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Movies & TV

Icons Of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection

ICONS OF SCI-FI: TOHO COLLECTION (Columbia) D: Ishiro Honda

THE H-MAN (1958) w/ Yumi Shirakawa, Kenji Sahara. Rating: NNNN DVD package: n/a

BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1959) w/ Ryo Ikebe, Kyoko Anzai. Rating: NN DVD package: NNN

MOTHRA (1961) w/ Franki Sakai, Jerry Ito. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNNN


This is Toho monster madness at its cheesy finest, with Godzilla director Ishiro Honda at the helm, Eiji Tsuburaya’s handmade effects, demented scores and broad acting. All three discs feature both original Japanese versions and dubbed American recuts, fully restored.

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Mothra is a giant monster classic. A crooked showman steals the Tiny Beauties. Mothra comes to their rescue and Tokyo gets trashed again.

The Tiny Beauties (played by twin sisters Emi and Yumi Ito, who sing the incredibly cool Mothra song) are a pair of fairies telepathically linked to Mothra, which makes it the only creature whose purpose we know: she exists to maintain the balance of nature. Godzilla, however many meanings various characters ascribe to him, remains an enigma. It’s a key source of his enduring popularity.

We also know Mothra and the Tiny Beauties’ origin myth, thanks to an incredibly well-researched and enthusiastic commentary by Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle.

The H-Man is a little gem, Toho sci-fi meets 40s B movie film noir, with flint-eyed cops, vicious hoods and a truly creepy (but not giant) monster. A gangster vanishes from a rainy street, leaving his clothes behind. His nightclub singer girlfriend and a scientist studying radiation in humans get drawn into the case.

Big fun. Double-bill it with Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly.

Effects scenes aside, Battle In Outer Space is a bore. Flying saucers attack. Earthlings fight back. No actual story. Godziszewski and Ryfle sound glum.

EXTRAS Japanese and American cuts, commentary on Mothra and Battle In Outer Space. Widescreen. Japanese, English audio. English subtitles.

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