Director Motoyoshi Oda (left) and SFX director Eiji Tsuburaya (center) on the set of Toho's The Invisible Man (1954). The Invisible Man © 1954, Toho Co., Ltd.
In the wake of Yoshimitsu Banno's passing, I was having a discussion with some Godzilla fans in the U.S., and the subject of Motoyoshi Oda came up. It turns out that photographs of the Godzilla Raids Again (1955) and The Invisible Man (1954) director are pretty hard to come by. In fact, one fan-generated collage of Godzilla directors that was circulated a couple of years ago presented Oda as a literal shadow.
Motoyoshi Oda (far right) confers with his cast on the set of The Invisible Man. The Invisible Man © 1954, Toho Co., Ltd.
After the discussion, I decided to dig around and try to find any photos I might have of Motoyoshi Oda. One source in my collection had two pictures (from the set of The Invisible Man), and in order to put a face with the name at long last, I'm sharing the photographs here.
Thank you so very much for posting these photos Brett! I don't think I have ever seen pictures of Motoyoshi Oda, but I was always curious to see what he looked like. He is easily the Godzilla film director we know the least about, especially here in the USA. I have the Toho DVDs of Oda's Ghost Man and Invisible Man, and found them both to be good films despite the language barrier. I wonder if any printed interviews with him exist even in Japan? Thanks again Brett for these very interesting photos!
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