Cons: two plots very loosely linked, don't see enough of full monster
The Bottom Line: While not one of Toho's finer Sci-Fi flicks, Dogora is rather unique in their stable of monsters, and worth a look for the inquisitive.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
While a rather large monster plays a fairly pivotal role in it, it would be rather incorrect to dub Toho Studio's 1964 effort, Dogora, as a Kaiju Eiga. You see, while there is a monster, and it is large, comparisons to movies like Rodan and Mothra are pretty hard to make, and this is more of a straight-forward Science Fiction movie, it's just that the fictional creature happens to be a large monster.
In it's native land, the movie is known as Uchu daikaijū Dogora, and while the Internet Movie Database lists it's only US titles as Dagora, The Space Monster and Space Monster Dogora, I've often heard it referred to as Dogora the Space Monster, and the recent Region 1 DVD from Tokyo shock titles it simply Dogora, which is how I will refer to it, for the sake of brevity for nothing else.
One of the least seen Sci-Fi collaberations of director Ishiro Honda, composer Akira Ifukube, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka and effects man Eiji Tsuburaya, Dogora is also one of their most unique works, featuring a monster that is miles removed from their previous creations, both in terms of design and execution. Sadly this also meant that the monster could never cross over to the mainstream Godzilla series, but then, the movie really has some pretty solid closure anyway, and there really would have been no forseeable purpose to pit Dogora against Godzilla anyway.
The movie's heroic cast is made up of the usual suspects, Police Inspector Kommei(Yosuke Natsuki - Godzilla 1985), Scientist Dr.Munakata(Nobuo Nakamura - Half Human) and his lovely assitant Masayo(Yoko Fujiyama - Atragon). However, joining this motley crew is 'diamond G-Man' Mark Jackson(Robert Dunham - Godzilla Vs. Megalon).
The movie concerns itself with a gang of diamond thieves, lead by the nefarious 'boss'(Seizaburo Kawaza - Mothra) and including the gorgeous Moll(Akiko Wakabayashi - King Kong Vs. Godzilla) and safecracker Eiji(Eisei Amamoto - Godzilla's Revenge). Of late, they have been getting accused of a number of international diamond heists, and the group are adamant they have nothing to do with it. Things take a turn for the worse during one of their heists when a mysterious force lifts the men of the ground and steals the diamonds from a safe they hadn't yet cracked.
Naturally it's Inspector Kommei who is investigating proceedings, and is trailing the gang, but so is Mark Jackson, who is working undercover for an International Diamond firm to try and catch the group out. However, a third party in this chase for diamonds emerges in the form of a mysterious mutant space amoeba that was first spotted destroying sattelites, but has made it's way to Earth to take in it's favourite food - Carbon, thus making diamonds and coal it's favourite dishes.
However, the monster isn't just content to eat, it also goes on little destructive flurries, and morphs itself into a giant jellyfish thing that uses it's tentactles to destroy a bridge, and proves impervious to military fire until they launch a super-rocket at it, which simply causes it to multiply into several small Dogora's, with these monsters cropping up all over the world, the Inspector turns to a Scientist who is an expert in the field of crystals, Dr.Munakata, for help, and he begins to devise a way to stop the monsters, using a bizarre weakness that emerges in the monster to outfit the army with the means to stop it, while the Inspector and Mark, who are now working together, try to track down the gang, who are themselves trying to track down Moll, who has double crossed them and stole the diamonds for herself.
The plot of Dogora is a bit weird to say the least. The monster is never really posed as the threat the way that ,say, Godzilla is. Dogora doesn't go on rampages destroying cities and killing hundreds. He sucks up a lot of coal and occasionally lifts up a bridge. While I realise that if the Earth ran out of carbon, we would be in some trouble, but the fact that all the monster seems to do for most of it's screentime is eat coal kind of weakens it in the eyes of the viewer.
The truth is, that Dogora was actually conceived as a comedy, pairing Ishiro Honda's two most prominent genres of film to work in, the gangster movie and the Kaiju Eiga, but somewhere this got lost in translation, and the Western versions of Dogora play it as a serious monster movie, while this could be a truly important factor in the movie's faults, I can't say for sure, so will have to list them.
For a start, Dogora. Now, when in adult form, as the big Jellyfish thing, this is a pretty unique and cool creation, and I applaud Toho for it. However, it's transformation is rather unexplained, and it only takes to the screen in adult form for about 5 minutes.
The movie also suffers from the fact that not only does it feature the 2-Plots syndrome that applies to a lot of Kaiju movies, but the fact is that not only is the cops and diamond robbers half more interesting, but it's also the more prominent of the two. It's basically a coincidence that the two plots are happening in the same area, with characters who've met a few times.
The reason the cops and diamond robbers plot is more interesting is quite frankly that Dogora doesn't do much. Apart from the one scene where it attacks the bridge, it basically hovers about and hoovers up coal, which isn't really all that exciting to watch.
However, it isn't a total loss, the one scene of Dogora-destruction is pretty cool, and the cops n robbers subplot is actually one of Toho's more amusing, if not hugely original, ones.
Sadly Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters never gave the DVD of Dogora the same treatment The Mysterians got, and this keeps a pretty shoddy old dubbing job. The subtitles are a tad better, but they still run along much the same lines.
Acting is actually pretty good. While the movie may have been intended to be a comedy, only Amamoto, who plays a minor role anyway, overacts, and before I learned of it's intended comedic nature, I thought his character was just meant to be a nutter, so it didn't bother me. While this didn't exactly feature any of Toho's heavy hitters, they all handle their roles well, and I've no acting complaints.
Special effects are one field in which I believe the movie deserves credit. Dogora is neither accomplished via a man in a rubber suit(Godzilla), a puppet(Mothra) nor a combination of the two(Ghidrah), and is created via superimposed images and a slight bit of puppetry. It actually, in it's adult form, looks quite mesmerising, and is easily one of the Toho effects team's most ingenious creations. I was less sold on the hard to see super-imposed light flashes used to represent it's smaller forms, but for those 5-10 minutes the large, amoeba-jellyfish was on screen, it more than made up for it.
Music is one of Akira Ifukube's trademark rousing and thunderous scores. The only problem with his music, which is excellent, is that it doesn't quite fit. He was evidently told to score a piece for the monster attacking, and scored a masterful work to accompany something along the lines of Godzilla blasting Tokyo away to thermonuclear hell, only for it really to be used for a scene where Dogora sucks up some coal. Needless to say it doesn't always fit.
While I may sound resoundingly negative about Dogora, I would be lying if I said I thought it was a bad movie. I mean, it isn't one of best movies I've seen this team bring to the screen, but at the same time, I never once felt compelled to stop watching it, even after the umpteenth scene of Dogora hoovering up coal. Possibly due to the fairly well done human element, or just in hope of seeing the full blown Dogora again, I was kept persistantly interested in the movie, and while I'm not going to give it an overly praising score, I shall recommend it, even if only to fans of the team behind it, just to see what is easily their most bizarre monster movie. 3-Stars is, I feel, about fair. While Dogora isn't great, it does have enough going for it to warrant at least one viewing, for fans of Toho's Science Fiction movies of the 50/60/70s.
Year: 1964
Titles: Uchu daikaijū Dogora
Dogora The Space Monster
Space Monster Dogora
Dagara the Space Monster
Dogora
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