Varan (Giant Monster Varan) (1958)/Varan the Unbelievable (1962)

Varan (Giant Monster Varan)

Of all the monsters that have ever appeared in the Godzilla franchise, Varan is among the more obscure, especially for one who appeared in his own movie first. Unlike Rodan and Mothra, Varan had only one other film appearance following his debut feature, and it was in a couple of very brief, easy-to-miss cameos in Destroy All Monsters; specifically, you can see him fly onto the battlefield before the climactic battle with King Ghidorah (as with a lot of the other monsters he appears alongside, he doesn't take part in it), and you get a full shot of him at the very end of the movie. Thus, and also because he never mixed it up with Godzilla, Varan has never reached the level of some of the Big G's other costars. That's not to say he doesn't have any fans at all, because he certainly does, but he's got nothing on Rodan, Mothra, Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, or Anguirus, to name a few. As far as his debut film goes, I've known about since I was a young kid, thanks to its being mentioned in the Crestwood House monster book on Godzilla, but it's one of the Toho kaiju flicks that I saw much, much later in life... as in 2019, when I was 32! Had I managed to get my hands on the Toho Pack DVD set, where it was released along with The Mysterians and Matango, when that was still new, it would've been a different story, but that set went out of print before I could manage it. I even saw it in Best Buy a few times, yet it still slipped my grasp, so I ultimately had to stream Varan online. It was one of a number of Toho tokasatsu movies I'd never seen at that point that I decided to check out, along with the two that were released with it in that set, Half-Human (yes, despite that being a banned film, you can find it to watch if you know where to look), and Latitude Zero. Going into it, I knew from what I'd read in books like A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series and Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, From Godzilla to Kurosawa that it wasn't viewed with much importance at the time of its production, and is also said to have started out as a television project but had to be made into a theatrical release very late into filming. It does have some historically significant aspects to its production, but on the whole, it was a low budget affair that Honda and company kind of went through the motions on.

Upon watching the movie myself, I could see that attitude and lack of ambition on the screen, as this is a very typical, by-the-numbers monster flick, having the most in common with Godzilla Raids Again, as well as most American monster movies of the time. It's definitely a comedown from the movies that the craftsmen at Toho were becoming experts at making at that time, as it has none of the grimness or dark undertones of Godzilla, or the excitement and surprising violence of Rodan. What's more, even though it was written by Shinichi Sekizawa, it has none of the satirical wit and sense of fun that he would bring to many of Toho's kaiju movies during the Showa era in the 60's. While the special effects work is not bad by any means, and the music score is downright awesome, the movie's cheap nature is very apparent, from the confined nature of the sets to the recycling of stock footage from the first two Godzilla movies. And while there are certainly some familiar faces among the cast, the characters are absolute cardboard, even for this type of movie.

When a species of butterfly supposedly found only in Siberia is discovered in Japan, two scholars from a Tokyo scientific institute are sent to Tohoku, a region called the "Tibet of Japan," to see if they can find other specimens. After passing through the mysterious Iwaya Village, and finding a lake that's not marked on their map, they do manage to find one of the butterflies. However, something enormous also finds them, and causes a landslide that kills them both. After their deaths are reported, and Tokyo newspapers speculate if it could be linked to the Baradagi, a destructive spirit worshiped by those in the region, another scientist from the institute, Kenji Uozaki, travels there, along with Yuriko Sinjo, a reporter who's also one of the scholars' sister, and her colleague, Motohiko Horiguchi. Arriving there by bus, they trek to the village on foot, meeting a young boy named Gen, who warns them of Baradagi, whose cries echo through the wilderness. He brings them to the village, saying they'll be eaten otherwise. There, the high priest also warns them of Baradagi, refusing to let them go beyond the village. When Gen runs off after his dog, the trio, disregarding the priest's warning, go after him. Kenji and Horiguchi become separated from Yuriko in thick fog and head back to the village without her. However, she sends them a message via Gen's dog, telling them that they're down by the lake. Kenji and Horiguchi then persuade the villagers to come with them to the lakeside, but after they find Yuriko and Gen, an enormous reptilian creature emerges from the lake. Kenji identifies it as "Varan," and everyone flees, while the monster proceeds to completely destroy the village. Back in Tokyo, institute head Dr. Sugimoto clarifies that Varan is a "Varanopode," a species of giant reptile that lived millions of years ago. Fearing that it may pose a danger to Japanese cities, the Defense Agency travels to the region, along with Sugimoto, Kenji, Yuriko, and Horgiguchi, and attempt to kill Varan after luring it out of the lake. However, their weapons not only prove useless, but it's also discovered that Varan is able to fly. Escaping into the ocean, it soon heads for Tokyo.

According to Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski in their book on Ishiro Honda, while the exact details of Varan's origins are murky, it seems to have begun at the request of an American studio, and was originally intended to be shown on television, in three parts. Therefore, it was decided to give it the most basic plot possible, as you can tell from the above synopsis, and keep costs down by shooting it in black and white and in standard ration, rather than in widescreen, as was becoming the norm. It's often been said that AB-PT Pictures, who were involved with the initial plans to use effects footage from Godzilla Raids Again, as well as use the Godzilla and Anguirus suits to shoot new shots, for a movie they intended to call The Volcano Monsters, were the ones who came to Toho with the idea for Varan. But, during production, AB-PT went bankrupt, and Toho decided to cut their losses and release the film in theaters instead. Ryfle and Godziszewski also note that there's evidence that Toho made and sent at least part of a television version to the United States, though it's never been found.

If Varan has any major historical significance, it's that it marked the first time that Ishiro Honda directed a screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa, the writer who would go on to influence the light and airy tone of kaiju movies throughout the Showa era. What's more, he was hired to write Varan after Toho, obviously sensing his talent and not wanting him to be hired by any of their competitors, shut down an intended made-for-television Godzilla knockoff he was developing called Agon: The Atomic Dragon. But due to the movie's low budget nature and instructions to keep things simple, there's little in Sekizawa's screenplay for Varan that's indicative of the fun stuff he and Honda would later create together (there was a scene that involved some kids playing around, intending to be Varan, which can be seen as an early acknowledgement of how much kids loved these kinds of movies, but it was never filmed). As for Honda, who shot the movie in a very short 28 days, he would later say this was not one he cared for, as he found the low budget limiting and the task of rejiggering it from a television production to a feature film very difficult and frustrating.

The cast of characters is made up almost entirely of the typical kaiju movie archetypes: scientists, reporters, and military officials, and they are among the blandest and least engaging examples you could ever hope to see. As was also often the case, especially in Honda's films, rather than one set protagonist, there's a trio of such characters, at least during the first act and some of the second: Kenji Uozaki (Kozo Nomura), Yuriko Sinjo (Ayumi Sonoda), and Motohiko Horiguchi

(Fumindo Matsuo). In fact, despite his being another scientist from the same institute as the two men who are killed at the beginning, Kenji only goes to Tohoku with the other two out of concern for Yuriko. Unlike Dr. Sugimoto, who's willing to allow for the possibility of something they haven't yet seen or understand, Kenji feels that the myth of Baradagi is just a superstition, and tries to impress that fact upon those who live in Iwaya Village. Naturally, he gets proven dead wrong, but that doesn't stop him from identifying the monster

as Varan. As for Yuriko, she goes up there more to get a big scoop rather than find out what killed her brother (unlike Kiyo in Rodan, she never once sheds a tear for her brother). She proves to be quite brave, not hesitating to help search for the young boy Gen in the foggy woods outside of the village, and even though she gets separated from the others, she not only finds Gen but also has the ingenuity to send a note back with his dog to let the others know where they are. And her colleague, Horiguchi, is mostly just meant as comic relief, and proves to be very skittish, freaking out whenever they see or hear something strange. I have to say, though, that he's probably the most memorable and likable of the three, and even appears to be shedding a tear for Varan when he's killed at the end. Once Varan is revealed, the three of them take a backseat to the Defense Agency's attempts to kill him, save for a scene during the second act where he traps Kenji and Yuriko in a cave in the mountainside and tries to get at them, with the military having to save them, and near the end, where Kenji drives a truck of explosives at Varan (which doesn't do anything).

Even though they're such standard archetypes, I normally enjoy the expected wise, older scientists who often feature in these movies; I can't say that at all for Dr. Sugimoto (Koreya Senda). It seems as though Senda was quite an important figure in Japanese film and theater, and he played a scientist in two other Ishiro Honda movies, The H-Man, made right before Varan, and Battle in Outer Space, but, my God, is this guy boring! In all of his scenes, be it the very beginning, when he talks about the discovery of an exotic species of butterfly in Japan, his suggesting there could possibly be some manner of wildlife in the Tohoku region that could account for the Baradagi myth, pinning down what Varan is exactly, or working with the military to find a way to destroy the monster, Senda is totally monotone, with no urgency or excitement in his voice whatsoever. I don't know if he saw this movie as not requiring a lot of effort on his part or what, but his flatness makes you pine for Takashi Shimura's Dr. Yamane. Even when things get really dire in the third act, with Varan heading to Tokyo and no weapons proving effective against him, Sugimoto is as lifeless as ever. And yet, he proves to be one of the more significant characters, as during the third act, he comes up with the idea that ultimately defeats Varan.

On the flip side, I really like the character of the Iwaya Village priest (Akira Sera), who gets really agitated whenever strangers show up, as he fears it will rile up Baradagi. He's constantly praying for their village to be spared from their god's wrath, and when young Gen (Takashi Ito) shows up with the main trio, the priest absolutely forbids them to go any further into the wilderness. He especially becomes angered when Kenji dismisses Baradagi as nonsense, decrying it as blasphemy, and when

Gen runs outside the village to chase after his dog, the priest stops his mother from going after him, telling her that her son is now lost. He continues praying when Kenji, Yuriko, and Horiguchi go looking for Gen, begging Baradagi not to exert his wrath. However, no amount of praying saves him when Varan emerges from the lake and heads towards the village, crushing him in the process. As for Gen, while he doesn't have much of a role in the long run, his introduction, where the trio comes across him in the forest, wearing an oni mask, and telling them to go back, is a memorable one. Also, if the translations are correct, then the village priest is Gen's father, as the kid tells the group when he first meets them that his father is a priest, which makes what he tells the mother when Gen runs off to be downright cold.

There are a handful of familiar Toho actors within the cast, such as Yoshio Tsuchiya as Katsumoto, a commander from the Defense Agency who, along with another man, first meets up with Dr. Sugimoto to discuss a manner of dealing with Varan and is the one in charge of most of the military operations, and Yoshifumi Tajima as a Naval captain whose battleship engages in an extended battle with Varan during the second act. Most significantly, the third act introduces Akihiko

Hirata as Dr. Fujimura, who's one of the more important characters in the film. When first introduced, he's confident that, as big and tough as Varan appears, there is a weapon that will prove effective against him. Ergo, he respectfully disagrees with Sugimoto, who continues suggesting they err on the side of caution, given how little they know about Varan. When nothing that the Navy does proves effective, Fujimura is approached about using a new explosive he's devised for dam construction, but he's doubtful it

would work, as it's meant to destroy hard rocks from the inside; on the outside, it's useless. But they convince him that it's better to try than do nothing, especially when Varan heads for Tokyo. Like Fujimura predicted, when the explosives are used against Varan on the outside, they do nothing, but they prove lethal to him when they get him to swallow them and they explode in his stomach.

The movie's low budget, quickie nature is very evident in the way it looks. Not only was it shot in black-and-white not long after Toho had made movies like Rodan, The Mysterians, and The H-Man in color (I could be wrong, but I think this is the last tokasatsu film that Toho made in black-and-white), but the black-and-white itself doesn't have the starkness of the first two Godzilla movies, including the rushed Godzilla Raids Again. Instead, there's a drabness to it, likely a result of the filmmakers being forced to blow the film up from

the standard 1.33:1 to widescreen when it became a theatrical release instead of a television film. This is clearest in many of the instances where Varan is onscreen, as there are shots of him where big chunks of his body are out of frame, and in the close-ups of his face, both the top and lower parts of his head will often go offscreen as he moves. It makes me think of how many of the true widescreen tokasatsu films looked when they were released on VHS over here, which has now been corrected on later home media formats. There are

some audio anomalies, too, as during the last half of the third act, the dialogue has a strange reverb to it that remains until the end. The film also feels very constrained and claustrophobic due to the small sets and soundstages on which it was mostly shot. There was a tiny bit of location footage here and there, but it's very obvious that many of the scenes that take place in and around Iwaya Village were done on confined sets. As we'll get into, even the miniatures for the monster scenes aren't quite

up to Eiji Tsuburaya's usual standards. And you can also see remnants of how the movie was originally meant to be a three-act television broadcast in how it's bookended by random instances of narration, with the first talking about how this is "the strangest story ever told" and the last about how man has once again triumphed. It's the kind of stuff you normally get in the American versions of these films during this period, like Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Gigantis, the Fire Monster (which has a very similar prologue to this film), and the King Brothers' American release of Rodan, to name a few.

In fact, Varan, in general, does have more in common with American monster flicks of the 50's than with many of its peers (which shouldn't be surprising, considering it started out as an American-Japanese co-production). It follows the familiar formula of the genre to a T: a strange monster appears, wreaks havoc, a method of defeating it is devised, and it eventually succeeds. What's more, the initial plot concerning an expedition into an uncharted area that discovers a monster is right out of past American films like 

The Lost World and King Kong, with the latter possibly being the inspiration for the Iwaya Villagers' worshiping and fearing Varan. There's even a link to Creature from the Black Lagoon in the basic plot, as well as the notion of the monster living in a body of water and the scene where the military attempts to lure him out by poisoning the water. Also, the the filmmakers do attempt to give Varan some mythical status, the same way they did with the Odo Islanders' legend of Godzilla, so little time is spent on it during the first act that it doesn't

leave much of an impression, and he, instead, comes off as just another dime-a-dozen rampaging, prehistoric beast. They also try to elicit some sympathy for him when he dies at the end, with the music and some characters like Horiguchi actually mourning him, but it doesn't work in the same way it did for the two Rodans or even Godzilla at the end of the original movie. And finally, the way in which Varan is defeated fairly easily by conventional weapons is not how these Japanese

films tend to end. Usually, the monster is either defeated by a previously unknown and potentially devastating super-weapon, like the Oxygen Destroyer in Godzilla, an elaborate military operation like in Godzilla Raids Again or Rodan, at the hands of another monster, or, like in Mothra, not at all. Granted, this was still fairly early in the kaiju genre's history, before it firmly established what set it apart from the American films, but even when you view it within the context of when it was made, there is a major difference from what came before.

I will say, I do like the early scenes in Tohoku and Iwaya Village, as they do have an atmosphere of mystery about them, giving off a feeling that this is a primitive place that hasn't been touched by modern civilization. The way the villagers are mistrusting of outsiders and are often worshiping their god, Baradagi, is executed nicely; the statue of Baradagi that you see them praying to is a memorable image; and even when it's clear they're on a set, the wilderness around the village is made to look and feel rather eerie, helped immensely by

the thick fog that engulfs it during the search for Gen, the imposing clouds hanging in the sky above, and the sounds, including an earthquake-like rumbling and the occasional roar from Varan before he makes his first appearance. Unfortunately, this setting is also where you get into a brief bit of controversial subject matter that remains very dicey in Japan to this day. The inhabitants of Iwaya Village are alluded to being akin to the burakumin, modern-day descendants of feudal outcasts who are often still discriminated

against; in fact, any sort of reference to "lost tribes" within Japan itself is basically code for the burakumin, and like the ethnic stereotypes common in classic Hollywood, it's seen as very taboo and un-PC nowadays. While the villagers here aren't nearly as feral and grotesquely malformed as those featured in Ishiro Honda's earlier film, Half-Human, they're still rather unkempt and some do seem to have slight physical deformities that suggest incest. Also, there's a 

definite prejudicial attitude among the scholars, with one writing off the villagers' reluctance to speak with them as just their being primitives who think they're monsters, while the other comments that he finds the place spooky and says it is, indeed, the "Tibet of Japan." (Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski suggest this is why Varan didn't make it onto Japanese home video until the 80's.) In any case, Iwaya Village is the only setting of note in the film, as the others are just bland laboratories, meeting rooms, the bridges and decks of Navy battleships, and spots around Haneda Airport during the climax.

Varan himself, played, as per usual, by the legendary Haruo Nakajima (and possibly Katsumi Tezuka in a few scenes), doesn't have much of a personality about him, as this was when kaiju were still portrayed mainly as oversized animals or faceless beasts. Also, no major explanation is given for his origin, other than his being of a prehistoric species of giant reptile called a "Varanopode." He mostly comes off as very territorial, killing any intruders in the forest near his lake, and when the main trio of characters and nearly all of the villagers go to the lake-shore, it enrages him to the point where he comes ashore, makes his way towards Iwaya Village, killing the priest in the process, and completely demolishes the place. Despite this, he seems content to return to his lake, but later, the Defense Forces draw him out again by filling it with chemicals and then open fire on him. Not only does nothing they throw at him harm him but they enrage him to the point where he marches through the woods towards them. During his rampage, Kenji and Yuriko get caught in his path and he actively follows after them, trapping them in a mountainside cave and attempting to dig them out. At Dr. Sugimoto's suggestion, the military uses flares to distract Varan so they can save them. But while their plan works, when Varan appears trapped by a forest fire, he climbs to a high vantage and reveals that he has the ability to fly. He retreats to the nearby ocean and, following a lengthy battle with the Navy, including a game of cat-and-mouse when he hides on the ocean floor and they try to get at him with depth charges, he eventually heads for Tokyo, coming ashore at Haneda Airport. But his tendency to be distracted by flares, as well as his habit of actually eating them, is what proves to be his downfall.

Concept and design-wise, Varan is sort of an amalgamation of Godzilla, Anguirus, and Rodan. He's amphibious like Godzilla, able to do just as well on land as in the water (Eiji Tsuburaya's initial concept is said to have been like a cross between Godzilla and a kappa water yokai); he mainly walks on all fours like Anguirus (unlike when Katsumi Tezuka played him in Godzilla Raids Again, it's very clear that Nakajima is on his knees as Varan during the climax), but is capable of adopting and maintaining a bipedal stance, and also

appears to have a shell on his back with spikes running down the center of it and along his tail; and he has a flying squirrel-like membrane that allows him to take to the air and fly like a plane. As was common at the time, there are instances where they use a puppet of Varan's head rather than the suit, specifically for shots of him swallowing the flares, and, possibly realizing how bad such effects looked in previous movies, they decided to

shoot the puppet from the back or side, and to keep it onscreen very briefly. Though he has no breath weapons, Varan's presence is often signaled by powerful gusts of winds that he, somehow, is able to create. While not as devastating as the hurricane winds that Rodan and, later, Mothra would generate, they're still strong enough to knock people off-balance and send them fleeing in terror. What I was most interested in was what Varan's roar sounded like, and it turns out his vocalization is the earliest instance of a low, rumbling, Godzilla-like roar that would later be used for Baragon in Frankenstein Conquers the World and modified considerably for Megalon.

Because of the low budget, Tsuburaya and company couldn't build any extensive miniature sets for Varan to destroy. In fact, the only notable instances of destruction he causes is when he attacks Iwaya Village during his first appearance, and when he destroys some of Haneda Airport during the climax; otherwise, we only see him wading in his lake, stomping through the nearby forests and valleys, and swimming around in the ocean, battling the Navy. While the circumstances weren't ideal, Tsuburaya and his team still did the

best they could and, though not as awesome as some of their other work during this period, it's far from horrible. Even though they feel constrained, the miniature sets for the Tohoku wilderness and Iwaya Village are still nicely designed and detailed, as is the one for Haneda Airport; the model army vehicles and battleships that Varan destroys also look pretty good, for the most part (there are some shots where they're clearly models); they did manage to pull off some nice shots of him 

underwater when they're trying to kill him with depth charges; and, while there aren't many, the optical shots that meld him with the real actors are satisfactory enough, as is the tiny bit of urban destruction he gets to commit. Speaking of which, there seems to be a brief shot where they matted a real actor onto a miniature vehicle after it gets stuck, and it's shockingly well done. Unfortunately, they had to pad the movie out and try to make

things feel grander with quite a bit of stock footage, as a lot of the shots of the military and fighter jets firing at Varan during the climax are taken from both Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. In fact, there are shots from the former of Godzilla's feet and tail destroying structures, and they even reused some of the less successful shots from those movies, like an awkwardly angled one of a fighter jet from the latter.

The first major scene, where he kills the two scholars from Tokyo, keeps Varan completely offscreen. Traveling through the Tohoku region, and passing through Iwaya Village, the men stop their jeep in the woods when they hear a rumbling akin to an earthquake. When it subsides, they drive on, seeing the lake in a large gorge in the distance, only to stop again when the rumbling picks back up. While checking to see if their jeep is okay, one of them spots the type of butterfly that they're

searching for. No sooner do they catch it and put it away than they hear Varan roar. His shadow passes over the trees and the two men see him and hit the dirt when the powerful wind that accompanies him blasts them. A massive landslide follows, killing them and destroying their jeep.

Likewise, Kenji, Yuriko, and Horiguchi then make their way through the region, arriving by train and then hiking through the wilderness on foot. Also like before, you initially hear Varan but don't see him, with the young boy Gen imploring them to come with him to the village before they fall prey to their god. They hear Varan again following their meeting with the village priest, with the sound scaring Gen's dog, Chibee, who runs off into the woods beyond the village. Gen runs after him and

the three leads, defying the priest's warnings, go after him. After searching through the misty woods, Yuriko becomes separated from the others, forcing the guys to head back to the village. But then, Chibee shows up with a note from Yuriko, telling them that she and Gen are down by the lake. Kenji and Horiguchi manage to persuade the villagers to come with them and they all head down to the lakeside, but no sooner is everyone reunited than the lake's surface begins violently 

churning. Varan emerges from the water, sending everyone running off in a panic and back to the village. He comes ashore and follows them through the woods, and while everybody else runs past the village limits, the priest stays at the gate, desperately trying to appease the monster. Everyone else tries to make him come with them, but he remains, and after they run for safety, he gets crushed by debris that Varan sends falling towards him. After the main trio stop so Kenji can snap a picture of the monster, they run on with

everyone else, as the village is quickly evacuated. Varan wanders into the midst of the village and begins smashing the houses to pieces, either crushing them with his feet, swinging around and swiping them with his tail, or using his sheer girth to do the job. It's an effective enough sequence, despite Varan not having any powers for a little bit of destructive variety, the miniature houses look good when they get destroyed, and here, they wisely use them to hide the fact that Haruo Nakajima is on his knees.

Once the Defense Agency deems Varan a threat, they send a large battalion to the area. After they've set up a temporary headquarters near the remains of Iwaya Village, and the defense forces have all of their weapons and attack vehicles stationed near the lake, they use mortars to fire chemical shells into the water in an attempt to force him out. The shells sink to the bottom, filling the water with their chemical solution, but once they've ceased firing, they wait. 25 minutes are then said to have

passed, but there's still no sign of Varan. Initially, all that comes to the surface is a bunch of dead fish, but then, the water churns violently again and, like before, Varan emerges. The defense forces open fire on him with howitzers, tanks, bazookas, and missile turrets, but they mostly miss him, and when they do hit him, the shells have no effect at all. Wading to shore, he stands up on his hind legs and approaches them. By this point, they realize they're not doing anything to him, and the troops,

reporters, and civilians are ordered to retreat. Kenji has to persuade Yuriko to go with the others, as she's intent on covering the story for her newspaper, as Varan makes his way through the valley. Much of the following action consists of him slowly doing so, while the others run for it, and some of the military vehicles get stuck while trying to retreat. Lagging behind everyone else, Yuriko gets pinned by a small tree that Varan topples, and is in danger of being crushed by him as he approaches. Kenji, meanwhile, makes it back

to base camp, only to learn that Yuriko isn't there. He runs back into the woods, calling for her, while she has almost lost consciousness from shock. He manages to find her and is able to lift up the small tree until she can maneuver herself out from under it. He then picks her up in his arms and runs off with her, as Varan approaches, knocking over an abandoned military vehicle with his tail, which then explodes. Unable to move fast because of Yuriko's injuries, the two of them take cover in a cave in the mountainside. However, Varan sees them and stands outside it, waiting for them to come out.

After nightfall, the others come searching for Kenji and Yuriko, and it turns out that the vehicle which Varan knocked started a forest fire when it exploded. Meanwhile, Varan is digging at the sides of the cave the two have holed up in, trying to get at them. Having taken cover in the far back of the cave, all they can do is try to dodge the debris that his digging sends tumbling down. When the others come across this scene, Horiguchi realizes what's going on and notes that his friends will die if they

stay there much longer. Dr. Sugimoto comes up with an idea to distract Varan using flares and has the soldiers fire some farther down the mountain. When they do, Varan immediately sees them and is drawn to them, giving the others the chance they need to rush to Kenji and Yuriko's rescue. Once they've gotten them out, everybody watches as the fire approaches Varan and he climbs up the slope of the mountain to avoid it. When he gets to the top, he spreads his arms, revealing the membrane he has beneath them, and, to everyone's shock, flies right above them and off into the distance.

As the Navy and military search for Varan in the ocean, and the officials discuss how to possibly kill him, some men on a small fishing boat find themselves right in his path. Just as they're about to call it a day and head home, he emerges from the water nearby and heads towards them, forcing them to jump off their boat. He proceeds to swamp several other fishing boats in the same spot, as his location is reported to HQ. Fighter jets are scrambled and, upon locating him, begin an attack that involves them swooping down and firing

missiles, most of which hit the water near him. He rises up and swipes at one of the planes, but misses, and the missile firing continues, this time with some of them managing to hit their mark. He, again, goes for one of the planes, which stupidly flies right at him, allowing him to down it in the water in front of him. He then submerges, giving some the wrong impression that he's been injured; as a Navy battleship called the Uranami tries to find him, he's revealed to be sitting behind a rock on the ocean floor, watching it go by. However,

he's unable to hide from their sonar, and promptly emerges again. He heads for the ship, which fires upon him, eventually forcing him to dive back down. The ship reports that he's heading for the Uraga Channel, meaning that Tokyo could be in his path as well. He emerges again and the battle between him and the Uranami continues, which, like with the planes, mostly consists of them hitting the water around him, with some shells even exploding in the air in front of him. The ship even 

gets really close to him, passing right in front of him, but manages to come away unharmed. At HQ, Katsumoto comes up with the idea to attack Varan with depth charges, and before it begins, Kenji, Yuriko, and Horiguchi manage to get onboard the deck of one of the battleships (even though they were just at HQ). The next phase of the operation involves the charges being fired into the water and sinking down to where Varan, again, is hiding behind a large rock. They explode around him,

sometimes right next to him, but he barely reacts (and up above, one battleship nearly hits another, for some reason). Ultimately, they drop a number of charges down and explode them all around him at once. For a brief moment, they think this did the trick, but then, he surfaces and continues on.

There's some stock footage from Godzilla used to depict the armed forces heading out to intercept Varan, as well as coastal areas being evacuated. A defense line is set up at the Haneda airfield, along with one of battleships in the bay, and following a stop in the action where Dr. Fujimura shows everyone how his new explosive works, he's then convinced to use it, as Varan approaches Haneda. With that, it's now after dark, and when Varan emerges from the water again, the battleships open fire. What follows is another drawn out battle

sequence, with the ships' shells not even touching Varan, let alone slowing him down. Onshore, the ground troops prepare to attack (much of this is more stock footage from Godzilla), with some ships deploying vehicles housing missile launchers onto the ground, which join the tanks and other vehicles and weapons around the airport. They open fire when they spot Varan heading towards the shoreline, and it's just more of the same, as they wait for Fujimura's explosive to arrive. When they do, transported in covered trucks, the soldiers ask

the civilian drivers to head down to the waterfront. But, seeing Varan approaching, they're, naturally, unwilling to do so, saying it's far beyond their call of duty. With no other recourse, Kenji commandeers one of the trucks and drives it towards the waterfront, as Varan begins to come ashore. He stops right in front of him, disembarks, and runs back to the others, at one point tripping and falling, but managing to make it back without any harm. Once he's rejoined them, and Varan is

almost on top of the truck, Fujimura and Katsumoto detonate the explosives. He immediately collapses from the force of the blast and, for a few seconds, it seems as though they've succeeded. But, just as everyone's preparing to pack up, he slowly rises up and stands on his hind legs, as the ground troops resume their attack. Because of this, the temporary headquarters inside the airport's main building is moved outside. Fighter jets join the battle, as Varan starts tearing apart everything around him, seemingly only enraged by all the firepower being thrown at him.

Nearby, as everyone gathers to figure out what to do next, the assault on Varan continues. It enrages him further, causing him to flail around on all fours, smacking the sides of buildings with his tail, swiping and sending a plane flying and crashing into the side of a hangar, smashing a bus as well, and plowing right through the center of the main building in the airport (it's during this sequence when you can clearly see that Haruo Nakajima is down on his knees). He takes a bunch of missiles from fighter jets to the head and face, and then, the

jets drop some flares. As happened back in Tohoku, they catch Varan's attention, and he even swallows some that get close enough. Seeing this, Dr. Sugimoto comes up with the idea to tie Fujimura's explosives to flares and drop them from a helicopter. The fighter jets are ordered to keep Varan pinned down in that same spot, as the remaining explosives are unloaded from trucks, set by Fujimura, then placed in the helicopter. The jets are then ordered to break off their attack and make way for the helicopter, while Fujimura estimates

that the explosives will detonate in fifteen minutes. The helicopter begins dropping the explosives, and now, they say there are just seven minutes left. Like before, the flares catch Varan's attention, and he swallows at least two of the explosives. The time comes and they explode within him, leading him to immediately flail around in pain and destroy what's left of the airport. He heads back to the ocean, flops around in the shallows, then swims 

back out and, as everyone runs to the waterfront to get a good look, dives down beneath the waves. This is followed by a massive geyser of water and a loud explosion, indicating that whatever remaining explosives are within his belly have gone off and finished him.

Without a doubt, the best thing that Varan has going for it is the music score by Akira Ifukube, which helps this movie feel much bigger and more majestic than it really is. Moreover, a lot of the themes and motifs in this score would be redone and re-orchestrated in future kaiju and tokasatsu films. Case in point, Varan's leitmotif, which first plays over the credits and is heard throughout the movie, would later be remade into a theme for Rodan in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, which would then become his own recognizable motif from then on. Taken on its own merits, it's an awesome piece of music, with a powerful, thundering brass section combined with a memorable melody that has a very mythical feel to it. The version that plays over the credits is especially awesome, with chanting voices that make Varan feel all the more like a god, and it and the prayers that the Iwaya Villagers intone for him are something of a prototype for the main title theme for King Kong vs. Godzilla, as well as the songs that the Faro Islanders sing to Kong. The main theme is also used in an atmospheric manner early on, when Varan's presence and the hold he has on the village is merely hinted at. There are some military marches heard during the battles with Varan that are nicely rousing and also point to themes you'd hear in later films, like Frankenstein Conquers the World and Destroy All Monsters. Speaking of the latter, a piece heard at the beginning, when we see a rocket taking off would later be used for a scene there. And, just like with the ending of Rodan, Ifukube comes up with a poignant theme for Varan's demise, complete with somber, vocalizing voices, and it does kind of work, even if the movie itself doesn't quite earn it.

The Japanese version of Varan is not a major classic in the kaiju genre like others made around that time, nor is it absolutely terrible, either; it's just okay. It suffers from having been a cheaply and quickly made film, with little ambition behind it other than to make a quick buck, a generic story, some very bland, standard characters, even for its genre, a confined and rather drab visual aesthetic, and monster scenes that aren't that exciting, are overlong, repetitive, and sometimes feature a lot of stock footage. The special effects work and the design of Varan himself are satisfactory, Akira Ifukube's score is awesome, and there is some atmosphere to be had during the first act, but otherwise, it's a movie I can only recommended for diehard kaiju fans and completionists.

Varan the Unbelievable

This, without a doubt, was the version of Varan that was mentioned in that Crestwood House Godzilla book I read as a kid, as I vaguely remember it saying that the lake where Varan lived was salt water, which is only a plot-point here; however, the first inclination I got of just how drastically different it was from the Japanese version was many years later, long before I finally saw either one. On the audio commentary for Classic Media's release of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Steve Ryfle mentions how the urban legend that Raymond Burr actually went to Japan to shoot his scenes for that movie was believed some people in Hollywood. He then shares an audio clip of his friend, Ted Newsom, who talks about having met Myron Healey, the star of the American version of Varan, on the picket line for the 1988 Writer's Guild strike and talking with about the film. From his recollection, not only was Healey not that enthused with being reminded of it, but he also mentioned being on an episode of Perry Mason and telling Raymond Burr, "You got the better deal... You got to do Godzilla and you got to spend two months in Japan. I did Varan the Unbelievable, spent a week in Bronson Canyon." Newsom said he doesn't know what Burr's reaction was but I'm sure he probably set Healey straight about the fact. In any case, by all accounts it sounded like they did with Healey what they did with Burr on that film: take the original Japanese version, cut it down, and insert new scenes with him, as well as other actors. Over the years, I read up on both versions in many of the books I've mentioned here and in other reviews, but I didn't actually watch the American one until I was preparing for this review, and it's very different from Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The best way to describe it is what AB-PT Pictures had planned to do with Godzilla Raids Again before they went under: take only the special effects footage and shoot new scenes around it with American actors. This version, which runs just 67 minutes, as opposed to the Japanese's 87, uses only fifteen minutes worth of footage from it, and it is mostly just the special effects footage of Varan wreaking havoc; otherwise, it's a completely different story, with all new characters (nobody from the Japanese version, actor or crew-member, is given any credit at all here), which is why I decided to give it its own section, rather than stick it onto the end of review of the Japanese version.

And to start out with, I must say that this version is pretty crappy. Even though the Japanese version is nothing special in and of itself, it's far more competent than this low effort, sloppily put together Americanization. While his character is far from flawless, Healey is serviceable as the protagonist, but his Japanese-American costars often come off as stilted, with line deliveries that sometimes feel phonetic. There are also some really dumb decisions in the writing and translations that make you wonder just what the filmmakers were thinking, and the editing is the most egregious part of all, as it often makes the movie into a clumsy-footed, nearly incomprehensible clusterfuck.

It's October of 1959, and on the island of Kunoshiroshima, Commander James Bradley is in charge of "Operation Shizuka," a joint American-Japanese military experiment meant to purify a salt-water lake with a new type of chemical. Stationed there along with his Japanese wife, Anna, who works as his secretary, Bradley is aided by Captain Masataki Kishi, whose job is to evacuate the local villagers, as the chemical could make the lake toxic. Naturally, they face a lot of resistance, forcing Kishi to send for more troops and weapons to press the issue. Kishi also tells Bradley of "Obaki," a huge monster the villagers believes inhabits the lake and who will become agitated by the experiment. The new battalion of troops he sends for ends up proves to be much larger and more formidable than Bradley finds necessary, and it leads to some very bad publicity for him on the Japanese mainland; also accompanying the troops are reporter couple Paul and Shidori Isoh, two friends of Bradley and Anna. When Anna learns from Shidori the bad rep her husband has in Tokyo and tells him of it, Bradley decides to call off the evacuation and have Kishi's troops provide the villagers with food and water for the time being instead. The day of the experiment comes and cylinders containing the desalinization chemicals are fired into the lake via mortars. Bradley, Anna, and Kishi camp out near the lake, waiting for it to become completely saturated. But when the water is analyzed the next day, it shows signs of mud and sediment, which should've cleared by this point. That night, something huge emerges from the lake, makes its way through the nearby forests, and terrifies a soldier to the point where he dies of fright. After finding him, as well as what appears to be an enormous footprint nearby, Bradley, unsure of what's going on, decides to send Anna to Tokyo for her own safety. Before he can, the giant creature emerges from the lake again and begins rampaging across the island. Soon, on its way to Oneda, the one modern city there.

This version was released by Crown International Pictures, the low-budget outfit behind such "classics" as The Beast of Yucca Flats and The Crater Lake Monster. They put it out as the lower half of a double-bill with First Spaceship on Venus, an East German/Polish production, and it was actually quite successful, mainly because they were able to book it into a good number of theaters and drive-ins. As for the new footage, it was directed by Jerry A. Baerwitz, who'd previously directed some episodes of The Texan and a film called Wild Harvest, released the same year as Varan the Unbelievable. He went on to be a producer on movies like Fright Night and Armed and Dangerous, with John Candy, but never directed anything else after Varan. Similarly, the screenwriter, Sid Harris, who'd written Wild Harvest with Baerwitz, didn't do much else afterward, either, except work on some TV shows.

As Commander James Bradley, Myron Healey does bring some rugged charm to his role but his character does many things that make it difficult to sympathize with him. While Bradley believes what he's doing is the right thing and that this desalinization experiment will be of great benefit, he also doesn't seem to grasp that the villagers near the lake are, understandably, not thrilled with their lake being contaminated and their being subsequently uprooted from where they've lived for many generations. Moreover, when his wife brings this up to him, he uses the old argument of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" on her, insists that the Japanese government will take good care of them, and that they couldn't find a more ideal spot than Kunoshiroshima. But, above all else, it's obvious that he looks down on the villagers as a bunch of simple, superstitious fools in how, when he hears them praying one night, he comments in his narration, "Drums. Drums, and weird, native chants. A strange serenade for some make-believe monster. But they really think they can scare me away with this superstitious nonsense? I have a job to do here. It'll take a lot more than mumbo jumbo to make me leave before I finish that job." On the other hand, Bradley doesn't like the idea that they'll have to make the villagers evacuate through force, and when Captain Kishi's request for more troops is answered, Bradley feels the Army goes overboard in the amount of men and formidable weaponry they send. But then, when he hears about the bad publicity this action is causing him in Tokyo, that he's being referred to as a cold-hearted tyrant, he attempts to save face and cheer up his upset wife by cancelling the evacuation order and have Kishi's men provide the villagers with what they need for the foreseeable future. Thus, when Varan is roused from the lake and begins his rampage, the death and destruction caused are Bradley's fault. Once Varan does show up, Bradley and his two costars spend the rest of the movie taking cover from the monster and later trying to get a message through to Oneda, as Bradley believes they can kill Varan with a concentrated amount of the chemical used as an explosive.

Though it's not as egregious as Tsukioka's in Gigantis, the Fire Monster, Bradley tends to narrate periodically throughout the film. The exact context of his narration tends to change as well, as it starts out like he's telling us this story in retrospect, but other times, it comes off like we're hearing the thoughts he has Anna write down in his notes or personal journal, and then, it comes off like his own inner thoughts, as in the scene where he walks outside his house at night and hears the

natives chanting, or when he and Kishi find evidence of Varan's presence after he's first emerged from the lake. And he ends the movie with an ominous warning that the supposedly dead monster may rise again one day. As was also sometimes the case with narration added to these films during this period, Bradley often tells us something we could've easily gotten from the film itself. The biggest example is when Kishi tells him about the monster in the lake. As Kishi begins talking, Bradley's narration comes in and tells us what the word "Obaki" that he uttered means, as well as why the villagers fear it, all while the movie cuts back and forth between Kishi talking and Bradley listening. If I didn't know this was material shot for this version, I'd think this narration was laid over a scene where there was originally normal dialogue. It's a truly ass-backwards way of doing things.

Bradley's Japanese wife, Anna (Tsuruko Kobayashi), is loving and dutiful to her husband, acting both as his secretary and housekeeper, but is also completely subservient to him and falls back in line when he patronizingly assures her why what he's doing is the right thing. After she visits her friend, Shidori Isoh, and learns of the bad press Bradley now has on the mainland, Anna becomes despondent and, again, asks if they can't conduct this experiment somewhere else. When Bradley, again, tells her that Kunoshiroshima is the perfect place, and that the experiment itself is important, she breaks down in tears and informs him of what's being said about him, saying, "They bring shame to my honorable husband." This prompts Bradley to call off the evacuation, and when Varan rises up and destroys the village, Anna blames herself for those who died as a result; Bradley, thankfully, assures her that's not the case. Otherwise, she's little more than a bystander, and though Bradley tries to send her to Tokyo when he begins to think that something potentially dangerous is going on (again, in a patronizing manner, telling her to simply do as he says and he'll tell her why later), Varan's subsequent emergence from the lake prevents it. She, Bradley, and Kishi get trapped in a cave by Varan but, after he's led away by flares and begins heading to Oneda, she just watches on as Bradley and Kishi try to relay an important message to the city.

Captain Masataki Kishi (Clifford Kawada) also kind of looks down upon the local villagers, calling them, "Simple, primitive people," and thus, suggests it will take force to get them to evacuate, leading to his idea of sending for more troops. He also tells Bradley of the monster that the villagers believe lives in the lake but, like Bradley, doesn't take it seriously. He's completely sympathetic to him when public opinion about him in Tokyo sours, and when Bradley comes up with his idea to keep the villagers there during the tests, Kishi and his men are charged with making sure no one goes near the lake until the tests are done. Kishi, in turn, thanks him for coming up with a decision that will set things straight. Of course, things go haywire when Varan emerges from the lake and begins rampaging, and after they survive getting trapped in a cave by him, Kishi and Bradley spend the rest of the movie desperately trying to fix their vehicle's radio in order to get a message to Oneda about using the chemicals as a weapon. As wooden as Frank Iwanaga was in his role of Tomo in Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Kawada is much worse, speaking his lines with absolutely no energy or sense of urgency, regardless of the situation. Also like Iwanaga, a big part of his role here is to break the language barrier between Bradley and the others, as Kishi is always the one delivering orders to the Japanese troops and attempting to relay the message to Oneda.

One other new character in this version is Matsu (Derick Shimatsu), a mischievous native boy who's ostensibly supposed to be helping Anna with maintaining her and Bradley's small home on the island, but often runs off to the village instead. He only has a couple of scenes before he disappears from the movie, with Anna later worrying about his safety when Varan begins rampaging. Finally, as they did with the main characters in the Japanese version of Godzilla, two of the

protagonists from Varan's original version are worked into this story as old friends of the Bradleys. However, in this case, Kozo Nomura and Ayumi Sonada are made into totally different characters: the reporter couple of Paul and Shidori Isoh, and the filmmakers don't use editing and body doubles to make it seem as though Myron Healey is interacting with them, as with Raymond Burr. Their roles are also so non-existent here that you wonder why they were even left in, but it's likely because they decided to use the scene in the original version where Kenji drives a truck full of the explosives towards Varan as the monster's actual death scene here, with Paul Isoh, under direction from Bradley, driving a truck full of the chemicals towards the monster. The other Japanese actors, like Fumindo Matsuo, Koreya Senda, Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya, and Yoshifumi Tajima, can be seen in this version but their roles are reduced to mere extras.

As low budget as the Japanese version is, it looks like an epic compared to the quality of the new material shot for this one. This reeks of the bottom of the barrel, with a crude, washed-out feeling to the black-and-white photography, and how you can tell it was all shot on some tiny, dusty sets, as well as out in the middle of Bronson Canyon. I'm actually shocked that not all of the nighttime scenes here were done day-for-night (most were, though, mind you); even more astonishing, they were able to create some new effects shots for the

scene where Varan traps Bradley, Anna, and Kishi in the cave, with some shots of his hand clawing at the entrance with the actors in the foreground, making that the only scene where our new characters feel connected to the action. But what's most inept about the movie is not the acting or low production values but, rather, how sloppy the editing is. Probably because of the Japanese version's own ordeal in going from a television project to a feature film, the American version has a lot of trouble with the aspect ratio. It starts right

from the beginning, where Jerry Baerwitz's directing credit suddenly becomes badly stretched in the middle of the frame before it's finished materializing, even though the screen itself remains in the "pillarbox" ratio for the entire movie. Following the credits, the first establishing shot of the forest suddenly jumps from the picture being perfectly centered to focusing on the right side of the shot, then slowly panning back to the center. This kind of editing quirk happens a number of

times in big, wide shots, jumping from one part of it to another (usually between two characters), when a simple camera pan would've sufficed. There are also moments where they superimpose an optical of a pair of binoculars' POV on shots from the original version, but in one instance, they can't center that correctly, either! I don't know what that's about but it sure comes off as clumsy on the filmmakers' part. 

Speaking of clumsy editing, when Varan emerges from the lake in this version, he goes from walking on his hind legs to down on all fours and then back to his hind legs between shots within the space of a few seconds. Similarly, during the climax, they show him heading back to the water, only for him to then be heading towards the shore again in the lead-up to his death. The editing can also make it difficult to determine how much time has passed during the sequence of events. When Anna goes to the village to see Paul and Shidori, it cuts from a

near fade-to-black on Bradley sitting there after she leaves to him talking with Matsu, only for Anna to come out of the house, having already returned from the village. And after Varan abandons trying to get them inside the cave, Kishi translates a report of his current whereabouts to Bradley, the film briefly transitions to a scene at the headquarters from the original version, and when it goes back to the American footage, Kishi says it's been over an hour since that report we just heard.

Also, some of those moments where the film transitions from the American footage to the original Japanese and vice versa are done with archaic image swipes, with one literally pushing the other out of the way. And there are some really bad instances of filtering to turn a previously daytime shot into a nighttime one, which sometimes makes the image so dark you almost can't tell what you're looking at.

Even though I'm still referring to the monster as Varan, and despite this version not only retaining the name in the title but giving him a moniker, he's never once referred to as such in the film itself. For the most part, he's not even given a name, and when he is, including during Bradley's ending narration, it's "Obaki." That's not the only thing we don't get, as they removed the scene where he flies altogether. Also, whenever we cut to footage from the Japanese version without Kishi around to translate or Bradley narrating, we're not

told what the characters are saying, through dubbing or subtitles. This doesn't happen very often, but it's obvious that the filmmakers counted on you not caring enough to listen closely when it does, because if you do, you can hear them mention Tokyo in one scene, Varan in many others, and "Shidori" refer to "Paul" as Kenji during the climax. And because we don't have the context of him saying frantic prayers to try to appease his god, it makes the village priest look like an idiot

when he's flailing around and won't go with the others when Varan is approaching the village. They must've had an aversion to the way the Japanese version sounded, too, as they replaced all of the familiar stock Toho sound effects, particularly the explosions, with American ones. They also took out Varan's roar and replaced it with more natural-sounding animal vocalizations, like growls and moans. But most unforgivable of all, they removed

all of Akira Ifukube's awesome music, save for some small bits, instead replacing it with cues from The Amazing Colossal Man. And even then, most of the scenes with Varan rampaging or battling the armed forces, both on land and in the ocean, are now done without music, and it really hurts their effectiveness.

Really, the biggest problem with Varan the Unbelievable is that it's so inept and careless that it's not entertaining to watch. It's not a respectful localization of the film it spawned from, like Godzilla, King of the Monsters, a fairly well-done translation, like the American versions of Rodan or Mothra, or so hilariously bad that, while certainly insulting to both its source material and country of origin, it's fun to riff on, like Gigantis, the Fire Monster. Instead, it's a poorly edited mess with a lead who's mildly charismatic at best and

insensitive and condescending at worst, some really uninteresting side-characters, and, due to the lack of thrilling music and your nominal protagonists being miles away from the action during the climax, no sense of excitement about the scenes you come to it for, which is even more amazing considering how the Japanese version had a tendency to be rather repetitive and drawn-out to begin with.

The one significant aspect of the film is how surprisingly political it is. As David Kalat notes in A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series, it actually touches on the tense relationship between the United States and Japan following World War II and the American Occupation. Even though he's misguided and insensitive in his methods, Bradley is meant to be seen as misunderstood and trying to do something that could benefit not only the Japanese but the world at large, only to be dogged in the Tokyo

press, have the villagers on Kunoshiroshima refuse to cooperate, and even get attacked at his home one night. While it was probably not the filmmakers' intention, and we probably shouldn't take it too seriously or spend too much time on it, this is something that wouldn't have made it into the wholly Japanese versions of the day, as said subject matter was seen as too taboo.

As John LeMay mentions in his book, The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Volume 1: 1954-1982, you have to wonder why the people behind Varan the Unbelievable went to the trouble of such a major localization, given how much of a minor movie the Japanese version is. And in the end, all they accomplished was making a much worse movie, one that's as incompetent as Gigantis, the Fire Monster, but with none of the camp value. It has a very problematic protagonist, some weak supporting characters for him, it's chopped up to the point where it's sometimes all but incomprehensible, its cheap production values make the already low budget original look like Lawrence of Arabia by comparison, and, except for some interesting but probably unintentional political subtext and the special effects footage, which they sometimes manage to botch up anyway in the editing, they remove a lot of what kept Varan from being a complete bomb in the first place. While I recommended the Japanese version only to the most diehard kaiju fans and completionists, unless you're the biggest connoisseur of bad movies there is, including poorly done Americanizations, you'd best steer clear of this.