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Written by Michael Salsbury
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Tuesday, 24 January 2006 |
When I was younger, it was commonplace for local television stations to
air old monster movies on Saturday nights. On a given Saturday night,
you might catch Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, or any
number of other famous actors. You might also catch a Japanese monster
movie, like Godzilla. Somehow, I don't think I ever caught Rodan until
now.
 Rodan Title Graphic
Rodan is a "cautionary tale" that attempts to warn the world what will
happen if we continue to create and test more devastating nuclear
weapons.
 What brings Rodan to life...
It begins in a small Japanese mining town:
 Japanese Mining Village
A flood in one of the mine shafts leads to a miner disappearing. When
his body is removed from the mine, his injuries are inconsistent with a
cave-in or flood. The miners resolve to get to the bottom of the
problem:
 If the Village People were miners...
What they discover is that a gigantic insect inhabits the mine now, and
it has an appetite for human flesh. As is typical for the Japanese
monster movies of this era, everyone consults with the scientific
experts immediately:
 The guys in the white coats know what to do!
We know they're the scientific experts because they wear those snazzy
white lab coats and wear glasses. The scientists haven't quite decided
what's going on at this point, but the wise decision is made to hire
more armed guards. Chigeru, a young mine engineer, goes home to visit
his girlfriend, the sister of the man who died in the mine. While
comforting her and supporting her decision to leave town, one of the
insects from the mine decides it's time to come to town, and chooses
their house to visit:
 You'll need more than a net for this bug!
In a refreshing change of pace from the typical American monster movie,
Chigeru and his girlfriend leave the house immediately and call in the
guards. The guards arrive and fire weapons into the monster.
Meanwhile, in another decidedly un-American act, the townspeople begin
evacuating the village:
 Let's get out of here!
The creature is chased back to the mines, which inexplicably collapse,
trapping Chigeru in them. Some time later, Chigeru comes crawling out
of the massive cave-in area, the apparent victim of amnesia. At least,
that's what the Japanese doctors called it. To me, it looked like the
guy went comatose.  Our hero is saved!
Meanwhile, the Air Force encounters some unidentified aircraft
traveling at (gasp!) supersonic speeds. The pilots attempt to chase
down these rogue aircraft but are shot down. Suddenly, women sitting
at kitchen tables begin creating podcasts about the strange craft seen
flying around the world at amazing speeds.
 Radio Studios are pretty bare-bones here...
 At least the other lady had a table cloth!
In a move more like typical American horror movie teenagers, a young
couple hops in their Chevrolet to go shoot some pictures by the volcano
in the area. (Yeah, that's right. In the 1950's the Japanese drove
American cars. Today, it's the other way around.) A flying monster
kills them, but their final photograph provides the scientists with the
information they need to confirm their suspicion of flying dinosaurs. How times have changed...
Around this time, young Chigeru snaps out of his coma and remembers seeing a huge dinosaur with wings being born.
 Rodan is hatched!
The scientists now know from his description and the photo they have
that they're dealing with a dinosaur of the Rodan variety. In fact,
they soon learn they're dealing with a pair of them (presumably a
mating pair).
For no readily clear reason, the Rodans stop terrorizing the world's
air forces and decide to decimate a Japanese city. Using their mighty
wings, they conjure up hurricane-class winds and blow parts of the city
to bits.
 Check out those wires!
At this point, the Japanese military hits Rodan with everything they've got:
 The obligatory tank attack!
It's completely useless, as you already expect if you've ever watched a
Japanese monster movie. The Rodans soon bore of terrorizing a city and
retreat to the mines near the volcano. The military decides to seal up
the tunnels and bury the Rodans alive. This fails, but it does cause
the volcano to erupt. Fortunately for Japan and the world, Rodans
aren't very bright creatures and they fly too close to the volcanic
eruption. One of them is downed in the blast. The other lands nearby
and dies with it. The world is safe, for now.
 The Rodans go down together...
When you recognize that this movie was produced in Japan in 1950, your
expectations for the special effects should drop considerably. Given
that the movie was also shot in Japanese and later dubbed with English
speaking voices, you can allow for a bit of the dialogue to sound
somewhat strange. All things considered, this is a decent little
movie. It's got a reasonably coherent story line, some well written
narration, a few decent acting performances here and there, and it
provides a few glimpses into Japanese life in the 1950's. (For
example, you realize that the Japanese were really into wearing white
gloves. All the miners had them, the guards had them, and occasionally
others did, too.)
But looking at this with modern eyes, trained to expect the kind of
blockbuster effects seen in movies like Star Wars, and this is some
pretty silly stuff. You can see the wires attached to Rodan at
different times. You can tell that the tanks and buildings are all
miniature models being destroyed. The English dubbing doesn't quite
match what the Japanese mouths are saying. If you look carefully,
you'll notice some really poor acting, like in the scene where Chigeru
is frantically calling the guards to come attack the monster, his
girlfriend stands there straightening up her hair instead of running
like hell away from the monster. You might also wax nostalgic,
wondering what happened to the American car industry when we see the
Japanese driving Chevrolets in the 1950s while today we see Ford
closing down plants and laying off huge numbers of workers because they
can't sell enough cars here at home.
While Rodan was far from the best movie I've seen in a long time,
depending on your point of view (see above), it is nonetheless quite
enjoyable to watch. It reminded me of those lazy Saturday nights many
years ago, kicking back in front of the tube to catch the latest
monster flick. It also showed me how far the movie industry has come
since 1950. I'm not going to give this one my usual 1 to 10 rating
because I don't think it's quite fair. What I will say is that if you
enjoy old monster movies, you'll get a kick out of this one. If you
need the latest CGI special effects to immerse yourself in a story,
pass this one up because you'll hate it. Japan is safe...
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 April 2006 )
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