66% (1) Matango 89 min, Unrated, [Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller] [Ishirô Honda] [11 Aug 1963]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Akira Kubo, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kenji Sahara, Kumi Mizuno
Writer: Takeshi Kimura (screenplay), Shin'ichi Hoshi (adaptation), Masami Fukushima (adaptation), William Hope Hodgson (story "The Voice in the Night")
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: A group of pleasure-seeking young people are stranded on a mysterious island when their boat crashes. One by one they succumb to the lure of the deadly mushrooms.
Rotten Tomatoes: This twisted, surreal monster story is related in flashback by an asylum inmate, who tells of his horrific experiences as one of several castaways on a mist-shrouded tropical island. While the crew affect repairs to their yacht, the stranded passengers take refuge in a derelict ship overgrown with a strange variety of mushroom -- which seems to be the only available source of food on the island. When their own rations are depleted, they begin to develop an eerie, uncontrollable craving for the mushrooms, and for a time only the narrator and his girlfriend manage to resist the urge to chow down as well. As expected, everyone who partakes of the fungus begins to transform into a giant, lumbering mushroom-monster, and eventually even the two holdouts find themselves tucking in to the tempting toadstools. Naturally, the narrator's tale is pooh-poohed as the ravings of a madman, until he suddenly begins to develop a severe complexion problem... This is something of a wacky diversion for the Godzilla gang (director Inoshiro Honda, monster-maker Eiji Tsuburaya and others), and is available under a wide assortment of titles, including Matango, Curse of the Mushroom People, and Fungus of Terror. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
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64% (1) The War of the Gargantuas 92 min, G, [Action, Horror, Sci-Fi] [Ishirô Honda] [29 Jul 1970]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, External Reviews
Actors: Kenji Sahara, Kumi Mizuno, Nobuo Nakamura, Russ Tamblyn
Writer: Reuben Bercovitch (story), Ishirô Honda, Takeshi Kimura
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: An experimental lab animal called a gargantua escapes from his captors and is suspected to be the creature that is killing people all over the countryside. But when the gargantua from the lab appears at the same time as the evil gargantua, the two begin to battle across Japan.
Rotten Tomatoes: Two gigantic fake-fur covered monsters battle it out in Tokyo. A mutation caused by an atomic blast, the green Gargantua is evil and desirous of stomping out the entire human race. The brown one is good and is kept busy attempting to derail his evil counterpart's destruction. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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60% (1) Gorath 83 min, [Action, Family, Sci-Fi] [Ishirô Honda] [15 May 1964]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 60%, External Reviews
Actors: Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Ryô Ikebe, Yumi Shirakawa
Writer: Takeshi Kimura (screenplay), Jôjirô Okami (story), John Meredyth Lucas (dubbed version)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese, English Country: Japan
Plot: Japanese disaster film about a giant meteor on a collision course with the Earth. The dubbed American version of this film is missing a giant walrus which appeared briefly in the Japanese version.
Rotten Tomatoes: Japanese disaster film about a giant meteor on a collision course with the Earth. The dubbed American version of this film is missing a giant walrus which appeared briefly in the Japanese version.
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53% (1) Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster 83 min, PG, [Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi] [Jun Fukuda] [01 Jan 1966]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 53%, External Reviews
Actors: Akira Takarada, Chôtarô Tôgin, Hideo Sunazuka, Kumi Mizuno
Writer: Shin'ichi Sekizawa
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: Some teenagers want to obtain a boat to find a brother. When they look around a boat without permission, they find a thief who takes them on his escape. They are caught in a storm and arrive at Letchi Island where natives of Infant Island have been enslaved by the terrorist organisation Red Bamboo. Red Bamboo runs a heavy water factory to process a juice which holds off the monster, Ebirah, which otherwise traps them on the island. The young men meet beautiful but tough Daiyo and wake up Godzilla to put an end to the Red Bamboo.
Rotten Tomatoes: The seventh film in Toho's Godzilla series (and the first without the direction of Inoshiro Honda), this colorful installment finds the natives of a volcanic island enslaved by the armies of an unnamed country claiming to be in control of a giant crustacean named Ebirah. A boatload of teens and a wanted criminal are washed ashore on the same island, where they encounter a large group of escaped slaves who hail from Mothra Island, home of another popular Toho monster. They pray to their moth-god to liberate them, oblivious to the fact that a certain green lizard is trapped beneath their cavern hideout. The teens soon discover this and release Godzilla from the rock with a well-placed lightning rod. Released and re-energized, Godzilla soon goes head-to-head with Ebirah, while Mothra eventually flaps into action to free the captives. Silly and cartoonish despite some more menacing elements, this is nevertheless one of the more interesting chapters in the Godzilla pantheon.
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50% (1) Frankenstein Conquers the World 87 min, Unrated, [Horror, Sci-Fi] [Ishirô Honda] [08 Jul 1966]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 50%, External Reviews
Actors: Kumi Mizuno, Nick Adams, Tadao Takashima, Yoshio Tsuchiya
Writer: Reuben Bercovitch (story), Takeshi Kimura (screenplay), Mary Shelley (novel), Jerry Sohl (synopsis)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: During WWII, a human heart taken from a certain lab in Europe (Dr. Frankenstein's) is kept in a Japanese lab, when it gets exposed to the radiation of the bombing of Hiroshima. The heart grows in size, mutates and sprouts appendages, and eventually grows into a complete body and escapes. Later, a feral boy with a certain physical deformity (a large head with a flat top) is captured by scientists who refer to the boy as Frankenstein. The creature grows to the height of 20 feet, escapes again, fights police and army, and is practically indestructible. Later, a reptilian monster goes on a rampage. Eventually the Frankenstein creature and the reptile face off in a terrible battle.
Rotten Tomatoes: The heart of Frankenstein is transported by Nazis to Japan just before the atomic bomb is dropped to end World War II. A hungry child eats the radioactive heart and is transformed into a hideous monster. The monster adjourns to Mount Fugi so no one will see it's horrible visage, battles Baragon, then sets out to destroy Tokyo. Dr. James Bowen Nick Adams is the American scientist who is conveniently on hand to help rebuild the city after the bomb and hopefully stop the giant Frankenstein monster from terrorizing the country.
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