Terror of MechaGodzilla from 1975 is remarkable for several things, not least of which it marks the return of director Ishiro Honda to the  Godzilla franchise as well as becoming his final Godzilla movie. It was also the last Godzilla movie of the Showa era and seemed for a time to be the last Godzilla movie of all time. The movie is an attempt to try and capture the classic Godzilla magic one more time, using the classic elements. And in many respects it's a success. The story is yet another alien invasion flick, in fact it seems to be part two of the same invasion flick with MechaGodzilla returning after a very successful debut and run by supposedly the same aliens as last time, though oddly they look different. There's actually a very heartwarming story of a young woman who has been forced to be a weapon for the aliens in an attempt to take over the planet. To that end she and the ancient dinosaur Titanosaurus have been manipulated to become weapons alongside the titular MechaGodzilla.

Godzilla himself is alone this time, taking on the enemy by his atomic-breathing own. And he shows up splendidly in this farewell outing. He's been redesigned slightly to look a bit more menacing and less cuddly and his fighting seems more ferocious and less fanciful, though those lighter elements are not altogether absent. When the sacrifices have been made and the battles fought and won, Godzilla is showcased in the "Big Tank" one more time in the blazing red light of a setting sun heading out to sea for his final curtain call. It's not a bad send off given how wonky the series had become from year to year. 

Watching Showa Godzilla movies requires a flexible notion of what makes a good monster movie. If you get yourself locked into one notion then you will find some of them just awful, but if you discover as I do when I watch these fifteen movies that what a monster is can changed over time and from story to story, and further that the changes are key making the whole concept and the genre it begat rich and endlessly diverting. The fifteen Showa Godzilla movies are sumptuous feast, filled with different flavors and distinct tones that rarely if ever bore. Some of terrifying, some are hilarious, and a few are stupifying, but all of them are fascinating in their own way. After a break of ten years it was deemed time for Godzilla to return at long last. 

Check in tomorrow for one more Godzilla post. 

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Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla - The Criterion Collection!

 I do believe I saw the American version of this movie called Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster in the theater, but I'm not at all certain. But no doubt it was one of the earliest movies starring Godzilla I ever owned thanks to a relatively cheap VHS copy, though I was happy to at long last get a better version in the Japanese original. Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla is a much better movie in my opinion than it gets credit for generally. There's a prophecy that a given certain signs such as a dark mountain in the sky and a red sun rising in the West monsters will rise both to attack and to defend the Earth. As the movie progresses we see these prophecies fulfilled in prosaic ways but nonetheless we eventually end up with MechaGodzilla in battle with Godzilla and a new monster named King Caesar, an ancient entity who looks like a Shisa dogs which are legendary guardians. I actually own a pair, given to me long ago by a close friend. I cherish them because of the source, but also because when I look at them I think of this movie. 

Godzilla in this movie is presented in a few ways. When MechaGodzilla first appears it is disguised as his inspiration. The aliens who operate him seek to undermine the confidence of the humans who have come to see Godzilla as a defender and by unleashing their creation they make him appear savage once again. And it's a focused attack, though if you listen you realize that's not Godzilla's roar and eventually when Anguirus fights him we begin to feel something is not right. A tears later when a second Godzilla emerges and we see the shiny metal. Soon it's a battle between the robot and the real thing and it's a doozy which Godzilla appears to lose. All the while this going on of course aliens and humans are battling it out, but always the focus is on what will the monsters ultimately do. This is a movie in which the tie between the humans and the monsters is  quite close. Eventually a priestess sings for her god King Caesar to join the battle and he does to good effect. 

I really enjoy this one, despite what some say are defects in the plot and a lack of motivation of the characters. I guess I'm just not as discerning as others. MechaGodzilla does return of course. 

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Godzilla Vs. Megalon - The Criterion Collection!

 Godzilla vs. Megalon is the only Showa Godzilla movie I actually saw in the theaters. It hit American cinemas in 1976 buoyed by the hooplah over the King Kong remake of that same decade. The poster shows the influence for certain and now that the Twin Towers are no more, a relic of a bygone time indeed. 

This might arguably be the silliest of the Godzilla movies, and Godzilla himself behave more like a human being this time than in any other of the movies. He puts up his mitts as he squares off against his opponents who are a returning Gigan and a new monster named "Megalon". Megalon was actually originally supposed to be part of the previous film and his cockroach-like appearance suggests to me that he'd have made a better option than did the buzz-bellied Gigan. Both of these monsters this time are operating on behalf of the long sunken city-state of "Seatopia" who have agents on Earth looking for options after some atomic tests take too great a toll on the denizens of this forgotten society. Joinging Godzilla in his match against Megalon and Gigan is "Jet Jaguar", robot created by one of our heroes. He's an Ultraman lookalike who responds to the voice commands of his creator but later seems to develop his own intellect and conscience as well as the uncanny ability to enlarge him self so that he might battle the invading monsters. 

When I saw this kid-friendly Godzilla I realized that I might well have been the only adult in the audience of the small town theatre. This is a patchwork movie with old footage and some nifty new stuff as well. It's a lot of fun as long as you don't study it too hard. 

Next time Godzilla goes metal. 

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Godzilla Vs. Gigan - The Criterion Collection!

As the Godzilla series entered the 1970's the dynamic in the movie industry had changed considerably. Television had taken a huge chunk out of the audiences and that meant that expensive flicks were much less likely to get a green light. Either that or once expensive movies had to figure out a way to get finished more cheaply. The Toho Studio solved this equation in 1972's  Godzilla vs. Gigan (also released as Godzilla on Monster Island)by recycling the special effects scenes and hiring less impressive casts. The former we see plainly but the latter was actually a refreshment for some of the classic sequences which had gotten a tad hoary over the years. This movie is intended to be a return to the classic model, but that was tough given the limits. But it's not a bad film to watch I think.

Godzilla in this movie does get a lot more screen time than he had done in some of the latter 60's flicks and in point of fact due to a plot element which called for a tower built by the invading cockroach-like alien which looked just like Godzilla (for an amusement center supposedly) the "King of the Monsters" is on screen a lot, even in the sequences involving he human story. The humans are battling the aforementioned aliens who are using King Ghidorah and the buzz-saw bellied Gigan to take over the planet since their last one was overcome with pollution. (So that theme carries on.) The heroes are youngsters of various kinds (a comic artist, his black belt-wearing sister, a young woman seeking to free her brother, and her friend the obligatory nerd). They are a likeable group just as the villains are suitably easy to dislike. 

Godzilla and his buddy Anguirus leave Monster Island to save mankind and we know this because they talk. In a weird move their "speech" is captured in word balloons. One of my favorite moments is when a line from Anguirus is not translated after Godzilla has told him to hurry several times in a row. I assume Anguirus said something he shouldn't have. These two face off against Ghidorah and Gigan and the fight is perfectly okay with some blood spilled here and there. Eventually Godzilla wins the day and the aliens are sent packing as their scheme and the Godzilla-looking tower come crashing down. 

Believe it or not it's going to get weirder. 

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Godzilla Vs.Hedorah - The Criterion Collection!

Pollution was a hot topic of discussion in the early 70's and remains one of the most significant blights in the civilized world. Because of the brouhaha over pollution in America actual real steps were taken to make the skies and the waters cleaner and they worked, a shining example of what government can do when properly motivated. Many today like to mock environmental efforts as extremist and in some instances they can seem so, but in the ruthless face of industrial pollution such extremism seems warranted. That's the situation we have in Godzilla vs. Hedorah in which an alien is able to use pollution to make a deadly giant of itself and become a serious threat to the very lives of those in Japan. This is a really hideous monster and it kills and kills and kills again. 

This is a wackadoodle movie in many ways with psychedelic sequences and animated sections which to my eyes help to make the movie both visually interesting and in most cases help move the narrative. Godzilla himself appears as among the most traditional things in the movie, looking not unlike he has in previous outings. His struggles again Hedorah are potent and his burned paws reveal that he himself is susceptible to the power of the mighty sludge monster. This is also a Godzilla who seems to have little time for mankind as he watches the forces that be fail and fail again to impede the threat. Without Godzilla, who fights for reasons we don't really know, this is a threat to mankind that would have succeeded and the omnipresent naive hope of youth, the feckless ministrations of authority, or the slight insights offered by science seem enough. 

Now Godzilla flies in this movie, using his atomic breath as some sort of thrust. It looks rather goofy really, but is more than accommodated by the dark threatening setting in which the final battle is waged. This ain't the relentless deadly behemoth of the original, but it's as close as the series ever gets. 

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All Monsters Attack - The Criterion Collection!

1969's All Monsters Attack (or as I've known it Godzilla's Revenge) was once one of my least favorite of the Godzilla run. And it's for all the reasons you might suspect, but now it's one of my favorites. This is not really a Godzilla movie like any before or really after. What we have is a movie about a little boy, a latchkey kid living in an urban Japanese environment. He's assaulted by relentless traffic, air pollution, and the basic fact that his parents have to neglect him in one way to get enough money to see to his needs in another. It's a harsh trade off in the modern world for families struggling to get by and it's well reflected in this story which dashes on at  a delightful pace. 

Godzilla in this movie doesn't really exist. This is the world more like the one in which you and I live in which Godzilla is a media concoction and the source of toys (one is seen in the movie in fact) and we have a boy hero who like many of us is besotted by monsters and stories of fantasy. Toys are a big part of this story in a fashion as the surrogate adult in the boy's life is an older stay-at-home inventor of kid's toys. The kid looks to Godzilla for strength in the face of threats from local bullies and ultimately as the story unfolds adult bank robbers. Ichiro is the kid's name and he's a pistol of a character well acted and not made too sweet. He's got a nifty edge like some modern Tom Sawyer, a boy with a clever wit and just enough mischief in his soul to make it interesting. When he's ultimately nabbed by the robbers, the two foul-ups are really out of their depth dealing with the kid's inventiveness and the movie has moments evoking a later classic Home Alone. 

In flights of fancy which evoke Alice in Wonderland at times, Ichiro visits Monster Island where the Son of Godzilla Minya is his guide, shrinking down to suit the part. And as Minya faces his own challenges including a bully named Gabera (who more than resembles some similar characters in the boy's real life) Ichiro learns by proxy how to approach his own issues. So in this movie Godzilla becomes a father figure, a symbol of strength which a boy can look too for calm assurance. 

More next time when the pollution gets even worse. 

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Destroy All Monsters - The Criterion Collection!

Destroy All Monsters is seen by some as the last gasp of the classic Godzilla to take the world by storm. Nuts I say. This is a cornball remake of Toho's signature kaiju flick bonded with their singular take on sci-fi. Like Monster Zero which was made some years before, we get the obligatory aliens who take control of Earth's monsters to wreak havoc and force the world to do as they wish. The Kilaaks, a race of women (is looks like anyway) want the Earth's heat and the monsters they use are a mighty flock indeed. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, Anguirus, Ghidorah of course along with rare critters like Manda (Atragon), Varan, Baragon (Frankenstein Conquers the World), Kumonga, Gorgosaurus (King Kong Escapes), and even Minya. And truth told all that doesn't help make this meandering kaiju flick. 

As for Godzilla himself, he's reduced once again to a mere puppet who wreaks havoc on New York City and later Tokyo but who doesn't really feel all that menacing despite that. He's just a monster like all the others, a bit more deadly than some and seemingly a leader when the alien control is broken, but he gets relatively little screen time and is not necessarily the focus of the movie. 

But next time, well things change again. 

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Son Of Godzilla - The Criterion Colletion!

Imagine Christopher Lee's Dracula starring in Father Knows Best, or Mighty Joe Young on What's My Line? There are some venues which strike at the very essence of a character and undermine what that character represents. Alas such is the case with director Jun Fukuda's Son of Godzilla. Now I know that apparently they seemed to be running dry on  Godzilla ideas and that the target audience was skewing ever younger, but really. This is harmless movie that is as close to being about nothing as I can imagine. We have a hapless gaggle of sort of hapless scientists wanting to tinker with the weather (for the good of all mankind of course) and in the process irradiate the island they are on and make already horse-sized insects into literal block busters. Not to mention that aforementioned bugs (a bevy of praying mantises called "Kamacuras")  unearth an egg in which resides the titiular offspring. He's goofy as can be, and watching him wriggle and  doddle around seeking comfort from his parent, a literal engine of utter destruction, is a bit hard to process. There is a pretty girl, a Japanese Honey Wilder of sorts so that helps. 

The Godzilla in this flick has not much to do with any Godzilla who has come before. We see a creature with paternal instincts who likes to laze around napping while his kid nips at his talons. He rears up to fend off a deadly mantis here and there and ultimately takes on "Kumonga" a ginormous trapdoor spider.  They do have him show up early, in the first few minutes in fact, but it's not really for any specific purpose. (I suspect they were stung by criticism from the last one in which he was not seen for nearly an hour.)But as the movie ends, he's cuddling his kid as the artificially manufactured snow drifts down and covers them until the next flick arrives. 

Godzilla is presented here as a father figure of sorts and I guess his popularity made that seem like a great idea, with notions of merchandising dancing in Toho's collective heads. But I wish they'd made a more interesting movie. Turns our they did, but that's later. 

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Ebirah, Horror Of The Deep - The Criterion Collection!

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep or as it's also known Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster is an offbeat 1966 Godzilla flick and for a good reason. It was originally a King Kong project, one which was to be the movie that became King Kong Escapes. But when Toho had this script on its hands they went and made a Godzilla movie out of it and let Jun Fukuda direct it, but alas it adds little alas to the "Big G" mythos. That's not to say it's a bad movie, in fact it's rather entertaining jaunt filled with charismatic characters we care about as they are thrown together on a remote island and find it occupied by a terrorist organization called "Red Bamboo". Aside from Godzilla there are three other monsters -- the every faithful Mothra, a giant Vulture who lasts about a minute, and the eponymous Ebirah -- a ginormous lobster.

Actually Godzilla himself spends most of this movie asleep. He's not discovered snoozing away in a cave until the fifty minute mark of the movie and a viewer could be well forgiven for forgetting he or she was even watching a Godzilla movie by the time he wakes up nearly ten minutes later and gets into a rock throwing contest with Ebirah. But even after he's awake he spends some time weirdly gazing at a girl (King Kong influence I guess) and napping some more. Then he kicks it into gear and roasts the Vulture, stomps the nuclear facility of Red Bamboo, and tears into Ebirah for the final time. The Godzilla here looks remarkably like a frog in the face and not much at all menacing really. 

Not a shining moment for those just watching for monster fighting, but for those looking for broader entertainment with fun and funny human characters still interesting. Heck it's worth just to watch the fetching Kumi Mazuno run around in her sparse native garb. 

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Invasion Of Astro-Monster - The Criterion Collection!

I really love the movie The Mysterians, an early 50's flick from Toho about aliens who invade the Earth to breed with our women. It's a great lark of a sci-fi outing which landed amongst the monsters before Toho gave over to Godzilla and his kin. Invasion of Astro-Monster is The Mysterians with Godzilla and gang, and it's a lot of fun. If features an American co-star, Nick Adams, present for the sole reason to make the movie marketable overseas. And he's an enthusiastic addition to Toho stock company of seasoned pros. 

But focusing on Godzilla himself for a moment let's all agree that the movies never got sillier than one single moment in this highly memorable screen saga. The aliens (called "Xillians") are attempting to trick mankind into thinking their invasion is not that and that they mean us only the best, such as when they offer up a cure for cancer. They say they are afflicted by King Ghidorah on their homeworld "Planet X" out around Jupiter. But they are liars and Ghidorah is under their control and by trickery theyget Godzilla and Rodan also who fight off Ghidorah. As he flies into space Godzilla crosses his arms and jumps for joy in a move called a "Shie dance" after a cartoon character who performs the move and yells "Shie". It's goofy and lots of folks including the director didn't like it, but it stayed and after that Godzilla moved into another place completely. 

Like most hardcore Godzilla fans I hated it for a long time, but I've changed my mind and embrace it. Godzilla in this movie is not the "Big G" of other films, he's a movie star who can appear in a range of different kinds of movies and comedy is just one. More next time. 

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Ghidrah The Three-Headed Monster - The Criterion Collection!

 It is in Gidorah the Three-Headed Monster that the worm turns...literally. Godzilla, Japan's most famous dragon from the sea abandons his longtime role as nemesis of the Japanese people and instead becomes a defender of the Earth itself. All it took was a threat not of this world and that of course was King Ghidorah, the three-headed, bat-winged monstrosity from beyond the stars.

Godzilla doesn't come to this new place in his long existence all that easily. It in point of fact requires some convincing from Mothra (in caterpillar form) who convinces both Godzilla and his new best buddy Rodan that the three of them must not fight one another, nor destroy all the Birely soft drinks and Mobil Oil signage they can locate, but instead must put aside their enmity for man and become something else instead. And so Godzilla, the creature which once epitomized the deadly Hydrogen Bomb becomes a "good guy". And when I say convince, I mean just that. This movie is notorious for the scene in which the three monsters Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra discuss the threat confronting Earth and eventually following Mothra's lead the the other two follow and gang up on the three-headed menace from deep space, defeating him for the time being. The "conversation" is in monster language of course and is translated for us mere humans by the "Small Beauties" who are on hand to witness it. 

Godzilla (and Rodan too for that matter) will never be the same, at least during the classic Showa Era. Next time Godzilla leaps into his silliest moment of all time. 

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