For It Is Man's Number: takeo murata

Showing posts with label takeo murata. Show all posts

Thursday, 8 February 2024

Rodan (1956)

While it may feel like I am marking numbers off a bingo card just now, my quest to cover the films of Godzilla this year, as well as connected kaiju creations, has already been satisfying for making me watch the first appearances of creatures I have either seen already in other movies, or at least heard of. Getting to Rodan this week was a pleasant surprise, particularly because I wasn’t sure if every movie would already be locked into the same template I am quite familiar with.

There’s a disturbance in a small Japanese mining village, which should be enough to put everyone on their guard against potential giant monsters. Sure enough, there are soon giant monsters on the rampage. These take the shape of overgrown insect larvae, looking like a cross between a giant wood-louse and a giant bluebottle, but they are only a precursor to the main event. The main event is Rodan, in case the title didn’t make that clear. Not just one Rodan, but two, causing panic as they fly around and start to kill people. The military might have the firepower to stop them, or they may have to rely on the force of the local volcano to help re-affirm the status quo.

Putting things once again in the capable hands of Ishirô Honda, this is a creature feature that works almost as well as any of the other big touchstones in the kaiju cinematic timeline, thanks to more great design work and a way of delivering familiar beats without it all already feeling overdone and tired. Writers Takeshi Kimura and Takeo Murata have fun with the story, especially as the first batch of beasties puzzle everyone for a while before the Rodan attacks start to confuse the situation.

The cast of human actors once again play second fiddle to the kaiju stars, but Kenji Sahara does well in the role of Shigeru, a mining engineer who ends up stuck underground when the Rodan are about to hatch. He convincingly portrays memory loss and trauma until galvanized in time for the big final battle. Yumi Shirakwa is also a good onscreen presence, playing a woman named Kiyo, and the main figures of authority are well-played by Akihiko Harata (the expected scientist figuring out what this new enemy is) and Akio Kobori (a police detective).

If you like either of the other famous films in this vein then you should like this. I cannot imagine any kaiju fan hating it, although it suffers slightly in comparison to both Godzilla, which came before it, and Mothra, which arrived about five years after. Still, it is to be appreciated for adding another name to the “rogue’s gallery” as it is appreciated for what it delivers in terms of cinema.

8/10

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Friday, 19 January 2024

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

And here we are at the second full Godzilla movie, and me realising why I haven’t before attempted to watch and review so many of these movies in a particular space of time. So many of them work to a very familiar pattern, and the affection for them stems from knowing what you are going to get.

Godzilla is back, of course, but this time they’re not alone. A giant creature, Anguirus, is also on the prowl, which sets the scene for an eventual fight between the two gigantic beasties. But even if the fight leads to the end of one monster, one will still need to be dealt with by some puny humans.

Takeo Murata returns as a main writer, joined this time by Shigeaka Hidaka, apparently adapting a novel, “The Volcano Monsters”, into something that serves as a very important second star vehicle for a character who would become the most famous, and celebrated, kaiju in cinema. The human side of things isn’t quite as involving as it was in the first film, but there is a good enough blend of melodrama and stomping action.

Director Motoyoshi Oda knows what is needed, and delivers. There’s already a slightly lighter tone to the unfolding events, but the threat remains impressively rendered, in terms of destruction and the knock-on effect it has on the people who find their everyday routines completely disrupted, to say the least.

The cast includes Hiroshi Koizumi and Minoru Chiaki, as a pair of pilots who prove integral to the efforts undertaken to defeat Godzilla, and Setsuko Wakayama, as a young woman named Hidemi who feels like a covalent bond between those two. But everyone coming to this already knows who the real star is.

Not as good as the original movie, and very few of them are, but an excellent development of the franchise, interestingly showing the monster madness impacting lives and livelihoods in equal measure (something that would develop in interesting ways throughout subsequent decades).

If this review seems much shorter, and even less substantial, than usual, it probably is. As much as I am looking forward to fully exploring the Godzilla filmography (at long last), it would be easy to summarize most of them with the same few sentences. I will keep trying my best though, for what that is worth.

7/10

Thursday, 11 January 2024

Godzilla, King Of The Monsters! (1956)

Although not the second film in the series, chronologically, I decided to continue my journey through the filmography of Godzilla with this instalment because it is the film that rejigged the original film and repackaged it for mainstream Western audiences. It's probably the first Godzilla movie I ever saw, and I would say that applies to many other Brits and Americans of my generation.

The plot is the same as it was in Godzilla, with the main difference between the two films being a new character (an American reporter named Steve Martin, played by Raymond Burr) who narrates everything in a way that removes the need for subtitles. Most of this is accomplished by simply editing footage from the original film around the exposition delivered by Burr's character, but some of it is accomplished by a variety of stand-ins allowing moments to be reframed with our American at the heart of the the Godzilla carnage.

Put into the hands of Terry Morse for this interpretation, Godzilla, King Of The Monsters! isn't a terrible film. It works exactly as it is intended to work, and I would still mention it as an ideal introductory film if you have younger viewers who are interested in giant monster movies and the history of cinema. It suffers greatly in comparison to the original (because it's constantly patronising, and let's kindly and euphemistically refer to it as mired in some of the attitudes of the time), and those who have already moved through the majority of the classic Japanese films will probably view this as something to sneer it, but it's okay for a gateway film.

Burr is Burr, happy to have his hair mussed up as he tries to stay alive while a city is being ruined around him. It's hard not to take on that central role and not realise what it is, and he willingly takes on that task, being the narrator providing what is basically a summary of a much better movie. Everyone else is, well, I already commented on their performances in the original movie. Are they just as good here? Sadly not, but that's not their fault. It's the fault of the editing and the clumsy way some of the footage is altered to include Burr.

The good thing about Godzilla, King Of The Monsters! is that I can barely remember it after the end credits have rolled. It's a very small critter that stays resting peacefully in the shadow of a roaring titan. It's the Godzooky of the film series, if you will. There's space for Godzooky, in the grand scheme of things, but it will never be a rival to Big G.

6/10

Tuesday, 2 January 2024

Godzilla (1954)

This year, 2024, marks the 70th anniversary of Godzilla, and I have taken that as a cue to finally work my way through as many "Big G" outings as possible, as well as numerous other kaiju movies. This review first appeared, in a slightly different form, over on Flickfeast, so please don't panic if you get a feeling of déjà vu.

It would be easy for me to write a lengthy essay about the circumstances that affected Japan so seriously it ended up creating Gojira (to give him his proper name). Okay, it would take some more time and research, but I would still end up covering ground that has already been well covered, and by better writers than myself. It would also be relatively easy to look upon this film and laugh, albeit with affection, at some of the melodramatic plotting and hokey special effects. But I’m not going to do either of those things.

Instead, as it has been many years since I last saw this movie, I am going to take a moment to remind everyone of an oft-forgotten aspect. The fact remains, despite the age and limitations of this film, that the build up to, and initial appearance of, “Big G” is an impressive and unnerving sequence. Admittedly, it becomes easier to see the crudity of the design work later on, but that very first main encounter so unexpectedly brings the monster into rather plain view that most people watching need some extra seconds to process exactly what they’re seeing.

Yet, at the other end of the spectrum, we also have a very human heart beating at the centre of it all. Takashi Shimura is Professor Yamane, the man doing his best to both help his fellow man and also avoid killing a remarkable beast. His daughter is played by Momoko Kôchi, and she’s believably attractive to both scientist Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata) and Hideto Ogata (Akira Takarada), providing a love triangle that allows for all involved to back up their feelings with actions, be they courageous or cowardly.

The script, co-written by Takeo Murata and director Ishirô Honda (blending and translating works from Shigeru Kayama and Tomoyuki Tanaka), perfectly balances tension, spectacle, and moments that directly address the unique and specific fear felt by the people of Japan in relation to hugely powerful objects that can save or destroy mankind.

The special effects are uneven, but effective, remaining impressive today thanks to a mix of inventiveness and charm, and the scale of the destruction is established right from the off, although it would grow and grow throughout this enduring movie series, making this yet another classic that has remained a classic for good reason. It has an intelligence to it, an interesting mix of characters desperate to weigh up a situation before immediately looking to solve things with more detruction, and a giant monster laying waste to cityscapes. What’s not to love?

9/10