Gojira: My Review.

Today I will begin my movie reviews in the Godzilla franchise with Gojira, the original Japanese movie that started it all. Yes, I’m a day late from his 64th birthday.

Godzilla Attacks!

Gojira

Directed by Ishirō Honda and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, Gojira starred Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura. It was an instant box office smash in Japan. The film begins with the mysterious destruction of a couple of ships near Odo Island. When people come to investigate the occurrences they experience some type of attack at night during the height of a hurricane. Then the scientists arrive to study Odo island where they encounter a giant reptilian monster standing over the hill roaring at them before fleeing to the ocean.

Dr. Serizawa

The story also revolves around the human characters, such as the lead scientist Archeologist Kyohei Yamane, his daughter Emiko, who is engaged to her father’s colleague, Daisuke Serizawa, but is in love with a salvage ship captain, Hideto Ogata. A core scene and plot point of the movie is the break up of Emiko and Serizawa. Before she can break off her engagement to Dr. Serizawa he shares with Emiko his secret weapon he invented, a device which can destroy oxygen in water. After witnessing the horror and the destruction that this device can do to living things Serizawa has Emiko swear to reveal his secret to no one.

Emiko Yamane

Amidst these interpersonal relationships Godzilla begins to attack Tokyo and with each attack being more destructive than the last. Emiko is overcome with grief as she views the destruction Godzilla has brought to her city and nation. She also nurses a her wounded boyfriend, Ogata, who survived Godzilla’s rampage. With the government unable to defeat Godzilla and fearing more death and carnage Emiko betrays Dr. Serizawa and reveals his secret of the Oxygen Destroyer. At first Serizawa refuses to use his weapon. After being convinced of the wisdom of using the weapon Serizawa burns the research papers.

The Japanese Navy brings Ogata and Serizawa to Tokyo Bay to use the weapon to destroy Godzilla. Once the weapon is deployed and Godzilla writhes in agony and is dieing Serizawa cuts the chord to his oxygen tank to sacrifice himself so that the secret of his weapon dies with him. Emiko and Ogata witness the demise of both Serizawa and Godzilla yet there is no comfort in their victory due to the loss of Serizawa coupled with the awareness that the atomic age has released forces that may strike again.

Hideto Ogata

For myself, both the original Japanese version and the adapted American version are equally good movies. I will do a separate review on the American version of this film, “Godzilla, King of the Monsters” at a later date.

There is a somberness to the tone of the film and an urgency, despair and helplessness that would never be repeated in the franchise to this extent. As Godzilla evolved into a more child friendly franchise during the Showa Era, Toho Studios would not attempt to recreate the seriousness of this first film for many years. Once they did try to a more serious attempts at a Godzilla movie in the Heisei Series and beyond, they would never achieve the the same mood and tone which this one set.

The Oxygen Destroyer.

One of the reasons, in my opinion, that the later movies failed to recreate the same mood is that all Godzilla movies have Godzilla fighting another monster (except the 1984 reboot) and those rampages by the big guy seem more motivated toward defeating a threat by another monster than Godzilla being a threat himself. In the original movie Godzilla was something mankind had brought upon himself and was reaping what he sowed. That was not the message in these later films.

I also think the black and white cinematography and the distinctive musical score by Akira Ifukube also helped set the mood. In this film Godzilla is rarely seen in daylight. For most of the scenes in which we encounter this radioactive behemoth he is shrouded is shadow and darkness. This effect makes Godzilla seem like such a menacing and ominous threat. I think keeping Godzilla in the shadows, but not too much to where he is obscured, is another aspect of the cinematography that makes this film so successful. It is an effect we have not seen again.

Haruo Nakajima

What can I say about the acting? Akira Takarada as Ogata, Momoko Kōchi as Emiko and Akihiko Hirata as Dr. Serizawa were all stellar in thier roles. Takarada and Hirata would go on to play multiple roles through the Godzilla franchise. I cannot levy too many accolades on Haruo Nakajima the actor in the suit that brought Godzilla to life for so many movie until his retirement in 1972 (Godzilla vs Gigan). This was his first time playing the iconic character and in this film he set the standards of excellence!

Continuity of the Showa Series: Part II

I’m continuing on with examining the continuity of the Showa series. At the end of King Kong vs Godzilla we find Godzilla going back to the ocean, although we never do see him swim away, what we see at the end of the movie Kong and Godzilla fall into the sea as they’re fighting…and we see Kong swim away. In the Japanese version of the movie we do hear Godzilla roar.

Mothra vs Godzilla (aka Godzilla vs the Thing), released in 1964, we see a typhoon that not only washes a giant Mothra egg onto the shore but Godzilla himself is washed ashore. Well, since the last we saw of Godzilla he was in the ocean after his fight with Kong, and if he is washed ashore in the next movie that means they are connected! Right? Sure, again that is plausible, however, for me the fact that this Godzilla is so very different looking than the Godzilla that appeared in King Kong vs Godzilla, it makes it very difficult for me to see them as a sequel to one another.

1964 was a banner year for Godzilla because we received two Godzilla movies! Late in 1964 we got Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster which introduces us to King Ghidorah , Godzilla’s ultimate enemy. Although Godzilla looks practically identical in this film, thanks to a repaired head that was damaged in the previous movie, the tone isn’t as serious and we see Godzilla’s continuing shift towards being the hero instead of the villain. For the first time Godzilla defends the earth against an alien threat.

In 1965 we see a new Godzilla suit and Godzilla fights Ghidorah once again in one of my favorite Showa era films, Invasion of the Astro-Monster (aka Godzilla vs Monster Zero). Now technically you can see this as a sequel to the previous two movies, Nick Adams an Akita Takarada’s characters do recognize Ghodirah, so he familiar, but with Godzilla, along with Rodan, now fighting other monsters and defending the earth Godzilla is very far removed from the serious and dark destroying monster he was in the 1954 Gojira. While this movie is a blast of fun Japanese Science-Fiction, it really works as a standalone movie.

From the 1965 film Invasion of the Astro-Monster to the 1975 film Terror of Mechagodzilla we see Godzilla turn into a superhero type character that defends the earth while each movies gets more child friendly. Although the last two movies, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, and the aforementioned Terror of Mechagodzilla, does pull back from the kiddy friendly type of Godzilla movie, they do not come near the seriousness of the original film.

From 1965 through 1975 we do see movies that are one-off Godzilla films. For example, the 1967 film, Son of Godzilla, has Godzilla training his new born son how to fight off other monsters. Next in 1968, Godzilla would appear as part of an ensemble cast of Monsters in Destroy all Monsters where Godzilla is once again fighting off King Ghodirah and aliens. That movie is actually set in 1999 further messing up continuity. In Godzilla’s Revenge Godzilla doesn’t even exist in their world, he is simply part of the imagination of a little boys mind (although there are arguments that Godzilla does exist in that world either as a real monster or as the fictional character in the movies we have been watching).

Although I have focused on the different looks of Godzilla, the conflicting events and shifting tones of the films, now I want to briefly mention that the actors in these films also make me see these films as standalone movies. Venerable actors such as, Hiroshi Koizumi, Akira Takarada, Kenji Sahara, Akira Kubo, Yoshifumi Tajima, and the vivacious Kumi Mizuno all played very different characters from movie to movie. To me, if Toho wanted to make all these movies one continuous series, they could have had these marvelous actors play the same characters.

Well, I am not going to belabor this point. I think I have been pretty successful in stating my case to why I personally see Godzilla movies in the Showa Era as stand-alone films that are only losely connected to one another. Don’t get me wrong, I love each and every one of these movies, yes, even Godzilla’s Revenge, which is considered the worst Godzilla movie ever made.