Ishiro Honda Documentary To Screen In New York

Above, Jonathan Bellés, Yoshikazu Ishii and yours truly in Tokyo in 2014.

Jonathan Bellés's documentary on Godzilla director Ishiro Honda will be screening in New York on December 16.

According to Rue Morgue:

It’s a heartfelt celebration of the kaiju king.

ISHIRO HONDA: MEMOIRS OF A FILM DIRECTOR will have its first commercial U.S. showing, following screenings at Sitges, G-Fest XXX and other festivals, on Tuesday, December 16 at 7 p.m. at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady, New York. Tickets can be ordered here. Written and directed by Jonathan Bellés and distributed by SRS Cinema, the documentary focuses on the director whose genre career began with the seminal 1954 GOJIRA/GODZILLA and encompassed seven more movies starring the Big G, as well as further classics like RODAN, MOTHRA, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS and others. Later in his career, he worked alongside Akira Kurosawa on films such as KAGEMUSHA and the Oscar-winning RAN.

To read more, go here. 

Godzilla and "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms"

Above, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms rampages in New York City. Warner Bros. photo.

Godzilla fans, a more sophisticated bunch than average movie fans, are aware that the inspiration for Tomoyuki Tanaka's and Ishirō Honda's Godzilla (1954) had its inspiration by The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms in 1953.

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms was the first giant monster movie that mixed a monster with the then-new nuclear bomb.

Collider posted an article on the "forgotten" (definitely not by giant monster fans) sci-fi monster movie that came before Godzilla and inspired it.

The article begins with:

When audiences think of kaiju cinema, the image that towers above all else is Godzilla rising from the sea in 1954, a monstrous embodiment of the terrors of nuclear power. Yet one year earlier, American audiences had already seen a giant reptilian beast awaken and wreak havoc on a coastal city. Eugène Lourié’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) was more than a creature feature — it was a prototype, laying down the DNA that Godzilla would refine into legend.

Adapted loosely from Ray Bradbury’s short story The Fog Horn, 20,000 Fathoms gave cinema its first modern giant monster born from atomic power. The titular Rhedosaurus, a stop-motion marvel animated by Ray Harryhausen, stomped through New York City with a destructive force unlike anything audiences had seen on the big screen. By merging Cold War anxieties with prehistoric terror, the film provided the kaiju formula: mankind’s hubris awakens a monster, cities tremble and fall, and survival depends on desperate human ingenuity.

To read the full article, go here. 

Peter H. Brothers Feature Article

There's a local quarterly magazine that serves the cities and communities of Calabasas, Agoura, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Malibu, North Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Camarillo and Oxnard called, Beyond The Acorn.

Godzilla aficionado and author Peter H. Brothers has scored a feature spotlight article in the Spring 2016 issue, "Godzilla Guru."

To read the article on Herr Brothers (on page 18), go here.

The Lizard King Rules The World

Above, Haruo Nakajima climbing into the 1954 Godzilla suit. The Wako Dept.
Store miniature is in the background at right. Photo courtesy of Sonoe Nakajima

The gearing-up to Japan's opening of Godzilla Friday in Japanese theaters is continuing.

Metropolis Magazine's website posted a new article on Godzilla, "The Lizard King" with a sub-heading of "At 60, Godzilla still rules the world." It is a good article with some tidbits of trivia on the making of the original 1954 movie (stuff that hardcore Godzilla fans are familiar with).

Here's a snippet:

One of the Western misconceptions of Godzilla is that the franchise started with a quickie B-movie aimed at children, but it was a big affair that attracted top-tier talent. Takashi Shimura, who plays the scientist who testifies that H-bomb testing awoke the monster, was one of the country’s most respected actors, already known for Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. Director Ishiro Honda was given a budget of nearly USD$1 million, the same as the year’s Best Picture winner On the Waterfront and three times the average in Japan, making it the most expensive film made in the country at the time. Although Kurosawa created a timeless classic with Japan’s other seminal film of 1954, it was Honda who won at the box office, smashing the record for opening-day ticket sales set by the Seven Samurai, which also starred Shimura. 

It’s true, though, that Gojira was filmed quickly. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had to fill a slot in Toho Studios’ fall roster after a diplomatic wrangle with Indonesia quashed plans for an international coproduction. Inspired by the 1952 re-release of King Kong and Ray Harryhausen’s work on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, in which an atomic dinosaur destroys New York, Tanaka called in Eiji Tsuburaya, known as tokusatsu no kamisama (“the god of special effects”). A mechanical genius who built cameras and projectors as a child, Tsuburaya was confident he could create a creature through stop motion, provided he had seven years. The schedule allowed only four months from start of production to release, so Tsuburaya simply asked stuntman Haruo Nakajima to step into a rubber suit.

It is worth a read by fans and non-fans alike.

Above, the Wako Dept. Store today. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read the full article, go here.

U.K. Telegraph's Why The Original Godzilla Is No Joke

Above, Haruo Nakajima climbing into the original Godzilla suit in 1954. Photo courtesy of Sonoe Nakajima.

It is amazing, and gratifying to us longtime Godzilla fans, that Godzilla is getting such well-deserved recognition in today's media that he was a (giant) step above those B-movie monsters of the 1950s.

The latest is from the United Kingdom's The Telegraph. They've posted an excellent article on the beginnings of Godzilla (even though Eiji Tsuburaya was captioned as Ishiro Honda in error).

The article begins with:

Western audiences have spent more than half a century thinking of Godzilla as a joke dinosaur in a rubber suit, a Japanese trash-culture ‘King of the Monsters’ locked in endless battle with giant moths, dragons, armadillos and skyscraper-sized robots. Against this camp backdrop, then, it may seem surprising to hear Gareth Edwards, the director of this summer’s Godzilla film, declare his intention to portray the monster as “a force of nature, like the wrath of God or vengeance for the way we’ve behaved”. 

But the idea of presenting Godzilla as the harbinger of man-made apocalypse isn't simply another gritty reboot for an age in which children’s franchises have become big-budget adult entertainment. It harks back 60 years to an almost forgotten chapter in the franchise’s history: the tragic story of nuclear paranoia told by the original Gojira in 1954. 

Released in the same year as Seven Samurai, directed by a colleague of Kurosawa’s and starring one of Japan’s most famous actors, the film Gojira was a far cry from its B-movie successors. It was a sober allegory of a film with ambitions as large as its thrice-normal budget, designed to shock and horrify an adult audience.

To read more, go here.

Why Godzilla Endures

Above, the Godzilla statue in Hibiya, Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Over the years, much has been written about Godzilla, the original movie and the character itself.

Now that Godzilla is getting a major Hollywood reboot, the news media is taking another look at Godzilla and why the character (as well as the original 1954 classic) endured for nearly sixty years.

Boston's WBUR 90.9 news station has an article on the endurance of Godzilla.

The article begins with:

There have been hundreds of monster movies over the years, but only a handful of enduringly great movie monsters. Of those, only two were created for the screen: King Kong, the giant ape atop the Empire State Building, and his Japanese heir, Godzilla, the city-flattening sea monster who's a genuinely terrific pop icon. He not only stars in movies — Hollywood is bringing out a new Godzilla on May 16 — but he's even played basketball with Charles Barkley in a commercial for Nike. 

It's been six decades since Godzilla first hit the screen, and to celebrate the big guy's birthday, Rialto Pictures is releasing Ishiro Honda's 1954 original — in a restored, 60th-anniversary edition — in theaters. I've seen Godzilla many times since I was a kid, but watching it again, I was struck that it might be the best single film about the terrors of the nuclear age.

The article then goes on to discuss why Godzilla still resonates with the public, spanning several generations of movie fans.

That said, Godzilla's real strength lies not in its effects — impressive for the time — but in its underlying emotional and cultural seriousness. It's not simply that the music is often doleful rather than exciting or that we see doomed children set off Geiger counters. The movie has a gravity that comes from being created in a Japan that knew what it was to have children die from radiation poisoning and to see its capital city in flames. Both drawn to and terrified of the monster's power, the movie is steeped in Japan's traumatic historical experience. It has weight. It means something. 

It is pleasing to see Godzilla getting his due with the appreciative articles such as this that are popping up in advance of the May 16 opening of Godzilla by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. (unfortunately, the photo that accompanies the article is from 1964's Mothra vs. Godzilla, not the original 1954 movie as stated). It has been a long time in coming.

To read more, go here.

Ishiro Honda: Exposure

Above, Ishiro Honda.

A retrospective of non-kaiju films by noted Godzilla director Ishiro Honda will be held April 6 through June 7 in Tokyo.

Time Out Tokyo reports:

Best known for his kaiju movies and as director of the original Godzilla, the late Ishiro Honda also had an eye for less grandiose projects like quiet dramas and romantic comedies. Asagaya's Laputa theatre is now showing nine rare Honda films, including the melodrama People of Tokyo, Goodbye (1956) and marriage comedy Song for a Bride (1958) – check out the full nine-week program on the official website (Japanese only).

This sounds like something worth going to Japan to see.

To see Time Out Tokyo's page, go here. 

A Great Day In Japan

Above, here I am with Jessica Claros, Yoshikazu Ishii and Jonathan Bellés at Toho Studios.

Today worked out quite well in Tokyo.

Early this morning, Jonathan Bellés and I headed off to Setagaya go to Toho Studios for the first round of interviews Bellés is conducting for his documentary, Godzilla and Hiroshima: The Rise of Kaiju Eiga. As Bellés had never been to Japan before, I acted as his tour guide to get him to Toho.

When we arrived in Setagaya, we were greeted by Yoshikazu Ishii and shortly thereafter, special effects director Eiichi Asada. Asada and Ishii worked together on the special effects scenes of 2004's Godzilla Final Wars. Bellés interviewed both for the documentary.

Above, Eiichi Asada waiting for the interview to begin. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While wandering around, I saw how Toho Studios has changed quite a lot since I first stepped inside back in 2001. Many of the old buildings, including the old diner, office buildings, Tsuburaya's office/workshop (then occupied by Koichi Kawakita) and the big pool are gone and replaced by bigger and modern sound stages and an office complex. I feel fortunate to have been able to see Toho Studios when it still looked as it did when kaiju eiga reigned supreme under Eiji Tsuburaya, Ishiro Honda and Tomoyuki Tanaka. I had the feeling that I was returning to the site of an old favorite restaurant that was replaced by a modern mini-mall. The place lost a lot of historical value when the studio demolished the old facilities.

Above, the Actor's Center that include the cafeteria. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The new (I guess ten or so years can still be considered "new") Toho cafeteria was modern and efficient, but it lacks the charm and personality of the old diner with its "ancient" Coca-Cola fountain dispenser, fixtures, decor and furnishings. The old studio diner made a visitor feel as if they went back into time to a different era. One thing I have to say about the new cafeteria, they have excellent food. I tried the curry and rice bowl and it was great! Normally, I don't go for curry.

Above, a collage of photos of Toho's Golden Age in the cafeteria. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It was very nice of Toho Studios to allow us the use one of their meeting rooms for Bellés's interviews.

The day ended with an additional highlight. I met up with Ai, one of the girls I used as a promo model for The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan. Originally from Hokkaido, Ai lives in Tokyo and works at a major department store these days. It was good to catch up on things since we did our photo shoot three years ago.

"Calamity Star Gorath" (1962)

Above, the DVD box art.

A rogue star 3/4 the size of Earth but with a mass 6000 times that of Earth has entered our solar system and is on a collision course with Earth. Mankind bands together to devise a way to prevent the catastrophic collision.

The star was named Gorath and that is also the name of the movie, Gorath (or Calamity Star Gorath). It was produced in 1962 by Toho Co., Ltd. and features a who's who of Toho actors, including Akira Kubo, Kenji Sahara, Kumi Mizuno, Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata and Ryo Ikebe. It was directed by Ishiro Honda.

Above, actor Kenji Sahara and Armand.

It has been ages since I've seen Gorath. I recently purchased the DVD and finally sat down to watch it. The special effects were top-notch by 1962 standards (by Eiji Tsuburaya). The movie proved once again (at least to my eyes) that watching scenes of destruction with the use of miniatures is a lot more fun than with computer-generated imaging.

Gorath was an enjoyable sci-fi/disaster movie and my grade is A.

"Pacific Rim" Resurrects The Kaiju Film

Above, a movie theater with the King of the Monsters on the marquee in 1956.

JapanToday picked up an AP article, "Pacific Rim Resurrects The Kaiju Film."

In it, the article states:

NEW YORK —The appeal of “Pacific Rim” isn’t complicated. 

Like the kind of boyhood fantasy that delights in flying men and relishes dreams of dinosaurs, “Pacific Rim,” the latest film from director Guillermo Del Toro, is predicated on the simple, childlike thrill of seeing big ol’ robots and big ol’ monsters slug it out. 

But while summer spectacles have grown ever larger in recent years, the monster movie - the original city-smashing genre - has mostly ceded the multiplexes to superheroes and more apocalyptic disaster films. But 14 years after Roland Emmerich’s forgettable “Godzilla” remake, Del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” constitutes a large-scale attempt to bring Japan’s beloved Kaiju movies - their monster films, of which Ishiro Honda’s 1954 “Godzilla” is the most famous - to American shores. 

“Monsters have always spoken to a part of me that is really, really essential,” Del Toro, the Mexican director of the Oscar-nominated “Pan’s Labyrinth,” said in a recent interview. “All of my life, I felt out of place. The tragedy of every monster in every movie is that they are out of place. That’s the essential plight of monsters.”

To read the article, go here. 

Revisions, Revisions, Etc.

Above, Peter H. Brothers in November 2009.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Peter H. Brothers has been busy re-working and revising his biography on Godzilla director Ishiro Honda, Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda. He has completed "Phase II" of the project and is now starting "Phase III."

He is adding more material from Japanese sources, among other things. He mentioned that it has been three years since the original edition was published (hard to believe it has been that long). As I recall, it came out around November 2009, about two months before The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan. We had a gathering at his stately manor in Thousand Oaks, California to celebrate its publication.

Above, yours truly scrutinizing Pete's book in November 2009.

This reminds me. Since ComiXpress has decided to close its doors, I have been mulling about doing a revision (or update) of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan. As I mentioned previously, I am leaning towards that, but if I do, it won't be started until early next year. Most, if not all, travel guides go through updates, usually on an annual basis. But as I am not "corporate America," it will take a while to get completed.

In the meantime, since we (the Nakajimas and I) are not going to the Days of the Dead convention, this frees up more copies that otherwise would have been allocated for the convention from my at-hand stock.

Details for snagging a copy are here.

15 Sights That Make Tokyo So Fascinating

Above, a view looking up the Sumida River from Tokyo Bay towards the
Kachidoki Bridge and the Tsukiji Central Wholesale Market.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

CNN.com's Travel section posted an article (along with a video) on the "15 Sights That Make Tokyo So Fascinating"  back in July 2011.

Number 8 is one that G-fans should recognize:

8. Godzilla

One ill-fated night, Godzilla, a giant radioactive reptile from the sea, climbs out from Tokyo Bay and attacks the city. After wreaking havoc and causing much death and destruction, he’s gone, but the Japanese army puts up a row of electrical towers along Tokyo’s coast to shoot 50,000 volts of electricity through the monster, should he come back again. 

This is the plot of the original 1954 “Godzilla,” a campy action thriller that has a direct connection to the nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945. 

The film’s director and co-writer, Ishiro Honda, was allegedly so shocked by the devastation from the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that he created the monster to act as a metaphor for the devastation. 

More than 50 years later, Godzilla (whose name is an amalgam of the Japanese for gorilla and whale) is as instantly recognizable as ever around the globe -- the freak monster inextricably tied to Japanese culture and Tokyo for evermore. 

More on CNNGo: 5 best Godzilla movies

Besides Godzilla, there are other familiar names of places in Tokyo that Godzilla fans would recognize: Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Tower, Ginza, etc.

To see the list, go here.

"Departures" (2008)

Above, Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue.

Death is not a subject that people will immediately gravitate to, but, depending upon how it is handled, can be a subject that just might enlighten and, at the same time, be moving.

The Japanese movie, Departures, deals with the subject of death that is entertaining, enlightening, sad, humorous and touching.  And, it accomplishes this without being morbid (the closest is when an old lady is found two weeks after death).

The movie is about an out-of-work cellist, Daigo Kobayashi (played by Masahiro Motoki) who returns to his hometown with his wife (Ryoko Hirosue) after finding out that his orchestra company he worked for dissolved.

Desperate for work, he is hired as a "Nokanshi," who prepares the bodies of the deceased for burial and entrance into the next life.   Tsutomu Yamazaki plays the senior Nokanshi (“The Boss”). 

He takes the job in secret, fearful that his wife would find this occupation repulsive.  She leaves him after learning the nature of her husband's work, stipulating that she would return once he tenders his resignation.  He doesn't and through his work he goes through a spiritual journey and re-learns joy and the wonders of living.

For Ishiro Honda fans, Departures was filmed in Yamagata prefecture (red area in map at right), where, as author Steve Ryfle tells me, Honda spent his youth.  It is a beautiful place.

Departures won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  

Departures was directed by Yojiro Takita.

I heartily recommend Departures.  My grade: A+.

Honda Estate vs. Toho: Some More Information

Here's a few more details (and confirmation that there is a legal action pending) from Godzilla historian Ed Godzisewski (right) that was posted at the Monster Zero message board:

Yes, there is a legal case ongoing in Japan. Has been for a while. I have heard about the case from Ryuji for a couple years. The family has preferred to just quietly pursue the case the way it should be done, in court. It all stems from the Japanese system that gives rights to writers (not directors).

The first ruling is due in February.

Looks like we won't have to wait too long.

Honda Estate vs. Toho: Delving Deeper

Above, the Godzilla statue at Toho Studios. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The story of the alleged lawsuit by the family of late director Ishiro Honda against Toho Co., Ltd. over the Godzilla copyright may have some legs after all.

Over on Facebook, some of us were mulling over the story.

It was asked by one participant: "Couldn't we have somebody in Japan verify if a Complaint has actually been filed? Those are a matter of public record·"

Noted Godzilla historian August Ragone replied that he had looked into it and he is currently "writing up something about this now [for his blog]."

Once he does, I'll post a link to his blog post. This should be interesting!

It appears we may be on the verge of learning something about Japanese copyright law.

Honda Estate vs. Toho Ramifications?

Above, yours truly with the Godzilla statue at Toho Studios.

The story of the alleged copyright lawsuit against Toho by the heirs of Ishiro Honda over the Godzilla character may have some big ramifications if 1.) the story is true or, 2.), they actually win.

The story does not sound Japanese to me. Maybe in America, perhaps (i.e., Bela Lugosi Jr.'s legal actions over his father's image and The Three Stooges).

If the story is true and Honda's heirs prevail and win the Godzilla copyright from Toho, could we see Noriaki Yuasa's estate taking similar action against Kadokawa Pictures (the successor company to Daiei) over the Showa Gamera and Shusuke Kaneko over the Heisei Gamera? Who knows what (or who) may come out of the woodwork?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, if true.

Ishiro Honda's Family Suing For Godzilla Copyright

Above, yours truly with Toho's (or is it Honda's?) copyrighted Godzilla character.

It has been reported that the family of Godzilla director Ishiro Honda is suing Toho Co., Ltd. for the copyright to the Godzilla character.

According to this article in Ridersrangersandrambles.com:

In a past case, the copyright for Godzilla was supposed to belong to the Honda estate, but Toho insists on having at least the merchandising rights to the character.

Personally, I don't see how Ishiro Honda or his family has any claim to the rights to the character as Honda was a staff director of Toho, unless there is some codicil in his contract with the movie studio giving him some rights. Then again, there may be something in Japanese law or case law that provides this.

To read the full article (with links to Japanese sites), go here.

"Godzilla" (1954) Screenings In Honolulu

Need something to do to close out 2011?

If so, and you find yourself in Honolulu, Hawaii at the end of December, then go to the Doris Duke Theater to screen the original, uncut Godzilla (1954).

The screenings take place on Thursday, December 29 and Friday, December 30.

Director: Ishirô Honda
Japan, 1954, 95 mins.
In Japanese with English subtitles

Restored print! The original Japanese Godzilla, directed by sci-fi master Ishiro Honda, is considered a classic of Japanese cinema .

It was also the biggest budgeted film in Japanese history at that time and spawned 50 years of sequels, countless rip-offs, and a new genre-the kaiju eiga or Japanese monster movie. Sold to an American distributor in 1956, it was recut, rearranged, dubbed and retitled Godzilla: King of the Monsters, to the dismay of subsequent generations of Godzilla fans.

We present the Japanese version in its original glory. Don't miss this opportunity to see a 30-story Jurassic behemoth destroy an exquisitely detailed miniature Tokyo as it was meant to be seen-on the big screen!

Doris Duke Theatre
900 S. Beretania St.
Entrance on Kinau
Honolulu, HI 96814
USA

Phone: 808-532-3303

For details on the screenings, go here.

100th Anniversary of Ishiro Honda's Birth

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Godzilla (1954) director Ishiro Honda's birth.

Honda was born May 7, 1911 in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. He is often called "the father of Godzilla."

He went on to direct other Japanese science-fiction movies such as Rodan, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Monster Zero, Matango, Atragon and many others.

He began his career as an assistant to director (and friend) Akira Kurosawa and rejoined Kurosawa as an assistant director towards the end of his career.

Honda died on February 28, 1993 at the age of 81.

Monsterpalooza "Scene To Seen" Presentation Two Weeks From Now

(Click on image to view larger.)



The presentation of Japanese monster movie locations, "Scene To Seen" for Monsterpalooza is taking shape. I've assembled about 90% of the photographs I plan to use during the one-hour presentation on Friday, April 8 at 8:00 PM (exactly two weeks from tonight). Mark your calendars!

I was stuck at home waiting for a phone call on an insurance claim matter the other day, so I put the time to excellent use working on the presentation.

The presentation is based on The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan, which will be available before and after the presentation. I will be assisted by model Miki (below). I will be following Peter H. Brothers' presentation on Godzilla director Ishiro Honda.



Monsterpalooza will be held on April 8-10 at the Burbank Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, which is located across the street from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank at 2500 Hollywood Way.

There will be plenty of things for kaiju fans and non-kaiju fans at Monsterpalooza this year. The original Godzilla, Haruo Nakajima will be in attendance and will have his autobiography available. Also, giclees poster prints celebrating Nakajima's career will be available. The full amount of these giclees will be going directly to the Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund.

It is shaping up to be a great show just like the first two previous Monsterpaloozas. It is the best monster and horror show I've ever been to. Do yourself a great favor and attend!

For more information on Monsterpalooza, go to their official website.