Ishiro Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director

Period 1: Assistant Director

Honda initially pursued studies in Arts at Nihon University. However, it was after encountering German Expressionist films that he resolved to dedicate himself to the world of cinema. Films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) served as his greatest inspirations. In his nascent career, Honda embarked as an assistant director, working alongside luminaries such as Akira Kurosawa and Senkichi Taniguchi. All three filmmakers were under the tutelage of the legendary Kajiro Yamamoto

Period 2: War period

Ishiro Honda’s personal and professional life was interrupted on multiple occasions when he was deployed to the Chinese battlefront. These wartime experiences profoundly influenced his thematic obsessions in films, which remained constant throughout his filmography.

Period 3: Drama director

Six months after the end of World War II, Honda was repatriated to Japan, where he was reunited with his wife, Kimi Honda. She provided significant artistic support throughout his career and stood by him during his most challenging periods as a studio film director. During this time, Honda directed his first documentary, titled “Ise-Shima” (1949), showcasing the Ise-Shima National Park. He also helmed his initial dramatic and war films, such as “Adolescence Part II” (1953) and “Eagle of the Pacific” (1953). This period spans from 1949 to 1954, during which he seized the opportunity to direct a film featuring a monster known as Godzilla.

Period 4: Monster Director

If anything made Ishiro Honda’s name internationally famous, it was undoubtedly Godzilla. As Honda himself would say:

“Whether for good or bad, Godzilla decided the course of my life”.

– Ishiro Honda –

With those words, the director refers to his entire career as a monster director, from his first film, Godzilla, in 1954 to ”Terror of Mechagodzilla“ (1975). Honda directed 8 Godzilla films and around 17 monster and science fiction films in total. For him, monsters were tragedies in themselves because of their enormous size:

“Monsters are tragic beings. They’re not bad [willingly]. They’re born too tall, too strong, too heavy; that’s their tragedy. They don’t attack [mankind] voluntarily, but because of their physical dimensions they cause danger and grief; therefore man defends himself against them. After several stories of this type, the public finds sympathy for the monsters.”

– Ishiro Honda –

Throughout this period, Honda had the support of the greatest special effects director in Japan: Eiji Tsuburaya. Director of many propaganda films during World War II, Tsuburaya was in charge of directing and creating special effects in kaiju eiga.

Period 5: Honda and Kurosawa

Ishiro Honda worked with acclaimed film director Akira Kurosawa during the production of Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985), Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993).
However, these collaborations were only a small example of a long-lasting friendship started in the pre-war period.