Tokusatsu Tonight with a Pair of Awesome Guests!

Eiichi Asada (left) and Satoshi Narumi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On the evening of Saturday, May 13, I went to an event with former Toho SFX director Eiichi Asada and tokusatsu technician Satoshi Narumi, a gentleman I would meet for the very first time. It was following a screening of Reiko, the Psyche Resurrected (1991).

In between Eiichi Asada and Satoshi Narumi.

As you'd expect, it was another fun evening, although the crowd this time was quite small. During the discussion, someone mentioned how popular Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) was in the U.S., which made the guests wonder why that was. I explained the film's dubious copyright situation, which allowed a bevy of public domain VHS tapes flood the market from at least the mid-1980s through the mid-'90s. 

The shooting script for Reiko. Photo by Brett Homenick.

During the course of the evening, I asked Narumi-san about Tokyo Blackout (1987), a somewhat obscure tokusatsu production he worked on. Narumi-san said he said he worked on it for three months, making many clouds. It was quite interesting to hear about this film directly from a person who worked on it.

Satoshi Narumi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

The evening's crowd started off small, but it got even smaller as the night wore on. By the end, it was just the guests, myself, and another attendee. Shortly thereafter, the event came to an end, and it was time to go home. 

The guests left a bit ahead of me, but, as luck would have it, I soon caught up with them. The conversation continued on to the train station. At the station, I asked Narumi-san about his first projects.

Eiichi Asada. Photo by Brett Homenick.

He told me that his debut work was Himitsu Sentai Goranger (1975-77), after which he worked on numerous Toei tokusatsu shows. He also said his first Toho movie was The Phoenix (1978), directed by Kon Ichikawa. I was a bit surprised to hear it, as it contradicted some English-language information I found online about his career. But I'm glad to have the correct information!

We changed trains after the next stop and went our separate ways. It was great to meet Narumi-san, who was most certainly a nice guy. Asada-san, as always, was a true gentleman. Another one for the history books!