Matango
| Matango | |
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| Directed by | Ishirō Honda |
| Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Screenplay by | Takeshi Kimura |
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| Music by | Sadao Bekku |
| Cinematography | Hajime Koizumi |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Toho |
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Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
Matango (マタンゴ?) is a 1963 Japanese horror film directed by Ishirō Honda. The film is about a group of castaways on an island, who fall under the spell of the narcotic-like mushrooms that grow there, resulting in the people becoming mutated beings.
The film was partially based on William H. Hodgson's short story "The Voice in the Night". The film was initially going to be banned in Japan due to the special effects on some of the mutated humans resembling the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and directly to television in the United States in shortened forms. It was released in its original full-length form on DVD in 2005 in the United States.
In Tokyo, a man travels to visit university professor Kenji (Akira Kubo) who is being held in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. He tells the man that what happened to him sounds crazy, but that he is actually not insane.
A Japanese yacht on a day trip encounters a nasty storm that nearly capsizes it. The crew and passengers include Kenji; skipper Naoyuki (Hiroshi Koizumi); his shipmate assistant Senzô (Kenji Sahara); writer Etsurô Yoshida (Hiroshi Tachikawa); celebrity Masafumi Kasai (Yoshio Tsuchiya), the owner of the yacht; and two female passengers, professional singer Mami (Kumi Mizuno) and student Akiko (Miki Yashiro). The storm leaves their ship in ruin. Without a rudder or sails to steer by, they are forced adrift. A few days after hearing a radio announcement that they were lost at sea, the group arrive at a seemingly deserted island. After spending a day in search of food and water, they come across ponds that seem man-made, full of fresh rain water, along with a seemingly endless forest of mushrooms. However, Naoyuki warns them not to eat the mushrooms, as they may be poisonous.
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Wikipedia