A event on Sunday 1st June. The event starts at 12:00.
This event is part of Forbidden Worlds Film Festival 2025. Visit www.forbiddenworldsfilmfestival.co.uk to see the full line-up as well as buy Weekend/Day Passes.
Forbidden Worlds of the Deep | Dir: Tokuzô Tanaka | 1962 | Japan | 100 mins | Cert. Unrated
Originally released by Daiei in 1962, this was the studio’s first special-effects driven kaiju film, predating the first Gamera film by three years. Featuring stunning life-size practical effects, The Whale God follows a small Japanese village obsessed with killing a monstrous whale that has decimated its hunting parties.
Shaki, whose grandfather, father, and elder brother were all victims of the Killer Whale, is determined to kill it. As an inducement, the headman of the village promises to give his only daughter and all his possessions to anyone who succeeds in disposing of the terrible whale. However Shaki’s efforts are complicated by a brutish stranger to the village also intent on killing the monster and collecting on the promised riches.
Based on Koichiro Uno’s award-winning novel published the previous year and scripted by visionary writer-director Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba (1964), this loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick captures the madness and danger of whaling, combining it with period drama and kaiju monster effects.
The film also stars Shintaro Katsu, best known for the Zatoichi series, and the iconic Takashi Shimura of Seven Samurai (1954) and Godzilla (1954) fame, plus a score composed by Godzilla series icon Akira Ifukube.
The Whale God has never been shown theatrically in the UK and it is possible that this could be the first English-language theatrical screening anywhere in the world in over 60 years, making it a must-see for fans of kaiju films, Japanese cinema and movies in general!
The screening will be introduced by kaiju scholar Steven Sloss, author of the upcoming book: BFI Film Classics: Godzilla, who will detail the evolution of kaiju through the years and their basis in myth and folklore.
This film will be screened in its original Japanese language with English subtitles.
CONTENT WARNING: Please be aware that the film does feature a scene of sexual violence.
Entry requirements: 16+
Forbidden Worlds of the Deep | Dir: Tokuzô Tanaka | 1962 | Japan | 100 mins | Cert. Unrated
Originally released by Daiei in 1962, this was the studio’s first special-effects driven kaiju film, predating the first Gamera film by three years. Featuring stunning life-size practical effects, The Whale God follows a small Japanese village obsessed with killing a monstrous whale that has decimated its hunting parties.
Shaki, whose grandfather, father, and elder brother were all victims of the Killer Whale, is determined to kill it. As an inducement, the headman of the village promises to give his only daughter and all his possessions to anyone who succeeds in disposing of the terrible whale. However Shaki’s efforts are complicated by a brutish stranger to the village also intent on killing the monster and collecting on the promised riches.
Based on Koichiro Uno’s award-winning novel published the previous year and scripted by visionary writer-director Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba (1964), this loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick captures the madness and danger of whaling, combining it with period drama and kaiju monster effects.
The film also stars Shintaro Katsu, best known for the Zatoichi series, and the iconic Takashi Shimura of Seven Samurai (1954) and Godzilla (1954) fame, plus a score composed by Godzilla series icon Akira Ifukube.
The Whale God has never been shown theatrically in the UK and it is possible that this could be the first English-language theatrical screening anywhere in the world in over 60 years, making it a must-see for fans of kaiju films, Japanese cinema and movies in general!
The screening will be introduced by kaiju scholar Steven Sloss, author of the upcoming book: BFI Film Classics: Godzilla, who will detail the evolution of kaiju through the years and their basis in myth and folklore.
This film will be screened in its original Japanese language with English subtitles.
CONTENT WARNING: Please be aware that the film does feature a scene of sexual violence.
Entry requirements: 16+
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