Varan the Unbelievable (1962)

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Unfortunately, my introduction to this Toho kaiju offering was a poor quality on-line copy of the 'Americanised' version entitled "Varan the Unbelievable" (odd: despite the title, the monster seems to be called 'Obaki', not 'Varan'). An intrepid American scientist and his wife are running a desalinization experiment on a remote island when they awaken the 'devil monster' which sleeps beneath the lake. After numerous futile attempts by the military to vanquish the creature, the American figures out how to destroy it. English scenes (including excessive voiceovers) are interspersed haphazardly with the original Japanese footage and include lot of shots of the scientist driving around in his jeep. The overall outcome of this hybridisation is a simplistic, somewhat incoherent, poorly-paced, and not particularly interesting monster movie. Only worth watching if you need to get Varen on your kaiju life-list and can't find the Japanese version.

It took Giant Monster Varan some four years before it finally made it to America under the title Varan, the Unbelievable. As fate would have it, Varan isn't so "unbelievable" or "great". I am reviewing the Japanese version that's presently available on DVD, the very one in the picture at the top of the page. Despite the American version's title, it's the Japanese version with English subtitles. It is my understanding that the American version is significantly worse than the English version, but I can't comment on that.The giant monster plot is not unlike many other monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists are searching for a unique species of butterfly and awaken the monster god. The Japanese military lends a hand, bringing their equipment and troops to the island, expecting an easy kill. As you'd expect, Varan is virtually immune to the weaponry, so the military retreats. Varan swims through the water and attacks an airport and some of the city, but certainly not on the scale that we see some other monsters, Godzilla for one. Eventually the military discovers a trick to defeating Varan, and the wounded monster retreats.Pretty basic, but it works. It's mediocre, but in some ways that's kind of a good thing. Toho didn't make the monster out to be as huge, destructive, and powerful as monsters like Godzilla or even Rodan. But while that bolsters the strength of those monsters, it makes this film and its monster forgettable. The first irk I have is that this movie was shot with a fairly tight budget, and it shows. The movie is shot in black and white, despite Toho having done color since 1956's Rodan. The acting is also average, with some rough spots where the character(s) should be acting more emotional (or seem to express the wrong emotions). Varan isn't particularly interesting as a monster, and although he's versatile, being able to operate in water, in air, and on land, he still comes off as derivative and staid. Two upsides to the movie were 1) a fairly good score, and 2) mostly good special effects.Is the movie worth checking out? Well, if you're just getting into monster movies or Japanese monster movies, there are many better choices. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, War of the Gargantuas, and more were all done under Toho as with Varan, the Unbelievable, but are far more emotional, engaging, and solid films. If you're seen all of these main movies, then Varan is worth checking out. It's by no means a bad movie, it's just that it's not inspiring or riveting. If it comes pack of a discounted multi-feature set as they offer now (Varan with The Mysterians and Matango, for example), then the movie is probably worth it. On its own, for $10-15 it's less compelling. I purchased it despite that, but I'd more likely just recommend it should it be found in a $5 bin. I give it a 5/10, not bad, not great.

This is not a review, but I want to post this here to help stave off some confusion. The DVD called "Varan The Unbelievable", released by Tokyo Shock in May 2005, catalog number TSDVD-0511, is not the film listed on IMDb as "Varan the Unbelievable (1962)", or "The Monster Varan (1962)". It is instead the film listed on IMDb as "Daikaijû Baran (1958)". "Baran" is the Japanese word that has a transliteration in English as "Varan"."Varan the Unbelievable" was an American-produced adaptation of the material, similar to the American adaptation of the original Godzilla (Gojira, 1954). Varan was originally to be a joint US/Japanese production, but that deal fell through. Toho, the Japanese production company, went ahead and did Varan anyway, and a few years later, the American version was produced, with a different title and with additional material directed by Jerry A. Baerwitz. It doesn't help the confusion that Tokyo Shock decided to release their DVD under the American title of "Varan the Unbelievable", but surely that was done because that's the title that Americans know the film under.How do you know what version you watched? Well, the American version has an American actor, Myron Healey, and a plot about trying to desalinize water. It's also only 70 minutes long. The Japanese film is about 90 minutes long, has no American actors, and Varan (or "Baran") makes his first (offscreen) appearance when scientists from Tokyo make a trip to a remote, mountainous village to research the sighting of a butterfly previously only known to exist in Siberia. The Japanese version also has a different musical score, but since music is a bit difficult to describe well in words (other than technically), that's not a great way for most folks to tell which version they've watched.To make matters even more confusing, the Tokyo Shock DVD has a truncated Japanese television version of Daikaijû Baran, clocking in at about 50 minutes, which dispenses with both the desalinization and the butterfly plots. Also, at least some people have reported seeing a color version of the film. I don't know which version that would be, but the Tokyo Shock DVD has the original, black & white widescreen Japanese version from 1958. I would have much preferred if Tokyo Shock would have put the American adaptation of Varan on the DVD as an extra, as the Japanese television version is just the same film with a bunch of edits for time and there are a few scenes rearranged to try to create something more coherent given the cuts. Tokyo Shock probably didn't put the American film as an extra because of some licensing or royalty issue. I can also imagine Toho objecting to it. Note that there's a good commentary track for the film with Murase Keizo, who was in charge of special effects models on the film (he's not credited on either IMDb listing).We should reserve this listing for reviews of the American version, and review the Japanese original version at the listing for Daikaijû Baran (1958) instead.

They took a perfectly good Japanese monster movie -- one that was apparently begun for US television anyway -- and ruined it. They excerpted a few minutes of monster footage and used it to pad out their own, utterly different movie, featuring a cast of non-actors and a script that treats the Japanese people as something less than human. To be avoided at all costs.