Talkback: Rodan (1956)

[g2vd]

Rodan




Separate threads for discussion.

Monster Discussion #5: Rodan (Showa)

Monster Discussion #8: Meganulon (Showa)

The original thread if there was one has apparently vanished, so here we go again discuss the 1956 Kaiju classic Rodan!

[Tohosaurus]

I should probably re-watch this sometime soon; it's been a while.

It's one of the better Toho kaiju movies though. The tone is a little different from some later movies and overall it's a strong story that successfully builds up emotion where it needs to. The idea of a giant prehistoric monster wasn't even new in 1956, but they did it well, and that's the point. That's what makes it a classic.

[Monster Zero]

I watched the Japanese version way back in July. I loved it. I don't know why but I like it more than the U.S. version that I've had for years and never watched.

[Space Hunter M]

[edgaguirus]

One of Toho's best Kaiju films. The story builds up well, and has good acting. The ending is rather touching, as well. I like the original too, but the word at the end of the American version fit the scene very well.

I also enjoy that the Meganulon get a chance to shine. Rodan is the star, but the giant insects make for an excellent horror film start.

[Giga Kaiju]

One of the best kaiju films there are out there. The monsters, the buildup, the characters, the music and the effects are so great for their time and shine for the era.

The tense/horror beggining is so good, can't get enough of it every time I watch the movie. Very foreboding and is a terric set-up for what happens later in the movie with the reptilian flying star(s).

[Space Hunter M]

I still wanna see the Bloodthirsty Hawk version with the Jaws music.

[Giga Kaiju]

What? Is that for real...? Oh well, different countries had some interesting naming-wise actions to the movies, indeed.

[Monster Zero]

Where did a lot of the strange designs of Rodan on the Japanese posters come from?
The one at the beginning of the thread has Rodan with a strange hawk like head. I'm guessing a lot of the innaccurate designs from the posters were just early designs for the creature that they used in publicity material much like G54 with the early design model being used in many posters and lobby cards.

[Giga Kaiju]

They were made like that for publicity purposes, most likely. Similar to how Mothra looked like a mallicious insect when in reality it wasn't the case.

[Monster Zero]

They were made like that for publicity purposes, most likely. Similar to how Mothra looked like a mallicious insect when in reality it wasn't the case.

Well that was really just in the U.S. posters.

Like, why does he look like that? My guess is an early design.

[Giga Kaiju]

Concept art for a poster, maybe? In this artwork of the poster, Rodan sort of resembles the one in the movie if you look some distinct elements of the appearance.

[GodzillaFanatic2001]

I remember someone mentioning that they were attempting to reconstruct the American cut using the Japanese version. Anyone know if this is still happening, or what it's like so far?

[edgaguirus]

Bloodthirsty Hawk is quite the colorful title. At least they don't call Rodan Frankenstein, as Godzilla has been.

[Space Hunter M]

Print ads from the Taiwanese release of the film as Flying Monster.

[Pkmatrix]

I remember someone mentioning that they were attempting to reconstruct the American cut using the Japanese version. Anyone know if this is still happening, or what it's like so far?

I don't know if there was anyone else trying, but I started an attempt myself a month or two ago using the most recent Classic Media DVD as a source. I got about five minutes or so in (about the point where Shigeru starts running for mine after getting word of the flood), but unfortunately lost all that work when my computer suffered an (unrelated) fatal error that forced me to reinstall the OS.

It was looking pretty good, if I do say so myself! ^_^()

Some thoughts based on what I did do:

1. Holy COW are there WAY more little edits in the first few minutes of Rodan than I expected! I knew the beginning was rearranged somewhat, but I hadn't realized until I really started working with it in Final Cut just how extensive the recut is on the shot-by-shot level. I grew more and more impressed with it as I went along, I now have a MUCH greater appreciation for the work Robert Eisen put into the American version of the film.

2. Continuing off the first point: to my surprise, very few shots were used as is from the Japanese version. Going in, I assumed all I'd really have to do was locate shots, match them up 1:1, and move along. Not so! Not only were shots moved around, they were also trimmed a little on the front and back ends which made matching frames the most time-consuming part of the project. One of the hardest ones was the first shot of the miners walking toward the mine, since I had a hard time finding a unique enough frame to match it up with.

3. You probably never noticed (I didn't until I was a few hours/several minutes in), but the US version has tiny one-frame cross dissolves covering up the new cuts. I didn't realize it until after getting up to the first office scene and noticed one, then went back and checked the previous cuts to see if that were the case the whole time. My version suddenly looked MUCH closer to the actual US version after I added them - it was a tiny change, but I'd noticed my cut didn't look "right" before and after it did. Neat, huh? ^_^

I may give this another shot one day, but TBH I'm not up for it yet (if only because September was a NIGHTMARE for me personally and I'm not really recovered from that yet).

[Legion1979]

Where did a lot of the strange designs of Rodan on the Japanese posters come from?

The Japanese posters and publicity photos for Rodan use a pre-production maquette. A similar maquette of Angilas can be seen on the original Godzilla Raids Again poster and a lot of publicity shots as well. Same with Mogera, whose maquette looked a lot different from the finished costume.

[Monster Zero]

Where did a lot of the strange designs of Rodan on the Japanese posters come from?

The Japanese posters and publicity photos for Rodan use a pre-production maquette. A similar maquette of Angilas can be seen on the original Godzilla Raids Again poster and a lot of publicity shots as well. Same with Mogera, whose maquette looked a lot different from the finished costume.

Aha. That's what I was thinking. Thanks for clearing this out for me.

[ebirahsmeg1]

Here is an article/blog David Kalat wrote on Rodan this past April:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Rodan: http://moviemorlocks.com/2015/04/25/how ... ove-rodan/

[Space Hunter M]

Here is an article/blog David Kalat wrote on Rodan this past April:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Rodan: http://moviemorlocks.com/2015/04/25/how ... ove-rodan/

He hits the marks pretty well. Always loved the "out of the frying pan" story structure so many people seem bent on criticizing.