Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Review #2525: Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Cast: 

Hiroshi Ishikawa (Gengo Odaka), Tomoko Umeda (Machiko Shima), Yuriko Hishimi (Tomoko Tomoe), Mnoru Takashima (Shosaku Takasugi), Zan Fujita (Fumio Sudo), Toshiaki Nishizawa (Kubota, Secretary of World Children's Land), Kunio Murai (Takashi Shima), Gen Shimizu (the Commander of Defense Forces), Kuniko Ashihara (Mrs. Fudo), Zeko Nakamura (Priest), Akio Muto (Kadohisa), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Kenpachiro Satsuma (Gigan), Koetsu Omiya (Anguirus), and Kanta Ina (King Ghidorah) Directed by Jun Fukuda (#1668 - Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, #2070 - Son of Godzilla) 

Review: 

At this point, the Godzilla movies were appearing to be running on fumes. Sure, Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) was only a moderate success (hey, decent taste comes a bit later for others), but there was still the desire to try and make people all fine with another Godzilla movie by just...bringing back familiar aspects. You get King Ghidorah, a new monster with Gigan (with hooks and a saw) and, for whatever reason, a Godzilla Tower (as one does when trying to appeal to the kids, a park). Shinichi Sekizawa and Kaoru Mabuchi were each approached to do a draft with these requirements in mind, and it was Sekizawa's pitch that won out (apparently, Kimura's pitch involved a large-brain looking alien trying to subjugate the Earth and putting his form into a giant Inca statue). A majority of the soundtrack is recycled cues from previous films that had been composed by Akira Ifukube (even stuff that had been composed for a pavilion at Expo '70 is used). Stock footage from four of the previous films is used for select fight scenes (complete with color tinting), but you get a few new quirks: the monsters shed blood and in one instance, they communicate with each other (the Godzilla-Angurius sequence differs depending on which version you see, as the Japanese version [which translates to "Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs. Gigan"] had speech bubbles like a comic book while the original English-dub [named Godzilla on Monster Island], had distorted growling). For such a familiar movie, it probably wasn't too much of a stretch to say that the movie was enough of a hit to keep the series going while Fukuda returned for one more of these films with Godzilla vs. Megalon in 1973, otherwise known as the one with Jet Jaguar.

Honestly, the bar for a Godzilla for me is a fairly generous one, because what's the point of just judging in comparing them to the 1954 movie over and over if you know that we are in period of Godzilla movies where "light fun" is the goal? Besides, this is a movie that just decides that King Ghidorah is alive when folks saw him killed three movies ago because, well, it's not 1999 like that other movie. I will say though that even if this is basically the equivalent of day-old chili, there are some amusing moments to be had here. I suppose it only makes sense that a group of aliens could come up with a children's park with Godzilla as the centerpiece (I wonder when Godzilla basically became the "defender of the planet" if people who had experienced Godzilla's terror had to just sit there and watch people go ga-ga for Godzilla*), but I probably would be a big sucker for a Godzilla park (it's real, apparently?) at any rate. Where was I? Oh, right, the movie: you've got these totally normal guys trying to get a tape back from a group of oddballs: a manga-drawing artist that stumbles onto a girl trying to get their brother back (who was being held by the park because, um, they needed his input) that had a hippie helping them out. Oh, and there's a woman who does karate in one scene. Did I mention that the aliens actually resemble cockroaches that go around disguising themselves as humans? The acting here (as comprised of by faces that most probably didn't see again in a movie) isn't anything too special aside from chuckles at the seeming randomness of their situation, with the cherry on top is their key part of the climax: they put up explosives onto an elevator, expecting the bad guys to shoot their weapons, because, wait for it: the elevator rings to reveal a large drawing. Aside from Godzilla (as played one last time by Haruo Nakajima) being lasered in the lower section and a few silly shots to introduce Gigan and Ghidorah (which look like toys), it mainly just comes off as an attempt at a highlights reel that has the one saving grace of being just 89 minutes long. As a whole, Fukuda was in a tough spot with cheap production values, and it is easy to send chuckles at the attempts to sell old clips as new, but there is at least some entertainment value to be had with its strange type of charm that shines enough to at least make the experience end up as not being a complete head-scratcher. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*This basically leads to a horrible thought - imagine if that Godzilla park was real, and a person invites someone that they didn't realize had seen destruction as a child and it basically gives them PTSD in front of all the children.

For the purposes of having a reference of previous Godzilla movies, inquire here: 

The original 1954 classic and its decent 1955 sequel

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

All Monsters Attack (1969) - Children and Minilla have to fight their own battles instead of Godzilla

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) - Trippy environmentally hip fun for the whole family

All Monsters Attack.

Review #2391: All Monsters Attack.

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.

Redux: Godzilla (1954).

Redux #167: Godzilla (1954)

Cast: 

Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata), Momoko Kōchi (Emiko Yamane), Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Daisuke Serizawa), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Kyohei Yamane), Fuyuki Murakami (Dr. Tanabe), Sachio Sakai (Hagiwara), with Ren Yamamoto (Masaji Yamada) and Haruo Nakajima & Katsumi Tezuka (Godzilla) Directed by Ishirō Honda.

Review:

"Having seen the terror of the atomic bomb in real life, it is most important to weave this element into the film well, so that everyone will understand."

From my review on June 16, 2012:

This is the first world cinema film to come from Japan [on Movie Night]. Gojira (also known as Godzilla) is a film franchise over 50 years old with 28 films in exactly 50 years (1954-2004). This film is chilling, with good atmosphere, with some night scenes that are genuinely frightening. The effects look good to this day, giving you a scare and two. The setting in Japan with the black and white color of the film make it even more threatening as the effects could be hide any mistakes visible in color. Setting it in Japan after the devastation from World War II only adds to it more. The scene that is chilling is at the near end is with the choir girls singing as the city is in peril. This film may be a bit slow at times, but it is still an achievement in filmmaking to this day after 58 years.

I had been waiting to look back at the original Godzilla (known in the Hepburn romanization as Gojira and occasionally released on home media as such) for a long time. After all of these years, I looked forward most to covering it again probably more than seeing the follow-up films that came in its wake. But to know it is to understand how it came together so curiously: Tomoyuki Tanaka had first come up with a idea to do a giant monster film after the failure to make a film in Indonesia (set during the Japanese occupation the previous decade, incidentally). He was flying back on a plane, and it came to him to basically take inspiration from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and the Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident, in which a boat had suffered from contamination after the Bikini Atoll was going through nuclear testing in March of 1954 (one crew member died from radiation sickness, the others survived). Shigeru Kayama was hired to do the initial treatment (which had ideas such as featuring footage of the Maru that went by the wayside) before Takeo Murata and Ishirō Honda wrote the screenplay; Honda had been hired to direct after people such as Senkichi Taniguchi declined. Teizō Toshimitsu and Akira Watanabe designed the creature under the supervision of Eiji Tsuburaya while two performers would be in the suit. Toho actually had a radio drama air during the summer in order to try and build interest for audiences before eventually showing photos of the monster in newspapers prior to release. The movie was first released in one city (Nagoya) on October 27, 1954 before getting a nationwide showing on November 3, 1954, to profound success in its native country. As people already know, an Americanized version of the film was released in 1956 that was trimmed and re-edited, although Toho would later use the "King of the Monsters" label to refer to the character to go along with even showing the edit as "Monster King Godzilla (Kaiju o Gojira)" in theaters. While he didn't direct the 1955 sequel, Honda would direct various other productions for Toho, such as the color monster movie Rodan (1956) and seven of the follow-up Godzilla films from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) to Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975).

 

Admittedly, it is a movie that is more historical for what it spawned in its wake more than just being a perfect movie. It is easy to see where the American edit found the 96-minute runtime something to try and edit down for some sort of idea of standards in getting to the point, and one might wonder what the fuss is in that buildup to destruction. But admirers (such as the one I grew up with) see those composite shots mixed with miniatures and can enjoy the craftsmanship anyway for a movie that is sobering in its spectacle and depiction of sacrifice that is moody and capably made in a manner that set a blueprint worth cribbing from in the years to pass. In the seven decades since its release, technology has improved in making a movie monster look more "real" and for some there have been some quality follow-up Godzilla films (perhaps in story or otherwise), but the power of the original still manages to strike a nerve in terms of the sheer curiosity it generated in how it all came to be. Even trying to make an American rendition (1998, 2014) only shows that big money isn't everything (I say this as someone who likes some of those films in selective ways). The acting works with the bleak atmosphere in sheer confidence for what its director wanted to do in humanism, working its main triangle (Takarada-Kochi-Hirata) to worthwhile drama, particularly with Hirata in terms of conflict for what is most important when it comes to technology and the face of danger. Shimura just provides the established presence of worried curiosity that makes the mark handily. Sure, you would see some of these actors again in other Godzilla films, but they really did just hit out of the park in tension on the first try in ways that is easier to celebrate rather than replicate. The movie has carefully dedicated angles, as worked on by Masao Tamai with the cameras of the time (namely old ones) to go alongside a dazzling musical score by Akira Ifukube to accentuate the terror. It just manages to balance the fine line of showing terror (mostly in the reactions rather than directly interacting with the creature) without testing one's patience for the matters at hand. The prayer-for-peace sequence is especially startling in its sincerity. The climax itself is carefully curated in a way that you don't always see in impactful decision-making without needing bombast to drive it all home, particularly in those last moments musing about the nature of where nuclear testing or war may go if left to certain hands. Far from exploitive, there is real passion at hand from Honda and company in what we end up celebrating as a whole rather than simply going right in on just the effects. Metaphor or monster, the power of Godzilla is in just how enduring it all is as the years go on in humanistic filmmaking that made for worthwhile entertainment in ways that we still marvel at to this day.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

Destroy All Monsters.

Review #2250: Destroy All Monsters.

Cast: 

Akira Kubo (Captain Katsuo Yamabe), Jun Tazaki (Dr. Yoshido), Yukiko Kobayashi (Kyoko Manabe), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Dr. Otani), Andrew Hughes (Dr. Stevenson), Kyoko Ai (the Queen of the Kilaaks), Kenji Sahara (Nishikawa, Moon Base Commander), Chotaro Togin (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Ogata), Seishiro Kuno (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Tani), Wataru Omae (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Arima), Yasuhiko Saijô (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut Fujita), Naoya Kusakawa (Moonlight SY-3 Astronaut), Yoshibumi Tajima (General Sugiyama Tada), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Hiroshi Sekita (Anguirus), Marchan the Dwarf (Minilla), Teruoshi Nigaki (Rodan), and Susumu Utsumi (King Ghidorah) 

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)

Review: 

Admittedly, the Godzilla series might have needed a bit of a rest. Ever since the roaring hit of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Toho had managed to cultivate a hodgepodge of features involving the title monster, with this being the seventh of eight Godzilla features of the 1960s (to recap: Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and Son of Godzilla) with the last few being island-bound. Ishiro Honda had even directed a few of those films, so naturally, Toho had him and Takeshi Kimura (writer of films such as Matango and Rodan) do the screenplay (this was the only Godzilla film of the 1960s to not be written by Shinichi Sekizawa, who returned for a couple more of the films). Of course, the film was thought of at one point to be the closing film of the series because, well, one can be worn out when ticket sales slowly decline from film to film. Incidentally, this was also near the tail-end of Honda's career as a director, with this being the 15th feature film he did in the 1960s. Of course, Honda and Godzilla would re-unite quickly enough with All Monsters Attack, a feature aimed directly for the youth that would be made on the cheap (filmed in less than three months for release in late 1969) to go with a different tide of success in the next decade (more on that in the future). 

So, what better way to throw a curveball in the series by setting oneself in the latter end of the 20th century (let's just say 1999, but with trips to the Moon as opposed to the actual, sort of disappointingly real 1999) with a place called "Monsterland" that is basically one straight plot with no side characters and, well, a dry tone (the idea of monsters being controlled in some way reminds me of Invasion of Astro-Monster, the one where Planet X wanted to borrow monsters to fight one off their planet). The last film had Godzilla confront fatherhood to go along with some sort of weather device plot and spiders. Watching the film with the knowledge that Honda's intent to show what is basically a "monster farm" basically got cut to just the basics is, well, easy to spot. One just goes with jumping from seeing monsters (featuring a few in close shots like Angurius, back for the first time in a decade, and others in shots totally not to hide further inspection) being given plenty of food to consume to alien women (well, slugs, but they show up as women most of the time in the film) mind-controlling people into slaves. In that sense, it is a bit more impressive than the lightweight charm seen in the last two films (for me, I haven't seen a bad one of these features, but of course that doesn't include the insane idea of watching a dub - in this film though, the dub is apparently not that different). This is the kind of movie that sees a guy jump out of a window and a skirmish breaks out not long after that. The cast here is about on par for what you usually see from people mostly near the end of appearing in these films (most also happened to reunite with Honda with 1970's Space Amoeba). It is pretty easy to say the monster mayhem (the climax being the emphasis) outweighs the invasion, but the 88 minute runtime mostly goes without a hitch, at least for those who are fine seeing a few miniatures (which seems more clear than usual) as one sees a straight-to-the point narrative of trying to get the status quo back that happens to dovetail with seeing monsters stomp eventually. I think the earlier 60s films had a better hold of mayhem (Kong is probably the one people remember by default) but if the series really did take a break after this, one would be pretty content with that here, because it is pretty fun to see coordinated mayhem all in the name of heightened engagement in clear-as-day vision. It isn't merely a film you just knock as "kid stuff", unless one happened to live in a house of seclusion with no figures to imagine growing up. As a whole, Honda and company made a serviceable feature that relies on a few familiar tricks to maneuver a usefully solid time that basically serves as a nice bow to the 60s rendition of Godzilla as one knows it.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.

Review #1668: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.

Cast: 

Akira Takarada (Yoshimura), Toru Watanabe (Ryota Kane), Toru Ibuki (Yata Kane), Chotaro Togin (Ichino), Hideo Sunazuka (Nita), Kumi Mizuno (Daiyo), Pair Bambi (the Shobijin), Jun Tazaki (Red Bamboo Commander), Akihiko Hirata (Red Bamboo Captain Ryuui), Hideyo Amamoto (Red Bamboo Captain Naval Officer), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla) and Hiroshi Sekita (Ebirah) Directed by Jun Fukuda.

Review: 

"All I can remember is that making GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER was like pouring two cups of water into one. I had to cut one sequence after another."

The funny thing to remember about Godzilla is that most of the movies end up with him fighting a big monster for perilous enjoyment, and they all build up to it in their own respective ways (i.e. cliché) that can lend for distinct movies. So far, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and Invasion of Astro-Monster have proven better in the first few of the Godzilla sequels, although obviously Godzilla vs. Mothra is also up there. Most of those films took place within military settings or within a city to build the set-up, which got considerably lighter after the first film. All is not quite what it seems with the island setting for this film. For one thing, the original working title was "Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah"; Rankin-Bass Productions, who was working on The King Kong Show (1966-1969) with Toei, rejected the idea, but Toho liked what they saw while replacing Kong with Godzilla. At any rate, Toho and Rankin-Bass would team up for King Kong Escapes (1967), which combined elements from the show alongside the spy genre as the second and last film that Toho made with the license on the character. Unlike other movies of the series, this movie was distributed in the States only on television, for which it was known as "Godzilla versus the Sea Monster". At helm for director is Jun Fukuda. Born in Japanese-occupied China, Fukuda studied in Japan with Japan Art University before serving in World War II. He was hired to work with Toho in 1951, where he would start as an assistant director. For the next ten years, he worked under directors on films such as So Young, So Bright (1955, directed by Toshio Sugie) and Rodan (1956, directed by Ishirō Honda) before getting his chance to direct in 1959 with Osorubeki hiasobi. He would do a variety of genres until his retirement in 1977 that ranged from action to comedy to science fiction. He was the third person to direct a Godzilla film and the first one to replace Ishiro Honda since Motoyoshi Oda helmed Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Over the next eight years, he would be tasked to direct four more Godzilla features from Son of Godzilla (1967) to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). Over the course of his career with Godzilla, he would approach the films as action dramas, albeit ones that would be tightly filmed in budget and shooting. A modest man, Fukuda enjoyed working with the cast of this film (singling out Hirata and Mizuno), but he did not find any of the Godzilla be his favorites in his career. In one interview, he even was asked if there should have been any sequels to Godzilla in the first place, and he actually answered no (he also noted that he enjoyed making his comedy films more so than the monster movies), where even being sent a copy of the film he made by Toho was "like opening up an old wound."

For the first time in the series, Eiji Tsuburaya was not the director of special effects, since he shifted to supervisor; instead, it was Sadamasa Arikawa that served as special effects director, although he did not take kindly to the cheap demands by Toho, which Arikawa felt was because he could pushed around by them more so than with Tsuburaya (who had his own company and reputation by then). This was the fifth writing effort out of ten Godzilla features done by Shinichi Sekizawa. So instead of Godzilla rampaging the countryside of Japan, he is instead dormant for most of the movie on an island that also has Mothra in the distance in slumber while the focus is on a quartet of humans that are there after being shipwrecked by the title character (Ebirah; ebi incidentally is a shrimp prominent in Japanese cuisine) after looking for a missing brother...after losing a dance marathon contest that would've won a sailboat. Oh, and the island has a group of militants exploiting the land for a formula that keeps the crabby monster at bay. So...yeah, we are talking about a movie where Godzilla eventually fights a shrimp/crab that only seems to fight in the water and can be repelled by militants with a special island powder. I guess Mothra (making her fifth of six appearances in the original series, albeit with a somewhat deteriorating costume) fights Godzilla, in that it involves dust. Godzilla isn't exactly at the "Earth's defender" stage yet, merely placed in the "Well, I destroyed cities, but now I have shifted my interests to being my monster self, so muck off Mothra/Ebirah". Of the cast, Takarada, Hirata, Mizuno, Tazaki, and Nakajima are the most seasoned actors present in this film, and they are fine here, with Takarada and Hirata generally being the most interesting (although Mizuno makes impressions here and there, although the scene spent with Godzilla looking at her like Kong is a bit...weird). The others aren't boring, but the light pace mixed with its tone doesn't exactly make them quite interesting. I admire the scene where they think about their escape and about Godzilla "helping" them before they yell at him to jump off the soon-to-be exploding island; one could find it cynically amusing and ponder the fact that Godzilla lives on again to potentially "visit" another place in time only because someone told him to ump.

So yeah, one is really here to see what stuff will happen with Godzilla, for better or worse. Did I mention there is a condor fight? It actually is the worst fight scene of these films so far, mostly because one can't even see the fight clearly, and it seems appropriate that Godzilla fires it out of existence. Godzilla awakens in a sequence clearly meant to evoke other monsters: a lightning strike. I suppose it goes along with all the non-Godzilla aspects that make for a really cheesy pastiche of clichés, all of which start with comic bumbling and lead right into playing rock volleyball with Ebirah (the icing on the cake is a tribute shot to another movie with a character rubbing their nose...Godzilla, having just done a dance in the film before that). The pace is lighter, but it doesn't mean the movie moves any faster for enjoyment, particularly if one desires to see some interesting Godzilla action, and I suppose it could only set the stage for weirder entries in the series that will range from the offspring of Godzilla to a monster mash to children getting involved with the monsters - there were eight of these films made in the 1960s, and this was the fifth of those released.  If the music by Masaru Sato (a favorite of the director) is memorable for any reason, it is probably because the electric guitar manages to reverb like the James Bond theme, which can either be thought of as distinctive or distracting. In general, the movie acts as yet another cut into the burrowing decisions by Toho and others to shift Godzilla for children with a goal of doing it as fast and cheaply as possible. That isn't to say that Fukuda failed in brining in a new perspective with the film, because he does do a fine job here, but as a Godzilla movie it certainly does fall a bit flat in the lasting enjoyment department. If one can get through some filler to get to parts involving rubber suit monsters, you might have a time here, although the 87 minutes will either feel really short or tolerable enough to finish yet another Godzilla adventure. I can't give it a positive notice, because it doesn't exactly prove a triumph, but I can acknowledge it as a curiosity that may suit others in mind, five decades after the fact. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Review #1226: Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Cast: 
Yosuke Natsuki (Detective Shindo), Yuriko Hoshi (Naoko Shindo), Hiroshi Koizumi (Assistant Professor Murai), Akiko Wakabayashi (Princess Selina Salno of Selgina), Emi and Yumi Ito (Shobijin), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Tsukamoto), Hisaya Ito (Malmess, Chief Assassin), Akihiko Hirata (Chief Detective Okita), Kenji Sahara (Kanamaki), Susumu Kurobe (Assassin), Ikio Sawamura (Fisherman), Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Masanori Shinohara (Rodan), and Shoichi Hirose (King Ghidorah) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla, and #1225 - Mothra vs. Godzilla)

Review: 
Well, here we are. Essentially this has become like a Godzilla Week (with one obvious next step to come), although I do intend to cover a different sort of monster movie for June. Hope you folks enjoy film, for which all four monsters showcased here are also happening to be featured in the new Godzilla film.

As one might say, once you find gold (in case, box office dollars), you go off to search for more gold mines (in other words, bigger spectacle pieces) to scrounge around for. For the fifth film in the Godzilla franchise, there would not be just two monsters this time around; four monsters would be featured (Rodan had its own feature film in 1956 by Toho, right in the middle between Godzilla and Mothra's debut), while the big highlight is the introduction of the three-headed King Ghidorah. The monster was based off of Japanese mythology, such as the tale of Yamata no Orochi, which had featured an eight-headed (and eight-tailed) dragon. Eiji Tsuburaya's design for Ghidorah was modified to have just three heads. If operating the Godzilla costume seems grueling, the costume for King Ghidorah was not much better, owing to the fact that Hirose spent hours being hunched over in a costume with only a crossbar for support, while numerous men in rafters helped worked plastic wires for the neck, tails and wings - which would get stuck together on occasion.

The cast handle their responsibilities with enough conviction to go around; they aren't necessarily aiming to win awards as much as they are playing with familiar kinds of roles (after all, half of these actors have been in other Toho sci-fi films). Highlights in the cast include Natsuki and Hoshi, giving off light charm and rolling with the plot just as normally. Wakabayashi, cast as someone believing themselves to be from Venus (like that famous book, only 30 years early) shines just as well, reserved yet capable at letting this role seem more than a offbeat standout. As per the course, there's plenty of oddball sci-fi/fantasy meshes to go along with the monster mashing, and the human story doesn't tread too much water. I do appreciate the effort to push a bit of an message regarding the Earth and trying to help the planet one lives on, even if it's regarding a giant monster. In general, the series was soon shifting towards having Godzilla be more of a defender of the Earth than a simple towering beast over all, which reflects the lighter tone undergone. The fight between Godzilla and Rodan (turning up just before the hour mark) is a bit amusing, what with a giant flying reptile facing off against Godzilla with one move involving him dropping Godzilla into an electrical tower while they also flail their arms about and bash rocks against each other like volleyball (resolved of course by Mothra spraying the two of them with some pollen). Highlight two involves the monsters speaking...through the translation of the fairy guardians. If one has accepted tiny twin guardians of a giant moth creature by this point, one could probably accept (or expect) anything, so having someone claiming to be from Venus show up is quite a curve-ball. The designs for the creatures are fairly well done, with King Ghidorah looking like a suitable beastly threat with a nice golden polish (changed from suggested ideas of green or red) to go along with it.

Despite the rush to make sure that this film was released on the heels of a film released only eight months prior, it does seem that Honda and his crew (which was the same from the previous film with regards to direction, writing, music, effects, producer) have managed to do good craftsmanship once again with making a workable monster movie. It is a neat grand mess of ideas that I find to be quite wonderfully amusing to go along with. It works as a fine-tuning of the monster mash formula for the series while also having plenty of charm to go alongside a capably consistent feature well worth checking out.

Next Review: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964).

Review #1225: Mothra vs. Godzilla.

Cast: 
Akira Takarada (Ichiro Sakai), Yuriko Hoshi (Junko Nakanishi), Hiroshi Koizumi (Professor Shunsuke Miura), Yū Fujiki (Jiro Nakamura), Emi and Yumi Ito (The Shobijin), Kenji Sahara (Jiro Torahata), Jun Tazaki (Maruta, Chief Editor), Yoshifumi Tajima (Kumayama), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath, and #1224 - King Kong vs. Godzilla)

Review: 
It is easy to see where the Godzilla films started to make their next step of evolution when it comes to this film. Oh sure, Godzilla had significant shift in tone (alongside being in color and widescreen) with the previous film, and its success led to further Godzilla films, but this was the first one to make a monster mashup between Toho properties. The film shares the same director, screenwriter and even the same cinematographer and effects director (Honda, Shinichi Sekizawa, Hajime Koizumi and Eiji Tsuburaya, respectively) from both Mothra and King Kong vs. Godzilla, while certain actors make repeat appearances playing different characters - except for The Peanuts (a vocal group consisting of the twin Ito sisters, who had similar timbre), of course. The stories between the films do have a few similar beats to them as well with regard to parts involving a mysterious island and some fairy guardians, so it's more of a sequel to Mothra than to Godzilla but expecting a grip on continuity between movies can prove a bit silly when faced with monster mashing each other like presented here. The original intent was to have Godzilla be the one to wash ashore instead of Mothra's egg, but it was scrapped in part because of the logistics of a character trying to exploit a huge radioactive body for any sort of money (as opposed to just doing an enterprise about a big egg). It holds itself better story-wise when compared to the previous Godzilla movie, holding off on its headline battle long enough to make a worthwhile 88-minute movie seem like a breeze. It makes a kaiju (giant monster) fight between Godzilla and a colossal moth like Mothra seem actually feasible and not completely ludicrous - watching the former try to stave off two big larvae with spray is amusing and fairly satisfying for a climax that leaves the door open for further ideas (with a sequel released eight months later after release). In American releases, it was distributed as Godzilla vs. the Thing (as ridiculous as that sounds) by American International Pictures, including footage shot by Toho specifically for its release while shortening or removing certain sequences (such as cutting out the use of a gun by one of the characters on the other). In any case Mothra vs. Godzilla is a nicely done installment in the Godzilla series, taking the entertainment levels to comfortable heights with a serviceable foundation in story and a well-earned climax to go alongside its predecessors without trouble. It delivers with excitement for the audiences it aims for with no sense of wanting to stop giving treats of folks in rubber suits beating each other down.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).

Review #1224: King Kong vs. Godzilla. 

Cast:  

Tadao Takashima (Osamu Sakurai), Kenji Sahara (Kazuo Fujita), Yū Fujiki (Kinsaburo Furue), Ichirō Arishima (Mr. Tako), Mie Hama (Fumiko Sakurai), Jun Tazaki (General Masami Shinzo), Akiko Wakabayashi (Tamie), Akihiko Hirata (Shigesawa, Doctor), Somesho Matsumoto (Onuki, Doctor), Akemi Negishi (Chikiro's Mother, Faro Island Native), with Shoichi Hirose (King Kong) and Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla) Directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla [1954/1956], #711 - Mothra, #1092 - Gorath)

Review: 
I suppose if there is any Godzilla film that gets mentioned quite a bit by monster moviegoers, it would be this one - after all, it remains the highest attended film of the franchise in Japan, having sold 11.2 million tickets on original release, with release in other countries (such as America) to follow. It is the third film of the franchise, released seven years after Godzilla Raids Again. The genesis for the film took place over a span of two years, evolving from the original proposition from effects animator Willis O'Brien (known from his work on King Kong) that he dubbed King Kong meets Frankenstein, for which a big fight between Kong and a giant Frankenstein would occur in San Francisco, with a script eventually being fleshed out by a writer named George Worthing Yates. Attempts to ship the idea to other studios did not pan out well in part because of the intent to do the film effects in stop-motion (deemed too costly), but Toho eventually acquired interest in the idea of making a film with King Kong, albeit through replacing Frankenstein with Godzilla to be released in 1962, Toho's 30th anniversary as a company. Honda returned as director alongside Eiji Tsuburaya directing the special effects, with a new writer in Shinichi Sekizawa; this is contrast to the first two films - the first film had a screenplay from Takeo Murata and Honda with a story from Shigeru Kayama, while the second film had Murata and Shigeaki Hidaka do the screenplay with Kayama as story writer. With this new writer came a light shift in tone. This shift also applied to the action with the monsters, such as when the two monsters volley a boulder back and forth. Nearly half the budget (roughly $200,000) dealt with paying RKO Pictures for the rights to King Kong. The film takes its time in setting the stage for its two monsters with its plot of the humans, for which Honda intended to be a satire on the Japanese TV industry. After all, there is quite a bit of humor on the attempts to drive up ratings (for a pharmaceutical company sponsoring TV programs). In that sense, it comes off as a bit silly, but at least it gives you a glimpse at what is to come without having a complete tonal shift when the monsters show up, with it being half an hour before either Kong or Godzilla show up, and the former monster has more to do with the plot for the opening hour before the latter monster makes more of an appearance. In that regard, the acting is just fine, playing itself a bit tongue-in-cheek with a bit of energy to try and make sure things aren't being wobbily held before its key players come in to show their hand. Arishima is the key highlight in giving off a bit of amusement amongst a minimal but passable story.

It does have some of the beats from the original King Kong, such as a trip to a mysterious island with natives that holds Kong defending them against other monsters (in this case, octopuses) along with bringing him back for publicity sake, and he even takes a girl with him while climbing up a giant building. I do applaud the look given to Godzilla, which certainly looks wonderful for his first foray in color. King Kong doesn't come off as well, mostly because the face looks a bit closed in, and the fur does seem a bit too distracting when wondering what kind of fur carpet they cut it from. Admittedly, it proves pretty amusing when it actually builds up to the two monsters meeting for their big final battle in the 85 minute mark, what with Kong being transported there by a stack of big balloons while asleep (the less said, the better). I applaud the idea to try and freshen up the films by going for a bit lighter fare, even if it does come at the cost of the characters; it certainly sticks out in the evolution of these films from films about a radioactive monster that attacks Japan to one involving a monster that encounters other particular monsters in a mashup, which is quite enjoyable to look at. The American edit that followed included removal and re-cutting of certain scenes, making the action seem like it was from a newscast, while utilizing music from older movies (a good deal of them from monster movies) that was shot for three days and $15,500 that was eventually distributed by Universal-International in American theaters in 1963. The versions differed only slightly in the climatic battle, with the edit including footage from The Mysterians (1957) to make a earthquake sequence seem more destructive, slight differences in dialogue regarding speculation over Godzilla surviving or not, and hearing only Kong's roar in the end. The success of this film prompted Toho to propose a sequel (which would've been called Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla), but the project did not come to fruition (they did however help co-produce King Kong Escapes in 1967, based off an animated series that Rankin/Bass had done earlier in the decade). They also had ideas about pitting Godzilla versus Frankenstein's monster, but this was scrapped instead in favor of pitting the monster against a familiar creature in Mothra, which was released two years later. Over a half century later, there will finally be a matchup of Godzilla and Kong, this time by Legendary Pictures. One would expect they will come up with a servicable story that isn't just repeating the same beats like other certain studios - at least monster movies inspire plenty of imagination. In any case, this is a fairly entertaining spectacle piece, having light fun with its big mashup between people in rubber suits that appeals well to both adults and kids alike, whether having popcorn at hand or not.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Review #1223: Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Cast: 
Raymond Burr (Steve Martin), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Yamane; dubbed by Sammee Tong), Momoko Kōchi (Emiko), Akira Takarada (Ogata; dubbed by James Hong), Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Serizawa; dubbed by James Hong), Sachio Sakai (Hagiwara), Fuyuki Murakami (Dr. Tabata), Ren Yamamoto (Seiji), Toyoaki Suzuki (Shinkichi), Tadashi Okabe (Dr. Tabata's Assistant), Toranosuke Ogawa (President of Company), and Frank Iwanaga (Security Officer Tomo), with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka (Godzilla) Directed by Terry Morse, as originally directed by Ishirō Honda (#167 - Godzilla, #711 - Mothra, and #1092 - Gorath)

Review: 
The original Godzilla was a success upon release in 1954. Over nine million tickets were sold in Japan upon initial run in Japan (which remain the second most attendance for a Godzilla film in Japan) - it soon found its way to being distributed to the United States - in Japanese-American neighborhoods. In 1955 (the same year that Toho would release Godzilla Raids Again), the international rights for the film would be sold to an American group interested in adapting it for further audiences in America, led by Joseph E. Levine, who was involved in over 400 films in his life-tiem as either producer, distributor, or financier (ranging from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians to The Producers). 20 minutes of footage with Burr, alongside stand-ins were edited into the feature, trying (for 1956 standards) to make it seem that he is part of the action, with a bit of dubbing involved when not having Burr just ask someone that he knows to help translate what is going on. The run-time is obviously different from before, with Gojira running at 96 minutes and this lasting 80 minutes. It feels strange to see this one after nearly seven years since I viewed the original - so it is interesting to see what I viewed once again (for the most part), if only to remember how serious it had taken itself (such as shots involving people trapped under rubble), with the black-and-white cinematography helping to make the sequences with Godzilla really stand out in terror. A good deal of the subtext involving the horrors of nuclear testing (along with character elements) is cut out, which admittedly does make for a more stream-lined movie, which I suppose is preferable to dubbing the whole dialogue - even if it does undercut the ultimate decision made in the climax a bit. Burr gives a fairly wooden performance with such a strange role of being in the background of impactful events in the film and occasional dialogue to other characters (one sequence amusingly having him talk to the back of someone's head) that would probably work better for an audio play than anything. He doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the actual film, which in its own right still holds up well. If given the choice between watching the original film with subtitles, a dub, or this, the easy choice for me is still the film in its original 1954 film, but this manages to be a fair second choice. After all, this is the version that audiences outside of Japan were introduced to, lingering as a drive-in favorite and in TV syndication for years on end. It treats the original (and its cast members) with respect, letting them be in the forefront (beside sequences with Godzilla, naturally) just as before.

Believe it or not, this isn't the last time the film would receive edits for release in another country. Italian filmmaker Luigi Cozzi made further edits in 1977 to this film, colorizing the film (hence why it the credits list it as presented as in Spectorama 70) along with adding new scenes (such as Godzilla destroying a train and various stock footage) that made it last 105 minutes; it is referred to as "Cozzilla" in most circles, with limited availability besides the Internet Archive. In 1985, New World Pictures released Godzilla 1985, a re-edit of Toho's The Return of Godzilla (1984) that served as a follow-up to the original film, including additional footage with Burr reprising his role of Martin from this feature. It shouldn't be forgotten that Godzilla, King of the Monsters! soon found its way to Japan, being released in 1957 under the title Kaiju Ō Gojira (translating to "Monster King Godzilla"). In any case, while this film loses some of the underlying structure that made the original Gojira a riveting monster movie, it holds itself well enough with its foundation to make for an interesting piece of entertainment nonetheless.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Godzilla Raids Again.

Review #1098: Godzilla Raids Again.

Cast: 
Hiroshi Koizumi (Shoichi Tsukioka), Setsuko Wakayama (Hidemi Yamaji - Koehi's Daughter), Minoru Chiaki (Koji Kobayashi), Takashi Shimura (Dr. Kyohei Yamane-hakase), Masao Shimizu (Zoologist Dr. Tadokoro), Seijirô Onda (Captain Terasawa of Osaka Defense Corps), Sônosuke Sawamura (Hokkaido Branch Manager Shingo Shibeki), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Tajima, Member of Osaka Defense Corps), with Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), and Katsumi Tezuka (Anguirus) Directed by Motoyoshi Oda.

Review: 
Six years after doing the original film (#167), I figured it was finally time to do the sequel. Apologies for the wait.

The original film managed to evoke its share of terror and fine moments with its monster in 96 minutes, being an interesting piece of world cinema from Japan in my eyes. It had its share of human drama that I found to be moderately entertaining to accompany the narrative, and it had a conclusion that felt satisfying. Six months after its release, a sequel, going by the title of Godzilla Raids Again (whose title in Japan translates to Godzilla's Counterattack), and it certainly tried to stand out - for better or worse. For one thing, Godzilla fights another monster (this one called Anguirus), with the explanation being that the two monsters were brought back to life by the bomb that had awoken the original Godzilla, and naturally they fight each other, complete with miniature sets and destroying a pagoda. Like before with the original, Eiji Tsuburaya assisted with the special effects, serving as Director Of Special Effects for this film, and they certainly fit well for the spectacle that plays out on screen. The human drama this time isn't too particularly interesting, having its share of cliches and actions that you'd probably expect, and it borders a bit on tedious at moments but it proves to be mildly conventional enough to fit fine. Koizumi and the others (including Shimura briefly reprising his role from the earlier movie) do okay in carrying the movie to the points where it needs to go in its 81 minute run-time. The film isn't as good as the original film in the sense that it doesn't resonate so much with its action and narrative, but it does prove to be a fairly decent product of entertainment. It would be seven years until King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) continued the series.

One year after the release of this film, the original film was heavily re-edited in order to be released into American audiences, which was released as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, with new scenes filmed with Raymond Burr describing the action that occurs in the movie that were directed by Terry Morse. In 1959, a re-edited version of the sequel followed (after trying to make a new film with the effect footage dubbed The Volcano Monsters failed), with it being called Gigantis the Fire Monster. This version, released into U.S theaters by Warner Brothers, had numerous edits such as replacing the original music by Masaru Satō with stock music, dubbing over the voices (with such voices like Paul Frees and George Takei), and even replacing Godzilla's roar with Anguirus' roar, while being released in a double bill with Teenagers from Outer Space. It should be noted that both films in their original form had played in theaters in Japanese-American neighborhoods, with the re-edited version of the first film being released in Japan in 1957. In any case, the modern age has led to the original versions of either film (and the re-edits) being more available, and it's not hard to see why as both of these movies are fine pieces of entertainment, with Godzilla Raids Again serving as a fair sequel for any sort of audience.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.