Rodan The Flying Monster (1956)
Production: Toho Co. Ltd
Director: Ishiro Honda
By Scikaiju

Introduction

After two successful Godzilla movies TOHO tried it again. This time they went for a different concept, Rodan, a flying reptile of the past. After appearances in several Godzilla movies he would go on to become one of the more well known kaiju in TOHO's catalog.

The Story

In a quiet town, Shigeru works for the local mining company as an engineer. During work there is a disturbance by a fight between two workers and a flooding of one of the tunnels. The two men who were fighting are reported to still be in the tunnel. Shigeru leads a party into it to find them. They find one of the men dead and strangely mutilated. Doctors determine the man died from his injuries and not by drowning. Rumors start that the missing man is responsible. Rumors that are compounded when more bodies are found near the mine. Some of the towns folk want to take out their frustrations on the man's sister, Kyo. Shigeru goes to comfort her and sees a giant insect. As he and the police chase the creature it grabs and kills two more men. A doctor studies the wounds and says the creature was the one who killed the previous men.

With this new information on hand Shigeru leads the army down the tunnel. There they find the body of the missing man and an insect. After bullets prove to be ineffective against the creature Shigeru uses a row of mining carts to crush it and goes to retrieve the man's body. Another giant insect appears when suddenly the tunnel caves in and killing it and trapping Shigeru. The cave becomes wider when a large section of land by a now active volcano collapses. While examining the crater scientists discover Shigeru walking in the crater in total shock and without his memory.

During a routine flight a JSDAF pilot reports an unidentified object flying performing air maneuvers at super sonic speeds. The pilot tries to follow but the object suddenly turns around and head for the jet. Soon other strange occurrences happen as live stock goes missing, boats and plane disappear alongside reports of hurricane type winds. It's soon speculated that more than one object is at workhere considering the timing of some of the reports. Meanwhile Kyo is trying to help Shigeru recover his memories. She shows him eggs in a bird nest. As one hatches it sparks a memory. He's in a cavern after the cave in. The insects are everywhere as is a giant egg. The egg hatches and starts eating the insects. Shigeru watches this and walks off in a state of shock.

From his description scientist identifies the creature as a variation of the teranadon called Rodan. Soon after the creaturre comes out of hiding as does another one. They go on a rampage and destroy a nearby city. After they disappear the army decides to bomb the Rodans' nest. The town's folk object concerned about the volcano erupting from the attack. The army goes through with the plan anyway. During the bombing one Rodan flies out but the volcano erupts as the other is trying to do the same. It slowly sinks to the ground while the other Rodan tries to help it from the air but also succumbs to the heat and shares the same fate of the first one.

Review

Made in 1956 and directed by the legendary Ishiro Honda, Rodan is TOHO's third kaiju fim, with Rodan as the title monster, one of a few to star in it's own movie. It is also the first daikaiju movie TOHO filmed in color. Who said Godzilla got all the attention?.

Rodan, as stated before, is based on the teranodon. As revealed in the English dub of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (Heisei series) Rodan was originally called Radon. Why it was changed, I'm not sure anybody knows. The monsters were designed with spikes on their chest and stomach and course, jets tend to explode when they come into contact with them. They fly at super sonic speeds and the flapping of their wings causes hurricane like winds while flying. The Rodans can also cause this effect by standing on the ground and flapping their wings.

I must say I like how they didn't show the whole body until the last third of the movie. The newly hatched Rodan looked like a baby Rodan and not a full grown version in my opinion. His appearance didn't change all that much during the Showa series.

The insects, called Megaulon, look kinda interesting for the time. But personally I think the designs are pretty weak. It looks like a giant insect with a really big head and claws. There appears to be four guy inside to be the legs. Outside of being impervious to bullets they don't do much. After killing a few of the town people they ultimately end being breakfast for the newborn Rodan. I don't know why they felt they needed to put these things in the movie, their pretty much useless.

The human characters are interesting. I find it believable that some would want to take their anger out on Kyo and I guess it's possible to lose your memory and go into shock after seeing a giant reptile hatching and munching on some giant insects. Personally I think a more believable reaction would have been to run away as fast as you could while screaming at the top of your lungs, but that's just me.

T he miniature work for this one was pretty good. The toy tanks do a realistic job of running over fake post and all that. The mini billboards and signs were a nice touch as well. That attention to detail is why I love these Japanese monster movies. I also enjoy how they simulated the effect of the hurricane winds Rodan created as he flapped his wings. There's also some great looking matte painting of the giant egg with the human actors. But there are some problems. When they impose the shot of the actors over the miniatures it's really obvious. When the Rodans are flying sometimes you can see the wires. But you have to remember that was high tech in the 50s.

Even though both Rodans died at the end of the picture, another Rodan would reappear in Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster.

Conclusion

This was a pretty good film. Ipersonally like how they did the ending, making it appear that one Rodan didn't want to live without the other one. It's one of my favorite kaiju moments. Rodan is a good attempt at a different type of kaiju film and led the way for other non-Godzilla films.

Scikaiju