Rodan (1956) Saturday Monster Movies

Before moving on to the next Godzilla film, we have to go back to an earlier Toho Kaiju film. The first color movie featuring a Japanese giant monster was Rodan in 1956. As with other Kaiju films, this one saw a different edit for the US release. The changes were small but changed the core elements of the story. Mainly, the context of the story is changed to be about nuclear weapons, as was Godzilla. It is as if the US distributors thought that American audiences could not wrap their heads around a different concept than the one that Godzilla had presented.

In actuality, the story has nothing to do with nuclear technology or radiation. Set in a mine, two workers are in conflict and one day, one of them is killed. Naturally, the other man is suspected. However, the real culprit in the man’s death are naturally occurring monsters—giant insects—but people do not believe that this could be the case at first. Not until more people encounter the creatures. Eventually, an ancient Pterosaur is unearthed and wreaks havoc.

The way this story explores issues of guilt and innocence, assumptions and suppositions, and our limited knowledge of reality is interesting. Even if the idea of giant monsters going undetected in today’s world is silly.