Ishiro Honda
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Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy. They do not attack people because they want to, but because of their size and strength, mankind has no other choice but to defend himself. After several stories such as this, people end up having a kind of affection for the monsters. They end up caring about them.
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— Ishiro Honda, speaking of his film, Rodan |
Ishirō Honda (本多猪四郎 Honda Ishirō) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. 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.
Selected Filmography
- Godzilla (1954) - Director, Writer [with Takeo Murata]
- Half Human (1955) - Director
- Rodan (1956) - Director
- The Mysterians (1957) - Director
- H-Man (1958) - Director
- Varan (1958) - Director
- Battle in Outer Space (1959) - Director
- The Human Vapor (1960) - Director
- Mothra (1961) - Director, Editor [1974 Champion Festival reissue]
- Gorath (1962) - Director
- King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Director, Editor [1970 Champion Festival reissue]
- Matango (1963) - Director
- Atragon (1963) - Director
- Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Director, Editor [1970 Champion Festival reissue]
- Dogora (1964) - Director
- Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) - Director, Editor [1970 Champion Festival reissue]
- Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) - Director
- Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) - Director, Editor [1971 Champion Festival reissue]
- The War of the Gargantuas (1966) - Director, Writer [with Takeshi Kimura]
- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) - Editor [1972 Champion Festival reissue]
- King Kong Escapes (1967) - Director
- Son of Godzilla (1967) - Editor [1973 Champion Festival reissue]
- Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Director, Writer [with Takeshi Kimura], Editor [1972 Champion Festival reissue]
- Latitude Zero (1969) - Director
- All Monsters Attack (1969) - Director, Director of Special Effects [uncredited]
- Space Amoeba (1970) - Director
- The Return of Ultraman (TV 1970-1971) - Director [episodes 1, 2, 7, 9, and 51]
- Mirrorman (TV 1971-1972) - Director [episodes 1 and 2]
- Zone Fighter (TV 1973) - Director [episodes 3, 4, 12, 13, 18, 19, 23, and 24]
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) - Director
Trivia
- Ishiro Honda visited the set of several Heisei Godzilla films before his death in 1993, and despite rumors that he was slated to direct Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Honda expressed no interest in returning to the series, content with his work on Akira Kurosawa's films.[1]
- Ishiro Honda said in an interview conducted only months before his death that his favorite film he worked on was The Mysterians.[2]
- A fictionalized version of Honda appears in the fifth episode of the fourth season of the TV series Legends of Tomorrow, played by Eijiro Ozaki.
External Links
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]
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