Another Japanese movie I have fond memories watching as a
youngster is ‘Atragon’, which features
that fantastic flying submarine.
I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the film. My first
memory of watching it was at a kid’s Saturday morning matinée during the late
sixties. I know the film has a cult status judging by the amount of Japanese
produced models that have been released over the past few years.
So for anyone not familiar with it, here’s a brief rundown
of the premise.
In the film, the submarine, Goten-go or, as it’s better
known Atragon is a formidable undersea warship, created
and built by Japanese engineer and submariner, Captain Hachiro Jinguji. (played by Jun Tazaki)
He’s a
highly patriotic man who can’t accept the 1945 Japanese surrender. Jinguji and
his crew disappear, and are consequently presumed dead. However, in the
intervening years, he and his fellow submariners have been building the legendary
submarine, Atragon with the intention of using it to launch an attack on the
allies and restore the Imperial Japanese Empire.
Meanwhile, the world faces a new threat from the undersea
kingdom of MU, a race of people ruled by an imperial Empress, and an empire
that ruled the world thousands of years ago, but had unfortunately, suffered
the same fate as the legendary Atlantis, and was swallowed up by the Pacific
Ocean. However, somehow the race survived, developing advanced technologies and
creating vast power turbines.
Now the MU wants to rule the world again, and send their
submarines to attack shipping. The world is powerless to fight back, as the MU
kingdom is much too deep for any conventional submarine.
But the agents of MU know of Atragon and its advanced design. They know that it’s capable of
reaching their kingdom and possibly destroying it.
The powers that be know it too, and eventually persuade
Captain Jinguji to come to terms with Japan’s modern situation and to use the Atragon against the MU threat.
However, one of the agents of MU has planted a bomb in the Atragon’s secret island dock, and it’s
about to explode!
Is this the end of Atragon
?
Of course not, but hopefully you get the gist of the story, and
re- watching this film, that was produced by Toho in 1963, and released in the
U.S. in 1965; I reckon it stands up well.
The effects and model work are fine for its time. The flying
submarine looks very effective.
The stop motion, Manda, a kaiju sea
serpent, which was included for marketing purposes, looks a bit too cute for my
liking, but I guess you can’t have a Japanese Tocusatsu film without a strange creature.
The themes of
nationalism and patriotism apply to both Captain Jinguji and the MU Empress.
Both are fiercely loyal to their nations, however, in defeat Jinguji retreats
and plans a powerful comeback, while the Empress effectively commits hara-kiri.
There are also comparisons
between Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo and Jinguji. However while Nemo uses his
submarine, Nautilus to wage war on
war, Jinguji’s plan is to use his submarine to just continue to wage war.
But for me, the submarine is what it’s all about. It might be stretching credibility to have a
single Japanese supersub wading in and sorting out an entire empire, but if I’m
ever invaded by an ancient undersea race, I hope there’s an Atragon ready to save the day.
