(aka, Gappa; Monster from a Prehistoric Planet) It’s amazing. I know I watched this movie. It couldn’t have been that long ago. And yet I can barely recognize any of it. I’ve been trying to go back and revisit many of the classic Kaiju Eiga films in their original, uncut Japanese form, so I knew […]
Read more "Daikyojû Gappa [Gappa the Triphibian Monster] (1967)"(Literal title: The First Gas Human) This is one of the more difficult Toho Tokusatsu films to find. Okay, we all know that both Jû jin yuki otoko [Half Human] and The Prophecies of Nostradamus are virtually impossible as Toho actually buried them, and Tômei ningen [The Invisible Man] (1954) is as rare or rarer without Toho’s help, as […]
Read more "Gasu ningen dai 1 gô [The Human Vapor] (1960)"Remember when everyone made fun of the American Godzilla because she was a big, mutated Iguana? Somehow, one begins to miss a Godzilla that was that close to the original. After all, there is one thing that is clear about Toho’s Godzilla efforts in the new Reiwa era: they have very little to do with what […]
Read more "Gojira shingyura pointo [Godzilla Singular Point] (2021)"A lost Godzilla film from the peak of the Heisei era? A precursor of the animated Godzilla: Monster Planet? A little known Godzilla short film? Well…not quite. It was in fact filmed for a Godzilla theme park ride, but does feature a wild final battle between Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra, shot old-school by Toho with men […]
Read more "Kaijû puranetto: Gojira [Monster Planet of Godzilla] (1994)"It was the age of reboots. Or at least, in the world of Tokusatsu films. Toho’s Millennium Series of Godzilla films had just come to an end with Godzilla: Final Wars. Of the six films, all but one were reboots. Mothra had appeared in a reboot series a few years before that had no connection […]
Read more "Ultraman: The Next [Ultraman] (2004)"It was the end of Godzilla. Again. For the third time, Toho’s series of Godzilla had come to an end, this time with the release of Godzilla: Final Wars. But that didn’t change the fact that there were a lot of people out there who still loved giant monster movies. So, in that decade before […]
Read more "Chohatsu Daikaiju Gehara [Gehara: The Dark & Long Hair Monster] (2009)"(aka Earth Defense Force) A series of strange and seemingly unconnected events have occurred in a remote area. When the military gets called in to investigate the destruction of a small town, they find a monstrous burrowing robot. They destroy it after a heated battle, but then have a mysterious dome rise up out of […]
Read more "Chikyû Bôeigun [The Mysterians] (1957)"(aka Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth ) This is my favorite of the Showa series Godzilla films. I’ll admit that the original Gojira is a better film, as it is one of the most intense and darkest in the whole series, and Monster Zero is almost as much fun […]
Read more "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster [San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen ](1964)"I find it rather disturbing: We keep hearing, in movie after movie, TV series after TV series that we are on the brink of some massive ecological cataclysm that will wipe out the entire human race “Real Soon” (to quote Dr. Lizardo). And yet, even the most alarmist models of global warming usually end up […]
Read more "Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)"This one was depressing. Now, I’ve been intrigued by the notion of Toho producing a big scale Godzilla Anime since I first heard of the project, particularly when I heard that it would be set in a far future, in a world where Godzilla has ruled for thousands of years. When the first of the […]
Read more "Godzilla: The Planet Eater [Gojira: hoshi wo kû mono] (2018)"
rivets on the poster 