Ishiro Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director

Given the absence of a documentary focusing on the director Ishiro Honda (1911-1993), both in Japan and internationally, I have embarked on the documentary project “Ishiro Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director” with the aim of highlighting the significance of this Japanese filmmaker.

Ever since I discovered kaiju eiga movies (Japanese monster movies) at the age of eight, I decided that the audiovisual medium would be my artistic outlet. I watched and analyzed the greatest films, but it was monster cinema that captivated me the most, leading me to create a documentary about the origins of the monster Godzilla titled “The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga” (2019).

Following its completion and after obtaining my doctorate in Japanese cinema, I felt compelled to produce this documentary about director Ishiro Honda. Not solely for his filmography of giant monsters, but for his entire body of work: encompassing human dramas, war films, his filmmaker’s obsessions, and, naturally, his personal life.

As a former combatant in the Second World War, Honda is recognized as a pacifist and humanist filmmaker. I have always regarded him as the Japanese equivalent of “George Pal” – a director who approached his craft with seriousness, particularly within the science fiction and giant monster genres, which were often relegated to mere adolescent entertainment in Hollywood.

With a diverse filmography spanning various themes, with the specter of the atomic bomb looming large, Ishiro Honda’s works stand out as remarkable contributions to cinema.