Rodan (1956)

A large mining accident sets loose prehistoric Insects and giant pterosaur's on Japan.

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

David Duncan (english version), Takeshi Kimura

Stars:

Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata

Cast

Credited 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 Nakada	...	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
Tsurue Ichimanji	...	Haru, Kiyo's neighbor (as Tazue Ichimanji)
Saburô Iketani	...	News Reader
Saburô Kadowaki	...	Sunagawa's colleague
Tateo Kawasaki	...	Tsunesan, miner
Kanta Kisaragi	...	Suteyan, miner

Storyline

In the Japanese mining village of Kitamatsu, miners ares starting to disappear deep inside shaft number 8. Some of the men sent to investigate are killed but one who has managed to escape brings back a tale of a giant insect. Soon, the giant prehistoric insects are attacking the village. Not long after, something traveling faster than the speed of sound is found flying in the sky. It is Rodan, a giant flying prehistoric reptile that has come to life. It spreads terror throughout Japan and is seemingly invincible to any weapon they may throw at it.

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Plot Keywords:

rodan | kaiju | tokusatsu | japan | monster | 

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Taglines:

Never a Horror Like It!

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese Mandarin Tagalog

Release Date:

6 August 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rodan

Filming Locations:

Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$500,000, 6 August 1957

Gross USA:

$500,000, 6 August 1957

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min 70 min (16 mm television syndication prints) 72 min (English dubbed)

Sound Mix:

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

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The bruise that Kenji Sahara has on his left cheek in the cave scene where he first sees Rodan hatch from the egg was real. As Sahara crawled backward, he turned the wrong way and went face-first into a rock. Despite the injury, he finished the scene.

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Goofs

The American version mistakenly credits director Ishirô Honda as "Inoshiro Honda"

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Crazy Credits

In the U.S. version, special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya's name is misspelled "Eiji Tsuburya."

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Alternate Versions

In the original Japanese version, there is no dialogue prior to Rodan's attack on the two honeymooners. The American version later added dialogue in which the young woman was joking about her husband taking pictures of the volcano rather than her. Also, in the original version the scene plays a little longer with Rodan making a pass above the couple, with his shadow passing over them, before he swoops in to carry the couple off.

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Connections

Referenced in Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010)

User Reviews

For an early monster movie--it does a decent job

Rodan is one of the early successors to Godzilla... two years later actually. While it was nowhere as successful or as interesting, it still holds up on its own by having fairly good visuals and greater than bland main characters.

Probably the best and worst thing about Rodan is that it is incredibly short. It has a running time of little over an hour; which means not much happens during the film. The premise is that Rodan is a giant flying reptile that was stuck in an underground chamber filled with prehistoric insects. The insects escape due to a mining incident and Rodan's wrath is sure to follow. Other than that, there isn't much to the movie. There are a couple nice military action sequences against Rodan and the building destruction is cool to watch. However, the movie doesn't have much to it. The characters aren't incredibly interesting and there isn't too much to talk about.

Overall, it is good for people with shorter attention spans or people who don't want to invest much into an older monster classic.