Hope the 1C doesn't sound confusing, it could but will simplify it for you. For movie reviews do a pair of posts which means neither is too long and are easier to read, that's the case of this movie so the next post is part 1D. However there were two movies in these sets of reviews as the second, this movie, was a continuation of the first one. But have them all in order from 1A to 1D, if this is the third post you've read then all worked out well....
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 the first film we didn't see much of Gekko Kamen saving the world and even less of his alter ego Juro Iwai. The same applied to film #2 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....
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 movies 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'. The map Ayako is referring to is where her father hid the plans for the HO Joe Bomb.
???? 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(there were!), 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 always 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 and also to launch the first ever Space Shuttle. 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.
Takamura Sasaki as Dr. Akaboshi.... Yasushi Nagata as Dr. Tasaka
In the screenshot below Akaboshi is on the left, of course that means on the right is Tasaka! Both were in the first movie but didn't have much screentime nor were important to the story but that changed in this film so didn't add then in until now. Both have very sordid pasts and neither cleaned up their act though both became very respected scientists. Tasaka during WWII was a double spy and sold government secrets to the enemy(America) and will still do anything for a barrelful of Yen! Such as selling out his friend Dr. Nakajima to the dastardly Skull Mask for 50 million yen but you know how that turned out. Unknown to Tasaka an even more evil person was his colleague Akaboshi who was such an intelligent scientist with many creations. We learned towards the end of the second movie that the wicked Skull Mask was none other than Akaboshi!!!!
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 who was a capable henchman. When he wouldn't kill his sister for being arrested which is a no-no for the Skull Mask group Khan had stabbed him badly. However in the second movie Tiger did meet his demise from a different Skull Mask thug, Yuri had her revenge and did help Gekko Kamen take down the group though in the process she too was killed.
**** In this second movie we learned that Takamura Sasaki who played Dr. Akaboshi was also the evil Skull Mask! Akaboshi was such an intelligent and creative scientist, it never was explained why he chose a life of crime? Also never learned how Skull Mask could shoot those flames out of his mouth for he was a human and watching that was kind of cool.
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(edit: badly injured) 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.
That's it for the main characters and how many can there be for a 52 minute movie? Well, actually two movies of that length or 104 minutes in total. 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. Once again I took 98 screenshots for this film and used about five screenshots above which lowers the total for the actual review to 93 photos. So went up to the 48th 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.
Kept most of the above info from the first movie though some editing was needed, also added in two characters who we only saw briefly in the first film but became important to the story. They're a pair of associates for Dr. Nakajima who are also respected scientists, Akaboshi and Tasaka but as it turned out both were extremely evil! Both films were 52 minutes or about 102 in all as the final minute was a preview of the next film. 102 minutes is very common for the length of a movie so they could have made it one but the TV series was so popular at the time(1958) they cut it in half, the second film came out one week after the first. There shouldn't be much of a need to rehash what's taken place up until now, the above section does a good job with explaining the characters, plot and background of Gekko Kamen. If this is the third movie review you've read then all is well for you know what took place in the first movie, both were so terrific and as I said above would love to see the original 130 episode series that aired in 1958/59. But if it hasn't been available until now it probably won't be yet I've just obtained four of the six films this year so anything is possible. Just to keep your mind fresh will spend a minute or two discussing where we are in the movie(s) and in the next post will have my final grade which will be a high one!
The first screenshot right above shows a title of "Deadly Battle on Deep Sea" but don't think the translation was correct. The few sites which do have info about the film use the title of "Duel to the Death(in Dangerous Waters)" and that's what I will use though only need it for the post's title. In that first movie the respected scientist Dr. Nakajima had finally finished his dream project, the HO Joe Bomb, which the evil Skull Mask terrorist/spy group want for their own devilish purposes. Nakajima's goal was to use this powerful creation to find more energy sources for mankind and to help fuel the first ever Space Shuttle, plus more things which were all for the betterment of mankind. At least three attempts were made to steal the bomb's plans by Skull Mask, all were failures due to Gekko Kamen and Bomb could have been given a better name by Nakajima as when you hear that death and destruction immediately come to mind. The one copy of the HO Joe Bomb plans has been hidden safely away but there is a map showing where the hard copy plans are hidden, the map is what Skull Mask group is trying to obtain. Nakajima put the map into a locket which his daughter Ayako wears around her neck, because of that Skull Mask has attempted to kidnap her but failed both times. If you're reading this odds are close to 100% you already know all of what was said but if you took a break after reading the first movie's two reviews what's above has jogged your memory. This second movie is the same length as the first and we did learn a few new things which I added into the above bio section. There were also many unexpected twists in the plot and the story for the two films ended on a decent note. The above screenshots were from the first ninety seconds of this movie where a bit of what had taken place was explained and let's finally get to the second film's action, there was plenty of it.
Skull Mask is the name of both the terrorist group/spy ring and its leader. When I refer to the group will underline Skull Mask, when it's the leader I'm talking about will highlight the name in Red.
That first screenshot above is kind of cool and the first film ended on that note with diabolical Skull Mask shooting flames out of his mouth at Gekko Kamen who was chasing his group on his Honda motorcycle. It was never explained how Skull Mask shot flames, at first I thought it was because it was some sort of monster or alien but the leader of the Skull Mask is human and it's true identity will be revealed later on. Gekko Kamen had prevented the group from kidnapping Dr. Nakajima and also from hurting Juro's 'adopted' daughter Komoni who has no idea her 'father' Juro Iwai is this movie's Super Hero! Skull Mask and his thugs were able to escape from Gekko Kamen but the two sides will meet up a few more times in this movie. The esteemed Dr. Nakajima is now safe but while a hostage he did reveal to Skull Mask that he hid the map of where the plans for the HO Joe Bomb are hidden which are in a locket his daughter Ayako wears around her neck. After eluding Gekko Kamen the Skull Mask group sped to Dr. Nakajima's mansion, alone there was Ayako and the thugs snatched the locket from her neck. The map looked like one that a seven year would create but Skull Mask was satisfied and now the group's aim is to head there but first there will be several obstacles.... the main one being do they have the correct map???? NO for a little later arriving at the house was Gekko Kamen's alter ego Juro Iwai, he eased the worried minds of Dr. Nakajima and Ayako by telling them he had switched the real map with a fake one(when and how?)! Juro returned the correct map and put it back in the locket as he felt Skull Mask wouldn't check there again. But of course that trick was soon figured out by the Skull Mask group, at least four attempts have now been made to steal the map and/or bomb plans which have all been failures and their leader is getting more than irate with the lack of success.
Towards the end of the first film the top spy of Skull Mask had been arrested, her name is Yuri and had found out about the map for she was impersonating as Nakajima's new housekeeper. When a Skull Mask member has been arrested their penalty is Death, Yuri's brother Tiger was sent to do the deed but couldn't kill his own sister. Will get back to Tiger very soon, at the police station Yuri was being questioned for the second time by Inspector Matsuda and Iwai. Yuri had thought the assassin Khan of Skull Mask had killed her brother Tiger and had told Juro of the group's secret HQ for to avenge his death. To keep her from revealing more secrets Skull Mask had sent a package to the police station for Yuri and of course that would look very suspicious. It did to Juro and in the seventh screenshot above he had thrown the package into the empty backyard of the police station, it exploded for it was a time bomb! Juro notified his Detective Agency assistants Kaboko(woman) and Gorohachi of what happened, the pair were at the local hospital and now needed to be ultra alert! For in this scene it was revealed that the top henchman of Skull Mask Tiger was alive and had only been wounded when Khan had thrown a knife at him! Up until now I had thought Tiger had been killed, so didn't his sister Yuri who soon arrived with Juro and we see more of Juro than we do of his alter ego Gekko Kamen. When Tiger heard of that time bomb sent to Yuri he told her the pair should tell Juro and inspector Matsuda all they know about the evil Skull Mask organization. Yuri had revealed the location of their secret HQ when she thought Tiger was killed but to Juro it felt Yuri still had a connection to them even though Skull Mask and his group tried to rub her out. Before things went any further the situation went from calm to a catastrophe which are the first five screenshots below.
As Tiger was about to reveal the true identity of Skull Mask a shot was fired from the room's window that faced the hallway.... will add in how did Tiger know who Skull Mask really was?! That shot was a direct hit, this time there was no doubt that Tiger was dead and the shooter from the Skull Mask group fled. But hard in pursuit was Juro Iwai, the chase went up about four flights of stairs to the hospital's roof. There a mini gunfight did take place, Juro/Gekko Kamen never aims to kill a person but to knock the gun out of their hands or to put such fear into the other shooter that they drop their weapon. This unnamed Skull Mask shooter soon ran out of ammo and was cornered on the roof of the hospital. But as mentioned the penalty for when a Skull Mask member gets arrested is Death, instead of waiting for a comrade to do a killing like this man just did to Tiger he threw himself off the roof! Juro dashed over and saw the dead body lying on the ground about ten floors down. Juro zoomed down to where the man was but somehow within a minute or so the body had been dragged away and Juro was baffled to no end! Arriving at that location were his two agency assistants Kaboko and Gorohachi with two bits of bad news, Tiger was officially dead and his sister Yuri had flown the coop! So after all that's taken place in the first 52 minute movie and the first fifteen minutes of this film seems we're right back at the beginning, the Skull Mask group still haven't been able to obtain Dr. Nakajima's HO Joe Bomb plans but sooner or later an attempt will surely pay off. After the tragic incidents at the hospital Juro did visit Nakajima at his mansion, the scientist was feeling so guilty with how many deaths his supposedly peaceful creation has caused and now wishes he had never invented it.
Juro tried to cheer his friend up but that didn't work out so well, all knew it was just a matter of time until Skull Mask struck again. The following morning Nakajima was visited by his two respected assistants from the Space Science Research Center, first time the name of the lab was told to us viewers. The man above in glasses is Dr. Tasaka, the other is Dr. Akaboshi and neither had much screentime in the first movie but both became such important characters in this second film. Both scientists had helped Dr. Nakajima so much with his HO Joe Bomb project and were of course worried about their mate but as it turned out.... both gave a new meaning to the word EVIL!!!!👹 Also at this impromptu session was Juro and think he's become the unofficial bodyguard to Nakajima and his daughter Ayako. Dr. Tasaka had a very brilliant suggestion which got the A-OK from Juro, the plan would be to hide Nakajima and Ayako in a secret location until the Skull Mask group was destroyed. Juro would also give the newspapers a false story on how the esteemed scientist Nakajima had gone missing to discourage Skull Mask from continuing their search for the scientist and this plan just may work. The secret hiding spot would be Tasaka's Summer vacation house on Cape Kabuto, no one else is aware that he owns it and that is a fictional location. In a very slight spoiler Tasaka did end up betraying Nakajima but at this point he wanted to keep his friend safe and did try to make amends at the end of the movie to no avail. Heading to Tasaka's vacation house would be Nakajima, his daughter Ayako, Juro and for now only one policeman, the fewer who know of the plan the better. However someone had to know of the plan for at the airport waiting for Juro and company were a gang of Skull Mask thugs, they quickly subdued the policeman and and hijacked the plane with Nakajima and Ayako onboard! Juro allowed a goon to beat him a bit so it would appear he was out of action, Juro's successful plan was to buy time to slither away and turn into his semi-Super Hero alter ego!
One more scene for this first review post and what a revealing one it was. The bottom six screenshots above are from it and so aren't the first four below. At the Space Science Research Center Nakajima was of course absent and his fake disappearance had already been reported to the newspapers. But at the center was Tasaka and he was told a guest was waiting for him in the conference room. When Tasaka entered the room of all people who should be there but.... Skull Mask!!!! This fiend wants the secret location of where Nakajima is hiding or else(!) but Tasaka wouldn't utter a word, at this point we still thought the scientist was an upstanding man. However he's one that would sell his soul for even one Yen as Skull Mask knew many horrific secrets about Tasaka, the main one being how he sold secret government plans to the enemy in WWII. Skull Mask knew the details well so Tasaka couldn't deny it, right then a call came through to the scientist saying Nakajima had reached Cape Kabuto safely. Tasaka's only allegiance is to the all mighty YEN and he told Skull Mask he would reveal the location of Nakajima for.... 50 Million Yen!!!! Skull Mask did accept that offer, the time was still morning and Tasaka said he would deliver Nakajima that evening at 8:00 pm to the Skull Mask group. The meeting ended on that note and Tasaka headed to his Summer house, Skull Mask still didn't fully trust Tasaka so had Khan(top screenshot below) follow Tasaka. That tail was a bomb as though Gekko Kamen didn't yet know about Tasaka's secret deal with Skull Mask he knew Tasaka would be followed to Cape Kabuto. As mentioned the top Skull Mask assassin Khan was assigned that task but Gekko Kamen cut the thug off which allowed Tasaka to reach his house. There Nakajima and Ayako were both safe, that event brings us to the end of part one of this second movie's review. That happy ending wouldn't last much longer as the next part is so action packed, the tide kept switching between Good and Evil but in the end run you know who will prevail....
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