Hope the 1B 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 of 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.
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 and even less 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? No, for a while did think so but it appears no person knows the that Gekko Kamen and Juro are the same person!
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 usually refer to the hero.
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 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 reading 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.
Have been taking my time writing these up, didn't set a date for any movie reviews to be published and I'm in no hurry. There were only a few changes to anything above as this is part two of the same movie and one I truly enjoyed. Haven't viewed the second movie which continues on from this post's ending and how I hope it's close to being as terrific! For this movie was one of the most enjoyable ones I have viewed in a while and would give this first movie a rating of 9.4/10, that's high for me so you know it's a darn good one! That first screenshot above is how part one ended, the Skull Mask spy ring had failed in their attempt to locate the plans for Dr. Nakajima's HO Joe Bomb. When the group tried kidnapping his daughter Ayako to use her as a ransom the movie's hero Gekko Kamen arrived to thwart their plans, that's all explained better in the above post.
The other two screenshot are from later on in the movie and just thought it would be better to point them out in the intro. In the bottom screenshot Gekko Kamen had found the map to where Nakajima's HO Joe Bomb was hidden and was fleeing from the devilish Skull Mask group. I found it amusing that a Super Hero would have to run but then again Gekko Kamen aka Juro Iwa doesn't have any super powers. The middle screenshot shows the evil group's leader Skull Mask firing flames from his mouth! It didn't look too real but things like that add a certain something to an old movie and you have to remember this movie was made 67 years ago so the special effects department had to be very ingenious. Let's get to past two of what took place in this superb movie, hope you read the above recap as most of what happened wouldn't make sense. The movie was only 52 minutes long and took 98 screenshots, stopped at 47 for the first review and hope that means this one won't be much longer. **** Will refer to the HO Joe Bomb often and wonder if it was named incorrectly by Dr. Nakajima? While this creation can explode like a regular bomb the scientist made it for the betterment of mankind such as to create new energy sources and to power a Space Shuttle which was a new term back then.
The evil organization Skull Mask is named after it's leader who has the same name. So when I refer to the man Skull Mask will highlight his name in red, if it's the group will underline the name.
Juro Iwai's assistants Kaboko and Gorohachi just happened to stop in for a quick meal though never did have one. For a few tables away they noticed Khan with a group of people, the pair went over to find out if he had heard any news of the case Juro was working on in India. A fake case that is for Juro had been asked to solve a case in New Delhi for Khan to keep him out of the way which would make stealing the plans/map for the HO Joe Bomb so much easier for the Skull Mask organization. That didn't work as Juro aka Gekko Kamen did save the day to end off part one of this first movie, writing that just made me 100% positive that the Skull Mask group doesn't realize Juro Iwai and Gekko Kamen are the same person. When a movie is 52 minutes in length the events fly right by and at times certain details are left out but then again wondered did my brain go elsewhere for about twenty seconds at this point of the film? Dr. Nakajima along with his top aide Akaboshi were transporting the hard copy plans for the HO Joe Bomb to a different location, they were traveling by car but the policeman with them was a disguised Tiger who was one of Skull Mask's top henchmen. But unknown to him or the two scientists driving the car was Juro Iwai aka Gekko Kamen, he never turned around so no one knew he was driving. Juro had contacted his goofy yet dependable assistant Gorohachi earlier to follow the car and that's him above riding a moped. The car with Juro, Tiger, Nakajima and Akaboshi was stopped by the Skull Mask group who demanded Nakajima hand over his plans for the HO Joe Bomb, of course he refused. That was the only time in the two films Nakajima had the actual plans with him and soon they'll have a new hiding place. Arriving on the scene were the police but it seemed they weren't much of a match for the Skull Mask thugs however someone else also arrived at that moment. Who was Gorohachi, as he flew by the car his boss Juro handed him the briefcase with the bomb's plans and Gorohachi zoomed away!!!!
That was a bit of an exciting scene, it doesn't matter if it's a drama or movie review as the second paragraph was once again the longest of a post! Quickly the Skull Mask troops jumped into their cars to chase Goromachi, the leader Skull Mask was with them and don't think he leaves his HQ too often. But a Moped can only go so fast plus aren't so reliable, soon Goromachi had been forced off the road and fled through a field carrying the bag with the HO Joe Bomb plans. Goromachi had yelled a few times to his boss Juro aka Gekko Kamen to catch the bag with the bomb plans, Juro had appeared with many Skull Mask goons. The pair tossed the bag back and forth a few times and the Skull Mask group could never quite jump high enough to snatch the bag. But eventually the bag was grabbed by this devilish group who leapt into their getaway car to flee and this was the most intense scene of the movie. Soon Juro changed into his Gekko Kamen uniform and went blazing after the thugs on his Honda motorcycle and jumped into their car while it was moving! That's above and there's also a screenshot of Gekko Kamen soaring over a destroyed bridge ala Evel Knievel! Gekko Kamen was able to snatch the plans back from this evil group but was no longer on his motorcycle. After being chased on foot by the Skull Mask group Gekko Kamen was trapped on a bridge but passing below was a train, he threw the bag on the top of a car and was able to flee!
A few seconds later somehow our hero reappeared out of nowhere piloting a helicopter(!), using a rope Gekko Kamen grabbed the bag and finally left these thugs in the dust! But will give the Skull Mask spy/terrorist group some credit for never quitting, their next plan which worked was to kidnap Dr. Nakajima. The kidnapping part worked but not of the famed scientist revealing where the map revealing the bomb's plans is hidden, that map is in his daughter Ayako's locket. Part two of this new plan soon went into effect for the Skull Mask organization as now it was Ayako's turn to be taken as a hostage but for a second time that plan was a dud! The new housekeeper at the Nakajima mansion was Yuri and did explain how she was actually a spy for Skull Mask. Perhaps their best spy and she told Ayako a wild story of how her father was in an accident, Yuri had a car waiting to take her to the hospital. BUT once again arriving in the nick of time was Juro Iwai who prevented that kidnapping, Juro is a very competent private investigator and right now wondered how did him becoming Gekko Kamen happen? Juro told Ayako the facts about Yuri being a top spy for Skull Mask and had been working at the mansion to steal or get info about the HO Joe Bomb. Juro also knew of Yuri setting bugs in Dr. Nakajima's study, he had brought the police with him and Yuri was dragged away but we'll be seeing her again very soon. Above you can see that Ayako revealed to Juro that inside the locket weren't the HO Joe Bomb plans but a map to it's hidden location, I didn't realize that until then nor did Juro I'm thinking.
**** I also thought Tiger was dead but in the second movie he's still alive though the next attempt on his life did prove to be fatal! In the fourth screenshot above are the two orphans, Konomi and Shigeru, that were 'adopted' by Juro, they weren't in the same car as him but did witness Khan throwing that knife at Tiger. Khan had noticed the pair had seen everything and chased them to that Orion restaurant mentioned earlier. During that incident with Tiger his sister Yuri had escaped undetected but there were more important matters for the police and Gekko Kamen to attend to, she'll reappear n the next film. In that earlier scene didn't talk about a quartet of children playing instruments and they were called Peanuts, to hide from Khan Konomi and Shigeru tried to blend in with the group. They did sound quite good and that was a fun scene though not for Konomi who was spotted by Khan. She was grabbed by the goon and taken back to the Skull Mask HQ, there wasn't a thing her semi-brother Shigeru could have done.
The group was named after their leader Skull Mask and I'm still not certain if he's a human or some sort of monster. Whatever the creature is he's fed up with all of these failures in obtaining the HO Joe Bomb and enough is enough, if Dr. Nakajima won't reveal where the bomb plans are he'll drop Komoni into a vat of fiery flames! What made this so interesting was that the flames were lit by fire coming out of Skull Mask's mouth and it's when I wondered is he human? You can see Komoni tangling above, Nakajima did know she's Juro's adopted daughter so agreed to spill the beans and revealed that the map to the bomb's location is in Ayako's locket! But once again in the nick of time with only two minutes to go in the film Gekko Kamen arrived to save the day, the second screenshot down. There was a brief shootout which allowed Komoni and Nakajima to escape, they went out one door where the police were waiting. Out the other door went the dozen or so Skull Mask goons along with their leader, Gekko Kamen gave chase in his souped up(?) Honda motorcycle. Once again the Skull Mask creature used his flames as a weapon to ward off Gekko Kamen, that's in the sixth screenshot below which is how movie #1 ended. It was easy to see the motorcycle and rider weren't real but I enjoy those kinds of oddities. So that ends this review and as mentioned this was such a fun and exciting movie, one that I gave a rating of 9.4/10 and it may deserve higher! The next two posts are for the second film which finishes off this story and I am looking forward to it as I haven't viewed it yet as not to spoil things for myself. EDIT: Have viewed that film and did find out some details I was a bit fuzzy with or that were completely wrong. So did fix up this post a bit and will make the other changes in the two following posts.
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