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Matango

Matango (1963) Movie Poster
Japan  •    •  89m  •    •  Directed by: Ishirô Honda.  •  Starring: Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kenji Sahara, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Miki Yashiro, Hideyo Amamoto, Takuzô Kumagai, Akio Kusama, Yutaka Oka, Keisuke Yamada, Kazuo Hinata.  •  Music by: Sadao Bekku.
        A group of friends are sailing on the yacht when a storm blows them off course and damages the boat. They soon land on a deserted island where they find a deserted, fungus covered wreck. They then find out that it was a research vessel examining the effects of radiation on plant and animal life. However, they also discover a strange fungus dubbed Matango. They also find out that the crew ate some of the fungus and were somehow driven mad. The group then goes about trying to find food and water without succumbing to the lure of the mushrooms. However, one by one they soon are driven by their hunger and desires to eat the mushrooms with disastrous effects.

Trailers:

   Length:  Languages:  Subtitles:
 2:18

Review:

Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
Image from: Matango (1963)
William Hope Hodgson was a British writer of ghost and horror stories at the turn of the 20th century. He authored some great works and remains a favourite to this day, but what does he have to do with a Japanese B-movie (from Ishiro Honda, the guy who directed GODZILLA no less) made half a century later? The answer is that ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE (the US television title) is a loose adaptation of Hodgson's short story, The Voice in the Night. The latter is one of my favourites and I looked forward to seeing it put on screen, but only the basic premise remains the same.

ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE is very much a product of the '60s. The cast all have stock roles: there's a psychiatrist (very much in vogue during this period), a novelist, some thrill-seekers and a stern skipper. The main problem with this film is that absolutely NONE of the characters are engaging. They're all unlikable, and you end up hoping that they're going to get bumped off as quickly as possible. Not so. This is one of those films that saves up the (admittedly good) action for the last ten minutes. Until then we've got scene after scene of dialogue, some exposition in the form of flashbacks here and there, and most of all, just plain mood building.

How can a film about people turning into mushrooms be so slow? Because the film-makers adopt a subtle approach rather than going for a fun, fast-paced B-picture. Subtlety and slow-burn are great in modern horror flicks like JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, but I wasn't expecting the approach in a '60s monster flick, which is why I disliked this film when I first saw it.

Things have changed on a second viewing. There is some atmosphere present, and some good creepy scenes involving the mushrooms and what they do to people (the film got into trouble because the make-up resembled Hiroshima victims!). The ending is an all-out cheese fest and a lot of fun. Of course, this is the '60s, and these mushrooms are hallucinogenic, so there are plenty of psychedelic bits and some good old flashing coloured lights thrown into the mix. People are stranded, people bicker, people kill each other, people fall victim to monsters. When those people are uniformly uninteresting, it's hard to care about their fate. Still, this was a nice break for Honda from making movies about rubber-suited giant creatures.


Review by Leofwine_draca from the Internet Movie Database.

 
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