Movielogr

Rating: 6.5 stars

Tags

tku-tv Japan Kaiju Frankenstein WWII heart scientist submarine octopus

All movies seen on 07/09/2020

Related Events

• Kaiju Con-Line 2020

View on: IMDb | TMDb

Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)

Directed by Ishirō Honda

Science Fiction | Action

Overview

During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein’s monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.

Rated NR | Length 90 minutes

Actors

Tadao Takashima | Nick Adams | Kumi Mizuno | Yoshio Tsuchiya | Koji Furuhata | Jun Tazaki | Susumu Fujita | Takashi Shimura | Nobuo Nakamura | Kenji Sahara | Hisaya Ito | Yoshifumi Tajima | Kôzô Nomura | Haruya Katô | Ikio Sawamura | Yoshio Kosugi | Keiko Sawai | Noriko Takahashi | Peter Mann | Ren Yamamoto | Yutaka Sada | Kenzô Tabu | Shigeki Ishida | Haruo Nakajima | Yutaka Nakayama | Senkichi Ômura | Nadao Kirino | Shin Ôtomo | Shôichi Hirose | Toshihiko Furuta | Hideo Shibuya | Tadashi Okabe | Hideaki Nitani | Saburô Iketani | Kenichiro Kawaji | Kazuo Kumakura | Gorō Naya

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

After viewing KAIJU MONO, which has a direct reference to this movie when a character imitates Takashi Shimura getting the Frankenstein heart, I decided to watch this again on the rebroadcast. There’s a lot to be entertained by in this movie but I’ve never been super crazy about this movie or the WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS. Not sure why as they both have many wonderful things including Honda at the helm and Ifukebe’s great scoring. Plus Nakajima of course. Maybe because they aren’t Godzilla canon? I dunno. I do love that they brought Baragon into the Godzilla lore, however (and he’s the just the cutest thing here).

I’m just not all that interested in revisiting these films as much as I am for the Godzilla films (same goes for the Showa Gamera films of which I’ve mostly only seen once or twice). I am happy that Kumi Mizuno gets a really solid role as one of the main characters. Not so thrilled that Nick Adams is opposite her (I find watching him act a bit disturbing knowing more about his offscreen behavior esp. in regards to Mizuno, whom he aggressively pursued despite her being a married woman).

What is cool about this movie is that it starts in nazi Germany during WWII then moves to Hiroshima the day the bomb dropped. Such a bold decision to do this only 20 years after that event and show it onscreen (it is neat to see that mushroom cloud and know exactly how they made it) but yeah. Perhaps it’s no different than all the post 9/11 films made in the US.

I do like the Frankenstein boy and Baragon but that finale in the Japanese cut is depressing. DKUTV used the Roger Corman AMC TV bumpers before and after the movie and Corman explains that the US distributers requested that weird ending so Honda delivered. Then when it went to the US, they cut it off. So bizarre.

Comments