Dogora, el monstruo del espacio

In the US, this is probably the least well known of the classic kaiju eiga. Sure, "Dogora" may not be a very good movie overall, but in my opinion it has one of the very best monsters in film history. Dogora is an enormous space jellyfish, vast, mindless, and cosmically terrifying. It floats through the atmosphere, draining the Earth of life-giving carbon. The full-grown Dogora is only on screen for five minutes (!!), but it's still an awe-inspiring sight as this huge, transparent creature, the size of a small town, sucks up buildings, vehicles, bridges and minerals.

The remainder of the movie is mostly an uninspired detective spoof, with two inept policemen and an enigmatic American agent hot on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves. It seems the monster has been getting to the diamonds first... With such an incredible monster, and such well-executed effects, it's a real shame the rest of the film is so mundane.

It's SUPPOSED to be a comedy. Unfortunately, the US television version dubbed the movie as a serious monster film, with disastrous results. Worse, though, is the Toho "international" version -- it may be more accurately translated, but it's performed by the most inept readers you'll hear outside of a Sandy Frank production. Anyway, even if you don't know Japanese, watching "Dogora" in the original language with no subtitles is still probably more enjoyable than suffering through the English versions.

I remember watching this film when I was a kid and I thought it was a pretty decent film. However, when I read some of the comments I couldn't understand how a lot of people hated it. This might have something to do with the fact that due to the stupid re-editing job that was done to the film after it arrived in America. Ishiro Honda originally wanted this film to be a comedy that brought together two of the genres that he was famous for, gangster films and, of course, kaiju eigas. Unfortunately, the persons in charge of editing and dubbing the film when it reached our fair shores decided that it would be better to make this film into a typical kaiju and make the monster the most prominent element of the film, unlike the Japanese version where the monster takes a secondary role in the film. Thank God for Media Blasters. Because of them the film is now on DVD and it is finally being seen as Mr. Honda had originally envisioned it.

So look at the cover, read the premise, this is another Toho monster movie right? Wrong.

Dogora tells the story of mysterious creatures that come from space and seem to have an desire for diamonds. Meanwhile the police are after a prominent gang of diamond thieves (What a coincidence).

The latter get's considerably more screen time, this is essentially a crime drama rather than a sci-fi. Sure we have our creature (Though it's nothing like the cover suggests) but it's more of a side character than the movies antagonist.

The usual brand of Toho miniatures being used for sfx are present and I personally like that, it's when they tried to do computer generated effects that it all falls apart. Man are they ugly, it's 1964 so it's to be expected but it doesn't take away from just how much their ugliness takes you out of the movie. On the flip side however their are several effects done which I've not seen before from this period, they look great and are well ahead of their time.

If you can get past that this isn't a creature feature it's passable enough stuff, but I went in with expectations and they weren't met.

The Good:

Some great visuals

The Bad:

Some awful visuals

Isn't what it's advertised as

"Atragon," the 1963 offering from the great film-making team of director Ishiro Honda, composer Akira Ifukube and special FX master Eiji Tsuburaya, is an excellent sci-fi movie depicting a Japanese supersub's battle with the undersea kingdom of Mu. The following year, this same team came out with "Dogora," a fun if decidedly lesser effort. In this one, a single-celled organism floating in space is affected by Japan's seemingly ubiquitous radiation and grows to become a humongous, jellyfishlike monster who lives to suck carbon off the surface of our world...along with any buildings, bridges or trucks that happen to be in the area! In a somewhat confusing plot, multiple story lines involving a group of diamond thieves, a mysterious insurance investigator, an aged expert on crystals, and a swarm of bees are conflated, with mixed results. The first time I watched "Dogora" (and no, we never learn the meaning or origin of this particular "kurage kaiju"'s moniker), I thought the film rather hard to follow, and in all somewhat diffused. On a second viewing, the plot seemed to make more sense, but its dependence on coincidence still rather marked. One of the picture's saving graces, for me, is the presence of Akiko Wakabayashi--who I first became enamored with in 1967, as a result of her appearance in the James Bond blowout "You Only Live Twice"--who here plays a moll and who looks more beautiful than I have ever seen her. Dogora itself is a pleasing creation, and the sight of it whirlpooling coal into its giant maw or pulling a Kyushu bridge to bits is actually fairly awesome. Its ultimate demise is brought about in a fairly unique manner, as well. In all, not a bad little picture, as long as you don't go in expecting anything on the order of Honda's "Gojira" or "The Mysterians"!

Watching this film is an enjoyable event. With a cast of hilarious and respected actors and actresses, this movie is one of the funniest and greatest Toho sci-fi movies I've seen. It starts off with an intriguing intro of how a scientist discovers disappearing satellites in space.

Then, it kicks off to these band of outrageous gangsters who wants sparkling diamonds for their loot. The suspense builds when some of the gangsters get lifted up into the air by an unknown phenomenon, later known as Dagora (or Dogara) the Space Monster, who has a thing for diamonds. Instead of buildings, vehicles, bridges, and structures crushing to the floor, they actually rise to the air as Dagora lifts away everything in its path. Dagora is seen in many shapes and sizes, including a giant jellyfish (with "animated" tentacles), shining "stars," and a floating piece of genetic-like substance. Screenplay writer Shinichi Sekizawa did an excellent job on the script.

The scientists trying to figure out a weapon in order to use to defend Japan from Dagora while the detectives try to nab the diamond lovers couldn't be more inspiring and intriguing in this movie. Composer Akira Ifukube gave a haunting and terrific music score and director Ishiro Honda directed one of his best. Some hilarious parts in the movie includes the part where the character Inspector Kommei tries to shoot a gun, only with confetti coming out; the part where Eiji the Safecracker eats a sugar crystal (which he later found out is a fake diamond) and then laughs like a hyena; the scenes of karate fights and the part where the Gangster Moll asks the train conductor to show her where to make a call when the phone is actually a few inches away from her! The only jewelry oriented monster sci-fi flick I've seen, this film is to be watched by all sci-fi fans. There are some plot-holes here and there, like why did the gangsters have to wait so long to steal the diamonds from Jackson, and why did the Gangster Moll have to call her crew to come meet her, since she wants the diamonds all to herself anyways? Could have used more action and suspense from the gangsters, but overall, a fun film. You'll never wear a diamond necklace or diamond ring the same way again.

Grade A-