- Directed by Ishiro Honda
- Written by David Duncan, Takeshi Kimura, Ken Kuronoma
- Stars Kenjia Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata, Akio Kobori
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 14 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fONQK87h1X0
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s dated yet fascinating, with an epic story of people versus big creatures. The miniatures work is pretty good and the effects get the job done. There is mass destruction and plenty of characters to root for. We thought it was a fun watch.
Synopsis
We open in a scientific base that houses a huge, new kind of bomb. The test commences, and the bomb explodes. The hydrogen bomb explodes and the voiceover is very dramatic. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, another bomb is being tested. “What is the aftermath? This is the story of such an aftermath…”
Shigeru tells us about his village, a small mining community. The floor of the mine is “creeping,” which means too much coal has been taken out. It’s a problem to be solved. Mine eight has two meters of water in it, which is unusual. Shigeru is the mine’s safety officer, and he and some other men have to check it out.
They find one of the miners dead, cut to pieces. The doctor doesn’t know the cause of death, but it was no accident. Shigeru talks to his girlfriend Kiyo, whose brother, Goro, is the other missing man.
Three more men are killed in the mine, and we hear a kind of insect noise as they die. Shigeru and Kiyo are chased by a monster insect a few hours later. The miners and soldiers chase the bug up the side of a hill and shoot at it.
The military is soon called in; that bug-thing clearly came out of the mine, so what else could be down there? They kill the creature but continue to explore the tunnel it came from. They find a second creature, but it’s quickly killed in a cave-in. Shigeru is trapped in the cave-in as well.
Suddenly, there’s an earthquake. Professor Kashiwagi inspects the area near the volcano. They go to investigate, and they find Shigeru there, alive and injured. He also has a complete loss of memory. Kashiwagi explains later that the insect is a kind of prehistoric specimen, and he wants to study the body.
At the airbase, one of the fighters reports something supersonic flying over the sea. The fighter jet can’t keep up, and whatever it is “kills” the plane. A British cargo plane is also attacked, so all air travel is canceled. The thing flies so high that no one can really make it out, and it’s been as far away as Peking and the Philippines.
The nearby volcano, Mount Toya, is getting ready to erupt. This attracts tourists and gawkers who want to see. A young couple is killed on the mountain and carried away. Cows have been stolen. The missing couple’s camera film has been developed, and there’s a shot of a big bird.
Shigeru has a flashback to his time in the cave; he saw a giant egg hatching down there. A huge lizard-bird hatched out of it. His memory returns, and he tells Kashiwagi and everyone what he saw. The big bird ate all the giant insects in the mind. The men go back into the mine and recover a piece of the giant egg’s shell. That creature must be the UFO that’s been flying around.
They soon find the creature, which they now call Rodan, in a cave on the north side of the volcano. Jet fighters are scrambled, and they manage to annoy Rodan, who wakes up and takes to the air. Actually, there are two of them!
There’s a chase, and the airplanes shoot at the Rodans. They are heading for a nearby city, so the humans turn on the air raid sirens. Rodan knocks down a big bridge and takes a plane along with it.
As Rodan flies over the city, buildings collapse and the locals run everywhere in a panic. They call in the tanks, but that also does nothing. “If they’re not killed, they’ll take over the Earth.” [There are only two of them]. Then the Rodans disappear for a week.
They all assume that the Rodans are hibernating after their big meal. The mine boss wants to bomb the volcano and bury them in the eruption.
The army sets up all their tanks and rockets and they commence firing on the volcano. We get many shots of explosions on the mountaintop- it goes on and on and on.
The volcano erupts, and one of the Rodans is injured– it crashes and burns in the lava. The other refuses to save itself and flies into the lava on purpose.
Commentary
This was Toho’s first horror film shot in color. Rodan’s Japanese name, “Radon,” is short for Pteranodon. George Takei was one of the first Japanese Americans to do English voice overs in a film; Chinese actors had mostly been previously used. It’s got a huge cast, but the English dub only has four actors in the cast as far as I can tell. The constant high-pitched noise gets annoying fast.
The creature is, once again, a man in a suit, but this time, he’s suspended on wires. The effect isn’t as bad as it sounds. The miniatures work is quite good, as we see a bunch of buildings get squashed. The flying combat and artillery shelling at the end drag on a bit too long, but they probably considered that the climax of the film, so it’s excusable.