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Varan the Unbelievable AKA Daikaijû Baran (1958)
R1 - America - Media Blasters Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (11th June 2006). |
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The Film
 If one would like to name the “dream team” of the Japanese “Kaiju” (big monsters)-genre, it probably would be director Ishirô Honda, director of special effects Eiji Tsuburaya, and composer Akira Ifukube on the creative side, and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka on the background. These gentlemen did several classics monster movies during their time in “Toho studios”, including the original “Godzilla AKA Gojira (1954)”, “Rodan AKA Sora no daikaijû Radon (1956)”, “Mothra AKA Mosura (1961)”, and “King Kong vs. Godzilla AKA Kingukongu tai Gojira (1962)”. One of their perhaps lesser known movies started as a co-production between “Toho” and the American “ABC” TV-channel, named as “Varan the Unbelievable AKA Daikaijû Baran (1958)”. Something went wrong shortly after the production started rolling, forcing “ABC” to leave the production. “Toho” still decided to finish the movie, so they changed the original 4:3-aspect ratio to 2.35:1 “Tohoscope”, and the film was distributed normally on the theatrical screens in Japan (some of the scenes already shot in 4:3 were cropped and re-framed to 2.35:1). The results are a mixed pack, since although I personally like (basically) every “Kaiju” and Sci-fi –movie that “Toho” offered during their heyday, “Varan” is not one of the best films from the studio, and perhaps rushed in some degree. It´s still good fun and a must for the fans of the genre, but don´t expect to see a “classic film” this time. The main plot is actually quite simple; Dr. Sugimoto (Koreya Senda) has learned that a rare butterfly has been spotted in the area of “Tohoku” - also known as the “Tibet of Japan”. Two young scientists are sent to the area to conduct some research, and as soon as they arrive in a remote village in the area, they learn about the mythological monster that´s called “God of Baradagi”. After feeling the earth tremble, they move more inland, and spot a lake in the valley (and also a rare butterfly). From that point on their search is doomed, since after they hear some strange screaming-sounds, a sudden landslide buries both of the men. Back in Tokyo, a search team that consists of reporter Yuriko (Ayumi Sonoda) - her brother was one of the men that got killed, her photographer Horiguchi (Fumito Matsuo), and Dr. Sugimoto´s assistant Kenj (Kôzô Nomura) is assembled, and their job is to find out the real truth about the legend of “Baradagi”. Back in the village in “Tohoku”, the search team meet the High Priest (Akira Sera), who warns them about the monster. The search team doesn´t really believe the stories, but the encounter with this monster is inevitable when a young boy of the village runs to the forest to search for his dog. The boy is found near the lake, and they also find something more; a 185 million years old, huge 4 legged lizard (with spikes) is rising from the lake, not in its best mood. Shot in black & white, “Varan” has that certain “old school”-feel to it, and in this case it unfortunately also means that it merely tries to imitate the big success of original “Godzilla AKA Gojira (1954)”, rather than offering anything really original (if you don´t count the scene where Varan is flying - the scene that was actually cut from the US-version). The promising opening scenes and the backdrops like the remote village and lake are wasted to some degree, since what you have eventually is the usual “Monster against the soldiers”-plot, rather than exploring the opportunities that the movie offered from the beginning. Since the movie has some “jungle-ish” atmosphere (some scenes from the first half reminded me of “King Kong (1933)” - in a very remote way, but still), it would´ve been interesting to keep the story within those settings, rather than bring military and stock footage into play. I guess rural Japan was more interesting in this film for me this time, rather than a monster rampaging in the town. I still don´t want to kid myself thinking that I didn´t enjoy the film at all, since I did. “Varan” is fun Kaiju-entertainment, which calls for popcorn and a few good friends - and of course the right attitude. It also includes very nice special effects by Tsuburaya, and a solid music score by Ifukube (very similar to his classic Godzilla-tunes). Sure, the film makes you smile sometimes - for being plain silly, and also yawn once in a while - for not being very exciting, even occasionally dull, but all in all it´s a recommended viewing for the fans of Japanese monsters. Just don´t pick this one for being the first film that you see from “Toho”.
Video
The disc includes 2 versions of the film, and with all the different names and versions things might get confusing. The original and full-length Japanese version is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1, running 86:34 minutes (NTSC). The film is clearly restored by “Toho”, but it still has some issues. The overall look of the transfer is very clean, without any film artefacts or dirt, but it´s also soft and suffers in the contrast-department. Black levels make the transfer look slightly “washed out”, and sometimes e.g. the skin tones don´t look natural. Still, this might be the best that this film has ever looked, so these few imperfections didn´t take much away from the enjoyment. Note, that the disc doesn´t include the “US version” of the film, even when it´s called “Varan the Unbelievable” (American title). To include the alternate US-version would´ve made this release a pretty much definitive, since it´s featuring e.g. additional American actor Myron Healey and a heavily altered script, but I´m glad that the original Japanese version is released with English subtitles, since after all that´s the version we fans want to see. The disc also includes DVD-credits after the film, but they´re not included in the overall time. The “dual layer” disc is coded “R1”, and includes 16 chapters. The disc also includes a shortened Japanese Television Broadcast version, which runs approx. 52 minutes (NTSC), broken into two parts (annoyingly it´s not time-coded, so I don´t know the exact time). Even though it was shown in 4:3 on TV, it´s presented in non-Anamorphic 2.35:1 here, so it´s not “pan&scan”. This heavily shortened film mainly focuses on the scenes where the military is fighting against Varan, and includes also moments where you have only black screen and the text “sound only”. There´s also some narration to guide the viewer through the scenes before Varan actually appears. Even when this is more like an “extra” rather than a unique version of the film, you could probably watch this version e.g. with your kids, since you still get most of the action bits. The quality of this version is fairly good, but there are probably some additional film artifacts compared to the full-length version (and it´s not Anamorphic).
Audio
Surprisingly, the disc includes 3 audio tracks, all in Japanese; Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, Dolby Digital 3.1 (Menu lists this as “3.0”), and Dolby Digital 5.1. The real choice is the original Mono-track, which is clearly the best of these three. Even with some background hiss and some mild distortion, the track does the job, and I didn´t find any big complaints about it. The 5.1-track was a disappointment, since it´s basically just a Mono-track duplicated to all channels. What you have is dialogue coming from every channel, not very ideal. It works on music and certain sound effects, but all in all it doesn´t sound right. 3.1-track is a bit better, but basically it does the same thing and the overall audio is in a lower level of the three tracks presented here. The disc includes optional English subtitles. The “TV-version” is presented in Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, and it also includes optional English subtitles. Audio quality is quite equal with the Mono-track included in the full-length version.
Extras
The main extra on the disc is the audio commentary by model maker/suit sculptor Keizô Murase, with moderator (apparently Tetsu Nakamura). This is a great commentary track, a must for all the fans that are interested of the “golden days of Toho”, and their monster/Sci-fi -movies. The track is not always “screen specific”, so Murase often talks generally of his seven-and-a-half-year experience in “Toho” and also what he did after he left the studio (he left during the production of “Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster AKA Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto (1966)”), rather than always comment on the action onscreen. “Varan” was his first film that he did from start to finish, and we hear some very interesting stories about the art/model department of the special effects, and also about the different techniques that were used at the time (if you´re interested in make-up effects and rubber monsters, you´ll probably love these stories). Among “Varan”, Murase also tells about the other productions where he was involved (note, that his IMDB-list seems to be sorely lacking), including “The H-Man AKA Bijo to Ekitainingen (1958)”, “The Birth of Japan AKA Nippon tanjo (1959)”, “Storm Over the Pacific AKA Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi (1960)”, “Mothra AKA Mosura (1961)”, and “Dagora, the Space Monster AKA Uchu daikaijû Dogora (1964)”. In the end he also worked in other departments during his years in “Toho”, and by listening to his stories (he was almost starving during his first year, but since he did his job so well, his salary was eventually raised) and anecdotes you really get a pretty good picture of the high work ethic and dedication that Murase and his co-workers had in those days (they were almost like a “family”, and he praises the director of special effects; Eiji Tsuburaya). The audio commentary is in Japanese, and Media Blasters deserve a big “thank you” for including it on the disc with optional English subtitles. It´s actually quite rare that North American companies are willing to subtitle any of these foreign audio commentaries, and I´m glad that this time they thought otherwise (there are some typos, though). “High School Molding Seminar II - Hands-On Workshop” featurette runs approx. 29 minutes, and in this one Keizô Murase teaches some of his students how to make Varan´s skin and scales in his workshop, in the “old school way”. This featurette focuses even more on the technical side than the audio commentary, but is a rather interesting piece of how these monsters were made back then (similar techniques are probably used also today). We learn about things like sculpting, moulding, painting, and bonding, and finally we also see the head of Varan, made by Murase himself (who actually has some resemblance to James Brown). The featurette is in Japanese, with optional English subtitles. Two theatrical trailers for “Varan” are included, both in Japanese (no subtitles) and playing back-to-back. Some bonus trailers round up the disc: - “One Missed Call AKA Chakushin ari (2003)” - in Japanese, no subtitles - “The Mysterians AKA Chikyu Boeigun (1957)” - in Japanese, with forced English subtitles - “Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People AKA Matango (1963)” – in Japanese, with optional English subtitles - “Sky High (2003)” – in Japanese, with forced English subtitles Extras are not time-coded, which is a bit strange in this day and age.
Overall
“Varan the Unbelievable” is not what you could call Toho´s “finest hour”, but for the fans it´s still probably partly entertaining and mindless fun. Kudos to “Media Blasters” for taking all the features and extras from the Japanese-version, with optional English subtitles of course. This DVD is available at Xploited Cinema.
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