Awards of Ishiro Honda?

[HayesAJones]

Doing a school project on Ishiro Honda, and would like to know any and all awards he received for his films. Web searches ain't giving me squat.

Help of any kind would be appreciated. Thanks!

[MaxRebo320]

Funny, I did a report on Ishiro Honda for the fourth grade. I'll see if I can find it and scan it online.
Anyway, this site should help:
http://www.japanesegiants.com/honda/

[HayesAJones]

Thanks! Will definitely have to look through that site. Looks like it has a good biography section.

[zombieheadache]

Mr.Honda gets no love,not to take away from kurasowa but it was Honda's movies that put toho studios on the map the world over.Yet he is never listed as one of the greats of japanese film directors.The critics should look deeper into Honda's career.Look further than Gojira.

[Arbok]

Mr.Honda gets no love,not to take away from kurasowa but it was Honda's movies that put toho studios on the map the world over.Yet he is never listed as one of the greats of japanese film directors.The critics should look deeper into Honda's career.Look further than Gojira.

Not to be mean but instead frank: that's because Kurosawa was a better film maker.

Honda's work sure filled Toho's coffers much more than Kurosawa's ever did, but both were important for different things: Honda helped with Toho's commercial success inside and outside of Japan, while Kurosawa helped with the critical success inside and outside of Japan.

However, while the Godzilla series was still a cash cow after Honda stepped away from the series, there hasn't been a director to take up Kurosawa's mantel for creating some of the best cinema the world has known for Toho... and has left a critical void that hasn't been filled.

[zombieheadache]

What you say is true but remember toho worked under the old hollywood system and handed out assigned movies to its directors and actors,so whatever genre that director was a success at he was stuck in that mood, so honda had no control of the movies he made.He wanted to make human dramas but the brass at toho kept giving him the monster shlock.In his later career he co-directed films with kurasauwa.So we really can't say who was really the better director,Honda never got his chance to shine out side kaiju eiga.That said Mr.Honda is truly the king of monsters!

[Tapkaara]

I think it's unfair and unnecessary to compare Kurosawa to Honda.

Something I read lately was Kurosawa was an auteur whereas Honda was an artisan. In other words, Kurosawa had a very distinct and uncompromising artistic vision in his films and his personality is ever-present in every frame. Honda, rather, was an artist, sure, but of a different sort. He took a more practical approach to filmmaking and made the films that were expected of him, and made them well. Implanting his ego into films was not a concern of his.

They were different kinds of filmmakers who made different kinds of films.

Having said that, Kurosawa and Honda must surely rank as the two most important directors in Toho's history. Kurosawa is a household name in the world of film. And while the name Honda may not be a household name, Godzilla sure is. But Godzilla isn't a household name in just the world of movie buffs, it's a household name PERIOD.

In a way, perhaps the Kurosawa/Honda situation is something of a yin and yang for Toho: Kurosawa was the master ARTISTE and Honda the master ARTIST.