Matango 
マタンゴ 「Matango」
Release Date: August 11th, 1963
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Ishiro Honda
Writer: Takeshi Kimura (Script),
Starring: Akira Kubo (Professor Kenji Murai), Kumi Mizuno (Mami Sekiguchi – singer), Miki Yashiro (Akiko Soma – Student), Hiroshi Koizumi (Naouyuki Sakuta – Captain), Kenji Sahara (Senzo Koyama – Sailor), Hiroshi Tachikawa (Etsuro Yoshida – Writer), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Masafumi Kasai – Owner), Yutaka Oka (Doctor),
While Ishiro Honda may be better known as the man who directed Godzilla and numerous other kaiju eiga, he has an extensive filmography that covers different genres. Quite interestingly, he even worked as second unit director on Akira Kurosawa’s later films like Madadayo (1993), Rhapsody in August (1991), Dreams (1990), and Ran (1985). This is a rather long-winded wind up to say that Honda’s a bit of a filmic renaissance man who jumps around genres and roles but the first film of his that I will review on my blog is not anything obvious but Matango (1963), a merciless horror flick that takes a slow-burn approach to its telling.
Light spoilers.
Genkinahito 