MOTW- RODAN (1956)

[Xenorama ™]

Kenji Sahara ... Shigeru Kawamura, colliery engineer
Yumi Shirakawa ... Kiyo, Shigeru's lover
Akihiko Hirata ... Professor KYUichiro Kashiwagi (biology)
Akio Kobori ... Police Chief Nishimura
Yasuko Nakata ... Female Honeymooner
Minosuke Yamada ... Colliery Chief Osaki
Yoshifumi Tajima ... Izeki, reporter of Seibu Nippou
Kiyoharu Onaka ... Male Honeymooner, Sunagawa's friend
Ichirô Chiba ... Chief of police station
Tsurue Ichimonji ... Haru, Kiyo's neighbor
Saburo Iketani ... News Reader
Saburo Kadowaki ... Sunagawa's colleague
Katao Kawasaki ... Tsunesan, miner
Kanta Kisaragi ... Suteyan, miner
Jiro Kumagai ... Policeman Tashiro
Saeko Kuroiwa ... Nurse
Tsuruko Mano ... Osumi, Kiyo's neighbor
Mitsuo Matsumoto ... Professor Isokawa
Hideo Mihara ... Commander of JASDF
Kiyomi Mizunoya ... Otami, Yoshizo's wife
Junichirô Mukai ... Military officer
Toshiko Nakano ... Kiyo's neighbor
Rinsaku Ogata ... Goro, miner, Kiyo's older brother
Keiji Sakakida ... Tahei, miner
Yasuhiro Shigenobu ... Sabu, miner
Junnosuke Suda ... Coroner
Shigemi Sunagawa ... F-86F pilot
Jiro Suzukawa ... Yoshizo, miner
Masaaki Tachibana ... Policeman
Bontaro Taira ... Laborer
Kiyoshi Takagi ... Dr.Minakami (colliery)
Kamayuki Tsubono ... Policeman of the crime laboratory
Mitsuo Tsuda ... Staff officer Takeuchi
Akira Yamada ... Radio operator on jeep

one of my favorite genre movies. lots of great effects as two rather innocent Rodans hatch or revive (never clear if they grew up from the egg and hatchling Shigeru saw was one of the two adults- i like to think this was a third one) and look for food.

the meganuron are creepy as well, and really are effective at the first part of the movie.

[Shonokin]

Haven't watched the original Rodan since probably 1978 or so. I have to look it up again.

That's probably about the only thing I really liked about Tezuka's reign in the millinium G flicks, was that he had a sense of nostalgia and brought back things like the Meganuron.

[RedKing]

This is indeed a great movie-both the Japanese and US versions are excellent! Rodan has really also never looked better than he does here, with that mean face and those huge swirling wings! The 60s Rodan was great but he had a kinder face(as did most of the monsters by then) and the GFW Rodan was also very well designed with a face somewhat resembling an eagle, and let's not even mention the horrid 1993 abomination with it's 3 horned head, long skinny face ,awful ,stiff puppet wings and of course it's midegt size compared to Godzilla and the other monsters!! Anyhoo, I love this movie! I first saw it on a Saturday afternoon as a youngster-I was probably 6 or 7 and i remember the meganuron actually scared me alot. It is kind of neat to speculate about the rodan/meganuron relationship considering the life cycle of the bugs as shown in G VS MEGAGUIRUS-I can imagine Rodans and Megaguiruses being natural enemies. According to some of the early design work i've seen, Rodan was originally conceived of as actually having feathers like an archeopteryx. Also of interest is the US version's use of famous Chinese/American actor Keye Luke as the voice of Shigeru and George Takei of STAR TREK also providing some bit voices! I always figured that the Rodan who appears in GHIDRAH is the offspring of these original 2 Rodans and it may have been him that Shigeru saw hatch.

[Gwangi]

I had first seen the monster Rodan, in the 8mm film of “Ghidrah, The Three-Headed Monster”. Then later, I saw him “Monster Zero.” I did not realize Rodan had his own movie until I spotted it in T.V. Guide sometime in the 70s. (1975 perhaps). It blew me away! The meganuron were quite scary. And Rodan’s destructive wrath was totally cool.

“Rodan” is probably the one kaiju I saw more than any other in the old days, because KTLA, Channel 5, in Southern California, played it in a lot in many different time periods. I saw this in prime time, weekday afternoons, Saturday mornings, Saturday or Sunday afternoons, etc. (I suspect it could also be because of it’s length. The American version is not really that long).

And I think it is cool that you had the likes of Keye Luke and George Takei, as well as Paul Frees, providing the voices.

[Xenorama ™]

the first time i remember it being on in CO (on channel 2) was a Sunday evening, late, like at 10, well past my bedtime (had to be early '74). it was on Command Performance Theater! i too, had seen the 8mm "Battles of Ghidrah (or was it Godzilla?)" which featured the first battle of Godzilla and Rodan but no Ghidrah at all.

my mother said she tried to wake me up to watch it (i desperately wanted just to stay awake for it, but that wasn't in the cards) but i wouldn't wake up.

it wasn't shown too often out in CO, but i was happy to see it later on, especially during an afternoon showing!