A Whirlwind Trip Across the Country to Meet the Star of an Obscure Sci-Fi Film!

Atsuko Rome on September 23. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Two days ago, I did something pretty rare for me. I hopped on a plane and flew across the country. But I had a very good reason for doing so. I wanted to meet Atsuko Rome in person, whom I interviewed in 2018 about her role in the cult classic Body of the Prey (a.k.a. The Revenge of Dr. X), a film shot in Japan in the 1960s, about which there are still many unanswered questions. 

While it's unlikely we'll ever know all the details behind the making of this fascinating film, it's available for free to watch on YouTube or any number of public-domain DVD releases, and, if you're interested in Japanese sci-fi ephemera, it's well worth a watch.

As much as I enjoy speaking with Atsuko on the phone, I'm a firm believer that there is no substitute for face-to-face interaction. It's long been my goal to meet Atsuko in person, but it's proven frustratingly difficult. Naturally, when I was in Japan, there was a built-in obstacle to any potential meeting, but, even after I returned to the States, those roadblocks remained.

Atsuko was thinking about visiting Japan this fall for her brother's 100th birthday, but she ultimately decided against going, due to some health concerns. A few months ago, I was toying with the idea of traveling to Japan myself during that time and visiting Atsuko there, but that no longer became an option after she decided against the trip.

I remember looking up plane ticket costs around November of last year on one of those alleged "discount" websites that have been around for years, and a plane ticket to Atsuko's nearest airport on the site was in excess pf $800. (So much for the promised discount!) I essentially gave up hope for finding reasonable plane fare after that experience and more or less put the idea of visiting Atsuko on ice indefinitely.

Luckily, I was able to find affordable plane fare thanks to a well-timed tip, so I ended up spending less than $300 on roundtrip airfare. (A big savings compared to what I might have spent almost a year ago!) All that was left was to coordinate my visit with Atsuko directly, and I'd be on my way.

As I wrote a few paragraphs back, Atsuko and I have stayed in touch since we did our interview seven years ago. (Yikes! Has it really been that long?!) One of my most memorable conversations with her happened when I was still living in Tokyo, and I took the opportunity to vent to her about my downstairs neighbor who would often play pop music on a loop or talk loudly at, like, 6:00 in the morning. She gave me advice about how to handle the situation, which, despite all the headaches it caused me at the time, at least I can now look back on it in amusement.

Atsuko Rome at a nearby restaurant. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Tuesday, September 24, I got up at 2:30 a.m. (after pretty much not even sleeping a wink) to board the plane from my home to Atsuko's. I arrived at her house in the afternoon, and we spent hours in her kitchen, chatting about various topics. Interestingly, the topic of Body of the Prey didn't come up very much, but, seeing as how I brought some DVDs of the movie for her to sign, I was hoping we'd be able to watch it. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a DVD player, so that got ruled out pretty quickly. 

Atsuko is a big fan of Jme TV, a streaming service for Japanese programs that serves North America. She had Jme TV on in the background for much of my stay, as we watched some Australian "model" try out sumo wrestling. (I always forget how random Japanese TV can get.)

During this time, I asked Atsuko to sign my DVDs for her movie, as well as to pose for pictures holding them. I bought the standalone DVDs seen in this blog post last year specifically for her to sign, so I was very pleased to get her autograph on them. 

After hanging out for a while, I drove Atsuko to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I had a hamburger (of course!), while Atsuko had a creamy crab concoction (that I was told was very hot!). Atsuko graciously paid for dinner, and, when we had our fill, I drove us back to the house. 

Atsuko Rome on September 23. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Atsuko wanted to give me a shiatsu massage (!), so I agreed to it. When she worked on my shoulders, it was weirdly ticklish (I mean, not exactly, but that's the best way I can describe it), but it was much more comfortable when she worked on my head. I didn't think the female star of Body of the Prey would ever give me a massage!

By this time, the lack of sleep was really starting to catch up with me, so I turned in for the night. I browsed my phone for a while before turning in for the night, but what I didn't expect was to sleep in so late. If I recall correctly, it was almost noon (!) when I woke up. (I guess that's what missing an entire night's sleep will do to your body.) 

That meant I'd have to go leave for the airport in about two hours. So there wasn't much we could do on the second day. Thankfully, I'm not much of a sightseer and had no interest in going here and there. I just wanted the opportunity to speak with Atsuko in person. We chatted a bit more before my Uber arrived to take me back to the airport. We took a few more photos before I left, and then we hugged. We talked about the possibility of meeting again, and I hope we can do it. I know I'm up for it!

I really want to thank Atsuko for her hospitality. I enjoyed spending some quality time with her, as well as spending the night at her house. It was an unexpected delight that can be traced back directly to my discovering Body of the Prey on the Chilling Classics Mill Creek 50-DVD set in the fall of 2005. Who would have guessed it would eventually lead to these lovely two days?

New Q&A on Vantage Point Interviews with a Showa-Era Superstar!

Kaoru Yumi in March 2023. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Vantage Point Interviews is proud to present my interview with the legendary actress Kaoru Yumi, star of such Toho tokusatsu epics as The Last Days of Planet Earth (a.k.a. Prophecies of Nostradamus, 1974) and Espy (1974), as well as the Submersion of Japan (1974-75) TV show. The interview was conducted during two separate sessions in March 2023 and November 2023, and it covers a variety of topics regarding Ms. Yumi's career. Some photos from those sessions, which have never been published until now, are also contained within this blog post. Enjoy!

Kaoru Yumi in November 2023. Photo by Brett Homenick.

DEEP DIVE: What's in a Name When You're Daimajin?

Riki Hashimoto in November 2015. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Riki Hashimoto was an actor with an incredible resume. He did everything from battling Bruce Lee in The Chinese Connection (a.k.a. Fist of Fury, 1972) to menacing Boy Scouts on a spaceship as a Virian alien in Destroy All Planets (a.k.a. Gamera vs. Viras, 1968). However, most Japanese cinema connoisseurs would argue that Mr. Hashimoto's greatest contribution to the silver screen was his iconic portrayal of Daimajin in all three 1966 films from Daiei.

In the wake of Mr. Hashimoto's 2017 passing, however, I began to notice a strange trend. Just about every English-language website began referring to the actor as Chikara Hashimoto, even going so far as to assert that Riki was a mistranslation of the actor's given name. To illustrate, let's take a look at the most glaring example.

As of the date of this blog post, Wikipedia states:

Chikara Hashimoto . . . also erroneously called Riki Hashimoto . . . was a Japanese professional baseball player and actor.

If I recall correctly, Wikizilla's intro for the actor at one time similarly called Riki an erroneous name, but that has since been corrected. The Wikizilla entry, as of this writing, asserts that the actor is "also known as" Riki Hashimoto.

I'm not exactly sure who or what the original source for the confusion was, but I do remember that Japanese Wikipedia's hiragana rendering of the actor's name was "Chikara." I'm not aware of any other sources, but naturally there could be others.

I toyed with the notion of setting the record straight about Riki Hashimoto's name several years ago but ultimately shelved the idea. That was primarily due to the fact that, most times I've tried to correct the record on certain details, I'm usually met with a shrug or a blank stare. 

Riki Hashimoto in December 2016. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I still vividly recall all my efforts to make folks in the West aware of the fact that Toho SFX director Teruyoshi Nakano's birthday actually fell on October 9, not October 1, as it was regularly reported on social media (and Wikipedia) at the time.

Every October 1, my timeline would be flooded with well wishes and congratulations to Mr. Nakano on his birthday when in reality it was more than a week away. (I mean, I ought to know -- I went to his birthday celebrations regularly for almost 10 years!) But it just endlessly kept going on like that until I finally threw up my hands and walked away.

I hadn't thought about the Riki/Chikara issue in the last few years until reading (what else?) social media in recent days and seeing the actor referred to as Chikara again by a user who seems to take pride in his level of tokusatsu prowess. In fairness, the guy didn't say anything truly objectionable, like that Riki is an erroneous name or whatever, but it did remind me of the topic, and I figured I'd finally throw my two cents in. 

Before we get to that, though, as an aside, I have no idea what's so hard about this particular actor's name, but this isn't the first time it's been wildly misinterpreted. The editor of an Asian-oriented fan- and (later) semi-pro-zine suddenly got it in his head that the actor's last name was really "Hoshimoto," a name I must confess I've never heard in all the years I was in Japan.

I can't say for sure these days because it's been too long, but I believe this oddball falsity made it into the Destroy All Planets commentary a trio of us recorded in 2007 for Retromedia. It's quite fascinating how much the people you would assume "know everything" about the genre get wrong about their supposed area of expertise.

Enough detours. Back to the issue at hand.

From 2015 until his passing two years later, Mr. Hashimoto was represented by the talent agency below. You can see the agency's hiragana breakdown of their client's name. For those of you less versed in hiragana, it spells out "Riki." The name Chikara appears nowhere on the page.

Additionally, when I was preparing my original blog post, I reached out to Mr. Hara, who coordinated several of Mr. Hashimoto's appearances at events in Japan. I asked Mr. Hara to weigh in on the question of the actor's name. On June 14, 2021, Mr. Hara confirmed in writing that Riki was his real name and that Chikara was a stage name. 

Of course, sometimes professionals prefer to be called by their stage names when it comes to their work or career. That was certainly the case with composer Chumei Watanabe (whose real given name was Michiaki), and it continues to be true of Ultraman suit actor Bin Furuya (real name: Satoshi). So I'll add that, in my anecdotal experience, people called him Riki, not Chikara, when I was around him or others who knew him.

Time for a fun Daimajin tidbit. In April 2015, I met Mr. Hashimoto for the first time with a small group of others at a restaurant. Mr. Hashimoto asked the gathered crowd if they knew which famous international figure was the inspiration for Daimajin's distinguished chin.

No one in our group had any idea, but, if we're talking about an international figure with a notable chin, I reasoned it must be Kirk Douglas. Mr. Hashimoto was surprised by my answer and confirmed that Daimajin's chin was indeed based on that of Kirk Douglas. He then proceeded to give me a round of applause, which naturally was pretty incredible.

I was lucky that I had just watched WrestleMania VI (1990) the year prior to that meeting. In the intro to the show, color commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura compared himself to various Hollywood celebrities, bragging among other traits that he was endowed with Kirk Douglas' chin.

Honestly, I had never given much thought to Kirk Douglas' chin before rewatching that WrestleMania, but I remember doing a Google search shortly thereafter and finally noticing his trademark cleft. (I guess that's what you get when you watch all his movies in standard definition.) Little did I know that that piece of trivia would come in so handy just a year later.

DEEP DIVE: What Japanese Godzilla Movie Did Yoshimitsu Banno Work on After 'Smog Monster'?

Yoshimitsu Banno in April 2013. Photo by Brett Homenick.

By now, you've likely heard the old yarn about how producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was furious at director Yoshimitsu Banno after seeing Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1971) for the first time and angrily declared that the filmmaker had "ruined Godzilla." Of course, this apocryphal account has been debunked elsewhere on this blog, but it's a claim so blatantly false that it can be debunked even further. 

When Tomoyuki Tanaka was planning to relaunch the Godzilla series in the years following the disappointing box-office returns of Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), three science-fiction authors were tapped to develop stories for the proposed film: Yoshio Aramaki, Taku Mayumura, and Ryu Mitsuse. Nowadays, these names have been included in other articles about the making of the production that would eventually become The Return of Godzilla (a.k.a. Godzilla 1985, 1984). 

With Yoshimitsu Banno in April 2013.

Usually, these write-ups point to Tomoyuki Tanaka as the one who selected the writers to pen possible Godzilla scenarios, but this seems not to be the case. So, if it wasn't producer Tanaka, then who was it?

According to the man himself, it was Yoshimitsu Banno. In 1978, Banno became head of the planning department of Toho Eizo Co., Ltd., and it was in this capacity that Banno selected the aforementioned SF authors to submit their stories. According to Banno, Tanaka rejected their treatments for budgetary reasons. 

Hiring three science-fiction writers to develop a major, SFX-laden motion picture for Toho had worked well in the past. This formula ultimately led to the creation of Mothra (1961) after science-fiction authors Shinichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta were hired by Tanaka to flesh out the story for that production. Unfortunately, in the case of The Return of Godzilla, the formula didn't produce the same results.

The information contained in this blog post comes from a conversation the author had with Mr. Banno on April 2, 2013, supported by contemporaneous notes. 

An Evening in L.A. with a Distinguished Gentleman!

Derek Partridge. Photo by Brett Homenick.

After attending the Hollywood Show, I had an appointment to meet with actor and television presenter Derek Partridge, whom I mostly know from his role as Aubrey Range in the Rankin/Bass production of The Ivory Ape (1980), directed by Tsugunobu "Tom" Kotani. Mr. Partridge also appears in the James Bond thriller Thunderball (1965) in an uncredited role as the Vulcan navigator, the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren" (1968) as Dionyd (this is the famous episode in which William Shatner kisses Nichelle Nichols), and Star Wars Rebels (2014-18) as the voice of Commander Brom Titus. 

With Derek Partridge.

We met in downtown Pasadena, which I had no idea was an area where parking was so scarce. It didn't help that there was some kind of major event going on, which made finding parking that much more difficult. Luckily, I eventually found a parking garage, so our long national nightmare finally came to an end, but I certainly wasn't expecting that level of difficulty.

Our first idea was to eat at a nearby Cheesecake Factory, but the wait was simply too long, so we took our business elsewhere. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant across the street and enjoyed the fare on offer. We talked about my life in Japan, while I asked Mr. Partridge about his life in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia in the 1970s, which he loved.

I asked Mr. Partridge about working with Tom Kotani on The Ivory Ape, but he didn't remember anything that he hadn't already shared in the interview linked above. Still, it was a great evening with Mr. Partridge, and I'm grateful we were finally able to meet years after the interview. I hope we can meet again soon in the future.

Fall Comes to the Hollywood Show!

With Barbara Wilson.

Saturday, September 6, saw my return to the Hollywood Show in Burbank. There were several guests I was very interested in meeting, and I didn't know exactly which ones I'd meet until I actually got there. (A lot depended on whether there were long lines, how much they were charging, etc.) I ultimately settled on four guests, and I enjoyed meeting each of them.

The first guest I met was Barbara Wilson, a veteran of 1950s and '60s horror and sci-fi films. Her credits include: Captain Fathom (1955) as Carol Barclay, The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957) as Anna Sherman, Roger Corman's Teenage Doll (1957) as Betty Herne, Blood of Dracula (1957) as Linda, Lost, Lonely and Vicious (1958) as Helen Preacher, Terror in the Midnight Sun (a.k.a. Invasion of the Animal People, 1959) as Diane Wilson, and The Flesh Eaters (1964) as Ann. 

I asked Ms. Wilson what she remembered about working with director Jack Curtis on The Flesh Eaters, in which she plays the movie's first victim of the titular creatures, but it turns out that she likely didn't work on the film at all! She has no recollection of appearing in the film, though the actress in the movie is unmistakably her. Her assistant explained that they suspect the filmmakers got their hands on some unused stock footage of Ms. Wilson and spliced it into The Flesh Eaters, which was much easier to do back in the day.

The assistant also pointed out that you can clearly see that they used a body double in a certain scene, which lends even more credence to the idea that Ms. Wilson wasn't directly involved. It was certainly fascinating to hear, but, since I haven't seen The Flesh Eaters since around 2006, I'd have to watch the film again to see for myself. I ended up selecting a still from Blood of Dracula for Ms. Wilson to sign, which I saw on Svengoolie a few months ago. 

With Cathy Moriarty.

The next guest I met was Academy Award nominee Cathy Moriarty, who was nominated for her performance as Vikki LaMotta in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). That film, of course, is an all-time classic, but I also enjoyed her turn in the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd farce Neighbors (1981), certainly one of the most unusual comedies I've ever seen. (While it's not always as funny as it could have been, it's never a chore to watch.)

I brought my Criterion Blu-ray of Raging Bull just in case I decided to meet her, and, after seeing her prices were about what I expected, I got in line. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ms. Moriarty was quite gregarious and outgoing, which you don't always get from an actress on her level. The main memory of the conversation we had was, when I passed her the Blu-ray sleeve to get signed, she pointed to the face on the Blu-ray sleeve and joked, if I ever get him (Robert De Niro) to sign it, too, he'd probably charge more. It was great to see Ms. Moriarty enjoying herself so much at the show.

With Mary Badham.

Meeting Mary Badham, another Best Supporting Actress nominee at the Academy Awards for playing Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), was probably the afternoon's biggest surprise to me. I started off the conversation mentioning that I'd lived in Japan for a while and that To Kill a Mockingbird is known as Alabama Story there. Amazingly, Ms. Badham told me she was aware of that and that she had also spent quite a bit of time in Japan.

She went on to describe how leaving Japan caused quite a few headaches, as she couldn't simply take her furniture to a secondhand store or have a garage sale. Instead, she literally had to take a sledgehammer to an armoire (!) and leave the pieces out on the street for the garbage collectors to pick up. She also recalled having to get rid of an expensive kimono because there was nothing else she could do with it. She also reflected on visiting temples in Japan and what a spiritual experience it was for her. 

She opened up so much about Japan that I started to feel a bit bad for the person who was waiting behind me, but I wasn't about to stop Scout from talking to me about the Land of the Rising Sun! On a much sadder note, she discussed the recent death of her friend, a Japanese artist named Toshio, who passed away earlier this year. The details of the case are rather shocking, and it's clear to me there's a lot more that needs to come out about it.

To Kill a Mockingbird was a movie I first saw in class in either December 1995 or January '96 after we finished reading the novel in my freshman-year English class. It was a story (and a movie) that just about everybody enjoyed, including myself, even though I was almost exclusively watching Japanese monster movies in those days. By the end of '96, we moved, and I ended up at a different high school, so I repeated the process of reading the book and seeing the movie in class by the end of '96 during my sophomore year. All I can say is, those are great memories from probably the best years of my life.

That's why I made it a point to meet Ms. Badham, and I'm very glad I did. When it was time for me to move on (during which I said my goodbyes in Japanese), she shook both my hands at the same time and gave me and a big, warm smile. Not going to lie, given my history of watching her in Mockingbird during a pivotal time in my life, it was a bit overwhelming. Experiences like that are exactly why I do this sort of thing.

With Luciana Paluzzi.

The last guest I met was Luciana Paluzzi, who played Fiona Volpe in the James Bond thriller Thunderball (1965) and Dr. Lisa Benson in The Green Slime (1968). I hadn't seen Ms. Paluzzi since 2012, so, when she saw me at her table, her jaw literally dropped, and then she jokingly put it back in place with her hand. From the beginning, Ms. Paluzzi insisted I wouldn't be paying for anything, which was an incredible gesture. I asked her to sign my Green Slime Blu-ray sleeve and then pose for the photos in this blog post. She also asked me how long we've known each other, which we have since 2007, though we didn't meet in person until 2009.

I talked about how things have been going since I returned to California and what might be coming up for me, as well. She also commented on how I was maturing, which is a compliment I definitely appreciate! It was also a pleasure meeting her granddaughter, who was assisting her at her table. All in all, it was a joy seeing Ms. Paluzzi again after so many years.

Well, that's about everything. I had much more fun this time around than I did at the last Hollywood Show, and I stayed within budget, too!