Matango

Kaiju & Kaijin Clash - The Ranking Matango, or Attack of the Mushroom People is the best non Kaiju I've seen from Ishiro Honda, and I doubt there'll be a better one. In fact, this is currently almost my favorite from Honda, right behind Godzilla. I never expected this to be so great. The story is about rich people getting stranded on a lonely island that is fully infected by mushrooms. They slowly lose control over their sanity when they start to believe that the mushrooms may be alive. Well, this is definitely as awesome as it sounds, and I had an absolute blast with it. On top of that comes the amount of thematic depth in here, as this was also about greed, addiction, post war trauma and the decay of any social structures. Yes, the pacing was rather on the slow side, and especially during the first half, I did feel it. But after all, I am convinced that the slow burn aspect is a big part of what made this work. This was just so captivating that I didn't even notice the pacing anymore at some point. Witnessing the slow progress of our characters spiraling into full madness was fascinating to watch. I was also surprised at how creepy this was at times. The last 30 minutes offered a handful of scenes that I'll definitely remember. Ishirō Honda's direction was amazing, though this was a bit unusual from what I've seen from him so far. This is somewhat similar to The H Man, but so much better when it comes to many aspects. The set pieces were great looking, with the whole disgusting mass of mushrooms clinging to every surface. Overall, I had an incredible time with Matango. Whether this is your first or final Ishirō Honda film, you shouldn't miss out on this one. The more I think about it, the more I like it, and I don't regret giving it 4 stars, considering it didn't just give me a good time, but also had me thinking about it a lot. 7.6/10