{"id":79474,"date":"2021-12-29T10:04:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=79474"},"modified":"2021-12-29T10:06:42","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:06:42","slug":"rodan-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=79474","title":{"rendered":"Rodan \/ Rodan, The Flying Reptile (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Captain, I believe that thing is our murderer!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster-210x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-79475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster-210x300.png 210w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster-717x1024.png 717w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster-90x128.png 90w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster-768x1097.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster-189x270.png 189w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Poster.png 775w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nShortly after an amnesiac engineer (Kenji Sahara) who was recently trapped in a mine remembers witnessing the birth of a prehistoric bird, two gigantic winged creatures known as Rodan are seen flying in the sky, wreaking havoc across Asia.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Japanese Films<\/li>\n<li>Mutant Monsters<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that this &#8220;sci-fi fantasy about Japan being terrorized by two 100-ton flying reptiles that hatched deep in a coal mine&#8221; ranks &#8220;just below <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41339\"><em>Godzilla, King of the Monsters<\/em><\/a> on the Japanese best monster-movie list.&#8221; He notes that &#8220;early scenes in the mine are a little spooky: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave-1024x767.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-79480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave-1024x767.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave-360x270.png 360w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Cave.png 1245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; influenced perhaps by the scenes of giant ants in L.A. sewers in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15900\"><em>Them!<\/em><\/a>&#8221; &#8212; but &#8220;about halfway through, it becomes a war film, with the army using tremendous firepower to battle the reptiles on land and over sea.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket-1024x767.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-79481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket-1024x767.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket-360x270.png 360w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Rocket.png 1237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He points out that this film was &#8220;directed by Inoshiro Honda, who collaborated with his Godzilla special-effects expert, Eiji Tsuburaya, to again create some extremely impressive scenes of destruction (a preoccupation of post-WWII Japanese SF directors).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction-1024x766.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-79482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction-1024x766.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction-768x575.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction-361x270.png 361w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Destruction.png 1247w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Peary mentions this film (listed at only 70 minutes in his review) as having &#8220;good dubbing for English-language distribution,&#8221; but I&#8217;ve been advised that watching these <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kaiju\"><em>kaiju<\/em><\/a> (Japanese monster) films in their original language is best, so the version I watched was 82 minutes and lacked several sequences called out in reviews of the dubbed version (including opening footage of a nuclear blast). Regardless, not enough ultimately happens in the storyline to make it of serious interest for anyone other than those who follow and love <em>kaiju<\/em> films; of course they&#8217;ll want to see it, but all-purpose film fanatics don&#8217;t need to seek out <em>Rodan<\/em> unless they&#8217;re curious. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fine effects for the period<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird-1024x767.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-79483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird-1024x767.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird-360x270.png 360w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Rodan-Bird.png 1245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though obviously fans of this genre will find it essential. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0049782\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s2691roda.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/18633\/rodan#articles-reviews?articleId=384919\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Cjq3QzSSHys\">Brandon&#8217;s Cult Movie Review (YouTube)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Captain, I believe that thing is our murderer!&#8221; Synopsis: Shortly after an amnesiac engineer (Kenji Sahara) who was recently trapped in a mine remembers witnessing the birth of a prehistoric bird, two gigantic winged creatures known as Rodan are seen flying in the sky, wreaking havoc across Asia. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Japanese Films Mutant Monsters Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary writes that this &#8220;sci-fi fantasy about Japan being terrorized by two 100-ton flying reptiles that hatched deep in&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=79474\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79474"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79487,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79474\/revisions\/79487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}