Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: MATANGO
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- It's a fungus frenzy with the 1963 Japanese monster movie "Matango", AKA "Attack Of The Mushroom People".
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Fun fact: the matango hive was a sort of mini-boss in the NES tittle, Godzilla: Monster of Monsters.
Cool I was thinking that thing looks similar to the nes godzilla game mini boss
it was so annoying in nes godzilla
Oooooohhhh thats what that was. Neat
" Gilligan , The Skipper too........."
You know how the song goes.
Matango confirmed part of the Godzilla Showa timeline.
The only Showa era Toho film confirmed not part of the Godzilla Showa timeline is All Monsters Attack (aka. Godzilla’s Revenge) which takes place in the real world, or rather, a world where Godzilla and friends are all fictional movie characters.
Hell, I think Gabara is still part of the Showa timeline but he appeared offscreen. Gabara in Godzilla’s Revenge means that Gabara only existed in an in-universe movie that we in the real real world didn’t get to see.
Or Gabara is just some kid’s fanfic OC kaiju meant to represent his bullies.
Fun fact: The Matango's laughter was later used as Alien Baltan's evil laugh in the original Ultraman
Matango: "HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO!"
Alien Baltan: "HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO!"
When I first heard matago’s laugh I thought of alien balton.#ONLYGODZILLA
Night of the laughing Myconids.
At 3:43: "Ah, a giant claw!"
That looks nothing like a battleship.
Actually a pretty good horror film for the time, it was based off of the William Hope Hodgeson short story "A Voice in the Night". Hodgeson wrote sea stories, many of them horror. Admired by H.P. Lovecraft, Hodgeson was sadly killed in WW1. One of the most memorable short stories I've ever read is his "the Stone Ship".
'Stone Ship' is probably my favorite of his short fiction too. My favorite of his novels was 'The Boats of the Glen Carrig'
He was admired by Lovecraft? That makes sense. This story has a very Lovecraftian feel to it
This explains the shadow over innsmoth vibe I got from the beginning of the film.
He also wrote a story with evil pig men.
@@MinscFromBaldursGate92 "pigmen, Jerry! Pigmen!!" -Kramer
Honda is such an underrated director. He and Kurosawa were best friends and Kurosawa greatly respected Honda's craft.
Honda partially directed everything Kurosawa did from "Kagemusha" on, but refused any credit for it. It's said in Japan that when Honda died, he took Kurosawa's career with him.
And as I'm sure you know, Honda helped Kurosawa with the filming of Stray Dog by walking through Tokyo's black market as a stand-in for Toshiro Mifune as someone followed behind him with a hidden camera. I want to say it's a shame that Honda stayed loyal to Toho and only made the movies they gave to him, but those movies we love wouldn't have been nearly as good without him
What else did Honda direct? Gorath?
@@JackieFuckingChan He directed everything. Rodan, Mothra, Mysterians, Varan, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Gargantuas, Dogora, H-Man, Human Vapor, Atragon, King Kong Escapes, and yes, Gorath
@@Drforrester31 honda also was a assistant director for akira kurosawa's dreams and madadayo was both kurosawa and Hondas last film
"A giant claw!"
is it as big as a battleship?
Man, if this ever is remade, could really make a perfect mix of Night of the dead + Prometheus. Start of with making relatable characters, then take them into mystical madness, with some body horror from the deformations cause by fungus. How it turned old survivors into symbiote of human and fungus
They could get James Gunn to direct it.
Joan Pasley or Guillermo Del Toro.
Could be a less comedic sort of equivalent to slither.
@@youthoughtaboutit6946 Heck, make it R rated and throw in some nudity and violence...
One of the actors said many years later that the point was not that the mushroom people were the threat, but that the threat was indeed because, under stress, the humans turn on each other instead of looking out for one another as they should have.
Its...its like Lovecraft meets Benny Hill meets Godzilla. Its....
Its... awesome....
And now I want a movie where Benny Hill has to save the world from a cult whose attempts to rouse their dark lord from his aeons-long slumber beneath the waves have accidentally awakened Godzilla.
quelltech that would be THE MOVIE to end all Movies 😂
More like The Lotus Eaters meets Gilligan's Island!
This movie was based on a story by William Hope Hogson, who was one of the inspirations for Lovecraft.
@@MinscFromBaldursGate92 Nice to see here someone, who knows The voice in the night. This is really good adaptation for "japanese moster movie".
First watched Matango 50 years ago. A-W-E-S-O-M-E movie! I've watched it 50+ times since. How can you not love it?
Okay, when the movie does the cut away from the first mushroom-infected person we see to everyone having breakfast (the part marked in this vid as having not been edited), I can't be the only one whose mind first jumped to, "holy shit, did they just kill and eat the mushroom dude that casually?!"
I mean, I would. If stranded on an Island and starving...anything can end up on my dinner table.
@@tsubakiofmelancholy6297 well, it's a BAD idea, but you COULD.
@@marhawkman303 The only thing I won't do is eat a person. Other than that, all bets are off. I shall consume. LOL
@@tsubakiofmelancholy6297 Well in this scenario... eating the mushroom might infect you... and well....
I was under the assumption that the first mushroom dude was a hallucination considering how quickly the characters brush his existence off after the fact.
Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka both played mushroom people in this movie.
And the mushroom man at 8:13 was played by Eisei Amamoto, who also played Dr. Who in King Kong Escapes.
Who?
KaijuDirectorOO7 WHOOOSH
Tyrant Gregcag Doctor Who....in a Japanese King Kong movie....wat😧
Liam Cahill I think it was actually dr. huu, he was a mad scientist that built a mechanical king Kong to mine for rare minerals.
Oh that's cool...I guess XD
I watched this repeatedly on TV starting in about 1967. I made an audio tape of parts of the soundtrack (home videotape didn't exist yet) and thus I can still recite parts of the dialogue, and sing along / whistle along with the songs.
The Toad makeup for the Mario movie was a lot better than I remember.
You mean the 1993 blockbuster movie got better makeup than this?
monster girl encyclopedia. good taste my friend.
Fun fact: The Monster Musume manga did a two-issue parody of Matango.
I stumbled on this on Prime. Stunned that I liked it as much as I did. Good character study.
Based on the story "Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson, which was also adapted for the 24th episode of the 1958 anthology series Suspicion.
the short story is excellent and all hodgsin stories are similarly creepy seafaring tales. he was a contemporary of lovecraft.
I can't believe I found this ... I've been describing this movie to all my friends and nobody but me has ever heard of it, much less seen it . . One of my all time favorite movies .. thanks for putting this up .. love it
"Tokyo: youd rather be on an island full of mushroom monsters than here"- lol. :P
In other words ''humans are douchebags''
I love all the older poster artwork, that opening poster looks brilliant...even if the films are awful. They make everything look so bad ass. Cheers for the review Brandon!
Oh I remember this movie. "Lost" meets "Reefer Madness" meets "Shutter Island".
Actually... It's Gilligan's Island meets The Lotus Eaters! (If it was Directed by David Cronenberg!)
More like The Andromeda Strain meets The Mysterious Island, and then got eaten by Salvador Dali.
As Always plus the last of us
A voice in the night by William Hope Hogson meets Lotus Eaters.
Only good
Wow, I just learned why the mushroom enemies in Shining the Holy Ark for Sega Saturn are called Matango, lol!!
I'm still impressed how fast you are making quality content
This is one of the first monster movies I ever saw! It scared me when I was four...
"This is the inspiration behind the last of us"
Ophiocordyceps: It's like don't even exist
Yo, finally a toho film that ain't friggin Godzilla. Love your video, dude.
He has reviewed at least 4 non Godzilla Toho movies already
I like how the Godzilla anime series references these fungi.
Kumi Mizuno recieved Kinuyo Tanaka(Japanese legendary actress) award last month.
“Gilligan’s Island” as directed by Takashi Miike and written & storyboarded by Junji Ito.
This is a really interesting movie. If you've never read William Hope Hodgson stories and you like Lovecraft, you're missing out!
I had this in a DVD triple box set with The Valerians, and something else, and this flick is one slow ride to spookytown. Sure, the beginning is upbeat and hopeful, but it captures that mounting dread of both being trapped on an island with shrinking supplies and paranoid survivors, but the background scare of the mushrooms on the island probably being people trapped there forever is like something out of a Hino Horror manga. It sticks to you and really sinks in when you watch it without stopping. Killer choice, Brandon!
"one slow ride to spooky town" is a GREAT phrase.
@@FlyAVersatranALSO the name of my Foghat Halloween album, from the cover band called 'Fake it Easy'~
I have that set too. It was this movie, Varen, and The Mysterians.
The inspiration for “The Last of Us”.
Nope, there is an actual Cordyceps fungus that affects insects and arachnids.... Hopefully it never makes the jump to mammals/Primates
The inspiration for freedom planet
And Alien Baltan's evil laugh
One of them, anyway. The others being Children of Men and EVERY ZOMBIE MOVIE EVER.
You should do Varan, Dogora, Gorath, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Secret of the Telegian, The Human Vapor and Toho's The Invisible Man. Some of the lesser known Toho monster movies.
I wonder if the creators of the last of us saw this and went "Hmmmmm... Killer mushroom people!"
Misterprickly Aren't those actually zombies created by mushrooms?
The Last of Us zombies are based on real fungi called Cordyceps. Specifically the species that zombify ants in order to get them to reach a high place so that fungus can better spread it's spores on other ants.
I just watched the Japanese language print as part of the Criterion Monster Category celebrating Hallowe'en. (The music/effects choices are a little different here than what I saw.)
I'm a big Honda fan, but had never seen anything about this particular movie, aside from occasional call outs in listings of actors and films.
Is never seen any of YOUR work before, but this review is ABSOLUTELY top notch.
Funny. Insightful. Rightfully goofy. Etc.
Thanks for taking the time to put it all together...
... And for giving me the laugh I needed to cap off my evening.
Will we ever get a review of Varan: the Unbelievable?
I think it's rather unbelievable we will.
Sorry I'll go now.
KaijuDirectorOO7 oh god yes
Or Pulgasari?
@@NodDisciple1 Careful...the last time I mentioned Pulgasari, a butt hurt troll went on the offensive about former dicktaster, kim jong il and how he kidnapped the director and forced hum to make the film and blah blag l butthurt...kind of like what Niagra Falls did to Moe and Larry only political:"PUL GA SA RI!!!! Slowly we turned and step by step, inch by inch..." Sorry. Still in shock from the internet lambasting. But still an interesting, decent film.....watch out for trolls....political North Korean Kaiju hating trolls..beware the groove!
You want a review of Varan? Here it goes; The monster is awesome, but the rest of the movie is boring as shit.
Kumi Mizuno was pretty much the sexiest thing the 1960s-70s Japan had.
In fact I'd say the whole world had honestly.
Pretty much. Ishiro Honda liked her as a femme fatale because she seemed very westernized compared to other Japanese actresses
There's also Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama, who are part of the Bond Girl pantheon. Mind you, Mizuno is the best actress of them all
Can't forget Tura Santana
The wikipedia page never said anything about Ebirah making a cameo!
1963 Japanese monster movie? All I need to hear.
So many missed opportunities to reference The Green Slime !
I love this movie! I picked it up after hearing it mentioned so many times in the commentaries on those Classic Media Godzilla releases and was amazed at how creepy and surreal it was compared to Honda's other films. The guy was clearly a gifted filmmaker. It came in a box set with Mysterians and Varan, which were also good but Matango was definitely my favorite
YES! Thanks for doing this one! Always been one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
Brandon: Don’t be afraid, I’m a fun guy.
Me: Get it?
“Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on.”
One of my favorite movies!
This is a childhood favorite. Way way back, UHF channel 29 in Buffalo used to play this every now and again. They actually showed a lot of Toho films. Most of which you now riff on. lol. Thanks Brandon!
One of my favorite creature double feature flicks from the 80s!! When they released this on DVD a couple years ago I immediately ordered it....good stuff!
The Media Blasters DVD (long out of print, alas) is great, a restored color print with a subtitles option and lots of extras. Like Brandon says, behind the risible title is a surprisingly intelligent and effective movie. It makes for a good double bill with Attack of the Crab Monsters.
I was lucky enough to see this one on the big screen a few years ago, awesome movie !
I was gonna make a pun but there wasn't mush room. Sorry, I'll see my self out lol 😂😆
I remember seeing this as a kid and it freaked me out - especially at the end when you think the last guy remaining has made a clean escape -and he turns!!
I've been waiting for you to review this one.
Brandon Tenold this more than likely was the Japanese propaganda equivalent of Refer Madness. I lived in Japan for three years and you could buy magic mushrooms over the counter in their head/smoke shops.
You sure you weren’t too high on shrooms and thought Japan was Amsterdam? Jokes aside I thought Japan was actually really harsh with drugs
I'd like to see more reviews of other Non-Godzilla Toho movies.
SPACE AMOEBA !
Prince of Space.
War of the Gargantuas
Another favorite. They used to show it alongside 'Godzilla on Monster Island' (G vs. Gigan) in the theater when I was a kid.
The H-Man!
Love it when you review non-Godzilla Toho films!
I saw this movie a million years ago 😂😂 of course at that time I was too young to understand about mushrooms 🤣🤣
So apparently the Baltan Laugh isn't the only one recycled and used in other franchises but isn't this Ebirah's claw as well? ua-cam.com/video/IfYIoF6mD8o/v-deo.htmlm42s
Lipstick Zombie I was honestly shocked when I heard Baltan’s laugh and genuinely thought some sort of reference was added in.
guillermo del Toro would make an amazing remake of this.
The beginning does sound exactly like the start to a good H.P. Lovecraft story, lol.
I think the Carlos Castaneda version would be called ''attack of the peyote people''.
@@kevincola3184 Well, that is because it's based on one of Lovecraft's short stories if I remember right.
"The Voice in the Night" is by William Hope Hodgson, published in 1907.
There are audio versions of it on UA-cam, by Horrorbabble for example, and worth a listen
@@Deverud Oh! My mistake then. I'll see if I can find an audio version to listen to. Thank you for correcting me.
Watch Mantago with my mom. She was a psychologist professor, she thought that they were going insane from isolation and strange terrain. And they just thought they were turning into mushroom people
...You've been eating our babies now be prepared to get the Shiitaké get kicked out of you!
Underrated pun there
@@AverageAwesomeDude 😁👍
Matango! I love this trippy flick.
Some other movies you oughta review sometime:
Hausu aka House
Slumber Party Massacre
Humanoids From The Deep
Deep Red
Don't Torture A Duckling
Long Weekend (the 70s original)
The 7th Victim
Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers
Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy
Teenage Catgirls In Heat
Robert Stuart Eyyyy my man Fulci! I’d love to see more of his work on any internet show, not just his Zombi/zombie films either.
The last 3 sound like awesome 80s porn lol. . . Just pubes and pointy tits everywhere
Here in the bay area, the channel two show Creature Features debuted in 1972 with "Attack", Brandon would have loved Bob Wilkins or John Stanley.
Love laugh at end when skipper say nothen. Great moment you certainly know moments
Return from a nap to find you've reviewed one of my all time favorites. Nice. This flick is alllllll atmosphere....some pretty snazzy rubber mushroom creepers, as well.
Space Amoeba next!!
glad you covered this one. I remember watching it as a kid. freaked me out, big time. haven't seen it since. I will have to track it down and watch it again.
We need more William Hope Hogson adaptations.
You made me check this movie out. Thanks dude! Very happy I did!
yes!
love this movie
and I love this channel!
The name of the boat means "albatross."
He wears his sunglasses at night!
So He Can, So He Can... Well! You see where this is going.
I did something like that once. Turned out to be quite the weird combination.
He is japanese Johnny Bravo! :D "I cannot be seen without my glasses!"
He did it to avoid the flashlight harming his eyes :P
Great lyrics to another song that “Cops Theme Song” was made by... “I wear my sunglasses at night, so no one can see in my eyes”... lol
*Baltan laugh intensifies*
Yeah!
Well this came out, first, but yeah.
That's what I thought
ULTRAMAN!!!
Wait so the best villain laugh ever... *WAS STOLEN?!?!*
Excellent review! One of my favorite top 10 movies of all time! Love it!
the only downside to looking in a mirror while on shrooms, in my experience, is spending two hours looking at yourself in the bathroom
"it's not a good idea to look in the mirror when your on mushrooms", this is very excellent advice
Might as well start a marathon of Toho monster movies
I got this in my TOHO collection. A really decent macabre movie.
I remember seeing this movie in the 80's on Elvira's old show.
The main reason to watch this movie... *KUMI MIZUNO!*
She is a goddess. She’s basically Japanese Caroline Munro.
She is 83 years old now.
I'd swear when I saw this as a kid it was part
of the Saturday Creature Double Feature. except
i thought it was in b&w. then it dawned on me that
we still had a b&w TV then.
Fun fact: In the Godzilla anime expanded universe, the Matango appeared after said monster died releasing them.
Was it Hedorah
Boy, these old Japanese monster movies sure do have a lot of Asian people in them.
I w0nD3R wHY
Derkman96 I hope your being sarcastic
Lol
Watch "The Green Slime" or "The Last Dinosaur", then.
What baffles me is that they speak English
I saw this on Creature Double Feature back in the 70s. The scene with the arm coming off really wigged me out as a kid.
Matango is so good, but it's also SO bleak that I can't say I enjoy it. It's not just the horror version of Gilligan's Island... It's the turtleneck-wearing nihilistic version of Gilligan's Island.
That mushroom waifu, though . . .
Just understand she'd grow anywhere damp and hot you don't want women growing in your walls
Jack Brearley lol
Kenkou cross
Hey, an Ebirah cameo! He even brought his music with him.
I seen this movie on creature double feature on channel 56 Boston. As a kid it's made me very uncomfortable for a movie and it seems to be a part of my nightmares. The Lovecraft effect was definitely in this movie.
Hahaha! I saw this on tv when I was a kid over 50 years ago. I always thought it was in black and white, but I guess it's because we didn't have a color Television then. Man I feel old.
That strange sound effect in scene 13:44 to 13:59 sounds familiar, then I remeber is the sound for Alien Baltan in Ultrarman. I know it's not the same but listen that sound effect and listen to Baltan's laught.
I can't help but imagine a revision this movie on nature, psychedelia & delusion. Despite its dated execution, being directed by the original Godzilla director, Matango feels like an early body horror film.
One of my favorite Toho films. Unique among their roster.
If James Cameron would have made this in his early carrer he'd now be saying "It's the best movie about killer mushrooms ever made!"
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. They played it a lot on Saturday afternoons when the cartoons were done.
3:46 holy shit, that’s Ebirah. What’s the shrimp doing here?
This was one of the few movies that scared the crap out of me as a kid.
I think this is one of the best tokusatsu films of Japan’s golden era of cinema, and personally this is one of my favorite films. AN Productions gives a very in-depth perspective/review that I’d highly recommend tuning in on. There’s another layer of perspective that comes into play on this film, which is the allegory Honda used to allude to the idea that the conflict on the island is parallel to the socioeconomic state of Japan back then. Honda says that this was his favorite film, and it really shows considering his favorite most beloved actors were playing intense roles, the haunting atmosphere, the list goes on. Ishiro Honda was very ambitious with this film, and his executive decisions just worked so well and elevated the film and leaves it’s audience awe-struck. Masterpiece.
Brandon I know you probably won’t read this but I want to tell you anyway you are the reason I can get through the day thanks for being awesome Brandon
I like that this movie coincidentally makes the fungus alive, since we discovered fungus is a closer relative to animals than plants. Ik they didnt know this at the time, but fun coincidence.
I'll need to order my mushroom and cheese pizza first before I watch this review.
Thank you for using the term “Bogart” in regards to THOSE people.
Three drags, pass maximum is the law of the Circle.
“Attack of the Mushroom People,” was a title was made up by exploitation film master/co-owner of American International Pictures, James Nicholson. Toho Studios often gets the blame / credit for it.