So, I was unable to find about a dozen of Ishiro Honda’s films. By all accounts, every one of them exists extant, but you pretty much have to go to film festivals in Japan to see them because they don’t have home video releases in either America or Japan that I can track down. I think I got lucky finding what I could.
That being said, I found Honda’s career both interesting and frustrating. Interesting because he started out as any other studio director at Toho, making melodramas and following the dictates of his main producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, until he stumbled upon the kaiju genre with Godzilla. Often regarded as his best film, Godzilla just doesn’t work in my eyes, and it took him down a path of monsters and science fiction movies pretty much for the rest of his career. There were a handful of small exceptions (only a couple of which I could find), but he was definitely trapped there.
And, you know what? I had a decent time with it. No, I don’t like Godzilla, but stuff like Dogora or The Human Vapor or even some of his later entries in the Godzilla franchise like Invasion of Astro-Monster. What became most interesting to me were his efforts to shoehorn in different genres into these monster films, probably peaking with Dogora which is effectively not a monster film. It’s actually a heist film with monster stuff happening around it.
So, no, I don’t think I’d rank him equally with Akira Kurosawa, his friend who did call him his equal. Honda did eventually retire from making his own films after the collapse of the Toho studio system, going to television for several years, returning to make the final Godzilla film of the Showa Era, and then effectively becoming Kurosawa’s assistant director through the end of his career. I do wonder if Honda’s somewhat tragic career trajectory is more a reflection of his personality than his filmmaking acumen, though. He obviously had skills. His early films are pretty uniformly good. His framing was always clean, complex, and effective. He was decent with actors. I think he had the potential to be a greater filmmaker than he turned out to be. He obviously had talent, but he got siloed into a silly genre by Tanaka, forced to push out monster movies every six to nine months.
Anyway, here’s the definitive ranking. And don’t forget to check out the rest!
31. Half-Human
“Apparently the film is some kind of embarrassment for Toho not because it’s kind of terrible but because its portrayal of the mountain people is supposed to be a manifestation of the Burakumin. It’s supposedly kind of racist at this point. Honestly, it should probably be more ashamed because this was a rushed product that completely wasted a high quality talent like Honda to take advantage of a quick fad poorly. But it looks decently and the monster action is fine. That’s not much, but it’s not nothing.”
“It’s just that there’s nothing else of interest to really talk about. The story around it isn’t so much horribly handled as just boringly repeated. The characters are largely just there. The performers do what they can, but they have so little to do that they don’t really make an impression. At least Varan himself looks decent as he stomps on tiny buildings.”
29. Godzilla
“So, its thematics are thin and sometimes incoherent. Its personal dramas are half-hearted at best and kind of dumb. The special effects are great. It’s also this weird alt-fantasy where Japan wins WWII by using a weapon of mass destruction against atomic energy responsibly, a marked contrast to the ideas behind The Skin of the South where nothing could be done against nature and one must merely endure. I really don’t think this works, but Godzilla does stomp real good.”
“So, it’s fine. It’s an excuse to pit Godzilla against another monster. The character stuff works slightly better this time than most because it has that satirical edge, even if it doesn’t really go very far. So, it’s decent, on the brighter side of this kind of film in this era. It entertains slightly. It’s just, you know, not good.”
27. The H-Man
“It’s a mixed bag, but Honda has made worse. There’s some halfway decent entertainment to be had in this film, but only halfway.”
“Honestly, if the ending hadn’t pulled together the little bit of story with the pre-existing lore of Kong, I’d be a bit more down on the film. However, that ending worked decently well. I think it did elevate it slightly from bad to mediocre. Because this film, for all the charm of the special effects, especially in the ending, is kind of dull. At least the ending is there, though.”
25. Latitude Zero
“I mean, this film is nonsense, but it entertains decently in the first and third acts. The strange directions of design that pretty much come out of nowhere are interesting and provide a decent guffaw. Watching Joseph Cotton take everything super seriously while dressing up very silly is also worth a watch to some degree. It’s not good, though.”
“This is not some hidden gem of Honda’s career. The only thing saving it is that Tsuburaya has gotten a lot better at special effects since the days of something like Varan. It’s a bit of a slog getting to those special effects, but it’s also helped by the fact that, outside of the categorization effort, the film moves along quickly. I mean, it’s not good, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it bad. It’s…okay.”
23. Atragon
“Anyway, it’s…okay. It has some interesting ideas that it doesn’t explore in any serious way, but the ideas are there. The action is silly. The character-based storytelling is thin and unpursued. It’s pretty typical fare, but it’s not the worst thing. Spectacle has some benefits.”
22. Gorath
“It’s charming to look at but never engaging while also never rising above its innate silliness. It’s not good, is what I’m saying, but it’s not a complete waste of time. I’ve seen far, far worse mindless entertainments. I’ll take this over Moonfall any day.”
21. Mothra
“Anyway, the monster action is inventive and good (also adorable, I love miniatures). The character work is thin but functional except for Nelson who has some logical leaps in characterization. It looks good, moves quickly, and has some nice sights along the way. It’s decently entertaining as it plays out, but it really could have used a rewrite.”
20. Rodan
“So, it doesn’t quite work as an overall package, hindered massively by its dull as dishwater middle, but the opening and close are surprisingly strong. I’d throw it on again for a light entertainment now and again.”
“Anyway, it’s a mix. It doesn’t really work as a whole because of the romance which dominates a large section, but the Cassandra elements work decently especially when combined with the mostly implicit ideas around the power of Nature.”
“So, it’s largely generic, but the special effects are still fun and the creatures have some slightly more thought put into them than normal. It’s a step up from the direct predecessor film, but I wouldn’t quite get to the point of calling it good. Still, I do have affection for these efforts at just moving along quickly and throwing monster mashups on screen. They’re amusing. Lightly.”
“So, the plot is threadbare but functional, an excuse for special effects. The characters are threadbare and don’t take up too much screentime (except the early scenes when scientists try to explain stuff which is…please stop). However, the film has its focus on what it does best: models doing action and science fiction things.”
“So, I don’t quite think it’s good. It’s too silly, too reliant on old stuff, and the ending is a weird bit of whiplash around the central point. However, it does have a central point that it explores surprisingly well. I mean, this isn’t the worst Godzilla movie by a mile. It’s okay.”
“So, the corporate satire is decent, but it goes nowhere. The monster action is really good, but it barely ties into the first half. So, I’m caught in between. I want to like it more than I do, but I still think it’s larger two halves simply don’t connect very well. Oh well, it’s honestly the best this franchise has been since its inception.”
14. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
“I just have these niggling issues around how the monsters come together that keep popping up, especially in the runup to the big final fight. Also, I know that the wings were a giant headache, but when I see Mothra in a movie, I’m not there to see larva Mothra. I want those wings!”
“If there was to never be another Godzilla movie, this would have been a good way to go out, giving the people what they came for.”
12. The Mysterians
“However, in terms of his science-fiction work, it’s a bit more thoughtfully crafted and comes together decently well.”
11. Space Amoeba
“Really, I think this is underappreciated. It’s really quite a good example of the kaiju genre that does its job efficiently and well.”
10. Come Marry Me
“That it’s a lightly entertaining film on its own is just icing, I suppose. I do wish the finale played out a bit cleaner, though.”
9. Dogora
“Oh, there’s a monster in it, and it’s great. It’s just that the focus is elsewhere. I mean, I had no idea what I was walking into and had a good time, but that expectation game is apparently really important for a lot of people.”
“This is decently entertaining, plot-driven, monster action with a surprising little heart at the center. It works, and it’s a good way for the Showa Era to go out on.”
“This is just solid B-movie fun, and I had quite a good time with it.”
“It looks good. It’s well acted (Toshiro Mifune has a small role as a pilot, which is nice to see). The miniature work is quite well done. It’s really quite good.”
“So, this is a gem, mostly forgotten by the world because to the world, if they think of Honda at all it’s about Godzilla. Well, this is the reason I wanted to discover Honda. Not the walking, fire breathing nuclear bomb metaphor, but his command of smaller films and more human emotions. It’s nice to see that I’m not disappointed from the very beginning.”
“A clear-eyed melodrama with restrained, Japanese form, Be Happy, These Two Lovers was a very good little discovery in the middle of a career that pushed in a very different direction. Honda was much more than monster mayhem.”
“It’s an homage to classic Universal monster movies, film noir, and Howard Hawks that manages to feel alive on its own. This is, I think, deeply underappreciated. It’s really good. I’m a fan.”
2. Matango
“It’s well filmed, well directed, well performed, and well put together. It’s a good time at the movies.”
“Honda made an absolute gem here, and that Godzilla completely overshadows it is unfortunate. Farewell Rabaul is the superior film Honda made in 1954.”
David Vining, Author 
I applaud you for this effort. This was a lot to track down and watch and I didn’t come close to keeping up (though I sorta ‘cheated’ by watching all the Godzilla movies before this). I’d forgotten Honda made ‘Attack of the Mushroom People’, one of the better Japanese horror stories and there were other surprises apart from the monster mash.
I wouldn’t have put Godzilla below Rodan but I’m guessing that movie irritated you for some reason.
Honda was a solid craftsman who was forced to make crappy movies, mostly. That does sound terrible but hey…working with Kurosawa at the end might make it all worthwhile.
-Mark
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Regarding the original Godzilla, I just don’t think the story works at all. Godzilla himself had rarely been better through this era, but the actual dramatics just fall apart whenever I think about them.
I’m still disappointed that I couldn’t find more, though. I have gone through a screed against Toho several times in my head because it shouldn’t be this difficult to find a copy of Lovetide or The Man in Red or any of the others. I especially wanted to find Lovetide because it feels like the fourth film in a row dealing with the Japanese considering their legacy after WWII from what I’ve read, but Toho simply demands too much money for any kind of licensing. I’m sure Criterion would have loved to have released a complete Honda at Toho boxset, but the money to license Lovetide would simply never be justified by the sales. This isn’t like the Swedish Film Industry restoring everything by Bergman (well, most everything), and then selling the licenses to Criterion at a pricepoint where a huge boxset made financial sense. This is like demanding Godzilla prices for small melodramas that only weirdos like me care about finding.
Le sigh…
Tanaka later expressed regret having pigeonholed Honda into the sci-fi universe, and I wonder what Honda would have made had Tanaka given him more freedom of choice in his projects.
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Regret is easy when it doesn’t cost you anything. I’m not a fan of Tanaka.
Was ‘sailing the briney seas’ an option to find the missing Honda films? I didn’t see The Man in Red on ok.ru….
-Mark
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As far as I can tell, none of the films I couldn’t find even have DVD releases in Japan. There might be VHS releases that are nearly 40 years old, but that directory seems less filled out that what’s available through disc. I couldn’t find any of these anywhere, and I looked.
Oh, how I looked.
I kept looking as I went, too. I kept looking through last week. I’ll probably search every once in a while, hoping to have a repeat of when I found Mauvaise Graine, Wilder’s first film, a couple of years after I had originally failed.
Lovetide will be my white whale in Honda’s filmography, though.
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Of the films of his I’ve seen (very few) I think I agree with your assessment. I’d probably put “The Mysterians” a bit higher, but that’s just me. “Matango” is great.
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For a B-movie director, Honda held himself up surprisingly well.
Hats off to him making the best of a crap hand.
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