Godziszewski Ed - Ishiro Honda: a life in film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa

ISHIRO HONDA

ISHIRO HONDA

A LIFE IN FILM, FROM GODZILLA TO KUROSAWA

STEVE RYFLE AND ED GODZISZEWSKI

With YUUKO HONDA-YUNForeword by MARTIN SCORSESE

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS Middletown, Connecticut

Wesleyan University Press

Middletown CT 06459

www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

2017 Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Designed by Rich Hendel

Typeset in Utopia, Klavika, and Industry types

by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ryfle, Steve author. | Godziszewski, Ed author.

Title: Ishiro Honda : a life in film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa / Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski ; with Yuuko Honda-Yun ; foreword by Martin Scorsese.

Description: Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2017007286 (print) | LCCN 2017024649 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819577412 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819570871 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Honda, Ishiro, 19111993. | Motion picture producers and directorsJapanBiography.

Classification: LCC PN1998.3.H68 (ebook) | LCC PN1998.3.H68 R94 2017 (print) | DDC 791.4302/33092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007286

5 4 3 2 1

Jacket photo: Ishiro Honda. Coutesy of Honda Film, Inc.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I had the honor of working with Ishiro Honda when I appeared in Akira Kurosawas Dreams. It was extremely moving to me to see Honda, in his late seventies at the time and an internationally acknowledged and celebrated filmmaker, working as an assistant director to his old friend and acknowledged master, Akira Kurosawa. It taught me something about Japanese culture, but it also gave me an enriched sense of Mr. Honda, as a wonderful human being and an extraordinary artist and craftsman.

This carefully researched and detailed book gives us a full picture of the man and his lifehis early love for cinema; the terrible trials he endured as a soldier, a prisoner of war, and then as a veteran returning to a devastated world; his relationship with his wife, Kimi; his devotion to Kurosawa; his gradual rise within the studio system from assistant to director of documentaries to features; and his remarkable run of science fiction and monster films from the 1950s through the 1970s. Of course, that includes Gojira (known to American audiences as Godzilla) as well as Rodan, The Mysterians, The H-Man, and Mothra, pictures that haunted the imaginations of young moviegoers like myself and millions of others for years to come.

Martin Scorsese

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski wish to express their deep gratitude to the family of Ishiro Honda for helping to make this book possible. To Kimi Honda, for inviting us into her home and sharing many stories of her husbands life and work; to Ryuji Honda, for entrusting us with his fathers story, for navigating many legal and logistical hurdles, and for facilitating research, interviews, and information gathering; to Yuuko Honda-Yun, our partner, who spent countless hours supporting this project by performing translation, conducting research, engaging in discussion, and providing an invaluable perspective, ideas, insights, and friendship.

Special thanks to Shinsuke Nakajima, our research associate in Japan, whose contributions are immeasurable; to Kenji Sahara, who arranged interviews with his fellow actors; to Mariko Godziszewski for translating many Japanese texts; to Stuart Galbraith IV for assistance with research and critiquing the manuscript; to Mark Schilling for reading and critiquing the manuscript; and to Parker Smathers, Suzanna Tamminen, Marla Zubel, Peter Fong, Elizabeth Forsaith, and the staff of Wesleyan University Press.

Two of Hondas longtime assistant directors granted lengthy interviews and offered unique insights. The late Koji Kajita generously met with us numerous times and answered many follow-up questions. Seiji Tani was likewise extremely generous. The contributions of both men are greatly appreciated.

Special thanks also go to Toho Co. Ltd., Kurosawa Production Co., and Honda Film Inc. for their cooperation and assistance.

The authors also wish to thank many individuals and organizations that provided assistance and support:

The interviewees, who also included (in alphabetical order) Yasuyuki Inoue, Shusuke Kaneko, Hiroshi Koizumi, Takashi Koizumi, Akira Kubo, Masahiko Kumada, Hisao Kurosawa, Linda Miller, Kumi Mizuno, Haruo Nakajima, Minoru Nakano, Teruyoshi Nakano, Yosuke Natsuki, Teruyo Nogami, Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akira Takarada, Masaaki Tezuka, and Yoshio Tsuchiya.

For providing access to their interviews with Ishiro Honda, film director and producer Yoshimitsu Banno, journalist James Bailey, and writer David Milner.

The staffs of Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures, University of Southern California Cinematic Arts Library, University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, California State University Northridge Oviatt Library, Nihon University Department of Cinema, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles Public Library, County of Los Angeles Public Library Asian Pacific Resource Center, Rialto Pictures, American Cinematheque, Japan National Film Classification and Rating Committee, Sikelia Productions, and Storm King Productions.

Friends, family, and colleagues, including Takako Honda, Naoto Kurose (Honda Film Inc.), Bruce Goldstein, Dennis Bartok, Michael Friend, Chris Desjardins, Jeffrey Mantor, David Shepard, Raymond Yun, Hinata Honda-Yun, Sergei Hasenecz, Norman England, Oki Miyano, Jenise Treuting, Gary Teetzel, Erik Homenick, Glenn Erickson, Richard Pusateri, Keith Aiken, Bob Johnson, Nicholas Driscoll, Stephen Bowie, Bill Shaffer, Stig Bjorkman, Edward Holland and Monster Attack Team, Akemi Tosto, Joal Ryan, and Stefano Kim Ryan-Ryfle.

INTRODUCTION

[Japanese] critics have frequently dismissed Honda as unworthy of serious consideration, regarding him merely as the director of entertainment films aimed at children. By contrast, they have elevated Kurosawa to the status of national treasure. As for the men themselves, by all accounts Honda and Kurosawa had nothing but respect for one anothers work. Prospective studies of the history of Japanese cinema should therefore treat Hondas direction of monster movies and Kurosawas interpretation of prestigious sources such as Shakespeare as equally deserving of serious discussion.

Inuhiko Yomota, film historian

In August 1951, as Japans film industry was emerging from a crippling period of war, labor unrest, and censorship by an occupying foreign power, the press welcomed the arrival of a promising new filmmaker named Ishiro Honda. He was of average height at about five-foot-six but appeared taller to others, with an upright posture and a serious, disciplined demeanor acquired during nearly a decade of soldiering in the second Sino-Japanese War. There was something a bit formal about the way he spoke, never using slang or the Japanese equivalent of contractionshe wasnt a big talker for that matter, and was usually immersed quietly in thoughtyet he was gentle and soft-spoken, warm and likeable. A late bloomer, Honda was already age forty; and if not for his long military service, he likely would have become a director much earlier. He had apprenticed at Toho Studios under Kajiro Yamamoto, one of Japans most commercially successful and respected directors; and he hinted at, as an uncredited