Friday, October 10, 2008

KAITEI GUNKAN (Atragon) - "Manda Will Be Pleased" (1963)

All right, well tonite's "Halloween Submarine" 2008 Countdown feature is yet another IshirĂ´ Honda directed film with music provided by Akira Ifukube, but this one is a little more twisted than your average Godzilla movie, and if you really want to dig deep into the politics of tradition and nationalism in 1963 Japan, then by all means go search "Atragon" on Wikipedia or someplace, but if you just want some cool pics and music, then just hang on and stay right here!!!

I do hope you enjoy the opening dialogue sequence and theme!

We love this theme, I mean, it's dum dum dum, dum dum dum, dum dum dah, dum dum dududa dum, dum dum dah, dum dum dah, or something pretty close to that. Crank it up!!! It'll beat the snot outta you!

There's not much brevity or celebration in "Kaitei Gunkan" but it's a crazy movie worth checking out with a ton of eye candy, like this shot, a cross between "South Pacific" & "Forbidden Planet!"

Greetings From Beautiful Downtown MU - Wish You were here!!!

The Atragon sub is by far the most advanced submarine in the movies or basically anywhere if you really think about it! Besides all the normal submarine attributes, it is also has a cool drill auger nosepiece capable of boring through the earth, and above all else, it freakin' flies!!! Yeah! Right On!! Go Atragon!!!

So, there's only one basic problem in solving the world's demise, and that's dealing with this guy. Unfortunately, he never got over World War II, he's Jun Tazaki as The Captain of Atragon, and he refuses to compromise his loyalty to Japan in order to save the world! Does the concept ring familiar?? In simple terms, he don't get it!!

Altough quite evil, this is Not the scariest looking group of guys you'll ever meet in your life!!

We're right in the middle of the Big Manda Ceremony when they bring out the Crazy Horse Saloon girls in the blonde wigs! You know, all that traditional stuff!!

Then they throw you in a cell that has big doors and when you open them, Peek-A-Boo!! Here's Manda!!!! What a bunch of jokers!!!

Tetsuko Kobayashi as The Empress of MU is an evil bee that gets stung herself in the end!

And if all that isn't enough to pique your interest, there's always these guys!!!

As Mr. August Ragone so succinctly noted, a few scenes from Atragon were 'cribbed' out and used two years later in the A.I.P. feature, "War Gods Of The Deep," and they did look good enuf to be used more than once. I'll give 'em that credit!!

1 comment:

  1. There is an animated film from Toho in English called "Super Atragon". It tells another version of "Undersea Warship" with two young, not really as the story reveals, women from Mu on both sides of the World War 2 and now in the 1990's in a battle for Earth.

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