Introducing the latest kaiju sensation: Dogora!

Honestly the scenes of Dogora floating down out of the dark clouds made me think of something Lovecraftian.

Honestly I could see Dogora being really eerie if it was in a film that maintained a stronger and more consistent atmosphere of dread

Don't just hate it when you put so much time and planning into a diamond heist, only for them to get sucked up into the sky by a giant space jellyfish?

The monster in this is usually cited as an example of what an atmospheric beast might look like. That’s the theory that our atmosphere, much like our oceans and forests, represents it’s own biome, full of unique and undiscovered life forms. Definitely fringe, but I think it’s interesting. 🤔

At least Dogora got to appear in the NES game "Godzilla: Monster of Monsters" as one of the two sub-bosses of the Subspace tiles, where you have to fight a nest that spawns them until you defeat it.

"DOGORA" is probably so obscure that TOHO will not recognize it and won't flag Brandon tenold for using the footage. Then again, it is TOHO.

The 'space fireflies' comment was probably a reference to the recently reported 'fireflies' which astronaut John Glenn reported outside of his Mercury capsule. They later turned out to be ice particles breaking off of the capsule.

This movie was also referenced in an episode of Sanford and Son by Fred. "Ya know,the Japanese monster movie about a monster that eats diamonds!"

It's weird to have a movie where the giant factory eating space amoeba thing is really more of a B-plot then anything else.

Writer 1: My movie script for the giant jellyfish kaiju is only worth half a movie! Writer 2: My dumb gangster movie script is only worth half a movie! Writer 1: Wanna just cram them together and turn it in as one film? Sounds like how that went down.

Silly as this film is, do gotta give the guy Robert Durham credit, even know he was dubbed over here, the guy did speak perfect Japanese in the films he was in. So kudos.

Of all the pictures Brandon could've used to describe tentacle hentai, he choose To Love Ru. Truly a man of the highest culture.

"Q the Winged Serpent" is definitely the better "giant monster-diamond theft caper" movie.

Unfortunately the first reference in Japanese I could find to "space firefly" was a reference to how astronauts dispose of bodily wastes while in orbit. It kinda made me regret my ability to speak and read the language. Such poetic words to describe droplets of piss. The second reference was to an episode of Space Battleship Yamato and equally unhelpful.

9:17 Fun fact: In original Japanese version Robert Dunham actually speaks his lines instead being of being dubbed by seiyu. Because he was fluent in Japanese. In English Dub (commissioned by Toho BTW) he wasn't as lucky as Nick Adams or Russ Tamblyn and was dubbed by some dude.

Yes, in a sense, that one gangster is a cartoon character: He played the villain in King Kong Escapes, who was also the villain in the 1960s King Kong cartoon series. You remember him: Dr. Hu.

Dogora is such an underrated monster! And honestly, He Should've appeared in One of the Toho Godzilla Movies.

Just an FYI - Fire flys being seen out the window of capsule was a common phenomena during the early years of the manned space program. It is now believed the cause was ice flakes breaking of the craft and catching the suns rays as they rotate. So for the era of the film, the comment does actually make sense

I’d love to see dogora return in another movie, such a cool kaiju

So, the ultimate solution to defeat a monster was a deadly bee weapon, huh? "Bees. My god."

The kaiju Dogora itself is very cool. I like his creative jellyfish alien-like design. He also has some creative abilities. I wish he was used more in movies

Dogora's effect actually look really good. Even more creepy than some modern movies, I think.

It's like someone read a Lovecraftian story and thought "I could make a monster film loosely based on this".

This one has largely has been forgotten, just like Monster from Prehistoric Planet. It's about two giant bird kaijus that go looking for their stolen egg. Quite a bit of destruction in that one.

That scene were the monster destroyed the bridge was so cool, I wish there was more of that

Now I feel compelled to watch this movie & make a drinking game for every time the word diamond is mentioned

Finally, a kaiju that only Dr. Bees can stop

Dogora may be the most underrated kaiju ever

Dogora is such a cool monster design!

The "space firefly" line might have been a reference to the "fireflies" which John Glenn reported during the Friendship 7 mission.

For a minute there, I thought Magneto was lifting up that bridge.

In fairness, this was far from the only time classic Toho made a genre-hybrid movie where the monster stuff wasn't the primary focus. You've even covered Latitude Zero and Matango yourself! But, yeah, this was one of the more awkward hybrids...

Dogora the “tentacle jellyfish” 😉 is actually based on a Box jellyfish this is honestly a great way to show this species of Jellyfish

Yo your reviews rock I just recently went back and rewatched the Hanuman vs Ultraman and The Story of Chinese Gods reviews and they crack me up to no end.

We need Dogora in the Monsterverse!

Ah Akiko Wakabayashi... her and Mie Hama represented Japan very nicely in You Only Live Twice.

The floating drunk guy had me in absolute stitches!!! You are also one seriously funny and gorgeous fella

As goofy as this film was, it was a small part of my childhood. Back in the early and mid 70s, local TV stations played Godzilla, Gamera and all sorts of other Japanese Kaiju and sci-fi flicks during the weekends. Weird as this film was, it had some of the most unique special effects I've ever seen in a TOHO flick. I thought the shower of rocks and the bridge-lifting sequences were spectacular to view. Seeing it as a kid though, most of the plot went way over my head. I brought a nice subtitled original Japanese language copy about 10yrs ago, and it looks beautiful.

If Ryan Hollinger were reviewing this movie, I'm sure he'd have something profend to say about how the humans' obsession with the meaningless diamond side-plot cleanly parallels Dogora's seemingly inexplicable hunger for all material things, which it gobbles up without paying any mind to anything else

Take a drink every time they say "Diamonds" 🤣

"I'm what they call a 'Diamond G-man'." Diamond G is a brand of rice. 😆

Fun fact: The earliest screenplay for the film, pitched in 1962, was called Space Mons (スペース・モンス, Supesu Monsu). Instead of cops and robbers meet space monsters the film was more like what was seen in The Mysterians (1957), Battle in Outer Space (1959) and Gorath (1962). The story took place in a futuristic setting where humanity united on a global scale to address a threat, instead of alien invaders or a rouge star about to hit Earth, this time it's space monsters. The monsters weren't called Dogora until later on but the appetite for carbon, like coal and diamonds reminded the same for both scripts.

14:44 No, I was more thinking of Batman in Amazons Attacks: "A deadly bee weapon. Bees. My God."

Giant Alien with tentacles, it’s quite common in Japan, imagine Godzilla fighting them. Actually don’t think about it.

Toho's remake of Diamonds are forever is stranger than i would of thought

This movie looks like it's basically if Toho directed a live action Lupin the 3rd set in a kaiju movie

I think you are supposed to pronounce each "o" in Dogora as a long "o" sound, with the second syllable being pronounced as the English word "go". This means the first syllable is pronounced the same as "dough". Sometimes, Japan can be quite hard to comprehend, like how they have different words that would translate into the same word or one word could have many different translations.

This review is well timed, as I recently added it to my collection. I saw it a couple times when I was a kid. It didn't age well for me, but I get why people dig it...Dogora was a neat monster, but the diamond plot really weighed it down. It's good background noise for when I want a monster movie on , but don't want to pay attention to it.

Those shots of the monster in the sky over the city were lowkey creepy and well done

Forget the giant lizard. I'm more worried about the space octopus.

😆 🤣 "He Look More Like My Uncle Vacationing In Vegas!"..😆 I bet the shirt made the look indefinitely..😆 🤣 Great Reaction to 👍🏿💯👍🏿

3:06 "Space Firefly" might be a leftover from the John Glenn orbit in 1961. He said he saw "fireflies" outside of the capsule somewhere around passing over Australia. It's since been said that those were ice crystals brushed off the outside of the capsule and glowing in the sun. 4:26 Dr Who!!!

Great review. Dogora has some really freaky movements. Using the puppet in water approach really made it alien, like Earth atmosphere is really unusual for it. Also while the jewels Mark had may have been fake the real jewel was Brandon's Edward G Robinson voice. Myah See?

Brandon's next Cult movie reviews I believe I saw on Facebook of the pics are, Tokyo Gore Police(2008) Night of the Demon(1980) and Lucio Fulci's 1983 fantasy film, CONQUEST, and want him to review a new Godzilla or King Kong related movie and the last in THE GATES OF HELL TRILOGY, The House by the Cemetery too

Next monster review, "Bill C-11: Consumer Privacy Protection Act"... I've seen the previews. SCARY!!!

I learn so much about kaiju just from watching your reviews! It’s amazing how many bizarre films would have slipped by me if not for your diligence. Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into your videos. I do not know how I ever survived without your channel for so long! Keep up the awesomeness!!! 🖤

Dogora did get an apperance in the NES Godzilla game, they were a minor enemy on the space levels.

"This is real interesting...or whatever..." I rewound that part three times. Your delivery was perfect. 😂

Fun Fact: all the Toho movies that came out while the Showa Godzilla series was running are cannon to Godzilla, so this is in the same universe.

In the 1970's I religiously watched The 4:30 Movie, NYC's M-F showcase for movies, and they would regularly do "Monster Week" because it killed in the ratings. Monster Week was almost exclusively the territory of kaiju films from Toho and Daiei (and other companies), so kids who were into kaiju cinema got quite the education. In the case of this movie, it bored the hell out of its audience, so, unlike most of the other kaiju flicks run in the showcase, I can honestly say I think it was only shown once. The monster's flying jellyfish form was memorable, but the rest of the flick? Not so much.

Bee meme? Nah, Nic Cage in a bear suit punching out a cultist.

Dogora is on of the most underused Kaijus out there

The Dogora sound effect was later reused for the sentient meteorite kaiju Bruton

My favorite thing about this is that Dogara got a better role in kicking off the Godzilla Anime Trilogy (even though the monster apocalypse was a better plot than the actual Trilogy itself)

I saw Dagora on TV back in the 60's. Yep, I'm old. I had a dream about it afterwards. Must've been the ghostliness of the creature & it's tentacles. I never call my dreams "nightmares" because they always play-out like movies. Plus if I ever told my mom about them she'd never let me watch monster movies again. Hell, she screamed at me every other day about comic books. Errrr. I'd be a big fan of seeing a review on SPACE AMOEBA (AKA Yog, Monster From Space). Saw that as a kid at an all-day matinee. What fun.

For 64' those are actually some pretty amazing monster effects.

I got suckered into watching this when I was 9. I haven't thought of it much since then, it wasn't until mid-way into your review I remembered the big rock hitting the gangsters.

That tentacles space monster does give this film an eerie look. If only it didn't take a back seat to the gangster/diamond heist storyline.

I did a quick google search, and aside from the space urine examples some other comments have already mentioned, I did find mention of another "space firefly." Apparently, it was an object that got brighter and brighter before going dark again over a period of a few months. Looks like that was as recent as 2006 though. I don't know if there are earlier examples or not.

This movie is perfect to watch while you filter your vodka through Herkimer diamonds! Don't forget they're not just terminated, they're DOUBLE terminated!

I really wish we could see more of Dogora, such an edlritch looking Kaiju. If I saw that coming out of the sky I would crap my pants.

3:04 Every disaster movie kicks off with a "Hey! What's that?!"

Know what’s crazy about Dogora? It never appeared in the IDW Godzilla comics alongside the Gargantuas and Orochi

Getting put in the Wonka tank has GOT to be better than getting put in the wanker tank. I'll show myself out, thank you lolol. 4:15

10:48 Wow, that's almost on the level of "Jill! You're here, too?! - Yes! You're here, too?"

Remember that scene with the Jane Goodall parody on 'The Simpsons' with the enslaved chimps mining for diamonds and she is all with both hands filled with jewels screaming out, "Diamonds! Diamonds!" Pretty much how this movies treats its audience. Had that whole carbon plot and the monsters only once went after the diamonds in the safe. Mildly frustrating when there were no real diamonds in the caper. What even plot, what even?

Growing up in the 70's, I remember Dagora, as well as Matango! Attack of The Mushroom people played frequently on Channel 32 in Chicago. The afternoon Monstrous Movie and Saturday night Chiller Theater

Even as a Showa era daikaiju fan, this one's a real deep cut for me.

It certainly wouldn't be the first time Toho made a sci-fi monster movie with gangsters in it - check out Ishiro Honda's THE H-MAN from nearly a decade before, which was attempting to cross the country's nuclear radiation trauma with the emerging gangster genre that would mature in the sixties with the Yakuza films of Nippon New Wave masters Seijun Suzuki, Teruo Ishii and Nagisa Oshima. It really worked better far better there.

Cool review of Dogora. I like the special effect of the Dogora monster, they could have build on that special effect and make better monster movies .Great review Brandon, you so totally rock !

Maybe they should have called the movie Diamonds are Dogara's Best Friend.

I watched this one Saturday afternoon in 1975 when I was 8 and it was my favorite of the monster movies. The diamond storyline grounded it like an enjoyably campy spy/crime story, and the space monster left a lasting impression on me because it remained mysterious and an unknowable factor. The two things Brandon did not like about the movie made it cemented in my memory, but that's probably due to my watching it through the eyes of an 8 year old. It's a Toho monster so it's worth mentioning. Dogorah positively dwarfs every other kaiju in the lexicon. It remains a very protected property and I'd really like to see them bring the concept back. It was my favorite kaiju since 1975. We're allowed our opinions.

In 1964, TOHO released three films directed by Ishiro Honda and those were Mothra vs. Godzilla, Dogora, and Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster. The man had a kaiju sized work ethic that everyone should aspire for and that goes double for me.

Oh come on Brandon, haven't you hear the famous Quote? *Dimond's: Japans Best Friend!*

Sounds like we could do a drinking game, ever time Brendon and the movie say/show diamonds take a drink of hot sauce or other drinks. Nothing dangerous.

That's a pretty good monster effect. I totally thought it was just super-imposed footage of a jellyfish. I had no idea that was a puppet.

No one will be seated during the intense "I'm on business" scene.

So a movie about jewel thievery collides with a movie about a space monster and you get Dogera

You talked so much about diamonds in this video that I now have "Diamonds are for ever" James Bond theme stuck in my head 😑

I saw Dagora on Creature Double Feature in the Boston area circa late 70s. I also totally forgot about it until this video lol. Yes, it's all coming back to me now . . .

I have eagerly awaited your review of Dogora!! Thank you!

Even “Diamonds are Forever” didn’t have this much diamond talk

phsss everyone knows that Dogora's weakness is a giant SpongeBob SquarePants with his giant fishing net.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This movie almost drove me insane! This was the very 1st Toho movie I remembered seeing as a kid & since I only saw it once I couldn't remember the name of it. I also didn't remember the human storyline. As a kid I rarely paid attention to the human storyline. I just remembered Dogora lifting up the coal plant & the bridge. This movie rarely played on TV & this was the 1st time I saw anything about it in 50 yrs!! My sanity has been saved!

I wonder if "Jean Jacket", the floating, people-vacuuming monster from the movie "Nope" was influenced by this.

I LOVE IT! When I was younger, I used to ignore this because I thought it was "boring" (i.e. few cool monster scenes) but in the 90s I started to get into Asian Crime Cinema, caught DAGORA on late night T.V...and fell in love with it as well as ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE! Gangsters AND a monster? COOL!

I have an early '90's issue of "Markalite magazine" with an interview with Mr. Dunham. He seemed like quite the character, and was part of a stunt racing team that did a lot of work in Japanese cinema. He was friends with the actor who portrayed the "controller of planet X" in Monster Zero, and said the Dude was a Lothario. He also said Nick Adams was a funny guy, but troubled. Again, this was all his take, so I dunno.

Well everyone knows that diamonds are a kaiju's best friend!

I saw this on Creature Double Feature (WLVI, Channel 56 Boston) back in the Seventies. Even back then I thought all the gangster stuff was out of place.