CPB Writes

We Call It Godzilla will be going on a brief hiatus while I deal with some life stuff, but will resume this summer as we head into the early sixties! In the meantime, enjoy this essay on the last Toho special effects production from the decade that spawned them. Info Also known as: The Great Space War (original Japanese); Satellite Wars (Argentina); Worlds at War (Brazil); The Interplanetary Battle (Belgium) Director: Honda Ishiro. Screenplay: Sekizawa Shinichi, from a story by Okami Jojiro. Director of Special Effects: Tsuburaya Eiji. Composer: Ifukube Akira. Running Time: 93 minutes Release Date: December 26, 1959 What’s It About? A battle in outer space.  …More detail? Okay. In the then-near future, an alien race known as the Natarl destroys a manned communications satellite orbiting Earth before causing several disasters with their anti-gravitational absolute zero freeze ray. Despite the Natarl’s deployment of mind-controlled human saboteurs, the United Nations launches two...

Info Also known as: Giant Monster Baran (Original Japanese); Varan the Unbelievable (U.S. cut); Varan - The Beast from the East (Brazil); Varan, the Giant Monster (France); Varan - the Monster from Prehistoric Times (Germany); Varan the Incredible (Mexico); The Giant Monster Varanus (USSR). Director: Honda Ishiro. Screenplay: Sekizawa Shinichi, from a story by Kuronuma Ken. Director of Special Effects: Tsuburaya Eiji. Composer: Ifukube Akira. Runtime: 87 minutes Release Date: October 14, 1958 What’s It About? Two researchers’ expedition in search of a rare butterfly species leads them to a remote village that worships the lake-dwelling god Baradagi. The explorers find their butterfly but wind up killed in a landslide, seemingly by Baradagi. One of them is survived by a sister, the reporter Yuriko (Sonoda Ayumi), who pursues the truth of her brother’s death with the help of one of the researchers’ peers, our leading man Kenji (Nomura Kozo). The expedition soon discovers that Baradagi, a...