Rodan
The most shocking name in 2,000,000 years!
Year of Release: 1956
Genre: Science Fiction
Rated: Approved
Running Time: 82 minutes (1:22)
Director: Ishiro Honda
Cast:
Kenji Sahara ... Shigeru Kawamura, colliery engineer (as Kenji Sawara)
Yumi Shirakawa ... Kiyo, Shigeru's lover
Akihiko Hirata ... Professor Kyuichiro Kashiwagi (biology)
Akio Kobori ... Police Chief Nishimura
Minosuke Yamada ... Colliery Chief Osaki
Yoshifumi Tajima ... Izeki, reporter of Seibu Nippou
Haruo Nakajima ... Radon (Kaiju) (uncredited)
Katsumi Tezuka ... Hotel manager (uncredited)
Summary:
H-bomb tests in the Pacific have led to a number of strange events. First, coal miners are attacked by a huge caterpillar. The monster is destroyed, but its eggs are buried deep in the mine. Then, a nearby volcano erupts, releasing the spawn it has nurtured for years beyond count: Rodan, a voraciously hungry prehistoric bird, weighing over 100 tons with a 270-foot wing span. Modern weaponry is useless against Rodan, as he unleashes his wrath on the Japanese Islands. To add to the terror, another Rodan hatches and joins in the destruction.
The thrilling climax pits the Rodan monsters against the seething volcano that bred them, as society wonders what other horrors their bomb tests have awakened.
Review:
Rodan, remindin' us that witnessing the hatching of a creature thought extinct for 200 million years may lead to an eggsistential crisis.
And speakin' of the Land of the Lost and Found, Billy Hilliard, Duke Tankersley, Roxanne Bigelow, Apollo, and I accidentally spent the weekend solvin' one of Chickawalka County's oldest unsolved mysteries when we got scammed into doin' our part to save the planet by the Ladies Sadie. I realize it *sounds* glamorous and all, but we didn't even get to meet Robert Stack or anything so I personally couldn't give a rip. Somebody from the Chickawalka Talka kept makin' excuses and claimin' the man allegedly died 20 years ago, but I have my doubts given how lazy modern journalism has become since Weekly World News went off the air.
Anyway, what happened was, the Sadies invited everybody out campin' at Swine Lake for Earth Day weekend under false pretenses, and by the time we'd unpacked all the gear and realized we'd been had Sadie'd gone and hidden the keys to the Ramcharger in a place none of us dared trespass. Most of us, anyway.
"Anybody else wanna be a hero?" Sadie snarled, swivelin' 'er wrist after plantin' 'er fist in Duke's jaw.
"You gotta sleep sometime, lady," Duke grumbled, spittin' a mouthfulla blood onto an old rotten pine stump.
"Come on you guys, this'll be fun!" Mrs. Sadie asserted, passin' out Hefty bags and grinnin' like she'd gone to a Price is Right tapin' and just been invited to "come on down."
"Vif iv kihnappin'. Yeow nevow geh away wif vif," Billy growled, inspectin' his trash bag and considering whether to wrap it around his head or try usin' it to subdue Sadie long enough to get 'er keys.
"Fun? Oh, of course, that explains why so many guys try robbin' convenience stores with security cameras hangin' over the entrance - they just can't WAIT to scoop Big Mac containers outta drainage ditches on the side of the highway," I bitched, refusin' to take the trash bag.
Credit to the folks at Hefty - musta taken me half an hour to chew my way outta that thing (woulda been less 'cept Sadie'd zip tied my wrists before stuffin' me in there), but while I was wrestlin' around prayin' the hippie Viking from Don't Go in the Woods wouldn't show up to gore me to death with his possum pelt polearm, Mrs. Sadie went over her plan to "beautify" the lake and explained that whoever collected the most trash would receive a videotape of "the most romantic night of her life."
Admittedly, it was never explicitly stated what was on that tape, but I've gotta assume things like this are why we refuse to elect a woman to the presidency because on some level we must know they're smarter'n us and don't dare to risk findin' out what one could manipulate us into doin' with that kinda power. I only bring this up because the moment Mrs. Sadie announced the prize for the biggest trash heap, Billy and Duke were on the ground wrestlin' each other for the remnants of an old fire-scorched pork 'n beans can, and based upon what I was able to see through one of my air holes, the whole thing was so undignified that it made me ashamed to be a man.
Like I was sayin' though, I was eventually able to extricate myself from my situation, and by that time everyone was off pickin' dried-up condoms outta stingin' nettle thickets and removin' old bottle caps that'd been hammered into tree trunks. Everyone 'cept Roxanne, who, after a while, got tired of watchin' me flop around like a beached crappie and cut the zip ties off.
"If she asks you got loose on your own," Roxanne said, droppin' 'er Old Timer back into 'er pocket and sittin' back down on the cooler.
It was the first time we'd been back to the lake since she'd broken it off with Cleave after he'd been diagnosed with a case of terminal stupidity and I could see the fact wasn't lost on 'er.
"The hell I will. If she thinks I got outta that myself the next time she'll use a clothesline and halve the air holes," I chuckled, sittin' down next to 'er.
"Maybe so. I'd always just assumed you two had some weird low-key sub/dom thing goin' on. It's either that or you're the second dumbest man on Earth," she smirked.
"You wanna talk about it?" I offered, addressing the elephant in the woods without naming it.
"Nah," she shook 'er head, tossin' a wadded-up Frito bag into the campfire.
"Wanna drink about it?" I asked.
"Ya know, you may be trainable yet," she snorted, gesturin' for me to grab a cooler handle and help 'er lug it down to the lake.
Mrs. Sadie'd apparently spent quite a while plannin' this thing and even gone so far's to secure three sets of oxygen tanks and goggles for anyone who wanted to dredge the lake bed for Spuds MacKenzie-era Bud Light cans even though no more'n a third of 'em were ours.
Thinkin' about it now though, the only thing dumber'n Billy and Duke believin' they were gonna get a homemade sex tape for their efforts was what those efforts ended up uncoverin', 'cause around the time Roxanne and I'd polished off nine or ten beers, outta nowhere, up comes Billy about 30 yards out from the shore, swimmin' like somethin' out of a Roger Corman movie was on his ass threatenin' to slime 'im to death. Matter of fact, somethin' out of a Roger Corman flick *was* in hot pursuit even if it was just Duke (whom I've never seen in the same room with the monster from Night of the Blood Beast), and he looked almost as shook as Billy as they swam to beat hell.
"I'm not tryna tell you guys how to live your lives or anything, but a while back some people started puttin' pornography on the internet so pathetic weirdos wouldn't hafta start salvage operations to gain access to--" I was sayin'.
"Veow'v fumfin' down veow!" Billy hollered, his eyes dartin' back and forth like he'd just come home from school to find the Penthouse he keeps under his mattress missin'.
Duke nodded in vigorous agreement, shoved Roxanne and me off the cooler, and pounded four Pole Cats in around 38 seconds before fallin' back onto the bank to catch his breath.
"If a U.F.O., no bowfih," Billy declared, gazin' out at the water with the Percodan Stare of Eternity.
I guess the Sadies musta come back to camp around the time Billy surfaced, 'cause none of us noticed and we all just about jumped out of our skin when the silence suddenly broke from our rear flank.
"You guys drank all my beer, didn't you?" Sadie sighed after processing Billy's claim and observing the mound of empties that me, Roxanne, and most recently, Duke, had created.
"It ain't no U.F.O. for cryin' out loud," Duke scoffed, partially recovering his composure.
"Yeah? Ven whah?" Billy challenged.
"Soviet submarine... top secret... you realize that thing's probly got a nuke aboard? And we swam no more'n a yard from it!" Duke panicked, runnin' his hands over 'imself to see if any of his hair was comin' out in clumps.
"If you bitches put as much work into cleanin' as this bullshit story the chamber of commerce could open a resort up here," Sadie sneered.
"I think they're serious," Mrs. Sadie replied, kneelin' down to wave 'er hand in front of Billy's expressionless face.
"Nobody goev ih veow," Billy insisted, grabbin' Mrs. Sadie's hand and starin' blankly into 'er face.
"Goddamn right," Duke agreed, scootin' his ass back up the bank to put a little more distance between himself and the water.
"Gonna hafta agree. At minimum they both emptied their bladders gettin' outta there," I observed.
I projected eight flicks onto the side of the Ramcharger that night (bein' careful to avoid heavy science fiction) beins none of us were in any condition to sleep, and although very little was said over those ten hours we were able to coax a few more details outta Billy and Duke - specifically, that whatever it was had a bubble dome on top and there was a skeleton visible inside it.
We drove out at first light and by that point Billy and Duke'd mostly gotten their stuff together and jointly decided to go back with Billy's Sierra and Duke's Sno Chaser which they believed, in conjunction with Sadie's Ramcharger, would be enough power to winch the thing outta the lake.
'Course by that point Mrs. Sadie'd gone live on 'er Youtube channel talkin' about the "Mystery in the Depths" of Swine Lake in a tank top that wasn't really up to the job if you know what I mean and I think you do, and so when we rolled into town Harvey Yoder was waitin' at the Gas, Grass, or Cash 24-hour Fuel, Lawn Care, and ATM Station and insisted on taggin' along to cover the story as it unfolded.
Billy and Duke both went back down to attach the three winch hooks (I assume because the man who refused woulda died from complications of shame) and between the three rigs they were able to fish out a blue, waterlogged 1960 Messerschmitt KR200 with a license plate that was traced back to a guy by the name of Hap Boebel who went missin' back in 1965.
Best I can figure is the roads musta been a lot better back when the loggin' companies were havin' to maintain 'em (since there's no way you could ever get that thing up there nowadays), and ole Hap musta passed out drunk behind the wheel without puttin' his parkin' brake on.
For anybody who might be wonderin', Billy's winch cable ended up snappin' while they were pullin' that ole jalopy up over the embankment and so Duke was declared the winner of the cleanup competition and awarded a VHS tape of the Sadies' wedding ceremony that Skunky conducted at the Grime Time a few years back. It was always gonna be somethin' like that, but nobody ever listens to me.
On the one hand, I'm glad Zella (Hap's daughter) got some closure about 'er dad's disappearance so she can finally sleep easier, but on the other hand, watchin' that tape and havin' to relive what Sadie's old roller derby pal, Lezzy Borden, did to me at the wedding pretty well guaranteed *I* won't be gettin' any sleep for a while. 'Least not without the aid of barley-based downers, anyway. So yeah, you're welcome, planet Earth.
I'm sure you all know by now that I enjoy roughin' it as much as the next guy, but the 36-hour mark is usually where I max out on cuisine prepared without the benefit of a deep fryer, and so the first thing Apollo and I did after Billy dropped us off was toss a few Hot Pockets in the Fry Daddy to recover our will to live while showin' reverence to Mother Nature by takin' in a flick about what happens when humanity goes settin' off atomic alarm clocks in the vicinity of slumbering prehistoric reptiles.
Unfortunately, Rodan's one of those real early kaiju flicks from back when Toho was still workin' to establish a stable of credible monsters that they'd be able to pit against one another in savage combat for our enjoyment and so it doesn't rate too highly on the Monster Mash scale, but there's somethin' to be said for buildin' up a monster instead of just stickin' 'im on the card against a crowd favorite, 'cause nobody likes a squash match. I mean seriously, have you ever watched a Gamera flick and expected 'im to lose against any of those monsters you'd never even heard of? 'Course not. No booker in his right mind'd try somethin' that ridiculous.
I guess what I'm sayin' is - both monster and audience hafta pay their dues in this subgenre to reach the heights we've come to expect in the year 2025, but the upside to a booker who relies on storytelling over high spots is that we get a closer look at how the saurian sausage is made, and to illustrate this point I'll be detonating three atomic knowledge bombs for the folks who could use a refresher course on the history of the kaiju film.
First, if the U.S. declared martial law for every U.F.O. sighting Florida would be indistinguishable from Sudan. Second, no matter how bad things in the air traffic control tower may seem, it can always get worse. And third, sometimes the canary in the coal mine holds a grudge.
The movie begins in a coal mine on the outskirts of Fukuoka where a buncha miners're pickin' their nodes en route to becomin' another day older and deeper in debt, only pretty quick a big ole quake tickles the tip of the shaft until an underground aquifer bursts open and the place gets all soggy and rife with Freudian symbolism. Needless to say, every day the mine's closed the financial outlook of the local oncology industry becomes a little bleaker, so the crew boss sends his head engineer (Shigeru) down to investigate the cause and he ends up findin' a coupla employees who've gotten their coal rolled and everyone assumes it's the work of this gloomy crank with a face like a cinderblock who never clocked out after the incident (Goro) and must be hidin' out down below gettin' high on methane fumes and squishin' everyone into minerstrone. Somethin' about the way the victims' necks've been snapped off like rusty bolt heads doesn't sit well with Shigeru though, and when he goes to reassure Goro's sister (Kiyo) that the villagers probably won't run 'er outta town with pitchforks and Japanese lanterns this giant caterpillar shows up at Kiyo's pad and starts beggin' for milkweed. As you can imagine, this is a delicate situation that could easily lead to a public panic, so the first thing the cops do is fire up the air raid sirens and cause permanent PTSD for the entire population while an army battalion chases the critter all over the side of a gravel pit until it gets P.O.'d and starts firin' off silk beams like Spiderman and draggin' authority figures all over the countryside till they look like they just had a barbed wire match against Terry Funk.
By this point it has become clear that that shaft is one bad mother, so when the monster retreats inside the Army goes pourin' in with belt-fed automatic weapons and start firin' em off inside a close-quartered area covered in ricochet-rich surfaces until they eventually bring the house down and trap Shigeru inside with the worm-warfare division after he goes on a kamikaze berserker run inside a mine cart. Next thing, sinkholes start openin' up between the mine and nearby Mount Aso, and Shigeru comes crawlin' outta one with his brain rebooted in Safe Mode lookin' like he just found out what it's like to be a colonoscopy camera and now all he can do is sit around the hospital lookin' like he can't remember whether it's culturally appropriate to tip at Benihana's. Then a Kentucky Fried flying object shows up on the radar scope, 'cept when the Air Force scrambles an intercept the pilot ends up havin' a close encounter of the bird kind that results in the fighter jet gettin' spread out over the countryside like Cheez Whiz on a Ritz cracker before the thunderbird starts layin' thunderturds all over the Pacific Rim. Elsewhere, Kiyo is adjusting to her new life of makin' sure Shigeru gets his underpants on straight in the mornin' when suddenly our guy flashes back to bein' trapped in the subterranean cavern and witnessin' the hatching of an egg that'd provide a comfortable middle-class retirement at auction in the year 2025.
The night terrordactyl episode is enough to restore his memory and he's able to positively identify the creature at a gathering of the International Society of Cryptozoologists who christen it Rodan and estimate the egg as being old enough to've attended the wedding of Fred and Wilma Flintstone before hatching as the result of recent atomic activities instigated by a Western nation who will remain nameless but knows what it did. Then Rodan emerges from a sinkhole and starts doin' the Funky Chicken until the Air Force gets P.O.'d and durn near creates a national bottle rocket shortage while Rodan's sibling, Brodan, farts in their general direction and whips up a Dutch oven hurricane that ignites downtown Fukuoka and gets it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest open-air hibachi grill. It's probably fair to say that there's been a bit of a disproportionate response on the part of Clan Rodan, so they decide to fly back to their volcano to lay low until things blow over but it's too late now 'cause the Army knows where they live and begin blending a grain silo fulla the Colonel's 11 top-secret herbs and spices and preparing to generate a volcanic eruption guaranteed to roast them in their own juices and bring an as yet unadopted Western holiday to the island. Probably oughta stop here as the military prepares to baste, but whatever happens, be sure to let the kids know that Rodan will return to kick three-headed hinder when he teams with Godzilla and Mothra in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster.
Alrighty, well, despite a pretty successful box office take stateside, Rodan wouldn't be booked for another kaiju flick until 1964 when he, Godzilla, and Mothra teamed to battle the three-headed menace in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, and it's easy to see why when comparing his cool factor against that of Godzilla or even Mothra. Though to be fair, the king of the monsters himself didn't score a third gig until he battled King Kong in 1962, with Toho instead focusing on creating films based around new monsters like Varan (the Unbelievable), Gorath, and Mothra - the former going on to become one-off characters with the exception of Varan's cameo in Destroy All Monsters, and Gorath's brief appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars. Nonetheless, Rodan remained popular with giant monster aficionados, and, with the exception of Mothra, would go on to make more guest appearances in the Godzilla saga than any other kaiju monster - usually working babyface alongside Godzilla to help put the new big bad over as a force to be reckoned with. In the original Japanese version, the monster was named Radon - an abbreviated version of the prehistoric flying reptile, pteranodon, that was changed in the U.S. so as to not be confused with the radioactive gas of the same name. It's been alleged that the name was actually changed due to a conflict with a brand of soap, but I can't find any reference to such a thing, and it wouldn't make a great deal of marketing sense to name your product after a hazardous gas known to creep into people's basements (there is a soap called Radox that was founded in the U.K. in the 1900s, though it doesn't look to have crossed the pond in all that time).
Monster mediocrity aside, Rodan does hold the distinction of being the first Japanese kaiju film to be shot in color at a time when even the majority of American equivalents (Them!, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Tarantula, etc.) were still being filmed in black and white, and the allure of that technology cannot be overlooked when measuring the flick's cultural impact on an audience that couldn't get enough of the big monster movies of the day. I guess when you think about it, Rodan's kinda the kaiju equivalent of the quirky character actor who rarely stars in his own flick and does his best work in a sidekick capacity playing off a big name with whom he shares good chemistry. And although he may never get that star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside Godzilla, he's probably at the top of the kaiju jobber list for sellin' a beat down at the hands of a more interesting adversary, and every good monster melee flick needs a guy like that.
In any event, I'd probably better get to siftin' through the regurgitated Rodan caterpillar puke before a horde of P.O.'d Japanophiles descend upon me and forcibly extract an apology for my treatment of a beloved cultural icon, so let's get to it.
The plot is essentially just a rehash of Gojira, with a fresh monster awakening following the detonation of an atomic weapon, discovering he's no longer in Kansas, and venting his frustrations on a major population center. Gojira gets a pass for being the first of its (Japanese) kind, but Rodan comes across as a bit stale and proves to be lacking in its bid to deliver the same level of architectural devastation as its predecessor, while similarly waiting until roughly halfway through the proceedings to show the titular beast.
Because the Japanese kaiju subgenre was in its infancy in 1956 it may not be fair to compare it to its later incarnations, but it must be said that these films are always at their best when they're delivering Saturday Night's Main Event kaiju carnage. Toho had already used this methodology to good effect in Godzilla Raids Again where the king duked it out with Anguirus, and while I understand the desire to introduce Rodan and make him the focus, what we end up with is a rehash of Gojira, but with a monster bereft of the king's superpowers. Everything's just way too straightforward and grounded for a flick with these production values, and while I'm normally for keeping the story moderately sane, these rubber-suit Toho monster movies are an exception that thrive on absurdity (at least throughout the Showa Era, where a certain degree of cheesiness was both expected and inescapable). In other words - the more backroom deals made with treacherous space aliens, twin midget fairies, and brain-melting time travel mechanics, the better.
The acting is impossible to judge due to the language barrier (unless you'd prefer to watch the dubbed version which makes it very easy to judge and proves rather unfavorable), but even so, there are still fleeting moments that transcend this issue, such as the sequence in which Kenji Sahara begins recovering memories about his time in the egg chamber and having a top shelf, sweaty panic attack, and it is moments like this that lead me to believe the acting probably is adequate for native Japanese speakers. Akio Kobori also comes across well as the hardass police chief consistently on the verge of blowing out a heart valve tryna corral the prehistoric menaces, though Akihiko Hirata seems wasted as the egghead professor after his grim, brooding performance as the angst-ridden Dr. Serizawa in the original Gojira. That said, if you do opt to check out the dubbed version you will be treated to dubbing by George Takei in his second credited gig (he also dubbed for Godzilla Raids Again), as well as Charlie Chan's #1 son and Mogwai aficionado, Keye Luke, so if you're too lazy to read subtitles, just tell everyone that you're only watching the English version for the historical significance of the aforementioned Asian-American legends of cinema.
Here's who matters and why: Kenji Sahara (King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gojira, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla I & II, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Yog: Monster from Space, Godzilla's Revenge, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Destroy All Monsters, Son of Godzilla, The War of the Gargantuas, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Gojira), Yumi Shirakawa (The Mysterians, The H-Man, Gorath), Akihiko Hirata (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Fugitive Alien, Bye Bye Jupiter, The War in Space, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Son of Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, Varan the Unbelievable, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, Gojira), Akio Kobori (The Ghost-Cat Cursed Wall), Minosuke Yamada (The Human Vapor, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Godzilla Raids Again), Yoshifumi Tajima (Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla 1985, All Monsters Attack, King Kong Escapes, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Varan, The H-Man), Hiroshi Akitsu (The Mysterians, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dagora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, Matango, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Varan, The H-Man, Gojira, Half Human), Ichiro Chiba (Dogora, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, The H-Man, Half Human), Mike Danning (Gappa the Triphibian Monster, The X from Outer Space, Terror Beneath the Sea), Kazuo Hinata (Matango, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Half Human, Gojira).
Tsurue Ichimanji (Matango, Gorath, Mothra, Varan, Half Human), Saburo Iketani (Gojira, Destroy All Monsters, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Matango, Gorath, Mothra, The H-Man), Saburo Kadawaki (Submersion of Japan, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, My Soul is Slashed, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Gorath, Mothra, Battle in Outer Space, The Mysterians), Yoshio Katsube (The Mysterians, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Lake of Dracula, Space Amoeba, All Monsters Attack, Latitude Zero, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Matango, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Madam White Snake, Battle in Outer Space, Varan, The H-Man), Eisaburo Komatsu (Submersion of Japan, The Mysterians, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Space Amoeba, All Monsters Attack, Latitude Zero, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, The Mysterians), Takuzo Kumagai (King Kong vs. Godzilla, The Mysterians, Terror of Mechaghodzilla, Submersion of Japan, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Matango, Gorath, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, Varan, The H-Man, Godzilla Raids Again, The Mysterians, Half Human), Akio Kusama (King Kong vs. Godzilla, The Mysterians, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Prophecies of Nostradamus, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Submersion of Japan, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Latitude Zero, King Kong Escapes, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, Matango, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, Varan, The H-Man, Gojira, Half Human).
Mitsuo Matsumoto (Mothra, The HUman Vapor, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians), Hideo Mihara (The Mysterians), Jun'ichiro Mukai (Terror in the Streets, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Gorath, Varan), Toshiko Nakano (Mothra, Varan, The H-Man), Rinsaku Ogata (Space Amoeba, Destroy All Monsters, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Mothra vs. Atragon, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Half Human), Seiji Onaka (Space Amoeba, Latitude Zero Son of Godzilla), Keiji Sakakida (Gorath, Mothra, the Human Vapor, The H-Man, Gojira, Godzilla Raids Again), Haruya Sakamoto (Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Godzilla Raids Again), Koichi Sato (Space Amoeba, All Monsters Attack, Latitude Zero, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Godzilla vs. Mothra, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Half Human, Godzilla Raids Again), Yasuhiro Shigenobu (Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians), Junnosuke Suda (Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Mothra vs. Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, Gojira, Godzilla Raids Again), Shigemi Sunagawa (Mothra vs. Godzilla, Mothra, The H-Man, Godzilla Raids Again, Half Human), Jiro Suzukawa (Mothra, The Human Vapor, The H-Man, Half Human), Masaaki Tachibana (Mothra, The H-Man, Godzilla Raids Again, Half Human), Kamayuki Tsubono (Space Amoeba, All Monsters Attack, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Gojira, Godzilla Raids Again, Half Human), Mitsuo Tsuda (Submersion of Japan, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, Battle in Outer Space, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Gojira), Hideo Unagami (The Mysterians), Akira Yamada (Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Varan, The H-Man, Half Human).
Shoichi Hirose (House 1977, Terror of Mechagodzilla, King Kong Escapes, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Dagora, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Godzilla Raids Again, Half Human), Ren Imaizumi (The Mysterians, Gojira), Keiichiro Katsumoto (All Monsters Attack, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, The War of the Gargantuas, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Dogora, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Mothra vs. Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Battle in outer Space, Varan, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Half Human, Gojira), Fuyuki Murakami Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, Varan the Unbelievable, The Mysterians, Godzilla Raids Again), Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Yog: Monster from Space, Godzilla's Revenge, Destroy All Monsters, Son of Godzilla, King Kong Escapes, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, The War of the Gargantuas, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Matango, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Varan the Unbelievable, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Gojira, Godzilla Raids Again), Ichiro Nakatani (Kwaidan), Yutaka Oka (Terror in the Streets, Destroy All Monsters, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, Dogora, Atragon, Matango, Gorath, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, The H-Man), Tadashi Okabe (Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, King Kong Escapes, The War of the Gargantuas, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Dogora, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Gorath, Mothra, Battle in Outer Space, Gojira), Katsumi Tezuka (Matango, Godzilla Raids Again, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Atragon, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, Battle in Outer Space, Varen the Unbelievable, The H-Man), Yasuhisa (Tsutsumi (King Kong Escapes, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Dogora, Mothra vs. Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra, The Human Vapor, Battle in Outer Space, Half Human, Gojira), Koji Uno (Mothra, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Atragon, Gorath, Godzilla Raids Again), Ren Yamamato (Godzilla vs. Mothra, King Kong vs. Godzilla, The War of the Gargantuas, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Mothra, The Human Vapor, The H-Man, Gojira, Godzilla Raids Again).
The special effects are hit-and-miss, with more misses than hits. There are some good sequences with Haruo Nakajima workin' inside the 150lb Rodan costume (including an accidental 25-foot river plunge when his support cables snapped over the Sasebo Bridge), but for every good sequence there're two where the suit appears unnaturally stiff; likely due to the bamboo rods placed inside the wings to spare the actor from continuously holding up all that weight. The aforementioned cables are frequently visible as well, and the scenes of the baby Rodan hatching from its egg really should have sparked a line of children's toys considering all that would have been necessary would be to mass-produce the puppet from the film. The 15' caterpillar creatures, on the other hand, are decent (if charmingly cheesy), and effectively brought to life by three actors charged with manipulating the costume - though the miniature models used to animate the monster's battles with authority figures (represented by dolls) are incredibly inarticulate and lead to many of the most unintentionally funny sequences in the movie. The rest of the effects consist of composite shots, rear projection, and geographical destruction that are consistent (in terms of quality) with the two Godzilla films that came before, with the color film hurting the shots of buildings being torn apart, while helping those in which sinkholes open up. We also get the requisite toy planes and tanks necessary to irritate but never actually harm the rampaging giant, but on the whole, there's not a lot to get excited about unless you're a die-hard kaiju fan who can't get enough of guys in suits takin' an aggressive stance towards Tonka-sanctioned artillery launchers.
The shooting locations are fair, with the film opening up inside an authentic coal mine that effectively sets the scene and does a decent job of holding the illusion together when it becomes necessary for the miniature sets of the egg chamber and other subterranean areas to take center stage. As is tradition, miniatures do play an outsized role in the architecture, but the mine headquarters and village nestled in the forested hills are nice, and the Minka interiors work well on Western suckers who find these structures exotic and quaint. Otherwise, we've got the paleontology institution (adequate), hospital (a little lacking in the production design department but passable for a small facility in a rural area), and a lot of wide-open country with old two-track roads where military vehicles can bounce around without providing much atmospheric value. I suppose I'm a sucker for a good mine shaft sequence even if the rest of the locations are middling at best, but there's nothing here that's actively harmful the to flick's aesthetic even if the miniatures don't always translate well.
The soundtrack is among the flick's strongest assets and carries on the trend of unique music exclusive to Japanese films that frequently outclassed the compositions of American science fiction films of the era. While not up to the standard of his previous work on Gojira, Akira Ifukube's score for Rodan includes many excellent pieces featuring dreamy harp sections (the one utilized for the egg chamber sequence being especially effective at capturing the awestruck Shigeru's feeling of wonder), a gloomy piano/playfully ominous bassoon track that creates an air of uncertainty as Shigeru descends into the mine, and frantic piano/droning tuba combinations that are atmospherically effective as long as they're not playing over dire special effects. In truth, there's only one especially catchy track, but the fact that there is one at all in a film of this age is both unusual and most welcome, and I would reiterate just how refreshing it is to get a soundtrack from a 70-year-old flick that has its own unique identity and is distinguishable from its peers. I will probably never be accused of preferring Japan's science fiction offerings of the '50s to those produced here in the States, but even so, they either understood the importance of musical accompaniment in a way we didn't or simply had superior imaginations because these Toho scores absolutely blow ours out of the water.
Overall, Rodan is a lesser son of greater kaiju, and was still evolutionarily on par with that first fish that'd crawled outta the ocean struggling to breathe. It's all he can do to keep from suffocatin', and this would remain the case for the subgenre for close to a decade until Toho started dialin' the crazy up to 11 and made the flicks so entertaining that the production values became almost irrelevant. It would be nearly three decades before filmmaking techniques would start to catch up with the studio's ambition, and with those advances would come movies that were both entertaining and technically sound on a level the subgenre had rarely achieved prior, but for now, the fish remains largely immobile, eyes bulging, and gasping for breath - his pursuit of evolution as yet unrealized. Recommended only to the kaiju faithful, and even then you can do a lot better with the two Godzilla films that came before.
Rating: 41%