Rodan (1956)

Thanks to the Crestwood House series of books centered around movie monsters, I learned very early on that Rodan, whom I'd first seen in the movie Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, had a movie all his own before becoming a part of the Godzilla franchise. That particular book spelled out a lot of specifics about the movie's plot: how the initial threat was a bunch of giant insects, that there actually ended up being two Rodans, and that the climax took place at a volcano. So, by the time I finally saw the movie, I knew a lot of what to expect. This, along with The War of the Gargantuas, was one of only a few non-Godzilla kaiju flicks that I managed to see when I was young. After seeing the American trailer on that Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies VHS, I saw the movie itself on TNT during a New Year's weekend marathon of Japanese monster movies. I'm not certain about the year but I have a strong feeling that it was 1994; what I do remember, though, is that my step-cousin was spending the night with me and we were quite interested in seeing this, as our love of Godzilla and kaiju movies in general was at its peak. As long ago as it was, I can remember the two of us getting a real kick out of this, with many scenes sticking in my mind, like the deaths of the miners at the hands of the Meganulon, the sudden appearance of those creatures, the gradual buildup to Rodan, the ill-fated encounter a fighter pilot has with him, the lead remembering watching him hatch from his egg deep within the mine, and the touching ending where both of the Rodans seemingly burn to death. I didn't see Rodan again until many years later, when I was in my early teens and AMC played it one time on their AMC FX block on Friday night; then, I got the newly-released DVD for Christmas in 2002. Like many, I didn't see the original Japanese version until it was released on DVD in a double feature with The War of the Gargantuas in 2008, but even in its American version, I've always found this to be one of Toho's most enjoyable monster films, in spite of some notable flaws that it does have. Moreover, it's actually a significant film in a number of ways, not the least of which was its being the studio's first successful, standalone kaiju film after Godzilla, proving that there was a very viable future for them in continuing to produce such movies, especially since, at the time, Godzilla himself had been put into hibernation for what would eventually amount to close to a decade.

Kitamatsu is a small mining village near Mt. Aso in Kyushu, full of working-class people. One day, two men, Goro and Yoshi, disappear in one of the shafts after a sudden flood occurs. Shigeru Kawamura, a safety engineer, heads to the site to investigate and finds Yoshi's hideously bruised and lacerated corpse floating in the water. After examining the body, the local doctor concludes that death was caused by an unknown weapon that was extremely sharp. Because Goro hasn't been found and, moreover, because he and Yoshi had fought that morning earlier, rumors start to circulate that he murdered Yoshi. This causes a lot of heartache for Kiyo, Goro's sister and Shigeru's girlfriend, compounded when two miners and a local policeman are also killed in the same manner in the mine shaft. However, the killer soon reveals itself to be a large, insect-like creature when it makes its way to the village and kills two officers during a pursuit that leads back to the mine. There, after managing to kill the creature, Shigeru finds and attempts to retrieve Goro's body, only to be threatened by another creature before being trapped in the tunnel when a cave-in occurs. The next day, an earthquake strikes the area, the epicenter of which is between the mine and Mt. Aso. Investigating the area, the police find Shigeru wandering the crater that the quake created, and he's brought back to the town, where it's revealed that he's completely lost his memory. Though they intend to help him any way they can, the doctors are not optimistic about his chances. Meanwhile, a much bigger threat begins to make itself known when an air force pilot has a lethal run-in with a UFO that's able to maneuver at supersonic speed. The UFO is then spotted in various countries across the world, able to travel very long stretches in less than half an hour, and a newlywed couple disappears near Mt. Aso, as do several head of cattle. The couple's camera is retrieved and when the film is developed, one of the photos reveals what looks like a huge wing and talon, similar to those sported by a prehistoric Pteranodon. This outlandish theory is confirmed when Shigeru regains his memory and remembers that, while trapped in the mine, he saw a gigantic egg hatch a winged reptile, similar to a Pteranodon, which ate the big insect larvae as if they were just worms. Now, this monster of the skies, dubbed "Rodan" by a paleontologist, is poised to emerge from Mt. Aso once again and threaten all of Japan, as well as the entire world.

Rodan was not director Ishiro Honda's kaiju followup to Godzilla, as in 1955 he'd directed Half Human, Toho's take on the Abominable Snowman, although the original Japanese version of that film has basically become lost after having been removed from circulation due to its rather unflattering depiction of the burakumin, Japan's largest minority group. Rodan, however, would prove to be a much more well-received and important film, not only for Toho but also when put into context with Honda's career as a whole, as it would cement his mastery of kaiju movies for the studio brass, which would eventually lead to his being pigeonholed by them as strictly a maker of monster and science fiction films. In fact, in an interview, Honda himself said, "I think it was Rodan that put me on my path." That said, he had a lot of affection for this film, as he considered it one of his personal best kaiju movies, a sentiment that's shared by a lot of fans, myself included.

Kenji Sahara is an actor who's very well-known to fans of kaiju and tokasatsu cinema, as he appeared and starred in a good number of them, as well as in the well-known science fiction show, Ultra Q. His role here as Shigeru Kawamura was his first lead, though he had appeared in a bit part in Godzilla. As I've said many times, the characters in these films are usually used as mere devices to drive the plot forward, rather than provide any deep drama or emotion to the story, and while that is certainly true of Shigeru, Sahara still gives the role his all and makes it count when it really needs to. Shigeru starts off as a dependable engineer for the colliery, who gets right to business when investigating a sudden flood in one of the mine-shafts, leading a group to try to find the source of it. In doing so, he stumbles across Yoshi's body and has it taken to the infirmary. Despite the possibility of Goro being the killer, Shigeru doesn't believe it, as he feels he knows Goro, and comforts Kiyo, Goro's despondent sister, about it, as well as tells the men not to spread any rumors. His belief in Goro is confirmed soon enough when the Meganulon reveal themselves and Shigeru takes part in the police's pursuit of one of the creatures, as well as helps them and the military battle it in the mine. He himself manages to kill it by crushing it with a row of mine carts but, when he attempts to retrieve Goro's body, a cave-in traps him in the deepest part of the tunnel with more of the creatures. The next day, following an earthquake, Shigeru is found wandering around in the crater it created, disheveled and suffering from a serious case of amnesia. He remembers nothing, not his coworkers, the Meganulon, or even Kiyo, and he apparently can't speak either, as he doesn't utter a word during this stretch of the film. The doctors are pessimistic of his chances of regaining his memory but his recovery does happen gradually, until a sudden shock causes him to remember everything. While watching a bird's egg hatch, he remembers seeing Rodan hatch out of his giant-sized egg in the tunnel and gobble up the Meganulon. The horror of this sight is seemingly what caused his amnesia but, when it comes back to him, so does his entire memory, and he's able to confirm the creature's existence and its relation to the Pteranodon to the authorities. From there, like everyone else, Shigeru becomes a bystander to the Rodans' reign of terror and the military's efforts to destroy them, although he is present at the operation that ultimately kills them and, like the others, seems to lament their slow and painful death.

The most pitiful of the film's cast is Kiyo (Yumi Shirakawa), Goro's sister and Shigeru's lover. This poor girl goes through so much emotional torment through this film, it's a wonder that she doesn't lose her mind. First, she has to deal with her brother being blamed for the death of Yoshi and then the deaths of the miners and policeman later on, with Yoshi's widow, Otami, attempting to break into her house at one point. Then, while Shigeru is comforting her as she cries her eyes out, assuring her that he's sure Goro is not the killer, since two of the victims were his close friends, she's horrified when one of the Meganulon appears and barges into her house through the back. She and Shigeru manage to escape and it's driven out of her house before it can do any damage but, as if she hadn't been put through enough, Shigeru is apparently killed in a cave-in, only to be found the next day, suffering from amnesia. Though distraught that he doesn't remember her, Kiyo stays by his side during his therapy, refusing to give up, and he does manage to make some progress. Ironically, Kiyo inadvertently causes him to remember everything, showing him a couple of eggs that her pet birds have laid, and when one of them starts to hatch, it causes Shigeru to remember seeing Rodan hatch from his egg in the mine. After this, Kiyo is determined to stick by Shigeru to the bitter end, joining him in the climax where the military attempts to bury the Rodans in their nest at Mt. Aso, despite the danger of both the monsters and the volcano's potential to erupt. During the ending, as they watch the Rodans suffer their slow and agonizing death, Kiyo is seemingly overcome with grief and pity for them, burying her head in Shigeru's shoulder and crying.

Although he demonstrated a lot of dramatic range when he played Dr. Serizawa in Godzilla, Akihiko Hirata was often relegated to playing exposition-spouting authority figures such as cops and scientists and that's definitely true of his role of Prof. Kashiwagi here. Kashiwagi's function is simply to tell the characters and the audience of the nature of the monsters and how they came to be. He's first called in after the initial encounter with the Meganulon and identifies the creatures as such, postulating that their eggs were buried under the bed of coal and, after they were exposed to the heat and humidity from the outside, due to a possible tectonic shift, they hatched. Following the earthquake, he heads out there with a group to get a look at the damage, and when Shigeru is found and brought back, he tries to help him get his memory back by showing him photos and drawings of the Meganulon. When the honeymoon couple vanishes at Mt. Aso and one of the pictures from their camera shows what looks like a large wing and talon, similar to that of a Pteranodon, his peers are quick to suggest that as the answer but Kashiwagi isn't ready to jump to conclusions, since a normal Pteranodon wouldn't be big enough to wreak the kind of havoc that's been reported. He figures that they'll only know for sure if Shigeru ever regains his memory and, when he does and confirms that they're right, Kashiwagi has him lead them to where the egg was. They manage to recover a piece of the shell and, after examining it, Kashiwagi determines the enormous size and immense power of the creature, naming it Rodan. Though he's unable to give a concrete explanation for what caused him to hatch, he does suggest that hydrogen bomb tests could be behind it. He is able to tell them that he believes they may find Rodan somewhere between the mine and Mt. Aso, and after both Rodans have emerged and all but destroyed Fukuoka, Kashiwagi believes that their nest is probably back at Aso. An aerial survey proves that he's right and this contributes to the military's plan of attack against them. Like Shigeru and Kiyo, Kashiwagi appears to feel sympathy for the Rodans as they're burned alive at the end.

There are a lot of characters in this film but, aside from the three I've already named, only a few others are of any real note. Nishimura (Akio Kobori) is the chief of police in Kitamatsu who investigates the deaths and disappearances occurring in the mine, organizes the group that chases the Meganulon back into the mine, finds and tries to help the amnesiac Shigeru, and ultimately finds himself drawn in the plan to eradicate the Rodans. He's depicted as someone who has enough sense to know when he's in over his head, as he waits for the armed forces to arrive before pursuing the Meganulon into the mine, and before the climax, he's the one who makes seismologist Sunagawa realize that Mt. Aso's potential eruption from the plan is far less dangerous than the destruction the Rodans will continue to cause if they aren't stopped. Speaking of Sunagawa (I can't find the name of the actor who played him), he first comes into the story following the small earthquake that occurs in the area and tells Kashiwagi and the authorities that the epicenter is between Mt. Aso and the mine. Significantly, he's a friend of the honeymooner who takes his new wife to the mountain, only for them to fall prey to Rodan, and after their camera and shoes are found, Sunagawa insists that his friend wasn't the type to commit suicide. And, as stated, he's against the plan to bomb Aso in an attempt to bury the Rodans alive, fearing that the volcano could erupt, and even though Nishimura makes a good argument for why it would be a better alternative than letting the Rodans live, Sunagawa still seems very unsure about the plan. Osaki (Minosuke Yamada) is the colliery chief who Shigeru trades some banter with over the possibility of global warming at the start of the film and who is shocked when Shigeru doesn't remember him after he's found following the cave-in. And Yoshifumi Tajima, another familiar face to fans of Toho's kaiju movies, has a small supporting role as Izeki, a reporter for the Seibu Nippou (West Japan Times) who covers the murders, the discovery of the Meganulon, and the appearance of the Rodans. Significantly, when he and the group are looking at the damage caused by the earthquake, he's the one who spots Shigeru staggering around down in the crater.

Rodan is noted for being Toho's first kaiju film made in color, after the first two Godzilla movies and Half Human had been black-and-white (it was Ishiro Honda's first color movie as well), but while that's true, it isn't used in the manner in which you would expect. Be it by design or, more likely, the archaic film stock Japan was using at the time, the color is quite subdued and desaturated and, along with the cinematography, it gives the movie a very grim feel, especially during the first half. While Honda and his cinematographer do come up with some beauty shots of the lovely hills that surround the town of Kitamatsu and of Mt. Aso (this location photography was done at both the actual mountain and a real coal mining town in Nagasaki Prefecture), the exterior shots of the town and the mine have a kind of oppressive feel to them: during the day, the sun appears to be really bearing down on everyone (Osaki comments to Shigeru about it being really hot), while at night, it has a rather murky feel to it. That's to say nothing of the interiors of the mine, which are not only dark and spooky, with lots of shadows and the lamps lining the ceiling being the only source of light, and they're also clearly just as hot as they are grimy. And then, you have the scenes that take place at the hospital, specifically the coroner's lab, where you see the mangled bodies of the victims of the Meganulon being washed and prepared in large tubs before they are to be examined. The washed-out look of the color palette helps to give these already grisly scenes an uncomfortable feel, one that's punctuated by the sounds of grieving women and crying children.

That's really the thing about Rodan: like Godzilla, this is a very dark film that's often just as much a horror movie as it is a kaiju flick. Made before the genre became much more light-hearted and shied away from depicting human casualties full-on, it features a couple of scenes of bodies being brought to the coroner's lab with hideous gashes and cuts all over them (during the inquest, the doctor mentions that one victim's head was hanging by a very thin bit of skin!), people getting dragged underwater by an unseen creature while screaming in terror, the blood-splattered helmet of a fighter pilot whose jet Rodan slammed into, and the suggestion of a honeymoon couple being carried off and likely eaten by Rodan (human bones are seen outside the creatures' nest at Mt. Aso), along with several head of cattle. Unlike Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo, the aftermath of the Rodans' attack on Fukuoka doesn't involve scenes of badly injured people suffering and being taken to the hospital but it's still obvious that hundreds of people have been killed. Besides the violence, there's a palpable sense of creeping and building terror throughout the movie's first half. There's already a sense of something not being right at the very beginning, with a couple of miners fighting for no good reason and, when they take the tram down into the depths of mine, there's a feeling of unease about the miners, especially those who were fighting. As I said, the tunnels are made to look very dark and foreboding, and the scene where three men in the mine think they hear Goro back in the tunnel is very suspenseful, as you hear the sounds of water splashing back in the tunnel, followed by the sounds of the as yet unseen Meganulon. Then, you have the unexpected flood in one mine-shaft, the two miners disappearing, one of them being found completely slaughtered, more men suffering the same fate, and the revelation that the deaths are the result of the Meganulon. Following Shigeru getting buried in the mine and the earthquake that occurs afterward, everybody slowly but surely begins to realize that the Meganulon are the least of their problems, as a much more serious threat makes itself known. After this new threat, which we only see quick glimpses of, destroys a fighter jet and makes off with a newlywed couple and some cattle, we finally learn what it is when Shigeru remembers the horrific sight that caused him to lose his memory: Rodan bursting out of his enormous egg deep in the mine and eating the Meganulon as if they were mere earthworms. The knowledge that this scene actually happened out of sight immediately following the cave-in is really eerie, as it is when you realize that the earthquake was likely Rodan bursting out of the Earth's crust in order to take flight. It's a continually unfolding mystery, like the first acts of both Godzilla and Them!, and as with those films, the buildup makes the reveal of these destructive and dangerous monsters all the more effective.

Characters in these films are normally very high up on the socio-economic ladder: they're either scientists, reporters, or military men of various ranks. But, every once in a while, you get a tokasatsu film where all or, at least, most of the story is centered around people of the working class, which is what we have here. Though the film does eventually come to involve all three of those character types, the developing threat is first encountered by the inhabitants of this small, simple mining town, particularly the men who work in the dark, dank, hot mine tunnels, risking life and limb on a daily basis to provide for their families. While it's not up in your face, there is a bit of social commentary to be found here in how the movie depicts real-life hazards that miners face, like floods and cave-ins (a cave-in similar to the one that traps Shigeru in the tunnel really happened in a mine later on in 1963), while also using the Meganulon as metaphors to further emphasize how dangerous a job this is. It's also no secret that miners, in general, are very underpaid, and while this aspect is never actually mentioned, it's clear from looking at the town's houses and what little you see of their interiors (Kiyo's is the only house that you see the inside of) that these people are not wealthy by any means. While Kitamatsu is not a real place, not only was a real mining town used for the location shots but the mine itself was based on an actual coal mine in Kyushu, which is where this is set. There had been tensions between workers and management there in the early 50's, with strikes and protests over wages and layoffs, and, again, while none of this is brought up in the film itself, the tension between some of the miners seen at the beginning could be a result of the pressure from hard, dangerous work and the frustration of not having much to show for it. Given that the film's screenplay was co-authored by Takeshi Kimura, who often wrote the more serious and political of the studio's genre films, the commentary here is likely very intentional.

Rodan is not as staunchly an anti-war film as Godzilla but the horrors of conflict are still prevalent in the images of the Meganulon's victims being brought in so their bodies can be cleaned and examined, as well as the aftermath of the Rodans' attack on Fukuoka, where you see long shots of the skyline in flames, akin to what was seen in Godzilla's attack on Tokyo. While the atom bomb is mentioned at one point as a possible explanation for how Rodan was awakened from his ancient slumber, it's only in passing and Prof. Kashiwagi is quick to make it clear that it's just a simple theory on his part. Really, the film is more about the revenge of nature, concerning an eons-old, primal force that's been awakened and starts wreaking havoc on the civilized world, than it is an indictment of nuclear testing. Granted, Godzilla can be at looked in this same light, as Godzilla himself is also very much a manifestation of the planet's primal past, but the lack of any radioactivity on Rodan's part and the implication that he was likely unleashed by natural forces (like the shifting of the tectonic plates that Kashiwagi believes allowed the Meganulon to hatch) alludes to this film truly being about mother nature suddenly trying to reclaim the planet.

Despite the destruction that he causes and hundreds of people he kills, Rodan is not depicted as a malevolent creature; instead, he's a terrifying but also majestic creature of the planet's ancient past and has been awakened in a time and place which he does not belong. The deaths and destruction he causes are either a result of him simply feeding himself, because he's been threatened and provoked, or are unintentional altogether. His slamming into and destroying the fighter jet that first spots him can be seen as either of the latter, whereas the battle he engages with the air force and the military late in the film are simply him defending himself when attacked. And as devastating as his attack on Fukuoka is, it comes about because the fighter jets chase him there and their attack on him has weakened him, so he comes to rest. That's when the military comes in and, again, he has to defend himself. He really is more of an indifferent force of nature than anything else, a notion that's punctuated by his creating hurricane-force winds with his wings and sonic booms with his flying. Moreover, as he approaches Fukuoka, you can see people boarding up their windows, as you would do when a bad storm is coming. But, while they have virtually no human or anthropomorphic qualities about them at all, the revelation of a second Rodan, be it a mate or a sibling, does lead to some genuine emotion and personality when the film's ending comes around. The two of them attempt to flee the erupting Mt. Aso but one of them gets overwhelmed by the sprays of fire and columns of smoke and ends up drifting down to the lava flow. Rather than saving himself, the other Rodan flies down and joins his companion, deciding to die as well rather than live completely alone. It's a genuinely touching gesture and it makes the humans' plan to defeat the Rodans seem ungodly cruel, as it resulted in them getting burned alive rather than buried, as was originally intended. Of course, you could say the emotion gets diluted somewhat by the fact that one of these Rodans would become part of the Showa Godzilla series in the 60's but, in the context of this film, it works all too well.

Design-wise, Rodan never looked better in the Showa era than he does in this original film. In the Godzilla films, he would often be depicted as something of a comedic foil or sidekick to the Big G, with big, googly eyes and a dopey expression on his face, but here, he really is majestic. His wings are very large, both in terms of side and width, his body seems to have more mass to it than it later would, his head is akin to that of a bird of prey, with a broader beak full of sharp teeth and small eyes that look much more like those of an actual bird, and the reddish-brown color given to him works well with the film's muted color palette. You actually see two different forms of Rodan in the film: his adult form and, when Shigeru remembers what he saw while trapped in the mine, his newborn, hatchling form, where he was much chubbier and his wings shorter and stubbier. Since he spends most of his screentime up in the air, Rodan was mainly portrayed by a model on strings and close-ups of his head in some shots were likely done by a puppet, which helped his movements feel more bird-like. But, there are instances, mainly the attack on Fukuoka and the moment before that when he explodes out of a river after having been forced into it, where they used the traditional man in a suit technique. Said man was Toho's most dependable suit actor, Haruo Nakajima, but he doesn't have much to do except flail around inside the suit, which looks like it was much more cumbersome than the notoriously stiff and heavy Godzilla suit in the original film, and move through the set just a little bit. In fact, he almost got seriously injured filming the moment where Rodan comes out of the river, as the wire hoisting him up broke and he fell 25 feet; fortunately, the padded wings and the depth of the water took the brunt of the fall. Rodan's winds that he creates with his wings have been a staple of his since this film (it's an ability that he shares with Mothra), as are the sonic booms that he creates with his flying, but one ability he has here that was never seen again is when he blasts gusts of air out of his mouth, no doubt an attempt by the filmmakers to give him a breath weapon similar to Godzilla before they realized it was unnecessary. Finally, Rodan's screeching roar is deeper and more booming than it would be in later movies, and during the finale, you hear him emit some mournful cries of pain and sorrow as he and his companion die together.

As shaky as some of the effects used to bring Rodan to life are (besides the suit's awkwardness, you can often see the wires suspending the props), he always fares much better than the Meganulon. These things were much more effective when they were lurking in the dark corners of the mine, picking off unsuspecting miners, because when you finally get a look at one, it's laughable rather than scary. Not only is the design silly, with those enormous, multi-celled eyes, the clumsy-looking claws up front, and the front legs, which bring to mind that old-fashioned type of horse costume worn by two people, but you can tell that the suit actor (likely Nakajima again, as well as possibly his partner around this time, Katsumi Tezuka) is really struggling to move, as the creature tends to wobble from side to side. The props used to depict the Meganulon in some shots are just as awkward as the suit, and it's not helped by the murky cinematography in those sequences. The only thing that kind of saves the creatures are the freaky, chirping sound effects they're given. Overall, though, they're not one of Toho's more effective monster creations, but they still apparently left something of a mark, as they were featured again in 2000's Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.

In creating the miniature sets, Eiji Tsuburaya and his team had an advantage here that they didn't on Godzilla: since Rodan doesn't stomp through the sets, they were able to build various versions of them in different scales for different shots, thereby allowing them to add more detail to the construction of the buildings and be more intricate in their overall look. The most elaborate set is that of Fukuoka, which had a truly spectacular miniature of the Iwata-ya department store, the building that Rodan flies on top of before hovering down to the railroad tracks behind it. They actually used reinforced steel beams in its construction, allowing Haruo Nakajima to stand atop it in the costume without having to worry about falling through it. The sets look great, both when they're intact and when they're crumbling and getting blown away by Rodan's winds (a lot of that material was later reused for the monsters' attack on Fuji City in Godzilla vs. Monster Zero); believe me, some of those shots of houses and other structures getting torn apart by the winds are so convincing that you could almost mistake them for actual hurricane footage. The miniature bridge and the river that Rodan is forced down into before erupting out of also look very realistic, and the shot of Rodan causing the bridge to collapse was a one-take deal due to the precise timing to required to fly him over it and then pull it apart. When they did it, it went off perfectly. While the planes that chase Rodan look pretty, the miniature tanks and missile launchers are where the effects suffer a bit, as you can tell that they're little more than toys when they drive up towards Rodan, rolling across destroyed pieces of infrastructure in order to get into position to fire upon him. However, the cutaways of the vehicles firing at Rodan look a lot better (though, you can see the lines the missiles are traveling on while being fired), and like the shots of the winds tearing the city apart, they would be reused as stock footage in later movies. Tsuburaya and his team also built two different miniature sets of Mt. Aso for the climax: a 1/3 scale one for the military attack and a slightly smaller one for the eruption. Again, both of these sets are very impressive, and when the mountain is being blasted, you would swear that you were seeing an actual place getting bombed. But, like the tanks, the shots of the lava, which was actually molten iron, flowing out during the eruption aren't the most convincing, as the scale is off. The shots they did of the ground caving in during the earthquake early on, however, could basically pass for real documentary footage.

The optical effects are just as strong as the miniatures, for the most part. The shots of the group of people standing by the enormous crater caused by the earthquake (you can actually see wind blowing the grass on the section of the hillside that was actual location footage, which was composited in right next to the matte painting), Shigeru staggering around at the crater's bottom, him in the foreground of the shots of Rodan's giant egg in the cavern, the group of people in the foreground of the shot where Rodan bursts through the ground, and the civilians running while he flies over them all look really good and convincing. The apparent use of some rear-projection is also quite effective, particularly in a quick but amazing shot from outside of a building where you can see people running past a window as pieces of the building crumble in front of it. I actually have no idea how they pulled that off. However, there are instances where the compositing comes up short, such as the bit in the headquarters in Fukuoka where the men have to run for it as Rodan approaches from outside the window, smashing the wall. Said shot is not horrible but the perspective of a Rodan outside the window is a tad off and you can see some flickering around the edges of that element. In addition, the matting of the live-action actors in a closer shot afterward looks a bit dicey. There are also some bad compositing effects during the sequence where the air force chases after Rodan. Most of the shots of the real actors playing the pilots, both from inside and outside their cockpits,look fine when juxtaposed with the backdrop of the sky (though, you can see a bend in the backdrop at one point), but there are a few where the matting of the elements is really messy. One particular shot from behind the cockpit where a jet flies right at Rodan as he passes by doesn't work at all, both because of the ugly matte effects and because it's obvious that they're two completely separate elements. And finally, there is a tiny bit of matting during part of the sequence with the Meganulon that is done so poorly and is covered up by the murky cinematography that you basically can't even see it unless you use a magnifying glass, as I'll get into later.

The film's first major scene occurs when, while working in the engineering office, Shigeru gets a call about a flood in the west pit, which is odd since there's not supposed to be any underground water there. He heads out to the tunnel to inspect it and, upon arriving, he's told that the drainage pump is keeping the flooding under control and that Goro and Yoshi are missing. Wanting to find the source of the flooding, Shigeru has several men come with him down the tunnel. Tying themselves together by a line, they walk down into the water and wade through it, when they come upon Yoshi's brutalized corpse floating around the bend. They take the body back out through the tunnel and it's later washed and prepared for examination at the infirmary. The doctor tells Shigeru that Yoshi was slashed to death by something extremely sharp and adds that they need to inform the police. Outside, they have to calm down Yoshi's wife, Otami, who's desperate to get in there to see her husband, and she's taken away, crying her eyes out.

Two miners and a policeman are stationed inside the tunnel, as Goro, the suspected killer, hasn't been seen since the flood. Hearing some splashing down in the passage, they figure it must be Goro, as they're the only other people in there. They tie themselves together with a line and head down the flooded tunnel, stopping when they hear some more splashing and a strange, chirping noise. Getting no reply when they yell for Goro, they press on, hearing more sounds of splashing. After a moment where the one miner in the back panics upon hearing another splash, the one up front suddenly yells as he's grabbed and pulled beneath the water. Getting up along the wall, the policeman fires a couple of shots as the one miner screams and struggles, only to get pulled down with him. The other miner cuts the line and staggers back to the dry part of the tunnel, although something is right behind him, as a shadow falls on the wall, accompanied by the chirping from before. He tries to ring for assistance but the shadows falls on him and he slumps to the ground, screaming in fright. Their bodies are the next ones to be taken to the infirmary and, later, the coroner holds an inquest in the chief engineer's office. He admits that he's seen nothing like it and is baffled how four able-bodied men could be so easily killed, as well as with whatever the murder weapon was. Hearing this, Chief Nishimura announces that they will need to search every inch of the mine.

That night, Shigeru is over at Kiyo's house, comforting her and assuring her that he knows that her brother is no murderer. That's when one of the Meganulon makes its first appearance by showing up in the house's back entrance. The two of them flee as it lunges into the house and head out the front door, yelling for help. A group of men, some of whom are policemen, come to their aide and Shigeru points them into the house, telling them that there's a strange animal inside. Carefully making their way inside, their guns at the ready, they quickly spot the Meganulon and fire upon it. It does no good and the creature lunges at them, grabbing one of the small picks the other men had in its pincers. The alarm is sounded and the villagers are evacuated, as the Meganulon heads out of the village and towards the slap heap. Shigeru and the men chase after it and are joined by others when they reach the tracks for the mine carts up on the hill. At first, it seems like they've lost it, but Shigeru spots it climbing up the side of the heap and he and Nishimura lead the group up towards it. They climb up the side of the hill and approach it by walking along the tracks. Getting into position, they fire upon it, walking closer towards it as they do so. A couple of officers get right below it on the slope (in the wide-shot, it's almost impossible to see this, due to the dark cinematography and some bad matting, where the men suddenly materialize within cuts) and the Meganulon charges at one and grabs him by the shoulder. It then manages to get both of them and flails them around, when it appears to suddenly slip and tumble along the side of the heap. Righting itself, it quickly crawls away, as the bodies of the policemen slide down to the bottom of the heap. The group heads down to them and the doctor from the colliery's infirmary, who's among them, examines the corpses. Looking at their wounds, he confirms that the Meganulon is what's been killing people in the mine. The creature escapes through the brush nearby, while Nishimura returns to his station and calls headquarters, telling them that they need reinforcements. An officer comes into the room and tells him that the Meganulon manage to smash through the barricade and head back into the mine. At the mine's entrance, a guard is found there, badly injured, and is taken to the hospital. Nishimura orders the entrance boarded up, while Shigeru says he intends to go in and look for Goro. The chief, however, tells him to wait for the backup to arrive.

Said backup, the military, arrives, sporting much more potent firepower than the police's handguns. They dismount from their vehicles and march to the mine's entrance, where they meet up with Nishimura and Shigeru. The latter leads them into the tunnel and they place the heavy machine guns in the middle of it, while others carry the lighter ones further on in. Reaching the water, they see that it's gone down considerably, and Shigeru leads them on through the passage. He comes across Goro's body at a spot where the wall has crumbled, when the Meganulon appears. He retreats and the soldiers fire upon the creature with their machine guns but that does nothing either. The Meganulon keeps approaching and they all run back, past where the water is. Shigeru decides to try to kill it with the coal wagon and runs to the rear of it. Holding on, he releases it and rides it through the tunnel, the men leaning up against the wall to get out of the way. He then jumps off before the wagon reaches the Meganulon, slamming it and smashing it down into the water, killing it. Heading back to the crumbled wall, Shigeru and the men remove the large rocks, unaware that another Meganulon is waiting just beyond it. Crawling into the space, he prepares to move Goro's body, when he sees the second Meganulon. Getting along the wall, he yells for them to shoot and Nishimura fires his handgun, while one of the soldiers uses his machine gun. Suddenly, a cave-in occurs and Shigeru is forced to retreat further into the area beyond the opening to avoid getting crushed. The falling rocks seal him off from the others completely, Nishimura yelling for him before having to duck to avoid being crushed himself.

The next day, after Prof. Kashiwagi explains the nature of the Meganulon to the authorities, a miner comes in to report that the cave-in was worse than expected and they're getting no response from Shigeru. An earthquake suddenly hits the area, causing a big chunk of the land near Mt. Aso to fall in on itself. It subsides and Kashiwagi contacts Sunagawa at the Earthquake Research Institute, asking if he knows what caused the quake and if there's danger of an eruption. Sunagawa isn't sure of the cause, although he says there was a shifting of the tectonic plate and confirms that the epicenter was between the volcano's crater and the mine. Kashiwagi and the authorities drive out to the spot to investigate, only to be stopped by some men. Getting out of the jeeps, they see that a big chunk of the land has disintegrated into a large crater. Sunagawa, who joined the group on the way, is baffled, as the earthquake shouldn't have been strong enough to cause such destruction. Izeki, the newspaper reporter, spots someone down in the crater and they rush down to find that it's a disheveled and disoriented Shigeru. He doesn't respond at all to their calling him by his name and, when he arrives back at the colliery, it's revealed that he's lost his memory completely. He doesn't recognize Osaki or Kiyo, which is devastating for the latter. Though the prognosis is grim, the doctors are determined to do what they can to help him and take him to the clinic. However, nothing seems to help, not even when they show him some drawings and photos of the Meganulon. He's exhausted by the questioning and Kiyo helps him to bed. Elsewhere, Nishimura gets a call from the research center at Mt. Aso and is told that, due to the threat of a possible eruption, no one is allowed at the crater.

Later, Kitahara, a fighter pilot, reports to his base that he's spotted an aircraft of unknown origin approaching Fukuoka, traveling at supersonic speed. He's told to continue the pursuit and report back. He does so and watches as the object finishes doing a loop and then heads straight up. He reports that its speed is 1.5 times his and that he still can't make out its nationality. The commanding officer again tells him to continue the pursuit and he flies through the object's contour trail and then along it, when it changes course and comes right at him. He exclaims, "It's huge!", before the object flies right over him, the force of it snapping the plane's nose clean off. The base loses contact with him and, in the next scene, they're looking over Kitahara's blood-splattered helmet and grappling with the fact that, as unbelievable as it seems, both the radar and eyewitnesses confirmed that the object was traveling at supersonic speed. (When writing the initial story for the film, Ken Kuronuma's inspiration for this scene came from a real incident that occurred in Kentucky in 1948, when a captain for the Kentucky Air National Guard was killed in a crash while pursuing an unidentified aircraft.) While discussing what it could be, a call comes in for Izeki, who's covering the incident, and he learns that a British airliner has gone missing, as well as that a UFO has been sighted over the East China Sea. The object is soon being seen in various countries throughout the world: it's reported by a news station in Beijing; in the Philippines, where martial law is put into effect; in Okinawa, where it's reported heading south; and in Tokyo, the time and range between the appearances suggests that there's more than one, as it appeared in Beijing at 11:00 and then in Manila at 11:20. Despite this alarming news, a newlywed couple decides to drive up to Mt. Aso, the groom saying that he's confident his friend at the research center will let them in to the crater. There, the groom prepares to take a photo of his bride as she's posing, when she screams as something comes screeching towards them out of the sky. He helps her to run as a huge shadow passes over at great speed, when she trips and falls. The creature comes back around and the groom stumbles a short distance and takes cover as it flies over them again. After this pass, only one of her shoes and their camera is left. However, the editing that tries to imply that they were carried away is a bit awkward, as it cuts from them taking cover on the ground to two close-ups of the shoe and camera lying on the ground, and it can be difficult to tell exactly what happened.

At the police station, Nishimura, Izeki, and Sunagawa are discussing whether or not what happened could have been a double suicide, although the evidence suggests that's not the case. They hear that three cows have come up missing near Mt. Aso, the latest in a series of such disappearances, when a lab technician enters the office with the developed film from the camera. Looking at the negatives, they can see that the couple looked quite happy, when they come upon a shot with an odd streak across the left side of the frame. When the actual picture is processed, the blur is revealed to be something akin to a large wing, with a bit of a claw up near the right-hand corner of the frame. They show the photo to Kashiwagi, who compares it to a drawing of a Pteranodon: the wing-tip and claw match up perfectly. But, Kashiwagi isn't ready to jump to conclusions, as a normal, 28-foot Pteranodon wouldn't be able to cause the kind of destruction that's been reported, adding that they'll only know for sure if Shigeru regains his memory. Speaking of which, at the clinic, Kiyo sees Shigeru sketching drawings of tunnels, showing that he's slowly but surely remembering. Turning her attention to her two pet birds, she takes the wicker nest, which contains two small eggs, out of the cage and shows it to Shigeru. One of the eggs starts to hatch and the sight of it causes Shigeru to remember what happened after he was trapped by the cave-in. He found himself in a large cavern and was horrified to find himself surrounded by the Meganulon. But, this proved to be nothing, as he then saw a gigantic egg in the back of the cavern and watched as it began to shake and crack. A huge, bird-like reptile burst out of it and, after completely freeing itself, feasted on the Meganulon like a normal-sized bird eating earthworms. Terrified at the sight of this, Shigeru stumbled to his feet and attempted to escape, when the creature let out a loud screech and began to generate gusts of wind from its wings. Upon remembering this, Shigeru nearly has a nervous breakdown, but once he calms down, he reveals that he's regained his memory, wondering what happened to him. He's now able to confirm to Kashiwagi that what he saw was akin to a Pteranodon and the professor decides to go investigate the spot.

Shigeru leads Kashiwagi, Nishimura, and a group of men back down the mine tunnel, to the spot where the large gap in the wall leads to the cavern. Walking into the gigantic area, Shigeru points out the spot where the egg was, although there's nothing to suggest there was ever anything there. Kashiwagi suggests that the eggshell could have been buried by a cave-in and Shigeru climbs up onto the rock-pile and scrounges through it, pulling out a large chunk of the shell. Before they can search for more, another cave-in occurs and they have to rush out to avoid it. Back at his lab, Kashiwagi studies the eggshell and, after some analysis, it's determined to be 90% calcium, as well as resemble a chicken egg under an electron microscope. He then intends to use the chunk's curvature to determine its exact size. In the computer room at the Minami Physics Research Center, the size is determined, although the chief scientist is incredulous that such a large egg could have been real. Regardless, Kashiwagi remains confident in his findings. Later, at Emergency Headquarters, he tells the authorities the details of the computer's findings, specifically that this creature, which he's called Rodan, has a wingspan of 270 feet, weighs over 100 tons, and that his wings can create powerful sonic booms. When asked what might have caused Rodan to hatch, Kashiwagi is unsure but suggests that the effects of continued atomic bomb tests may have had a hand in it. He also says that Rodan emerges from a spot somewhere between the mine and the crater at Mt. Aso.

Shigeru, Nishimura, Kashiwagi, and Izeki, as well as a group of other men from headquarters, drive out to the spot and as soon as they get there, they hear a series of explosions over a nearby ridge. Rushing to the top of it, they see Rodan emerge from a large depression in the ground nearby and Shigeru confirms that the creature is what he saw in the cave. As Rodan sits in the hole, preening under his right wing, Nishimura sends a man to go contact headquarters. Rodan then lets out a screech and lifts himself up out of the hole, as the jeep starts down the road. He flies over the group, forcing them to take cover, and then does the same to the jeep, the force of his wings' winds causing it to flip and smash into the side of a rock. He backs around for another pass, again forcing the group down to the ground, and escapes into the skies. Headquarters gets the news that Rodan has emerged and a squadron of fighter jets is sent after him. Despite his amazing speed, they are able to catch up with him to where they can fire upon. Rodan turns and flies at them, zooming past one as it shoots at him. The other jets try their luck but find it difficult to get a bead on him, due to his speed and agility. He manages to fly over and wipe out two fighter jets with his winds before heading straight up. The command is told that two of the fighters have been destroyed, as well as that Rodan is now over the city of Sasebo; the fighters are told to lure him out to sea and continue their pursuit.

In Sasebo, a warning siren blares throughout the city and the citizens look up and watch from various spots as Rodan enters the airspace above them. As he circles the city, the remaining jets fire upon him. He both flees from them and then flies back towards them, while a bunch of tourists on a bridge are told to get back on their buses. They manage to evacuate, as the aerial dogfight between the jets and Rodan continues above. People on the shore of the river flee when Rodan suddenly arches downward straight towards the water, splashing into it and sending out waves large enough to threaten a nearby building. Thinking they've got him, the jets head towards the river themselves and fire into the water as they make a pass over the bridge. They come around for another run and fire more missiles into the water, when Rodan erupts out of it and gets back into the air, flying over the bridge and causing it to collapse. Rodan flies off, with the fighter jets still in pursuit, the leader reporting that he's heading towards Fukuoka and that they've managed to cut his speed in half. A siren blares throughout the city of Fukuoka as the military move in and store owners begin closing up shop, putting boards up against the windows and doors. In the command center, they see that Rodan is approaching and the jets are still chasing him. He flies over the city as the civilians try to find shelter, his winds and sonic booms wreaking havoc, tearing off tops of buildings and sending vehicles flying as if they were toys. He hovers on one side of the Iwata-ya department store, screeching as his winds destroy a nearby railroad station and blow the shingles off the tops of some houses. He flies over the top of the building and comes down on the other side in the midst of the train tracks, sending a couple of train cars off of them and causing the houses and buildings around him to sheer apart. Seeing that he's landed, the military commander orders that he be surrounded before he can escape. The tanks and missile launchers move in, surrounding Rodan, while he flails around, continuing to generate powerful gusts of wind. They begin their assault, the tanks moving closer while firing upon him, while the missile launchers stay back and pelt him with their projectiles. They hit him again and again and again but their weapons have no effect whatsoever, much to the shock of those watching from the command center.

In retaliation, Rodan unleashes the full force of his winds, causing everything to come crumbling down around the vehicles. He flies up onto the roof of a long building and causes it to crumble, spilling over a water tank within it, before letting loose a shaft of wind out of his mouth. Everything around him is blown apart and debris is sent flying. Two soldiers futilely try to maintain their balance, with one of them grabbing a small tree, only for it to get ripped up by the roots, while a vehicle smashes into the side of a building, igniting a fire that quickly spreads to the buildings next to it. Rodan even sends those in the command center running when he gets too close for comfort and smashes the wall and the windows. Fire trucks move in to try to combat the blazes, as the military continues their futile assault on Rodan. As if things couldn't get any worse, a report comes over the radio that a second Rodan has been spotted northeast of the city. Watching as the new monster joins in the attack, the commander orders them both to be led out to sea. Rodan watches as his companion comes in and begins circling the area where he's being fired upon. The combined force of their winds overwhelms the military and Rodan finally takes off, joining his companion as they depart, leaving Fukuoka a burning wreck of a city as night falls. Nishimura, Shigeru, and Kashiwagi arrive at the command center and are stunned by the chaos that has been caused. They're told that the Rodans hit the Yahata area as well, while outside, the skyline of Fukuoka is a sea of flames.

Some time later, after a thorough search, the Rodans are nowhere to be found. Though it's suggested that they might have escaped to a tropical jungle somewhere, Kashiwagi is sure that they're at Mt. Aso, which is ostensibly their nest. He, Shigeru, and Izeki have an officer fly them out to the crater and, initially, they don't see anything. But, when they go down lower, they find an alcove in the rocks where the bones of both humans and animals are, and they then spot one of the Rodans' head through a crevice. The professor's theory confirmed, they return to headquarters, where the military plans its attack. They intend to bomb the crater to close up the cave and then do the same to the depression from the earthquake to further ensure the Rodans don't escape. Sunagawa, however, is completely against this plan, as he's sure it will cause an eruption and, while it may be advantageous in the battle against the Rodans, he worries about what will happen the lava flows into the foothills, endangering both the village and the surrounding environment. Nishimura tells him that the village will be evacuated and also adds that, as long as the Rodans are alive, they will continue to suffer extreme damage and loss of life; Sunagawa has no argument against this and so, the next day, the plan is put into motion. Kitamatsu is evacuated and a plethora of tanks, missile, and rocket launchers are driven into position near Mt. Aso, their weapons aimed at the volcano. The volcano research center is turned into a makeshift command base and everyone prepares to launch the attack, when Shigeru looks out the window to see Kiyo coming their way. Meeting her, she tells him that everyone has been evacuated and that she wants to be with him. He has no qualms about this and allows her to join him in the center, regardless of the danger.

The first strike force is given the command to open fire and they begin blasting the rim of the crater with their rockets, blowing huge chunks of rock down into it. This action quickly gets the Rodans' attention, when the tanks begin firing as well, and it soon becomes a full-on assault, explosions happening all around the crater. At the command center, Sunagawa runs in and warns them that an eruption could happen at any moment. Contemplating this news, the commander decides that they should pull back to Kusasenri. The assault continues, missiles and tank shells blasting the rim and walls of the crater, sending more huge chunks of rock raining down, while the research center is evacuated. While that continues, the commander orders the second strike force to begin blasting the depression. As with the crater, they hit just about every single spot of its rim, at some points creating a certifiable conga line of explosions and causing large sections of it to cave-in. Suddenly, one of the Rodans emerges from the crater, managing to escape just before Mt. Aso finally erupts. Smoke and sparks spew out of the crater, while molten lava streams down it from the sides. The other Rodan appears, apparently having emerged from the depression, and joins his companion above the crater. A suddenly explosion of fire and smoke catches one of them off-guard and quickly overwhelms him. He tries to fly back up but is unable to stop himself from drifting down and lands on the slope, right over a stream of lava. His companion calls for him but, as his body begins to burn, it's sadly clear that he's doomed. Instead of saving himself, the other Rodan comes down and joins his companion, be it a sibling or a mate. Crying, he joins him and is soon burning as well. There's one extremely sad moment where it seems like he tries to escape, as he suddenly flies upward in a jerky motion, but by this point, he's too far gone and futilely drifts back down, rejoining his dying companion in the flames (this was actually a happy accident, caused when the wire holding the prop broke and the puppeteer jerked to try to get it back under control). As they watch the Rodans burn to death, the civilians, especially Shigeru and Kiyo, seem to take pity on these destructive but magnificent creatures and the unintentionally long and painful end they've caused them to suffer. The armed forces depart and head back to their home units, while Shigeru, Kiyo, Kashiwagi, Nishimura, Izeki, and some others continue to watch. The movie ends on a final look at the inferno, as one of the Rodans continues flailing around in the fire before finally falling still.

As with most of Toho's kaiju classic, Akira Ifukube did the score for Rodan and, as usual, his work is superb, managing to effortlessly transition back and forth from frightening and eerie to warm and emotional and to thrilling. Ifukube clearly picked up on how this movie plays a lot like a horror film, as his main title theme is a very haunting piece, with a creeping, nightmarish main part that's accompanied by a bizarrely low horn that makes it feel all the more monstrous. This become something of a leitmotif both for Rodan as well as to accentuate the terrifying unknown of what's going on in the mines, as you hear a more subdued version of it when Shigeru and the other mines find Yoshi's body, a bizarrely coarse version for the scene where the three men are pulled down into the water while searching for Goro, and another soft version can be heard adding palpable atmosphere to the scene where Shigeru leads Kashiwagi, Nishimura, and a group down to where he saw Rodan's egg. The main version of it is used very effectively for when Shigeru remembers watching Rodan hatch down there and also when the humans see him for the first time when he explodes out of the ground. A shot but effectively unsettling theme is heard when the bodies are being cleaned for examination and the sequence involving the Meganulon has music that's both thrilling and freakish in order to stay in tune with the sudden appearance of this bizarre creature. The music that Ifukube creates for the action scenes are genuinely exciting, such as the fast-paced, military-style theme for when the fighter jets pursue Rodan (he basically reused this decades later for a sequence between some jets and King Ghidorah in 1991's Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah), and the absolutely thrilling, bombastic theme for Rodan's attack on Fukuoka, which really gets across how equally magnificent and destructively powerful he is. And when things really go to hell during this sequence, with a fire starting and such, the music takes a dark turn as well. Ifukube was also evoke true emotion with his music, creating a soft, forlorn theme for Kiyo, which you hear when she's first introduced and when she realizes that Shigeru has lost his memory. Finally, the music he plays for the Rodans' slow death at the end is very sad and poignant. Combied with the tragic visuals, it's very likely to bring a tear to your eye. Ifukube would readapt the main section of that melody for Baby Godzilla's theme in 1993's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and for Godzilla Junior in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, and he would use another part of that piece as part of the dirge for Godzilla's meltdown at the end of that latter movie.

Rodan was released in America in August of 1957, eight months after its Japanese release, by Distributors Corporation of America. The English version, which was produced by Frank and Maurice King (who would, several years later, produce the British monster movie, Gorgo, which was done in the kaiju style), was altered quite a bit from the Japanese original but not to the extent of Godzilla, King of the Monsters and, while not great, it would prove to be more competent an Americanization than Gigantis, the Fire Monster, the notoriously inept American version of Godzilla Raids Again, which was released just a couple of years later. Interestingly, though, there are a number of similarities between this film and Gigantis, with one being that the exact same actors did most of the voices: Keye Luke, Paul Frees, and, in his first professional job, George Takei. What's more, Luke, who dubs Kenji Sahara as Shigeru, does a considerable amount of narration, as he would when he dubbed Hiroshi Koizumi in his role of Tsukioka in Gigantis. However, the narration is handled much better here, in that it's not as smothering. In Gigantis, Luke about talks himself hoarse, often redundantly describing stuff that's blatantly obvious to the viewer, whereas in Rodan, Shigeru has only three sections of narration: the opening, when he leads Prof. Kashiwagi and the men down into the cavern where Rodan's egg was, and the ending. Also, the narration goes into the atmosphere and emotion occurring in the given scenes, with Shigeru describing in the opening how a sense of uneasiness and dread had come up among the miners, leading to the tension between Goro and Yoshi, and later, talking about the fear and individual thoughts of the group as they made their way down to the cavern where the egg was. The only part where I feel his narration is misplaced, though, is the ending where he describes the pity and sympathy they had for the Rodans as they watched them die. While Shigeru's words are effectively poignant, especially his lines, "Last of their kind, masters of the air and Earth, the strongest, swiftest creatures that ever breathed, now they sank against the Earth like weary children. Each had refused to live without the other, and so, they were dying together," the dialogue-free ending of the Japanese version is much more effective, as you just watch and hear the Rodans as they burn to death.

The first DVD release from Classic Media.

Overall, the dubbing, despite its over-the-top and cheesy moments, is fair for what it is. Luke, Frees, and Takei all have great voices and manage to make it work, with Frees' main role being Nishimura, while Takei does Prof. Kashiwagi. While the dialogue is more or less the same as it was in the Japanese version, there are some notable changes made, particularly with Kashiwagi. When Kashiwagi is detailing the nature of the Meganulon (which are not called anything other than "giant insects" in the dub), here he says that their presence is a unique opportunity to study the prehistoric past, and he later says that the name "Rodan" is that of the species and that it's related to the Pteranodon. He's also much more sure of atomic bombs being the cause of Rodan's awakening, while in the Japanese version, he makes it clear that it's just a guess on his part. The line that makes me raise my eyebrow, though, is when, after the Rodans have disappeared, Kashiwagi tells them, as reptiles, they're, "A member of the snake family. After gorging on food, human or otherwise, they will hibernate for a long time." Yeah, not only are snakes a species of reptile and not the other way around, but what's more, reptiles, while often becoming lethargic after eating a lot, don't hibernate period! In addition, Mt. Aso is called Mt. Toya in the dub, which would cause confusion as to this film's connection to the Godzilla franchise when, in 1965, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was released in America and the name Mt. Aso was retained in that dub as the mountain Rodan bursts out of. And while Rodan merely flies over Sasebo and levels a bridge there before heading on to Fukuoka in the Japanese version, the dubbing made the attacked city Sasebo itself, as it was more well-known to American audiences at the time because of U.S. military installations there. Going back to the dubbing cast, the one weak link is whoever the woman was who dubbed Kiyo and the occasional other female characters, as her performance leaves a lot to be desired for, sounding really melodramatic and forced when she does Kiyo's many emotional scenes.

As often tended to happen when foreign films were dubbed around this time, dialogue is also often put in where there wasn't any originally (such as among the miners and the honeymooners at the volcano), and the same goes for sound effects and music, which tends to hurt its effectiveness, as you should sometimes just let the movie breathe, as the Japanese version often does. Rodan makes a lot more noise in this version when he hatches and during his death throes at the end, and the American version sometimes puts in a hissing roar for both him and the Meganulon, a sound that would later be used as the main vocalization of the Giant Behemoth. Other sound effects that have been heard in many American movies and TV shows were, particularly explosions and the sounds of tank and missile fire, were put into this version, and when the Meganulon kills one of the police officers during the chase, they used one of the screams of the sailors from the original King Kong! And except for the opening title theme and the poignant theme for the ending, Akira Ifukube's score is removed almost entirely, replaced with lousy stock music (the sappy music they use for Shigeru and Kiyo in place of what Ifukube originally composed is particularly eye-rolling). In one instance, during Shigeru's flashback, they bury it under the stock music, really hurting the effectiveness of that important scene. But, there are also some scenes where they removed the music altogether and it's actually quite effective. Most notably, there's no music during Rodan's big attack on the city, and while Ifukube's original piece for that scene was awesome, this works just as well, as you instead grasp the magnitude of the attack just from the sounds of the siren blaring, the wind, the military bombardment, the buildings crumbling and flying apart, and the added sound effects of people screaming.

Very little new material was added by the American production, although the most significant addition is a prologue made up of stock footage of the first nuclear bomb tests by the U.S. Narrated by David Duncan, its purpose seems to be to really drive home the idea of Rodan having a connection with the atomic bomb, like so many other movie monsters of the period, and corroborate the dubbed dialogue Kashiwagi later has about the tests awakening the monster. After showing off the power of a couple of tests, the narrator says, "But what have these tests done to Mother Earth? Can the human race continue to deliver these staggering blows without arousing, somewhere in the depths of Earth, a reaction, a counterattack, a horror still undreamed of? There are persons in the Japanese islands who believe that the horror has already been. What is the aftermath? This is the story of such an aftermath," and then, it transitions into the actual film. Ironically, though, this prologue is actually pointless because, despite what Kashiwagi says about the nuclear tests, Shigeru, in his narration, suggests that Rodan and the Meganulon were awakened because they'd gone down too deep in mining the coal, more in line with the notion of the Japanese version. After this, the additions are very minimal: when Kitahara is pursuing Rodan, some shots of white streaks and planes in the sky are added, including one meant to be Rodan turning to come right at him; there's some additional stock footage of a soldier drawing something on a transparent, glass screen during the sequence set to news reports of Rodan being spotted in the skies throughout the world (said footage was used in other films like The Deadly Mantis and would later pop up in Gorgo), as well as some additional footage of people looking up that wasn't there before; and when fighter jets are scrambled to take on Rodan, you see the pilots running for their jets. In spite of these additions, the American version is ten minutes shorter than the Japanese, as quite a bit of it was trimmed. The removed or shortened material includes some of the opening, a big chunk of the fight between Goro and Yoshi, parts of the roll call of the miners, sections of the sequence with the Meganulon in the village, some of the scene involving the honeymooners (the trimming makes it clearer that the couple got carried off by Rodan), and the moment where Kashiwagi compares the photo of Rodan's wing and talon with a drawing of a Pteranodon.

Finally, the American version edits many of the scenes very differently, often reusing shots, borrowing elements that were originally in other parts of the film, and even rearranging certain scenes altogether. For example, when Shigeru gets caught up in the cave-in, you see the same shot of him looking up twice and they even put in a quick shot of the ground caving in that's actually a result of the earthquake that happens the following day. The sequence detailing reports of Rodan from across the globe is lengthened considerably, using both the stock footage and shots from later on in the film of people looking up at the sky and Rodan flying from a great distance, with additional dialogue detailing the havoc he's caused in other parts of the world (things always have to be more hyperbolic in these American versions; just like how Godzilla went from 150 to 400 feet between the two versions of the original film, here Kashiwagi says that Rodan's wingspan is 500 feet rather than 270). This is also where talk of a possible eruption first comes up, whereas it happens much earlier in the Japanese version. More significantly, the scene where Shigeru, Kashiwagi, and Izeki fly out to the volcano to search for the Rodans' nest is now placed right after the professor first tells them what they're dealing with, and this leads into a sequence where the fighter jets are scrambled and bomb the area (footage from the climactic assault), making it look as if Rodan was provoked into making his first real appearance. The second Rodan also appears much earlier in the American version, as they reuse the footage of him emerging from the ground and flying over the group of people, only they reverse the angle and put in lines to make it clear that we're meant to be seeing a second creature, with Shigeru declaring, "It has a mate!" While it's clear what they did, the rearrangement makes the second Rodan's appearance less abrupt than it is in the Japanese version. Also, as a result of this edit, the second Rodan is the one that flips the jeep and sends it smashing against the rocks. (For some reason, these scenes have a washed out, greenish tint to them here.) The second Rodan also joins in the city attack a lot sooner, and during the climax, the one getting caught up in the eruption is made more blatant. And the American version has more dissolves and fades to black, making the passage of time clearer than it was originally. There are numerous other edits to be found in the American version but those are the most significant and it's interesting to compare the two and see just how much they were changed.

Rodan is a bona fide classic of the kaiju genre and it's not unwarranted, as there are many things that make it such a great film: capable actors who do their job well enough, great use of a lower-class setting and point of view for the film's narrative, a surprisingly grim, horror movie slant to the story that leads to good atmosphere in the scenes set in the mine tunnels, a memorabe monster in Rodan himself, exciting action and destruction scenes, which contain some really good miniature and optical effects, a superb music score, and genuinely moving and poignant ending. There are some flaws, like the characters, as usual, being devices for the narrative, in spite of the actors doing their very best, some occasions of awkward editing, some messy matting effects, and the laughable-looking Meganulon effects, but those are minor quibbles and the film, as a whole, more than manages to overcome them. Even the American version, despite being mostly inferior, has some merit to it, including some things that it does just as good or even better than the Japanese version. Most importantly, though, the movie's success is what showed both Toho and the Japanese film industry at large that Godzilla was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the genre's viability, and so, it opened the floodgates for so many other entertaining films. If you're a fan of these types of movies, odds are you've long since watched this flick, but on the slim chance that you haven't, you need to rectify that post haste.