Hope the 1A doesn't sound confusing, it could but will simplify it for you. For movie reviews do a pair of posts which means neither are too long and are easier to read, that's the case for this movie so the next post is part 1B. However there's a sequel which picks up where the first film ends so after these two posts are the pair of recaps for the second movie and the conclusion of the story. Named them 1C and 1D no big deal and should be easy enough for you to figure out, if this is the first post you're reading of the four then all is oki-doki!
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 films, he came up with the idea for the Gekko Kamen character. The screenwriter was Yasunori Kawauchi and 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. The subs were done by Noriko and Kingmenu, will give them a B(-) for quality but least three of the films were done so thanks to them for that.
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. 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 this first film we didn't see much of Gekko Kamen saving the world nor of his alter ego Juro Iwai.
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?
Ken Sudo as Chief Detective Matsuda.... He's very close to Juro but don't think he knows 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 is in the middle below, he didn't have a lot of screentime in the first movie and think the role was much larger in the TV series.
Hiroko Mine as Ayako Nakajima.... The very attractive(to me!) daughter of the renowned scientist and we never did learn all that much about her. She still lives with her father and though it seems Ayako is much younger than Juro I got the impression he had a bit of a crush on her. Ayako was kidnapped in the first movie for the evil group Skull Mask thought she had her father's plans for the HO Joe Bomb. Ayako did but the dastardly spy ring wasn't able to find them on her and why is in the review. On the right in the first screenshot is Konomi, the girl Juro has 'adopted'.
???? as Skull Mask.... As I'm writing this first review up still don't know the actor that played this treacherous character who is the leader of this spy/terrorist ring Skull Mask. It is a cool looking 'monster' and in a way have to call him that for I don't think Skull Mask is a human. Towards the end of the first movie on two occasions this fiend ignited a pair of fires, they were lit by flames coming out of his mouth! Besides having many human spies such as Yuri above there's also many Skull henchmen, they wear the mask of a Skull and how are they chosen plus are they also monsters such as their leader? What's also eerie is the third screenshot below, the images of floating skulls appear at time to time and then disappear in a few seconds, it does give this film a creepy vibe and what's the story with them?
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. The same cast will be in the first two movies, after those will be be reviewing the fourth as it's the only other one subbed and will be doing that about a week after the first two movie reviews have been published.
Main Characters
Shouldn't be too long of a list and of course there probably won't be many(any?) edits needed for these first two movies. But actually there could be a few things in the character's bios that will be updated, am writing this post up before viewing the second film and will wait until this is finished before moving on to it. There aren't too many major characters as most will be in the first two movies and then disappear, 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 runs 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 refer to the hero but we do see more of him as his alter ego Juro Iwai.
Jun Usami as Dr. Nakayama.... A very important character and is the father of the next woman. Dr. Nakayama is a very respected scientist who has just created the HO Joe Bomb but it's creation wasn't meant for war. Nakayama wants to use his sought after invention for the betterment of mankind, mainly to help develop new peaceful energy sources. But of course an evil organization such as Skull Mask wants Nakayama's creation for their own devious purposes, they will keep trying to steal the plans for it which is the main theme of both movies. In the first screenshot Nakayama is on the right, on the left is Dr. Akaboshi who is his close friend and shows up in a few scenes plus is also an inventor.
Mitsue Komiya as Yuri.... A member of the Skull Mask organization which is an international spy ring and is named after their leader. Yuri seemed to be the most capable spy they had, she was posing as a housekeeper at Dr. Nakayama's house and thanks to her Skull Mask almost got the plans for the HO Joe Bomb. Yuri had bugged the doctor's office and the family had no clue what an evil person Yuri was until Juro Iwai spilled the beans! Yuri also had a brother in the organization nicknamed Tiger, he was killed by one of his own mates when he wouldn't kill his sister!
Akira Sawa as Khan.... Is on the right below and is a secret spy for the Skull Mask clan. We didn't see much of Khan who hails from India but he was an important part of this first movie, in the beginning he sent Juro Iwai on a bogus case to India to get the sleuth out of the way. Later on he killed Yuri's brother Tiger after he refused to kill his sister, there is a Skull Mask rule when the police nab a member they have to be killed. Could be by their own hand or someone else, there was no way Tiger could have killed Yuri which Khan knew would happen.
Think that's it for the main characters and how many can there be for a 52 minute movie? Below is a trailer for the second film but there's also a lot of action from the first movie. On YT there are a few other videos for the movies and/or TV series, if you use the Kanji in this video you can bring up most of those other videos and you can see what a fun movie this was!
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! Haven't viewed the next movie yet which picks up where this one ended so unsure of anything in the above section will need any editing for past two of the review, will let you know if there are any changes. I took 98 screenshots for this film plus had a few other photos such as promo posters and such which brought the total up to 106. Used about a dozen screenshots above which lowers the total for the actual review to 94 photos. So will go up to about the 47th 45th for this post and have the other half in 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 reading two medium sized posts for a review and bet most reading this will agree with that so I end up cutting 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.
Let's get to things and as mentioned Gekko Kamen was the first true popular Super Hero in Japan. That genre wasn't too common for a few more years and then when "Ultraman" appeared the flood gates opened! Hard to call Juro Iwai as Gekko Kamen a Super Hero as he doesn't have any kind of special powers but is so skilled fighting, shooting a pistol and riding a motorcycle. Not positive but think Fumitake Omura who played Juro did most of his stunts, you will also notice how even though it was a popular TV series the budget was very low and that was quite common for most shows back then in Japan. While ratings for shows such as this were very high not all that many owned televisions which was a huge reason for low budgets. Not much more to add in as I need to save a few thoughts for part two of the review, we didn't see the show's hero Gekko Kamen in his uniform until after the twenty minute mark or 40% of the way through movie #1.
Such as the spy ring/terrorist group Skull Mask who is led a mysterious unnamed man called Skull Mask so the group is named after him. That morning Nakajima had received a call at home demanding the plans to the HO Joe Bomb and naturally the scientist hung up the phone immediately. But that didn't deter this evil group as one member did sneak into the laboratory grounds when the testing of the bomb took place. Somehow a man in a jeep eluded the heavy security but that was the last heard anyone of this terrorist who had to be from the Skull Mask group, did he perish due to the bomb's explosion? That's what Nakajima and his aides thought as who could survive such a bomb blast, that was the last we heard of this man whose aim had to be of stealing the designs to Nakajima's new bomb. Add in that phone call along with a few other minor incidents so Dr. Nakajima knew what had to be done.... call in the cavalry or in this case the private detective Juro Iwai! Juro is a very respected detective and often helps out the police, he's also a semi-friend of the scientist so was called in to protect Nakajima and the bomb's plans. Some of that scene is right above however Juro may be unavailable for a while and unsure when he learned of Nakajima's request for help. In the screenshot below Juro was at the airport about to hop onto a flight to New Delhi, that's him on the left while on the right is a mysterious man named Khan. Who had asked the hero to travel to Khan's homeland of India to help the authorities tackle a difficult case, Juro may not be back for a few weeks. Which would suit Khan fine as his goal was to get the elite detective out of Japan and away from Dr. Nakajima, at first this scheme did work. In that first screenshot below the woman's name is Ayako and she's the daughter of Dr. Nakajima, don't think any romance will take place but it appears Juro has a crush on her and why not as she was such a cutie!
Also in that first screenshot are two little children, the girl is Konomi while the boy is named Shigeru. Don't know too much about them but Juro kind of 'adopted' the pair who aren't related but both parents had died on the same day and Juro lets them live at his detective agency so presume he does too. A lot of that info and more much is in the bio section. Above you can see a few screenshots of the Skull Mask spy ring, that's also the name of their leader so hope it doesn't sound confusing when talking about either. Another attempt was made to steal the plans for Dr. Nakajima's HO Joe Bomb and this time it appeared the evil group was successful! While the scientist and his aides were out checking the site of the explosion to make sure there was no radiation a villain snuck into his laboratory and stole his bag which the Skull Mask group figured contained the bomb plans. Not so as the bag was empty, there are many henchmen working under the main leader Skull Mask, will highlight his name in RED so you know it's him I'm talking about. The most competent seemed to be a man named Tiger, he's above in the third screenshot talking with Khan. Tiger always wears that bandana around his face and throat, in a slight spoiler he won't live to see the end of this first movie though his sister Yuri does and will introduce her very soon.
Dr. Nakajima was aware of his empty bag being stolen, he used it as a decoy which worked. But he also knew the dastardly Skull Mask group will stop at nothing to obtain his plans for the HO Joe Bomb, if used for the wrong purposes any evil organization could rule the world!!!! After a tough day at the lab with the bomb testing, a man sneaking on to the lab's grounds and his bag being stolen Dr. Nakajima finally made his way home and that scene is above, he's with his daughter Ayako. Also staying at the house for a few days will be Juro's 'adopted children' Konomi and Shigeru for he's in India on that fake case.... or is he?! Above it shows that the scientist was telling Ayako about his plans for the powerful bomb and all were peaceful. One was to help create new energy sources for mankind and another was to use it's power for a Space Shuttle, saying that was many years ahead of it's time. Nakajima's plan to hide the plans which he put on microfilm will end up being a success, he put the tiny film into a locket and as it shows above wrapped it around Ayako's neck for safe keeping! That was a brilliant plan as who would suspect Ayako of having the plans for the HO Joe Bomb? No one would BUT also above you can see a woman listening to a bug that was planted in Dr. Nakajima's study, now she knows all about where the bomb plans are hidden. The woman is Yuri, a top spy for Skull Mask spy organization and also the sister of Tiger and has been impersonating as Nakajima's new housekeeper. **** As far as that microfilm goes it's actually not the plans for the HO Joe Bomb and that's the impression we viewers had. It's actually a map of where the plans are and discuss this better in the next post.
At the office were Juro's two trusted assistants, both are kind of daffy but when the chips are down think they can be counted on. The man's name is Gorohachi, the woman is Kaboko and the pair dashed off to the mansion of Nakajima. There the duo didn't see any floating skulls and did everyone have an hallucination at the same time? NO(!) for in the middle screenshot above arriving on the mansion's lawn was a group of the devilish Skull Mask members, still don't know why some wear those creepy masks and others don't... also don't know if some aren't human! Leading the gang was Tiger who always wears that handkerchief around his mouth, he told Dr. Nakajima he'll be taking his daughter and holding her as a hostage until he hands over the plans to the HO Joe Bomb! But check out the bottom two screenshots above, it took over twenty minutes of this 52 minute first film but finally the hero Gekko Kamen arrived on the scene! This is the final part of this first review post and there's also two screenshots below of the hero who had arrived with his guns blazing! The Skull Mask gang was shocked that Gekko Kamen had appeared, do they know that he and Juro Iwai are one and the same which is why his arrival stunned them?! I hope that second film reveals some more details about the characters though all in all it's not essential, what a fabulous watch this first half was. Right after Gekko Kamen arrived the Skull Members fled and Ayako was safe but only for a while, you can read about what happened to her in the next post. Doesn't it make it so much easier to read medium sized posts such as this one? I think so which is why a while back had cut movie reviews in half to make reading these posts a breeze but it does help that this wasn't a long movie.
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