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
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, 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:

Revealing mistakes: When the Japanese Air Force attacks Rodan at the bridge, the shadows of the planes can be seen against the backdrop of the sky.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Gojira VS Mekagojira (1993)

One of Toho's best films...

Giant Monster from the Skies: Radon (literal title) has to be one of Toho's greatest films ever. The American and international version is okay, but they inserted annoying narration and deleted some of the simple but cool special effects that were in the original version. The film plays much more like a horror film in its original Japanese version than the American, which deletes some of the music and effects that give the Japanese version its punch. The original doesn't turn to an all out Kaiju romp until about the last 45 minutes, where we are shown some of Toho's best effects work ever. Both the Americanized version and the original Japanese are available from yours truely, email if you have questions. Definate classic of the genre.