Dogora (1964)

Another week, another Japanese sci-fi creature feature directed by the very capable Ishirô Honda. Dogora is a film about a giant space jellyfish creature, basically, but it’s a canny mix of monster movie and crime flick, managing to deliver a more interesting cast of characters than many of the other films it falls in line with.

You do get the space jellyfish creature, and it causes some confusion throughout the film, so at least this isn’t like some of the other Toho Studios films that simply add a monster into the final act. While some people are trying to figure out just what is going on, other people are more interested in diamond robberies. There’s an Inspector (Yôsuke Natsuki) after the criminals, a mysterious figure named Mark Jackson (Robert Dunham, billed as Dan Yuma) also taking a keen interest, and, of course, the robbers themselves. Surprisingly, the titular creature is also interested in diamonds, due to the carbon content it needs to devour.

Based on a story by Jôjirô Okami, with Shin'ichi Sekizawa back on screenplay duties, this is a very enjoyable genre blend that manages to let things unfold without doing a disservice to either of the main story strands. It may not have any major crash bang wallop moments, but the monstrous threat still looms large above our worried humans, and there’s enough damage caused to show what could happen if things get out of control. At the risk of repeating myself, Honda could direct these films in his sleep by now, and I don’t think I need to spend too much time here heaping more praise upon him.

Natsuki and Dunham are both very enjoyable in their roles, and they are featured enough to actually stay clear in my memory after the film has ended, but you also get Nobuo Nakamura as the standard scientist, Hiroshi Koizumi as a bonus secondary scientist, and Yôko Fujiyama as an assistant who obviously keeps herself in the middle of the conversations that deliver the required exposition. The gangsters are also good value, although I won’t name any of those performers here (they feel like one criminal unit, despite one or two having a specialist skillset).

Perhaps not as memorable as so many others, Dogora is a really fun film that I ended up enjoying a lot. I am not sure if that puts me in the minority, but I am sure that I could happily sit and rewatch this again already.

8/10

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Atragon (1963)

Having now already managed to watch a good ten or twelve Toho movies this year that were all from the '50s and '60s, I am very comfortable with the ways in which they aim to entertain. Some of them have had a fantastic monster at the heart of the action. Others have had a sci-fi plot that features a cameo from whatever creature they place in the third act. Atragon falls into the latter camp, but it's still very entertaining stuff.

The surface of Earth is visited by an inhabitant of the underwater Mu empire (kind of like Atlantis, but without calling it Atlantis). The Mu empire wants everyone on the surface to meet their demands, which includes stopping any and all work on the Atragon submarine, Gotengo. The Gotengo is a threat to the empire of Mu, but it may also be the only way to protect everyone from potential invasion. There's tension between Captain Hachiro Jinguji (Jun Tazaki) and the others around him (including his daughter, Makoto), there's some nice underwater action, and you eventually get to see a wonderful underwater beastie named Manda.

It's Ishirô Honda once again in the director's chair, a man who deserves to be mentioned alongside many other greats of cinema due to his fine work on a number of the most enduring Toho classics, and he does just as well as you'd expect. The screenplay, by Shin'ichi Sekizawa, blends together a couple of different source novels to create something entertaining and surprisingly intriguing (especially throughout the opening act, in which the Mu agent keeps popping up as a mysterious stranger). Although it feels light and fantastical throughout, there's also an edge of very real threat to our main characters, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the interactions between the humans here, to the point that I had managed to forget a big beastie was still due to appear onscreen some time before the end credits.

Tazaki is very good as the stubborn and determined Captain Jinguji, Fujiyama has a believably strained relationship with him after years of distance between them, and Tadao Takashima is very likable as Susumu, the photographer who ends up in at the heart of the intrigue and peril. Tetsuko Kobayashi and Hideyo Amamoto are very enjoyable playing, respectively, the Empress and High Priest of Mu.

If you like the Toho movies from this time then you'll enjoy this. I'd also recommend it, for obvious reasons, to fans of Stingray. It's lively, it's paced well throughout, and the eventual appearance of Manda is a real bonus, thanks to the design and the special effects showing it threatening the Jinguji-helmed submarine.

8/10

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