Varan (1958)

By 1958, Toho Studios had already established itself as the home of the giant monster film. The Mysterians, released just a year earlier, showed the studio's appetite for large-scale science fiction spectacle, and the runaway success of Godzilla four years prior had set the template for what was now becoming a recognisable genre in its own right. The kaiju formula, a portmanteau creature born of post-war anxieties and nuclear age paranoia, had found a ready audience both at home in Japan and increasingly abroad. Into this landscape arrived Varan, a film that began life as a co-production intended for American television before Toho reworked it into a theatrical release for Japanese audiences. The premise follows a pair of entomologists who travel to a remote valley after a rare butterfly specimen is traced there, only to disturb something considerably larger than any butterfly. What follows is, broadly speaking, the by-now familiar business of a colossal prehistoric creature making its displeasure known in the direction of Tokyo.

The film was directed by Ishirō Honda, the central creative figure of Toho's science fiction output during this period. Honda was responsible for a considerable stretch of the studio's monster canon, from an earlier creature feature in 1955 to later entries like Mothra vs. Godzilla, and he brought a consistent seriousness of purpose to material that could easily have tipped into pure exploitation. The principal cast includes Kōzō Nomura and Ayumi Sonoda in the leads, with veteran character actor Koreya Senda and Akihiko Hirata, a familiar face in Toho productions of this era, providing support. Special effects work followed the suitmation approach the studio had been refining since Godzilla, with miniature sets and a man-in-suit creature performance that had served the genre well enough in more inspired outings. Varan itself, conceived as a creature capable of both terrestrial movement and a kind of winged gliding, presented an interesting design challenge that the production approached with varying degrees of success.

Varan the Unbelievable (1958) is one of those Toho kaiju films that feels less like a proper movie and more like a prototype they forgot to finish. You’ve got your standard post-nuclear monster, this time a giant, lizard-like beast with wings that sort of let it glide (but not really fly), waking up from centuries underground to stomp on villages and confuse the JSDF. It’s all very familiar: panicked scientists, military brass yelling into radios, civilians running in slow motion. The formula was already getting stale by this point, and Varan doesn’t do anything new to save it. The creature design is a bit goofy (a cross between a crocodile and a flying squirrel) and the suit looks even clunkier than usual. The infamous gliding scenes are just the actor on wires, jerking awkwardly across miniature sets, which kills any sense of menace.  There’s zero personality to Varan himself, he’s not angry, not tragic, not even particularly scary. Just… there. It’s not evil, but it’s dull. Even for fans of vintage suitmation nonsense, this one’s a slog. No real action, no memorable characters, and nothing close to the weight of the original Godzilla or even the fun of Rodan. A dated, forgettable clone in a growing pile of them. Watch it if you’re doing a full Toho marathon and need something to nap through. Otherwise, skip it. Varan can stay unbelievable.

Honestly, after sitting through this one, I find it hard to argue with any of that. Honda has made films with genuine weight and atmosphere, and there are moments in his better work where you feel the creature as a presence rather than just a prop. Here, none of that lands. For me, the most dispiriting thing is that the ingredients are all roughly in place, and yet the whole thing never catches. If you are curious about Honda's range as a director, you are much better served by other entries in his filmography. As for Varan, well. Some monsters deserve their obscurity.

Rating: ★½  | Year: 1958  | Watched: 2025-10-30

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More from Ishirō Honda: Space Amoeba (1970) · Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) · Beast Man Snow Man (1955) · The Mysterians (1957)
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
More from the 1950s: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Invaders from Mars (1953)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)