Rodan

In a coal-mining town, a series of accidents and disappearances sends workers into a deepening underground pit. Mining engineer Shigeru Kawamura takes part in the search, and the investigation turns up a giant insect-like creature that has been roused from its long slumber beneath the earth. After the monster attacks the nearby community, Shigeru ventures further into the tunnels and finds evidence of something even larger and more dangerous: a prehistoric flying reptile. A second creature soon appears, and the two take their destruction to the skies above Fukuoka.

Ishirō Honda directed the film, working from a screenplay by Takeo Murata and Takeshi Kimura, with Tomoyuki Tanaka and Frank King producing. It was the fourth of the twenty-five films Honda directed in chronological order, following Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and preceding A Rainbow Plays in My Heart: Part 1. Kenji Sahara leads the cast as Shigeru, alongside Yumi Shirakawa as Kiyo, Akihiko Hirata as Professor Kyuichiro Kashiwagi, Minosuke Yamada as Mining Chief Osaki, Yoshifumi Tajima as Izeki and Akio Kobori as Police Chief Nishimura, among forty-seven credited performers.

Released in Japan in December 1956, the film runs seventy-two minutes and belongs to the horror and science fiction genres. It took in about one million dollars at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.2 out of 10 from roughly 6,700 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.5 out of 10 from about 196 votes. A critics' score of 5.9 out of 10 from twelve reviews places it slightly below the audience ratings on both platforms.