Toho Kingdom

I actually own this film in its original cut and subbed along with The Last War, Submersion of Japan, and Prophecies of Nostradamus all of which are in their original cut and subbed as well. The Japanese version of this film is eh, considering the fact that this film was made by the same team who made the first Godzilla film (I believe) and it really doesn't help that the only Japanese version available out there has that time-coding thing on top of the screen.

Of the three "banned" Toho films, Snowman is pretty hum ho. Varan, while shitty on its own, has that fucked up production history and an entirely different film scrapped up from it, and well, PON is PON. I stand by that the film's technical achievements still outweigh the dullness of the drama though.

How is Varan is a "banned" Toho film?

Space Hunter M wrote:Of the three "banned" Toho films, Snowman is pretty hum ho. Varan, while shitty on its own, has that skreeonked up production history and an entirely different film scrapped up from it, and well, PON is PON. I stand by that the film's technical achievements still outweigh the dullness of the drama though.

Varan isn't a banned toho film

Legion1979 wrote:How is Varan is a "banned" Toho film?

Was "banned". Varan was another old shame of Toho's because of the film's depiction of the Iwatani Villagers. Toho received complaints from Ainu activist groups, and initially only released Varan cut on video in 1987, with offending references removed. Christ, and I'm explaining this to YOU?

Space Hunter M wrote:

Legion1979 wrote:How is Varan is a "banned" Toho film?

Was "banned". Varan was another old shame of Toho's because of the film's depiction of the Iwatani Villagers. Toho received complaints from Ainu activist groups, and initially only released Varan cut on video in 1987, with offending references removed. Christ, and I'm explaining this to YOU?

Excuse me for not being aware of that fact

Godzillian wrote:Excuse me for not being aware of that fact

I wasn't calling you out, though. I just thought the other guy would get what I meant.

So I finally got the chance to see this film and have to say really enjoyed it. It's very universal monster like and an interesting Tokusatsu film. The suit for the snowman is fantastic and he really is arguably the most sympathetic of all the Toho monsters. The natives are highly offensive and it's easy to see why Toho has the film locked away. Thought thag maybe it was exaggerated about how badly they were portrayed but I was wrong it's pretty awful lol

If anyone wants a link to the Japanese version, PM me.

Lmao they ripped off the Robocop tagline

I've been meaning to see this film but haven't been able to find it. If anyone has a way to see the Japanese version floating about it would be appreciated.

It's a shame that a lot of the early Toho films are difficult to find... Half Human is, of course, banned, but there are several other Toho movies that really deserve recognition. Like The Birth of Japan? It's got kaiju and Toshiro Mifune. It was incredible.

Creature22 wrote:I've been meaning to see this film but haven't been able to find it. If anyone has a way to see the Japanese version floating about it would be appreciated.

It's a shame that a lot of the early Toho films are difficult to find... Half Human is, of course, banned, but there are several other Toho movies that really deserve recognition. Like The Birth of Japan? It's got kaiju and Toshiro Mifune. It was incredible.

It pops up on eBay every so often. That's where I got mine. Was a two pack with the Japanese and english versions. And I'm sure people here have other ways to get it.

Saw the Japanese cut. And to be honest, it's really bad.

The human characters have zero characterization. Like I know some Toho films don't have strong characters but Godzilla 1954 has some great human drama and later entries in toho's library have memorable people. This is just a group of people, a group of hunters, and some demented villagers. There's zero compelling dialogue about who or where the people we focus are from, or what their background is, beyond being from some university or being poachers. Also, while I don't think every film needs a forced romance this one had an opportunity to have a romance used to its advantage. The film has the monster kidnap a woman but a man, or even a woman the woman is close to doesn't save her; rather a random woman from the village sacrifices herself.

Next, the film is super slow. Honestly, this film can be cut down into a 30 min Ultra Q episode. There's way too many long lingering shots of people just walking around in the woods. There's also tons of random scenes that do little to progress the plot. Plus the frame of the story, having this reporter interview everyone, is poorly done and ends abruptly. The reporter angle also adds zero to the story. We never see his reactions or whatever. It's honestly a waste.

Also as a side note the music sucks. Really generic.

The film isn't also sure if it wants us to fully sympathize with the Snowman or not. Sure I get he's angry cause his son got killed but he still murders tons of innocents. Also on that note the film really doesn't have enough scenes of the baby Bigfoot interacting with the other. Heck, you could have some scenes of the baby with the humans interacting and that'd be nice,

There are some good moments though. Seeing the Snowman push the cars down the mountain and also destroy the village was cool. Honestly, despite not being that large it seems the Snowman matched silly ol Varan in destructive capabilities. But also these are only a few minutes and again would work better in an episode of Ultra Q.

Finally I feel like later Toho monster flicks actually do what this film is trying to do better. I can't help but notice parallels between the snowman and Sanda/Gaira. Honestly the former might as well been the baby snowman. And hell, Gaira was pretty much the snowman. The snowman feels like he does fit in along with other Toho Kaiju, beyond statue of course. He's a mythical beast worshipped by locals akin to Mothra or Varan or even Godzilla.

The idea that this film was banned is ridiculous. It's certainly way less violent and gruesome then Godzilla 1954. I get that the villagers look weird and deformed, and that there might be some controversial culture thing, but honestly there's only a few shots that you really see them look that way and it could easily be edited out without detracting from the film. There's also a scene of a woman getting beaten with a whip. I get why that'd be controversial for the time but again you can trim a few seconds off of it and everything's good.

All in all, if you can, see the Japanese version out of curiosity and for completions sake. However, it's not some lost treasure or remotely amazing. Pretty much every other Toho monster flick is better, even Varan!

I'm surprised the majority doesn't seem to have liked Half Human. I though it was fantastic, just like most of the early Honda Toho movies. Sure, the quality of the print was atrocious but the characters were very similar to all the other movies of the 50's and the main plot was never boring, imo. Oh and the monster costumes are Toho's best, IMO. Exactly what Kong should have been in KKVG. And the massacre at the end? Incredible and chilling. Loved it! Too bad we might never see a pristine print...

You know how even today, this movie has a stigma of epic proportions due to its undignified portrayal of a group of people similar to Japan's indigenous Ainu? It is that reason as to why the film is banned in Japan even until this very day. I am betting it is also why Akira Ifukube, who famously spent his early years close to the Ainu, ended up not scoring this film with Masaru Sato filling his boots.

The film isn't really banned, Toho just won't release it. It's more of a self-imposed ban. Same goes for Prophecies of Nostradamus. It does play at revival showings every now and then, though. Latitude Zero is, so far, the only film Toho has lifted a self-imposed ban on. The Japanese government can't stop Toho from releasing it, but Toho can keep foreign distributors from buying it, as far as I can tell. PON has been available in Toho's brochures since forever, though, so I think their ban on that film might be a little softer, unless it got superbanned after the Fukushima incident (there's a scene of Fukushima blowing up).

If I could choose between a decent (at least by Toho's standards) Blu-ray of HH or a copy in any condition of an unbelievably rare, undocumented international dub of like Godzilla's Revenge or something, I'd pick the latter, honestly. There is bound to be crazy shit contradicting currently accepted theories hiding in Toho's vaults that I think is infinitely more interesting than HH without a timecode at the top of the frame.

They should just release a big pack for cheap of a bunch of similarly themed Toho films. Like put the Nostradamus film on a DVD with The Final War and a few others.

I am very interested in seeing this movie! I can't stand censorship no matter the reason, so if anyone would send me a PM about this I'd highly appreciate it.

I am really interested in seeing this film, if anyone could PM me a link to English dubbed version I would be very grateful. It is the only other Toho/Honda kaiju like film that has avoided me.

Added in 58 minutes 20 seconds:
If no one has a link I will consider buying it off Sinister Cinema. Has anyone else bought from them and can verify their authenticity? And is it the American version?