I'll tell you again, referencing my Honda biography.
According to Honda's son, he had never seen his father,
quote, as pissed off as he was when the she made it into this film.
When the she hit the fan.
It was a terrible pun. Sorry.
I feel like you had been saving that one.
You delivered it so like, oh, this is my moment.
I didn't think about it until like 10 seconds ago,
but the opportunity arose, you know, I couldn't say no.
Hello and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast.
We're your hosts, Matt Levine and Vincent Hannum.
And we're talking about all our favorite monster movies,
The Good, The Bad and The Downright Campy, and asking if they stand the test of time.
Traditional Kaiju creature features, space invaders, the supernatural
and everything in between. All strange beasts are welcome here.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack,
powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab,
fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack
for investment opportunities. Link in the show notes.
Now, giant entertainment, giant terror.
Monster Zero.
Do you see anything?
From a planet 50 million miles beyond the stars came a strange message.
Lend us your Rodan and Godzilla to fight our Monster Zero.
Earth answered.
And the most dreaded creatures ever to walk our planet are lifted into outer space.
The stage is set for the mightiest battle ever seen by the universe in Monster Zero.
All forces on Earth ready to attack.
What started out as a call for help from space
turns into a nightmare of terror on Earth, Monster Zero.
Vincent, it's good to see you again. How are you doing?
So good. I have been thinking a lot about the beast from 20,000 Fast and Furious.
I've been thinking a lot about the beast from 20,000 Fathoms
since we recorded two weeks ago.
It's just such a fun movie.
It is. I've been thinking about it a lot, too.
I think I gave it our highest rating when we recorded last time.
And if anything, my opinion about it has only increased since then.
It's so good.
Same. I gave it the second to highest for the record, everybody.
But I could ease it.
I'm slow. If I were to rate this again, it might be a top tier.
And I might have to invent a new tier, the fifth out of our four tiers
for the beast 20,000 Fathoms.
I'm just kidding. It maybe is not that much of a masterpiece,
but it is really great. I loved it a lot. Yeah.
The movie that we're talking about tonight, Invasion of Astro Monster, is.
Well, I don't want to ruin anything.
Well, we'll we'll see.
You know, it's to be determined if that's at the same level as beast from 20,000
fathoms or not. All right. All right.
So, you know, as we talk about, like recent things
that have happened in the world of cinema, I feel like first of all,
we have to say rest in peace to one of the best of all time, David Lynch.
Yeah. And this is another another
regrettable blind spot in my movie watching history.
I I'm almost ashamed to say it.
I have never seen a David Lynch film.
Whoa. I don't even know where to start.
Yeah. I mean, that's surprising.
If only, I mean, you love monster and horror movies so much.
And his movies aren't maybe like directly horror,
but they do have some sort of like quasi monsters in them.
And they're very scary at times.
So I feel like you would love them.
And he he's a great filmmaker and not without his flaws, certainly.
But, you know, I feel like the best place to start is his first feature
Eraserhead, which is still my favorite and definitely has a monster in it.
So there's like the whole monster movie connection there.
But I mean, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, The Straight Story,
Lost Highway, so many great movies.
Yeah. I mean, I hear about them all the time.
Always have definitely on my watch list for sure.
Awesome. Yeah. So, you know, rest in peace
to one of the best creators of movie nightmares of all time.
Yeah, love that.
Not to mention Twin Peaks, which I'm I'm rewatching the third season,
The Return right now, which is terrifying.
Now, was that a movie first or a TV show first?
It was a TV show first.
So they did the first two seasons in 1990 and 91.
And then they had a movie spin off Fire Walk with Me,
which I think was from 1992.
And then the third season was a little bit belated.
That was from 2016 or 17.
So that was a little bit more recent. OK. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, you can't live in the pop culture sphere without hearing Twin Peaks.
So again, this is all all been on my radar.
So I got to do my due diligence here.
Well, you have a lot of great, if kind of unsettling movie
experiences in front of you.
Can't wait. Based on the tributes I've seen on my Instagram,
I'm just, you know, disembodied ears, lots of weird surrealist things.
So I can't wait. Totally.
Yeah. I'm excited to hear what you think about that for sure.
What about you? Have you seen any good movie monster movies recently?
Not a monster movie per se, but it deals with angels.
Have you seen Wings of Desire?
Mm hmm. German film from the late 80s.
Yeah. Great movie.
Yeah. Like arthouse cinema.
But but I think still accessible to just your average moviegoer.
Peter Falk plays a really great character.
And I watched it with Ellen and we enjoyed it.
It was very artsy, you know, so we didn't quite get all of it.
But I came away really enjoying that one, too.
Yeah, I like that movie a lot.
I think it's very beautiful.
A lot of it is in black and white the last like half an hour, maybe is in color.
I really love that director of vendors who also made Paris, Texas.
Alice in the cities, Pina.
He made Perfect Days, which just came out last year.
So he's a great filmmaker and Wings of Desire is one of his best, I would say.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. Cool.
I was worried you were going to say that you rewatched God told me to
when he brought up angels.
It's like, why don't do it?
I'm mostly kidding.
I hate that movie a little bit more than I probably should.
I mean, I was maybe a little harsh on it, but I don't need to revisit it.
Yeah. I say that not anytime soon anyway. Yeah.
Nice. Well, Wings of Desire is great.
I wanted to bring up a movie from last year, which is kind of a monster
movie that I really liked the first Omen, which I wasn't sure if I was going to like it.
It's a prequel, of course, to the Omen series, and it's really well made.
It has some really scary moments, some things I didn't like about it.
But if you're a fan of the Omen series or just kind of
devil horror movies in general, it's very, very good.
OK. Yeah, I've seen the first one.
I enjoyed it. I found it unsettling.
I am not opposed to diving into that series a little bit more.
So that's good to know. Yeah.
In a way, Satan is like the biggest monster of them all.
So I feel like Camp Kaju adjacent.
We don't get into too many demons yet on this show.
Like we could do the exorcist, we could do the Omen.
I think that mean possession movies are are there for the viewing.
And maybe one day we'll get to them.
Yeah, I kind of hope so.
It's a it's a very compelling and I think usually pretty frightening theme, in my opinion.
Rosemary's Baby. Oh, maybe. Yeah.
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there, but I get excited about Rosemary's Baby.
Won't say anything about Roman Polanski, but Rosemary's Baby
maybe is my favorite horror movie of all time.
It's like a it's a perfect film.
Yeah. If I may use that term, it's just so tightly constructed.
Totally agree. It's fascinating.
It's perfectly made.
Mia Farrow's fantastic.
John Cassavetes is to
a masterpiece. I love that.
Yeah, truly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, yeah. So so many great horror and monster movies to talk about.
But before we dive into tonight's episode,
we'll just talk about a few Camp Kaiju nuts and bolts here.
Thanks again for hanging out.
All of you listening to this episode, please rate and review wherever you listen.
You can also send us listener comments at campkaiju.gmail.com
or our Instagram page at camp underscore Kaiju.
If you would like to be a featured voice on the show, leave a voicemail at 612-470-2612
telling us about your favorite monster movies and memories.
If you've seen Invasion of Astro Monster and want to tell us your thoughts
about this movie in particular, please do so.
We would love to hear that.
Finally, please check out our website, CampKaijuPodcast.com
for more reviews and special content.
You can find merch at CampKaiju.Threadless.com
and you can become a patron at Patreon.com slash Camp Kaiju.
You'll get discounts, priority comments and access to any live
events, which we might have a couple coming up over the next few months.
So, yeah, check it out if you're interested in becoming a patron.
Well, we do have one and that's our trivia night coming up in May.
We're going to be partnering with Naomi Osborne.
Shout out friend of the pod there.
She hosts a movie trivia each month on the first Monday of that month.
So the first Monday in May, Matt and I will be with Naomi at Indeed
Brewing in Minneapolis, and if you are a patron and you wish to join us
and play along at the trivia night, you'll get one drink on us, alcoholic or not.
Just we would love to see you and talk some movies, nerd out and play some trivia.
Of course, if you're interested in that local Twin Cities listeners
and you want to become a patron, there's some incentive for you.
If you don't want to become a patron, that's OK.
Still come to trivia. We'd love to see you.
I also have Matt.
This is new to you. I'm just I'm just spitballing here, but.
I'm excited. I have a little little little game slash contest.
I want to run by you for later in this episode related to Nick Adams.
And I would like to offer listeners the chance to win an exclusive.
Nick Adams fan club T-shirt.
That I'm going to make now more to come.
So stick around to the end of the episode.
Amazing. I wish I could get my hands on that Nick Adams shirt.
But, you know, it's some lucky patron or, you know,
participants out there is going to take advantage of that.
100 percent patrons. You're in.
Just just let me know and I'll get you your Nick Adams official T-shirt.
He's one of a kind.
I mean, not only that, you know, identifiably New York face
in like the middle of a Godzilla movie, which we'll talk about soon,
but just that Brooklyn accent, like everything about him is so amusing to me.
I love it. And he's so dedicated.
I have a lot to say about Nick Adams, but I won't get ahead of myself.
Well, we'll definitely get to him soon because he's heavily featured
in Invasion of Astro Monster.
I also wanted to throw out a call for writers.
If you want, if you love writing about movies, you know,
monster movies in particular, but really movies in general,
we would love to perhaps feature your writing on our website.
We're looking for more reviewers.
Vincent, is there anything else you want to say about this position?
Oh, just reach out to us. Camp Kaiju at Gmail dot com is the best place to do that.
Let's just chat. Let's see if you're interested.
And yeah, we'll see what's possible.
But we'd love to get more voices on the show on the website.
So that's where we're coming from.
Totally. I love that.
Really excited to see who reaches out to us.
Yeah, I see that you also have a shout out to our Norwegian listeners.
Did you have anything in particular there?
Yeah. So big shout out. Sorry, Sweden.
I guess you're not our top listenership anymore in representing the Nordic countries.
But I recently switched our podcast hosting network website
and they get in this site gives us a breakdown on by country on our listeners
and Oslo, Norway.
We we have dozens of downloads a week coming out of Oslo.
Well, oh, cool.
I love to hear that.
I want to do like a frantic search for Norwegian monster movies right now,
because I have to admit, I don't know a lot of them, but they might be featured soon.
Well, for all you listening out there, Skull also troll hunters on our radar.
If there's others, please let us know.
But got Trollhunter from Denmark, we have Reptilicus from Sweden.
I know we have maybe let the right right one in.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
So, yeah, you know, we'll we love to shout out our our Scandinavian brethren.
Yeah, we might have to do like a Scandinavian theme week or a theme month sometime soon.
We'll see if that happens.
But thank you to our listeners in Norway and, you know, wherever you are.
Thank you to all of our listeners.
We really appreciate it.
Scandinavian or not.
And again, a special thank you to our patrons.
I just want to shout out Jason, Chris, Sean, Peggy and our anonymous patron.
Thank you so much.
Let's see what what has happened in the world of monster movies since we last recorded.
Wolfman came out.
Have you seen it yet?
The remake. Did you know?
Not yet. It got pretty bad reviews.
It did. Yeah, I saw that.
I'm still excited.
You know, the Invisible Man remake also by Lee Wan-el, I thought was decent.
There were some things I didn't like about it, but kind of an interesting update for the modern age.
So I do want to see Wolfman, but maybe not expecting too much.
And let's be honest, we're not here to to rate to judge a movie critically.
We're going to just enjoy it one way or the other because it's a werewolf movie.
It's a it's a universal werewolf movie.
Yeah. Why not?
Let's watch it.
Indeed. And we just talked about the original Wolfman a couple of months ago, which is a fantastic movie.
Yeah. Oscar nominations came out.
Not surprisingly, not too many monster movies in there, although The Substance is definitely a monster movie and is absolutely worth seeing.
It's a lot of fun and also has a very pointed thematic commentary about Hollywood and gender representation and so on.
Yeah. And I see Nosferatu got a few nominations in production design, makeup and hair styling, costuming, which I think is totally warranted.
Yeah. That was my favorite part of the movie.
Just like the enriched world Eggers brought us into.
Yep, for sure. Wicked got some nominations as well, which is maybe like Monster Movie adjacent a little bit.
But yeah, I mean, as always, I love to hate the Oscars.
I will definitely watch them in like a month and a half or whenever they are late February, I think.
So, yeah, that's that's coming up.
In terms of what came out around this time in Monster Movie history, speaking of, you know, early mid February around that time frame,
I think we talked about a couple of these during our last episode.
Is there anything else that you want to shout out in the movies that I have listed here?
Well, it's one I added right at the end. It's called Two Lost Worlds from 1951.
This is one of my favorite underrated you probably never heard of movies.
It's named it stars James R. Ness from Gunsmoke and them and the thing from another world.
But here he plays a pirate like a rogue dashing pirate swashbuckler in and and he with his crew and of course, a beauty damsel.
They end up on an island of dinosaurs.
So it's a pirate dinosaur movie. It's the only one I know of.
It's it's dumb, but it's dumb fun. I would recommend.
You had me at pirate dinosaur movies. I should have led with that.
Cool. I mean, you know, it's sad. I've never even heard of that movie.
I know. Well, I like I said, it's a deep cut.
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Awesome. Two Lost Worlds. That that sounds great.
The one that I want to shout out is In the Mouth of Madness from 1995.
It's a John Carpenter movie.
Some Carpenter fans, I think, would say it's maybe his last really good, really kind of like characteristic movie.
I know that vampires and ghosts from Mars have some defenders, but yeah, in the Mouth of Madness, Sam Neill plays a writer like a horror writer who very quickly goes crazy, kind of just like goes off the deep end.
It's a little bit Lovecraftian. So that's a great movie.
Highly recommended. In the Mouth of Madness. If you're a John Carpenter fan.
All right. And Sam Neill fan. Yeah. Who's I mean, he's also an event horizon, which is like he was in some good 90s horror movies slash sci fi movies.
Of course, Jurassic Park being the most famous, but some others, too.
And he's in the Omen three Damien's something or another. One more reason why I do want to go through that series.
All right. This is a low key Omen episode. Turns out. Yeah, I didn't even know he was in that at all.
It like it comes full circle on Camp Kaji. That's great.
Do you want to mention a couple of upcoming releases as well? Zach Kregger's companion. He made Barbarian a couple of years ago.
I'm pretty excited about that.
Oz Perkins, who had kind of a hit with Long Legs last year, his movie The Monkeys coming out in about a month or so.
And then Presence by Steven Soderbergh looks like a really unique ghost story.
I think it's out in theaters now. I'm really excited to see that.
Yeah, very interested in that. In February, we have on Camp Kaiju.
We have Tusk 2014 horror film by Kevin Smith.
I'm very excited to talk about that. And then our episode after that will be Dracula's Daughter, which I'm very excited to talk about as well.
Indeed. Going back to some classic universal. Yeah. Yeah.
But tonight, again, we're talking about Invasion of Astro Monster, the sixth Godzilla film.
Vincent, what is your personal history with this movie? Oh, my goodness.
Not a whole lot, not like a deep history, but I got this on a DVD in a collection maybe 10 years ago.
And it had been the first time I had seen it.
And I I instantly fell in love with the the world of this movie, the science fiction, the going out into outer space.
Rodin makes an appearance. I'm wishing Mothra was there, but that's OK.
And I just I go back to this one of every once in a while.
It's just like a warm blanket. You know, I came home from work last week and I just couldn't wait to stay up late and throw this movie on.
I have I have quibbles, of course, that I'll get to. But that's my history.
I love that I saw it for the first time for this episode recording.
Just watched a couple of days ago. I watched the Japanese language version and then most of the English dub.
Not all of it, though. Yeah.
So I came to this totally fresh. I was really excited about it because I love the door, the three headed monster, which was the previous Godzilla movie.
I don't think Invasion of Astro Monster lives up to those heights that I was expecting, but we'll talk more about that soon.
The war of the gargantuan.
It began with a mysterious wild storm at sea.
And before the night was over, the whole world would hear of the terror of the gargantuan.
Where had such a monster come from?
What forces created such a devastating destroyer?
Who or what could stand up to it?
Army fought the monster with million volt laser beam.
Hey, look, another one.
You'll see all of their terrifying battle to the death when you come to the greatest monster movies ever made.
A war of the gargantuan and Monster Zero.
A great Godzilla blazing a trail of terror to his Japanese homeland.
Captain, water in the counting tower.
Godzilla!
Glory defiance to the only enemy on earth strong enough to challenge him.
The uncomfortable King Kong, giant gorilla god of this South Seas paradise, where sensuous maintenance offer themselves in ritual sacrifice to his pre-deb race.
Godzilla has a brain about this size.
He is sheer brute force.
While Kong is a thinking animal.
His brain is considerably larger.
About ten times the size of this gorilla's skull.
Being instinctive rivals, there is no doubt that they will attempt to destroy one another.
King Kong versus Godzilla, heading for their colossal collision.
From the ocean's unfathomable depths, a gigantic man-like creature appears.
From the fiery depths of the earth comes a prehistoric mastodon of destruction.
Never before has the screen known such heart-stopping terror.
Starring Nick Adams.
I feel he's very important from a scientific point of view.
I'd have to cut off a leg or an arm.
Doctors, I won't let you conduct this test.
Frankenstein, with the strength of a thousand men.
And every man's need for affection that makes him a willing captive.
The chain hurts you.
The new scope of the century.
First, perhaps we'll dive into the cast and crew of the film.
Which is kind of fun because it's sort of like, you know, all the OGs kind of are like in Invasion of Astro Monster, like involved in some way.
Starting with the director, Ishiro Honda, director of the original Godzilla, not to mention many of the ensuing Kaiju films.
Rodan, the Mysterians, Battle in Outer Space, Mothra, King Kong versus Godzilla, Mothra versus Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, so on and so forth.
Really, you know, I mean, the producer who we'll talk about soon is kind of seen as one of the co-creators of Godzilla.
But for my money, Ishiro Honda is kind of the creator of Godzilla.
So he's back and the directors share for this film.
Special Effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, creator of the Special Effects for, I think, all of those movies you just mentioned that were directed by Honda.
And he would later go on and found Tsuburaya Productions and create Ultraman for television.
And just another legend in the creation of special effects, the Suitmation, the model work of the cities.
And he's back doing some top notch work here for Toho's film.
Totally. His assistant on this movie, Teru Yoshi Nakano, was also assistant on many of the films that we mentioned above.
He would become the lead special effects director on 1969's All Monsters Attack.
Just wanted to shout him out here as well.
Yeah, that's important to note, too, because as the Showa era continues, you'll realize that Astro Monster is kind of a high watermark in the original series.
Because the seventh film after this, new director, new composer, and I believe it is Nakano, Tsuburaya's assistant here, who ends up taking lead on the special effects.
So, yeah, he he'll come back in future installments.
But as we'll talk about, Astro Monster is sort of the last hurrah for a while.
Interesting. And I have some criticisms of the special effects even in this movie.
So we'll talk about that soon.
All right. Shinichi Sekizawa, again, another fan favorite here.
He had previously written Mothra versus Godzilla, Gidra, the three headed monster, Mothra, King Kong.
He or sorry, King Kong versus Godzilla. Battle in outer space.
The list goes on. Sekizawa. It's so great, Matt, that like now that we've talked about so many of these 60s Godzilla movies, I know Sekizawa's like filmography.
I can just talk about him now. I know his style.
He's known for a slightly more comedic bent, maybe not like laugh out loud funny, but there's a sense of humor, let's say, to his screenplays.
So I just I like that. I like seeing these names pop up again.
And now that I have some familiarity with them. Yeah, I definitely know what you mean.
I'm not quite at that point yet.
You're definitely more knowledgeable about like, you know, the Toho Toho films in particular and just kind of about Kaiju films in general than I am.
But but I'm starting to recognize these names and like the aesthetics that they bring to the work that they do.
And I it's very easy to see what you mean about Sekizawa kind of having a more comedic, maybe light hearted approach to some of these screenplays.
To be honest, it's not like my personal preference.
I kind of gravitate towards like a darker and more like a menacing approach.
But I do love Ghidorah, the three headed monster.
And there's some really fun stuff in this movie as well, of course.
Yeah, totally. I think that that is a criticism that I think is fair.
Like, man, this movie is so much fun and it has some themes, some important themes, because you know, Honda, he wants to dig into these things.
He wants to make 54 Godzilla all the time. He has no sense of humor.
Well, pretty close, maybe. Yeah, I know. I exaggerate.
But my point is, had the screenwriter been willing to like dig into the stakes a little bit more of what's going on?
I think you could have more movies on par with the 54 Godzilla or the first Rodin film.
I think that's fair. Yeah, totally. Yep.
Which, again, we'll get into a little bit more pretty soon here.
But just to kind of round out the crew here a little bit.
Invasion of Astro Monster was mostly co-produced by two producers, Tomoyuki Tanaka of Toho Studios, one of the co-creators of Godzilla.
He was around from the very start from 1954's Godzilla.
This movie, though, was also co-produced by United Productions of America, or UPA, which had a producer named Henry Saperstein who was involved with this film from the very start.
He also was involved with Frankenstein Conquers the World, I believe. Is that right? Right.
And War of the Gargantuas, a movie I'm dying to bring to the podcast.
Yeah, Saperstein is really interesting. And Matt, I'm pulling all this information from that interview I sent you.
And listeners, this is all I'll share it in the show notes.
But Godzilla Kaiju writer Steve Reifel interviews the daughters of Nick Adams and Henry Saperstein.
Pat Saperstein and Allison Adams.
And it's really a 40 minute interview. Saperstein and Adams are reminiscing about their fathers.
Their fathers work with Toho in the 60s and shedding some really nice insights.
So Saperstein, for instance, he was I didn't know this.
He was really instrumental in bringing these movies to the Western markets, to the United States, and selling them to the television studios.
And he was really big into merchandising.
And in a way, you can credit the exposure for Godzilla in the West largely to a lot of what he did as a businessman.
Just understanding that there's a market for these characters and let's let's sell it, baby. Let's go.
I just think that's pretty cool. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
That interview that you send me is really fascinating.
And, you know, my main takeaway, not so overgeneralized too much, but it seems like Saperstein and Adams, Nick Adams, both really, you know, they didn't look down on this work.
They had a lot of fun doing it. They could see the appeal and the kind of like imagination, the excitement, the entertainment behind it.
There was no like, you know, of course, there's a profit motive as there always is in the industry.
But they seem to really love this work and enjoyed being part of it.
Yeah. And later on, I have some quotes out of a book by Steve Reifel and Ed Gostewski.
Can't see it, Matt, but it's the Ishiro Honda biography I have.
And they detail some of the production experiences Honda had with Nick Adams in particular.
So a lot of positive stuff in here about about those two.
Cool. I might have to borrow that book from you someday because I'm dying to read it.
Absolutely. Yeah, it's pretty great. Cool.
I'll just round out the crew here real quick and then we'll go into the cast.
The cinematography for Invasion of Astro Monster is by Hajime Koizumi and the music by the one and only, again, OG Akira Ifukube, one of my favorite composers of all time for movies.
Just outstanding. Yeah.
But let's let's dive into the cast of the film.
I you've talked about Nick Adams before you mentioned earlier already in this recording that you're a big fan.
Do you want to talk about him a little bit?
And how? I'll try to keep it brief, I guess.
Nick Adams plays astronaut Glenn in this movie.
Nick Adams had been a rising young movie star in the 1950s.
He has a bit part in Rebel Without a Cause.
He was nominated for an Oscar in 1963.
And so he was he was big news.
He was a star of a television show, Johnny Yuma.
I personally have never seen it, but it was a big deal at the time.
But by the mid 60s, his star was on the wane and he was in his mid 30s by this point.
And Saperstein worked out this production deal with Toho behind some Kaiju films.
Godzilla Frank Frankenstein conquers the world.
Astro Monster and gargantuan in particular.
And Saperstein tapped movie stars who were on the decline to star in these movies.
So Nick Adams does star in Astro Monster and Frankenstein conquers the world.
And he was really loved on set like, again, going back to that interview I sent you and what the authors detail in the Honda biography.
Nick Adams was universally loved on the set.
He brought a real go get him attitude.
He was disciplined. He had an enthusiasm.
And like you said, he didn't look down on these movies.
He and you could tell I think his screen presence, he's having a lot of fun.
I'm not saying he's James Dean up there, but you could tell he's having fun.
And I think that translates to the audience having so much fun.
So I appreciate that. I love that.
And I want a quick shout out one more Nick Adams genre film called Die Monster Die.
He starred in this movie. It was a British production with Boris Karloff.
It's based on Lovecraft's Colorado space.
So it's like a weird horror movie.
If you can find this movie, I have and it's worth it.
And Nick Adams is being Nick Adams, but he's also with Boris Karloff.
It's the best.
That sounds amazing. Is that like late 1960s?
Mid 65, 66.
That brings me to another personal note for Nick Adams.
He did die tragically young, actually.
In 1968, it was a pill overdose.
I don't think it was I don't think it was ruled a suicide.
Just kind of like a mysterious situation.
But coincidentally, he died on February 7th,
which if you're listening to this episode when it drops on February 8th,
it's the anniversary of his death.
So we'll pour one out for Nick Adams.
Totally.
Rest in peace to like, you know, one of the best like crossover presences in the Toho Godzilla franchise.
You know what I mean? Like global diplomacy a little bit.
You know? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And like you say, like he's so funny because he's he's a New Yorker and he talks like that.
And that's interesting because depending on what you watch, the sub or the dub version of this film,
you either lose out on his accent or you really get to appreciate it.
This is like the first time they had tried it.
They wrote the screenplay in two languages in Japanese and English,
because Nick Adams did not speak Japanese and his co-stars mostly didn't speak English.
So Honda had basically filmed.
He filmed the scene with Nick Adams saying his lines in English and the Japanese actor saying their lines in Japanese.
So they didn't understand the words they were saying to each other.
But a testament to their acting, they still knew how to act the scene.
And this was a process that they would then the Toho would then go on to utilize in subsequent films.
Yeah, totally. And, you know, in the English dubbed version, Nick Adams' voice is actually on the soundtrack
and all the other characters are, of course, overdubbed by other actors.
And in the Japanese version, I think Nick Adams is the only one who is, you know, we don't hear his voice in the soundtrack, but the other actors we do.
And that's like I think that was kind of a common practice, especially among like spaghetti westerns of like the 60s and 70s,
where you would have like multinational casts where like one actor would be speaking Italian, another French, another German, another English,
like maybe sometimes all in the same scene, which must have been, to your point, Vincent, like really difficult for the actors.
But, you know, in a lot of cases, they make it work.
And like, you know, in this particular case, testament to the cast to like play off of each other so well,
which I think Nick Adams and Akira Takarada, who we'll talk about soon, they do play off of each other really well.
Yeah, they have. I think they have a lot of great chemistry that I think, again, really, really translates to the to your viewing pleasure of this film.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's you know, it's always maybe this isn't the right time to talk about this, but I don't know.
It's cool to hear if people prefer watching the Japanese subtitled version, like, you know, Japanese language, English subtitled version or the English dubbed version.
Like, I feel like both have their own pleasures.
I like to hear the original Japanese dialogue.
But at the same time, like there's something charming about the English dubbed version.
And, you know, obviously you don't have to read the subtitles.
Maybe you can focus on the image a little bit more.
So if you have the time, I feel like it's worth it to watch both versions, you know.
I agree. And I think I usually just go back and forth.
I had watched the subtitled version so often.
I was like, you know, let me watch the dubbed.
I don't want to read tonight. Yeah.
And then I had Nick Adams's voice.
It is Brooklynese dialect.
I was like, this is awesome. This is great.
I will always watch this for sure.
Yeah. Some of his dialogue delivery is awesome.
And his like Brooklyn accent, which we'll probably talk about more.
So, yeah, I mean, you know, it's a good point that he died on February 7th.
This is a great opportunity to commemorate Nick Adams.
Such a unique presence in Kaiju film history.
Mm hmm. Don't forget.
I've got a surprise little game coming up for us. Yes.
But you'll have to wait, listeners, till after the break.
Ooh, all right. I can't wait myself.
See what happens.
We'll talk briefly about the rest of the cast here as well.
So Invasion of Astro Monsters stars Akira Takarada as Kazuo, another astronaut.
Of course, Japanese character.
We'll talk a little bit more about that later.
Why one is Japanese and one is American.
But Takarada also was in a lot of Kaiju films.
Godzilla, Mothra versus Godzilla, so on and so forth.
Kumi Mizuno plays Miss Namikawa, who is Nick Adams love interest in the film.
She was also in Frankenstein Conquers the World, Godzilla versus the sea monster.
Of course, she co-starred with Adams in Frankenstein Conquers the World as well.
So there's a little bit of overlap there.
Film stars Keiko Sawai as Haruno, Kazuo's sister.
She works for the World Space Agency in the film.
I couldn't really find a lot of information about her, but I like her presence in this movie a lot.
I think she's really great, very charismatic.
Yep. Yes, she gives maybe a stereotype busting role as a female in very male dominated workplace culture in Japan at the time.
She's willing to just to push back gently against her male supervisors.
Yeah. Yeah, because her brother is like very domineering and does not approve of her engagement.
This is a good time to bring this up.
In the film, she is engaged to Tetsuo played by Akira Kubo.
Tetsuo is kind of like a mild mannered inventor who has not really done very well for himself in life so far.
So Kazuo is kind of against their impending marriage.
But, you know, it's an interesting kind of like dynamic intention among their characters.
Maybe it's resolved a little bit too easily in the film.
But for a while I do kind of like their their conflict between those three characters.
Yeah. And I think Tetsuo, the character played by Akira Kubo, he is like the Sekizawa.
He's the type of character Sekizawa likes to write.
He's the comedic relief. He's like a little befuddled, bumbling, bespectal.
He wears glasses.
That's me just giving up on the big words.
Yeah. He's kind of like the absent mind professor a little bit, you know?
Yeah. Yeah.
Indeed. And Akira Kubo plays that role very well.
He also is in or would go on to be in Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Space Amoeba, and Gamera, Guardian of the Universe from 1995.
So the later version of that.
Yeah, but he's a he's a good comedic presence here for sure.
Did you want to talk about any of the other cast members in the film?
I think the other big one just to touch on is Yoshio Tsuchiya.
He's the leader of the Planet X, the Xillions, the Xillions.
And he appeared in Kurosawa films like Seven Samurai and Redbeard.
The actor himself had a fascination with UFOs.
He even wrote some books on the subject.
And he loved playing aliens in movies.
Again, I think like Nick Adams, just have fun with these movies.
Yeah.
You don't have to take everything so seriously.
But then in having fun with it, you come off sincere and genuine.
I think you do end up giving a good performance.
Exactly. And I think that's why these movies, you know, stand well to be determined, but stand the test of time and are so beloved by so many people, you know?
Yeah.
Okay. One other thing about Tsuchiya.
He actually recommended to Tsuburaya to include the Shie dance for Godzilla after he vanquishes Gidra in their first fight.
Some quick background on this.
This happens to be a very infamous moment in the Godzilla franchise when Godzilla jumps up and down and does a little dance of victory.
You think, why is that such a big deal?
But this is what we're talking about. We're getting away from Honda's like serious foreboding vision and we're making Godzilla more kid centric.
He's dancing.
He was talking in the previous movie.
It's like what's happening to Honda's vision.
But it was a popular dance.
It's called the Shie.
It was very popular in the 1960s in Japan.
It was a trademark of a manga character, Osomatsu-kun, and Tsuburaya had no reservations and he put it in there.
Apparently Honda didn't even know about it.
And I'll tell you again, referencing my Honda biography, according to Honda's son, he had never seen his father, quote, as pissed off as he was when the Shie made it into this film.
When the Shie hit the fan.
It was a terrible pun.
Sorry.
I feel like you had been saving that one.
You delivered it so like, oh, this is my moment.
I didn't think about it until like 10 seconds ago, but the opportunity arose.
You know, I couldn't say no.
But it's kind of easy to imagine Honda being so pissed off about that.
Like, you know, like you alluded to before, the original 1954 Godzilla is pretty serious.
It has like very, you know, kind of dark pessimistic themes.
And like 11 years later, Godzilla is doing this funny little dance on Planet X.
Like, I can understand how he would be a little bit dismayed about that.
Yeah.
And yeah, it'd be like, I don't know, Godzilla doing a.
I was going to say a floss, but that's not even hip anymore, but like a floss move.
You're like, what?
Yeah. Where did this come from?
How would you? Yeah.
Yeah. So that's kind of the equivalent.
Totally. And I think the actor in the Godzilla suit, Haruo Nakajima, also did not like the idea.
He didn't want to do it, but he was directed to do so.
So we did.
Controversial moments, to your point in Godzilla film history.
Another story I think is kind of funny about Yoshio Tsuchiya.
He was in Seven Samurai, like you said before, Vincent, but he wanted to be in Godzilla instead.
And he was kind of like whenever they were shooting on the same studios, like Toho Studios.
So like the actor would go to the Godzilla set instead of the Seven Samurai set because he was like he wanted to be in that movie.
And he was like, you know, I'm in this Kurosawa movie, but I got to be in the next Godzilla film.
Like, that's what I really want to do, which I mean, Seven Samurai is an all time classic.
Of course, Godzilla is as well.
But I just think that's a funny story.
That's so yeah, I love it.
He should be on our podcast talking about UFOs.
If only I'm fairly sure he's not alive anymore.
But if, you know, if his spirit can join us someday, well, we should make that happen.
If you hear us, please join us.
Yeah, the spirit of Peter Lorre will communicate with you to make this happen.
Oh, all right, Peter, get on it.
All right. Let's let's dive into the production backstory of Invasion of Astro Monster a little bit.
So this was the sixth film in the Godzilla franchise right after Ghidorah, the three headed monster.
Japanese American co-production between Toho Studios and UPA or United Productions of America.
So in the 1960s, producer Henry Saperstein of UPA was asked to acquire monster movies to distribute in North America.
Vincent, you were talking about this a little bit before.
So this was the first film that Saperstein was heavily involved with from the very beginning.
I think he had a little bit to do with the was it Frankenstein Conquers the World?
Mm hmm. Yeah. But this was the first one where he was involved from the start.
UPA provided 50 percent of the funding for the film and Saperstein encouraged screenwriter Sekizawa to, you know, try to get into the action a little bit more quickly.
He didn't want to have all these kind of like government press conferences when like a kind of long prologue before we get to the monsters.
I have my own complaints about that, but I'll save that for later in the episode.
And it was also Saperstein's idea to incorporate the alien invasion theme, which some Toho Studios sci fi films had done in the past, but not really so much in the Godzilla films.
It's a little bit in Ghidorah, the three headed monster, but maybe not so much.
Yeah, it's part of the legacy a little bit.
This is the first Godzilla movie to incorporate those themes.
Not well, there was aliens in Ghidorah, the three headed monster, but in Astro Monster, the Kaiju themselves are brainwashed, their mind controlled to destroy the earth, which is something we will see in future installments.
Yeah. And, you know, a lot of invasion of Astro Monster is set in outer space, which I don't think you do are the three headed monster, maybe extremely briefly, but not very much.
I don't think so. Yeah.
So that's a new direction for the franchise for better or worse.
Saperstein also wanted to cast an American actor, like we said before, Nick Adams was just the right level of famous and affordability for Saperstein.
And it worked out perfectly.
He you know, in some ways he is as famous now as he ever was because he said, yes, let's go make some monster movies.
Yeah. And we love him for it. Yeah.
So another thing that kind of like exhibits the participation of an American company is the design of the P-1 rocket and the astronaut suits in the film, which were based on NASA's project Gemini missions.
So it's fairly easy to see that, you know, this very much is a Japanese American co-production to a greater extent than any of the Godzilla movies that had come before.
And I think that's in line with the burgeoning popularity of these kind of space adventures in the 60s, particularly both in Japan and in the United States.
And kind of going along with the kind of friendlier, more comedic, lighthearted tone that we've already talked about, we also have a new Godzilla suit in the film.
The Godzilla suit was made by Taizo Toshimitsu.
It has larger eyes and less pronounced dorsal fins, which lead to a friendlier look.
I can't remember the next time after this that the Godzilla suit would be redesigned, but I think it would kind of go more in this direction, at least for a while, that we see sort of like a friendlier, more cartoonish version of Godzilla.
Yeah, rounder features, softer features. Yeah. Yeah.
The budget was less this time around. So the special effects were a little shoddier and the model work was the same.
And there is some recycled footage in this movie from previous films Rodan, Mothra and Gich with the three headed monster.
This was also the first for the Godzilla franchise, the use of stock footage for better or worse, as we'll say.
Yeah. Yeah. There's a there's a there's a quote you included here, Matt.
Honda regretted these budget cuts and quote said, it's no wonder we could not make anything good around that period.
It's a sad story because he knew he said that audiences would notice this footage.
And I don't know, it sounds like Honda had mixed feelings about this production.
Certainly. And I wish I could remember offhand, but did Honda direct the next couple movies in the series?
I don't think he did, did he? Or he directed the next one. No, he did not. Oh, OK.
Oh, you mentioned that before. I'm sorry. He did not direct the next two.
He would come back for all monsters attack and Godzilla's revenge.
And then he'd go away for a few movies and then he wouldn't come back till terror of MechaGodzilla.
Wow. I'm very impressed, first of all, that you know that just off the top of your head. That's awesome.
But it also kind of makes sense if he was like not feeling great about the series that he would take some time away after this film.
Yeah. You know, Matt, maybe maybe not everyone know this, but I I I got my movie titles mixed up just then.
So I'm not 100 percent perfect. Godzilla's revenge is the same as all monsters attack.
I meant to say destroy all monsters and all monsters attack.
That was just a test to see if any of the listeners picked up on that.
Yes, I plead forgiveness listeners.
I'm still impressed personally.
And then, you know, like when Honda says it's no wonder we could not make anything good around that period.
I love Gidor, the three headed monster. That's my second favorite Godzilla movie after the first one.
So I personally would disagree with that statement, but he's closer to it, of course.
So, you know, has his own perspective. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Love that movie, too. Yeah.
In any case, Invasion of Astro Monster came out in Japan on December 19th, 1965 to mixed reviews.
I think some critics maybe did not like the direction that the franchise was going in, sort of like we've already talked about.
This was the tenth highest grossing Japanese film of the year, which doesn't seem terrible, but is not quite at the same heights as previous Godzilla movies.
And, you know, this would be the last Showa era film to crack the top 10. Wow. I did not know that.
Yeah. Yeah. When you get into the movies after this, which we haven't really on Camp Kaiju, but the overarching theme is where the studio is hemorrhaging money.
You can't compete with TV, cut budgets, cut budgets. And that's why Godzilla just kind of becomes more Saturday matinee type of entertainment.
Yeah. Like I think of the few, you know, Godzilla movies from this era, but a little bit later that we've talked about on the podcast, like Son of Godzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla,
neither of which are my favorites. And it's easy to see that. And like some of the later, I think it's the Heisei era, right? That starts in 1984.
Yeah. From what I've seen, those movies generally are pretty awesome. I love what I've seen from that era.
But there does kind of seem to be this stretch of like the 60s and 70s, late 60s and 70s, where personally not my favorites.
But, you know, totally. And there's some weird gems in there, too. I got to tell you, future, future Camp Kaiju episodes, 100 percent, which I cannot wait to discover.
They get. Yeah. Yeah. It gets weird.
Weird is good, I think.
The American version of Invasion of Astro Monster, which was called Monster Zero, was not released in the United States until July 1970 by Marin Films on a double bill with War of the Gargantuas.
It grossed three million dollars on its initial run in the United States.
So that's a period of five years in between the Japanese and the American release.
From the research that I did, admittedly not extremely extensive research, they're kind of like conflicting accounts for that.
Some people say that, well, Saperstein said that there was a lot of like re-recording that had to be done, a lot of like re-edits, sound design, things like that, that accounted for that five year delay.
There were some other reports saying that UPA just didn't have a lot of faith in monster movies or in this one in particular and kind of shelved it for five years.
So I don't know if there's a definitive reason for that delay, but in any case, five years later, it came out in the United States.
Yeah. Interesting.
This might be a good time for a sponsor break. Yeah, let's do it.
All right. Smooth. Smooth segue.
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers.
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.
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Link in the show notes.
Vincent, do we have any messages from Menia's mailbox?
Yeah, we've got a fun one today, everybody.
A bit of a story here.
So this comes from a former student of mine.
His name is Monty and Monty keeps in touch with a coworker of mine and he texted her and then she showed me this text from Monty.
Monty, if you're listening, text me back.
He says, Could you tell Hannam, aka Ham Ham, that the Godzilla minus one episode of his podcast was goated and the Godzilla samples were great additions.
Thanks.
They are. Yeah.
Thank you, Monty. I love anytime someone calls our our podcast goaded.
I'm presuming that's like the goat.
Yeah. Greatest of all time. Yeah.
That's awesome.
Thank you, Monty.
Yeah. Thanks for listening, bud, and hope you're well.
Matt, is that someone by the door looking in your window?
Is it like a little squat?
German looking fella with. Oh my God.
Bowl cut.
I think it might be. I think so.
Oh, he's in he's in the room behind you.
And I'm.
Hello, Matthew. Oh my God, Peter.
Hi, I just don't mind me.
I'm I gotta get to the bucket of fish heads in the in the refrigerator.
We forgot to feed you. I'm so sorry, man.
That's OK. Now I can leave the podcasting booth so I can just help myself come and go maybe in the middle of the night when you're when you're when you're fast asleep.
I'll try not to disturb you, but just know that I'll be creeping around.
Well, I'm probably not going to sleep at all tonight if I think about you creeping around my bedroom in the middle of the night.
But, you know, it's cool. You're welcome. You can come in.
Well, believe me, Matthew, I am not as scary as some of these poverty real picture show movies that that that I'll be talking about tonight or today.
This week, I'll be talking about the ape from monogram, a truly fiendish film starring Boris Karloff from 1940.
But but I've got to get back to my booth now and and get ready to record.
And and I got a munch on these these fish heads.
Well, I can't wait to hear a Peter. Good luck. It's going to be amazing as always.
OK, goodbye. I was good. Siknyd. Goodbye.
You got to meet him. There he was. Yeah, yeah.
He kind of startled me a little bit, but you know, it happens.
So I didn't know you like you gave him the key or like what?
I didn't know. Yeah, I'm a little unsettled right now. I don't know how he got into my apartment, but you know, it's cool.
He's I guess he's he's a welcome guest from now on.
All right. That's it. You're living with Peter Laurie.
Yeah, it's going to be the name of my autobiography.
That's good. OK, well, you know, we got some more fun coming up, everybody.
After Peter Laurie talks with the poverty real picture show, we're going to come up to my fun little game here.
Welcome to poverty, world studios on the other side of Hollywood, where the stars were dimmer and the red carpet stripped with blood.
Together, we will watch the best of the worst movies known for their limited budgets, outlandish concepts and questionable performances.
But with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape men and devils bats to keep you open night.
This is the poverty real picture show, and I dare you to sleep through these nightmares.
Oh, oh, listeners. Oh, my goodness.
If you've ever tasted Manthew's fish heads, you know what?
the delicacy I have here. He is really a swell guy for taking me in the way he has. I tell
you I have come a long way since the imprisonment I suffered last season. I tell you these fish
heads. Alright, enough monkey business. Let's get to The Ape starring Boris Karloff.
This film from Monogram Pictures stars the legend in his only poverty rose outing. Karloff
had just starred in the previous years' Song of Frankenstein with Universal and his star
was bigger than ever. In The Ape, Karloff plays a seemingly innocent doctor who is searching
for a cure for polio. However, a gorilla has recently escaped the circus and begins murdering
the townsfolk. Karloff's doctor then uses the spinal fluid from these victims to complete
the life-saving medicine. Karloff and the gorilla are truly a dastardly duo until the
finale's shocking twist. It will put you over a barrel of monkeys if you see this.
It is so bananas. Now, The Ape is no King Kong, but it does offer plenty of campiness to make
it worth your while and Karloff rises above the material with a subdued yet sincere performance.
He leaves all the absurdity to The Ape here played by Ray Carrigan, an actor we will see
again play the part of a fiendish killer gorilla, an entire genre popular with the poverty rose
studios. The screenplay for The Ape was co-written by screenwriter Kurt Siodmak who was just
getting started in Hollywood, but after The Ape he would make a name for himself writing
The Wolf Man, I Walked with a Zombie, Donovan's Brain, and all their classics. Well, as for
The Ape, I guess we all have to start somewhere. Next time on the poverty row picture show,
we now turn our attention to the skies and cover our necks from the impending attack
of The Devil Bat, a Bela Lugosi movie from PRC that makes The Ape look like a nominee
for best picture. Yes, yes listeners, keep hanging in there and you will witness some
truly batty filmmaking when a rat with wings is turned into a rampaging hell spawn of Satan.
Speaking of, where has my own little vermin friend run off to? Oh no, dear listeners,
I do not like it when Pierre hides from me. He cannot be trusted. No, do not let your
guard down. Not since the incident last season with the meat cleaver.
Starring Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, Susan Farmer, and Planets of the Vampires. Starring Barry
Sullivan, space explorers fighting planet vampires. Boris Karloff as the lust mad stone
monster. Two nerve jolting terror thrillers. Die monster die.
That Glenn, played by Nick Adams, has one of the best movie monologues I have ever heard
on the silver screen. I would like to challenge you to a game of dueling Glenn's. We'll each
read this monologue doing our best Nick Adams as Glenn and listeners, you get to vote on
who did it best. And I love this. If you participate, you get entered into the drawing for a free
Nick Adams fan club t-shirt. Patrons, you're already in, but please still vote. Let's see
who's got the chops. Oh man, I can already tell you're going to win, but I'm so excited.
This is going to be fun. Well, I don't know. I got to, you know, I have a sleeping baby
next door, so I got to keep it down a bit. You just got to commit. You have to fully
commit to the performance. I can go first. Okay. Okay. Give me not Namikawa's line right
before though. Lead me in a little bit. Okay. Should I also explain this is from Miss Namikawa,
who is Glenn's kind of pseudo fiance, his love interest in the movie. Who turns out
to be a robot. Yes, indeed. Yeah. Or a robot. Yeah. Okay. Whenever you're ready. All right.
You have to become a citizen of our planet X so we can marry. That's the only way we
can save you. Look, Namikawa, we're not robots. What kind of piece would it be if we were
controlled by machines in defense of earth? We're going to fight to the last man, baby.
Now where's your conscience? Have you turned that over to your computers too? Huh? Hey,
listen to me, Namikawa. If there's any chance of averting this war, you better tell me about
it and tell me about it right now. Cause if we don't find a solution to this thing, happiness
in this world ain't going to be worth a hill of beans. You hear? Amazing. I love it. I
it's it's an amazing scene. It's a classic and you do it justice. Well done. Well, the
floor is yours. All right. Can I have the Namikawa lead in line as well? Yep. Yep. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. You have to become a citizen of our planet X so we can marry. That's the
only way we can save you. Look, Namikawa, we're not robots. What kind of piece would
it be if we were controlled by machines in defense of earth? We're going to fight to
the last man, baby. Now where's your conscience? Have you turned that over to your computers
too? Huh? Hey, listen to me, Namikawa. If there's any chance of averting this war, you
better tell me about it and tell me about it right now. Cause if we don't find a solution
to this thing, happiness in this world ain't going to be worth a hill of beans. You hear?
Bravo. Bravo. That you gave it the oomph. Next time I don't have a sleeping baby next
door. So in the next room, it's an excuse. I think yours is closer to Nick Adams. So,
you know, I kind of maybe put my own spin on it for better or worse, you know, better
or worse. Uh, well that's our tribute to Nick Adams on this weekend, on this episode. So
listeners, write in campkaidu at gmail.com vote Matt Vincent, uh, and we'll see who comes
out on top. Nick Adams comes out on top. That's what I always, I love that line. If we don't
find a solution to this thing, happiness in this world ain't going to be worth a hill
of beans. I love the expression, the hill of beans that should be brought back. I think
yeah, it's very like Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca. Yeah. And he says baby kind of a lot in this
movie and like not just to Namakawa, but to other characters too, which I always find
pretty amusing. It's rather campy. Yeah. Perhaps it will come back later in this episode. We'll
see. Uh, I love it. Well, that is, that might be the best. I mean, like you said, not just
the best monologue in this movie, but one of the best in cinematic history. So there
you go. No joke though. I will say all kidding aside, when he broke into that monologue,
I could believe he was nominated for an Oscar. Yeah. Cause it was very in line with other,
let's say like actor studio type of performances. Think Brando and waterfront Dean in rebel
without a cause. It had that, that energy to it that I like. It really sizzled. Yeah,
for sure. I mean, uh, like you said earlier in the episode, he's no James Dean, but he
certainly is like a part of that community of actors and you can see the influence there.
And like you have to admire the dedication and the, um, the personality that he brings
to it. Uh, well let's talk about the themes and invasion of astro monster a little bit.
I would say maybe at first glance, this seems like a fun kind of like, you know, battle
in outer space sort of movie that doesn't have a lot of themes, but there might be some,
are there any that you want to mention right off the bat? Um, I, I think, yeah. Okay. So
I think, um, Honda is displaying his, his true belief in internationalism. I think Honda,
you see this in the Mothra movies in the Gija, the three headed monster, like we were dealing
with the United nations. We're dealing with the United world space agency. There's like
great international cooperation that I, to watching this movie now, you know, post Trump's
second presidency in this, in this really increasing time of isolationism, I found a
movie like this, uh, weirdly hopeful or at least inspirational, sadly, but I found it
inspirational. Yeah. I know what you mean. It's, uh, you know, on the one hand there's
this theme that maybe global diplomacy is difficult and you can never be entirely sure
if like an Alliance is going to work out. Like the whole plot of the movie is that,
you know, these astronauts go to planet X and they think that planet X is going to help
them or well, you know, give them the cure for cancer. They're going to give them the
data to cure cancer on earth in exchange for bringing Godzilla and Rodan up to planet X
so they can defeat King Ghidorah. So, you know, that's the allegiance that's laid out
before them. Planet earth goes along with it and it backfires spectacularly. Um, I won't
try to give any plot spoilers here, but you know, it's like, I feel like the plot of the
movie is basically like, you trust another, you like global or in this case, interplanetary
community, but you know, are they going to like come around and like, bite you in the
ass? You never know. Um, so yeah, I mean, like to your point, it's kind of like inspiring
and hopeful, but also like, man, I'm, it's kind of like, can we all get along? But in
like, sort of like a global diplomacy sort of atmosphere, you know?
Yeah, I think, yeah, I don't know. What if, like, what if, like, what if all the countries
had said, not do your own thing?
Right. Yeah. I mean, like the, the hopeful part of it is that Glenn and Kazuo do work
together and it's never really explained. I mean, I guess they're probably both parts
of the world space agency and that's why the American and the Japanese astronaut are going
up together, but it's never really explained in the film. And honestly, I kind of wanted
a little bit more of that. Like the sixties were the time of the space race and I thought
it would have been kind of interesting to have this theme of like competition to see
who can get up there first. But, um, but yeah, to your point, I mean, that's a hopeful part
of the plot that like, you know, these two countries are working together to save earth,
basically.
Yeah, right. It would be interesting to see maybe additional countries thrown into the
mix. I don't know. It would have been too much of to ask, like you have a Soviet astronaut
there, uh, like for American markets, but, you know, maybe there's a braver version of
this movie where you include a Russian.
Yeah, I think it would have been more timely and maybe a little bit more interesting in
terms of what was actually going on in reality in 1965. But, um, but yeah, it still conveys
the theme of, uh, you know, diplomacy working together. If that's even feasible in like
the modern age or whatever, uh, Trump would say no, but this movie would say yes.
And honestly, which one am I going to watch? Uh, you know, seven days a week and twice
on Sunday.
I sure hope it's invasion of astro monster, but I don't know the answer to that question.
It's invasion of astro.
Yeah, I'm just kidding. Yeah. I know you well enough by now. I also know you might cut all
of that out of the episode and that's okay.
I don't think so. I'm, I'm, I'm all for it. We're going to leave it hanging out there
folks.
Nice. I love it. Uh, yeah, but that is, that's the interesting theme of the movie. I would
say it for sure. Or the most prominent one anyway.
I think maybe there's like a touch of critique of capitalism because like Tetsuo is this
inventor who has this kind of ridiculous invention called the lady guard. That seems like kind
of like a, uh, like a, you know, rape whistle. I hate to use that term. It's like a, an alert
if like a woman is under attack or whatever, you know? Um, and then like, it seems like
that invention is going to be like bought by this major corporation. And then he's kind
of betrayed. Of course that corporation is actually like a front for the ex-aliens. So
that theme is like muddied a little bit, but I do feel like in 1960s Japan, that portrayal
of a corporation that's not totally to be trusted is just kind of relevant and like
a sign of where Japanese society was at at the time, you know?
Yeah. Um, I, one other thing I thought about almost in hindsight was the relationship between
Glenn and Namikawa. You know, at first she's just, she's just playing this sort of basic
femme fatale type character, but then their final scene together, and I think it's a testament
to the actor's chemistry, but I believe their stakes and their passion for each other. And
she's like, I'm a robot, but we can still be together. And as we just did our monologues,
he's like, no baby, we can't. And I found it to be a more, uh, grandiose version of
the relationship we see in Terror of Mechagodzilla between the protagonist and his Android, um,
girlfriend. And I don't know, I just think there's really something interesting thematically
and science fiction-y in that kind of star-crossed lover, the human and the Android. Can they
truly love each other?
I don't know. Yeah. No, I totally agree. It's, uh, it is pretty moving in this movie and
I don't, I won't say what happens to the Namikawa character, but it's, uh, it's very poignant
and you feel like maybe they could have made it work if things had gone differently, you
know?
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I'm thinking of that great line from Terror of Mechagodzilla. Kat,
uh, I forget her name, but he's like, uh, even though you're an Android, I still love
you.
That's great screenwriting.
Oh man. If only I could tap into that.
Um, but no, you're, you're right. That is a theme of the movie and like, you know, I
think it's a little bit too about like computerized thinking and like algorithms and like predicting
human behavior. Cause like that's what the ex aliens do. They have this like a computer
on their spaceship that predicts everything that's going to happen and like lays out a
plot to like, you know, um, prepare for the best course of action. And of course in the
film, nothing goes as expected. And I feel like in addition to this theme of, you know,
can humans and androids coexist or even fall in love? There's also this theme of like,
what is this kind of like computerized, rigid, logical algorithmic way of thinking and like,
how does that differ from like human behavior? Which again is, you know, in an age of AI
is kind of more relevant than ever.
Yeah. I actually picked up on that too, because I have been thinking so much more about technology
in our lives. And this is really interesting segue or a, just as quick sidebar. I'm noticing
Matt, as we talk about like upcoming movies today and some recent movies, I feel like
there is a trend of, of sort of dystopian technology in horror right now. And I think
that that is just part of our cultural fears subconsciously that we are in a, a new frontier
right now of AI, of robotics, of surveillance. And, and I thought about all that while watching
this movie, as silly as it is, but it's, it's, it is that dichotomy between machines and
what it means to be a human being.
Absolutely. Yeah. I thought about that too in this film. And I think especially the scenes
set on the X aliens ship, which has that like computerized operating system. Yeah. I definitely
thought about it during those scenes for sure. Yeah. So maybe more than meets the eye in
this film. Maybe not.
As long as you're wearing your like wraparound black visors. Yeah. It's a good look for sure.
Should we talk about the form and aesthetic or should we dive into our individual breakdowns?
I think we should dive into our breakdowns. Well, maybe I'll start off with the good and
then I'll turn it over to you and we can kind of go back and forth. That works for you.
Sounds great. So my, my favorite thing about this movie is just the production design broadly
speaking, like the cinematography, the sets, especially like the outer space backdrops,
the costume design, all of it is really fun. It's, it's like exactly what you want with
like a 1960s retro sci-fi vibe. And it's not necessarily convincing, but I think it's more
fun and more stylish because of that. And kind of like I just alluded to, I think the
scenes set on planet X and on the X aliens, I call it a ship before, but like I was actually
referring to their like subterranean layer on their planet. All of that looks amazing.
It's so fun. It's so stylish. That's the best part of the movie in my opinion.
I think stylish is the word. And most of my positive notes are about that production design.
I think, I think it does indeed get into that 60s science fiction vibe, very Star Trek.
And there's, there's a starry night canvas backdrop in which you see the spaceship flying
in the foreground. And there's, I'll use your word, stylish shot where the, that spaceship
and the starry night backdrop seamlessly transitions into the backdrop of the restaurant.
Yeah.
As I, that's, that's just what I watch these movies for. And it's like, really kind of
magical in the surrealist kind of way. I wish the movie maybe had more of that, but, but
I appreciated it nonetheless.
I love that edit as well. That's a great moment. It's kind of tongue in cheek a little bit
to kind of, I feel like it's almost like making fun of like the, you know, low budget, like
outer space backdrops, but it works really well.
Right. Like it's not a high budget backdrop, but it's used creatively.
Yeah. Right after that, or shortly thereafter, there's a great, another great cut where like
there's a line of dialogue where somebody's like, oh, this is going to like flip them
on his head when he hears about this. And then the next shot is that character actually
upside down on the screen. Cause like he's in the spaceship cockpit and like, you know,
let's see, like it's zero gravity or whatever. So I just thought that was a really clever
edit to go from like that line of dialogue to like literally he's flipped on his head.
That's great.
I laughed out loud because it was so dumb.
Yeah. Dumb but clever at the same time.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, oh, okay. That's where we're going with this movie. Right.
All right. I'm buckled in. Let's go.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. No, I love stuff like that. And yeah, I don't know. I think that's
why I like you, Dora, the three headed monster so much, which I feel is like that vibe 100%
of the time. And this movie isn't like that the whole way through, but still some really
great moments like that for sure. Yeah. Do you want to start us off with what you thought
was bad about the movie?
Yeah. I also just want to say that I, again, I've said this ad nauseam, but the acting
in this movie, I think is really good. I think their chemistry is really good, good. Takarada
and Adam is really sell this movie for me and I believe them to be buddies. For the
bad. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off with the good stuff. You can mention more good
stuff. No, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. For the bad. And I hate to even I think bad is a strong
word for me here, but. Like there's some there's some general lack of monster action, which
I don't mind because I still think this movie is well done regardless. It's just like an
alien invasion science fiction movie. But there was a point where I thought I'm not
seeing as much of the Kaiju as I would like to. So maybe not the monster mesh. Some people
might expect. Well, what do you think? I feel like you've got a little bit more to share.
Well, I totally like 1000 percent agree about the lack of monster action. And I think it's
so disappointing that the first times we see Godzilla and Rodan, like they don't do anything.
They're just like trapped in electromagnetic beams and they're sucked up into space. Like
it should always be an awesome moment when we first see those monsters. And this time
it's just like, oh, they're just frozen in one place and they're being sucked up into
the sky. So that was disappointing. I do love King Ghidorah. I should have added that to
my good part. But like that monster is my favorite Kaiju that I've ever seen in a monster
movie, probably unless you count like, you know, Frankenstein and stuff like that. But
I love all the Ghidorah stuff in this movie. But yeah, Godzilla and Rodan don't really
have very much to do. There's like that one fight on Planet X and there's a little bit
on Earth, but really not very much. Even aside from that, though, this movie spends a lot
of time on the human dramas and like those are almost never the interesting part of a
Kaiju film. And that's true in this case. Like I know I mentioned before that, like
the conflict between Tetsuo, Kazuo and. Is it Hano? I forget her name, sorry. But the
two people that are engaged and then her brother, you know, that that is moderately interesting.
But like the stuff with his invention makes no sense. Like he just happened to make an
invention that's like the exact pitch and frequency that's going to like affect these
aliens. And that's what leads to the climax of the movie. And I know I've talked a lot
about on Camp Kaiju before about like not looking for realism and logic in these movies.
And I still think that's true. But there needs to be some internal logic to like hold the
story together. And for me in this movie, that just does not exist. So, yeah, like narratively,
I don't think it works all that well. And the monster stuff is really disappointing,
I would say. I agree with you that I think that B plot is muddled. It's unclear. At one
point I and I was even watching it with the dubbed version and I was like, wait, wait,
wait, wait, Tetsuo is being kidnapped now. Who are these people? I didn't track all of
that B plot with his character. Yeah. I'm sure we both have campy stuff that we want
to talk about. I'll go first. I feel like maybe you have more than I do in the campy
category. Okay. But mine is also going to be Nick Adams focused. My favorite line of
dialogue that he gives in the Japanese version, but also, you know, in the English dubbed
version and the Japanese one, it's not really him. But in the English dubbed version, when
they find out that the X aliens are betraying them, Nick Adams is like, those double crossing
things, which just like seems like it should be from like a 1930s film noir, like 1940s
film noir, you know, and like his like ridiculous Brooklyn accent in the middle of this group
of Japanese scientists. I just really laughed out loud at that moment. In general, I would
say that his line delivery is like some of the campiest and most fun stuff in this movie.
And that was my favorite example. I have one line, Nick Adams exchange with the leader
of the X aliens. And this was so funny. The the the leader says to Glenn and I forget
talk about his character's name, but he's he's saying to Glenn, you know, the American,
there are going to be women involved. Good looking women. And Glenn, like drops it in
and is really impassioned. He said, you know, there's there's heart too. And there's there's
more than just the physical surface stuff with with women. And he's cut off and the
leader of the X aliens, I'm paraphrasing, but says, All right, all right, let's not
get into it right now.
Yeah, that moment is great. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. It appears that all the
X aliens, except for the robots who all look alike, are men. So I guess that line of dialogue
kind of makes sense, you know?
Yeah, it was really funny and like perfect comedic timing. I also next time you watch
this movie. I want you to count every time Nick Adams hitches up his pants. He does it
almost every time he starts a line, he unbuttons his jacket and just like does a little hitch
and puts his hands on his hips to deliver a line.
I feel like I noticed that a couple of times, but maybe not as frequently as you did. That's
awesome.
Every time. And once you notice it, you can't unsee it.
Could be a good drinking game. Yeah, it could be. Every time he hitches his pants or says,
baby, you have to take a shot. You'll be passed out with like 20 minutes in, you know?
Yeah, boy.
I mean, Nick Adams is great, but like all the campy stuff in this movie is basically
him for the most part.
Yeah, 100%. But it's it's so charming.
Yeah, I guess I would just add to in the campy category. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut
you off.
No, I'm done.
You know, we mentioned like it's pretty low budget and like some of the model and effects
work is pretty chintzy and shoddy. It's kind of funny watching this. So shortly after the
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which came out 10 years before 11, maybe 13, actually. Yeah,
somewhere out there. But you know, the special effects in that movie are pretty great. I
mean, they hold up and the special effects and invasion of Astromonster, not so much.
Like, you know, you can see like little kind of like army soldiers just like sitting in
one spot in a truck, like in a model truck, you know. Yeah. The like rear projection work
is never really like very convincing. You can tell it's like the actors are like not
even close to like the background footage. And I, you know, some of it is fun. Some of
it is like, oh, God, that looks so bad, you know. So I would put that in the campy category
as well in this case.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. When you see just like toys being used to substitute actors. Yeah, exactly.
And like very blatant wires, you know, like for. Yeah, there were a lot of visible wires,
which I tried to be forgiving. Right. Maybe it's my high def TV. I don't know. But I want
to forget that the wires are there.
Exactly. Yeah. Like it's I simultaneously love and hate that effect a little bit where
it's like, oh, this is like charming and like hands on, but also a little bit hard to believe.
And yeah, yeah. Yep. But yeah, I mean, good and good and bad, you know. All right. I think
it might be time to give Invasion of Astro Monster our rating. As always on Camp Kaju,
we have our four ratings. Number one, it's a timeless classic. It definitely stands the
test of time. Number two, there may be some antiquated moments, but overall it's great.
It stands the test of time. Number three, it may be historically significant or just
fun, but it does not stand the test of time and our lowest rating. It is not worth revisiting.
It definitely does not stand the test of time.
Vincent. Yeah. Yeah. I'll leave you the final word. OK. I think this movie is a classic
or the second. I got I don't even remember my own ratings. The second to highest. I think
it stands the test of time. I think it's depiction of space and planet X is just really beautiful
to watch with the stars and the moons and the creature fights on the planet are really,
really fun. I think the costume design for the Exilians is so iconic and memorable. I
love the general vibes of this movie. But Matt, you actually kept me from giving it
the highest rating when you, I think, rightly critiqued the entrance of Godzilla and Rodin.
I think you're absolutely right. The first time we see giant monsters, it should be awe
inspiring. And here I do think now that they are treated almost for granted. It's just
like, oh, it's Godzilla and Rodin. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't matter
if you've seen them six times or a hundred times. They must always be treated like the
giant gods that they are. So that that's what that's what's going to keep it from the top
tier for me.
Nice. Yeah, I feel very similarly. I think I'm going to have to give it one rank lower
than what you gave it. I think this movie is fun, but it does not stand the test of
time for me. Part of it, like you said, is the lack of monster action. I think like it's,
you know, they wasted some great opportunities for like awesome action scenes where the Exilians
try to like bring these monsters up to outer space. Like those could have been amazing
scenes and we don't see that in this movie. I think maybe more unfortunate is that we
spend a lot of time with the human characters and like generally that's not very interesting.
I would have loved to see a little bit more like exploration of like the global diplomacy
theme in the context of the space race. You know, as it is in this movie, it's it's charming
that astronaut Glenn, which is a great name, and the Hasuo like go up to Planet X together.
It's very like inspiring and charming. But like I you know, there's the potential for
more kind of like real world subtext there, you know, and I would have loved to see that
in the movie. So I think a lot of wasted opportunities, especially in comparison with Ghidor, the
three-headed monster, which I love so much. But yeah, I mean, it looks great. It is fun
a lot of the time, so I can't give it the lowest rating. It's a very entertaining movie
for sure. Yeah, I think that's all all fair. But thank you for bringing this movie. I yeah,
it was fun to bring it to the podcast. And like, you know, whenever we can talk about
like one of the original, you know, one of the Godzilla films from like the original
era, it's very satisfying for sure. Totally. All right. Well, next time on Camp Kaiju,
we're going to talk about Tusk. Until then, thank you so much for hanging out, friends.
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