Ishiro Honda : a life in film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa /

Ishiro Honda (1911-93) is a well-known Japanese director, but his name is seldom linked with that of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, or other major Japanese auteurs. That is because Honda was most famous for directing a seemingly endless series of giant monster movies, starting with Godzilla in 1954, followed soon by Rodan (a giant pterodactyl), The Mysterians (invaders from space seek to conquer Earth), Mothra (a giant moth), King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Frankenstein Conquers the World, the apocalyptic Destroy All Monsters, and numerous other forays into the realm of fantasy and science fiction. But Honda also made more thoughtful films that were seldom screened outside his native country, and he worked as a second unit director for Kurosawa on the crime film Stray Dog (1949) and on Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985), Dreams (1990), and Maadadayo (1993). This superb, comprehensive volume covers Honda's entire career in meticulous detail. It is lavishly illustrated with rare stills and has a complete filmography with detailed commentary on each film. Martin Scorsese provides a very brief foreword. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, University of Nebraska--Lincoln