#dogora 1964

[ronnymerchant]

DOGORA (1964)- why Godzilla is on the poster is anyone’s guess.

[krispy-krematorium]

Dogora the Space Monster (1964) kaiju special effects

[speedlimit15]

watching dogora(1964) i love that it’s a heist AND kaiju movie. this is so fun

[alienssapiens]

Dogora (宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ, Uchū Daikaijū Dogora), 1964

[tokumon]

Dogora from their self-titled 1964 movie

[mostlygibberish]

I liked the part with the coal.

More of a crime thriller than a monster movie, Dogora was far more concerned with the exploits of a gang of diamond thieves, and their conflict with international man of mystery Mark Jackson, than the creature it was named for. Occasionally during this non-monster movie, something would randomly glow and/or levitate, but you could pretty much ignore it completely and have the same experience.

The human part of the story was mildly entertaining most of the time, and incredible any time Mark Jackson was on screen. However, everything to do with the thing the movie was actually ostensibly about, was dull and uninteresting. They didn't even show most of the major events that involved the creature, instead just spinning in a few newspaper headlines.

When Dogora finally arrived, it was a space jellyfish of unexplained origin that ate carbon and was pretty easily dispatched by spraying it with a shitload of wasp venom. Personally I'd have loved to have seen how they obtained all that venom, as there must have been thousands of litres of the stuff in the barrels they showed being stacked up. 

A decent crime drama, poorly disguised as a monster movie. Not bad though.

[gebo4482]

Dogora / 宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ (1964)

Dir: Ishirô Honda

[spockvarietyhour]

Dogora (1964)

[kenro199x]

Dogora ドゴラ (1964)

Toho Kaiju/SFX 2 Disc Blu-ray set 2022

[quasar1967]

Dogora (1964)

SOS FROM EARTH. IT DEVOURS BUILDINGS AND PEOPLE.

An floating amorphous life-form descends from the atmosphere to consume carbon in the form of diamonds.

[airportsanki]

宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ / DOGORA 『宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ』(1964)

[bens-things]

Dogora (1964) dir. Ishirō Honda

[moonstar-mush]

These extraterrestrial fakemon have a ton of inspirations rolled into one. Tripolyp combines the War of the World’s tripods with the helmet jellyfish. Ooephoe combines an old school flying saucer with an atolla jellyfish. Eeteeaytch combines an alien mothership with the jellyfish kaiju Dogora from the 1964 film of the same name.

These pokemon are believed to have arrived on Earth from another dimension long ago. It is theorized that they may come from the same place as ultra beasts like nihilego and poipole, though it seems lingering in this dimension for too long have caused these pokemon to have lost some of the unique abilities signature to ultra beasts. Nowadays they haunt remote and wide open locations such as airfields, abandoned urban areas, and deserts.

[almasexya]

Diamond Eating Jellyfish from Space (Dogora, 1964)

Like many of Toho’s kaiju movies that don’t star a radioactive dinosaur, Dogora feels like a film that straddles the line between a kaiju flick and something else entirely. But while the other films in Toho’s kaiju lineup are generally adventure or sci-fi films, Dogora is more or less a crime caper somebody dropped a monster into.

I’ve only seen Dogora one other time, and this is another one I got a bootleg of, as the Japanese version is basically impossible to find in the states, at least with subtitles included.

The movie follows some gangster types looking to strike it rich stealing diamonds who are mysteriously thwarted when their prize gets mysteriously sucked into the air. Along the way they cross paths with the somewhat goofy police inspector Kommei (Yosuke Natsuki), as well as the enigmatic “diamond G-Man” Mark Jackson (Robert Dunham), who has his own reasons for tracking numerous reports of stolen diamonds across the globe. The plot is breezy and quick, and with the film having a quick 80-minute runtime, there’s really not a scene wasted as the plot works its way to one of the most bizarre conclusions you’ll see in a kaiju movie.

Thrown into all of this is the titular monster Dogora, which starts out as a vague, amorphous “space cell” but quickly grows into a genuine threat as it sucks up carbon to feed itself, lifting people off the ground, sucking up cars, and of course, eating diamonds.

Dogora’s standout scene is also the only appearance of the puppet meant to represent the fully-grown creature, an otherworldly little number where the giant blue jellyfish descends from the sky, utterly dwarfing the entire city as it goes about looking for a meal. Unlike Toho’s other kaiju, Dogora has no real personality, which honestly works in its favor. Watching a huge jellyfish crush an entire bridge and then throw it back down to the ground is an experience in and of itself, and the fact that the creature is just hunger personified makes its actions far more disturbing, in sharp contrast to the gangster film going on around it. Dogora was Toho’s first alien kaiju, beating out King Ghidorah by only a few months, and it still ranks as their most alien creation to date.

The rest of the film is a bit hit or miss, especially when it comes to how Dogora is ultimately dealt with - having seen the film twice, I still don’t get it, and perhaps I’m not meant to. Mark Jackson is definitely the most interesting of the human cast to watch, mostly because you’re waiting to see who he double-crosses or dupes next.

It’s hard not to feel like Ishiro Honda and Shinichi  Sekizawa phoned the plot in a bit on this one, as the James Bondian antics really have little to do with the monster, which as it is feels underused for how interesting it is. Eiji Tsuburaya’s effects work is a lot of fun to watch, particularly the scene with the full-sized Dogora, though many of the matte effects leave a lot to be desired.

If you’re just looking for a monster fix, I recommend just looking up Dogora destroying the bridge, as that’s the most of the monster you really get to see. That said, with a short runtime and some interesting character work, you could do a lot worse than this one, but we’re not quite there yet. At least, we have a few movies to go before a certain friend of all children rears his ugly head for the first time.

[kaijusaurus]

Dogora, the Space Monster (1964)

[tokumon]

Dogora from their self-titled 1964 movie