Toho's Matango & Kraven The Hunter! Which is better?

[@joseluisherreralepron9987]

Love "Matango." Creepy, eerie, icky and the themes of hedonism and addiction are definitely there...that long push in on the the neon lights of Tokyo at the end...good stuff.

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

Yes that herione look i never realized it till years later

[@terrytalksmovies]

The Tokyo backdrop is wonderful.

[@imaginationaryman7995]

Thank you. That is definitely the mushroom movie that I had seen on late night TV in my youth. Even thought my site has diminished you helped me see the movie in my imaginationary mind's eye.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Thank you for enjoying the video. I'm glad I can help you.

[@timeliebe]

Terry, you would really love Alamo Drafthouse here in the US, then! They make an elaborate point with really funny commercials about why you should turn off your phone and not talk during the movie, sometimes including characters from the movies themselves. Not that the jokes will always cut it, so Alamo has a policy that if you're being annoyed by a fellow audience member, you should raise an order card so that an attendant will come and warn the person, and if they do it twice, they're thrown out of the theater and not given their money back. We're warned about this at the start of every movie, so it's not like we don't know.....

[@terrytalksmovies]

I'd love to visit Alamo Drafthouse but I have a fear of guns in the hands of other people and tipping. 😀

[@timeliebe]

@terrytalksmovies - thankfully nobody at the Alamo Drafthouse, Downtown NYC, packs heat. You still have to tip, though ....

[@brewstergallery]

Hey Terry from Ned in Spain and loved this video as always. Thanks for getting me revved up and ready for Matango. I've known about it for decades and now I've gotta see it. Although I love Mothra, I think " The Living Skeleton" would be a perfect match with Matango. Do you know that movie ??? All the best

[@terrytalksmovies]

I haven't seen The Living Skeleton in a very long time, but I believe you, Ned.

[@jackfriend4u]

agree with your choice of a double feature!...but just about any of the Shochiku horror films would be a good match.

[@KarlBunker]

I saw _Mantango_ long enough ago that it was on a black & white TV (so of course it was _AotMP)._ I was expecting something on the level of one of the kid-friendly Godzilla or Gamera movies, and was amazed at how grown-up and intelligent it was. I don't think I've ever seen it in color, much less with the authentic Japanese audio, so that's something I'll have to do.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Definitely worth it.

[@DJW1959Aus]

Yes, I saw 'Matango', once, as 'attack of the mushroom people' and yes it was on after midnight after 24 hour TV started.

[@terrytalksmovies]

It's worth trying to find the original version.

[@DJW1959Aus]

@@terrytalksmovies I'll look for it - thanks

[@willcorlett7630]

I cannot comment on Kraven as I have not seen it, but matango is a film that has grown on me over the years - no sure if I menat that pun or not. When I first watched it I found it slow and am fairly certain I never got to the end - my younger self probably got bored waiting for the titular mushroom people to appear. Now I am older I apprecriate it a lot more. It has a slow but maintained sense of menace and the payoff is more tragic than horrific, which is unusual for films of the time but good nonetheless. Like other Japanese scifi/horror filns around the same time (you mentioned the Human Vapour)it is underated and therefore does not get on many people's watch list which is a shame Love these juants and especially your picks of lesser known films

[@terrytalksmovies]

It's always a pleasure, Will. Happy holidays.

[@adamkrenn6323]

I have always loved Matango! When I describe it to others, I call it the Japanese Heart of Darkness. Can't say I was gonna bother with Kraven.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Kraven is nowhere near as bad as Madam Web or Morbius.

[@softdorothy]

First bit of "Matango" and I think I'm watching "Gilligan's Island".

[@terrytalksmovies]

The island is definitely not a happy place for the castaways.

[@aengusmacnaughton1375]

Yo Terry! Watched Mushroom People on TV midnight horror movie shows -- dubbed and probably edited for TV but it still scared the poop out of me (like age 8 to 10). That and the original giant in the mountain Japanese movie. Because, as you say, they played it serious. Will try to find the subtitled Japanese version. And beware of creepy male lions in films where Russell Crowe is phoning in his performance!!! Cheers!

[@terrytalksmovies]

Rusty really didn't make a great effort.

[@keithwright1621]

Love the twist ending too!

[@terrytalksmovies]

They went back and forth on the twist ending when the movie was being made. With and without it were shot by Toho.

[@keithwright1621]

@@terrytalksmovies I'm glad they went with the surprise.

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

I GREW. UP WITH ATTACK OF. MUSHROOM PEOPLE. I WAS THREE YEARS OLD. 1965 WHEN IT FIRST HIT TV. AUGUST OF 65. I REMEMBER WHEN I GOT UP FROM NAP. MY MOM WAS WACTCHEN IT AT. 6 30 pm on SUNDAY. MY MOM WOULD EXPLAIN MOVIE. TO ME I WAS LITTLE BOY CAME IN ON SCENE WERE GIANT MUSHROOM PEOPLE ATTACK THE BUSINESS MEN. YEARS LTR I SAW?WHOLE FILM IN 1970 ON CREATURE FEATURE. I REMEMBER ALL YEARS SEEING FILM. WITH MY MOM AT NINE LTR BEFORE SHE PASSED AWAY. IN 1998. WAS MY MOMS FAVORITE MOVIE. LOT MEMORIES AFTER 1992 IT WAS NEVER ON TV AGAIN.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Cool, but why are you shouting?

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

​@@terrytalksmoviesnot of norm

[@B.B.Digital_Forest]

The Foreigner was one of the trainers of Sabertooth, the arch enemy of X-Men's Wolverine. He was also the ex-husband of Silver Sable - I think. So it's disappointing to hear he's in such a film.

[@terrytalksmovies]

The character is okay. The movie is meh.

[@Bent-Ed]

Always loved Matango. I think the Venom movies are a part of that Sony/Spiderman universe too

[@terrytalksmovies]

They are. The third Venom movie is both better and worse than the other two.

[@alastairward2774]

I watched Vesper the other night, makes me wonder if fungi lend themselves more to weird science fiction than other types of life or technologies.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Fungi are deeply weird life forms anyway, so they work well as creepy tech, too.

[@creech54]

@@terrytalksmovies And they're great on pizza!

[@yosconisi]

Sandro Nivola was a friend mine growing up. Very very smart guy; probably one of the most worldly, sophisticated people in hollywood. He does a lot of characters with accents. It's always a little odd to hear them for me.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I don't doubt that he's a nice guy but in this underwhelming movie he was underwhelming.

[@denniskristos3800]

I've been waiting for a "Matango" Blu-ray release for over 15 years. The only legit North American release was Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock (now out of print) DVD with its oversized 'Bold' yellow subtitles that obscure too far much of what's at the bottom of the screen. AFAIK, there's no news of who may have the rights for an upgraded transfer...

[@terrytalksmovies]

Matango definitely needs a re release on disk.

[@ems3recombination208]

Great video Terry. Be interested to hear what you think of ATJ being cast as Bond - do you think he’s a credible contender?

[@terrytalksmovies]

He's a contender, but we'll wait and see.

[@dantreuthart9146]

Thanks for the tips dealing with clueless movie goers.

[@terrytalksmovies]

It worked. Social engineering at its best.

[@dogzdad123]

Terry: Thanks again for profiling another obscure Toho (non-kaiju) film. I've seen the original and American cuts and both versions are disturbing...a predictable but satisfying ending. If I were to double feature "Matango", I nominate "The H-Man". Your thoughts? BTW- Gonna skip Kraven. It will probably cycle to streaming soon anyway.

[@terrytalksmovies]

The H Man is good but I prefer The Human Vapour. It humanises the evil creature much better.

[@taker68]

I saw Matango as a kid on Creature Feature on a Saturday afternoon. Shocking as a kid to see such sexual and misanthropic content. My mother got upset cause several of the men say "damn" a few times. Definitely more than I was used to watching kaiju films. There's been 6 Sony Spidey adjacent films, 3 Venoms, Morbius, Madame Web and Kraven. Web of course wasn't a villain, originally an old lady who helped Spider-man.

[@terrytalksmovies]

It will be interesting to see which direction Sony goes with the lack of success with Kraven.

[@jackfriend4u]

'Matango' is great...a real trip...though you wouldn't want a mushroom trip to watch 'Matango' on!

[@terrytalksmovies]

I once watched David Lynch's Dune on LSD, so why not?

[@phyllisbronock2745]

@@terrytalksmovies Where can I get a copy of "Dune on LSD" from? It sounds amazing. (And here I was thinking that Blue Ray was a disc format for "naughty pictures.")

[@damianmagee1581]

I agree with the Japanese film I love these films. I'm not going see Karven, never thought about him much in the comics. I told someone to stop talking on his phone when I watching Sanjno, he was talking to girlfriend, I told him, do you mine not talking or leave. Then ended his call. These days some people has no respect for others.

[@terrytalksmovies]

It's a weird phenomenon.

[@rattussapiens2854]

Gotta say, being a ‘world famous’ assassin kind of negs future prospects for hits on bad guys. “Who dat?” World-famous assassin. “Okay, best be avoiding him then...”

[@terrytalksmovies]

They call him The Hunter but he doesn't seem to have a LinkedIn profile with his home address on it.

[@rattussapiens2854]

@@terrytalksmovies Probably on DarkLinkedIn, that’s where the oligarchs and other assorted super crinimals hang out …

[@timeliebe]

Just so you know, I went ahead and ordered THE BODY STEALERS from Amazon UK, along with THE SORCERERS and DOOMWATCH from Amazon US. I guess now I need to order MATANGO given it rarely crops up on US television, and the only previous reviews I'd read on it were the Medveds ranking out on how awful it was!

[@terrytalksmovies]

Matango is a great piece of Toho and Honda's output.

[@matthaisrolf8838]

Listening to you describe the limitations of Kraven The Hunter, Terry, underscored for me how underwhelming most set-up movies are. I wonder if this is a result of the studio pulling its punches wanting to save the good stuff for the big one or just a function of writers, directors and actors trying to do what amounts to a prequel for a movie that doesn’t exist yet.

[@terrytalksmovies]

They need to level up and get transgressive and break the paradigms a little.

[@phyllisbronock2745]

"Squawwwwk for Superchicken! Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!" One big plus for the Toho films was that their plots had some relevance to their Japanese audiences, as you mention, such as the atomic bombing memories, etc. The segment at the end of Kurosawa's "Dreams" where the population is jumping off of the cliff because Mt. Fuji is blowing up comes to mind. I get the feeling that Honda and his Japanese peers respected their audiences a lot more than today's superhero film makers do. And therein lies the difference. The Japanese films respect for their audiences seems not to be replicated in the West in general. I wonder if Honda had the American film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in mind when directing "Matango." There are plot similarities, though not full overlap. Stay safe, and avoid that mushroom stir fry.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I love mushroom stir fries. The story Matango was based on was from 1912 so maybe Jack Finney was inspired by that when he wrote Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[@keithwright1621]

Matango! 5 stars!

[@terrytalksmovies]

Unique cinema.

[@captlazer5509]

Agree, dislike dubbed Toho movies, but unfortunately, it's rarely aired that way. Hence, physical media. Keep the off the radar films coming, Terry!

[@terrytalksmovies]

I absolutely will @captlazer5509

[@d.bcooper7819]

Sorry I got here late… did I miss anything? ❤

[@terrytalksmovies]

LOL

[@Nedski42YT]

So why is your video reversed left-to-right? Is it some kind of crazy KZbin copyright algorithm rule? Or are you having a laugh at me and some other people who keep trying to read the titles on the shelves? 😆 Thanks.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Glitch in the matrix... nah, there's a software update error in the camera. I have a hack to fix it in future. Also, you can read the titles in almost any other of my videos. 😀

[@alphawoolf5981]

Shameless admission... I haven't seen most of those high end movies, but I've seen all the Toho monster movies and those actors were all popular in those :) It's a good movie and I'll watch it any over drek like Kraven. As far the dubs versus original soundtracks go, I'd dearly like to hear the original Titra dubs that were originally done done for them. They're gone and been replaced with crappy dubs that Toho paid for.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I stil like subtitles and the original actors' voices. That works best for me.

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

Not shouting cant see on cell phone. Who makes these rules mate ?

[@terrytalksmovies]

Everyone. It's the cultural norm online.

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

LISTEN I DONT DO WHAT EVERY ONE OF NORM. OK IM NOT FOLLOWER CAUSE WHAT IS NORM ISNT. THERE ON COLLECTIVE. I BEEN ON HERE LONG TIME. IF MY GUIDES DONT CARE THEN WHY SHOULD YOU. YOUR ARGUEING WITH ME AS SOME JERK . PEACE. OK I WRITE THAT WAY. I IDNT MAKE RULES. BRAKE FREE OR DIE TRYEN

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

WHO MADE RULES. .I WRITE IN CAPITALS CAUSE IM ON CELL PHONE. YOUR KNIT PICKER.

[@SoundOfSilence-k8u]

No one ekse cares why should you.

[@emilybell7842]

Yay, an easy one. The Ishiro Honda film is better than SPUMM.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I had to find a hook for the video, so I chose a comparison. 😀

[@danthsmith]

Matango is lovely, great Toho art direction, music and effects. As for Kraven...meh. I'll give it a miss

[@terrytalksmovies]

Kraven is mid but I checked it out anyway. With my Critic's pass it cost me nothing. Matango on the other hand needs a new blu-ray release.

[@PuncherOfAbs]

It’s kind of like meeting The fairy folk and becoming a fairy over time. The luminous mushrooms add to the effect of being in a fairy realm.

[@terrytalksmovies]

There are a lot of great islands in Japan. Cat islands, rabbit islands... weird and wonderful places.

[@PuncherOfAbs]

@ spent six months there .... but didn’t get do much island hopping

[@PuncherOfAbs]

Mothra also takes place on an island

[@terrytalksmovies]

So does Crocodile Dundee. 😀

[@PuncherOfAbs]

In the comics the brother becomes the villian the chameleon Master of disguise

[@terrytalksmovies]

In the movie, too.

[@PuncherOfAbs]

I just found about a biker movie that’s very similar to Priscilla Queen of the Desert 1971 called The pink Angels. Ironically the gay version of the Guardian Angels from New York it’s called pink angels

[@terrytalksmovies]

The Pink Angels is fun... until the ending which is a monstrous POS.

[@PuncherOfAbs]

If you think rude people in cinemas are bad Try riding public. Transportation in a big city. No one seems to remember what head phones are for lol

[@terrytalksmovies]

Here, public transport is very civilised.

[@phyllisbronock2745]

@@terrytalksmovies Reminds me of the scene on the bus with Dr. Spock and the Punker in "Star Trek IV." (I still assert that the writers for that film stole the aliens coming to help the whales from John Varley's Eight Worlds story cycle.)