Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

For the discussion of Toho produced and distributed films or shows released before 1980.

What are your favorite Honda films?

Godzilla (1954)
38
28%
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
7
5%
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
22
16%
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
14
10%
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
13
10%
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
10
7%
All Monsters Attack (1969)
2
1%
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
19
14%
Other (specify)
10
7%
 
Total votes: 135

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ScootaVaran
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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by ScootaVaran »

I love so much of his work, but i think Gojira and Atragon have to be his greatest.
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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by Tohosaurus »

Godzilla
Matango
War of the Gargantuas
Mothra

Or I should say Mothra or TTOMG.
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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by Kaiser »

Godzilla ('54), Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster and Rodan are my favorite Honda films. I'm interested if anyone here has seen his non-science fiction output. Is it any good?

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by cantreachbeer »

i'm surprised to see people counting matango in their top favs, freakin loved that movie. definitely one of my top favs

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by gzilla46 »

The guy must've loved Monster movies growing up. He's made so many of them, Ray Harryhausen would be impressed.
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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by ILL GREEN »

I guess I'm the only one that chose All Monsters Attack. It was one of my choices because besides the goofiness it had a decent story along with a good message of kids needing to be strong and doing things themselves. I love the poetic March Of The Monsters theme song of the japanese version rather than the psych instrumental of the american for it reveals Honda's perspective of kaiju and who are the real monsters.

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by KJ Corp »

Gojira is one of my all time favorites, I like destroy all monsters as well.

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by Bigdog »

Gojira, Godzilla vs . The Thing, Monster Zero and......War of the Gargantuas.


Godzilla vs. The Thing was my very first Godzilla film, and one of the very first movies I distinctly remember watching at the age of four. Everything about this movie is what has guided me to pursue film-making. While I loved watching Disney films, Mothra and the twins alone brought me into interest of this film. I have attached so much nostalgia to this film that I would love to see this film remade eventually in today's effects because it was ahead of its time, but because I was literally steeped in the 60s and 70s as a kid. I used to constantly watch Lost In Space,I Love Lucy ,Green Acres, and virtually many other things in this amazing time period called the 90's alongside what are arguably among the best animated and live action films of recent history. It was natural for me to love the Godzilla films because I was already steeped and appreciated the effects of the time. I basically seen the first King Kong, the remake and the Godzilla movies that I had around up to that time and it has motivated me so much to pursue a film career and hopefully, be able to put my own mark on the franchises I have admired since I was small. I was sorely disappointed that Godzilla vs. Mothra from the second series lacked by comparison, and I consider that my birthday film because of its release date being right after my birth date. I amount that to nostalgia, though.

Monster Zero was another favorite and a reason why I came to love the first Planet of the Apes film. From the fighting scenes, to that pose from Godzilla to the final fighting scene on Earth, the film was strong in of itself. The one thing I really love about this film is it's intrinsically science fiction story-line that literally blows out the later attempts from the set, which frankly needs to be explored even more in the series. The characters were awesome, though I need to re-watch the film again in its entirety as its been many years since I've seen the film. The plot was strong and nothing needed to be changed aside from the stock footage's prevalence during a few scenes.

The War of the Gargantuas, though I first seen the film on CBC during a summer three years ago late at night, had to be another favorite of mine from Honda. I never seen the Frankenstein film, but the storyline of these monsters being like Kong/Frankenstein mix was captivating. To be honest, my interest came from the Kiryu series featuring one of the scenes.

Gojira was the one Godzilla film I got to see first bootlegged on Youtube much like the rest of the series I didn't have access to at this point almost ten years ago next year. Before I seen this movie, Godzilla 1998 ranked as the best Godzilla film over Megalon and Revenge, but under Mothra for a reason: I never was really exposed to it. I mean, I was, but I had this issue with watching a Godzilla movie in black and white and it looked boring to me, at least the opening of the American version did. I'm glad though that my exposure was to the first and arguably amongst the greatest of Godzilla films before I got my hands on KOTM a few months later when it hit on DVD. Why?

It did everything right that 1998 messed up. While I still loved the 1998 film, watching this movie was like watching what I thought should be the ideal Godzilla movie. The relationships and how the story is a conflict between old versus new goes throughout the entire film. In old Japan, women were betrothed and had to deal with whoever they were married to, while everyone was bound by the traditional Japanese hierarchy , but in post-war Japan, Emiko's relationship to Ogata over Serizawa attains newer meaning as they found their roles outside of Japanese society as it was. Before the War, people only had to deal with conventional warfare while after the bombs were dropped, Godzilla appeared as a dualistic entity of both creation and destruction: he created an opportunity to Westernize Japan and give women and the lower class more opportunities, while simultaneously finding its place not as an aggressor, but a peacemaker between two world powers that were willing to click the trigger. While the War was bad the notion of nuclear weapons, a disgusting one, it was out of Pandora's Box for us to use the knowledge for nobler purposes. Without the Bomb, or Godzilla, Japan would have ironically fell in the long term and we would hardly have much from Japan to offer. Osamu Tezuka and countless other creators might have died in the trenches or as kamikaze, and any manga and media that would have been created in this vacuum would be ultra-nationalist, leaving the progressives to either leave Japan or move into the fold. Japan would have simply never became how they are, and perhaps,we might be talking about German monster movies rather than Japanese kaiju-eiga, due to how Berlin was going to be where the Bomb was to be dropped on instead.

While the Bomb serves as a reminder of to not use nuclear weapons ever again and the negative effects of the Bomb on humanity, it also serves as a reminder of the many more countless lives that were saved from the Imperialist war machine, not including just those in foreign lands, to pursue their passions inside their homeland and guide Japan towards a different path of the arts and business. The best part of Gojira is that the reality was never sugarcoated, but rpesented how it was. Yamane was the idealist who wanted to study the creature, Ogata the practical, Emiko the emotional and Serizawa the passionate [like a stand-in for Einstein] scientist. The Diet room alone shown how different Japan was only a few years during the War.

I have felt that the reason why Godzilla attacks Japan is not just because of it being America, but [subconsciously], it also was a giant kami that wanted to unleash wrath on Japan for what the leadership did during and prior to World War II to others in and around Japan like how Yahweh punished the people of the world with a flood. Godzilla I feel could be a huge jab towards Japan's backwardness and to the former regime, going off of how many artists in Japan I know were critical of their country's faults even up to this day.

This movie's metaphors alone make it probably one of the best Japanese films , if not films, of all time.

An honorable mention has to go to All Monsters Attack, or Godzilla's Revenge. While its essentially more family friendly than the rest of the ones one the list, I have to admit that alongside Megalon, it has a special place in my heart as a Godzilla film in my childhood.

I have never really seen Mekagojira no Gyakushu , but I've Mantango, which feels like a Cloverfield prototype. I hardly remembered when the monster shown up as I only seen a few seconds of it appearing and that was it. Since most of the characters were unlikable, I didn't mind to see some of them fall and I didn't miss them...I'll have to give it a second try, but it never stuck with me at all.

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tymon
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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by tymon »

gzilla46 wrote:The guy must've loved Monster movies growing up. He's made so many of them, Ray Harryhausen would be impressed.
Trust me, he wasn't. ;) He *should* have been, though...
JAGzilla wrote:And then there was The Giant Condor. He...seemed very dedicated to what he was doing?

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by Bigdog »

tymon wrote:
gzilla46 wrote:The guy must've loved Monster movies growing up. He's made so many of them, Ray Harryhausen would be impressed.
Trust me, he wasn't. ;) He *should* have been, though...
I feel he would have been impressed if he stepped back a few and looked at how different Godzilla was from film he helped create. Sure it did borrow some elements, but it is entirely its own beast, and if he seen Gojira, I feel Harryhausen would have been impressed more than not. But that's just my guess.

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by Space Hunter M »

My favorite one is Godzilla because that's what everyone else likes. Oh wait, no. I stated previously that King Kong vs. Godzilla was my favorite. Riiight.

okay, I didn't shut up, but still

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by tymon »

Bigdog wrote:
tymon wrote:
gzilla46 wrote:The guy must've loved Monster movies growing up. He's made so many of them, Ray Harryhausen would be impressed.
Trust me, he wasn't. ;) He *should* have been, though...
I feel he would have been impressed if he stepped back a few and looked at how different Godzilla was from film he helped create. Sure it did borrow some elements, but it is entirely its own beast, and if he seen Gojira, I feel Harryhausen would have been impressed more than not. But that's just my guess.
As brilliant as Harryhausen was technically and creatively, Beast doesn't have shit on Godzilla in terms of story, even if they are similar in some of the superficial details. Too bad Ray couldn't see that...or maybe he did, which made him even more resentful lol.
JAGzilla wrote:And then there was The Giant Condor. He...seemed very dedicated to what he was doing?

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Re: Ishiro Honda, 1911 - 1993

Post by Bigdog »

tymon wrote:
tymon wrote:
gzilla46 wrote:The guy must've loved Monster movies growing up. He's made so many of them, Ray Harryhausen would be impressed.
Trust me, he wasn't. ;) He *should* have been, though...
I feel he would have been impressed if he stepped back a few and looked at how different Godzilla was from film he helped create. Sure it did borrow some elements, but it is entirely its own beast, and if he seen Gojira, I feel Harryhausen would have been impressed more than not. But that's just my guess.
As brilliant as Harryhausen was technically and creatively, Beast doesn't have shit on Godzilla in terms of story, even if they are similar in some of the superficial details. Too bad Ray couldn't see that...or maybe he did, which made him even more resentful lol.[/quote]

The only thing in common was the first draft and the novelization of that story, but yeah from the looks of it, it feels generic. Beast feels like its just a lizard that has zero symbolism and metaphors, while Godzilla actually has a heart and soul that embodies a nation's inner struggle with modernity versus traditionalism amidst rebuilding their society after so much was lost, either through the firebombing or the bombs themselves.

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