Yuriko Shinjo
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Yuriko Shinjo is the main protagonist in the 1958 Kaiju film Varan. In its 1962 American release, she was known as Shidori Iso.
History
Showa era
Varan
After her brother was killed during an expedition to Iwaya Village in the Tohoku region of Japan, Yuriko and Kenji Uozaki went to investigate. The two were warned against searching by the villagers, who warned against the wrath of the god Baradagi, who was said to inhabit the place her brother died. After Baradagi roars, a boy's dog ran into Baradagi's sanctuary, and he ran after it. Yuriko and Kenji then went in after him, and Yuriko found him. they waited by the lake, and sent the dog back with a note telling them they were safe. The villagers and Kenji quickly came to collect them, but Baradagi, then confirmed by Kenji to be a Varan. Yuriko then reported on the several attempts to thwart Varan, and was even able to board as a passenger on one of the ships involved in the plan to destroy him with depth charges. She then sat in on the final council in which a scientist decided to utilize an experimental mining bomb to destroy Varan. It was then decided that Varan would have to swallow one of the mining bombs for the desired effect to take hold, and the military dropped mining bombs from parachutes, which Varan swallowed. after the first few detonated, the monster was wounded, and he retreated to the ocean before the final detonation, which Yuriko and the others then ran to the beach to watch the explosion.
Varan, the Unbelievable
Shidori was a well known journalist along with her husband Paul. They were so renowned that it was said that wherever there was a story, the two of them could be found. On hearing that the Japanese military were planning to force a village on the island of Kunoshirashima to evacuate with weapons and troops, they arrived as soon as they could. There, Shidori met with her old friend Anna Bradley, whom she had not seen since college seven years before. She warned Anna that her husband, Captain James Bradley, the man overseeing a chemical test on a local lake that would contaminate the sacred lake of the Koshida villagers had been gaining a reputation as a tyrant in Tokyo. He amended his experiment to not displace the villagers, and Shidori and her husband reported on strange local rituals and aspects of Bradley's experiment. While in the nearby Kushutu village, the giant monster Obaki emerged from the lake and began rampaging in the countryside. It destroyed the city before going into the ocean. It later re-emerged to attack the city of Oneda where she and her husband were staying. When they received word from Captain Bradley that his store of chemical cannisters might be able to defeat the monster, Paul drove them to the detonation site, despite Shidori's worries. She and her husband then watched as Obaki ran dying into the sea.
Gallery
Yuriko and Kenji Uozaki
Trivia
- In the U.S. cut of the film, Shidori can still be heard referring to her husband as "Kenji-san" while he drives away with the chemical weapons used to destroy Varan. This can be attributed either to ignorance of the Japanese language, or a simple matter of not caring.
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