The most surprising thing about Godzilla 2000 is learning the director had made other moves in the series before this one. The writers too. It’s a little surprising, since it’s so full of lame lifts from American blockbusters (including Independence Day, which seems a little strange, given Toho made Godzilla 2000 after the American bungling […]
Entries Tagged as 'Toho Company Ltd.'
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964, Honda Ishirô)
August 7th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Maybe half of Ghidorah is interesting. Or has the potential to be interesting. After the giant monster-heavy opening credits (stills of Godzilla and Rodan in battle), that aspect disappears for a while. Instead, Ghidorah is a strange mix of reporter and political intrigue movies. Hoshi Yuriko is a reporter for a news program covering strange […]
Tagged: Honda Ishirô· Sekizawa Shinichi· Toho Company Ltd.· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
Mothra (1961, Honda Ishirô)
July 15th, 2008 · No Comments
Mothra is a strange mix of Japanese monster movie, 1950s Hollywood sci-fi and Disney. The last ingredient only becomes clear at the end of the movie, though it’s probably present throughout (as Mothra returns home with the two fairies, it’s clear Mothra would have made a fine animated feature). But the strangest element of Mothra […]
Tagged: Fukunaga Takehiko· Honda Ishirô· Hotta Yoshie· Nakamura Shinichirô· Sekizawa Shinichi· Toho Company Ltd.· ★½
Woman in the Dunes (1964, Teshigahara Hiroshi)
September 4th, 2007 · No Comments
Episodes of the “Twilight Zone” ran thirty minutes, or whatever without commercials, for a very good reason. Stretching a one-note story out to an hour would be too exasperating. Woman in the Dunes stretches it out to, I guess, two and a half hours.
The film starts interestingly enough. An entomologist looking for bugs finds himself in […]
Tagged: Abe Kôbô· Teshigahara Hiroshi· Toho Company Ltd.· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
Kuroneko (1968, Shindo Kanetô)
August 9th, 2007 · No Comments
I thought I was going to start this post with a witty remark regarding the film’s use of repetitiveness to excellent overall effect, but then the movie ended and, by that time, much of the excellence had drained. Kuroneko is a gorgeous film–Shindo uses theatrical lighting effects for ghostly emphasis, which really works–and for a […]
Tagged: Shindô Kaneto· Toho Company Ltd.· ★½
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962, Honda Ishirô)
April 19th, 2007 · No Comments
I thought movies about giant monsters fighting were supposed to be exciting, but apparently not. I haven’t seen King Kong vs. Godzilla in maybe fifteen years and now, this time, I watched the original Japanese version. Frighteningly, it’s only seven minutes longer, so I imagine the Americanized version is boring too. The main problem with […]
Tagged: Honda Ishirô· Sekizawa Shinichi· Toho Company Ltd.· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
