Sora no daikaijû Radon (1956)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

David Duncan (U.S. version)
Takeshi Kimura (writer)

Release Date:

August 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Never a Horror Like It!

Plot:

When a village is besieged by giant caterpillars, a more horrifying discovery is made in their underground home...

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Rodan | Pterodactyl | Miner | Creature Feature

Cast

Kenji Sahara	...	Shigeru Kawamura, colliery engineer (as Kenji Sawara)
Yumi Shirakawa	...	Kiyo, Shigeru's lover
Akihiko Hirata	...	Professor KYUichiro Kashiwagi (biology)
Akio Kobori	...	Police Chief Nishimura
Yasuko Nakata	...	Female Honeymooner
Minosuke Yamada	...	Colliery Chief Osaki
Yoshifumi Tajima	...	Izeki, reporter of Seibu Nippou
Kiyoharu Onaka	...	Male Honeymooner, Sunagawa's friend (as Kiyoharu Ohnaka)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ichirô Chiba	...	Chief of police station
Mike Daneen	...	American Soldier Typing
Tazue Ichimanji	...	Haru, Kiyo's neighbor (as Tsurue Ichimanji)
Saburo Iketani	...	News Reader
Saburo Kadowaki	...	Sunagawa's colleague
Katao Kawasaki	...	Tsunesan, miner
Kanta Kisaragi	...	Suteyan, miner
Takuzo Kumagaya	...	Policeman Tashiro (as Jirô Kumagai)
Saeko Kuroiwa	...	Nurse
Tsuruko Mano	...	Osumi, Kiyo's neighbor
Mitsuo Matsumoto	...	Professor Isokawa
Hideo Mihara	...	Commander of JASDF
Kiyomi Mizunoya	...	Otami, Yoshizo's wife
Junichirô Mukai	...	Military officer
Toshiko Nakano	...	Kiyo's neighbor
Rinsaku Ogata	...	Goro, miner, Kiyo's older brother
Keiji Sakakida	...	Tahei, miner
Yasuhiro Shigenobu	...	Sabu, miner
Junnosuke Suda	...	Coroner
Shigemi Sunagawa	...	F-86F pilot
Jiro Suzukawa	...	Yoshizo, miner
Masaaki Tachibana	...	Policeman
Bontaro Taira	...	Laborer
Kiyoshi Takagi	...	Dr.Minakami (colliery)
Kamayuki Tsubono	...	Policeman of the crime laboratory
Mitsuo Tsuda	...	Staff officer Takeuchi
Hideo Unagami
Akira Yamada	...	Radio operator on jeep

Also Known As:

Radon
Radon, Monster from the Sky (literal English title)
Rodan
Rodan! The Flying Monster (USA)

Runtime:

82 min | USA:70 min (16 mm television syndication prints) | USA:72 min (English dubbed version) | USA:74 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Mandarin | Tagalog

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Company:

Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.

Trivia:

Among the people doing the voice over work for this film are Paul Frees, Keye Luke and a young George Takei.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Shigeru and Kashiwagi are in the helicopter searching for Rodan, Kashiwagi is wearing a tie and his head isn't bandaged, but when they go to see the planes bombard Rodan's lair Kashiwagi is no longer wearing a tie and the bandage mysteriously reappears. However, the scene of Kashiwagi and Shigeru in the helicopter was actually from later in the picture and was rearranged by the producers of the American version so that it would make it look as if they were starting the search.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (1990)

One of the early movies with great special effects

I think this was the second movie I've seen as a child that had special effects (first was King Kong vs Godzilla). The idea of super sonic flying reptile was pretty original and the special effects were very believable with roof tiles flying off houses when Rodan passed above them. The movie looks dated now because the houses and buildings looks like vintage '50s, but the quality of production was very high (if you compare it to the U.S. made "The Giant Claw" of the same era it's obvious these people knew what they were doing), and probably set the bases of Toho as the only surviving Japanese movie studio in the '90s.

I wish the honeymooner Yasuko Nakata had bigger roles in this movie and on subsequent Toho movies. She was a better actor than the leading lady Yumi Shirakawa (but Shirakawa was a big star back then) and could have brought more goods to the franchise.