Varan - Das Monster aus der Urzeit

One of the better of the early Toho monster epics, the film suffers from a lack of definition. We don't really know where this monster comes from, or why he's so pee-ed off he wants to stomp Tokyo. Also, he never even quite gets to Tokyo, which is major disappointment - what good is a Japanese monster movie where Tokyo doesn't get stomped.

I suspect that the secret to this problem lies in the original score for the film, by the great Akira Ifikube. Godzilla fans should recognize variations on three essential themes for other movies - for "Godzilla", "Rodan", and "Mothra". Yet they are not just borrowed sound-tracks from those films, but actual variations. Apparently Ifikube used composition for this film as a kind of notebook on themes that would later get improved on again and again. My sense is that this is true of the film as a whole, that director Honda and crew used this film as a test-case for work on later films - the kaiju film industry was about to go wide-screen and technicolor in a big way, but the exact formula for the genre had not yet come together. I think they were using this film to get it together.

In its favor, I remark the film is narratively tight, so that not much time is wasted on the back-stories. It is what it is, a straight-out rubber-monster stomp, and begs to be enjoyed for that, and nothing more.

By the way, the subtitled DVD release from Animego has a couple fascinating bonuses to it - an interview with one of the special fx crew, as well as a demonstration of the technique used to manufacture the monster's costume. The film itself is enjoyable, if no great shakes, but bits of film-history like this are priceless.

Don't confuse this original Japanese monster film with its cheap American version called "Varan, the Unbelievable." The American version was a hack job and a half.

Ironically, this original seems to have too much "American" in it as well. The film was commissioned by ABC-TV in 1958 and shot by Toho. Unfortunately, Toho had seen American TV and had noticed that Americans have a penchant for action -- lots of action (i.e., "War of the Worlds," "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers," "Invaders from Mars"). Toho gave ABC what it thought they wanted. A monster movie with little plot and lots of action.

This concept turns "Baran" into a mediocre film. Even "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" and "It Came From Beneath the Sea" had well-thought out plots and good acting.

The plot (or what is supposed to be the plot) deals with an isolated village in northern Japan. The villagers worship a god called "Baradagi." Two butterfly scientists come calling and get shunned by the high priest. They press on, find a rare butterfly and also find a huge shadow and a massive rock slide.

A reporter who is also the sister of one of the crushed scientists drags another butterfly scientist along, as well as a fat cameraman, to the village. They ignore the priest and rouse Varan, a dinosaur that trashes the village.

Unlike "Gojira" where the tension built slowly, here, there is no tension. The military responds (ineffectively) and then we see lots of attacks by the Navy, Air Force and Army. Finally, a simple solution is found to stop the monster that seems like it should have been easier (like when police launch a massive manhunt for a missing person and then find the person's car three blocks away about three weeks later, making you wonder why they didn't find it sooner).

Too many potential plot twists are left flapping in the breeze. The high priest (Akira Sira) and his villagers don't get enough screen time. The supposed romance between the butterfly scientist (Kozo Nomura) and the reporter (Ayumi Sunoda) was supposed to emulate Emiko Yemane and Ogata from "Gojira" but went nowhere as the two leads had no on-screen chemistry.

Nomura's character is so bland he actually drags down the film. His character isn't very likable either. When he gets to the village, the first thing he does is insult the priest and the village's religion. He breaks village law and rouses Baran. If he wasn't so bland, he might have redeemed himself, but fails miserably. Meanwhile, Sunoda devolves into one of Toho's most useless characters -- the reporter who never reports. Fumito Matsuo is along as the cameraman and provides yet another Toho cliché -- the comic-relief fat guy, though he does get in a classic comedic exchange with other reporters when they retreat from Baran's rampage ("You want the enemy to see your back?" "No, I'm just going to take a picture from a distance." "Good, I think I'll take one from a distance, too.")

There's a scene where everyone's retreating after the initial military attack fails. Yuriko wants to stay to report on the monster, but the scientist tells her it's no place for a reporter. Yeah, but it's obviously a place for a butterfly scientist? More credibility is killed moments later when the scientist has to rescue her from an incredibly slow-moving Varan in a scene with no suspense whatsoever.

The film's best actor is probably Akihiko Hirata as Dr. Fujimora, who supplies a weapon that might help stop Varan. Hirata was Dr. Serizawa in "Gojira" who supplied the weapon that stopped Godzilla. In "Varan," Hirata's character appears out of the blue.

Varan actually flies like a flying squirrel (it's somewhat comical because it looks like the guy in the rubber suit needed to do some stomach crunches), but is shown like that for one scene.

The special effects were okay, blending stock footage with miniatures. Unfortunately, footage was borrowed from "Gojira," thus repeating the same mistakes as that film. For instance, you can clearly see the wires holding up the jets. The scene where the monster's foot crashes through the roof of a warehouse is strangely missing the tail, just like in "Gojira." The worst thing about the special effects was a problem that was all too evident in most Japanese monster films. The miniatures fired at the monster in one take, instead of blending stock footage with close-ups of explosions on the monster. What you got were tanks, jets, ships and rocket launchers that couldn't hit the broad side of a building. About 90 percent of the shots missed. And I won't even get into that most annoying military feature -- the rocket launcher that never reloads.

Also, Varan is never fleshed out, like Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra were. Here, it might be an angry God or a revived dinosaur, but it's never explained. It just attacks and heads for Tokyo. Also, it never gets to Tokyo, just Haneda Airport. Unlike other Toho films, it doesn't take a potshot at Japan or America (like in "Mothra" where the American gas stations get trashed or Rodan, where an American-style car dealership is smashed by Japanese-made cars and buses). It's just a straight-forward monster movie -- monster shows up out of the blue, resists military efforts to kill it, rampages across countryside and is finally taken out. Very by-the-numbers.

Only Akira Ifukube's excellent movie score saves this film.

So, add this to your collection if you're a B-movie fan or like Japanese monsters. Just don't compare it to "Gojira" or even "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" for that matter.

After the success of the Americanized version of Godzilla (aka. Gojira), Toho decided to team up with ABC for what was supposed to be a joint Japanese/American kaiju eiga. Of course, that deal fell apart, but Toho went ahead and created this film. However, this didn't stop a company by the name of Crown International from taking this film and butchering it by cutting out much of the footage shot by Ishiro Honda and making hack Myron Healy in the lead as a Navy commander who tries to find a way to desalinate water and winds up waking up the monster. That version also does away with one of Akira Ifukube's finest scores. Thankfully, the original version of the film has been released on DVD and now Americans can finally see it the way it was intended to be shown.

As for the film itself, it is an okay kaiju eiga. The monster is not as well rounded as Godzilla, Rodan or Mothra. In fact, Varan (or Baran as it is known in Japan) almost seems as though it is a throwaway due to the fact that it probably was intended for a one time appearance (although it does make a brief cameo in Destroy All Monsters). Also, the cast, with the exception of Honda favorites Akihiko Hirata and Yoshio Tsuchiya, is mainly made up of mainly Toho's second line actors. The other thing that made me somewhat disappointed with the film was the fact that it used a lot of stock footage. In fact, if you look closely at some of the battle scenes, many of them were borrowed from Godzilla (aka. Gojira) However, this film is still a much better version than the hatchet job we were treated with for years.

To be honest, I read lots of reviews of this movie and most from bad to mediocre reviews but I gave it a chance and the reviewers were right. This film is not so great.from the flat characters,a bland plot to the film's worst offender, the Awful pacing is what makes this movie bad. But It does have some good moments from the great music score, to the special effects and the decent acting.but besides that lets review this movie.

The film starts with the protagonist trio Kenji,Yuriko and Horiguchi sent on a expedition to find out the death of Yuriko's brother who died earlier in the film.they come to a village where the priest warns them to leave or they will be killed.Kenji insults the priest and thinks he's crazy.soon enough Ken a village boy goes looking for his dog and Kenji goes to save the boy and challenges the priest's warning and the villagers agree to help Kenji.The trio eventually finds Ken near a lake and some of the villagers see something appear from the lake and it's Varan going to the village and the film's slow pacing starts once Varan appear from his attack from the military to his raid in Hanada Airport.

Overall by the time Varan comes you lose focus in the movie and the characters.the films slow pacing is what just makes you want to stop watching the film. plus Varan isn't a very memorable monster, the only memorable thing he does is fly and only does it once out of the whole film.

As for the characters, there flat as a surfboard. These bland characters are so flat and boring there also another offender of the film.Kenji is your overall hero, but isn't very likable as he offends the priest and Horiguchi during the beginning of the film and is somewhat naive.Yuriko is another damsel in distress and very uninteresting.As for Horiguchi he's what you call the comical side-kick as he is a coward and has his moments besides giving so little work.He's really the only character I can praise though i did want Varan to eat him in the end.

As for the Acting, surprising it's not bad.It's really good, despite the fact the cast is given so little to do.Kozo Nomora who plays Kenji well here as really he fits into his bland role well and really out of the whole film he never lacks off.Ayumi Sonoda who plays Yuriko is really the only one to give a poor performance at times she fine when not much is needed from her.but when she has to do something like bump into varan it's bad.Fumito Matsuo as Horiguchi does a good job with the very tiny role he is given as he looks like he enjoys and having fun with his role.Past the leads Akihiko Hirata has a brief role but probably gives the best performance of the cast as he does a better job with role unlike his previous role from the Mysterians.Yoshio Tsuchiya isn't given much work to do but he does well with what he's given.overall everyone does a decent job with their little roles.

Overall this film is boring and probably worth watching once or twice but not repeatedly itself.

Varan, The Unbelievable is really the patron deity of a small Japanese village called Isikawa, where he is known as the God Baradagi.

He is awakened when a group of scientists break the taboo and invade his territory- with hopes of debunking the legend surrounding his existence.

They die, and now there's no going back.

Varan gets his new name from the fact that he is a Varanopod- a class of dinosaur that existed from the Triassic to Cretaceous periods, historically speaking.

The scientists convince the local townsfolk to ditch their beliefs and opt for skepticism instead of a fear driven reverence for Varan.

But little good that does them when Varan wipes their town off the map.

Now he's on the warpath, hellbent on vengeance, and they can't figure out how to stop him.

Eventually there's only one idea left, and if it doesn't work...

This one is most notable, because it shows that man's hubris was to supplant the Old Gods, not for a single monotheistic God, but rather the Gods of Technology...who generally tends towards war and destruction...as opposed to peace and prosperity.

As we continue deeper into the realm of the kaijus, the humans will be forced to rely less and less on technology, and more and more on their faith in the kaiju beasts.

So it is suggested, then, that it was the belief of the villagers that had manifested Baradagi in the first place.

Though, as we'll come to see...faith in the kaiju Gods is simply inescapable.

Marking this as a sort of turning point in the series.

5.5 out of 10.