Matango is a nice little oddity released in 1963, and was one of the few Japanese horrors of the era, or at least one of the few that is now widely known about. It's profile is more down to the fact that it was made by the Honda/Tanaka/Tsuburaya team that made up 3/4 of the famous Godzilla team. This is probably why it was chosen to be one of Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock's first movies from Toho to be put to DVD, as even someone like myself, who can only name a handfull of other Japanese horror flicks(pre-all this Ringu rubbish anyway), and even then I've never had a chance to watch any of Toho's Vampire trilogy, Kwaidan, Onibaba or Goke: Bodysnatcher from Hell, so this is really my only experience with vintage Japanese Horror.

The movie has been dealt a shot in the foot in terms of long-term respectability by it's original American titles of Attack of the Mushroom People, or Fungus of Terror. These conjure up images of a really hokey B-Movie like Teenagers from Outer Space or something along those lines, when in fact it's a pretty serious and downbeat affair, that would probably have gained more recognition outside of circles of Toho fans, had it simply stuck with the mysterious and exotic sounding Matango.

Toho Studios have actually tried their hand at horror movies that don't feature giant monsters, or Kaiju as they are known, most notably in the period this film came from. Movies like The H-Man are now fairly obscure, and as was Matango until this recent DVD release, which allows the movie to be viewed in either subtitled or dubbed format.

The movie follows a group of rich City folks on a pleasure trip onboard a custom built luxury yacht in the Japanese sea. As well as the hired Captain Sakeda(Hiroshi Koizumi - Dogora), the boat is crewed by the rich playboy owner Kasai(Yoshio Tsuchiya -The Mysterians ), his seductive singer girlfriend Mami(Kumi Mizuno - Invasion of the Astro Monsters) a Psychology Professor named Murai(Akira Kubo - Gamera: Guardian of the Universe) and his cute girlfriend assistant Akiko(Miki Yashiro - Godzilla Vs. Mothra) as well as two other guys, a writer, Koyama(Kenji Sahara - Godzilla's Revenge)and the first mate Yoshida(Hiroshi Tachikawa - Yojimbo) .


In a dreadful storm, the boat is wrecked off one of the Ogasawara Islands(this will be of a nice trivia note to Godzilla fans, as that's where Destroy All Monsters stated Monster Island was), and the crew discover another shipwreck coated in moss and mould, yet with no corpses anywhere to be found.
As they look around, they find a strange crate with a giant, odd-looking mushroom labelled 'Matango', which Murai, upon reading the Captain's log, learns is poisonous when eaten, and works havoc with ones nerves and appearance. They theorise in what the purpose of the ship was, deeming it some form of research vessell. It has limited food, so the group sets about jobs in the days to come. Trying to scavenge food and fresh water, making smoke signals and trying to repair the yacht as to at least be able to float out and try to find help.

However, as the days go on and tensions rise, succumbing to the lure of the numerous matango when food runs out becomes a serious prospect, and relationships form and deteriorate, as people give in to their urges for sex, power, greed, and at the base of it all survival, even as the mysterious moving figures in the jungle are getting closer and closer to the boat...

While the basic plot of the movie may sound a little odd, it's a far more interesting, atmospheric and well, good, horror movie than anyone could expect to come out of Japan in the 1960s. It's often compared to Lord of the Flies, with it's plot about the degeneration of the characters, who all start out in, most cases, loosely stable friendships, yet end up anything but. It also has a far more sexual undercurrent than most movies of the 60s that I've seen, with constant references being made to taking Mizuno's character for the night, as well as a gunpoint demand from one character to be given Akiko, presumably not for her pleasant conversation.

The movie actually isn't as trippy as you would think, apart from towards the end when characters actually have to venture into the mushroom heavy jungle and they start to laugh and move, but on the whole it's creepy nature is brought accross more by the sheer atmosphere of the surroundings, and the real sense of doom about the picture. Let's be honest, when you watch a Hollywood made movie about castaways, you always know they will make it back, no matter how rough it gets, Matango never seems to entertain any illusions that everyone will survive. The entire film has a lovely sense of dread about it, not too dissimilar to the one Honda instilled in Gojira. This isn't a happy film, you often wonder how, or at a point if, there will be a happy ending. Just for the record, there isn't, and the ending raises some nice questions in itself. If you are expecting a shlocky movie about people with mushroom-heads running around all over the shop wreaking havoc, the Mushroom People actually play a pretty minor part in the long run, and it's more to do with the humans' struggle not to become them. It's not exactly a film that moves at a lightning pace, which I know will put some people off, but it builds up, and breaks down the characters brilliantly, taking them from the 1-dimensional cut-outs they start as and fleshing them out brilliantly, which makes it all the more interesting as their lavish world is torn down around them, to various reactions.

The mushroom people themselves really come in two forms. First is the 'transitions', which are basically like scarred humans, indeed the movie got in trouble upon release for these looking too much like the victims of the A-Bomb dropped on Hiroshima. They are rarely seen out of the shadows, and are really quite cool and creepy. The full blown Mushroom People, as seen towards the end of the film, actually look quite a bit like Godzilla's foe Hedorah, who would not appear until almost a decade later. As you would expect from an Eiji Tsuburaya supervised effects job, they are at worst passable, and at best excellent.
I have to admit that when seen in full light, the adult mushroom people look a bit goofy, but most of the time they are only seen in part, so it's a minor problem. The half-transformed people look pretty cool, but the show is stolen by the sets. Not only is the gothic shipwreck one of the coolest sets I've ever seen, but the Matango jungle is really, really quite unusually creepy and unnerving.

I've always stated a reluctance to judge actors in dubbed/subbed movies, but Matango not only relies on it's good characters, but also good acting to bring them to life.
Even through the, decent, dubbing job and subtitles, it's quite clear to see everyone involved puts a lot into their performances. Kubo is as reliable as always, and the most human and likeable, with his girlfriend, played by the comparatively novice Yashiro coming a close second, and she also seems to catch her role as the more vulnerable and 'cute' female brilliantly, and plays off of Mizuno brilliantly.
As usual, the first lady of Kaiju films puts in a great show to match her looks. She plays the used and using starlet splendidly, and I can honestly say my appreciation of her doesn't just stand on her beautiful looks alone.
The rest of the cast are all veterans of Toho productions, and they all put in good shifts here as well. While those three are the clear standouts, it would be folly to write off the others involved.

While Honda's usual choice of composer, in his Kaiju movies anyway, Akira Ifukube, could have provided a wonderful haunting score, Sadao Bekku doesn't exactly prove himself a slouch in this department either. Knowing exactly when to increase the tension, or be haunting with his wonderful score. This is the only movie of his I've seen, but it's a solid score, and on strength of it alone I'd put him up there with Ifukube.

Personally,possibly even moreso than his epic Gojira, I feel Matango is a brilliant slice of classic horror from Ishiro Honda that is tragically overlooked due to the stigma around the Japanese fantasy pictures produced in the 1950s-70s. It's a claustrophobic and heavily atmospheric movie that easily sits up proudly next to the classics of the horror genre like Frankenstein and Dracula. If you are a fan of classic horror and subbing/dubbing doesn't put you off, Matango comes more than highly recommended from me. It's a forgotten classic from Toho, and I'm glad it recieved the DVD treatment it so thoroughly deserves.

Year: 1963
Titles: Matango
Attack of the Mushroom People
Matango! Fungus of Terror

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening