A Visit with One of Tokusatsu's Greatest Art Directors!

Yoshio Suzuki. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Today (Sunday, March 24), I was privileged to meet art director Yoshio Suzuki, a veteran of Godzilla (1954) and numerous other Toho and Tsuburaya Productions works. Suzuki-san was one of the members of the modeling staff who worked on the original Godzilla suit, so to say that he is a living cinematic legend would be the understatement of the year.

Yoshio Suzuki signs a Godzilla (1954) mini poster. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Suzuki-san brought quite a few fascinating items with him. The most interesting thing had to be the photobook with various Mighty Peking Man (1977) stills in it, most likely taken by official Shaw Brothers photographers. I'd never seen any of those photos published anywhere before, so it was a rare glimpse into the history of that particular Hong Kong production.

Suzuki-san's wife Mitsuyo was also on hand for the meeting, and she was quite lovely. Suzuki-san was interested in seeing the photos of Pulgasari that I showed him on my phone again, so I arranged to send the photos to Mitsuyo-san before leaving. Mitsuyo-san also snapped a few photos of me on her phone when I was talking to her husband.

Suzuki-san was very lively and energetic for our two-hour-plus get-together. Would you believe he turns 90 next year? I wouldn't! Then again, on the way to our meeting room, we passed a friend of the Suzukis who was singing karaoke in the rec room of the building. That friend is 99 years old. The 100-year life is truly a reality in Japan.

A big thanks to the Suzukis for making this afternoon one to remember. 

Remembering a Toho Legend at His Final Resting Place

The grave of Sadao Iizuka. Photo by Brett Homenick.

 

Today (Sunday, March 24, I was invited to join a small group of Sadao Iizuka's fans and friends to pay tribute to his memory at his grave near Chitose-karasuyama Station. This day marked the first anniversary of his passing, so it was an especially momentous occasion.

I was surprised to learn that Iizuka wasn't his birth name. His last name at birth was actually Ikeda (as the grave suggests) but later took the name of his adoptive father, which is how he became Sadao Iizuka. 

The members of our group placed incense sticks in his grave, poured water on top of it, and prayed. It was very moving, and it was my first time to visit a grave and pray in a traditional Japanese way. 

Remembering the Life of a Toho Great with Another Toho Great!

Eiichi Asada (left) and Tabata Kei. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Tonight (Saturday, March 23), I attended another event with former Toho SFX directpr Eiichi Asada. The theme of this event was celebrating the life of Sadao Iizuka, who passed away last year. Iizuka-san's manager, Tabata Kei, was on hand to represent his his life and career.

While there, I purchased the first volume of a biographical interview book on Asada-san that's just been published. Asada-san asked me if I could read it in Japanese, but, when I showed him how a smartphone could instantly translate the text in English, he was quite amazed. It sure beats studying kanji for years and years!

The event also served as a birthday celebration for Asada-san, whose 75th birthday was a few days ago, so cake was also served. I must say that Asada-san seems much younger than his age would suggest. 

I took many photos with the attendees, as it will be my last visit to the venue for a long time. I was asked to say a few words at the end of the event, which I found harder to do than I expected. I certainly will miss the fun and camaraderie that always went with these events. But time has a way of moving on.

Below are the other photos I took of this event. Enjoy!

An Ultra-Good Morning with Two Very Special 'Ultraman' Alums!

Atsuko Tanaka. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Today (Saturday, March 23), I woke up bright and early to go to Shibuya and meet with two veteran Tsuburaya Productions script supervisors, Atsuko Tanaka and Noriko Shishikura. Our meeting was scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m., but it turned out that I arrived much earlier than they did. 

 

A few minutes later, they made their entrance, and we sat down for a bit less than an hour before Shishikura-san had to move on to her next appointment. 

Noriko Shishikura. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Shishikura-san had dug up some old photos of her career at Tsuburaya Productions and Nikkatsu Studios. It was truly fascinating to see these vintage pictures that may never have been published anywhere else.

Before I knew it, our time was up, and we both had to move on to our next appointments. Right before I left, we posed for the mandatory photos that are always a necessity for this blog. Besides, they're a lot of fun to take!

Noriko Shishikura and Atsuko Tanaka. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I should point out that the cafe we used is on the second floor of Toho Cinemas Shibuya. In fact, it was the same cafe where I met with the late Kenpachiro Satsuma in November 2014. While I've walked past the cafe many times since then, I think this was the first time I've been inside it since that meeting. It only took me about 10 years!

Actor Minori Terada, Veteran of Toho and Tsuburaya Productions, Passes Away at Age 81

Minori Terada in February 2020. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Actor Minori Terada, a prolific performer whose acting career dates back to 1961 and continued into the current year, passed away on March 14 due to lung cancer, his agency, CES Entertainment, has announced. He was 81.

Minori Terada in August 2019. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Born on November 7, 1942, Terada would join the theater company Bungakuza in 1961 and began performing onstage. By the mid-1960s, he started acting in movies, embarking on a decades-long career that saw him collaborate with some of Japan's most talented directors.

Terada stars in Kihachi Okamoto's The Human Bullet (1968) as "Him," but he is also known for his supporting parts in such films as Okamoto's Red Lion (1969), Zatoichi and Yojimbo (1970), Battle of Okinawa (1971), Station (1981), Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky (1986), Akio Jissoji's Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988), and Ultra Q: The Movie (1990). On TV, he guest-starred in Ultraman (1966-67) episode 14 as the truck driver's assistant.

I was privileged to meet Mr. Terada twice. I remember that he wanted to talk to me about Akira Kurosawa movies, as well as the works of other Japanese directors. He was quite friendly and seemed genuinely interested in knowing my opinions. My second meeting with Terada-san is also notable because it was one of the last ones before the COVID-19 lockdowns started in Japan.

With his passing, Minori Terada leaves behind a body of work that few actors could hope to match. Rest in peace, and thank you very much for the decades of entertainment.

Welcome to My World...

A poster for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) at Aeon Cinema Shinyurigaoka. Photo by Brett Homenick. 

I had some time to kill today, so I stopped by Aeon Cinema Shinyurigaoka just to look around. I saw the above poster for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), which caught my attention, so I decided to post it here. My expectations for this film couldn't be any lower, but we'll see how it is soon enough.

Oh, and "The Prequel" was also getting advertised at the theater. It will get released in Japan on March 29.

Getting the Party Started with Takahashi-san as Our Host!

Yoko Takahashi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Today (Friday, March 22) was also notable as the day that actress Yoko Takahashi hosted a party for me as I prepare to leave Japan. Takahashi-san was a prolific actress in the 1970s, with her best-known work in the West being the Oscar-nominated Sandakan 8 (1974). She also can be seen in Kon Ichikawa's The Devil's Ballad (1977).

Yoko Takahashi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I first met Takahashi-san in 2016, as her starring role in Sandakan 8 was intriguing to me. Not only was it an Oscar-nominated film, but it was also named by film critic Gene Siskel as the third-best film of 1976 and boasts a score by the great Akira Ifukube. In fact, I saw a photo from this film in a fanzine article about the composer when I was 14 years old, and, while Takahashi-san herself wasn't seen in that photo, it nonetheless fascinated me at a young age.

I arrived at the cafe just after 3:00, but it turned out that Takahashi-san was stuck in traffic and apparently a bit lost. (She had never been to this venue before, and it's some distance outside Tokyo.) Thankfully, the cafe owner happened to be our mutual friend, so he painstakingly guided her over the phone with all the necessary directions. Takahashi-san ultimately arrived at about 5:00, at which point the party could truly start!

Takahashi-san's lemon cake. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Takahashi-san brought a delicious lemon cake to celebrate, which we shared between the three of us. She also bought me a coin purse as a gift, which was an unexpected surprise. But, most importantly, she gave me a handwritten note in English that expressed her sincere feelings. Now that is a treasure I will always keep with me!

Make a wish!

I believe the party lasted until about 8:00. It was a lot of fun, so the time just flew by. We discussed many topics, including Takahashi-san's favorite films from America. (She has an encyclopedic knowledge of American films from the 1970s and told me about movies I'd never heard of, such as 1973's Cinderella Liberty, starring James Caan.) I told Takahashi-san about Gene Siskel and how he named Sandakan 8 the third-best movie of the year. She was especially impressed to see that Siskel ranked it above Taxi Driver (1976).

While she isn't exactly an expert on kaiju movies (and hasn't seen Godzilla Minus One), she knows enough about the genre to be able to sing a few bars of The Peanuts' Mothra song. I was pleased to have Takahashi-san sign my DVDs of Sandakan 8 and Africa's Light (1975), which I happened to find at a Book Off just prior to coming.

When it was time to leave, Takahashi-san kindly drove me home in her car. It's been a while since I've been driven home by a Japanese movie star, but it's always a lot of fun when it happens! At one point, when we came to a sign pointing the way to Nagoya, I blurted out that we should go there instead, which seemed to amuse Takahashi-san. 

Takahashi-san seemed quite motivated to visit California in the future, and I hope I can meet her there. Otherwise, I hope we can meet again in Japan someday. Even though tonight was a low-key affair, it was a great way to relieve some of the stress of the past couple of days. Many thanks to Takahashi-san for hosting this party -- it's one for the history books!