Both Sperhauk and I picked up a copy of Icons Of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection. It's a three movie set with Mothra, Battle in Outer Space and The H-Man. Mike was interested in seeing The H-Man. He hadn't seen it since he was a child. He remembers it creeped him out. I don't remember ever seeing it as a kid. According to my movie list I first saw it 2/10/92. I have a copy from Turner but hadn't watched it for some time so I was game. The disc has the original Japanese version and an English version. I had just watched Battle in Outer Space a short while ago so I voted for the other two as our choices. I have a copy of BIOS on tape that I mentioned a few weeks back. All three movies come stacked on one spindle requiring you to remove all or most anytime you want to watch a movie. Not the greatest packaging idea in my mind but no one asks me, so they don't know. There are two commentaries in the set, one for BIOS and the other for Mothra. The movies all look really good, nice and bright, with great colors. Well worth the price, and a great addition to one's monster collection.
The H-Man is a look at the problems that result from the careless act of tossing atomic weapons about the landscape. As you could well imagine it's been on the Japanese mind a bit more than most minds, especially back in the 50's. We watched the Japanese version which is 87 minutes. The US version is 79 minutes. Some guys are robbin' their pals drug stash. They disappear leaving their clothes and jewelry. There are some average effects which show the thieves melting, disappearing, and leaving only their clothes behind. This is pretty lowbudget film making and they do an ok job. It looks like they use a lot of miniatures which are tilted to make the goo flow. Most of those look pretty good too. In the human size world the cops are puzzled. The crime boss is wondering what's happened to his guys. A pretty singer in a nightclub, and a science guy get involved. The nightclub has a troupe of bikini clad dancers that shake up a storm but never get too naughty, it is 1958 after all. The singer is the girlfriend of one of the missing men. The gangsters, and cops, are thinkin' she might know where he is. The science guy has the key to the story. He can't get the cops to take him seriously. He thinks that some sailors had been turned into goo by radiation and they are oozing about doing the killing. Who would believe that? Not the cops who wonder around, scratching their heads, wondering where those robbers went. More stuff happens and it becomes pretty obvious that the science guy has the answer. Lots of cops and criminals get melted by the fast flowing goo. Bullets don't stop it, but they keep blasting away, not even hitting the wall or the ground. What to do? Ask a science guy! Looks like fire and electricity might do it. Okay, got plenty of those around. The authorities figure out the way to get the H-Men, and there are a few of the gooey guys, is to pour gasoline into the sewers and light that on fire. Oh, no! All our main characters are down in the sewer. Will they get out? Don't worry, most of them do. Just in time to watch the credits roll over the huge fires that pour out of the sewers and burn a chunk of the city. Oh, well, maybe they got The H-Man. And maybe, there won't be anymore. It's a pretty fun movie, we laughed at some of the silly bits and the dialog. I'm glad so far I bought this and know that it will pop up in rotation once in a while. Maybe not as often as our second feature, which is a favorite of the Japanese monster movies, so on to that. First a bathroom break.
Allright, all set for some super gigantic flying monster action. Me too. Mothra is a 1961 film, and it, like the other two movies in the set is directed by Ishiro Honda. He's the guy who wrote and directed Godzilla and many of the other Toho monster movies. We watched the Japanese version, which at 101 minutes is about 13 minutes longer than the US release. Chop, chop! There's a song by the Mothra girls, played by the Japanese singing stars The Peanuts, and some other stuff that was cut. The movie opens up with a ship in trouble. The men abondon the sinking ship and wind up on Infant Island. Thought to be radioactive, it's amazing the men show no signs of radiation poisoning. They say they were helped by some natives. Odd, the island is supposed to be uninhabitited. Some science guys get an expedition together to check it out. They find two tiny girls, The Mothra Girls, and the bad guy tries to kidnap them. He's a dick. The natives react and the bad guy backs down. He returns with lots of guns and guys, blasts the natives, and the girls are his. He puts them on show in Tokyo only to find out that their singing is calling to Mothra, who's on the way. Well, sort of, the natives have to rock out and hatch the egg and then the larva Mothra has to swim all the way to Japan. It takes a while but there's usually something going on to keep your interest. The larva smashes stuff and then cocoons up against a tower. The bad guy leaves Japan and takes the girls with him. He returns to his homeland of Rolisica which looks much like a USA that had been decorated by the Russians. He comes to a bad end as Mothra wrecks havok on the Rolisica's New Kirk City. Looks a lot like New York City. Blows up real good. The girls are rescued and they return home somewhere on Mothra. They are so small I can't be sure what crevis they crawled into. There's dancing and singing on Infant Island that night. Snacks too. I didn't finish my snacks, so I packed them up and went home to bed, visions of block long butterflies dancing in my head.
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