NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Coventry Purely because not all their contemporary monster movies could feature big mutated lizards (Godzilla), flying turtles (Gamera) or humongous moths (Mothra), the Japanese also made a monster movie with giant … mushrooms! Well, I say "the Japanese" but basically it's once again just the one and only legendary director Ishirô Honda who was responsible for yet another imaginative and extremely entertaining cult classic. Honda was an amazingly talented director and he single-handedly directed Japan's finest genre milestones. So… mushrooms! Yes I know this sounds incredibly idiotic and the international title "Attack of the Mushroom People" also strengthens the suspicion that we're dealing with a silly and light-headed B-movie, but this honestly is a very competent and admirably atmospheric tale of terror! Seven prominent citizens, including a university professor, a writer and a famous pop singer, turn their back on the stress of Tokyo for a holiday on a luxurious sailing yacht. There's a lot of flirting, laughing and "La La La La" singing on board, but then a massive thunderstorm turns their yacht into a heavily damaged piece of driftwood and the group washes ashore a mysterious fog-enshrouded island. With a food supply of barely one week, the group rapidly falls apart due to intrigues and selfishness, and what's the deal with those ominous mushrooms that grow all around the island? They also stumble upon a large and stranded research vessel that is overgrown with fungus and the same damn mushrooms! The survivors instinctively know they shouldn't eat them, but what else are they supposed to do when there's no more food? I consider myself very lucky and privileged because I was able to see the original Japanese-language version of "Matango" on a big cinema screen, during a little festival in my country with a focus on botanical- themed horror movies. Granted, the picture quality was quite creaky and the film was interrupted every 10 minutes due to technical reasons, but the charm and nostalgia value of an early '60s film on the big screen is irreplaceable! The concept of the film is one of the most original in horror cinema history, and director Honda maintains an unsettling atmosphere throughout. He achieves this thanks to subtle camera work, eerie sound effects & music, embittered character drawings and frightening monster designs and set pieces. Yes, the mushroom-monsters definitely DO look creepy and the large vessel is truly nightmarish!

Aaron1375 The score here is rather high, but this movie to me was kind of low. Low and really slow. It had some good parts to it, do not get me wrong, but it was incredibly slow moving. Most of the mushroom action takes place at the end, before that you get lots of build up and infighting between the characters and it just really made for a somewhat boring film. The story started out good, a group on a yacht are traveling the seas and are hit with a storm, they are adrift for a while and end up near an island. There is virtually no food on the island other than mushrooms, however, the captain's log plainly states you do not want to eat these particular mushrooms called Mantango. Well time passes on the island, tensions build and you just know someone is going to eat a mushroom and then the action begins. Only this does not really happen, the movie seems to want to really show these people passing away time in the island so I am guessing we can understand why they finally broke down, but I wanted to watch a film with a bit more things happening. Like I said, overall I was disappointed with this one, especially considering it was made by Toho studios who make my beloved Godzilla films, but this one just was a bit hard to watch for me personally. The good, the first scenes on the yacht and them finding the island initially. The makeup was good in places too, especially considering the time period. I also liked the ending. Overall, just not a movie for me I am afraid. I would love to have that rifle they used, however, I mean it was not particularly strong, but it never ran out of bullets!

Scottytrotts I just got watching this movie on DVD, and i have to say i am more then impressed with it. i didn't think Japanese scary movies from the 60's could actually scare me, but when that thing peeked into the girls' cabin, i was freaked out for the rest of the movie. It's one of those movies that toys with your head, makes you think that you can trust all the characters when in the end there's only one that you can trust even then you wonder if he's truly trustworthy or not. not to mention the idea of people eating mushrooms and then turning into them is one hell of an original idea. by the time the movie was over i felt as though i had watched a different incarnation of Night Of The Living Dead. It leaves that feeling of oh my god there was no hope for them at all! Not to mention the Matango are never destroyed meaning that there's a possibility of more and more people going to the island and that they'll continue multiplying. but yeah definitely an outstanding movie that's got my 10/10 rating

Woodyanders A yacht containing seven people gets damaged in a severe storm and winds up on a deserted island. The shipwreck survivors run afoul of both poisonous mushrooms that cause them to mutate and grotesque humanoid fungi monsters that inhabit the place. While the premise sounds laughable and ridiculous, this film works remarkably well thanks to Ishiro Honda's capable direction, an initially light and breezy tone which becomes more progressively dark, despairing and nightmarish as the absorbingly strange story unfolds, Hajime Koizuma's bright, fluid, polished cinematography, the stunningly hideous make-up effects, the believably drawn characters, Sadao Bekku's brooding gloom-doom score, the deliciously spooky and mysterious atmosphere, convincing performances by the sturdy cast, Takeshi Kimura's intriguing and wildly imaginative script, and a potent and provocative central theme on how such basic human weaknesses as lust, greed and selfishness sow the seeds of man's ruination. Offbeat, original and well worth checking out.