| A film plagued with an uncertain
future from the get go, Varan manages to
be one of Toho's more lackluster kaiju films.
With a rather bland story, uninteresting characters
and an unfitting lead kaiju, Varan ends
up being a rather boring entry from Toho, save
for Eiji
Tsuburaya's special effects work and Akira
Ifukube's wonderful score for the film.
The film starts out with a voiceover
introduction about humanity's increasing interest
in space, before getting to the story at hand
with an expedition to the Kitanami River in search
of a pair of Red-Trimmed Off-white butterflies.
As expected, the expedition is annihilated by
Varan, and what follows are some rather lengthy
scenes of scientists meandering over the events
as the press covers the story. Scenes reminiscent
of the American 1950's monster movies, which used
this approach to try and explain the monster before
actually showing it. It's during these scenes
that the audience is introduced to the protagonists
of the film: Kenji, Yuriko and Horiguchi, who
set off on their own expedition to the Kitanami
River. The trio comes across a village and befriend
a small boy named Ken. As fate would have it,
Ken runs off to the lake after his dog, an event
which sends the village into an uproar as the
local priest warns them that to follow would surely
anger their god, Varan. Kenji challenges the priest's
warning, by asking if he has ever seen Varan and
if his beliefs are worth the life of a child.
The trio head off after the boy, and Yuriko is
separated from the group in her pursuit of Ken.
Kenji returns to the village and convinces the
villagers to help him in his search. Eventually,
Kenji and the villagers find Ken and Yuriko, but
their celebration is cut short as Varan rises
from the water. The monster makes a direct line
for the village, destroying it along with the
dedicated priest. Following Varan's first screen
appearance is pretty much a nonstop, albeity still
slow paced, assault by the military against Varan
up until his short lived raid on Haneda Airport.
Varan started production
as a joint venture between Toho and an American
company called AB-PT Productions with the intention
of making a made-for-TV movie for ABC, as documented
here.
Given its history, it's not surprising that the
end result actually bares quite a bit of resemblance
to the American made monster movies of the time
rather than Ishiro
Honda's other films. The story itself is fairly
straightforward as well, and likely would have
worked better in the 54 minute timeframe that
was originally proposed. To Honda's credit, though,
he at least improved a nearly unwatchable film
when he revamped the project for its theatrical
run, adding in two of the film's greatest segments:
the meeting with the villagers and Varan's water
based skirmish with the self defense force.
Unfortunately, the story's chief
fault is simply that the human cast is extraordinarily
dull. The audience learns next to nothing about
the three leads and the host of supporting characters
through the course of the film. In fact, there
is a little resentment to be had toward the movie's
lead, Kenji played by Kozo Nomura, as he goes
against the priest's orders and inadvertently
leads the villagers to their doom at the hands
of Varan in the process. Would it have been too
much to ask had Kenji been shown to display some
guilt over the incident? Certainly would have
helped in giving him a more personal reason to
hate Varan. As for the other two leads, Yuriko
is essentially your generic love interest and
never does much except get trapped under a tree
so Kenji can save her. The last member of the
trio, Horiguchi the photographer, is hardly even
worth mentioning as he is given so little to do
to the point where he almost feels like one of
the supporting cast, despite the fact that he
is given a sizeable amount of screen time.
In regards to the acting, it's
actually done moderately well, which is a real
testament to Honda's ability as a director given
that none of the cast had much experience. However,
this could also be on account that very little
is demanded of the film's characters. Nomura,
who plays Kenji in the film, is a good example
of this, as he does nothing to elevate the audience's
attachment to the character, but plays the part
smoothly enough that one really can't fault his
performance either. The only member of the cast
that really appears to be lacking is Ayumi Sonoda
as the film's love interest, as she feels pretty
unconvincing as the damsel in distress and seems
disinterested during other scenes in the movie.
Still, this is a monster movie,
so the attention will be unavoidably focused on
the title monster. So how does Varan fare as a
solo kaiju antagonist? Not very well, and certainly
the most unmemorable of the Toho kaiju to be given
their own film. Often criticized as a crude combination
of elements from Godzilla, Anguirus and Rodan,
Varan is best remembered for his ability to glide
like a flying squirrel; however, it's a shame
that this power is only used once during the course
of the movie, and not very effectively either.
What Varan lacks the most, though, is that he
never comes off as a very large threat like his
predecessors did. Gone are the scenes of citywide
destruction by Godzilla and Rodan, and in their
place is the destruction of a lone, unarmed, village
by Varan. To further discredit the monster, the
scene where Kenji, on foot, outruns Varan on a
landing strip is just god awful, and removes any
kind of feeling of danger the monster might have
presented. However, it was a nice change of pace
to see the military be able to successfully combat
a monster with only two destroyed landmarks and
two lost military crafts through the course of
the film. Furthermore, the relentless approach
to the military is a nice angle, as they quickly
shift from plan to plan in an attempt to stop
the monster. An idea which would be used again
in King
Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and Mothra
vs. Godzilla (1964) years later.
To the film's credit, the special
effects work by Tsuburaya is remarkably good for
a film made in the late 1950's and one that was
originally planned for a TV release. In particular,
the model work on the village and Haneda Airport
are rather impressive, although the model scenery
in general is fairly sparse in the movie. As for
the Varan suit, it's really a mixed bag. While
the suit looks quite impressive when Varan is
on all fours, the suit starts to show its flaws
when Varan tries to stand up as the "shell"
on his back tends to flap out in an unconvincing
manner. It's apparent, however, that the budget
for this film was rather restrictive as Tsuburaya
has to rely on stock footage from Godzilla
(1954) for several scenes during Varan's raid
on Japan. Still, given the circumstances, Tsuburaya's
special effects rarely distract from the viewing
experience, even almost 50 years later.
The music found in Varan
is widely considered the film's best aspect. Back
in a time when Ifukube would actually conduct
all original scores for his films, instead of
relying heavily on previously composed work, Varan's
score contains several noteworthy themes. Those
of particular merit include Varan's theme, the
military march during the raid at sea, and the
village chant. Consequently, these themes would
return later in many other Ifukube scored films,
but one can't discredit the movie which originally
featured them. It's interesting to note that Ifukube
actually conducted two separate scores for Varan:
one for the film while it was still a TV production
and the other for the theatrical release. While
both scores are fairly similar, the score used
for the theatrical release sounds much more refined
as a larger orchestra was used.
Overall, Varan is a pretty
boring entry. There just isn't many redeeming
factors here to help defend the film, save maestro
Ifukube's riveting themes. Worth seeing once or
twice, perhaps, but certainly nothing that demands
to be watched again and again.
|
(1.5/5)