Ishiro Honda Filmography

Rhapsody in August

Crew: First Assistant Director

Actors: Richard Gere, Sachiko Murase, Mitsunori Isaki, Hidetaka Yoshioka

Synopsis: Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa follows up on his phantasmorgic Dreams with this delicate tale about war and memory. The film centers on Kane (Sachiko Murase) a grandmother who lives on her traditional farm in the hills near Nagasaki. Her husband and a number of siblings died in the 1945 atomic Read More

Terror of Mechagodzilla

Crew: Director

Synopsis: A race of malevolent aliens bent on world domination unleash the ultimate weapon of destruction on mankind, leaving them with no hope for survival but the power of the mighty Godzilla. Their galaxy dying, the endangered aliens discover a planet that could save them from extinction if it wasn't Read More

Yog, Monster from Space

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Japan and the rest of the world are again in grave danger after an evil amoeba-like alien emerges from a spaceship crash and turns an octopus, a crab, and a turtle into gigantic city-squishing terrors. An entrepreneur sees the creatures not as destructive forces to be destroyed, but as a gold mine Read More

Ido Zero Daisakusen

Crew: Director

Actors: Joseph Cotten, Cesar Romero, Masumi Okada

Synopsis: Godzilla maven Inoshiro Honda helmed this quaint, old-fashioned fantasy adventure (loosely styled after 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) about the crew of a damaged deep-sea craft who are taken aboard a high-tech atomic submarine dubbed "Alpha," commanded by the Nemo-like Captain McKenzie Joseph Cotten Read More

Godzilla's Revenge

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The most unashamedly childish entry in the Godzilla franchise is basically a vehicle for recycled footage from previous Toho productions. The framing story involves a precocious little boy (Tomonori Yakazi) whose real-life traumas include harassment by bullies and kidnapping by a gang of bank Read More

The Human Vapor

Crew: Director

Actors: Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kaoru Yachigusa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Keiko Sata

Synopsis: Packaged in the States with director Honda's 1964 feature Gorath, this sci-fi film tells the story of an ex-con who has undergone a substantial change on account of a scientific experiment. He is now able, at will, to transform himself into vapor. When his girlfiend is accused of theft, the Vapor Read More

Destroy All Monsters!

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Yukihiko Kobayashi

Synopsis: This colorful, no-holds-barred clash of the titans -- directed by Inoshiro Honda (one of monsterdom's foremost experts) -- features nearly all of Japan's ground-pounding superstars, including Godzilla (and son), Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah... and even tosses in Anzilla, Baragon, Goro, Wendra, Spiga Read More

King Kong Escapes

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama, Linda G. Miller, Akira Takarada, Eisei Amamoto

Synopsis: Rhodes Reason is the requisite Hollywood "name" actor in the Japanese-produced King Kong Escapes. While hacking through the jungle, expedition leader Nelson (Reason) and his companions are attacked by a dinosaur. They are rescued by King Kong, who since his traumatic experiences in New York has Read More

The War of the Gargantuas

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Two gigantic fake-fur covered monsters battle it out in Tokyo. A mutation caused by an atomic blast, the green Gargantua is evil and desirous of stomping out the entire human race. The brown one is good and is kept busy attempting to derail his evil counterpart's destruction. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

Atragon

Crew: Director

Actors: Tadao Takashima, Yoko Fujiyama, Yu Fujiki, Akemi Kita

Synopsis: In this Japanese sci-fi adventure, Japan and the rest of the planet is being destroyed by a deadly series of earthquakes. Explorers soon discover why: beneath the sea is an enormous city, Mu, and to keep it going, they have been stealing energy from the Earth's core. They refuse to stop and so the Read More

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

Crew: Director

Actors: Nick Adams

Synopsis: Toho's bid to merge the Godzilla series with their popular alien-invasion films resulted in this entertainingly goofy entry. The plot involves the discovery of the mysterious Planet X in our solar system, leading to a joint U.S./Japanese space exploratory mission. The explorers bump into some Read More

Dagora, the Space Monster

Crew: Director

Actors: Yoko Fujiyama

Synopsis: In this Japanese feature, when diamond robbers find that a kind of goo from outer space is beating them to the diamonds and consuming the jewels for food, they have to do something about it. Meanwhile, an elderly scientist has been working on the problem and discovers that wasp venom freezes the Read More

Frankenstein Conquers the World

Crew: Director

Actors: Nick Adams, Tadao Takashima, Kumi Mizuno

Synopsis: This hilarious monster mess from the makers of the Godzilla series (including director Inoshiro Honda) essentially recruits Mary Shelley's classic creature into the ever-growing ranks of Japanese city-stomping behemoths -- albeit with a less colorful costume. The only nod to the original Read More

Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster

Crew: Director

Actors: Yumi Ito

Synopsis: A true "monster rally," this Japanese special-effects smorgasbord stars no fewer than four "A"-list movie monstrosities. Once again, the citizens of Tokyo are subjected to an ill-tempered atomic mutant. This time it's the triple-headed Ghidrah, who breathes electric volts in all directions. Coming Read More

Godzilla vs. Mothra

Crew: Director

Actors: Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yu Fujiki

Synopsis: Ishiro Honda directed this fourth Godzilla film (the second for Mothra), which is bogged down at the start by an uninteresting set-up involving corporate intrigue and a pair of boring reporters. Godzilla's first appearance is not very impressive, as he rises from a sandy beach looking distinctly Read More

Gorath

Crew: Director

Actors: Ryo Ikebe, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki, Yumi Shirakawa, Takashi Shimura

Synopsis: Japanese sci-fi director Inoshiro Honda and special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya teamed up again (Rodan, Godzilla, Mothra) for this thriller/adventure. Set in the futuristic 1980, a group of Tokyo scientists discover that Earth is in the direct path of a star with a gravitational pull 6,000 times Read More

Matango

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This twisted, surreal monster story is related in flashback by an asylum inmate, who tells of his horrific experiences as one of several castaways on a mist-shrouded tropical island. While the crew affect repairs to their yacht, the stranded passengers take refuge in a derelict ship overgrown with Read More

King Kong vs. Godzilla

Crew: Director

Actors: Michael Keith, James Yagi, Tadao Takashima, Mie Hama, Yu Fujiki

Synopsis: This preposterous battle between the huge ape King Kong and the fire-breathing dinosaur Gojira marked the beginning of Toho Studios aiming their monster films at children rather than general audiences. Director Ishiro Honda stages the battle scenes atop Mt. Fuji for laughs, as the two lovable Read More

Varan the Unbelievable

Crew: Director

Actors: Tsuruko Kobayashi, Clifford Kawada

Synopsis: Director Jerry A. Baerwitz created this uninspired, problematical monster story by using footage from a similar but different Japanese monster flic by Inoshira Honda (he who started off Godzilla and followed up with Rodan, Mothra, Monster Zero and more). Viewer opinion overwhelmingly sides with Read More

Mothra

Crew: Director

Actors: Jerry Ito, Ken Uehara, Yumi Ito

Synopsis: Mothra was the third major addition to the Toho Studios' giant-monster stable after Godzilla and Rodan, and the first female beast in the series. The creature begins Ishiro Honda's entertaining film as a giant larva worshipped by island tribesmen and guarded by twin sisters (Emi and Yumi Ito) who Read More

Battle in Outer Space

Crew: Director

Actors: Ryo Ikebe, Koreya Senda, Leonard Stanford, Harold Conway

Synopsis: With his name firmly ensconced in film history as the creator of the Godzilla and Rodan films, director Inoshiro Honda continues to shape and mold a dramatic sci-fi story in Battle in Outer Space. As in the record-setting Star Wars sagas of the future, special effects also get star billing here. Read More

The H-Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Yumi Shirakawa, Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata, Koreya Senda

Synopsis: The H-Man rates as one of the most genuinely frightening Japanese horror films of the 1950s. When a minor-league drug runner completely vanishes, leaving only his clothes behind, detective Tominaga (Akihiko Hirata) investigates. Along the way, Tominaga makes the acquaintance of scientist Masada (Kenji Sahara Read More

Half Human

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Another example of a fairly interesting Japanese monster film rendered nearly incomprehensible by ham-fisted editing and substandard English dubbing, the original Yeti epic Jû Jin Yuki Otoko was shorn of nearly half its 100-plus-minute length, then crudely spliced back together with additional Read More

The Mysterians

Crew: Director

Actors: Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko Hirata

Synopsis: Most famous for his original Godzilla film in 1956, director Inoshiro Honda is primarily a screenwriter and quite seldom a director. One of his recurrent themes -- the deadly or mutant effects of atomic radiation (as in Godzilla), is also featured in this otherwise routine sci-fi film. The title Read More

Rodan

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The second major addition to Toho Studios' giant-monster series after Gojira (aka Godzilla, 1954), was Rodan (or Radon), a giant pterodactyl whose wings create massive, destructive winds as it flies by. There are actually two of them in this film, mates who finally get together (after the Read More

Gojira

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: One of the longest-running series in film history began with Ishiro Honda's grim, black-and-white allegory for the devastation wrought on Japan by the atomic bomb. As his visual metaphor, Honda uses a 400-foot-tall mutant dinosaur called Gojira, awakened from the depths of the sea as a rampaging Read More

Kaze No Ko

Crew: First Assistant Director

Stray Dog

Crew: First Assistant Director

Actors: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Ko (Isao) Kimura

Synopsis: Akira Kurosawa directs the black-and-white 1949 film noir Nora Inu (released in the U.S. in 1963 as Stray Dog). In his third film with Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune plays young police detective Murakami. One summer day on a crowded bus in Tokyo, his gun is stolen by a pickpocket. Rather than face the Read More

Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro

Crew: First Assistant Director

Nadare

Crew: First Assistant Director

Ninjo Kami Fusen

Crew: First Assistant Director

Actors: Chojuro Kawarazaki

Synopsis: Humanity and Paper Balloons, unlike most other Japanese films of this period, is a historical film with a critical edge. Refusing to glorify samurai, the film instead deflates the myth around them with a gentle humanity. The film opens directly after a penurious ronin samurai has taken his own Read More