Furankenshutain tai Chitei Kaijû Baragon

This is one of my favorite films as a kid. I have always been a big Toho fan. Godzilla of course was/is my favorite "Actor". It would have been nice if Godzilla would have been in this film as originally planned, but Baragon is just fine. Why this film has such a low rating of 3.7 is beyond me.

I have an original full screen terrible transfer copy of this film on VHS but I still enjoyed it. When I found out that this movie was coming to DVD I bought it as soon as I could. Boy was I surprised when I opened the DVD case. Inside were 2 DVD's. Disc 1 was the original uncut version of the film in Japanese with optional English subtitles and disc 2 was the English dubbed edited version. Both are 2:35 widescreen versions!!! If you want to buy this movie make sure it is the 2 disc release. You will be glad you did.

Later that night I put disc 1 in my DVD player and watched the movie for the first time in it's original version with subtitles on my big screen TV with popcorn by my side enjoying every minute of it.

This movie was made for kids and the young at heart. It is a fun movie and nothing more. I give this film a 7.0 rating.

This is one of the more entertaining (and yet still bonkers) Toho monster rallies and at some points you can actually feel your grip on sanity beginning to weaken. Like many Frankenstein movies you do feel a certain amount of sympathy for the monster (not Baragon though, who looks like he escaped from a toy shop) and actually wish he would deliver a massive ass-kicking to the immaculately dressed, white gloved troops who are shooting at him. Baragon spitting feathers and the pig-on-rails scenes alone are worth the admission price. The sheer lunacy of this movie even exceeds that of King Kong Lives! Sadly the best scene is missing: the one in which Nick Adams' agent persuaded him to turn up for this particular engagement.

Well, he may not exactly conquer the world in this picture, but at least he gets off his usual home turf! In the very imaginative opening of "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (1965), you see, the living heart of the Frankenstein monster is taken from Germany at the end of World War II and transported by submarine to Japan, where it is promptly exposed to A-bomb radiation at Hiroshima and eventually grows, to become a giant, gap-toothed male waif. This lumbering doofus (who ultimately reveals himself to be the nimblest, most energetic Frankenstein ever shown on film) soon has a dukeout royale with Baragon, a sort of giant, spiny-backed, (heat?) ray-spewing, burrowing armadillo dinosaur, with no holds barred and no quarter given. Anyway, this picture strikes me as being several cuts above the usual kaiju eiga. It has been fairly handsomely produced, features very adequate FX (despite the Maltin book's claim to the contrary; well, that bucking horse excepted), and makes excellent use of its CinemaScope frame. Director Ishiro Honda, composer Akira Ifukube and the great actor Takashi Shimura, who all contributed so much to the original "Gojira" film in 1954, here bring their talents together again, with highly entertaining results, and American actor Nick Adams does his best playing Dr. James Bowen, a scientist working at the Hiroshima International Institute of Radiotherapentics (sic). The picture offers several striking visuals, none perhaps as impressive as the awesome spectacle of Franky and Baragon going at it with a flaming forest as a backdrop. The pristine-looking DVD from Media Blasters that I just watched offers both the "international" and the "theatrical" versions of the film, which differ only in the final five minutes. I much prefer the "international," if only because we get to see Franky (ridiculously) battle yet another monster in it. Either version, however, should provide an evening's worth of good mindless fun.

Here's a movie about a radioactive child growing into a large, homeless 100 foot tall looking brute who grunts, and then fights a nappy looking dinosaur. Okay, it's not Ingmar Bergman, but damn, is it silly, fun and entertaining. It's chock full of cliches, but the pace is amazingly fast. One of the best elements of this happy cinematic misfire is actor Tadao Takashima. His normally bland white-lab coated scientist has some fascinating charcater elements (He's an alky, and has an interesting dark streak) The VHS copy I have has tacked on the ending where Frankenstein vs. A-Big-Octopus-That-Comes-Out-Of-Nowhere. Silly, and fun. Cool party movie.

As a fan of the genre. I had the opportunity recently view this film. As a child I remembered watching this film during the days of "Afternoon Movie Theater" I believe that it was called at Channel 7? It was known as "Frankenstein Conquers the World" and it was quite entertaining. I was young and things of that nature would entertain me. Anyway, back to my review. The movie starts out with a very eerie tone accompanied by very chilling and memorable music, thanks to maestro of music, Akira Ifukube. I believe the score of this music was excellent which I believe help or even save the movie at times. The audience is presented with a World War II torn Germany who gives up Frankenstein's heart to the Japanese. After it's arrival in Japan for experiments, Hiroshima is destroyed by a A-bomb and shifts to present day in Japan. Helps the movie in the fact that gives off enough background information. Anyhow, the Frankestein's heart was supposedly eaten by a young boy who survived the destruction of Hiroshima. Scientist's find the boy for further experiments after he has committed criminal activities (eating dogs, rabbits, etc..)for his survival. The boy grows in a rapid pace and has to be placed in a larger cell for his own protection. He escapes and hides in the forest and hills of Japan. The second monster introduced and first appearance ever in the Kaiju genre is the ever popular, Baragon. He does his monster destruction and eventually meets up the overgrown and poorly designed Frankestein. Of course this is main attraction of this film. The fight scenes are pretty kool and enjoyable. I don't ever remember seeing two monsters going at it as much as this movie, maybe the exception of Baragon and Godzilla in "GMK: Giant Monsters All Out Attack". Sufficed it to say, Frankenstein wins out and kills Baragon surrounded by a forest of fire. I happen to watch the Japanese version where the Giant Octopus appears and engages in combat with Frankestein and eventually fell off the cliff, taking its entangled prey with him into the sea. A prequel to "The War of the Gargantuas"!! Although I've seen the "Americanized" version of this film with the ending deleted, an earthquake type scene. With the flames in the background, the land would open up and engulf both Baragon and Frankenstein to the bottom of the earth. I still prefer the Japanese version. Overall, very underrated and entertaining film. But, believe me, the score of the film is what gives an added punch. More like, destruction, despair and sadness with a touch of domination. If you're a fan of the Japanese Sci-Fi genre, I would view this one.