Dogora

Dogora (1964)

Runtime: 82 minutes

Directed by: Ishiro Honda

Starring: Yosuke Natsuki, Yoko Fujiyama, Robert Dunham, Horishi Koizumi, Nobuo Nakamura

From: Toho

Me thinks I know why the Criterion Channel chose this as part of their Ishiro Honda: King of the Monsters Collection. In the past month I've hardly looked at that service so I know it will be used more often in November. They have more than one film noir from the former 20th Century Fox I expect to watch, along with other things and a collection I haven't dived into yet despite it debuting a month ago. Quite a few movies in that set have already been watched & reviewed yet there are others that haven't and this in particular captured my attention.

You see, it's mainly a movie revolving around some ne'erdo-wells looking to steal some diamonds... while in the background is a jellyfish-like monster from space floating in the sky who wants diamonds so it can extract carbon from them. By now, most will know why my thought was, “Hmmm, how about that?” when it came to the monster known as Dogora. If you don't, I'll say no more, except that perhaps my enjoyment of something would have been higher had it been more like this. There's also a mysterious American known as Mark Jackson; he was played by Robert Dunham, an actor who lived in Japan for years and for most, will be best recognized as the leader of the Seatopians from the “classic” Godzilla vs. Megalon. Investigating both are the police, and there's also an old scientist involved. Thankfully, science does play a big role in this, even if some of the science throughout I suspect is rather questionable.

Dogora is more bizarre than anything else; it's an odd marriage of crime movie and giant monster picture. The balance between the two isn't always spectacular-be that as it may, I was still entertained. Besides the fact that originality in the kaiju genre is always at least welcomed by me, the one scene where you get to see the titular monster is pretty awesome. It's lit awesomely and raises hell in a spectacular manner. The appreciated efforts of some key players in the Gojira universe (besides Honda there's special effects wiz Eiji Tsuburaya and composer Akira Ifukube) were also nice assets. Thus, this is a movie I was happy to have seen on the Criterion Channel.