Ishiro Honda

Template:Infobox Director Ishirō Honda (本多猪四郎,   Honda Ishirō) was a Japanese film director. He is most famous for directing eight Godzilla movies, including the original 1954 film, as well as other kaiju films such as Rodan and The Mysterians.

Life

Honda is probably best known for his tokusatsu films including several entries in the Godzilla series. He directed the original Godzilla film along with King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, All Monsters Attack and many others until 1975. He also directed tokusatsu films such as Rodan and Mothra. His last feature film was Terror of Mechagodzilla.

The following years were spent directing various sci-fi TV shows. The superhero shows The Return of Ultraman, Mirrorman and Zone Fighter were also his. In addition, he directed the cult film, Matango.

At the end of his career he returned to working as an assistant director for his old friend, legendary director Akira Kurosawa. Allegedly one segment of the Kurosawa film, Dreams, was actually directed by Honda following Kurosawa's detailed storyboards.

One of Honda's most memorable quotes is "Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy." when he spoke of his film, Rodan. This statement alone would give fans the impression that his intent was to give all kaiju a distinct personality instead of just being a monster-on-the-loose.

Kaiju Filmography

Director

• Godzilla (1954)
• Half Human (1955)
• Rodan (1956)
• The Mysterians (1957)
• H-Man (1958)
• Varan (1958)
• Battle in Outer Space (1959)
• The Human Vapor (1960)
• Mothra (1961)
• Gorath (1962)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Matango (1963)
• Atragon (1963)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Dogora (1964)
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• War of the Gargantuas (1966)
• King Kong Escapes (1967)
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• Latitude Zero (1969)
• All Monsters Attack (1969)
• Space Amoeba (1970)
• The Return of Ultraman (TV 1970-1971) [Selected episodes]
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Special Effects Director

• All Monsters Attack (1969) [uncredited]

Trivia

• Ishiro Honda was reportedly supposed to direct Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II in 1993, but he passed away earlier that year.
• Ishiro Honda said in an interview conducted only months before his death that his favorite film he worked on was The Mysterians.

References

This is a list of references for Ishiro Honda. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]