Cast:
Tomonori Yazaki (Ichiro Miki), Kenji Sahara (Kenichi Miki), Machiko Naka (Tamiko Miki), Hideyo Amamoto (Shinpei Minami), Sachio Sakai (Sembayashi), Kazuo Suzuki (Okuda), Junichi Ito (Sanko Gabara), Hidemi Ito (Sachiko), Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Marchan the Dwarf (Minilla; Midori Uchiyama as the voice of Minilla), and Yasuhiko Kakuyuki (Gabara)
Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla, #1225 - Mothra vs. Godzilla, #1226 - Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, #1623 - Invasion of Astro-Monster, #1999 - Matango, #2250 - Destroy All Monsters)
Review:
"When I make a monster film, I never think that it will be for children. As a director, I’m a man who wants to imagine and express a story. But when it’s distributed to the theaters it’s always the children who are the most interested ... particularly those in the primary schools.”
You might think I am perhaps a bit generous to select films of the Godzilla franchise, at least within its early years. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) was the low point for me in the first batch of movies*, if I remember correctly. Anyway, let's deliver some context to what the hell this movie is in the first place: Destroy All Monsters (1968) was planned to be the final Godzilla film at one point in time...until it wasn't the plan. They thought of developing an animated series with Filmation and while that collapsed, the idea to do a Godzilla movie centered for the children's market with a focus on doing it fast and cheap was an obvious one for Toho to latch onto. Outlandish ideas for young audiences wasn't a new concept for Honda anyway, as evidenced by films he did such as King Kong Escapes (1967), a co-production with Rankin/Bass Productions that dealt with North Pole hideouts and guys named "Dr. Who". The movie started production...in October 1969. For release in late December 1969. Ishiro Honda directed his eighth (out of nine) Godzilla movie, one that saw the special effects scenes shot alongside the drama sequences (Eiji Tsuburaya was given credit out of respect), with each being filmed in the same (small) studio. For whatever reason, when the movie was released in America (with edits and dubs, naturally) in 1971, it was called "Godzilla's Revenge", complete with being on a double feature with Island of the Burning Damned. According to one Honda book, the film was the first of a new breed of Godzilla films that would be part of the Toho Champion Festival, which dealt with entertaining children with films (some re-edited, like King Kong vs. Godzilla) that would occur three times a year - the festival would run for nearly a decade. This was the penultimate Godzilla script that Shinichi Sekizawa did all by himself while Honda (who stated his liking of the finished film) directed two further movies in the 1970s. The next Godzilla movie would be Godzilla vs. Hedorah in 1971.
Sure, the movie can have a few neat little moments, mostly in the fact that it does have some moments that are shot well, and it does try its best to aim for its selected audience. And the acting in the film is generally about what you would hope for a goofy little movie that surely wouldn't be subject to heavy editing for audiences in distant places, suffice to say. Now let's take a hammer to the egg: it easily is the lamest film of the Godzilla movies in the 1960s. I'm not sure how low it will rank among the lesser of the films of the ever-expanding series (does one count the 1998 American abomination in rankings because of the name?), but it fundamentally is just not a consistent movie in its ambition and execution. It may have a few nice shots, but you can still see the seams in this being a fast-and-cheap rush job. It isn't so much that the movie is expressly terrible in action or in its story, it just so happens that it fundamentally doesn't have enough its foundation to make a whole film. It tries to cover an actual issue (note: latchkey kids) but just comes off as short of making it seem authentic beyond "be more assertive" that comes off as hollow, the kid just seems a bit "timid" more than really troubled. Calling it a movie for kids almost sounds like a shield for something that is packaged like a product ready to be churned and churned over than an actual experience. I wonder if one could re-imagine the film to involve a person (young or not) being so gloomy or so warped that they resort to fantasy to try and cope with their life**. Yazaki may not have become a noted name, but he did fine here for a kid actor, which mainly involves seeing a young soul that is caring and imaginative enough to make you want to root for him in his curious trails (spent in his imagination or otherwise). Amamoto is encouraging enough to make an adequate support (remember that you see more of a neighbor than the parents of the lead character, so that tracks), while the paper-thing characterization of Sakai and Suzuki is about what you expect (incidentally, there are a few folks you might recognize from prior Honda productions). There isn't anything worth going volcanic over, even when you consider that going from Godzilla having a son to having said son depicted as talking is not nearly the worst thing possible. I also think it is a bit funny to have a kid-monster talking about being told to fight one's own battles only to have a climax where the kid ends up helping the poor bastard (catapults, rocks, and stuff) anyway. You'll see a few familiar elements from older films without groaning at it being just a "Greatest Hits" collection, at least.
I particularly find the climax ludicrous, nitpicky or not. So you have a kid cornered by robbers (sure) who decides to take action and goes at one of them while it keeps cutting from the robber to Gabara. Cowardly or not, it seems strange to imagine fighting someone that has a knife by pretending they are a monster (to say nothing if it was an adult being shown imagining it). After this and getting to go home, the kid then goes and has a scuffle with that bully by slideshow presentation (get it, because showing violence by kids isn't as ideal as showing monsters doing it to each other) before the kid decides to honk the horn (get it, because it will lead to an adult getting a bit distracted and goof up in paint, get it). I guess one could replace timidness with brat-nature, but whatever. As a whole, this is a movie removed from the usual Godzilla experience that may or may not be worth a watch for its sheer, well, curious strategy for entertainment. It's not a good movie, but you at least see where one could justify spending 69 minutes maybe once.
Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.
*For the purpose of just outlining every Godzilla movie of the 1960s, here's a list with a blurb:
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Godzilla fights King Kong to a relative draw.
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Mothra joins the mash!
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) - A monster so important it made the title
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) - Nick Adams in: Spaceman's Adventure
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) - Terrorists, lobsters, and more.
Son of Godzilla (1967) - A real family drama
Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Mash like it's 1999 in Monsterland
**Taxi Driver came to mind, imagine a Godzilla-Taxi Driver mashup. I may be an idiot, but at least I try to throw you a curveball.
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