Eclipse from the Criterion Collection

When Horror Came to Shochiku

Edition no. 37

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Release Date: Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Country of Release: USA
MSRP: $59.95

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The X from Outer Space | Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell | The Living Skeleton | Genocide

Licensor Information

Shochiku

Directed by: Kazui Nihonmatsu, Hajime Sato, Hiroshi Matsuno

Featuring: Shunya Wazaki, Teruo Yoshida, Kikko Matsuoka, Keisuke Sonoi, Itoko Harada, Tomomi Sato, Yasunori Irikawa, Yusuke Kawazu, Shinichi Yanagisawa, Hideo Ko, Masumi Okada, Emi Shindo, Masaya Takahashi, Nobuo Kaneko, Reiko Hitomi, Eiji Okada, Ko Nishimura, Eriko Sono, Peggy Neal, Eizo Kitamura, Kathy Horan, Franz Gruber, Yûko Kusunoki, Chico Roland, Mike Daneen, Kazuo Kato, Ralph Jesser, Hiroyuki Nishimoto

Following years of a certain radioactive beast’s domination at the box office, many Japanese studios tried to replicate the formula with their own brands of monster movies. One of the most fascinating, if short-lived, dives into that fiendish deep end was the one by Shochiku, a studio better known for elegant dramas by the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. In 1967 and 1968, the company created four certifiably batty, low-budget fantasies, tales haunted by watery ghosts, plagued by angry insects, and stalked by aliens—including one in the form of a giant chicken-lizard. Shochiku’s outrageous and oozy horror period shows a studio leaping into the unknown, even if only for one brief, bloody moment.

Year: 1967 | 1968
Time: 88 | 84 | 80 | 84 min.