Ishirō Honda — Director (41)
cover

Movie

Farewell Rabaul (1954)
さらばラバウル
Ishirō Honda actor: Ryō Ikebe / Mariko Okada …
other title: さらばラバウル / 再见了拉包尔 …
A squadron of Japanese fighter pilots realise that they are never going to win the war when they understand that Japanese military tactics have little regard for life. Seeking the companionship of any woman who will have them, they spend their days indulging in every fantasy in order to escape the overwhelming fear of death looming just over the horizon.
cover

Movie

The Eagle of the Pacific (1953)
太平洋の鷲 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Denjirō Ōkōchi / Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi …
other title: Operazione kamikaze / Eagle Of The Pacific …
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan's navy into war with the United States. He opposes the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, overruled, he leads his forces to the best of his ability.
cover

Movie

The Blue Pearl (1951)
青い眞珠 IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Ryō Ikebe / Yukiko Shimazaki …
other title: 青い眞珠
The Blue Pearl depicts the interplay between a young man from Tokyo and two ama (pearl divers; literally “women of the sea”) in a superstitious coastal town. Though raised within the same tradition-bound crucible, the two women – Noe and Riu – are portrayed as diametric opposites; the former meek but affectionate, the latter strong-willed but jaded by a tryst with metropolitan life.
cover

Movie

The Skin of the South (1952)
南国の肌 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Hajime Izu / Yasuko Fujita …
other title: 南国の肌 / Nangoku no hada
When a group of young geologists declares a mountainside marked for residential development unstable, they are met with scorn on two fronts. On one end, they must contend with the local villagers who balk at the prospect of relocation; on the other, they face the ambitions of the headstrong lumber baron, whose actions will only further destabilize the land. Their pleas for reason ignored, the scientists can do little but observe as nature runs its inevitable course.
cover

Movie

A Man in Red (1961)
真紅の男 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Makoto Satō / Akira Kubo …
other title: 真紅の男 / A Man In Red
Takashi, who took the blame when his father shot a gangster, returns home after serving a four-year sentence, only to find it infested with yakuza running a dope ring. Battling gangsters all the way, Takashi searches for his former girlfriend, now a drug addict.
cover

Movie

Come Marry Me (1966)
お嫁においで IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Keiko Sawai / Yūzō Kayama …
other title: お嫁においで
Masako is a humble waitress who has a chance encounter with playboy Tamotsu. With the aid of his sister, Tamotsu seeks to win Masako's affection despite the disapproval of his wealthy parents and Masako's own feelings towards the working-class cabbie Noro.
cover

Movie

Godzilla Fantasia (1984)
SF交響ファンタジー：ゴジラファンタジー IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda / Senkichi Taniguchi
other title: SF交響ファンタジー：ゴジラファンタジー
Akira Ifukube has arranged music from his fantastic films into a three-movement symphony, presented here with scenes from the films the music was originally written for. The second half features Makoto Inoue's synthesizer arrangements of Ifukube's music. In this portion, all the music is by Ifukube, but it shows scenes from films Ifukube did not work on. Showcases footage from various monster and science fiction films from Ishiro Honda as well as scenes from Senkichi Taniguchi's Adventure of Kigan Castle.
cover

Movie

Varan the Unbelievable (1962)
Varan the Unbelievable IMDb TMDB
Jerry A. Baerwitz / Ishirō Honda actor: Myron Healey / Tsuruko Kobayashi …
other title: Varan, das Monster aus der Urzeit / Varan, le monstre géant
In an effort to find an economic means of purifying salt water, a joint U.S.-Japanese military command is set up on an isolated Japanese island where an unusual salt water lake is situated. However, their purifying experiments arouse the prehistoric monster Obaki from hibernation at the lake's bottom, and it proceeds to attack Japan. Although made by a U.S. independent film company, this film was based on a Japanese Toho monster film of 1958, "Daikaiju Varan", from which all of the monster effects scenes and a few incidental dramatic shots were edited into it.
cover

Movie

Latitude Zero (1969)
緯度0大作戦 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Joseph Cotten / Cesar Romero …
other title: Latitudine Zero / U 4000 - Panik unter dem Ozean …
A massive underwater volcano erupts and puts a group of investigative scientists in danger. They are rescued by an atomic super submarine named The Alpha under the command of Captain McKenzie. The group is quickly taken to a vast underwater city known as Latitude Zero, a fantastic, Atlantean type utopia, a world beneath the ocean with its own sun. It is soon discovered that Captain McKenzie is at war with the evil Dr. Malic, a cruel scientist who wishes to rule mankind all the while conducting genetic experiments on humans and animals. Malic sends his agents to kidnap Dr. Okada, a human scientist who has created a serum that can immunize exposure to radiation.
cover

Movie

Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)
フランケンシュタイン対地底怪獣 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Tadao Takashima / Nick Adams …
other title: Frankenstein alla conquista della terra / Frankenstein – Der Schrecken mit dem Affengesicht …
During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.
cover

Movie

Varan (1958)
大怪獣バラン WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Kōzō Nomura / Ayumi Sonoda …
other title: Varan - Das Monster aus der Urzeit / Varan, le monstre géant …
When a rare species of butterfly is found in a mysterious valley in Japan, a pair of entomologists go to investigate and find more. They discover Varan, a giant monster, who decides to leave the valley and head straight for Tokyo.
cover

Movie

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman (1957)
Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda / Kenneth G. Crane actor: John Carradine / Momoko Kôchi …
An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote tribe as a god, and how it was discovered by modern man after it raided a skiers shelter following an avalanche, killing all inside. This is an adaptation of the Japanese film "Jūjin Yuki Otoko" (1955) with added American-made footage, narration, and music.
cover

Movie

Godzilla (1977)
Godzilla IMDb TMDB NeoDB
Luigi Cozzi / Ishirō Honda … actor: Raymond Burr / Akira Takarada …
other title: ゴジラ / 義大利科斯拉 …
Mentre Tokyo è ormai ridotta ad un cumulo di macerie, Steve Martin, giornalista americano del United World News, racconta di come la città è stata attaccata da una mostruosa creatura. Il racconto poi torna al presente e segue le operazioni che conducono alla distruzione di Godzilla, sconfitto grazie all'intervento del professor Serizawa, vecchio amico di Steve.
cover

Movie

Gorath (1962)
妖星ゴラス WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Ryō Ikebe / Yumi Shirakawa …
other title: Ufos zerstören die Erde / Le Choc des planètes …
In 1976, a drifting star named Gorath is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. Although it is smaller than Earth, its enormous mass is enough to destroy the planet totally. A mission sent to observe Gorath is destroyed after the ship is drawn into the star, with a later mission barely escaping the same fate. However, Astronaut Tatsuma Kanai is left in a catatonic state due to his near death experience. Unable to destroy the invading star, Earth's scientists undertake a desperate plan to build giant rockets at the South Pole to move the planet out of Gorath's path before it is too late.
cover

Movie

The Human Vapor (1960)
ガス人間第一号
Ishirō Honda actor: Yoshio Tsuchiya / Kaoru Yachigusa …
other title: Una nube di terrore / ガス人間第一号 …
A failed science experiment gives a librarian the ability to turn into a gaseous substance. He goes on to rob banks to fund his dancer girlfriend's career, killing those who interfere. Now Tokyo's most wanted criminal, can authorities stop him?
cover

Movie

Dogora (1964)
宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ WikiData IMDb TMDB
Ishirō Honda actor: Robert Dunham / Yōsuke Natsuki …
other title: Dogora il mostro della grande palude / X 3000 - Fantome gegen Gangster …
A floating amorphous life-form descends from the atmosphere to consume carbon in the form of diamonds.