Rodan

So the other night I watched a film that I had not seen more than once since I was a kid, the 1956 Japanese classic "Rodan." I had seen this movie at NYC's Film Forum around 25+ years back but had very little recollection of it still. And what a fun film it is, as I was reminded again just recently. In it, miners in a small Japanese village are being killed off by a mysterious something, and that something turns out to be giant bugs that have hatched deep underground. But the community's problems grow even worse when two prehistoric eggs in the mine shaft suddenly burst open, to reveal two monstrous flying reptile creatures, which promptly do what all self-respecting Japanese kaiju do in situations like this: lay waste to the countryside and a neighboring city! This film was helmed by "Gojira" director Ishiro Honda, of course, and like that earlier film, features awesome FX by the great Eija Tsuburaya and music by Akira Ifukube. The FX range from cheesy (the two rodans look pretty silly) to spectacular (one of the bridges that gets destroyed looks so lifelike that I would swear the producers knocked down an actual bridge in the making of this film). The film's final image, of the two rodans going up in flame near an erupting volcano, choosing death together rather than fighting separately, is actually kind of sweet and lovely. Adding to the fun: the presence of "Gojira"'s Dr. Serizawa himself, actor Akihiko Hirata, minus the eyepatch here. In all, very entertaining stuff, and very nice to reacquaint myself with this childhood favorite again....