Jan 131963
 
three reels

After several strange kidnappings and attacks, the undersea empire of Mu makes its demands known: Destroy the super-sub Atragon, and then become colonies of Mu. The first of these is tricky as Japan doesn’t know anything about the Atragon. It was a project under the command of Captain Jinguji who supposedly died at the end of World War II. Really he rebelled, refusing to accept Japan’s loss, but he hasn’t been heard of since. His old commanding office, now long retired, sets out to find Jinguji and the Atragon in order to stop Mu. Accompanying him are Jinguji’s daughter, who the admiral has raised since she was a child, a heroic photographer and love-interest of the daughter, his sidekick, a police detective, and a very suspicious reporter.

Directed by Ishirô Honda, scored by Akira Ifukube, and with a cast (as well as much of the rest of the crew) in and out of Godzilla pictures, plus the giant dragon Manda (who shows up in Destroy All Monsters and Final Wars), Atragon easily earns its place as part of the Godzilla franchise. But it isn’t a typical Toho monster flick. It’s science fiction, with very little monster action, and not all that much science fiction action either. This is reminiscent of Honda’s best work, Gojira, where theme and character matter.

The theme here is patriotism, jingoism, and the ability to learn and grow. The admiral condescends to the youths, saying they don’t understand patriotism the way his generation did, but he has learned to see the mistakes of the past and is in tune with the new generation. Jinguji is not. He’s never surrendered and still talks of the glories of Japan, with future glories being produced over the dead of other nations. Mu is presented as a mirror to Jinguji, where they think only of their own empire and the inferiority of everyone else. This, of course, makes Mu the equivalent of Imperial Japan. This is pretty heavy stuff, and even more so less than 20 years after Japan’s loss. And that’s where the super-subs and heat beams and cold cannons and giant monster come in. Like Mary Poppins said, “A spoon for a sugar helps the medicine go down.” The strong theme doesn’t get too grim when you’ve got undersea aliens around. Still, the best bits aren’t the action, but rather the several emotional confrontations with Jinguji.

There is a bit of oddness to the structure of the film. The first act is played as a mystery, with unknown attackers and secret stalkers. It’s great stuff, but it doesn’t go anywhere. Instead of the characters solving the mysteries, we get an info dump about Mu and their plans, and the film switches gears to a lost worlds adventure sci-fi flick. While I enjoy it as it is, for the story, it would have made more sense to cut most of that and move the info dump near the beginning, eliminating the detective, and changing the photographer into an aid to the admiral. Would that have made a better film? I can’t say, but it would have followed story construction better. My guess is the opening is the result of an earlier draft, and the tight production schedule didn’t allow for a rewrite of that section when the film went it a different direction.

Atragon tends to be thought of as either one of Honda’s best films, or one of his worst, depending on what the viewer is looking for. Those looking for meaningless monster mayhem (a majority of American daikaiju fans) are disappointed that Manda plays a small role and that it isn’t all action and city stomping. Those who like their science fiction with a bit more meat are fans. I place it high on his filmography. The theme works, and the characters are well developed. And unlike many Toho films, the overacting is kept to a minimum, except by an evil priest calling to the Mu god, and priests often overact in the real world. All the lost world stuff is great, with the Mu inhabitants dancing and singing to Ifukube’s fantastic score. And when we do get to the action, it’s quite good.

I’ve only seen the Japanese language version. There are two dubs, one done by AIP/Titra in the US and the other made by Toho in Hong Kong. The first is much harder to find now, and is generally taken as superior, though that may be simply because it’s rare. I suspect (and have been told) that in both cases, Atragon loses its points for good acting.

The submarine Atragon would return in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) where it was used to fight monsters.