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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Tohope And Change - Terror Of Mechagodzilla!

Ishiro Honda and his collaborators Eji Tsubaraya and Akira Kukube worked to create most of the wonderful kaiju movies of the Showa period. Other directors had stepped in from time to time and other technical men had taken over for Tsubaraya after his death in early 70's. (Godzilla Vs. Hedorah was very different and very good for instance.) Honda himself had walked away for a break. But he stepped up one final time to officially bring the first era of Godzilla to a close with the movie The Terror of Mechagodzilla. It's not the greatest Godzilla movie by any means, but it's a wonderful upgrade from its immediate predecessor Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla which had presented the Earth again under threat from aliens who use monsters to gain advantage and are defeated by Godzilla and his monster allies. But the film is just a vehicle for monster fights despite some wonderful views of Japanese mythic lore. In the next part of the story directed by Honda we get to see what the early movie might have been and we bid farewell to Godzilla with some real panache. The movie didn't make much money, in fact it's listed as the least in that sense of all the many Godzilla flicks, but it's still a humdinger for all of that.

The key to the story is that we once again begin to care about well-drawn characters who must make extreme sacrifices to save the world. Once again Honda gives us a story which tugs at our heartstrings even as the monsters are roaming the landscape tearing up everything in sight and beyond. In the days of the Six Million Dollar Man, we meet a cyborg girl who has been rebuilt by her father, a mad scientist driven to extremes by the death of his wife and his own hand in the death of his daughter. Aliens give her back to him but with changes which allow her to connect to an enormous monster named Titanosaurus. Later she gains control over Mechagodzilla itself. Through all of this though she slowly falls in love with our hero and for him and the sake of the world she ends the threat. It's a tragedy pure and simple and just so happens to have some monsters plodding around to boot.

And that wraps my coverage of the Showa period of the Godzilla movies. This was as indicated, the final one. The series went into hibernation until 1984 when it was dusted off and the original story was rebooted with a slightly bigger and substantially meaner Godzilla. The myriad monsters introduced over the years were forgotten (for the moment) and it was a new age for Godzilla. Ironically it occurs to me, Superman was undergoing something rather similar during the decade, a complete makeover that removed the old continuity leaving room for new growth.

But during the Showa period the man behind the monster was Ishiro Honda who directed most of the big lizard's cinematic appearances. Honda's utopian vision of a world in which mankind could work in harmony to fend of threats such as giant monsters or deadly aliens spoke to a hope that the better nature of man could be stoked. Sadly we live in times were are lesser angels are called upon much more often, so it was nice to revisit the fictional world of Honda who had a more generous and uplifting notion of what people could do at their best. His world view is missed.

No more to come -- at least for a while.

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Tohope And Change - All Monsters Attack!

There was a time when I rather hated All Monsters Attack or as I knew it Godzilla's Revenge. It's the small story of a boy who is an outsider, who has a few friends, but who mostly is on his own as his parents work shifts which cause the youngster to be in the care of a good-hearted neighbor (played ironcally I've learned by the same actor who was the nefarious and deadly Doctor Who in King Kong Escapes). This "lactch-key kid" lives in a city which is filled with traffic and pollution, not a place where one would ideally wish to raise a child. But he's a kid with a vivid imagination and he often goes in his head to Monster Island and where he finds a friend, Godzilla's son Minilla.

There's a delightful Alice in Wonderland quality to the whole flick, one which was lost on me as a younger viewer, but which I find fetching in these times. The youngster fends off bullies, and finds himself in the clutches of some rather inept thieves. In fact some of the movie is a lot like Home Alone, but long before that McCauley Culkin vehicle hit the screen. At the end we find a boy who has learned some valuable lessons but not a boy who lives an ideal life yet. It's a charming movie with a muted ending and rather smart for a mere monster movie.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Destroy All Monsters!

Destroy All Monsters is one of those movies which eluded me for a very very long time. I never saw it on TV and never came across a VHS or DVD of it until several years ago. Now I own it twice and that's just fine. It's a delightful romp of a Toho kaiju flick with monsters from all over making appearances. This one has aliens once again taking control of Earth's myriad monsters and using them to make mankind kneel. This is the movie that introduces what will become "Monster Island", a remote place where Earth's monsters live in relative harmony until the mavens at Toho require their presences in a good old monster flick.

The difference in this one is the global nature of the threat. While as usual Japan leads the counter-assault the menace is a clearly presented as a worldwide one with monsters targeting cities all across the globe. King Ghidorah makes his usual appearance as the space monster who is opposed to all of Earth's more amenable monsters and his identity as a villain is reinforced. This is a monster rally of the purest kind, probably not a movie which is as emotionally involving as early kaiju which work diligently to create characters we care about, but it is a feast for those who love seeing monsters amok.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - King Kong Escapes!

Toho Studios was always it seems casting about for a deal which would allow it to find stronger inroads into the English-speaking American marketplace, and that makes perfect sense. They struck up a bargain with UPA for a trio of movies and then came Rankin-Bass Productions, most famous for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and other vintage holiday classics. The deal with Rankin-Bass called for all sorts of synthesis, and wanted to tie in theater releases with television production. In one case it succeeded, and that was King Kong Escapes.

This is a classic kaiju starring not one of the vintage Toho monsters save for the Toho version of RKO's King Kong. In this one the world is again working together (a common theme in Honda movies) and trying to cope with an outlier nation (unnamed but probably Red China) which is seeking to used the power of a deadly metal to subdue the other powers of the planet. To get that ore they hire Doctor Who (not that  Doctor Who) and he builds a mechanical King Kong but the radiation proves too much. Then the reappearance of the real Kong gives Who the chance to try again and that's the story. Eventually of course Kong and his mechanical doppleganger fight it out.

The movie was spun out of King Kong -The Animated Series which had its own version of Doctor Who (again not that Doctor Who) and also a family who befriend Kong. The family is replaced with a stalwart team of scientists and soldiers and a comely blonde chick but its all part of the same show supposedly. This is slick movie, well made but lacking the verve which somehow immediately pops when Godzilla is one the scene. On the upside, the Kong in this one is much much better than the earlier Toho rendition.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - The War Of The Gargantuas!

The War of the Gargantuas is one of my favorite kaiju movies. Another which I managed to see early in my life on television on those late-night showings which can so impress the memory. The movie has a top-notch cast and some of the most exciting kaiju action put on film by Honda and Tsuburaya. The Gargantuas are very human like and so fight with a vigor and suppleness not achievable by the more traditional suit-mation actors. This movie is also a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World, though you would never tell it by any of the dialogue. References to "Frankenstein" are removed and his back story is somewhat adjusted, but we have here the next installment in how a kaiju interacts with the human world. In many ways the Frankenstein kaiju movies are the most like the classic King Kong, the original monster movie which inspired the entire Toho kaiju tradition.

The movie is also the third and last of the collaborations between Toho and UPA. As such it has an American star tucked into his innards to help sell the story across the ocean. Unfortunately instead of the eager and vital Nick Adams we get the lugubrious Russ Tamblyn who by all reports was an absolute asshole on the production and even had clashes with with the universally respected Ishiro Honda. I recognized Tamblyn from his iconic role in West Side Story and that was a positive connection for me on this movie, so that worked. But when I read of his outrageous behavior I'm ashamed that I once rooted for him. His acting is leisurely and laconic and it's easy now to see his co-stars working hard to stay in the scene with him. It's unfortunate to say the least.

More to come tomorrow.

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Tohope And Change - Monster Zero!

Monster Zero otherwise known as Invasion of Astro-Monster is likely the second Godzilla movie I ever clapped eyes on. This is the second of three co-productions between Toho and UPA to attempt to find purchase in the American market in a more coherent fashion. That really didn't work, but that doesn't stop this movie from being a real humdinger. The basic plot of Godzilla Vs. The Thing is picked up up with the addition of Nick Adams as one of our stalwart spaceman heroes. Aliens invade the Earth with the help of King Ghidorah after first pretending to be the friends of Earth men. This time it's up to Godzilla and Rodan to fend off the invaders.

A standout performance in this movie and one of the most memorable in any kaiju flick is Kumi Mizuno as the alien temptress who is turned by love into a defender of Earth, but who loses her life in the process. The aliens in this story are more completely realized than in the earlier movie and their inhuman nature is more thoroughly explored such as the detail that all of their women are identical. This notion of sameness, of loss of personal freedom is a key theme in one of Honda's most successful stories. With Godzilla and Rodan already established as protectors of Earth, there's little need to develop that notion much and the increasing affinity audiences have with the living H-bomb and his flying buddy is at once understandable and odd.

Today we have a double bill. More to come in just a few hours.

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Tohope And Change - Frankenstein Conquers The World!

I'm often struck by the convoluted ways that many of Toho's iconic kaiju flicks came into being. Many start out as something else, featuring some other monsters before they morph into the final form which we all now remember with such relish. Such is clearly the case with Frankenstein Conquers the World. This movie started out as the template for the exceedingly successful King Kong Vs. Godzilla. By the time it was eventually made Godzilla was gone and a new monster named Baragon was introduced. This is also the first of three movies co-produced with American Henry Saperstein who had previously purchased UPA. Two of the three starred Nick Adams, a strange but weirdly successful American addition to the kaiju tradiion.

The movie  gives us glimpses of Germany at the end of WWII and a secret project which is interrupted by the bomb at Hiroshima and which mutates into the immortal Frankenstein, a creature which in this movie grows to enormous size. Frankenstein is never actually a threat himself, a relatively peaceful creature who only wants to find some connection in the world which produced him but never sought to integrate him. He is treated with kindness by one woman and in her name fights against a murderous monster from the depths of the Earth. I really enjoy this movie because of the oddity of the human figure battling in kaiju style. Frankenstein is really able to move with no small nimbleness and skill and it works well. This movie will spawn a sequel, of sorts, but more on that later.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster!

If there is a monster that can rival Godzilla in sheer awesomeness it might be Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. The alien three-headed dragon from space is unusual in the coterie of kaiju in that his small trinity of heads make his motivations obscure. He's always ferocious and dangerous but lacks any opportunity like the other monsters to become something people can identify with with. In this movie Godzilla switches sides and teams up with Mothra and Rodan to fend on Ghidorah, the deadly weapon called down from the depths of space by aliens intent on stealing the women of Earth.

This is the movie in which the kaijus become more cartoonish and even have a confab between themselves with the less aggressive Mothra attempting to get the monsters of Earth to work together against a common enemy. But always the focus is on Ghidorah, the powerful enemy. It's not a tiny jump by Ishiro Honda to the real world in which mankind must pool its resources to confront all sorts of evil and damage throughout the world. The aliens here are the ultimate enemy from beyond, who duplicitous and deceptive and deadly. Mankind must face these facts and work together just as the monsters must do for Earth as we know it to maintain. And that's no small message for all of us.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Godzilla Versus The Thing!

Godzilla Against Mothra might well have been the very first Godzilla movie I ever saw. The movie is ultra strange and I will never forget the opening images of the raging storm which eventually reveals the weird giant egg that becomes the center of the drama. Through in a really good cast as good guys and bad guys as they hustle and bustle over ways to explore and exploit the egg and you have a movie that works really well. When the egg hatches and Godzilla shows up to do battle with Mothra's larvae we have a contest. The way Mothra always dies in her appearances, passing along her power and station to the next generation is a compelling aspect to nearly all of her appearances. Mothra is an elegant image of sacrifice while Godzilla is still at this stage the repugnant omen of war and murder, a monster in the truest sense.

When I saw the movie I saw it under its English title Godzilla Vs. The Thing. I always thought the title oddly compelling as manifestly inaccurate as it is. Mothra is as far from a "Thing" as any of the kaiju can be and Godzilla actually battles three "Things". In fact this is the final movie in which the popular Godzilla is the outright enemy of mankind and not just exceedingly destructive, but that will change next time. But in the offbeat dramas of the Toho monster movies arguably the greatest creations, the most impactful and their first clash is a thing to behold.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - King Kong Versus Godzilla!

King Kong Vs. Godzilla is a weirdly wonderful movie. Godzilla exists in no small part because of the success of the re-release of the original King Kong in the early 1950's. Folks saw what an awesome monster movie could be like and they wanted more. That led to The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and then Godzilla. Also it was apparently decided that this movie was to be a comedy. Understanding that has helped me "get" the Honda kaiju movies in ways I was blind to before. In times past I have always just seen monster movies as that, monster flicks which succeed or fail according to the tropes associated with that form. But now I understand that monster flicks are from many genres and the monsters themselves are just the characters. With that insight I am free to enjoy a movie like this for what it is, a satirical romp and that allows me to accept the understandable violation of some aspects which more seriously minded movies might adhere to. Godzilla itself is best understood as a horror movie, it's first sequel is a straight monster movie, Mothra is a fantasy, and so forth.

That said, King Kong Vs. Godzilla is a romp, as Kong rises up in his most moth-eaten form ever to battle the terrible Godzilla. The movie was hugely successful and on its own allowed for many sequels which never delivered the same audience, but sure tried.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Mothra!

Mothra is among the strangest movies ever made. It's a pure fantasy set in the modern world in which crime and heroism and romance are abundantly evident. It also introduces us to "Roliscia", a strange place which blends together the United States and the Soviet Union into a bizarre blend of political satire. And if all that wasn't enough we get the "Small Beauties" and an enormous moth to boot. The "Small Beauties" (played in minature by a twin pop singing duo called "The Peanuts") is the voice of the monster/god "Mothra", a creature worshiped on the distant Infant Island. When all of this uncovered, a criminal kidnaps the Beauties and Mothra emerges and comes to take them home. Japan suffers as a result.

In Mothra, Ishiro Honda's aspirations of world peace become more immediately manifest as we are presented with a weird concoction of the Cold War alongside simple greed and crime. Mothra levels the playing field l(quite literally) as the enormous wings blow down the places humans live, exposing us to one another and to the world. One cannot hide in the bejeweled eyes of Mothra, a mighty god indeed. I love the move Mothra, a fantasy of a compelling nature which takes weird impossible elements and makes of them a frothy story worth experiencing time and again.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - The Mysterians!

The Mysterians is one of the great titles in all of the history of film. I immediately want to know what they are, who they are, what they want. Well it turns out that they are aliens who have come to Earth covertly to steal women to help reinvigorate their declining population. It's not a novel motivation for aliens, as we've known that Mars and other planets need women for women time. Women are certainly something that many of us want. But Ishiro Honda's The Mysterians presents this hoary theme with no small amount of imagination and vigor.

Honda's message in The Mysterians is simple. Mankind must put aside its petty differences and worth together in harmony to fend off greater threats from beyond. There's a naive elegance to the idea, but it's aspirational simplicity demands attention, at least in my eye. We fight among ourselves here, with often terrifying consequences, but we much quench those pugnacious passions to achieve greater goods as our footprints begin to spread into the depths of space. This was a real goal in the time when The Mysterians was made, though sadly the world has grown all too inward looking in past decades to really and truly reach for the stars.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Rodan!

Rodan is one of my favorite Kaiju movies. Though it doesn't star Godzilla and though Rodan himself is not the sexiest of monsters, the movie succeeds on the sheer strength of really good storytelling. Rodan does the best job since Godzilla itself of presenting strong well developed characters who are involved with one another before they are drawn into the larger melee of monster madness. The story of Rodan is brilliant in that we begin with a small mystery, a horror yarn really about killings in the depths of a wonderfully realized coal mine. This yarn spins out with great attention to detail before the threads of the larger tale become clearly seen by one and all. When Rodan appears there are still more surprises to see, not the least of which is the that there are two. This is a movie which does a fine job of keeping the watcher engaged on all levels.

Rodan holds up exceedingly well after all these years because it is so very well constructed as a story of horror and threat. Rodan's power of producing enormous winds is one aspect of the bomb which was not included in the elegantly designed Godzilla himself, the shock wave is terrifying. Since the Rodans are once again products of radiation, the sins of man come back to haunt him quite literally as the skies become havens for threats. Watching the skies is a warning about space aliens, but of course it's really a shout out to be aware of pugnacious neighbors right here are on Earth who would do us harm. The Japanese, and Honda were all too aware of the nightmare which can arrive via the air.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Godzilla Raids Again!

Godzilla Raids Again (called more evocatively Gigantis, the Fire Monster in the United States) is in many ways the least of the many Godzilla movies which have been made. It's certainly a dandy tale and if it had not been created in the shadow of its awesome predecessor would be considered what it in the final analysis it actually is -- a perfectly fine monster movie. Godzilla Raids Again is the most like the other monster movies which tumbled onto big screens after the enormous success of Godzilla. The movie has much more in common with Gorgo, The Giant Behemoth, Reptilicus, and suchlike. We have a giant monster which does enormous damage which is ultimately defeated by the courage and even sacrifice of brave men or women.

That's the template for a monster movie. The behemoth threat is really a cauldron in which people burn and ultimately reveal themselves. Those that rise to the challenge are deemed heroic. Those that don't are deemed somewhat less. That's what happens in this movie about a "new" Godzilla  which rises out of the ice to threaten Japan once again but who is ultimately defeated by the real hero of the story, the man we'd imagined was only the comedy relief. This is  Honda's trick in this story, them misdirection of who the story is about and it is the one real surprise in a movie which is all too commonplace.

More to come.

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Tohope And Change - Godzilla!

For the last several years after testing has wound down in the last days of the year I have shared the original movie Gojira with my students. I feel that's worthwhile to share with students a foreign-language black and white movie which promotes very serious themes. Those themes are a rejection of war and a sincere desire for peace built on the idea that such a dream is only supported by sacrifice of individual citizens.

That utopian dream is one held by the director of Godzilla -- Ishiro Honda. I was much impressed by the message of world peace which defines the original Godzilla movie and I am always moved, nearly to tears by the lovely "Prayer of Peace" which ultimately motivates the suffering Doctor Serikawka to destroy the monster, his work and ultimately himself in order that the world might survive one more day. Honda's movies all seem to have this sublime notion that mankind can indeed find another way forward, that people can work together to beat monsters or make the world better for everyone. Wishing to drench myself in the hope of Honda as opposed to the dreary news of the real world, I have been watching in order as many of his movies as I have in my possession and took steps to increase that hoard. Over the next few weeks I will be offering small reflections on many if not most of those delightful movies from Godzilla's Showa period.

The first is of course Godzilla. I grew up having only ever seen Godzilla - King of Monsters starring Raymond Burr. As entertaining as it is, the original has the power and majesty of Honda's message and presents that message of a world order which rejects the danger and damage of atomic weapons with a quiet potency. As I try to explain to my students, Godzilla is the atomic bomb, a fantasy recreation of arguably the greatest horror ever unleashed on mankind. He's an implacable force which demands death and destruction. Honda's direction along with Eji Tsubaraya's special effects and Akira Ifukube's masterful music blend to give the world a work of art which like Picasso's Guernica demands that the horror of war be confronted. The sacrifices required to end the threat of Godzilla in this cinematic debut are the absolute extreme. A man gives his life for others, so that the world will continue to be after he is gone and the movie ends with the prayer that world will learn and improve itself. It's a vain hope alas, but a hope worth having and one which Ishiro Honda continued to have in his many movies of the Showa era.

Escapism at its finest. More to come.

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