This was a pleasant surprise. I remembered seeing about 15 minutes of this about 30 years ago, and I was interested to see how well "Matango" held up. Very well indeed, as it turned out.
My first time out, I missed the whole aspect of the 7 people stuck on the island turning on each other over food and as things got grim. One of the depressing aspects to this plot, of course, is that the group might well have survived and made it back to civilization if they had pulled together. Instead, greed, fear, lust, and weakness in the face of physical hardship tore the group apart and pretty much insured their doom.It was a if the cast of "Gilligan's Island" stumbled onto "The Masque Of the Red Death".
The second aspect of the film I missed on initial viewing was how well shot and acted the film was (except for the English dub - more on that in a bit). The sets and the visual design of the island, the wrecked ships, the revelation of the ships' graveyard, the shots of people outlined against the surf, the colors of the various rooms covered in fungus - the people who did the story board and the cinematographers and director knew what they were doing. It was a pleasure to see the cool setups and reveals and camera work here.
I really wish I had to chance to see this with English subtitles, though - the dub I heard ranged from mediocre to cheesy and really detracted from my enjoyment of the film. I mean, this wasn't Herzog or Kurosawa or "The Woman In The Dunes", but it had depth and subtext and weight behind the goofy "Attack Of the Mushroom People" title, and the American distributors didn't do it any favors with their treatment. These days, a film like this would be treated with much more care and respect, since the American hunger for "real" Japanese weirdness has created a market for uncut Japanese fantasy and horror.
Very impressive. I might go out of my way to get a chance to see "Matango" as the director meant it to be experienced, uncut with subtitles.
My first time out, I missed the whole aspect of the 7 people stuck on the island turning on each other over food and as things got grim. One of the depressing aspects to this plot, of course, is that the group might well have survived and made it back to civilization if they had pulled together. Instead, greed, fear, lust, and weakness in the face of physical hardship tore the group apart and pretty much insured their doom.It was a if the cast of "Gilligan's Island" stumbled onto "The Masque Of the Red Death".
The second aspect of the film I missed on initial viewing was how well shot and acted the film was (except for the English dub - more on that in a bit). The sets and the visual design of the island, the wrecked ships, the revelation of the ships' graveyard, the shots of people outlined against the surf, the colors of the various rooms covered in fungus - the people who did the story board and the cinematographers and director knew what they were doing. It was a pleasure to see the cool setups and reveals and camera work here.
I really wish I had to chance to see this with English subtitles, though - the dub I heard ranged from mediocre to cheesy and really detracted from my enjoyment of the film. I mean, this wasn't Herzog or Kurosawa or "The Woman In The Dunes", but it had depth and subtext and weight behind the goofy "Attack Of the Mushroom People" title, and the American distributors didn't do it any favors with their treatment. These days, a film like this would be treated with much more care and respect, since the American hunger for "real" Japanese weirdness has created a market for uncut Japanese fantasy and horror.
Very impressive. I might go out of my way to get a chance to see "Matango" as the director meant it to be experienced, uncut with subtitles.