Exploitation films

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell

Bleeding skies, a forehead-splitting alien, and an ending with no comfort in it whatsoever.

Matango

Honda's mushroom-people film. Far bleaker than anything else Toho made.

Gamera, the Giant Monster

Daiei's cut-price answer to Godzilla. A flying turtle. Children loved it.

War of the Gargantuas

Two giant humanoid brothers, one good, one savage, tear up Japan. Weirdly beloved, and Brad Pitt's favourite.

Rodan

Toho's first colour kaiju. A supersonic pterosaur levels a city with its wingblasts.

Mothra

The most charming of Toho's roster, and openly anti-colonial about it.

Destroy All Monsters

Eleven monsters, no restraint. Honda cashing every chip at once.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah

The psychedelic pollution one. Godzilla fights a smog monster, and the film goes completely strange.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

The film where Godzilla becomes a hero. Three of Toho's monsters team up against a golden space dragon.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

The most-watched Godzilla film in Japan, and essentially an ad-industry farce with two giant monsters.

Godzilla

Not a monster romp. A sober film about nuclear annihilation, made nine years after.