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Review
by
Doug Red
Film:8
:
DVD:9
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| Much
like the fated Gilligan's Island crew, Matango
begins with a number of people on board a pleasure cruse that
is thoughtlessly interrupted by a raging storm. Blown wildly off
course, the ship eventually finds a deserted island, so they moor
their boat and swim ashore. There are other wrecked ships in the
vicinity, so there is thought at first that they can find help,
but no inhabitants are found still alive. They begin to ration
their own food as they investigate the island, which they slowly
realize is odd in its own right. There are no animals... and there
are mushrooms growing all over the place, particularly on the
junked ship near the coast. They clear them away from the old
ship, but they grow back quickly. As time wears on and their own
supplies dwindle, the mushrooms begin to look like a good food
source. But there's reason to believe that the mushrooms are not
to be eaten, so they don't. Everybody's individual loyalties,
outlooks, and vestiges of civilization begin to get stripped away
as they fight to live on the strange island. The survivors begin
to see things moving, things that shouldn't be there, even a deformed
ghost who visits the ship one night. Eventually one person takes
the plunge and eats some mushrooms, which prove tasty and addictive.
The 'shrooms also begin to take over their bodies and minds. Can
the rest of the castaways survive — or will hunger convince them
to take a bite as well? |
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Matango,
originally released in America as Attack
of the Mushroom People, is one of the more interesting
effects films released by Toho. Instead of creating giant monsters
and amazing miniatures for them to run roughshod over, the Toho
technicians concentrated on created an otherworldly look on a
human-sized scale, which lends the film the quality of a dream
descending into a nightmare. The large cast of characters also
highlights another interesting component of the film, because
the archetypal characters are used to discusses various human
interactions and dependencies: the rich businessman who bought
the boat but whose power and influence means little on the island;
the skipper without a boat, unable to lead; the singer who uses
her looks to entice any of the men to give her what she wants;
the professor who is smart but who has no way to get people to
listen to him. The only thing that brought the group together
was the money of the rich man, but on the island they have very
little in common with each other. This aspect of the story is
made more implicit in the Japanese language track, which presents
a more well-rounded look at all the characters and makes the critique
of then-current Tokyo attitudes more strident. With all this emphasis
on dramatic characterizations, the "Matango" monsters
are more subtle but are perhaps creepier because of it. The Matango
actually grow in the rain, and can move in a shambling way. These
are creatures that anybody can outrun and which don't present
a physical menace; instead, what they pose is a threat to the
identity, because once you taste the Matango, the only outcome
is to become Matango too. |
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The
story of Matango is also a departure
from other Toho films of the era because it's based on a short
story by early writer of the fantastique William Hope Hodgson.
Entitled Voice In The Night, the story concerns a ship
on a dark night that encounters a mysterious "voice" coming from
a small boat. The voice wants food for survival, but says he can't
come aboard. They give the food to the voice without touching
the boat, and it leaves. Later on it returns to tell the story
of the strange island he and his love were on, and of the addictive
and sinister mushrooms they encountered there. Matango
takes this general premise, expands the cast, and completely changes
the wraparound (a big city hospital instead of ships passing in
the night). It is a great adaptation that succeeds in being true
to the spirit of the source material without being slavish in
its devotion to the printed word. |
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Matango
is a film that will grow on you with every viewing. |
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| Tokyo
Shock's 2005 release of Matango offers
a well-mastered 2.25:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, with English
5.0, English 2.0 and Japanese Mono audio options. Extras include
commentary by Akira Kubo (the professor in the film who is also
the main character), in subtitled Japanese, and covering his participation
(one of his favorite performances) as well as other memories of
the film. Also included is a strange spoken-word piece by one
of the story writers, Masami Fukushima, which is basically a poem
set around the events and characters of Matango.
Finally, there is a Japanese language/subtitled interview with
special FX cinematographer Teruyoshi Nakano, which is very interesting.
Among factoids discussed is how the early shipboard scenes (before
the storm blows them off course) were accomplished using a new
frontal projection system which the director was able to get Toho
to buy, as well as the purchase of an optical printer. He also
talked about how they were able to get the Matango to grow so
rapidly for the film — they used the then-new invention of Styrofoam,
which would be mixed and sprayed to create the look of growing
mushrooms. They also mention that the edible mushrooms were made
by one of the oldest companies in Japan utilizing an old-school
cooking paste, and how the crew would be sent to buy large quantities
of the stuff but that the shopkeepers didn't believe they were
being used on a film set. The crew eventually learned to love
the edible Matango and everybody would be munching them between
takes once they got the recipe right. Trailers for Media Blasters/Tokyo
Shock releases Dagora, The
Mysterions, Varan the Unbelievable,
and Matango (all in the original
Japanese) are included, along with the trailer for Gappa
in hyperactive English. 1/14/11 |
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