What Non-Godzilla Toho Films Do You Still need to Watch?

[LSD Jellyfish]

I just realized I haven't seen the Japanese version of King Kong Escapes.

There's a Japanese dvd of it on Amazon for 1,500 yen. Hmmm...

[JAGzilla]

Most of them. I've only seen Rodan, all four Mothra movies, WOTG, and Seven Samurai. Gonna start branching out soon, though.

[KaijusHunter]

Finally got around to watch an old TV recording of The Paradise Island Story, which was Toho's third tokusatsu film in color, released a month after Rodan.

It was magical, pretty, and most of all, extremely fascinating.
The story revolves around a group of soldiers drifting away on an isolated volcanic island in the South Seas, at the end of the Pacific war. There lives a tribe of natives, very reminiscent of future groups like in Mothra and King Kong vs. Godzilla. Historically speaking, this movie is very important in the "Toho SFX canon", which makes it even more baffling it remained so obscure over the years.

Following the success of Rodan, Kenji Sahara plays the main antagonist, a down-to-earth soldier among many goofballs, engaged in a romantic relationship with one of the female natives. The rest of the cast includes many stars, like Akira Takarada, Ichiro Arishima, Seizaburo Kawazu, Norihei Miki and long-time popular comic artist Kenichi Enomoto.

I sincerely hope this movie becomes more readily available. Like too many Toho properties, it's a lost gem.

[Major sssspielberg!]

I have yet to see Gorath, which I've wanted to see for years.

[Gigantis]

Well i'm gonna watch Dogora pretty soon! Tell you how that goes. In the meantime i'm gonna also put House on my watch list.

[Major sssspielberg!]

Well i'm gonna watch Dogora pretty soon! Tell you how that goes. In the meantime i'm gonna also put House on my watch list.

Dogora is worth it for
MARK JACKSON

[eabaker]

Well i'm gonna watch Dogora pretty soon! Tell you how that goes. In the meantime i'm gonna also put House on my watch list.

Dogora is worth it for
MARK JACKSON

Just re-watched it last night, and, yeah, Mark remains the high point of the movie, and the mismatched buddy-cop dynamic between him and Komai seems to have been the element Sekizawa and Honda were most interested in.

There's also some decent entertainment value in the gangster characters. Hideyo Amamoto is delightfully weird, and Akiko Wakabayashi makes a great old-school gun moll.

[Terasawa]

There are some really inspired elements in Dogora but it doesn’t all come together. As a monster movie it’s simply not very good. It’s hard to define it by a single genre, but I guess I’d say it’s mostly a comedy, although not an uproariously funny one. As others have said the main draw is Bob Dunham’s performance: he especially plays the comedy really well.

It’s the one Toho monster film that I wish Ifukube had turned down. His score is OK but it feels so out of place. He scores it as a monster movie, which it really isn’t.

It may not be a good movie but it’s unique among the Toho kaiju movies, especially of its era, so I think it’s hard to be very critical of it.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

I should give Dogora another chance. I've only seen it twice. First time I was like 10, right after the Tokyo Shock DVD came out. I was bored with it and only half paid attention. Second time I was 15 or 16 and paid closer attention, but was still underwhelmed. Now that's it been eight odd years, I think I should give it one more try and see if third time's the charm. From my memories, it's one of my least favorite kaiju films but so was King Kong vs. Godzilla until about six months ago and I seem to be changing opinions on a lot of movies lately.

[eabaker]

There are some really inspired elements in Dogora but it doesn’t all come together. As a monster movie it’s simply not very good. It’s hard to define it by a single genre, but I guess I’d say it’s mostly a comedy, although not an uproariously funny one. As others have said the main draw is Bob Dunham’s performance: he especially plays the comedy really well.

Yeah, ultimately the monsters are just a plot complication in what is otherwise a tongue-in-cheek cops n robbers movie. The monsters are great visually, but you could remove them from the movie and not meaningfully impact story at all.

It's weird the way the movie kind of feints at being another "trio of protagonists with Hiroshi Koizumi as the professor," but then those three characters only share one brief scene in which they're really interacting with each other, and Koizumi disappears mid-way through the movie and only pops up again to be barely there in the coda.

[Spuro]

Well i'm gonna watch Dogora pretty soon! Tell you how that goes. In the meantime i'm gonna also put House on my watch list.

Dogora is worth it for
MARK JACKSON

I've been saying this for years, lol.

[Voyager]

Ok lets break this down.

For kaiju movies, I’m yet to see The Mysterians. That’s it.

Ok for non kaiju films, there are so many I haven’t seen I’m just going to name the ones I DID see. I’ve only seen The Seven Samurai, H-Man, Matango and Storm Over The Pacific. I haven’t seen any others.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

For kaiju movies, I’m yet to see The Mysterians. That’s it.

Don’t go in expecting a Kaiju movie. The first third plays out like a Kaiju film with Moguera but the rest of the movie is basically Monster Zero without Godzilla.

[Major sssspielberg!]

Actually rewatched Mysterians the other day, it's an awesome movie for sure. I always forget how slapstick the second Mogeura's comeuppance is