Radon — giant pteranodon The most curious thing in this film is how cleverly its plot connects the earth with the story of a giant Pteranodon - a flying supersonic monster, covering the sky with the span of its wings. Instead of completely occupying the airspace, the film is literally bathed in diversity and contrast, which is very pleasing and memorable.
The Fifties were simply occupied by giant monsters in cinema, especially in the US. “The Monster from the depth of 20,000 sazhens”, “Tarantula”, “It came from the bottom of the sea” and so on. Japanese cinema showed the world "Godzilla", then - its continuation about the battle with Angirus (Ankilas) and now it is the turn of a new Japanese monster, which soon also becomes, in fact, one of the main opponents of Godzilla.
I immediately want to note the serious approach of Ishiro Honda to his project. “Radon” is not just a fantasy about the attack of monsters on the city, but also quite a horror film, albeit a little archaic in its presentation for the present time. It begins as a thriller detective - two miners fight on the eve of the beginning of events, and then find the corpse of one of them with a stab wound. However, the doctor is not sure if he is dealing with a stabbing. Tension is growing, because soon more people are dying and disappearing in the mines. One of the screenwriters for good reason was one of the authors of Godzilla - Takeo Murato.
If Godzilla was shown twenty minutes after the start, Pteranodon would have to wait a very long time. But no problem, because the first half of the film is dedicated to giant insects! Eerie Meganula - the larvae of Meganulon dragonfly make their debut in this film, and in the millennial era will become the main participants of Godzilla vs. Queen Megagirus - see how important and interconnected everything in the Toho universe.
The chytin cover perfectly protects giant insects from bullets, so it is not possible to get even a dead specimen for research. People die like flies. In terms of cruelty, "Rodan" will be much tougher than "Godzilla" - he took lives usually behind the scenes, sowing chaos and destruction, here Honda focuses on small tragedies - the corpses of workers, people dragged into flooded mines, military men seized by clingy claws, a couple of newlyweds eaten and their skeletons.
However, the latter is already a matter of pteranodon beaks. Yeah, there's a couple of them here. Two copies of Rodans fly out of the nest to eat a little man, as they used to burst these same Meganul in the caves, and the food is now over. Moreover, in the Japanese original version, the second individual appears as an unexpected surprise at the end, immediately before the final act with the shelling of the volcano.
In the American film underwent a complete remix. In addition to the added scenes about nuclear tests and the voice-over narrative, the United States changed the names of the mountain and the city that was attacked, changed the name of the monster from Radon to Rodan, about the reasons for which there are already three legends - confusion with the eponymous element, the name of the company popular at the time or some famous children's toy in demand.
Against the background of the extremely average “Godzilla Attacks Again”, I want to rejoice with happiness when you see how Ishiro Honda makes a big movie. No wonder Toho again turned to the director of the first “Godzilla” to make a successful solo film about Rodan. In the United States, the film was even more successful. How beautifully the material is presented here, how the heroes of the narrative are revealed, with what meticulousness all the smallest details in the scenes of destruction are filmed.
Episodes of the monster attack are made with careful attention and study - every shingle flies away here, glass breaks, believably made buses turn over - they approached the reconstruction of the destruction with a soul, making a beautiful volcano with naturalistic dense lava and performed every plank and every pebble in urban action scenes.
And Honda again enthusiastically glorifies the human spirit, showing in the frame of miners, workers, real military equipment, as if at a parade, and only then goes to miniatures, I must say, made even better than modern toys, given how well they move on the radio control. In frame-by-frame shooting, only a scene with cracks on the egg is executed here.
Rodan has a large number of models - this is a hatched chick, not at all inspiring the horror as adults, and a layout with a beak for eating caterpillars, a version for flight - they say in 2009 on blue-rays all the cables were wiped, making the reissue of the film more pleasant to the eyes - well, and of course, the full-fledged final costume.
In the US version, the topic of atomic bombardment and radiation is raised more acutely. In the original, it is obvious that Honda wanted to move a little away from the theme of Godzilla, focusing on climate disasters, in particular – on Global Warming. Hence the awakening of the guise, and favorable conditions for eggs inside a sleeping volcano, environmental problems are also caused by human activity.
And yet, given how late monsters appear here on timekeeping, the director has great time to reveal human characters - many of them have already played in Godzilla, Honda knows a lot about good actors. And they are presented in very interesting details. For example, the main character is the sister of the same miner-fighter, whom the first third of the film is wanted, suspecting the murder of a comrade.
Insanely pleased with the fact that in addition to high-quality elaboration of various visual details, Ishiro Honda again filled his film with amazing talented music. Composer Akira Ifukube made bright and remarkable compositions for Radon, which, although inferior to the title theme of Godzilla, still create a wonderful atmosphere when viewing and keep the proper mood of the frame, whether it is tension and mystery or action with military equipment, or the final sad melody, where both monsters burn alive in the fire, being unable to exist without each other.
The film turned out wonderful, effectively demonstrating the skill of all its creators. Wonderful heroes, who, of course, do not touch the soul as much as Professor Serizawa, but confidently keep their interest throughout the “human part”; well-designed mashups of the monster and people, high-quality action with urban buildings, good air scenes – not without complaints, but smartly staged for their time (especially against the background of the final part of “Godzilla Attacks Again”, where there were also fighter planes). Ishiro Honda has made a lot of great films, and this one is definitely one of them!
9 out of 10
Original