1956 / 82m - Japan
Horror, Sci-fi
2.0*/5.0*
Rodan poster

Watches

June 16, 2022

2.0*/5.0*

Not too long after releasing the original Godzilla movie, Honda came with Rodan. It's a pretty classic Kaiju film that neatly sticks to genre conventions. Then again, Honda is the one who created half of these conventions, so that probably shouldn't come as a big surprise. The result is a little basic, but good fun nonetheless.

A small rural village gets swamped by creatures. When a team goes down in the tunnels that run underneath the town, they find more than they bargained for. Rodan is a prehistoric flying creature that, when set free, goes on a violent rampage throughout Japan. Things get even trickier when a second Rodan pops up.

Men in rubber suits, miniature sets that get trashed, a tiny bit of adventuring and some war tactics. The human vs nature theme is also very present, making this a very typical early Kaiju flick. It's not one of Honda's more inspired films, the monster itself is a bit too boring for that, but there's enough cheesy charm to fill the short runtime.