A Trip to Kaiju Paradise!

With Tomoo Haraguchi and some of his incredible props.

On Wednesday, November 4, I was privileged to visit the kaiju bar owned and operated by Tomoo Haraguchi, the director of such tokusatsu movies as Mikadroid (1991), Sakuya: Slayer of Demons (2000), and Death Kappa (2010). Among many other credits, he was a modeler for all three Heisei Gamera movies, as well as Gamera the Brave (2006). 

Angilas' 1968 carapace. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I'd heard about the bar for years but never had a chance to visit until last night. A couple of weeks ago, I made my reservation directly with Haraguchi-san and brought my friend Jacob with me. It was amazing to see all the props on hand.

Haraguchi-san gave us full permission to photograph any items in the bar proper. The stuff on display would be enough to make it a tokusatsu museum in its own right. The original Jet Jaguar flying prop from Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), Angilas' carapace from Destroy All Monsters (1968), which was also used through Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), the English-language newspaper front page from War of the Gargantuas (1966), the photo of Akiko Wakabayashi from Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster (1964), a Return of Ultraman (1971-72) flying prop, and so much more.

In all, we spent about two and a half hours at his bar. Since the establishment is technically closed, Haraguchi-san made an exception and opened it just for us. As a result, the three of us spent the evening hanging out together. Now how's that for hospitality?

With a Return of Ultraman flying prop.

Haraguchi-san talked about a variety of subjects, revealing that he worked on the suits as an unpaid volunteer on Godzilla vs. Megalon when he was 12 years old. Of course, he did it just for fun, so money was of no concern to him at the time. His first paid gigs in the business were a bit later in the '70s. 

The Jet Jaguar flying prop from Godzilla vs. Megalon. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I was especially fascinated to learn that Haraguchi-san loves pretty much all the Showa-era Godzilla movies. I suppose, because his style seems so contemporary, I expected him to be more captivated by modern movies. Of course, he's also into Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen flicks, as well as movies with Rick Baker SFX. 

When it was all said and done, Haraguchi-san refused to be paid. We were both surprised and insisted we pay, but Haraguchi-san would not accept any money. He said it was fun, so no money was required. I can't tell you how grateful I felt, and I did my best to express that sentiment to Haraguchi-san. Suffice it to say, you just don't see that spirit very much anymore.

Many thanks to Haraguchi-san for the wonderful evening! Please enjoy the rest of the photos.

Dichard Nixon back again! The newspaper front page from War of the Gargantuas. Photo by Brett Homenick.

The story reads: "The fishermen fled in terror from the scene as if pursued by the devil." Hey, Gaira isn't the devil! Fake news! Photo by Brett Homenick.

A newspaper from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). Photo by Brett Homenick.

Akiko Wakabayashi from Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Toru Ibuki, a Toho Actor Who Appeared in Numerous Godzilla Movies, Passes Away at 86

Toru Ibuki in March 2019. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Toru Ibuki, a celebrated supporting actor who performed in many Toho movies of the 1960s and '70s, passed away on October 31, his daughter confirms. He was 86. A private funeral was held on November 4 for his family.

Toru Ibuki in January 2024. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Born on January 28, 1940, Mr. Ibuki’s acting career brought him to the attention of worldwide audiences via his roles in the Godzilla series. Most notably, Mr. Ibuki played the tall assassin in Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster (1964), the Xian World Education Corporation employee in Monster Zero (1965), Yata in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966), Ito in episode 5 of Ultra Q (1966), a Doctor Who henchman in King Kong Escapes (1967), Monsterland control center staff member Tetsuo Ise in Destroy All Monsters (1968), and Third Planet of the Black Hole alien Tsuda in Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975).

With Toru Ibuki in September 2016.

Under his given name, Chisato Daimaru, Mr. Ibuki would become representative director and president of FDR Friendear Inc., a company founded in April 1990 that promotes hydrogen water-related products. In fact, the company is recognized for being the first to sell such products in 1999.

With Toru Ibuki in February 2014.

I first met Mr. Ibuki in February 2014, during which time I was able to spend a couple of hours in his office, asking him questions about his life and career. Over the next two years, I would get to visit Mr. Ibuki on a fairly consistent basis.

With Toru Ibuki in January 2024.

After a while, those visits would become much more sporadic. I was fortunate to interview Mr. Ibuki on my birthday in 2019 and wouldn't see him again until January 2024 when he was hosting a beginning-of-the-year party for his company.

I was preparing to return to the U.S. at the time and had a sinking feeling I would never see him again after the party. I never would.

With Toru Ibuki at Korakuen Hall in July 2015.

In July 2015, Mr. Ibuki invited me to join him at Korakuen Hall to watch a boxing event. As I recall, Mr. Ibuki's company was sponsoring one of the boxers, Tatsuya Takahashi. When Mr. Takahashi won his main-event bout, I had the distinct privilege of entering the ring to pose for pictures with him and having my name announced to the audience. All that was arranged by Mr. Ibuki.

With Tatsuya Takahashi in Korakuen Hall.

In 2014, Cody Carpenter (the son of John Carpenter and Adrienne Barbeau) had recently left the company for which I was then working in Japan and was interested in trying his hand at becoming a professional interpreter. At the time, Mr. Ibuki was looking to pursue a possible business deal in Canada, as I recall, and needed a translator to accompany him on a business trip there.

With Toru Ibuki in May 2014.

I was acquainted with Cody at the time (he trained me for the job for which I'd recently been hired) and recommended him for the job. Cody ended up joining Mr. Ibuki and his staff to Canada for the trip. As a result, one of the composers for Halloween (2018) actually worked for Yata from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. 

Toru Ibuki in September 2016. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I've barely even touched on Mr. Ibuki's life story. For more details about his life, including the postwar hardships he endured, please follow this link for my interview about his incredible journey.

Toru Ibuki led an amazing life and was even more amazing as a human being. As he ascends to Heaven to begin his cosmic journey, I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to his family for their loss. He was truly one of a kind. 

Rest in peace, Mr. Ibuki.

'Godzilla Minus Zero' (2026)

Godzilla Minus Zero at Toho Cinemas Hibiya. Photo by Brett Homenick.

"Yeah, I'm really disappointed, Todd, but it also could have been a lot better." -- The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, WWF Royal Rumble 1995  

Spoilers ahead. Caveat lector. 

On Tuesday evening, November 3, I caught a screening of Godzilla Minus Zero (2026) at Toho Cinemas Hibiya. I didn't see it in IMAX; I saw it at Toho Cinemas' Premium Theater (screen 1), which is my preferred way to see a flick. The last movie I remember seeing in IMAX was Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), and the only thing I remember about the experience is thinking I didn't need to see it in IMAX. I don't get the hype for the format, I don't think movies look good that way, and I'd rather stick to what works. 

For all the effort director Takashi Yamazaki put into making this sequel bigger and louder, we end up with a product that is noticeably less than its predecessor. The movie leans much more into melodrama this time around. The actors are badly directed and resort to over-the-top hysterics to convey emotion. The sheer amount of shrieking and wailing by the principal cast wore me out in a hurry. 

I suppose, given how further removed from the end of the war this movie is from the previous one, and the fact that the earlier film ended on a triumphant note, Yamazaki was running out of "trauma" to mine for content and thus turned to cheap, daytime-soap-opera theatrics to recapture the (over-)praised tear-jerking histrionics of the original. It doesn't work. A little screaming goes a looooong way. As promised, the movie sure is loud, just not in the way anybody wanted it to be.

Then there is the American cast. Their performance is as amateurish as any by foreign actors in the entire Godzilla series. Given the Oscar-winning prestige of the first film, and the fact that Yamazaki and Toho are clearly aiming for an international market, it's absolutely baffling that the production cast these performers instead of ones who knew how to act. You'd think winning an Academy Award would lift the series out of its former "crooz miss-eye-uhl" silliness but evidently not. 

Weak acting choices aside, the movie often descends into absurdity with images of floating houses, people who are growing Godzilla parts, and ridiculous portrayals of gum-chewing G.I.s straight out of a '40s-era Republic B-picture. Those looking for a "serious" Godzilla film will have to keep looking, I'm afraid.

The opening scene is good. Ghidorah's attack on Matsumoto is impressive, but we never see anything that ambitious again. In fact, Ghidorah tuckers himself out pretty quickly and almost immediately goes into hibernation. I'm not sure introducing a sleepy monster to the proceedings is the best way to establish stakes and audience interest. Anyway, we get an unnecessary transformation scene as the creature goes from being just plain ol' Ghidorah to King Ghidorah ... and somehow becomes even less threatening.  

The climax takes place in, like, a city block of a decimated Ginza. I'm sure the folks who went into this flick with expectations of bigger and louder SFX scenes, if they're being honest with themselves, were gravely let down by the nothingness of the final battle. The scope is surprisingly narrow, it is badly paced and choreographed, and it is arguably the worst climactic kaiju battle since Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994).

Oh, I forgot about Godzilla. Yeah, the filmmakers did, too. I spent the last three years reading on social media about how the last movie is the best representation of the character and how Yamazaki can handle Godzilla better than any other filmmaker. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw just how bored with Godzilla the sequel is. (In fairness, I was pretty bored with this Godzilla, too.) Ghidorah, King or otherwise, is the real focal point of the story, and Godzilla is an afterthought, a buffoonish second banana who is dragged into the movie to give the audience a CG-animated monster fight.

It's a massive step down from the first film, and I can't begin to understand why Godzilla was built up so much in the first movie only to be met with a shrug in the second. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. I've already spent too much time thinking about this turkey, and I can't wait to move on to better things.

I read about the infamous Hiroshima scene prior to seeing Minus Zero, and, admittedly, I was pretty disgusted by the idea. There's very little I'm conceptually against portraying in a film, so long as it's handled tastefully and appropriately. Thus, the suggestion of depicting the horrors of an actual atomic bombing, which claimed the lives of thousands of civilians in an unspeakable holocaust, as shot-in-IMAX, don't-forget-to-buy-your-Godzilla-popcorn-bucket-at-the-concession-stand mass entertainment was, from my perspective, completely reprehensible and exploitative. 

I needn't have given a second thought about it. The sequence is a second-rate Oppenheimer (2023) rip-off by a filmmaker desperate for human suffering to milk. I thought it would be beneath contempt; in reality, it isn't worth mentioning. It doesn't even stand out all that much, as the flick is replete with other scenes scenes of dying hospital patients and New Yorkers who get their heads melted off. Instead of making a bold statement, it gets lost in the shuffle of faceless misery and agony in service of an action movie in which monsters can regenerate their limbs on demand. 

Some early influencer reviews compared Minus Zero, in terms of its quality as a sequel, to The Godfather Part II (1974). I mean, is there a Turkish Godfather Part II I'm not aware of? Has social-media brain rot evolved to a point where cliched buzzwords ripped from Letterboxd have totally supplanted reason? At this point, reading an interesting, thoughtful commentary on Minus Zero is about as easy as finding a David Cronenberg movie review that doesn't contain the phrase "body horror."

Hey, for the next one, wouldn't it be cool if Kayoco Ann Patterson won the presidency with lizard eyes and Godzilla spines? She could call herself the Commander-in-Chief of the Monsters! Man, they'd have to give that movie all the Oscars.

Seriously, though, send these characters to a mental health counselor and get them off movie screens. Enough already.

A Look at 'Godzilla Minus Zero' Ballyhoo in and around Hibiya!

A Godzilla poster in Hibiya Station. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Not much else to say: This blog post is a photo dump of the sights in and around Hibiya, taken on November 3, as Godzilla Minus Zero (2026) opens around the country. Enjoy!

Outside Hibiya Chanter. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Inside Hibiya Chanter. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Toho Cinemas Hibiya. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Yurakucho Mullion Building. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Yurakucho Mullion Building. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Toho Cinemas Hibiya. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Celebrating Godzilla's Birthday in a Big Way!

Hiroyasu Yamaura. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Tuesday, November 3, I was able to catch the great Hiroyasu Yamaura perform a one-man show. He wrote and narrated it himself with the help of some background music he played during select scenes. 

Hiroyasu Yamaura with a copy of Ultra Seven (1967-68). Photo by Brett Homenick. 

The story, titled Mohei and Osan, was a period piece that takes place in Kyoto and featured a scandalous romance involving a married woman. Yamaura-san's story was based on Five Women Who Loved Love by Ihara Saikaku.

Hiroyasu Yamaura with a booklet for Ultra Q (1966). Photo by Brett Homenick.

Yamaura-san was nervous about performing the one-man show, as he'd never done something like this before. Usually, his plays are performed by other actors. But he did a great job telling the story for a little more than an hour. If you can't try new things when you're 88 years old, when can you try them?

After the performance, Yamaura-san very kindly sat down with my friend Jacob and me, as we chatted about random topics, and Yamaura-san answered various questions. Although his memories are limited about the subject, he recalled working on Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) and even remembered being in California around the time of the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco.

Photo by Jacob Dow.

I pointed out that November 3 is Godzilla's birthday, so it was the perfect day for such a meeting. But the Ultra-series was represented, too, as I brought my Blu-rays of Ultra Q (1966) and Ultra Seven (1967-68) to get signed. It's simply amazing how much excellent tokusatsu Yamaura-san has written during his career. 

Yes, it was a fun chat. Photo by Jacob Dow.

When it was all said and done, we were the last ones in the building, except for the staff. Yamaura-san went above and beyond with his time, and I'm grateful for every moment of it. 

A wonderful moment. Photo by Jacob Dow.

I couldn't think of a better way of celebrating Godzilla's birthday. It was an afternoon very well spent. Thank you again very much, Yamaura-san!