Mushroom clouds and mushroom men : the fantastic cinema of Ishiro Honda

Long renown as the director of the original "Godzilla" film, Ishiro Honda was the most prolific director in the history of fantasy films. From modest beginnings as a country boy growing up in a peaceful Buddhist household, this kind, gentle and good-humored man directed some of the most violently savage science-fiction films of all time. Fascinated with film as a youth, Honda eventually joined P.C.L./Toho via a personal invitation from a top executive there, only to have his career interrupted several times due to mandatory wartime service. After returning from combat (where he walked through the ruins of Hiroshima), Honda finally became a director of full-length feature films, one of which was a film project about a giant dinosaur named "Godzilla." Originally to have been a mere monster movie, Honda used the monster intending to make "radiation visible" and comment on the recent "Lucky Dragon Incident" in which a Japanese fishing boat was contaminated from an American Nuclear Bomb Test. The enormous success of "Godzilla" created an entire genre and led to a string of brilliantly-made films such as "Rodan," "Atragon," "The Mysterians," "Mothra," "Battle in Outer Space" and "The Human Vapor," but by the mid-sixties he was told to make fantasy films exclusively for children. Upset and disheartened by this turn of events, Honda nevertheless continued to make these films feeling betrayed by several of his cinematic comrades who willingly went along with the change, such as legendary special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya and film composer Akira Ifukube. Honda soon retired, but happily, he returned to filmmaking assisting his longtime friend Akira Kurosawa and many of the master's last films. Filled with fascinating photographs, details, insights, analysis and interviews, "Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men" is a heartfelt tribute to the cinema's master of imagination. The first English-speaking book on Japan's Master of Monster Movies, "Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men" examines the life and fantasy films of this acclaimed and legendary director. Known primarily for directing the original "Godzilla," Ishiro Honda has been an overlooked figure in mainstream international cinema. "Mushroom Clouds" covers all 25 of his fantasy films as well as giving objective and critical analysis of his filmmaking methods, themes, concepts as well as his relationships with actors and staff.Making us of extensive interviews from Honda's colleagues and family members including a wealth of source material never before available outside Japan, "Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men" is an affectionate tribute to the most-prolific and influential director in the history of fantasy films.