Sequart Organization » Toho

Where the Kaiju Things Are: All Monsters Attack

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 13:00:16 +0000

All Monsters Attack" title="Where the Kaiju Things Are: All Monsters Attack" style="float:left;" />After Destroy All Monsters, Toho took the Godzilla franchise in a controversial direction. The studio decided to throw their biggest director at their smallest film yet, birthing one of the least popular Godzilla movies ever.… [more]

Metal Monsters: Tsuburaya Returns to Kong

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 13:00:30 +0000

1967 was a big year for Toho. Not because of the introduction of Godzilla’s son, but because it was their thirty-fifth anniversary. Eiji Tsuburaya and Ishirō Honda reunited to work on their penultimate collaboration for… [more]

Giant Bugs, Children, and Hibernation: On Son of Godzilla

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Tue, 26 May 2015 13:00:18 +0000

Son of Godzilla" title="Giant Bugs, Children, and Hibernation: On Son of Godzilla" style="float:left;" />After Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Toho decided to task Jun Fukuda and his crew with making another Godzilla movie set in the South Pacific. This one would capitalize on the trendy location in a… [more]

Godzilla’s Heartbeat: Sea Monsters, Chameleons, and a New Team for Toho

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Sun, 10 May 2015 13:00:44 +0000

Cancer. The Crab is said to have been put among the stars by the favour of Hera, because, when Hercules had stood firm against the Lernaean Hydra, it had snapped at his foot from the swamp. Hercules, enraged at this, had killed it, and Hera put it among the constellations. [more]

If I Cannot Inspire Love, I Will Cause Fear: More Frankesteins and Flying Turtles

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Tue, 05 May 2015 13:00:06 +0000

" The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.” [more]

The Last Hurrah: Frankenstein, Baragon, and King Ghidorah

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 13:00:41 +0000

Good men, do not be afraid! You should all single-mindedly recite the name of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva. This Bodhisattva bestows fearlessness upon living beings. If you recite his name, you shall surely be saved from these robbers, and if upon hearing that, the merchants all cry out together, Namo Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, then they will immediately be saved because they recited his name. [more]

A Voice Like a Bell: Godzilla as a Hero and the Arrival of King Ghidorah

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 13:00:01 +0000

It was not long before awful Yamatano-orochi came. Soon, it noticed the smell of sake and struck its eight heads into each gate. It drank up the sake and began to sleep with a incredibly loud snore. Susanoo-no-mikoto cut its necks and tails one by one with his sword..The water color of the Hi-no-kawa river turned to red with its blood. [more]

The Onslaught of the Mushrooms: Toho’s Serious and Silly Sixties

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 13:00:44 +0000

"I felt that I was now seeing plain, whereas ordinary vision gives us an imperfect view; I was seeing the archetypes, the Platonic ideas, that underlie the imperfect images of everyday life. The thought crossed my mind: could the divine mushrooms be the secret that lay behind the ancient Mysteries?" [more]

A Countless Number of Small Items: King Kong vs Godzilla and Akira Ifukube Pt. 2

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 13:00:07 +0000

I visited temples in Rehe and saw numerous Buddha statues embedded all over the wall. Even though each statue was humble, seeing all of them together on the wall impressed me greatly. [more]

A Countless Number of Small Items: King Kong vs Godzilla and Akira Ifukube

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 13:00:30 +0000

Be done with rote learning and its attendant vexations; for is there distinction of a “yes” from a “yea” comparable now to the gulf between evil and good? What all men fear, I too must fear... how barren and pointless a thought! [more]

Such Beautiful Miniatures: Yasuyuki Inoue and a New Age for Toho

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 13:00:01 +0000

Earth Defence Force is the start of an important transition in Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s techniques, a transition that wouldn’t reach its peak until a new decade arrived. The bright and colourful space film required Eiji Tsuburaya to focus more on optical effects then he had to date. [more]

Tsuburaya Does Colour: Rodan

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:00:03 +0000

Rodan" title="Tsuburaya Does Colour: Rodan" style="float:left;" />Rodan presented the special effects mastermind with a unique opportunity. Not only was Eiji Tsuburaya shooting in colour for only the second time but also he was allotted an unprecedented 60 percent of the film’s budget [more]

Godzilla: One Complicated Lizard

Maria Karen — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:00:47 +0000

Bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee opened the bomb bay of the Enola Gay B-29. Out plummeted “Little Boy,” a 9,700-pound nuclear warhead, which detonated 1,900 feet above a surgical clinic in downtown Hiroshima. The bomb was… [more]