Varan the Unbelievable

Watch out Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. Here comes Katsumi Tezuka in a rubber suit as Obake.

O. K. As with Godzilla (1954) was Americanize to Godzilla (1956), the same process was done with Varan, le monstre géant (1958) Americanized as this film Varan the Unbelievable (1962). So do not be disappointed if a few things have been adjusted.

Cmdr. James Bradley (Myron Healey) is the head of a joint US and Japanese scientific investigation. It requires a lake that is protected by a native village. It is said that the lake contains an ancient reptile that if aroused will destroy the world.

Something arises from the lake.

Obake is being mortified and tanked to no avail.

Planes have a flair for Obake.

Now I wonder why the world is about to be destroyed?

Will a solution be found or are you become Obake-chow?

They took a perfectly good Japanese monster movie -- one that was apparently begun for US television anyway -- and ruined it. They excerpted a few minutes of monster footage and used it to pad out their own, utterly different movie, featuring a cast of non-actors and a script that treats the Japanese people as something less than human. To be avoided at all costs.

This is not a review, but I want to post this here to help stave off some confusion. The DVD called "Varan The Unbelievable", released by Tokyo Shock in May 2005, catalog number TSDVD-0511, is not the film listed on IMDb as "Varan the Unbelievable (1962)", or "The Monster Varan (1962)". It is instead the film listed on IMDb as "Daikaijû Baran (1958)". "Baran" is the Japanese word that has a transliteration in English as "Varan".

"Varan the Unbelievable" was an American-produced adaptation of the material, similar to the American adaptation of the original Godzilla (Gojira, 1954). Varan was originally to be a joint US/Japanese production, but that deal fell through. Toho, the Japanese production company, went ahead and did Varan anyway, and a few years later, the American version was produced, with a different title and with additional material directed by Jerry A. Baerwitz. It doesn't help the confusion that Tokyo Shock decided to release their DVD under the American title of "Varan the Unbelievable", but surely that was done because that's the title that Americans know the film under.

How do you know what version you watched? Well, the American version has an American actor, Myron Healey, and a plot about trying to desalinize water. It's also only 70 minutes long. The Japanese film is about 90 minutes long, has no American actors, and Varan (or "Baran") makes his first (offscreen) appearance when scientists from Tokyo make a trip to a remote, mountainous village to research the sighting of a butterfly previously only known to exist in Siberia. The Japanese version also has a different musical score, but since music is a bit difficult to describe well in words (other than technically), that's not a great way for most folks to tell which version they've watched.

To make matters even more confusing, the Tokyo Shock DVD has a truncated Japanese television version of Daikaijû Baran, clocking in at about 50 minutes, which dispenses with both the desalinization and the butterfly plots. Also, at least some people have reported seeing a color version of the film. I don't know which version that would be, but the Tokyo Shock DVD has the original, black & white widescreen Japanese version from 1958. I would have much preferred if Tokyo Shock would have put the American adaptation of Varan on the DVD as an extra, as the Japanese television version is just the same film with a bunch of edits for time and there are a few scenes rearranged to try to create something more coherent given the cuts. Tokyo Shock probably didn't put the American film as an extra because of some licensing or royalty issue. I can also imagine Toho objecting to it. Note that there's a good commentary track for the film with Murase Keizo, who was in charge of special effects models on the film (he's not credited on either IMDb listing).

We should reserve this listing for reviews of the American version, and review the Japanese original version at the listing for Daikaijû Baran (1958) instead.

Toho are the kings of the kaiju movies, they started with Godzilla and the ball kept on rolling. But not all the creature features were on quite the same level as Varan demonstrated.

Varan itself was a 1958 movie but Toho had the bizzare habit of letting the US tweek and re-release their movies in the west. What the US would do is take the original movie, edit in some scenes with American actors visiting Japan and the whole thing would be an absolute mess. No idea why Toho would allow their movies to be butchered in such a way.

So this is just the 1958 movie with some segments removed and others added. I didn't like the original movie and considered it a very weak Toho addition so with the US treatment they actually managed to make it worse.

It looks horrifically dated, it lacks in character and any real entertainment value and I advise folks skip over this (And all the modified US versions).

The Good:

Nothing really

The Bad:

Looks terrible for its age

One of the US butcheries

Poor sound editing

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Good girls don't ask questions, they just do what a man tells them

Varan was one of the few Japanese monsters that didn't catch on in Japan after the success of Godzilla and Rodan

I have seen the original version of the film and it is a very good example of the kaiju eiga genre. However, this version is a piece of garbage. The scenes where Myron Healy "interacts" with the populous of the island are awkward and you can tell immediately that the film was done by two different crews. Also, the print that is used by the American company is so dark you can barely make out the monster and they pretty much do away with one of the best scores ever composed by Akira Ifkube and replace it with some stock music that was originally used in "The Amazing Colossal Man". If Toho wants to sue the Americans for butchering one of their films, I will be glad to show up as a witness.