Rodan (1956) (Review)

aka Sora no daikaijû Radon

Ishiro Honda and his crew from Gojira returned with another giant monster film after the mediocre results from another director on its sequel. More of a mystery movie than its predecessors, Rodan is a very different beast that features a more human driven storyline. You won’t find Godzilla in this movie, but Rodan did go on to costar with the more famous beast in multiple films after his destructive debut.

When the hastily put together Godzilla Raids Again disappointed, Toho came up with a new monster tale that kept the kaiju genre going. Better effects and the use of color injected life into the story about a mutated pteranodon and a group of coal miners. Succeeding at the box office in Japan, Radon winged its way over the Pacific as Rodan in the American edit a few years later. Both edits will be covered in this review, so let’s get going!

The movie opens with colorful credits accompanied by sinister music which is immediately identifiable as being in the same style as Gojira’s. Sure enough Akira Ifukube composed the score and it sets the tone for the entire film. Once the lengthy credits end we are introduced to the main setting of Mount Aso in Japan.

A mining community is starting its day with another shift of workers making their way into the mine. Harsh words exchanged between two miners escalates into a brawl between the two men, Goro and Yoshizo. Having been separated by their coworkers, the fight ends inconclusively before all head deep into the bowels of the earth to search for “black diamond.”

Later at the engineer’s office, we are introduced to our main protagonist, Shigeru Kawamura (Keni Sawara). A discussion of global warming melting the polar ice and endangering the world is interrupted by dire news – one of the tunnels has flooded. This is impossible according to the engineers, but that’s experts for you.

Of course when Shigeru arrives on the scene he finds a tunnel filled with water and further bad news that two miners are missing. I wonder which two? Yep, it’s the feuding ones and only one is found. The fact that Yoshizo is found floating face down and has been killed with something like a very sharp sword is a wee bit suspicious.

Turkey Day in March

Hey, if you can have Christmas in July events this should be allowable, right? Anyway, this was the scene outside the house during the snow storm that dumped a fair amount of inches earlier today.

I first caught side of the flock of wild turkeys outside the kitchen window and by the time I could get the camera ready they had crossed to the west yard. The little parade eventually made its way to a small stand of pine trees for a brief rest.

Given how dirty the window I was shooting out of and the snow still coming down, this was the best pictures that could be hoped for.

The turkeys have been getting bolder this winter, so seeing them around the property has gotten more common. Ah, country living – you never know who will stop by.

Health 3-4-2013

I burned myself out on Saturday to participate in a youth temple trip to the St. Paul Temple. It was worth it to be of service to those who have passed away and it was something the Spirit had prompted me to do. Good thing too, since we would have been one priesthood holder short for the trip.

As a consequence, yesterday was not a day where I was able to get out and about. Though I missed stake conference, I used the opportunity to watch The Ten Commandments on Blu-ray and ponder the importance of Judaism and Christianity in regards to the slow rise of freedom for all men. Ne entries to Mamie's Life were also put up, so the day was not a complete loss.

Healing from the infection and resulting abscess is still going on. It’s winding down and there is considerably less pain now that it no longer is pressing on a large nerve. It will be nice to be completely healed and not have to worry about it anymore. Meanwhile, the sinuses have decided to misbehave since last Wednesday.

You win some, you lose some.

Lord of the Rings, Donnie Darko Style

This is impressive on multiple levels. Now we need WETA to provide the CGI to finish it!

Piracy and Anime

Being the type to delve into how industries operate when I’m interested in their products, I’ve been watching the problems with the anime industry – especially in the United States. Boom and bust cycles are fascinating to observe and the anime here in the States managed to do that in in the space of one decade. So an interview with the former Bandai Entertainment USA director of marketing gives a rare insight to how things actually work. Be warned, there is profanity in the podcast.

As I’m listening to it, the brief mention of how online piracy damaged sales caught my attention. It got me thinking on how a niche industry can be devastated by people stealing the product and never paying for it. Disclaimer: It isn’t right to steal from the big industries like Hollywood or music too. Also, I won’t get into the manga side of things.

Many are the mistakes that have caused companies to fold or retreat from the anime market in the U.S., but the explosion in file sharing coincided with rise and fall in my eyes. Once broadband saturated the country around the middle of the 2000’s, piracy of videos increased. That was also when anime imploded.

Kimi ni Todoke Ep. 5: Resolution

Confusion and despair abounds when Sawako’s attempts to protect her new friends only serves to hurt them more. But even as a timely intervention propels the shy girl toward doing what needs to be done, darker forces rear their ugly heads.

Adolescence is a miserable and confusing time for most of us under the best of circumstances. Trying to understand who you are, what you are becoming, and where you fit in fills far too much time when you are a teen. This goes doubly for girls, for they can be absolutely ruthless at that age while still being incredibly insecure. This episode excels at capturing the distress is causes.

After the rumors running rampant about her new friends were discovered by Sawako, she made the draconian decision to isolate herself from them in the previous episode. Desiring to protect those she has come to cherish, the overly responsible girl puts on a brave face around her parents. Yet going to school and ignoring the others is not as easy as she thought.

Flashbacks to the events in prior episodes leaves her wondering if it all had been a dream in a very bittersweet scene set during a test. Images of fun with Ayane and Chizuru bring a slight smile, but it is when she flashes on Kazehaya’s face that her brave façade begins to crumble. Still not aware of what her feelings really are, it is letting go of him that hurts the most.

Muddling Through

Sometimes life isn’t about clear cut victories or significant progress, but simply about wandering through the vagaries that swirl about you. The patience of Job isn’t an example for just for the disasters of life – it applies to slow times where nothing seems to go completely right too. For me, it is the little things that get under my skin, not crisis level events. Those I can handle.

So it has been the drawn out recovery from the infection, not the severe illness endured while at its peak that has made me a grouch. Actually, my being irritable is usually a sign I’m feeling better, so maybe I shouldn’t whine about my whining. Hmm, exponential whining, what a concept.

Positive things have happened along the way. None of them have been dramatic, but most good things are small anyway. I should list them to smack myself in the face with them:

• Being able to get out and socialize with friends Saturday night even if running late.
• Getting to church the last three Sunday’s despite the pain.
• The Holy Ghost playing the role of teacher and giving me some very interesting insights this weekend.
• Having movies to watch when I was unable to read even light material last week.
• Learning more about my grandparents’ lives through Mamie’s diaries. Our society has lost so much since then that it is tragic.
• Finally sorting, cleaning up, and backing up years worth of files, music, and images on my PC. I can’t believe I forgot to back up all the music purchased from Amazon and Google Play last year!
• The new monitor is finally calibrated and showing me flaws in photos I never saw before. Is that a positive? Depends on what I do with them, I suppose.
• Finally getting The Dark Knight Rises review written after a month of working on it. Writing while sick is not efficient, but it did get done. Eventually.
• B-Movies. Still one of the best ways to deal with being too sick to do anything productive.
• Curry.

I won’t list the bad stuff. Instead some random observations follow.

Brave getting Best Animated Film at the Oscars was surprising to see in the headlines. I only just saw it and unlike the vast majority of Pixar fans think it was their best film. Marketing didn’t do it justice at all and it was the most Miyazaki like of the studio’s offerings. The relationships in the family and the focus on mother/daughter conflicts were something that could easily come out of Studio Ghibli. Must be hate of gingers clouding people’s minds?

2001 on Blu-ray is phenomenal. I’d purchased it over a year ago and forgot I had it, so I popped it in the Samsung player last night. All of my younger friends find it incredibly boring, but it was riveting as always for me. The visual and audio quality is beautiful to say the least. 45 years after being released, it still has better effects than most blockbusters today and hoo boy does it look great in HD.

Speaking of looking great in HD, Viz’s release of the first half of Tiger and Bunny is amazing. The English dub on the first episode was fairly good; can’t comment on later ones since I watched them in Japanese. Between the second set of this and My Neighbor Totoro plus Howl’s Moving Castle coming out on Blu-ray in May, that month is going to hurt my wallet.

Gorgo is coming out the middle of March on BD too, so I am in a quandary about replacing the DVD I only got in the past six months. While a preorder is tempting, if the color shift and over sharpening is still there it won’t be worth it even if it is higher def.

Time to get back to image sorting and working on the next review.