Rodan
One hundred tons, with a wing span of five hundred feet, a prehistoric flying reptile--that can fly at supersonic speed and perform loops and change direction in the sky effortlessly--awakens from a hermetically sealed egg after atomic testing weakens the earth and a mining operation further contributes to its hatching. Giant caterpillars emerge first, attacking miners and descending on a village. Thought to be the lone menace to stop, soon the world learns all too well that these crawlers are just food for a far more deadlier monster! That monster is Rodan. When it flies past, Rodan appears at distant a UFO. It favors most a type of gigantic pterodactyl.
Obviously, Gojira (1954) led the way to a Japanese
phenomenon, soon producing an entire rubber monster genre, Kaiju. It is a genre
beloved by many of us, all across the world. Ishirō Honda was an architect in
the genre, a legend in the Toho studio system of monster movies. His second
monster movie, Rodan (1956), would further build on his resume.
Leveling a Japanese city, *two* Rodans emerge, their wings
and sheer breath causing buildings to collapse into rubble, burning, as
vehicles are tossed or throttled. The model work is impressive. A bridge is
destroyed even. The atomic (H) bomb and testing are “called out” in footage and
a serious monologue introducing the film. “Gojira” certainly was an outcry
against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A monster born out of bomb testing, in Rodan
(1956), it is woke up and the skies are its (their) playground. Japanese
military pilots try to stop it as do tanks on the ground. It takes destroying
their hibernation space (located in a mountain volcano) to usurp the Rodans’
deadly reign of terror. The sets with model replications of real locations
representing cities, as well as, vehicles and various landscapes are hammered
incredibly. The city just laid to waste is played to the hilt by Honda and his
studio artists. The plot isn’t overly complex. Miners unearth monsters in Shaft
8 where there is water. Soon the loss of human life and their presence in the
sky across the world result (“Watch the skies!”). Spotting Rodan becomes a
major news story as reportings of it (them?) become commonplace. Eventually the
Rodans settle on a Japanese city, turning loose their fury. Shigeru is a
character of importance, a drafter working for the mining company, engaged to
the sister of a miner who is missing while another miner is found “torn apart”.
Later suffering trauma after another encounter with the caterpillar monsters,
Shigeru is found wandering terrain near where Shaft 8 suffered a quake and he
went missing. A head injury and amnesia leave Shigeru a haunted mess. His fiancé
tries to help doctors free his memory from entrapment, and eventually Shigeru
does. Shigeru recalls seeing Rodan hatch from an egg. Now where the second
Rodan comes from is anybody’s guess. Still two of these flying reptiles flying
loose to terrorize human beings is quite a visual, especially when you see the
military engaged in a losing effort with just *one* of them. That the two would
commit suicide, diving into molten hot lava oozing like a bloody wound from the
volcano pounded by missiles in an effort by the military to seal up the Rodans
where they came to rest is a rather disappointing (to me, anyway) conclusion
considering just how dramatic the film could have been considering the
firepower spent trying to kill them. That they’d choose to end it all kind of
felt anti-climactic.
I watched the American version with a narrative device used
representing Shigeru’s voice detailing Rodan’s beginning, reign of terror, and
end and the inclusion of the dangers of atomic testing. I kind of felt like
this was tampered with similarly to the “Americanized” version of Godzilla. I
plan to see its original version, made by the Japanese for their own market so
I can view it in its truest form. I have read this version I watched (off of
Turner Classics) has taken out and restructured quite a bit from its Japanese
form. So I’m sure my rating will be altered from this film version’s once that
happens.
Still, even in the version I did watch, "Rodan" was a ton of fun. A sleepy Saturday afternoon was always perfect for a Kaiju film to me, especially when I'd watch them as a kid. I reckon this was how the films were watched in the 70s and 80s. Afternoons/midnights spent watching Japanese monster movies on cable or public access television. Ah, those were the days...
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What is the aftermath? Here is such a story of the aftermath..."
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