Rodan released in Japan as Sora no Daikaijū: Radon (空の大怪獣 ラドン, Sora no Daikaijū:
Radon? lit. "Giant Monster of
the Sky: Rodan"), is a 1956 tokusatsu film produced by Toho Studios. It was the studio's first daikaiju eiga filmed in color (though Toho's first color tokusatsu film,
Madame White Snake, was released earlier that year). It is one of a series of
"giant monster" movies that found an audience outside Japan, especially in America.
The first were serious horror and adventure stories, before the genre devolved to the level of "kiddie" entertainment in the
1960s and 1970s. For a time the film was released in the U.S. under
the title Rodan! The Flying Monster.
Synopsis
Rodan follows in the footsteps of other Japanese monster movies, such as Godzilla, which involve a giant monster being awoken from an ancient hibernation by human beings. In Rodan, miners digging far into the earth stumble across a clutch of
giant, prehistoric insects which viciously attack several of the miners and prompt a government investigation into the matter.
The giant bugs turn out to be little more than food for two gigantic flying beasts called Rodans,
similar to pteranodons but far larger and more powerful, who hatch from giant eggs and
proceed to terrorize the entire world.
Rodan is notable for its action scenes, which are surprisingly well filmed and still excite audiences today. Unlike
most of the Toho monster movies, which featured "action" scenes consisting of roaring monsters lumbering across the landscape at
a stupefyingly slow pace, the battle scenes and monster rampage in Rodan are thrilling, exciting, and fast-paced; it is
much easier for the audience to suspend disbelief and accept the low-tech
special effects here. The emphasis on action and thrills, and willingness to scare the audience, has made Rodan one of the
more enduring entries in daikaiju eiga.
In the original Japanese version this daikaiju is called "Radon", a truncation of
"pteranodon"). While it is commonly believed that the Japanese Radon became Rodan for the
international release due to a translation error, it is likely that the name was
deliberately changed to avoid confusion with the chemical element radon. The name Radon is, however, preserved in the English-dubbed version of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993).
U.S. release
Lobby card to the 1958 US release of
Rodan
Rodan was quite successful in its first run in the United States. It was the first Japanese movie to receive general
release on the West Coast to strong box-office.1 It later received the biggest TV advertising campaign given to a film to that date on New York's
NBC flagship station WRCA-TV. 10-, 20- and 60-second commercials were
shown for a week before the film's opening.2
It grossed an estimated $450,000 to $500,000 during its opening weekend at 79 theaters in the New York City metropolitan area. Several theatrical circuits, including RKO, announced that Rodan broke the records for a science-fiction film.3
George Takei, better known as Lt. Hikaru Sulu in
the original Star Trek series, was one of the many voice actors employed
for this film. The only other Kaiju film he performed voice work for was in the movie,
"Godzilla Raids Again."
For the first time since 1989, in 2002, the U.S. version of Rodan
was released on DVD as part of 5-disc set with the U.S. versions of Godzillas 1, 4, 10 & 15. In 2008, Classic Media is going
to release the original Japanese version of Rodan as part of the new Toho Master Collection along with Godzilla's 1, 2,
4,5,6,10,15 and "War of the Gargantas".
Changes to the Japanese version :
- Some of Ifukube's themes were removed in favor of Stock music
- A prologue showing footage of American nuclear tests.
Cast
- Shigeru Kawamura (coal mine shaft engineer) - Kenji Sahara
- Kiyo (coal mine shaft office worker) - Yumi Shirakawa
- Dr. Kyuuichirou Kashiwagi - Akihiko Hirata
- Nishimura (Police inspector) - Akio Kobori
- Izeki (Seibu Journalist) - Yoshifumi Tajima
- Oosaki (coal mine executive officer) - Minosuke Yamada
- Ishikawa (Earthquake Research Institute engineer) - Ren Imaizumi
- Earthquake Research Institute engineer - Saburou Kadowaki
- Minami - Fuyuki Murakami
- Journalist - Kouji Uno
- Suda - Akio Kusama
- Hayama - Fumindo Matsuo
- Military Commander - Hideo Mihara
- Professor Isokawa - Mitsuo Matsumoto
- Minakami - Kiyoshi Takagi
- Gorou (Miner/Kiyo's older brother) - Rinsaku Ogata
- Yoshizou (miner) - Jirou Suzukawa
- Tsunesan (miner) - Tateo Kawasaki
- Suteyan (miner) - Kanta Kisaragi
- Senkichi (miner) - Ichirou Nakaya
- Tahei (miner) - Keiji Sakakida
- Air Self-Defense Force commander - Hideo Mihara
- Self-Defense Force signaler - Yoshio Katsube
- Takeuchi (Air Self-Defense Force staff officer) - Mitsuo Tsuda
- Chief constable - Ichirou Chiba
- Tashiro (policeman) - Jirou Kumagai
- Nurse - Saeko Kuroiwa
- Female Honeymooner - Yasuko Nakata
- Male Honeymooner - Kiyoharu Oonaka
- Otami (Yoshizou's wife) - Kiyomi Ichinoya
- Radon - Haruo Nakajima,Katsumi Tezuka
- Meganuron - Haruo Nakajima (top), Katsumi
Tezuka/Others (body)
Trivia
- Many promotional stills and posters for the film depicted a Rodan that looked radically different from the one in the actual
movie. Rather than the appearance of a slightly larger, more upright version of the traditional Pterodactyl, this version bore more of a resemblance to the bird-like Azhdarchidae family.
- The giant insects featured in this film, the Meganula, would later go on to appear in the 2000 film Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.
- This film marks the only time in which Rodan is seen to emit a strange burst of concentrated gas from its mouth as a form of
weapon. The inclusion of this seemingly tangential ability was most likely meant to answer the popularity of Godzilla's atomic heat ray.
Footnotes
- Note 1: "Toho's Science-Fiction Team Completes Another Thriller; Tint
Entitled 'The H-Man'" Far East Film News May 30, 1958, p.15.
- Note 2: "Rodan" Far East Film News April 4, 1958, p.4.
- Note 3: "Toho's 'Rodan' Hits Jackpot in New York" Far East Film
News March 28, 1958, p.15.
External links
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