The Mysterians (1957)
Audio Commentary by Koichi Kawakita and Shinji Higuchi with Mr. Ishii
Media Blasters DVD - 2005
When Media Blasters released The Mysterians on DVD in 2005, they included most (all?) of the special features from Toho's 2001 Japanese DVD release. In addition to trailers, image galleries and an isolated music track, the highlight of the special features is this audio commentary by special effects directors Koichi Kawakita and Shinji Higuchi, moderated by a third man who is only identified briefly as Mr. Ishii.
Kawakita was 15 when The Mysterians opened while Higuchi wouldn't be born for another eight years. Although neither of them worked on this film, their commentary is jovial and informative. Kawakita notes midway through that everyone in Japan who loves special effects has seen The Mysterians and been inspired by it and that mutual enthusiasm is palpable here. The entire discussion is in Japanese and subtitled in English but it is just as much of a listening experience as any English-language commentary. All three men have distinct, easily identifiable voices and with the movie being so visually driven, it's the perfect Toho classic to watch with them talking about it in the background and discussing the SFX profession.
Ishii springboards many of the discussion topics and contributes a lot of background information throughout. He talks a lot to get Kawakita and Higuchi on a roll and knows when to let them carry it. Much of the commentary consists of them watching the film and identifying the SFX techniques used in a given scene and even expressing their uncertainty about how some shots were achieved. They point out things like product placement and common practices in Toho's films of that era.
At about 33 minutes, when the five scientists are in the Mysterian base talking to the leader, Ishii mentions that the Mysterian costumes were made of fiberglass that irritated the actors' skin. Kawakita says that back then they would try lots of different materials to make sets without regard for pollution. Higuchi replies that it's now hard to find good materials for sets because they're all pollution-free. Kawakita describes how they used to pour leftover paints into the Sengawa River after they finished painting. He refers to that time as a golden age for filmmaking and Higuchi quips that they didn't know what was good or bad for the environment, to which Ishii says that was why Godzilla vs. Hedorah came about.
There are a lot of amusing anecdotes like that throughout. At 41 minutes, Higuchi gets Kawakita to talk about his unrealized plans to direct a remake of The Mysterians. About 63 minutes in, Ishii asks Kawakita about his specific memories of working under Eiji Tsuburaya. He answers that Tsuburaya could envision how a scene would play during a shoot and he would start editing the footage on-set right after they finished shooting. Kawakita says that he adopted Tsuburaya's preference to edit all of his own SFX scenes, to which Higuchi says that he learned that habit from Kawakita when he worked on Sayonara Jupiter.
As this commentary was recorded in 2001, 15 years before Higuchi directed the special effects for Shin Godzilla, it's interesting to hear him ruminate on CGI here with Kawakita. At one point Higuchi actually says "I don't feel comfortable if I don't use a real monster suit in my films." He talks about how CGI is necessary to reduce on-set crew labor costs and how he envies the old days when it was more important for people to spend more time on the set. Kawakita at first seems quite bitter about CGI and what he describes as people mistaking digital imagery as all that's necessary to make a good movie. However, he later admits to utilizing CGI in his more recent work rather than spending his budgets on special props for brief close-up shots. He says that he doesn't want people to take that to mean that he's not doing his best. During the flood scene at the end of the film, Kawakita and Higuchi praise the effects work in the previous year's The Perfect Storm. They remark that the CGI waves got all of the attention but that the analog effects for the scenes on the fishing boat were just as impressive. Higuchi says that's true of many Hollywood films and Kawakita adds that that's why they're able to do such great things with CGI, because they don't depend on it and they care just as much about their physical effects.
One peculiar thing about the subtitles on this commentary is how they take inconsistent liberties with title translations. Higuchi mentions Mechani-Kong at one point and it's subtitled as "Robot Kong." When Ishii mentions Gojira tai Hedora it's subtitled as Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. However, when Higuchi later names Kaitei gunkan, Ido zero daisakusen and Uchu Senkan Yamato, that is exactly how they are spelled in the subtitles rather than translating them at all.
