The first two films in the six movie series were reviewed and while they may not have too much to do with this fourth film do have the links to them. The first two films were one long story and thought they may have been a bit better than this fourth film. Have one other film but that's not subbed so this may be it for the series but have a feeling there is a good chance the remaining three movies will be completed.
Release Date: April 1, 1959 Length: 59 minutes Director: Satoru Ainoda Screenplay: Kiyoshi Oda
Dimensions of screenshots: 1274x538 Subs were once again done by Kingmenu, this time helping them was Shockwave 2022. For the first two films gave them a grade of a B-, this time around it's a C. You'll see why I gave the subs that grade in many of the screenshots but thanks to them for doing this movie.
There are a total of six films but more importantly it was a very popular TV series at the end of the 1950's. Tsueno Kobayashi was the director for the first two films, he came up with the idea for the Gekko Kamen character. Though it was a TV series the characters/actors aren't the same, for instance Omura Fumitake who played the hero of Gekko Kamen wasn't in the TV series.
I would give anything to see the original TV series that aired from February 1958 until July 1959. The show was immensely popular as it usually got well over 40% for a rating but there wasn't too much competition back then. Even though the series was still massively popular it was taken off the air for many children tried to duplicate the stunts of the hero Gekko Kamen, you can see where the "Kamen Rider" shows got their name. "Moonlight Mask" was the proper title of the series that had 130 episodes in seventeen months, two episodes aired each week. This was the second Japanese Super Hero with the first being "Super Giant", it wasn't as popular as "Moonlight Mask" but did inspire many other classic Tokusatsu shows such as "Ultraman". Here's an excellent video about the series and also other info about the start up of Tokusatsu kinds of shows back in the late 1950's and what a social phenom "Moonlight Mask" aka Gekko Kamen quickly became, will use both terms throughout the reviews. Even after the series ended there was a movie in 1981, then a manga series and an anime plus so many other things associated with "Moonlight Mask". The video is 31 minutes long but be like me and watch it in three parts of ten minutes, it's extremely interesting and how I love viewing such documentaries such as this one which aren't all that common.
Fumitake Omaru as Juro Iwai aka Gekko Kamen.... Besides being a Super Hero Juro runs his own private detective agency, the next two characters are his assistants. No person ever got on to the fact that Juro and Gekko Kamen were the same person though their voices were the same and that Juro would disappear to change into his hero outfit. Which is right above, the cape and uniform is white while the gloves are yellow, also yellow was his Honda motorcycle though is very close to a Moped. Talked about how Juro used his guns above, he can shoot two at once while riding his motorcycle. Also in his motorcycle bag are other weapons besides guns though Gekko Kamen rarely uses them, he also can fly a helicopter! Juro helps out the Tokyo Metro Police often and they gave him a special permit for a gun which was very rare back in the 1950's. One other thing is that Juro has 'adopted' a pair of children named Konomi(female) and Shigeru(male), both were orphaned and live at his agency office. For the first two films we didn't see much of Gekko Kamen saving the world and even less of his alter ego Juro Iwai. The same applied to this fourth film as we didn't see a lot of Juro or Gekko Kamen, kind of like how you wouldn't see much of Superman in the 1950's series until the very end.
Yaeko Wakamizu as Kaboko.... Kan Yanagiya as Fukuro Gorohachi.... Juro's two assistants at his detective agency and both are quite daffy! But least in the case of Gorohachi he is semi-competent and did save the day once for Gekko Kamen. The real name of Kaboko is unknown and what else is unknown to me is if the pair know their boss Juro is the hero Gekko Kamen? For a while towards the end of the first film thought Gorohachi knew Juro and Gekko Kamen were one but after viewing this second movie not so sure.... EDIT: Actually did figure out by the end of the second movie neither of Juro's assistants knew the secret identity of him. The only person to date to know of Juro's secret identity was the very evil Skull Mask but he fell to his death from a cliff at the end of the second movie.
Ken Sudo as Chief Detective Matsuda.... He's very close to Juro but doesn't know that his friend is actually the Super Hero Gekko Kamen! Juro often helps Matsuda out on cases though of course more so in the TV series, Matsuda is about a decade older and appears to be competent but too often has to rely on Juro or Gekko Kamen to solve a case. Matsuda didn't have a lot of screentime in the movies and think the role was much larger in the TV series.
I'm not going to give a long history of the series/films in these reviews, there is a fairly good Ja.wiki page to check out for info and here's that link: Gekko Kamen Ja.wiki page . But even that was missing some key details, don't know about the TV series but the info for the six films was kind of skimpy but it was a start for me. By going to a few other sites think I was able to piece together the cast for who played who but it's probably not 100% accurate.... on second thought think it is! Very few of the characters from the first two films appeared in this fourth one, of course the hero Juro iwai aka Gekko Kamen did. Also returning were Kaboko and Gorohachi who are Juro's two assistants at his detective agency. Inspector Matsuda from the Tokyo Metro Police also was in this film, all four were the main characters in the TV series which as mentioned I've never seen and would love to do so. Of the four Juro easily gets the most screentime and even more than his alter ego Gekko Kamen. But have noticed in all three films I've viewed it's the guest stars who get the most screentime, especially the villains. Some of the above info and four character details below were carried over from the first two movies but did make edits to them.
Main Characters
There weren't as many major characters compared to the first two movies, there is one key detail about Gekko Kamen aka Juro Iwai. You will see him in many screenshots firing a pistol, one example is above but the hero isn't a violent man at all. When Gekko Kamen fires his guns it's often to knock the weapons out of his opponent's hands or to warn them not to fire anymore. Gekko Kamen never fires to hurt or kill a criminal and as far as I can tell has never killed a person in the movies or TV series. The hero's motto was he'd rather not see any criminal hurt or killed but would prefer seeing them forgiven and helped. That's not easy to do considering some of the people Gekko Kamen ran up against such as the Skull People in the first two films. In Japanese you've probably figured out that Kamen means MASK while Gekko means Moonlight or a Ray of Light. So "Moonlight Mask" is the English title of the series and movies while in Japan the fans used Gekko Kamen, that's how I'll always refer to the hero.
Junji Masuda as Dr. Akira Yamawaki.... Very important to the story such as Dr. Nakajima was to the first two films but the creation of Dr. Yamawaki's is a bit hazier than Nakajima's. Yamawaki is an Atomic scientist and has been working on a way to make the enzymes in atomic particles a boon to mankind such as helping out with curing diseases, protection from atomic radiation and more. It still hadn't been perfected during this movie but of course with such an invention it could also be used for evil purposes which was one of the main stories in this movie. The other was of eight convicts who had escaped prison during a typhoon, their objective will be to kill ten leading Japanese scholars or politicians, Yamawaki was on that hit list! Though his unfinished creation was so important to the story we didn't see much of Yamaewaki until the second half of the film.
Katsuhei Matsumoto as Akiyama.... Never did hear the man's first name. Akiyama is the Tokyo Metro Police Commissioner but in some screenshots you will see Superintendent used but I'll stick with Commissioner. Akiyama was one of ten on that hit list which was created by the ultra diabolical International Assassination Squad, two have been slain and Akiyama was almost victim number three! But he survived but while in the hospital two more attempts were made on his life. Of course being the Commissioner is the reason the International Assassination Squad wants to see Akiyama eliminated, he also has an ultra attractive daughter named Meiko.
Michiko Shirakawa as Meiko Akiyama.... The screenshots don't do her justice but Michiko as Meiko 😍 made my heart beat faster then any other woman in the past five years, WOW! She didn't have a long career but was in some known movies, her role wasn't too large in this film but was semi-important at the end. It's okay that Meiko wasn't on the screen more for my heart was beating so out of control....
Ken Hasabe as the reporter Yamamoto.... Not too major to the story but was the only reporter to gain the respect of Juro Iwai and his assistants, Yamamoto did have a fair amount of screentime. That's him on the left below, Juro's assistant Gorohachi is on the right.
Yoshi Kato as Chosokabe.... Another character who didn't get a lot of screentime though in a way he did(?) and was extremely major to the story! We only saw the Chosokabe man twice when he visited Akiyama in the hospital, recently the pair had become good friends. Chosokabe was the head of Oita Bussan which was a finance company but I wonder was it a real outfit? But this was a devilish plan by Chosokabe as he was secretly the head of the International Assassination Squad!!!! We viewers knew that for the face of both were so similar, the only difference being Chosokabe wore glasses. It also meant Yoshi played a duel role and while never a huge star I've seen him in about ten films with the top being "Zero Focus" from 1961 which is a must watch.
Yoshi Kato as Suda.... The head of the notorious and somewhat unknown International Assassination Squad. Never once was his name mentioned in the film, of course twice Chosokabe was used when he visited the police commissioner Akiyama in the hospital. Don't want to refer to the leader as Chosokabe for it could be confusing plus we never did learn of his dual identity until the end. Very little was known about the International Assassination Squad but once they targeted someone it was almost a certain death! In this story Suda had targeted ten important scholars, politicians and leaders to eliminate, in the beginning two were quickly snuffed out! In order to complete this mission while a Typhoon hit the Kanto region Suda's henchmen broke into Kitamita Prison and helped eight inmates on death row escape! These eight would be the assassins for Suda's plan and all were ruthless, they worked as a team and we never did learn any names though it was the group and not individuals who were key to this storyline. You can see what Suda's ultimate goal is in the first screenshot below, how many times as that been the main theme to a movie.... thousands????
Rinichi Yamamoto as the Monster Gorilla aka Kong.... In the TV series Gekko Kamen did have to battle against a monster dubbed (King)Kong as it was so massive! This creature was also dubbed Kong but was much smaller yet very powerful, for some reason even bullets couldn't hurt it! However the monster did have a weakness near his head so loud noises, lights and having things thrown/fired at his head gave his opponent a chance. When a movie is only 59 minutes in length it's hard to give the background of every key character, never did learn the exact details of how Kong was created. Though very powerful it wasn't much larger than a human and did act like one as it could drive a car and write! In one crazy scene Kong also piloted a helicopter, that crashed so Gekko Kamen thought he was a goner but not so....
There were a few other characters but none were all that important to the story. One to an extent was who is the man on the left below talking to his superior Suda of the International Assassination Squad. That man appeared to be Suda's top henchman but was never referred to by name and may never talk about him though he will be in a few screenshots. The second pic below is of some of the inmates that fled from Kitamita Prison thanks to that unnamed assistant of Suda's. There were ten at first but two were eliminated by Suda, soon they shed their prison uniforms and wore the ones of the International Assassination Squad. In a shocker did find a trailer for the movie on YT, that's after the screenshots and do recommend viewing both videos in this post.
Whew(!), these intros take so long to do plus they are hard as I have to do so much research for character names, air dates, then take screenshots, etc. This has been the toughest drama/movie to date for me to find info about as these movies aired 67 years ago but think almost all of the details to this point are accurate. Even though these kinds of posts take me so long to do the above section is also my favorite part of blogging, when a long intro section is complete I think they look so darn terrific!!!! So I don't care about how long it takes to do or that not nearly as many viewers will notice it compared to posts for scantly clad J-Pop Idols! Took 107 screenshots for this film and will use a dozen in this intro section which lowers the total for the actual review to 95 photos. So went up to the 45th for the first post and have the other half in this part two of the review. Besides doing my own blogging I also visit other sites and mainly to read up about older shows or movies such as this one. I prefer two medium sized posts for a review and bet most reading this will agree with that so I cut one very long post in half. Most reviews I read at other sites are very good but often when one runs on for about 4,000 words with a small amount of screenshots it can get a bit tiring to read and could turn off viewers.
Nothing wrong with longer movies of say 100+ minutes as when I view them on my DVD player often watch films that length or much longer. But when doing reviews try to keep the length at less than 90 minutes and for older movies it's not difficult to do. Saves me much time as it can take a while jotting down notes, taking screenshots, doing research and then penning these posts. The first two movies in the 'Gekko Kamen' series gave a grade of 9.4/10 to and those were the best films I've seen in a while. This one got a slightly lower grade of 9.0/10 though all in all there was nothing wrong with this film. Like the first two movies there was plenty of action and never a dull moment, all the films are a tad cheesy but when done right can be a positive and they were in these movies. What helped the first pair of movies is that when you combined them they had 102 minutes to tell the story, this one only had 59 minutes. So some things weren't explained fully such as how did the International Assassination Squad leader Suda change from being a human into the Kong ape? Know it had a little to do with atomic particles but there wasn't enough time to get into all of the details. That's Suda above at the end of the movie, he could change from human into ape in about thirty seconds, the opposite took about the same time. But how did he do that was an enigma and at times guess it's not overly important for everything to be explained fully. Up next for movie reviews will be the three film series "Nanairo Kamen" aka Seven Color Mask. Those films came out five months after this six movie series ended and think the theme is very similar. But unsure about that and in about a week to ten days will have the first pair of reviews.
Here we are with the second post for this fourth "Moonlight Mask" movie, I have the third but it's not subbed though it could happen. We ended off with the Tokyo Metro Police Commissioner Akiyama being transported to the hospital after almost being kidnapped by the human/ape Kong, he was saved at the last second by this movie's hero Gekko Kamen. It wasn't mentioned but it appears the International Assassination Squad leader Suda won't move on to his next target until the current one has been finished off! Akiyama was the fourth person on Suda's list of ten influential Japanese men to be eliminated but not all will be killed immediately. Two men in the first part of the review were but not Dr. Yamawaki as Suda is keeping the scientist alive until he finishes his atomic particles project. That creation is very key to the story but am a bit hazy about it but think I described it well enough in the previous recap, in short a boon to mankind if used correctly and a disaster if used by villains! Being the police commissioner means Akiyama knows so much valuable information which could help Suda if it comes down to duking it out with the police or defense forces so that's why Suda wanted him kidnapped but not killed yet. For the most part that's where we stand and sure you've read the first part of the review. Akiyama is now in the hospital and Suda won't be moving on to the fifth name on his list until the commissioner is nabbed. A few attempts will be made to do that in this part two and let's finally get to the action.
**** In the last movie review noticed how three medium sized paragraphs in a segment seemed to be much easier to read and for me to write up. Let me do that again and if it works out well again will use this format for most movie reviews in the future but won't be for dramas.
The police commissioner Akiyama is in the top screenshot, he has a bandage on his head but besides that he wasn't hurt badly when the attempt was made to kidnap him by the human/ape Kong! Many have come to visit Akiyama and check out the man in glasses with a beard in that screenshot, there's also another pic of him in the character bio section. It's the first we've seen of this man whose name is Chosokabe and is the director at the Oita Bussan Financial Institute but fairly certain that's a bogus company. A few weeks back Chosokabe first met commissioner Akiyama and the pair have grown very close in a short amount of time, this was of course part of the International Assassination Squad leader's plan. That's Suda and if you look at Chosokabe closely you can see without the fake beard and glasses it's actually Suda in disguise! So this plan to abduct and/or kill ten prominent Japanese men has worked out well and if it wasn't for Gekko Kamen barely saving Akiyama then Suda would now be after his fifth victim! In a shrewd move while visiting his 'friend' Akiyama and with others there to be witnesses Chosokabe(Suda) had a note delivered to himself which is in the second screenshot. It claimed to be from the International Assassination Squad and said that Chosokabe would be next on their Hit List!!!! That was a wise move as it would throw any potential suspicion off Chosokabe and perhaps get him closer to Akiyama. Also above is a screenshot with flowers that had been delivered to Akiyama's room, nothing was said about it but the camera lingered on it for a few seconds so knew it would eventually be key to the story. Below that the woman is Akiyama's daughter Meiko and screenshots don't do her justice as what an attractive woman she was.... WOW!!!! In that first post Juro Iwai(Gekko Kamen) had chased after the ape Kong when it was discovered he had kidnapped the esteemed atomic scientist Dr. Yamawaki. The chase ended when Gekko Kamen entered a tunnel on his Honda motorcycle and the roof caved in, at the time we didn't realize the discovery he had made. Which was of finding out the secret HQ of the International Assassination Squad was located not far from the caved in tunnel, just outside of Tokyo in a non descript villa that had a massive underground chamber. Now it was time to go on the offense before another attempt was made to kidnap Akiyama, as himself Juro posed as a security guard at the HQ. Twice as a matter of fact, Juro found some things out during his first search and then left. Juro let his detective agency assistants Kaboko(woman) and Gorohachi know the general location of the HQ and that he was going in for another search. They in turn notified a reporter named Yamamoto who Juro trusted and what I'm talking about is right above.
But in his second search posing as a guard Juro was exposed and because he didn't meet or contact Kaboko, Gorohachi and Yamamoto by the designated time they went looking for the esteemed private detective. The trio knew the HQ was nearby but not the exact location. One key thing Juro learned before his capture was that the hospital Akiyama was at had a time bomb hidden there, it was now mid-afternoon and at 6:00 pm the bomb would detonate! Of course the target was Akiyama and naturally the logical place where the bomb was hidden was the vase of flowers! In two screenshots above you can see that Juro was thrown in a cell with Dr. Yamawaki, he's been important to the story but it's the first time we've seen him. The scientist hadn't been killed because the International Assassination Squad leader Suda wants Dr. Yamawaki to finish his research on extracting enzymes from atomic particles/energy. Of course Dr. Yamawaki wanted his creation to be used to benefit mankind, Suda had other evil ideas such as using that unique atomic power to conquer Japan! In one above screenshot Juro was telling the scientist that his assistant Gorohachi is looking for him and it should only be a matter of time until they're found. Gorohachi is a goofball but seems dependable, while waiting in the cell the pair of Juro and Yamawaki noticed the smell of gas.... possibly a way for them to escape?!
The thing about shorter movies is that there's zero filler, there's no time to waste so every second has some sort of action. It was gas Juro and Dr. Yamawaki smelled, it was from a burst pipe going past their cell. Juro was able to remove some bricks and had an idea, why not blow the secret HQ of the International Assassination Squad to smithereens?! They didn't do a good job of frisking Juro for he had a lighter on him, he threw it lit into the passage where the leaking gas pipe was and sought cover with Dr. Yamawaki. The explosion was a powerful one but didn't destroy much of the secret HQ but did it's purpose as the explosion was noticed by Kaboko, Gorohachi and the reporter Yamamoto. The cell and part of the International Assassination Squad HQ had been underground, Dr. Yamawaki was safe but where was his savior Juro Iwai?! At times you have to scratch your head but least in a humorous way, the blast had sent Juro flying in a different direction than the scientist and guess what happened? Somehow Juro was able to transform into his Gekko Kamen uniform and also had his motorcycle nearby, won't ask HOW but that's another thing which may not need an explanation.
First off for Gekko Kamen was to alert Kaboko and Gorohachi that the scientist and Juro were safe, of course Juro's assistants aren't aware of his secret identity. The hero also added in there was a bomb planted at the hospital to blow up Akiyama, the pair dashed there but still had no clue where the bomb was hidden. **** Speaking of the bomb didn't think Suda wanted Akiyama dead for he knew so much useful info, did the International Assassination Squad leader change his plan? Juro as Gekko Kamen headed back to the underground cell he had been locked in with Dr. Yamawaki who was safe(for now), Gekko Kamen told him Juro was A-OK and the two needed to leave immediately! But in a shocker coming out of a hole in the wall that had been created by the Gas explosion was the presumed dead.... Kong! That threw Gekko Kamen for a loop and us viewers too, how did he survive that helicopter explosion/crash? Don't know but bullets just bounce off the human/ape, Gekko Kamen had no idea how to defeat the creature called Kong! But Dr. Yamawaki did, he told Gekko Kamen to aim for the head as that's the weakest part of the beast's body, the advice was sound as quickly Kong fled for safety. This short scene did answer partially a few questions of mine and do have a large amount of them!
I think that the International Assassination Squad leader Suda had been using some of Dr. Yamawagi's enzyme atomic project for a while and it's how he can turn into Kong and then back to a human so quickly. Don't know how the process works, via a pill or injection but Suda has been turning into Kong a few times a day and even though he's in the form of an Ape still has his human brain. That's why as Kong he could speak, write and drive a car, as Kong he's also much stronger than a human for in the first part of the review was able to easily kill the first two names on his Hit List. But I still have no clue how he was able to survive that helicopter crash, neither does Gekko Kamen. Dr. Yamawagi knew the weaknesses of his uncompleted atomic enzymes project, the head is the most vulnerable part of Kong's body. So in the future when attacking it aim your gun or other weapons at his head, also sound is effective for it disorientates Kong and knowing that will soon save the day! Meanwhile back at the hospital the police commissioner Akiyama was warned of the hidden bomb there and that he should flee. But the man was telling his daughter Meiko above there's no way a man in his position could ever run away and that sets us up for the exciting long and final scene.
This last section could be a bit longish but so much did happen. Akiyama and his daughter Meiko returned back home and what protection the police commissioner had for at least fifty officers were at his house! To make the situation easier for Suda and to get Gekko Kamen out of the picture the scientist Dr. Yamawaki was once again kidnapped. That trick worked as Gekko Kamen headed back to the International Assassination Squad HQ and was able to free the esteemed scientist but wasted some valuable time. Dr. Yamawagi jumped on the back of Gekko Kamen's motorcycle with an unknown weapon and the pair tore off to Akiyama's residence but would that delay prove to be fatal? This plan of Suda's almost worked and the problem was it seems impossible to ever beat Gekko Kamen! The inspector Matsuda was in charge of the troops at Akiyama's house, for now everything was calm and the time was about 9:45 pm, in fifteen minutes would Suda fulfill his threat and kill Akiyama? That came so darn close to happening, arriving at the house was Akiyama's newish friend Chosokabe who is above in glasses and the beard. But of course we knew by now that this was a disguise of Suda's and had used it to get closer to Akiyama which worked perfectly. The time was now 10:02 pm, two minutes after the deadline but it didn't matter to Chosokabe/Suda who pulled a gun on Akiyama and was about to fire!!!! But in an odd and unwise decision Suda put the gun away, least for now, and in front of Akiyama's eyes transformed into the human/ape Kong! Akiyama fled the room and grabbed his daughter Meiko, that's the pair below trapped below by Kong and it looks like a scene out of a 1940's horror flick.
Below that you can see dashing to the Akiyama residence on his motorcycle was Gekko Kamen along with Dr. Yamawagi who was carrying the weapon that could hopefully finish off Kong! This ending was solid and a few more questions were answered but there was only three minutes to go so this finale was a bit abbreviated and rushed. As mentioned many times before bullets just bounce off Kong's body but that didn't stop the police from firing numerous rounds at the powerful body. At last Gekko Kamen arrived and while not nearly as strong as Kong is much more agile and in this brief battle our Hero did get the upper hand. To make sure it stayed that way Gekko Kamen shot his pistols at Kong's head which was the weakest part of his body, loud sound was also directed at his head which left Kong in a state of disorientation. Dr. Yamawagi pulled out his weapon which he had never used before, it's supposed to reverse whatever his Atomic Enzyme Particle project had done to a person. It was aimed at Kong's head and the result was a victory for the good guys as before everyone's eyes Kong transformed back into the International Assassination Squad leader Suda, most there never knew he and Kong were the same. While in his human form Suda was nabbed by the police and so weren't the rest of his Squad as this was such a quick ending. Like Dr. Nakajima did in the first two movies Dr. Yamawagi will keep his new creation hidden from the world until he's sure it will never be used by such diabolical criminal/spy groups, with that this short yet in a way long movie came to it's conclusion. Short because it was only 59 minutes, long because the action was non-stop and there was rarely a few seconds to catch your breath! Gave my grade, thoughts and opinions in the intro for this fun movie along with some other tidbits during the review so will end here as it was much longer than planned. In the intro did say what movies would be coming up next and that will be in about a week or so, thanks again for reading these longish two posts but to me they do seem to be somewhat easy reads.
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