The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal (JFFJ) was the first
significant American Kaiju fanzine. Created, published and edited by
Greg Shoemaker, JFFJ was published on a yearly basis from 1968 to 1983. JFFJ
covered the entire spectrum of Japanese fantasy film, but with an emphasis
on live-action SFX films, especially the Godzilla series. Highly regarded
by Kaiju fans both then and now, JFFJ was well-designed by Mr. Shoemaker and
offered skillful analysis of it's subject. Earlier issues were mimeographed,
with the last few being printed offset. JFFJ was never mass-marketed, but
was made available only to a select population of Kaiju enthusiasts. Though
JFFJ ceased publication in 1983 and lasted for only 15 issues, it is universally
considered both the insparation and the standard for all later Kaiju-related
fanzines.
The Japanese cinema of the fantastic
has proliferated, reaching the conclusion of its third decade in spite
of the opinion from those who wish it never to have existed. The most prolific
of the studios has been Toho International Inc; whose lead has apparently
provided a course the country's remaining film companies elected to pursue,
and in so doing procreated a national image as to style and content. To view
the film works of Toho is thus to perceive the whole, including the Japanese
people's bent for fantasy entertainment. In this study of the Toho phenomenon,
the following installments will bear commentary upon the 1960 through 1970s
period.
1960
dramatic changes...
The first part of the decade finds Toho surprising its critics, and
proponents as well, with a marked divergence from monster fantasy for three
productions, two of them bearing so striking a similarity that Toho's reticence
toward innovation is finally becoming apparent. Yet, Toho has taken several
steps forward in 1961, one of which is THE HUMAN VAPOR, an offbeat scifi/fantasy
thriller whose undertone of horror is borrowed from "The Phantom of the
Opera." Here a love affair affected by science gone awry, rather
than in Leroux's novel in which love has gone awry, as detailed in the
following:
The story deals with a man who, through a freak scientific experimental
accident, is given the power to turn into "vapor" at will. A love affair
revolves around a dancer and the vapor-man who uses his newly acquired talent
to secure financing through robberies and murder to aid his lover in keeping
her classical dance school alive while the police attempt to break the mysterious
crimes. In the end, the dancer, consumed by desperation and love, blows up
herself and the vapor-man in a fiery holocaust. The vapor-man and the
dancer apparently are caught in the throes of change. For her, interest in
classical Japanese dancing is on the wane; for him, as guinea pig, a failed
experiment of modern science produces an unfortunate side-effect. Their
love for one another produces another side-effect, perhaps positive in nature.
Threatened by the world around them, both pitiful souls are transported to
some more hopeful dimension where their infatuation can continue by an explosive,
life-comsuming force at film's end.
Director Honda and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya enthrall
the viewer each in effective manipulation of his field. Honda slowly introduces
the audience to a realization that the film is not what it appears. The
picture unfolds with each "clue" transforming that which seems to be a rather
routine melodrama crime film into a vision of uncontrolled madness. Tsuburaya
incredibly brings the unstoppable terror to life in a series of creative
tableauxs each time the menace is loosed to provide for his beloved. THE
HUMAN VAPOR is a slow film, exacting much from the viewer to maintain his
attention, but an unusual story and threatening progression into the bizarre.
appended by slices of Japanese mores, prescribes recognition for the film
as an example of excellent fantasy.
Toho, in their promotional material, describes SECRET OF THE TELEGIAN
as, "A thrilling, exciting and entertaining drama of 'Science of Tomorrow."
Basically a crime film, as was THE HUMAN VAPOR, TELEGIAN's twist
concerns an incredible machine which enables a man to be transmitted on
an electric current to distant places in a bare instant. The apparatus
is used by the "Telegian" to gain murderous revenge upon fellow members
of the former Imperial Japanese Army who had left him for dead during WW
II, forewarning them of their death by sending them military ID tags. The
"Telegian's" murderous rampage ceases when the transmitter he is in goes
haywire. Far from innovative today, matter transfer, still years away
from reality if it is at all possible to accomplish, in 1960 garners interest
here due to scarcity of filmic pieces plying the idea prior to TELEGIAN.
Handled matter-of-factly throughout the movie. the teleportation device
is clumsily portrayed by a telephone booth-like set piece reminiscent of
that used in THE FLY series and features a rather disappointing disappearing
act from Tsuburaya's usual extravagant imagination. A paucity of effects
indicates a storyline geared to the verbal rather than the visual, requiring
creativity on the part of the director. Unfortunately, Jun Fukuda's leaden
direction appears starved for Tsuburaya's garnishes.
A comparison between SECRET OF THE TELEGIAN and THE HUMAN VAPOR cannot
be ignored due to their identical years of release and the common crime
structure. Both films climax in surprise revelations wherein an antagonist
receives retributive justice for audacities to mankind. There is the "science
gone wrong" prevalent in the titles as well, which makes it appear as though
Toho may dread a technological breakthrough as a threat via misuse or that
man must pay dearly for his cultivation. Lastly, THE HUMAN VAPOR and SECRET
OF THE TELEGIAN sport murderers committing crimes abetted by an ability
to appear/disappear at will, courtesy of machine or mental command.
The departure from proven formulas continues for Toho with its release
of MY FRIEND DEATH, a black comedy minus special effects, detectives,
newspaper correspondents, and color cinematography. Along the lines
of DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, this motion picture personifies "Death" as a
character who becomes involved in the attempts of Hachigoro, an undertaker's
assistant. to win the hand of a beautiful woman. A number of dark bargains
are arranged: "Death" helping Hachigoro become a great doctor by determining
which patients will die and which will miraculously recover, until the
two quarrel and a pursuit results. In the end, "Death" decides to go his
own solitary way, and Hachigoro is left in the loving arms of his wife.
The film's optimistic conclusion is paradoxical because of the protagonist's
contract with "Death." Predominating storylines in film and literature
maintain an eventual corporeal death with the soul forever damned to hell
for committing such a pact. MY FRIEND DEATH is an exhilarating reverse.
The last entry for 1960 is misleadingly described in a quote from a
Toho publicity announcement "Boys, girls, gangsters and ghost are blocked
in by an avalanche. What happens?" The blurb hints at more than is offered
by THE SPOOK COTTAGE, a youth-oriented, comedy film whose plot appears
stolen from the archives of the early years of American International.
The ghost is revealed to be a businessman whose resemblance is so striking
to the deceased husband of a woman who owns a cottage nestled high in a
snow-covered mountain that she believes the man is her spouse, killed in
an avalanche some 30 years earlier. His death somehow precipitates a rumor,
that anyone approaching the "spook cottage" will be faced with an imminent
accident. To respond to the rhetorical question posed by Toho's publicity
writer: "Who cares!"
1961
look to the
skies...
Filmed as a plea against the arms race, primarily the build-up of nuclear
armament, and to defuse the button-pushing mentality so common with the
military establishment. THE LAST WAR focuses on a family and several individuals
in government and the armed service, all impotent to obviate the flow of
events which eventually lead to near destruction of all mankind, creating
a personal film of incredible power. It is an awesome and frightening view
of a time when man, rather than uniting to seek a workable solution to
his ideological conflicts, resorts to the impersonal devices of modern
warfare. As the film unspools, it hints of hope, that logic will prevail.
But it is not to be so. The film does end on a positive note, offering hope
for the remaining few survivors to rebuild anew that which man had so thoughtlessly
torn asunder, but still the tone of the film is one of pervading doom,
the intent of the producers of the film succeeding. to warn of the result
the present course could lead. Eiji Tsuburaya and his technicians
enhance death and destruction with their moving landscapes filled with
colorful mushroom clouds and choreographed rocket attacks. Reality is held
in check as the viewer acquires an affection for the characters threatened
with annihilation. One hopes that, as the screen goes black, it would never
happen.
Furthering the format of new film/new monster, the story
of MOTHRA is told as a modern-dress fairy tale, though American advertising
would lead us to believe otherwise. Breaking the film down into its components:
tiny, twin Ailenas of Infant Island, innocent beauty and charm typified
by songstresses Emi and Yumi Ito, kidnapped for commercial enterprise;
ritualistic endeavors of the Infant Island natives to their god of the
mountain for safe return of the twin acolytes; the god, Mothra, transforming
through three life cycles, acting as unintentional dreadnought in its quest;
detailed, colorful monster war waged against man and machine; efforts of
the honest folk to aid in the Ailenas rescue; twins returned to Infant Island
riding upon the god's back; villains meeting with justice; peace restored
with a world at last in balance.
Yet, there is horror evident in MOTHRA, viewed in the scarred and scorched
terrain of Infant Island where nuclear testing occurred, a grim reminder
of the islands decimated by America prior to and following the attack upon
Japan. Just desserts to the officiousness of man are portrayed by the wholesale
destruction of cities, bulldozed into oblivion by the caterpillar and wind-blasted
by the moth in sequences akin to the awesome spectacle of RODAN or BATTLE
IN OUTER SPACE. An analogy is evident in Mothra's transformation from its
ugly larval stage to that of the beautiful, winged insect: Man's increased
awareness of his destructive tendencies at the finale makes him more beautiful
for the knowledge he has amassed.
Other considerations on the film:
- MOTHRA initiates the first occurrence in a Japanese production
of a beast surviving at conclusion. Paul Beckly, from his review in the
New York Herald Tribune, dated July 12,1963, offers that "children are known
to regard unhappily the destruction of such creatures, no matter how much
damage they may wreak." Though the possibility of a sequel may have
been entertained when the script was written, the script- writer's adherence
to the fairy tale concept more likely explains this phenomenon.
- MOTHRA again toys with the anti-bomb stance that permeates Toho
genre titles of this and the earlier period. The premise is soon to wane
in favor of the "relevancy" of space travel and space itself from which
to birth new horrors.
Lastly for 1961, there is THE YOUTH AND HIS AMULET, a rather depressing
and complex melodrama about a boy, his loves and heart breaks, and the misunderstanding
of adults. Fantasy enters the picture when Gen, a lO-year-old boy, finds
a small idol of his favorite god, Fudomyoh, favored because of his strength.
Imagining the statue to come to life and speak to him, the living god played
by Toshiro Mifune, Gen steals the idol and consults it whenever he seeks
advice. The bared theft adds to Gen's already crumbling family relationship,
and he is sent away for adoption.
1962
horrors from
the void...
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA features the return of two of moviedom's most
successful monsters. Kong has been absent twenty-nine years, Godzilla
seven. Unfortunately, the wait is not propitious. No longer an animated
puppet, Kong is now a man-in-suit creation, possibly one of the poorest
to grace the screen, fake fur and latex failing to hide the motivating force
within. Godzilla has gotten fat and squat since his previous days of athletic
glory. Kong's battle with a live squid provides the only realistic and terrifying
moments of either star. As the beasts pass toward crudity, so does
the tone of the film. Gross humor and slapstick have been implanted in the
production's structure. The tragic deaths of the Japanese citizenry are coupled
with the slapstick antics of two giant buffoons with miserable results in
this serio-comedy. Robert Salmaggi in his June 27, 1963 review for
the New York Herald Tribune expresses it thus: "A knockdown, dragout showdown
battle. It's like that straight through...with everything played for laughs.
Kong gets the major share of the laughs with his half-nelsons, stone throwing
and right hooks."
The effects fare just as well. "When the pair of prehistoric monsters
finally get together for their battle royal, the effect is nothing more
than a couple of dressed-up stunt men throwing cardboard rocks at each other,"
opines Eugene Archer in the New York Times' June 27, 1963 issue. Salmaggi
adds: "The buildings that crumble under Godzilla's heel look as fake as
they really are." The American version inserts English-language footage
which attempts to scientifically authenticate the monsters' motivations
as they race pell-mell to their eventual goal, each other. The ruse, bringing
the pace of the film to a virtual halt whenever the scenes appear, falls
flat on its face when an "authority" holds up to the camera a children's
book on dinosaurs with which he defends his sentiments, adding unintentional
humor to an already ludicrous film.
Ties to the 1933 KING KONG remain, however, though none match the atmospheric
splendor and mystery of the original: the primitive, aggressive natives;
the island retreat of Kong from which he is sequestered; the giant ape's
attraction for a singularly attractive woman; Kong's grand play atop the
tallest structure in his new environment; and his battles with primordial
denizens.
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA's importance to Toho's history cannot be denied,
providing as it does the battleground for a re-emergence of two popular
monsters long in hiatus. It also presents for Toho the first pairing (since
GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN), of beasts, a device which this author finds most
destructive due to the promulgation of endless "meet" films, the majority
of which add little to the monster genre. But money dictates direction. And
then there is overkill. An ironical sidelight to this picture finds
the Japanese players discussing the means with which they might dispatch
or divert the rampaging behemoths. The atom bomb is discussed as a last resort,
yet it never is employed.
Toho's last venture into the realm of the space opera/science fiction
film until the latter half of the seventies, though the far flung reaches
of the universe will be the spawning ground for several monsterific creations,
is represented by GORATH, notable for its intelligent approach to space
and the human lives affected by the inexplicable happenings from that mysterious
void, here a meteor 6000 times the mass and gravitational pull of Earth
toward which it is swiftly moving. The first part of the film involves
the launching of several rockets into space to probe the fiery orb, code-named
"Gorath:' involving the loss of many human lives in the quest. The latter
portion of the film which is set on Earth dwells on a few souls, representing
humanity, singled out to develop the effect of the impending catastrophe.
Following THE LAST WAR's example, the message is unification of effort
of all peoples, and like that film the finale offers an opportunity to
rebuild from the destruction, in GORATH resulting from the passing meteor
and the shifting of the Earth from its orbit by means of enormous jet engines
strategically located at a South Polar base.
With what appears to be a throwaway sequence, Toho introduces a mammoth,
antedeluvian walrus, long before Ray Harryhausen ever thought to use such
a beast in his SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER, a creature released from
his eons-old prison of ice in the Antarctic to imperil the implementation
of the hydrogen-jets. His moments on celluloid are short as he tries to
snuff out the alien heat and is repulsed by the laser blast from a reconnaissance
craft cruising over his swath of destruction. The American print deletes
any reference to the walrus, Magma, but the gap is evident in the editing.
The originality of GORATH's story line is in question. Daiei, Toho's
major competitor until the company's bankruptcy in 1971 (since reformed
in 1976 on a much smaller scale), released a film bearing similar plot
developments in 1954 under the title of SPACEMEN APPEAR IN TOKYO which
details the events surrounding an asteroid whose path lies blocked by Earth.
Witnessed are violent storms, the effects of great temperature increases,
bursting dams and waves of pounding water. Screenplay similarity is probably
coincidental, or is it? Special effects are numerous and superb. Tsuburaya's
credentials are again put on the line as he creates natural calamities,
military operations and space flights that are ambitious, complex and enormous
in scope. He has proven himself up to the task once again.
Next up: 1963 - 1964
Original Article © 1981,
2006 Greg Shoemaker. All rights of the original publisher reserved.
Kaijufan OnLine © 2006 John Rocco Roberto/Daikaiju Productions.
