RODAN
(Original Title: "Sora no Daikaiju Radon" -Giant Monster of the Sky Rodan-)
December 26, 1956
After a sequel to Godzilla was produced in 1955, Toho decided to put the Big G on hiatus and began working on other projects involving giant monsters.
The next film ended up being a very interesting film indeed.
In a small mining village, bodies are showing up hacked to pieces in one of the shafts. It's later revealed that the miners were killed by prehistoric dragonfly larvae called Meganulon. But after they are dealt with, a new threat emerges. 2 gigantic Pterosaurs emerge from their nest in a volcano, they are later given the name: 'Rodan'. After being pursued by the JASDF, the Rodan lay waste to a nearby city with their wings capable of producing hurricane force winds.
Growing up watching Japanese monster movies, Rodan was a frequent guest star in the Godzilla series and the movie itself was a staple on television.
I actually don't remember how I first saw Rodan. I can recall seeing the VHS at one of my local Blockbuster stores, maybe I rented it or I saw it on TV, but I liked watching it. As an adult though, you tend to notice a few things.
Rodan goes from being a horror movie to a monster movie and even though the titular Kaiju does not appear on screen until about the halfway point, it moves at a pretty fast pace.
Even though this movie suggests that nuclear testing is responsible for the emergence of these creatures, those themes are nowhere near as prominent as it is in Godzilla.
While the characters are perfectly serviceable for Rodan, none of them are anywhere near as compelling as Godzilla either.
One of the things I always found weird about this movie was how both Rodan seemed to grow to full size mere days after hatching. That's quite a growth spurt!
Also during Rodan's attack, he appears to use a breath attack (called 'Radioactive Gas'), but in subsequent film appearances he never uses any kind of breath weapon again (at least not until 1993.)
But those are really minor nitpicks, Rodan is still a very entertaining monster movie. It's got great suspense, build up and commendable special effects. The way they were able to simulate buildings being blown apart by Rodan's winds is outstanding. The creatures themselves were achieved through a combination of a large marionette, a small hand puppet and a full suit worn by Haruo Nakajima. Interesting fact: an accident during filming led to one of the best shots in the film. One of the wires supporting the Rodan suit snapped, forcing Nakajima into the water. Luckily he wasn't hurt, so they kept it in and it makes for a great moment where Rodan dives into the water to get away from some jets.
While the original Japanese version is the better version, I still have plenty of nostalgia for the American version. I'll always remember the opening showing Hydrogen bomb tests with ominous narration about what horrors these tests could unleash. Some of the actors doing the dubbing were none other than Hikaru Sulu himself, George Takei and Keye Luke, who you may recognize as the shop owner who refused to sell Mr. Peltzer an adorable little Mogwai. The constant narration might be grating to some but I think it adds a bit of charm to this version.
Unfortunately, if you go to seek out this movie you'll run into problems. If you can find the American version, the print used for most DVDs is awful, the quality during the monster scenes takes a significant drop. The Japanese version has fared better on the DVD released by Classic Media in 2008 (as a double feature with another classic Japanese monster movie "War of the Gargantuas"), but that DVD is now pretty hard to find.
In 2017, the rights to the original versions of Rodan, along with many other Toho Godzilla movies were acquired by Janus Films and the Criterion Collection and were available to view on their FilmStruck streaming service, which has since closed down. Criterion has confirmed that they hope to get all those films available on Blu-ray and DVD and with the new King of the Monsters film coming out, I really hope that happens soon. Rodan is a great movie and a classic that deserves to be seen.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
(Original Title: "Sora no Daikaiju Radon" -Giant Monster of the Sky Rodan-)
December 26, 1956
After a sequel to Godzilla was produced in 1955, Toho decided to put the Big G on hiatus and began working on other projects involving giant monsters.
The next film ended up being a very interesting film indeed.
In a small mining village, bodies are showing up hacked to pieces in one of the shafts. It's later revealed that the miners were killed by prehistoric dragonfly larvae called Meganulon. But after they are dealt with, a new threat emerges. 2 gigantic Pterosaurs emerge from their nest in a volcano, they are later given the name: 'Rodan'. After being pursued by the JASDF, the Rodan lay waste to a nearby city with their wings capable of producing hurricane force winds.
I actually don't remember how I first saw Rodan. I can recall seeing the VHS at one of my local Blockbuster stores, maybe I rented it or I saw it on TV, but I liked watching it. As an adult though, you tend to notice a few things.
Rodan goes from being a horror movie to a monster movie and even though the titular Kaiju does not appear on screen until about the halfway point, it moves at a pretty fast pace.
Even though this movie suggests that nuclear testing is responsible for the emergence of these creatures, those themes are nowhere near as prominent as it is in Godzilla.
While the characters are perfectly serviceable for Rodan, none of them are anywhere near as compelling as Godzilla either.
One of the things I always found weird about this movie was how both Rodan seemed to grow to full size mere days after hatching. That's quite a growth spurt!
Also during Rodan's attack, he appears to use a breath attack (called 'Radioactive Gas'), but in subsequent film appearances he never uses any kind of breath weapon again (at least not until 1993.)
But those are really minor nitpicks, Rodan is still a very entertaining monster movie. It's got great suspense, build up and commendable special effects. The way they were able to simulate buildings being blown apart by Rodan's winds is outstanding. The creatures themselves were achieved through a combination of a large marionette, a small hand puppet and a full suit worn by Haruo Nakajima. Interesting fact: an accident during filming led to one of the best shots in the film. One of the wires supporting the Rodan suit snapped, forcing Nakajima into the water. Luckily he wasn't hurt, so they kept it in and it makes for a great moment where Rodan dives into the water to get away from some jets.
While the original Japanese version is the better version, I still have plenty of nostalgia for the American version. I'll always remember the opening showing Hydrogen bomb tests with ominous narration about what horrors these tests could unleash. Some of the actors doing the dubbing were none other than Hikaru Sulu himself, George Takei and Keye Luke, who you may recognize as the shop owner who refused to sell Mr. Peltzer an adorable little Mogwai. The constant narration might be grating to some but I think it adds a bit of charm to this version.
Unfortunately, if you go to seek out this movie you'll run into problems. If you can find the American version, the print used for most DVDs is awful, the quality during the monster scenes takes a significant drop. The Japanese version has fared better on the DVD released by Classic Media in 2008 (as a double feature with another classic Japanese monster movie "War of the Gargantuas"), but that DVD is now pretty hard to find.
In 2017, the rights to the original versions of Rodan, along with many other Toho Godzilla movies were acquired by Janus Films and the Criterion Collection and were available to view on their FilmStruck streaming service, which has since closed down. Criterion has confirmed that they hope to get all those films available on Blu-ray and DVD and with the new King of the Monsters film coming out, I really hope that happens soon. Rodan is a great movie and a classic that deserves to be seen.
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my Lair.
So long...
and thank you for joining me here in my Lair.
So long...
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
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