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It’s another CineSavant review of a movie largely unavailable, especially the original Japanese version. This third Ishirô Honda / Eiji Tsuburaya outer space action epic is probably the best Toho science fiction feature ever, an Astral Collision tale in which the drama and characters are as compelling as the special effects. Nothing can stop a colossal planetoid heading toward Earth, but science comes to the rescue with the biggest construction job ever undertaken by mankind. The fine screenplay generates thrills, suspense and human warmth. It also takes place in the far, far future: 1980.

Gorath

CineSavant Revival Screening Review

Not On Region A Home Video

1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 88 83 min. / Yôsei Gorasu

Starring: Ryô Ikebe, Yumi Shirakawa, Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara, Jun Tazaki, Ken Uehara, Takashi Shimura, Seizaburô Kawazu, Takamaru Sasaki, Kô Nishimura, Eitarô Ozawa, Hideyo Amamoto, George Furness, Ross Benette, Nadao Kirino, Fumio Sakashita, Ikio Sawamura, Haruo Nakajima.

Eureka Entertainment’s November lineup was announced yeterday and will feature a classic Japanese monster movie that introduced us to one of the most unique creatures ever seen on film; and two influential sci-fi epics from one of Japan’s inimitable filmmakers.

Mothra (Limited Edition Box Set) (Blu-ray)

Synopsis

One of the most iconic Japanese kaiju, Mothra has appeared in over a dozen feature films. Presented here is her debut, a gloriously vibrant piece of filmmaking that forever changed how kaiju eiga would be produced in Japan.

Following reports of human life on Infant Island, the supposedly deserted site of atomic bomb tests, an international expedition to the heavily-radiated island discovers a native tribe and tiny twin female fairies called “Shobijin” who guard a sacred egg. The overzealous expedition leader kidnaps the Shobijin to exhibit in a Tokyo stage show but soon they summon their protector, hatching...

Mill Creek again dips into exotic Japanese sci-fi fantasy, and this time scores with the desired language choices and subtitle configurations for these spectaculars from the beginning of Toho’s strongest period. The H-Man is a stylish gangster-horror melange about a radioactive slime that cheerfully transforms Guys ‘n’ Dolls into living goo. Then, a Battle in Outer Space is the result when a two-rocket expedition to the moon uncovers an imminent alien invasion, and flying saucer vs. rocketplane dogfights break out in low Earth orbit and in the skies over Tokyo. Was matinee moviegoing ever better than that? CineSavant writes, uh, at length about all the fan concerns over this disc.

Toho Double Feature

The H-Man & Battle in Outer Space

Blu-ray

Mill Creek

Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date June 9, 2020 /

Cinematography: Hajime Koizumi

Director of Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Produced by Tomoyuko Tanaka

Directed by Ishiro Honda

Here’s how a...

Mill Creek again dips into exotic Japanese sci-fi fantasy, and this time scores with the desired language choices and subtitle configurations for these spectaculars from the beginning of Toho’s strongest period. The H-Man is a stylish gangster-horror melange about a radioactive slime that cheerfully transforms Guys ‘n’ Dolls alike into living goo. Then, a Battle in Outer Space is the result when two-rocket expedition to the moon uncovers an imminent alien invasion, and flying saucer vs. rocketplane dogfights break out in low Earth orbit and in the skies over Tokyo. Was matinee moviegoing ever better than that? CineSavant writes, uh, at length about all the fan concerns over this disc.

Toho Double Feature

The H-Man & Battle in Outer Space

Blu-ray

Mill Creek

Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date June 9, 2020 /

Cinematography: Hajime Koizumi

Director of Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Produced by Tomoyuko Tanaka

Directed by Ishiro Honda

Here’s how a...

“If man perishes from the face of the Earth, due to the effects of hydrogen bombing, it is possible that the next ruler of our planet may be The H-Man.”

Toho Sci-fi Double Feature The H Man (1958) and Battle In Outer Space (1959) on Blu-ray From Mill Creek Entertainment. This is the Blu-ray debut for both films! Their site can be found Here

Travel back to the days before CGI, when special effects were real and the results were spectacular! Director Ishirô Honda and special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya bring these wildly colorful kaiju eiga (monster movies) to life in this high-definition double feature presentation.

The H-man (1958) Brought on by hydrogen bomb fallout, H-Man is a slimy green monster that dissolves human tissue and anything else in its path on contact. Scientist must figure out how to stop this creation.

Contains both the American and Japanese edits for The H-Man

Battle In Outer Space...

This week’s home media releases are a relatively quiet bunch, as we only have three different titles on the slate heading home on Tuesday. If you missed it in theaters earlier this year, you can finally catch up with The Hunt. Additionally, Mill Creek has put together a collection of genre films for horror fans called A Deadly Place, and they’re also showing some love to a pair of Kaiju films as well: The H-Man and Battle in Outer Space.

A Deadly Place: 10 Frightening Films

Encapsulating all the frights youve been thirsting for, this 10-film thrill fest includes everything from hauntings and creatures to giant monsters and serial killers. In A Deadly Place collection, theres no way out once you enter.

The H-Man/Battle in Outer Space Double Feature

Travel back to the days before CGI, when special effects were real and the results were spectacular! Director Ishirô Honda...

We’re off to the races with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We’ve got character names and everything!

First off, about last week: I was contacted by some people who would know and they very much denied the majority of the bullet-point rumors from SpoilerMan. If you’re playing along at home, best to depreciate the value of those rumors. However, I couldn’t get them replaced with actual facts about Leia or Domhnall Gleeson, so I’d rather know lies than nothing. Knowing nothing eats away at the core of other things and creates and unscratchable itch. I’ll salve it with bullsh*t, why not?

There were actual things said by people’s in positions of authority this week about Star Wars and, that - of course - begins with the big character name reveals from Entertainment Weekly.

Done in the style of the old Star Wars Topps Trading cards,...

Super-8 Movie Madness at the Way Out Club will be held on Tuesday July 3rd from 8pm to Midnight. These are Super-8 Sound films condensed from features (they average 15 minutes in length) and will be projected on a large screen at the Way Out Club. Admission is only Three Bucks!!!!

The films on the July 3rd are: The Poseidon Adventure, Dick Dastardly and Muttley in The Wacky Races, Jimmy Stewart in Flight Of The Phoenix, Lon Chaney in The Mummy’S Ghost, Victor Mature in One Million B.C., Logan’S Run, Minnie Pearl in Country Music Humor, John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn And The Lady, Sssssssssssss, The Three Stooges in We Want Our Mummy, an educational film: Dealing With The Discomforts Of Pregnancy, Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, Battle In Outer Space, and a ’70s Vampire Trailer Reel

There will be lots of posters and T-Shirts and stuff given away.

Super-8 Movie Madness at the Way Out Club will be held on Tuesday March 1 from 8pm to Midnight. These are Super-8 Sound films condensed from features (they average 15 minutes in length) and will be projected on a large screen at the Way Out Club. Admission is a measly Three Bucks!!!!

Condensed versions of the following films will be screened: Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, Robert Redford in The Great… Waldo Pepper, a ‘Black Lagoon’ Double-Feature of Revenge Of The Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us, The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, Christopher Lee in Taste The Blood Of Dracula, Battle In Outer Space, A Chapter of the Buck Rogers Serial, Konga, The Mummy’S Tomb, Donald Duck in Soup’S On, an Episode of The Mickey Mouse Club and the Little Rascals in the Super-8 Movie Madness favorite The Kid From Borneo (Yum Yum Eat ‘Em Up!

"Actor Ryo Ikebe died of sepsis at a Tokyo hospital on October 8," reports Tokyograph News. "He was 92."

For Variety, Mark Schilling notes that Ikebe originally intended to become a director for the Toho studio. "His soft-featured, city-bred good looks drew the attention of Toho helmer Yasujiro Shimazu, who cast Ikebe in the 1941 pic Fighting Fish (Togyo)." Following World War II, "Ikebe moved from young leading man roles to a wider range of parts, such as the elite bureaucrat who falls into self-destructive dissipation in Minoru Shibuya's Modern Man (Gendaijin, 1952) and the cheating businessman in a troubled marriage in Yasujiro Ozu's Early Spring (Soshun, 1956)." He then rode the Japanese New Wave, "starring as an ex-con who takes up with a fast-living younger women in Masahiro Shinoda's seminal gangster pic Pale Flower (Kawaita Hana, 1964)," which, of course, has just screened in the Shinoda Masterworks series at this year's New York Film Festival.

Icons Of Sci-fi: Toho Collection (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, three discs, $24.96)

Well, I didn’t realize what I was getting into when I agreed to review this latest Icons. I bought previous Sony Icons collections (namely the Hammer pirates & Tong meisters Icons Of Adventure), but this was a review copy, arriving in my hands (I was sad to note) the day Before it hit stores August 18. Sorry. Not enough time to watch multiple versions of three movies in one day (536 minutes total)—and anyone (even me) would be silly to try. Thus, a later-than-we-would-like review. This Icons assembles three 50-year-old Japanese genre flicks (The H-man, Battle In Outer Space, Mothra), all directed by Godzilla guru Ishiro Honda with special FX by effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and released by Toho. Just to be contrary, I watched them in Reverse chronological order.

My main motivation for getting this set was Mothra (1961). I...

In this incarnation of our Videolog column (which began in 1982 with VHS and Betamax and later laserdisc), Starlog posts information usually (though not always) on Tuesdays regarding selected genre titles being released (or re-released) now on DVD and Blu-ray. Prices listed are Msrp, though the clickable links lead to Amazon where the savings is significant. Here’s what’s out this week:

DVD Releases for August 18, 2009

Icons Of Sci-fi: Toho Collection (Sony, $24.96): Toho, the most famous of all Japanese movie studios, struck box office gold with the kaiju eiga (monster movies) that began in 1954 with the original Godzilla (Gojira), the creation of director Ishiro Honda and special FX wizard Eiji Tsuburaya. Now for the first time on DVD—and in their original Tohoscope aspect ratios—Sony Pictures presents three Honda films made during Toho’s glory years. The H-man, Battle In Outer Space and Mothra are presented in both their Japanese and U.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that it will release a trio of vintage genre features from director Ishiro Honda (who helmed the original Gojira and many subsequent Godzilla epics) under the title Icons Of Sci-fi: Toho Collection. The three-disc collection will feature digitally remastered versions of the Japanese and U.S. editions of each movie, and streets August 18.

The titles are: 1958’s The H-man, about radioactive creatures that dissolve their victims; 1959’s Battle In Outer Space, in which Earth forces attempt to save our planet from attacking aliens; and 1961’s Mothra, the kaiju favorite that introduced the titular giant caterpillar/moth, which wreaks havoc in Tokyo trying to rescue its kidnapped tiny priestesses.

Mothra and Battle In Outer Space will be accompanied by audio commentaries by J-cinema experts Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle. Cover art is coming soon; retail price is $24.96. Pre-order yours through Amazon.com now for only $17.49 as of this writing.