A Celebration of Showa Godzilla Cinema

[bac0n]

All of you on this board who know thing one about me, know that I have loved Godzilla for a loooooonng time - but I don't think that many of you know just how long I mean when when I say "a looooonnnng time." For those of you who need to be brought up to speed, consider the below picture.

https://i.ibb.co/LktVxk9/young.jpg

By my reckoning, this picture was taken no later than Easter weekend 1979. I'm the guy on the right, in case you were wondering, and that's my Godzilla doll, which was my teddy bear. I still miss that thing.

I've loved Godzilla flicks all my life. My own Mom and Dad tell me that the first movie they could get me to sit through without pitching a fit was Godzilla vs. The Cosmic Monster (Bambi was a shitshow, FYI) and after that, they were searching for any local showing of any G-flick cuz they knew I would be transfixed and they could get some down time. That's how I saw Gigan, Megalon, you name it. 40 years later, it still works, only this time it is my children who are benefiting from my obsession. Just pop in a Showa G-Flick and I'm good for the next two hours, guaranteed.

But enough about me, let's talk about the Showa Era, which was the reign of Emperor Showa, known more generally as Emperor Hirohito. It saw a rather... tumultuous time for our friends in The Land of the Rising Sun - a move toward totalitarianism, ultra-nationalism, and imperialism which, well, cost them dearly - they remain, after all, the only nation to suffer a direct nuclear strike.

The Showa Era would start in 1926, and go to 1989. And this is where the Showa Era Godzilla films get their name - they had a single continuity from Gojira in 1954 through the last Showa Era Godzilla movie, The Terror of Mechagodzilla, in 1975. Curiously, Godzilla 1984 (Godzilla 1985 in America) which technically was released in the Showa Era, is considered a Heisei era Godzilla film, but we can talk about that when the Heisei Criterion Collection is released.

Here is the plan. I am going to watch the Godzilla films in the order they were released, leveraging as much as I can the understanding I have gained through the decades of studying Japanese film, Japanese history, Japanese culture, and, yes, even Japanese language. I love these films, and I love these people. My hope is that after reading all of this self indulgence, you just might understand why.

Tomorrow I'll lay out the context, showing you the artists and dreamers, both behind the camera and in front of it, who were responsible for bringing these great beautiful messes to life. Then I will lay into the films, starting with a side by side comparison of Gojira, the original Japanese release, with Godzilla, the American release. Stay tuned!

[Dukefrukem]

Subscribed

[MadMan]

Yey!

[Skitch]

Oh man am I here for this. Other than the Nolan bawm, this is the only thread on Match Cut that I can hear score when I click on it.

[bac0n]

Anybody who's sat through the credits at the end of a movie know that it takes a lot of people to make a film, and the Godzilla Showa films were no exception. Here are some of the major players who made the films that captivated me in my youth and still excite me to this very day.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/godzilla/images/3/37/Tomoyuki_Tanaka.jpg

The Dreamer: Tomoyuki Tanaka, Producer
If any one man can be called The Father of Godzilla, it's Tomoyuki Tanaka. The story goes that he was on a flight back to Japan from a failed attempt at making a war film in Indonesia, when he looked down at Bikini Atoll, where not long before the United States had tested the hydrogen bomb, a hundred times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He wanted to create something that symbolized the horror of the atomic age, and Godzilla was born. Tanaka-sama would go on to produce every film in the Showa Era, and also the Heisei era after that, dying two years after the last Godzilla film in the Heisei Series, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, was released. Roland Emmerich's 1998 Godzilla film was dedicated to Tanaka's memory, making that about the only thing that film did right.

https://i.ibb.co/yk2XcWY/honda.jpg

The Storytellers: Ishiro Honda & Jun Fukuda, Directors
All but two of the Showa Era Godzilla films would be directed by one of these two men, but by and large, the director most associated with the franchise is Ishiro Honda, and deservedly so, for he is the one who came up with the original story and directed the original Gojira, as well as some of the most loved films in the series - Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster and Destroy all Monsters, definitely the most iconic of the Showa g-flicks. A few films into the Showa era, tho, he would move on to work with his best buddy, a filmmaker you may have heard of, one Akira Kurosawa (cheers, KF). Taking the helm in his place would be Jun Fukuda, who would add his own touch to the films, with a more light-hearted, action-oriented approach, directing such classics as Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla, the zany Godzilla vs. Megalon, and the woefully underappreciated Ebirah Horror of the Deep.

http://wikizilla.org/w/images/d/db/3297054060_4dd8ccf51c1.jpg

The Magician: Eiji Tsuburaya, Director of Special Effects
There are people who call Eiji Tsuburaya the Japanese Ray Harryhausen, but I disagree: Ray is the American Eiji Tsuburaya. I'm kidding. Sorta. All joking aside, there is a definite relationship between the accomplishments of the two, as Tsuburaya, inspired by Harryhausen's stop-motion work on King Kong and The Beast From 20000 Fathoms, wanted to employ similar techniques for Godzilla. Unfortunately, such an approach was unpractical for the scale of monster work that Eiji envisioned, so he went with a different approach, putting a man in a rubber suit and have him smash miniature towns - and thus was born one of the most enduring tropes of Daikaiju Cinema.

Fun fact: by the time Godzilla was to start, Eiji had his own production company, Tsuburaya Productions, which would go on to create the Ultraman series, and with it, an entire new genre of films and TV shows called Tokusatsu - giant robots whooping monster ass - which would birth such franchises as Kamen Rider, Zone Ranger, Giant Robo, and of course the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

https://i.ibb.co/Mpz1VNX/Akira-Ifukube.jpg

The Artist: Akira Ifukube, Composer
John Williams. John Barry. Danny Elfman. And yes, Akira Ifukube. There are few people who have produced so iconic and memorable a soundtrack to a particular film as Akira Ifukube. He originally wanted to be a forest ranger, but an injury forced him into something a little less physically demanding, so he opted for composing music. It's his previous life as a forest ranger that got him his first soundtrack writing gig for the movie Snow Trail, which also happens to be Toshiro Mifune's first acting gig. Go figure.

Fun fact: In addition to creating the legendary Godzilla March, Ifukube is also credited with coming up with Godzilla's iconic roar - by drawing a leather strap along the strings of a stand-up bass.

Next: a look at some of the stars who shined in front of the camera.

[megladon8]

I'm loving this. I, too, have loved Godzilla since childhood.

I didn't know about the birth of Godzilla's roar. That is cool beans.

[origami_mustache]

Cool! I binged through all the Godzilla and adjacent films up through the 60s a few years ago and posted screenshots on my blog. It was a lot of fun. Eventually I'd like to get through the 70s films too.

[MadMan]

At some point that Criterion box set will be mine. Oh yes.

[bac0n]

At some point that Criterion box set will be mine. Oh yes.

Oh, it’s definitely worth the money. There is a lot of new info that I have learned, and the interviews with Akira Takarada and Akira Ifukube could not be more charming.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bac0n]

IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA

https://www.nippon.com/en/ncommon/contents/views/45042/45042.jpg
The Man in the Rubber Suit: Haruo Nakajima
If you watched a Toho daikaiju film between the years of 1954 and 1972, chances are you were watching Haruo Nakajima in the monster suit. Not even that, he also made appearances in several noteworthy Kurowawa (cheers KF) films, including Seven Samurai and Yojimbo (sans suit, of course). You'd think that any old fella could hop in a giant monster suit and stomp around, but Eiji Tsubaraya considered Nakajima's work invaluable, and insisted that Nakajima do the honors every time. Regardless, Nakajima was a total badass, working through multiple injuries, particularly in the original Gojira, and working inside of a heavy stifling bulky sauna, especially within the first iterations of the Godzilla suits.

Fun Fact: Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019) was dedicated to Nakajima's memory.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5d/e9/d0/5de9d068438941c503b7a32ffe5985 f5.jpg
The Respected Elder: Takashi Shimura
It cannot be overstated, the amount of legitimacy that the involvement of Takashi Shimura lent to the original Gojira project, which apart from him, was largely cast with relatively unknown actors. Already an industry titan when Gojira was released, Shimura had 20 years and over a hundred films under his belt, including such landmark works as Drunken Angel, Rashomon, Ikiru, and of course Seven Samurai, which released only a few months before Gojira did in 1954. How's that for a year's worth of work: Playing the role of the elder Samurai in what would become a pillar of cinema, and then a few months later, playing the role of the elder scientist in another pillar of cinema?

Fun Fact: Shimura can trace his lineage directy to actual samurai.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/02/52/0102521254c63d78481f49911029c2 b3.jpg
The Dashing Hero: Akira Takarada
Daikaiju flicks have had many dashing heroes over the years, but Akira Takarada has filled that role more than his fair share, from the Original Godzilla, to Mothra vs. Godzilla, even taking a turn as an anti-hero in Ebirah Horror of the Deep. His most recent Toho Godzilla role was in the movie Final Wars, where he played the role of Japan's Prime Minister. Takarada remains grateful of his legacy and of his fans to this day, and still travels the world to various conventions in his 80s. He made it all the way to Chicago for G-fest as recently as 2012.

Fun Fact: Takarada filmed scenes for Gareth Edwards' 2014 Godzilla, but they were ultimately deleted, despite his name remaining in the credits. Reminds me that I need to check the deleted scenes for that film...

https://www.aveleyman.com/Gallery/2017/H/84763.jpg
The Troubled Genius: Akihiko Hirata
With the most recognizable role in the original Gojira film, Hirata would make his first mark as the troubled scientist Dr. Serizawa, faced with the impossible decision of saving Japan at the risk of dooming the world. He would go on to be perhaps the most prolific actor in the Toho stable, appearing in most of the Showa era films in some way or another, and many Tokosatsu programs as well, before bookending the Showa Era Godzilla films in Terror of Mechagodzilla, as, you guessed it, a troubled scientist.

https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2015/151/147281600_1433191125.jpg
The Smartest Man in the Room: Hiroshi Koizumi
Speaking of doctors, another of the Daikaiju tropes is that no matter how outrageous the initial hypothesis, the scientist is always right - and most of the time, that scientist would be Hiroshi Koizumi. Although his first daikaiju role was actually in Godzilla Raids Again as an airplane pilot, every role that would follow would be that of a doctor or scientist, starting with Mothra as Chujo-sensei, then Godzilla vs. Mothra as Mirua-sensei, then Ghidorah as Miura-sensei, then Mechagodzilla as Wagura-Sensei. In his old age he would lament that he could have put more effort into his acting, but I disagree; the role of the calm, handsome know-it-all he sank into as comfortably as putting on a pair of slippers.

Fun Fact: Koizumi would also play a professor in the Heisei Era Return of Godzilla (1984) as well as reprising his role from Mothra for Millenium Era Godzilla X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo SOS, which means he played some sort of professorial role in three of the four Godzilla film eras (sadly, he passed away a year before the start of the Reiwa Era, which commenced with 2016's Shin Gojira).

Next: Gojira (the 1954 original) & Godzilla King of the Monsters (the 1956 Americanized version) side-by-side comparison

[megladon8]

Takashi Shimura was indeed next level.

I love what you said about his presence lending legitimacy to the project. Would you equate that to, say, Bryan Cranston in the 2014 film?

[bac0n]

Takashi Shimura was indeed next level.

I love what you said about his presence lending legitimacy to the project. Would you equate that to, say, Bryan Cranston in the 2014 film?

I definitely would, good point. I imagine Godzilla 2K14 would not have done nearly as well at the box office, were it not for Cranston's involvement.

[MadMan]

Takashi Shimura rocks.

[bac0n]

Gojira (1954) & Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Although built on the same skeleton, starring the same people (mostly) and shot with the same cameras (mostly), the American and Japanese releases of the original Godzilla are completely different films. The difference can be summarized with the treatment of a single shot in act two, a brief scene involving a mother and her children, no more than ten seconds long, which appeared in the second act when Godzilla was laying waste to Tokyo.

https://elliesthoughts813.files.wordpr ess.com/2019/06/gojira-godzilla-1954-cowering-mother-children.png?w=750

But before I describe the scene, I want to briefly touch on the social and political climate existing at the time in the two countries into which the films were thrust.

In Japan, the threat of nuclear holocaust was a very real and palpable thing. Although nine years had passed since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American occupation following the war had ended only two years prior. This is important, considering that The Americans during the occupation were pretty much in control of the Japanese press, and basically censored any press casting them in a less than positive light - and this included anything to do with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. It wasn't until the occupation ended in 1952 that the stories of the human cost, the horrifying devastation of the bombings, started becoming common knowledge. So, for many Japanese in the year 1954, the horror was very new, the wound was very fresh.

And then there was The Daigo Fukuryū Maru.

With a name that, in retrospect, rather ironically translates to "Lucky Dragon Number Five", the fishing vessel carried a crew of 23 men, and they had the misfortune of being too close to The Bikini Atoll on March 1 1954, when the US detonated their first hydrogen bomb. Although well outside of the US restricted zone, they were well inside the range of the irradiated ash that rained down upon them, this atomized death that would eventually be called "fallout". All of the crew got sick with radiation poisoning. Six months later, one of them died. The story ruled the headlines all that year. A little over a month after the Lucky Dragon's crewman's death, the tragedy still fresh in peoples' minds, Gojira was released.

Meanwhile, in America, a different trouble was on peoples' minds. The late forties through the middle fifties saw the rise of the second Red Scare, which manifested in sinister form under the moniker of McCarthyism, and 1954 was the year that the wave finally crashed with six simple words: "have you no sense of decency?"

Still, the Korean War had just ended, and sabre rattling was in full swing at the time, with many in Hollywood having had their careers ruined by being labeled as communist sympathizers, so there was little appetite in making anti-war films and getting on the radar of the House Unamerican Affairs Committee. Still, people liked their big blockbuser movies, and execs in Hollywood saw the opportunity for making some bucks with taking a Japaneses monster movie and... doctoring it up a bit.

So, back to that scene.

In both, it's ashot of a mother and her children cowering in terror as Godzilla approaches. In the American version, we linger for a second or two, then it's back to Godzilla without much to say. The mother is saying something, but it's untranslated, and amidst the cacophony, comes across simply as terrified whimpering.

In the original Japanese version, though, we find out what she is actually saying. Six simple words:

https://i.ibb.co/NnX3RFP/godzilla-1.png (https://imgbb.com/)

With a simple translation, what was originally presented to the Americans as, forgive my callousness, as a set piece, becomes an absolutely devastating statement in its original portrayal: a doomed mother trying to comfort her doomed children by saying they shall soon join their dead father, presumably lost in the war, in death.

And Honda won't let you look away from it, either. He lingers on that shot for a while, to make sure it sinks in and hits you right square in the sternum. And that is indicative of his approach to the entire film as a whole, which presents itself not as a blockbuster giant monster mayhem extravaganza, but as a metaphor, a statement of the horrors of war and of the atomic age, and of the struggles of a Japan caught in a crossroads, between a future coming too fast and a past it hadn't yet reconciled with.

By this comparison, the American version doesn't hold up so well as a film on its own, to be perfectly honest with you, but knowing the context in which it was made does turn it into an interesting lens into the attitudes of the time. Aaron Burr, the tall dark, handsome and resolute reporter who serves as a symbol of American exceptionalism, and in a way, a hopeful sense that Japan and America have patched their differences and are okay now, and it did, after all, serve as a foot in the door for Japanese cinema worldwide.

A Japanese American served as Aaron's side kick and proxy, explaining to American audiences the goings on unfolding around them. However, he was for the most part subservient to Burr, despite being a law figure, in which case it should have been the other way around. I wonder what was going through the mind of Frank Iwanaga, who played Burr's handler, as he was shooting his scenes. I wonder if he spent time in Japanese internment camps...

Be that as it may, if you've only seen the American version of Godzilla, you really owe it to yourself to see the Japanese version.

Next: Godzilla Raids Again

[Scar]

SUBSCRIBED.

[megladon8]

I think I've experienced the opposite of what you said at the end of this entry, bac0n - I've only ever seen the Japanese original, and never the Americanized version.

This made me want to watch both, double feature style.

[bac0n]

I think I've experienced the opposite of what you said at the end of this entry, bac0n - I've only ever seen the Japanese original, and never the Americanized version.

This made me want to watch both, double feature style.

Wow, lucky you! I didn't see the original Japanese version until it was released to the theatres in 2004 for its 50th anniversary. Needless to say, it was a rather mind-blowing experience.

[bac0n]

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

https://antifilmschoolsite.files.wordp ress.com/2013/07/godzilla-raids-again-2.jpg

As you may have guessed, Gojira was a huge hit when it was released in fall of 1954, and a mere three weeks later, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was ordered to pound out a follow-up so as to capitalize on the hype and popularity of the big beast. Oh, and Tomoyuki, old buddy, old pal, ya got five months to do it. Gulp!

Unfortunately, director Ishiro Honda was already committed, so they brought aboard studio workhorse director Motoyoshi Oda, used to getting the garbage films no-one else wanted to touch, who brought in his own composer, Masaru Sato, who would go on to score almost all of Akira Kurosawa's films (cheers, KF). So, no Akira Ifukube and his Godzilla March. Fortunately, they were able to get Eiji Tsuburara to do the special effects again, who had all sorts of lessons learned from the first film he was able to apply in his second go, most notably a Godzilla suit that was much lighter, more mobile and more merciful to Haruo Nakajima, who would return to play Godzilla for a second time.

Of course, with such a quick turnaround time, they didn't really have the luxury of creating a well thought out script, so Godzilla Raids Again went with the classic sequel formula, trading nuance for more explosions, more mayhem, and, yes, more monsters - Godzilla Raids Again introduced the enduring concept of Godzilla fighting some other giant beast, as well as a lot of the other things we would come to expect in a daikaiju flick: famous landmarks getting trashed? Check. Cheesy expository dialog? Check. Plot devices designed to get humans in the way of the giant monsters? Check. Really, when you think about it, it is Godzilla Raids Again and not Gojira that can truly be called the first true daikaiju film.

With this in mind, you may be surprised to find out that Godzilla Raids Again, of all the Showa Era Godzilla films, is the one it took me the longest to actually see for the first time. I don't think I actually saw it until it was released on a special edition DVD about ten years ago, and I must admit, watching it for the first time was kind of... well, weird.

The reason for this is simple: Godzilla's enemy in this film is Anguirus, the giant anklyosaurus with a roar almost as recognizable as Godzilla's own, and the Godzilla films I had grown up with had the two of them working together as best buds. Anguirus was the Robin to Godzilla's Batman, the Mork to Godzilla's Mindy, the Walker to Godzilla's Texas Ranger. Further, I pretty much knew what the outcome of an early confrontation between the two would be like, and I was reluctant to sit through it - I doubt they would stop mid fight, pat each other on the back and go out for drinks, ya know?

And speaking of the fights, wow, the trope of the big bulky slow moving beasts was still years off from being established. In fact, in this movie the fights are just the opposite - they're abnormally fast, comically so, to the point that you half expect the Benny Hill theme to start playing as they're hustling, bumbling and bopping each other up and down Osaka. The reason for the frenetic speed would be due to a mishap on the part of one of the cameramen, who had his camera set to the wrong speed. They didn't find out about the mistake until after everything had been shot, and by then, they had neither to time nor the budget to re-shoot it. Whoops! Tsuburaya was forced to go with the sped up footage.

All in all, this movie was basically a cash-grab, and is one of the weaker films in the series. The Godzilla fights as mentioned were unintentionally silly due to the abnormally fast speed, and the human drama consisted of cardboard characters who it was hard to really care about. There was no real sense of dread or destruction either - all the monster mayhem felt detached and lacking of consequence. This movie did, on the other hand, see the introduction of a very young Hiroshi Koizumi, who would go on to be a mainstay in the 1960s, the Golden Era of Godzilla films, if I may be so bold.

Also, I must give credit to Tsuburaya's special effects team - they really upped the ante in terms of production values compared to the first film, which was all the more impressive given how little time they had to do it.

Commercially, Godzilla Raids Again landed with a thud. Sure, it made its money back and was moderately successful at the box office, but it generated nowhere near the excitement that its predecessor did. At that point, Toho was pretty much ready to throw in the towel - it would be another eight years before another Godzilla movie would come out, and the idea for that movie - King Kong vs. Godzilla - was not even Toho's idea. But that's a story for a different post.

Next: King Kong vs. Godzilla

[MadMan]

I wasn't a fan of Godzilla Raids Again. I love King Kong vs Godzilla.

[bac0n]

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57e05e534402434aa0f846c2/582bbe73e58c626562109436/58c0487e197aeac1c959eaba/1489249626822/55f29538e4b0afb1e83c3498.jpeg

I never knew until I started reading up on the production of Toho's most successful daikaiju flick of just how much drama was involved in getting KKvs.G to the screen. Betrayal, arguments, conflicting visions, the creation of this film is worth a film of its own.

The trouble began before production even started. American special effects pioneer Willis H. O'Brien had an idea for a movie which would put King Kong up against some giant Frankenstein monster. For those of you who don't know, Willis was the guy who did all the stop motion work that brought the original Kong to life onscreen. If anybody can be called The Father of King Kong, it's Willis H. O'Brien.

So, looking to get his film made, Willis hands a script outline to producer John Beck. John Beck likes it, but rather than involving Willis in the project, instead decides to stab Willis in the back and take the stolen script outline to Toho studio, who likes the idea too, only lets have Kong fight Godzilla instead of Frankenstein, and off they went, with O'Brien left in the dust. I'm not sure if Willis ever found out about Beck's treachery, as he passed away before King Kong vs. Godzilla was released.

Toho was able to get Ishiro Honda to direct again and Akira Ifukube to return to do the music. Getting Eiji Tsubarya to do the special effects was especially easy, as Tsubaraya was a huge fan of King Kong and jumped at the chance to make a movie with the big ape.

Some familiar faces returned in front of the camera as well, including Akihito Hirata (Dr. Serizawa in the first film) who would again play a scientist, albeit a less troubled one this time. Mie Hama, who would later go on to play Bond Girl Kissy Suzuki, and would play the devious Lady Piranha in the other Toho King Kong vehicle, King Kong Escapes, would also star as the wife of the main protagonist slash mandatory lady that Kong grabs, falls in love with, then climbs up a building holding (spoiler alert: the relationship doesn't work out).

Right from the start of production, there was conflict behind the camera. Honda, ever the auteur, wanted Godzilla again to be a metaphor of sorts, and the movie to be a statement against Japan's new monster: television. Specifically, he wanted to create a movie that discusses Japan's addiction to this new medium, and the increasingly puerile and exploitative garbage being beamed to the masses. Tsubaraya, on the other hand, was more interested in targeting a wider audience (read: children), and opted for making the monster fights more cartoonish. Honda didn't like this one bit, but ultimately, this would be a fight he would not win. Toho took Tsubaraya's side, marking the birth of another daikaju cinema trope: the borderline comical monster fights and outrageous monster moves.

Honda did get to sneak in a bit of his vision, however: the main plot device getting Kong to Japan is a television station trying to enlist him for a ratings boost, and the head of said TV station was depicted as a short-sighted, bumbling buffoon, and of course he learns a hard lesson when Kong immediately runs amok upon his arrival in Tokyo.

But at the end of the day, it was all about the monster mayhem, as King Kong vs. Godzilla marked a real shift from the more weighty subject matter of the first two Godzilla films, towards the less serious films that would follow. It also is noteworthy in that it is the first film in which either of the eponymous monsters would appear in color, and also the first (and last) time where a real life monster was to be used in a monster fight - Kong's first battle in the film was against a giant octopus, and an actual octopus, set against a miniature village, was used in the filming of that fight scene.

More importantly, though, the movie did bank. It did MAJOR bank - enough to get Toho to see the money-drawing potential of the Godzilla Franchise and to shift their attention towards making regular Godzilla movies as quickly as they could. By comparison, 8 years passed between the release of King Kong vs. Godzilla and its predecessor, Godzilla Raids Again. After KKvs.G, no more than two years would pass between releases for the rest of the Showa Era, with a whopping TEN G-flicks released in the 60s, two of them released in 1964 alone.

How does it stack against the rest of them, though? I would put it in the middle, notably mainly in that it serves as an interesting bridge between the two Godzilla films that came before and the more playful ones that would follow, the Godzilla films such as Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster and Destroy All Monsters that I am most fond of in the Showa Era. I tend not to watch this one as much because, well, as a Godzilla opponent, I just don't find King Kong that interesting. For King Kong action, I much prefer Toho's King Kong Escapes, because it is just so over-the-top ridiculous as to have its own gleeful charm.

In closing, one thing I want to quick point out, is that there is a common belief that two versions of this film exist: an American version where King Kong wins, and a Japanese version where Godzilla wins. This is not true, the victor doesn't change between versions. As to who that is, I will leave to you, kind reader, to discover on your own.

Next: Mothra vs. Godzilla

[MadMan]

I cannot wait for the quasi remake of Kong vs Godzilla which will come out. Also King Kong vs Godzilla was the first movie I ever bought on VHS from Wal-Mart back when I was in middle school. I must have seen it countless times.

[bac0n]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the new Kong vs. Godzilla too - tho I am certain they will need to team up at some point to battle a greater threat - (Mechani-KongZilla?)

And, wow, cool on the old VHS story.

[Skitch]

I haven't seen any Kongs v Godzillas. I need to.

[megladon8]

I've not seen King Kong vs Godzilla OR King Kong Escapes, despite owning both on bluray.

For shame.

[MadMan]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the new Kong vs. Godzilla too - tho I am certain they will need to team up at some point to battle a greater threat - (Mechani-KongZilla?)

And, wow, cool on the old VHS story.

I think that will be the case. Also, thanks. I last watched it on VHS in 2016 and it still worked.

[bac0n]

FYI - I haven't forgotten about this. Things have been a little chaotic on the home front. Hoping to pick this back up once things settle down some more.

[Grouchy]

I might not post because I have nothing useful to add but I've been reading.

[Skitch]

I might not post because I have nothing useful to add but I've been reading.

Same here. Good shit.

[bac0n]

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

https://www.blackgate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/mothra-vs-Godzilla.jpg

Fortunately for Godzilla fans, King Kong vs. Godzilla took a franchise who's flame was nearly out and poured gasoline on it, and Toho recognized they had a license to print money in Godzilla battling some other famous big monster - all they had to do was to figure out who to put the big lizard up against. They had a few to choose from: Rodan and Mothra had already released to the theatres to pretty significant success in their own rights, so no need to import an adversary from overseas this time. Ultimately, of course, Mothra got the nod because it served as a better good guy foil for Godzilla, who was still very much a villain, and more importantly because, well, Mothra was much more bankable than Rodan.

So, with the match set for April 20th 1964, just a few weeks before Golden Week, the week around which the entire Japanese calendar revolves (think Christmas, Easter, Halloween and your birthday all rolled into one), General Tomoyuki Tanaka assembled his team: Ishrio Honda behind the camera? Check. Eiji Tsubaraya making shit blow up? Check. Akira Ifukube composing the soundtrack and arguing with Honda about what music plays when? Check.

Of course, Toho dug into their stable of actors for some familiar faces in front of the camera: Akira Takarada, the main protaganist from the first Godzie film returns as an intrepid reporter trying to get to the bottom of this big-ass egg that has washed ashore south of Tokyo. Hiroshi Koizumi, the main protaganist from the second Godzie film (and the main protaganist from the first Mothra film), returns as the trusted scientist, a role he would reprise in Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. And naturually, bad-ass Haruo Nakajima returned to don the rubber suit as Godzilla himself, and had a significant amount of imput into the design, resulting in a much more mobile, durable suit, which showed onscreen in the form of a much more animated and expressive Godzilla.

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/a1/76/38/a17638209f70cfc76131334b9d1154 85.jpg

However, the two real gems in front of the camera are among the lesser-lauded of the Toho Actors Studio. Yuriko Hoshi positively shined as Takarada's plucky, fuck-you-I'll-do-things-my-own-way photographer, which given that this was 1964 and women were supposed to act like June Cleaver, was kind of a big deal. At the same time, she served as the moral compass of team hero, despite her badassery. All told, she's probably my favorite female character in all of daikaiju cinema, in all its eras.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dit-i3y164E/TFt1eAOVcXI/AAAAAAAAAV8/SMPBCdyDsao/s1600/tajima.bmp

And finally, there was Toho workhorse Yoshifumi Tajima, pretty much a bit actor in every Toho daikaiju flick that ever was, but in this film he was given a role he could really sink his teeth into in Kumayama, the slimebag realestate developer who sheisters some local fisherman out of a giant mothra egg so he can build an amusement park around it. And boy oh boy, did he really have fun with the role. He really captured the whole smiling out of one side of his mouth, sniveling out of the other kind of villain that, the moment he swaggered on screen, you were counting the minutes to the scene where he would finally buy it. Shit, he even had a hitler stash. I would even go so far as to say he had the most punch-able face in the world until Stephen Miller (not the space cowboy; the other one) came along.

(Side note: the heros are a scientist and newsies, the villain is a realestate developer. Perhaps if you are a Trump supporter, this film might not be for you.)

And another interesting side note, was that the popular singing duo of the time, The Peanuts, were recruited as The Cosmos - Mothra's Tiny Little Muses. The casting of them was purely a publicity play - Toho recognized that they needed to lure in younger audiences who were suckling on the cathode ray nipple that was television.

Thematically, Honda was at it again - he conceded that in order to please the Toho execs by making a movie that would get asses in seats, he had to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible - from the grown-ups who wanted to see shit blow up to the young-uns who wanted some cute and cuddly visuals.

And of course, auteurs gotta aut, so he wanted to spin in some moral play in there as well, which you, intrepid match cut reader, have already figured out by now - mainly the folly of man's greed, and the theme of futility of human efforts in the face of nature's fury, which is as much a recurring daikaiju theme as there ever was.

And frankly, he trots that line with agility and precision. The film never feels preachy, never feels exploitative (that comes later in the Showa series), but, well, you get the point all the same. Without spoiling too much, there is comeuppance aplenty in this movie. Not Daimaijin levels of comeuppance (the gold standard) but you will be left satisfied nonetheless.

And Godzilla. I was trying to figure out a way to describe how Godzilla was portrayed in this film. Was probably thinking too long and too hard. Was probably drinking too long and too hard while I was thinking too long and too hard. But then it dawned on me: Godzilla was Biff from Back to the Future.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcR8BkGHvrN cDakNqqFiLkDPMShYonhMHCTVS8YI9 X0JqgSbj2Ab&usqp=CAU

I mean, look at him. Pretty much an asshole - almost lovable, but not quite. Clumsy, kind of a dick, to be honest, completely oblivious to the mess he makes of things. A key scene to illustrate my point is when he's derpy-doing his way through Tokyo, and gets his tail caught in Tokyo Tower (kinda shaped like Eiffel, but painted red). Completely oblivious, clumsy ass Godzilla pulls the tower down, trips, falls on his ass and, pissed off, torches and smashes everything for blocks. Never mind that it's his own clumsiness that got him into his mess, fuck that tower, it's the tower's fault, dammit, not Godzilla. He's Godzilla!

Needless to say, by the time Mothra and Big-G finally collide, you're really rooting for the little moth worm larvae thing to pop that big lizard right in the mouth, even though it doesn't have any hands, which would, uh... make that sort of thing a little tricky. But it all pays out in the end, don't worry. This is the Showa era, there are still happy endings.

Anyway. Gvs.M in my eyes represents the beginning of my favorite string of Godzilla films, where Honda, Tsuburaya, Tanaka and Ifukube were all simpatico and firing on all cylinders, where they were walking that line between gleeful self-aware nonsense and, dare I say, artistry. It also is exhibit one to support my theory that if Mothra and Godzilla are in a film together, it's going to be not only worth your while, but the best among its era. This holds true for the Showa, Heisei and Millenium eras. Will it remain for the current Reiwa Era? Remains to be seen.

Next: Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster

[MadMan]

Yey I love that movie, too. It is why Mothra is my favorite (besides Godzilla and Kong, of course) out of the monsters.

[megladon8]

I think "auteurs gotta aut" needs to be on MatchCut's official merchandise.

[MadMan]

I think "auteurs gotta aut" needs to be on MatchCut's official merchandise.

Very true. Slogan!

[Dukefrukem]

Starting to collect to binge.

https://i.ibb.co/jfSJyKb/godzilla.png

[bac0n]

Niiiice. Son of Godzilla is coming up quick in the queue. (scared)

[MadMan]

Starting to collect to binge.

https://i.ibb.co/jfSJyKb/godzilla.png

Yey! I believe I have seen all of them.

[megladon8]

Can we get more of this please, bac0n?

[bac0n]

Sorry, personal events have drawn me away from this. I'll get back to it, promise.

[DFA1979]

I did get the Godzilla box set so I'm working my way through it. I'm on Kong vs Godzilla, yet I have seen that so many times I could play it in my sleep.

[Morris Schæffer]

Bacon u going? :). You can zipline into his goddamn mouth!!

https://static.mothership.sg/1/2020/08/godzilla-1.jpg

[DFA1979]

Hurray!

[Ezee E]

Bacon u going? :). You can zipline into his goddamn mouth!!

https://static.mothership.sg/1/2020/08/godzilla-1.jpg

Is this place open??

[bac0n]

Sweet Christmas.

[Morris Schæffer]

The Godzilla museum has opened in Japan, the zipline into oblivion is coming soon.

[Ezee E]

The Godzilla museum has opened in Japan, the zipline into oblivion is coming soon.


As part of an upcoming immersive experience, visitors will act as scientists at the "Godzilla Interception Operation-National Godzilla Awajishima Research Center," helping placate the enraged beast fueled by nuclear radiation. Participants will monitor Godzilla's moves, having the chance to zipline into his "body directly from Godzilla's oral cavity" to carry out a mission. There is also a shooting game, in which guests fire at the beast with a special gun and dodge attacks from the monster.

Fans of the fictional character, made famous by Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla, can also try peculiar menu items as part of the "Godzilla Interception Strategy." Consume if you dare a sea-creature-themed hotdog, desserts with eyes and rice dishes with prehistoric paw prints on them. Dishes will be served at the Nijgen Nomori restaurant and at the Morino Terrace.


Meanwhile, gift shop collectibles for fans include kaiju cups, Godzilla pin badges, gloves, T-shirts, gloves and memo pads.

It will cost around $10/7.50 for an adult/child ticket to visit the new Godzilla attraction inside the Awaji Island Anime Park, also known as Nijigen no Mori. Visit the park's official web page to buy tickets, and find out more about the attraction here.

The museum site is still in Japanese, but pretty awesome.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Consume if you dare a sea-creature-themed hotdog

Nope.

[bac0n]

Okay, time to pick up this thread again.

Just finished watching Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. Just poured myself a bourbon. Time to get typing.

[bac0n]

Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

https://i.ibb.co/3CLdfSh/ghidorah.jpg

In the summer of 1964, Toho Studios found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Their much-hyped Kurosawa (cheers, KF) & Mifune epic Red Beard, which was supposed to be their big blockbuster release for the upcoming holiday movie season, was behind schedule, no way was it gonna be ready in time. And, presumably, "could you speed things up, Akira?" was not exactly the sort of question you would ask of the most celebrated filmmaker of all time.

So, whattaya gonna do? Ask General Tomoyuki Tanaka & Crew to pull rainbows out of their collective ass again, that's what you're gonna do. Hell, he threw Godzilla Raids Again together in 5 months, He's got 6 months for this one. Walk in the park, right? Never mind that Godzilla Raids Again was sort of a disappointment, we're hot off the heels of Mothra vs. Godzilla and King Kong vs. Godzilla before it, two hugely successful movie releases! Yeah!

Fortunately for them, most of the usual suspects were available to begin work right away. Ishiro Honda was available to direct, Eiji Tsuburaya was back to pull off his usual wizardry with special effects, and Akira Ifukube was back to score the soundtrack. Even better, Ishiro already had a good idea of where he wanted to go with this film. In a word, he wanted to go BIG. Lets take the tried and true Godzilla fighting another monster formula and go Hunter S Thompson on it, taking it to the ridiculous and logical extreme. We're gonna have Godzilla AND Mothra, just like last time. And we're also gonna throw in RODAN. But wait, there's more! We're gonna have them fight some totally new monster no-one's even seen before!

And of course, Honda had a good idea as to the kind of monster he wanted. Taking a cue from Japanese Legend, of Yamata no Orochi - a massive 8-headed dragon who's belly spanned valleys, who fed on the daughters of goddesses until the exiled storm god Susanoo slayed him - he dreamed of a massive three headed dragon, too powerful for any one monster to battle alone. And thus, King Ghidorah, Godzilla's most enduring adversary, was born. By my math, Godzilla and King Ghidorah have battled in no less than 7 films to date.

https://i.ibb.co/gRyFc5N/Yamata-No-Orochi.jpg
Susanoo slaying Yamata no Orochi

So yeah, pretty ambitious, but I can imagine that Eiji Tsubaraya was delighted at such a challenge. And if he wanted a challenge, it was a challenge he got. Logistically, Ghidorah was the most pain in the ass monster to get on film. Whereas Godzilla was just Haruo Nakajima in a suit, KG required an actor in the suit, and in addition as many as 7 others in the rafters, pulling on wires to control the three heads, two wings, and two tails. Jim Henson would be proud.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/207a84c14345cf0ba2391ad99ca21c 8f/tumblr_ngwi8zqi2q1s2jfn0o2_128 0.jpg

But in the end, they managed to pull it off. Gt3HM released on time to massive ticket sales, popular enough to get a follow up film Invasion of Astro-Monster greenlit for the following year, basically a rematch of Gt3HM, but with aliens.

Stylistically, Gt3HM maintains a lot of the bright colors and gleeful destruction of the two films that preceded it, but there are a few pivots in direction that are worthy of note. First, this movie marks the beginning of the reforming of Godzilla's character from the villain that he was up to Mothra vs. Godzilla, to, well, the anti-hero of sorts that he was by the end of the film. Not quite the lovable defender of Japan that he was towards the end of the Showa era, the Godzilla I was first exposed to, but no-where near the terrifying Godzilla who terrorized Tokyo in the original Gojira released ten years prior.

Another worthy mention, is that this is where the anthropomorphizing of Godzilla really kicks into high gear. Something that Honda was absolutely against, but unfortunately for him, that was a battle he didn't win. Godzilla and Rodan taking on human mannerisms couldn't be more obvious than when the two were fighting like school children at the base of Mount Fuji until Mothra comes in and scolds them, at which point they.... basically sit down and have a conversation. At one point Godzilla demands an apology from Rodan for them fighting. This becomes a trope for the rest of the Showa Era, peaking in Godzilla vs. Megalon, which sees Godzilla shaking hands and giving a-ok signs.

In front of the camera, a lot of familiar faces also return. Hiroshi Koizumi reprises his role from Mothra vs. Godzilla, playing Prof Murai, leading a team of researchers to investigate the meteor that would eventually hatch to produce Ghidorah. Yuriko Hoshi, who shined so brightly in Mothra vs. Godzilla, returns as a reporter, albeit sans much of her pluck. Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Serizawa from the original) returns as a police chief, and also making a return, perhaps most excitingly, is none other that Takahashi Shimura, playing a master physician. The casting of the Showa Era Godzilla films is nothing if not predictable.

One interesting side note: one of the assassins dispatched to kill a protagonist sent to warn us of Ghidorah was played by none other than Susumu Kurobe, who tokusatsu fans will immediately recognize as the original Ultraman.

So, how does this movie stack up? In a word, with Gt3HM, we are looking at the template of what I find most endearing of Daikaiju Cinema, where Honda & Tsuburaya were 100% sympatico and firing on all cylinders. Granted, you aren't going to come out of this film feeling intellectually challenged or emotionally effected in any way, nor are you going to be dazzled by virtuosic acting performances, or exquisitely framed, meticulously shot set pieces (well maybe if you look hard enough). In short, these aren't the sorts of films would-be auteurs would be studying in film school. What you will be, if you are like me at least, is entertained. The gleeful absurdity of it all, the winking moral play sandwiched between the wanton destruction. Watching these films just... makes me feel like a kid again. And goddamit, adulting is hard.

All the same, Honda did manage to sneak in his symbolism, and moral play messaging. The iconic framing of Mount Fuji as a backup to the battles, as well as the forum where the quarrelling kaiju work out their differences with the help of a facilitating Mothra. The overarching message that we need to put aside our differences for the greater good, yup that's there too.

All in all, this is the second of the four Showa Era movies that i believe capture this spirit most effectively, and it's why I come back to this movie again, and again, and again...

Next: Invasion of Astro-Monster

[Skitch]

Top three of the genre for me. That movie is metal as fuck.

[DFA1979]

That movie rocks. I had fun revisiting that one a few months back.

[bac0n]

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
https://i.ibb.co/qRp2f8s/Astro1.jpg

Oddly enough, the story of this film actually starts in America, with the now defunct movie studio United Productions of America. Looking for a cheap way to bust into the monster movie racket, UPA enlisted the help of producer Harry Saperstein, who got his start in the film industry running the family movie theatre business before moving to Hollywood and winding up producing children's television shows. His assignment: find some overseas movie studio and acquire US distribution rights to their monster films. His first choice was Hammer Film Productions, makers of the Peter Cushing Dracula and Frankenstein movies. Too bad for him, Hammer already had US distribution, so he went with his second choice, Toho, already mid-production with a Frankenstein film of their own, Frankenstein Conquers the World.

Now, I don't know what kinda mojo this Henry Saperstein had, but he was actually able to set up a collaboration between UPA and Toho pretty much right on the spot, even getting Toho to insert well-known Hollywood actor Nick Adams into a prominent role in Frankenstein Conquers the World mid-production. My bet is he had Toho execs foaming at the mouth at the thought of how much money they would make when their daikaiju flicks took America by storm. Which of course they would, right?

Well, whatever Saperstein was selling, Toho was buying, cuz when it came time for Toho to pound out another Godzilla flick, he was right there as an associate producer, again enlisting Nick Adams as one of the two main protagonists, the other being Akira Takarada, who played the main protagonist in the original Gojira. Now, it is reported that Nick was at one point no fan of foreign movies playing in The States, in his eyes taking money away from American films, but by the mid-60s, his Hollywood job prospects were drying up, so when Harry came calling, he was happy for the work, and for his part, he was the consummate professional in everything he was involved with.

Another interesting thing to note of the influence the yanks brought with them was in the pacing of the movie itself. It should come as no surprise to you, intrepid reader, that American audiences have little patience for movies, particularly monster movies, that start slow and build over time - which is pretty much how every daikaiju movie started up to that point. Usually, the movie was kicked off with some sort of conference, meeting of scientists, or a shitton of expository dialog, and it was a good 30-45 minutes before the giant monsters even showed themselves. Saperstein knew that would go over with US audiences like a fart in church: no, we don't want to start with a bunch of eggheads spending fifteen minutes explaining the nature of Nick and Akira's space flight - just get them in the goddamn spaceship!

So, yeah, it was with Invasion of Astro-Monster that Toho more or less abandoned the pretext of making serious Godzilla films with heavy messages and moral undertones, instead moving in the direction of the surrounding plots existing mainly as a vehicle to get the monsters on screen doing as much damage as possible, with the human parts in there mainly to add gravitas to the monster parts. This happened at a specific time in Invasion of Astro-Monster, a little over 45 minutes in, when, after Godzilla and Rodan kicked Ghidorah's ass for the first time, this happened:

https://i.ibb.co/RTyQSKc/godzilladance.gif

Yup, happy Godzilla dance, there ya go. Apparently, this was inserted into the film against director Ishiro Honda's wishes, and he was PISSED. He still wanted Godzilla to be this giant scary thing, and, well, giant scary things don't do happy dances. And neither do they do the fancy boxer foot shuffle like Godzie was doing later on in the film. Yeah, quite the far cry from the menace Godzilla was even two movies back.

Apart from the further humanization of Godzilla's actions, also happening was the further humanization of his appearance, with his outfit from the previous film altered to make the eyes larger, more expressive, and the forehead more prominent. And speaking of re-use, this movie also marks the start of one of the less fortunate tropes of the latter half of the Showa era. As production budgets were continuing to get cut due to the popularity of television continuing to chip away at box office returns, the filmmakers were increasingly reliant on stock footage from previous films to show the destruction sequences. They were, shall we say, a little more discreet in this film than the films that would follow, pulling bits here and there from the original Rodan and the previous year's Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, but by the late 60s, they would be leaning on stock footage pretty heavily, and the differences of quality of the aging, dulled stock footage compared to the newer, sharper footage was... well, time to call a spade a spade, it looked like shit.

A couple less problematic elements were introduced in this film that would become standard daikaju fare. First, the super outrageous giant monster finishing move. In this case Godzilla and Rodan performed a tag team finisher that would make The Road Warriors proud, when Rodan picked up Godzilla by the shoulders and literally THREW him into Ghidorah, sending them both tumbling off a cliff. Pretty much every Godzilla film that followed, right up through last year's Godzilla King of the Monsters, would feature some crazy Godzilla move to finish the bad-guy off.

Secondly: aliens. If you were to take the remainder of Toho Godzilla films as historical fact, you would be left believing that aliens really hate Japan's guts. Of the nine Godzilla films that would follow Invasion of Astro-Monster, six of them would feature aliens as the bad guys. But I would say that the aliens in IoAM were much more interesting than the aliens in the films that would follow. They were certainly better dressed.

https://i.ibb.co/THCgsmq/Astro-Monster-1.png

In retrospect, the more that I think of it, the more I am of the mind that Invasion of Astro-Monster represented at least as much of a turning point in the Godzilla series as did Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster before it. Whereas Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster represented a shift in how Godzilla himself was treated, Invasion of Astro-Monster, with its less serious tone, represented a shift in how the movies themselves were treated thematically. To an extent, I don't believe this was a bad thing, as this sensibility produced my favorite Godzilla movie in the series (and favorite Godzilla movie overall) - but at the same time, the increasing dumbing down of Godzilla to fit within increasingly rigid budgetary constraints, and also appealing to increasingly younger audiences, produced some pretty awful movies a few years later.

You will be hearing about those in due time, but for now, Toho is still making some thoroughly enjoyable giant monster films, perfectly suited to enjoy with a cold beer and a bag of pretzels.

Next: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

[DFA1979]

That one is decent at best for me. I do agree that is when the series became campy. The Godzilla dance rocks.

[bac0n]

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)

https://i.ibb.co/NTgc4tQ/ebirah.jpg

Turns out, Godzilla vs. Ebirah wasn't originally supposed to be a Godzie flick at all. Originally pitched to Rankin/Bass as a King Kong vehicle, it was rejected by them, I guess too much a departure from their Rudolph films, after which it wound up in the hands of Toho, who basically swapped out Kong for Godzilla and went with it. Curiously enough, this wasn't the first Godzilla film that was not originally penned for him (that honor would go to King Kong vs. Godzilla, which was originally supposed to have Kong fighting Frankenstein), and it wouldn't be the last, either.

Aside from that, this movie also represents the largest shift in tone from previous Godzilla flicks up to this point, as it had an entirely different crew behind the camera from before. Most, notably this would be the series debut of Jun Fukuda, who would direct all but three of the remaining movies in the Showa series, and he brought with him much faster pacing, brighter cinematography, and an overall lighter, dare I say, tongue-in-cheek tone than his predecessor Ishiro Honda.

Not only that, the special effects got a new helmsman, Sadamasa Arikawa, previously Eiji Tsuburaya's chief cameraman, now calling the shots, and bringing with him not only the knowledge he had garnered working under the master, but also a few tricks of his own that he learned from his television days. Tsuburaya was still listed as the Director of Special effects, but he was so in name only, spending most of his time on other projects and only dropping in occasionally to advise.

Finally, and perhaps most noticeably, Akira Ifukube was gone, his thundering anthemic marches replaced by the more jazzy, surf-rock inspired music of Masaru Sato, who seems to have dreamed up the score after watching a few too many episodes of Batman. Might sound ridiculous, but, it actually works. This is a much more light hearted romp than the over the top, more-is-more approaches to the previous films, which were starting to quake under the opposing forces of shrinking budgets, coupled with the need to outdo the movies that came before them.

In front of the camera, though, a lot of familiar faces return. Akira Takarada, star of the first Gojira film, returns as a dashing Nathan Drake type, a bank robber who finds himself stranded on an island in the middle of the sea, trying to keep himself and a few knucklehead teenagers out of the clutches of The Red Bamboo, a secret military organization who have established a secret base there where they are finishing up creating a nuclear bomb. And one can only assume that since they are using kidnapped Infant Islanders (Mothra's home) as forced labor, one can only assume that this nuclear bomb is not gonna be used for charity.

And of course The Red Bamboo was populated by a lot of familiar faces from the Toho stable: Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Serizawa in the original Gojira) played a Red Bamboo captain with a very important looking eyepatch, the prolific Hideyo Amamoto, who played Dr. Who in King Kong Escapes, the friendly next door neighbor in Godzilla's Revenge, and a whole slew of other bit parts, played another captain; Hisaya Ito, the alien boss from Astro Monster; Jun Tazaki, always some position of authority was playing the same role he always played, almost all of the usual supporting actors were there.

To be perfectly honest with you, it took me a LOOOOONG time to finally get to watching this film for the first time. All I knew at the time was that the film took place on a tropical island, and movies with that setting didn't exactly have a spectacular track record in my eyes, my least favorite films in the Showa era taking place on, you guessed it, tropical islands. Further, I knew then as I do now that the leading factor in choosing the tropical islands for settings was budget. Less buildings we need to blow up means less money for special effects. But of course, less buildings blowing up means, well, less buildings blowing up. And I want buildings blowing up! Coconuts blowing up just aren't the same.

And worst of all, Godzilla's adversary in the film was basically a giant lobster. Not a three headed dragon that breathed lightning, not some huge cyborg alien creature with swords for arms, just a giant lobster. Didn't even breath any fire or shoot any lasers out of its eyeballs. In a word: BORING. The thing looked more delicious than it did threatening - if I was Godzilla, I woulda tried to lure it into a volcano, and then throw a shitton of butter on top of it, grab a bib, and, bam, you got yourself some good eats right there. In the end, what motivated me to watch Ebirah more than anything else was completionism. I watched it basically so I could say that I had finally gotten to every film in the Showa Era.

So, imagine my surprise when I found myself quite enjoying this film, despite my initial reservations. Really, in the end, my preconceived notions on Ebirah proved correct: Ebirah is a boring AF monster, and the confrontations between him and Godzilla were, despite a silly game of volleyball involving a boulder, pretty forgettable. But here's the thing - the monsters are the backdrop to a silly, pulpy Indiana Jones meets Man from UNCLE style adventure, and that is what provides the bulk of the entertainment value, and it is only accentuated by Masaru Sato's genre-defying score, that made all the action, particularly Godzilla fighting off the Red Bamboo jets, a light-hearted frenetic dance.

And Godzilla - a couple of things to bear in mind here are, first, that, although since Invasion of Astro-Monster, he has been leaning towards a more benevolent role, as of this film he is still very much as an unknown quantity, still played by stalwart Haruo Nakajima as a monster who could either help you or incinerate you with his atomic breath. As a result, the heros spend just as much time trying to keep away from Godzilla as they do the Red Bamboo, making for a few tenuous situations. I wouldn't go so far as to say tense, this movie doesn't take itself nearly seriously enough for that, but there are a few situations where I was wondering just how the shifty Takarada could get himself and his team out of harm's way.

Another interesting takeaway is that, when you think about the fact that Godzilla's role was originally written for King Kong, you notice him taking on a lot of King Kong traits: throwing rocks and waving his arms around as a show of dominance - there's even a scene where he makes the moves on a lady! Well, that might be a bit exaggerating - he doesn't exactly grab some blonde and climb up a building, but he does take keen interest in an Infant Island native who finds herself stuck between a relaxing Godzilla and some pursuing evil henchmen. The henchmen of course take one look at the big green guy, promptly shit their pants and run away, but the girl, cowering against a rock, can only cower as Godzilla... leans over and stares at her, pretty much in the same way that you would look at a caterpillar.

This is pretty much the first direct human/Godzilla interaction in film, now that I think about it, and the fact that they both got out of it unharmed would lead me to think that it could have gone a hell of a lot worse.

And finally, the suit, which was re-used from the previous Godzilla movie, Invasion of Astro-Monster, was a bit problematic. As you could guess, a significant portion of the Godzilla parts took place in the water, which really beat the thing up, and by the end of the film, the suit, particularly Godzilla's eyes, which always seemed to be looking up as if sleep walking, was looking pretty droopy, especially in the third act where Godzilla stomped through Red Bamboo HQ with what looked like a case of cataracts. But, hey, that is small potatoes compared to the problems that would arise in films to follow, so I guess I can't complain much.

In the final analysis, this film is much better than it has any right to be, and represents the fast-tracking of the series into more action packed, light-hearted affairs. The series won't always be this way - Honda has a few films in this series left - but Fukuda's take is definitely a shot in the arm and, dare I say, a more self-aware approach to Daikaiju Cinema, where the focus was more to entertain the audience than to challenge them.

Next: Son of Godzilla

[DFA1979]

I saw Ebirah in October for my Horrorfest and I really enjoyed it. I liked that Godzilla fought a giant lobster.

[bac0n]

Son of Godzilla (1967)

https://i.ibb.co/nrBbVH5/Son-Of-Godzilla.gif

The bad news for Toho coming out of Ebirah's release was that the box office returns for Godzilla films were on a steady decline from the heights they had achieved a few years before with the likes of King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs Godzilla. The novelty of giant monsters running amok was simply not what it used to be. I guess not everybody in Japan is exactly like me. The good news, however, was that Ebirah was made for peanuts, cheap enough that even if it were to have a marketing budget equal to its USD 1.2 million production budget (which of course it didn't), we're still looking at a 50+ percent profit margin with the box office returns. Certainly enough for Toho to greenlight another one of the films.

However, Toho understood that the monsters themselves were no longer gonna fill seats, so they needed an angle. Problem was, though, their A-team (Director Honda, Special Effects Guy Tsuburaya, and Composer Ifukube) were busy working on King Kong Escapes (great movie, btw), so what's a fella to to? In steps Jun Fukuda, who helmed Ebirah Horror of the Deep, with an idea: these date movies are all the rage, man, why don't we make the next Godzilla film a date movie! And how ya gonna do that? Lets make Godzilla a dad, and give him a son!

And thus, this fucking thing came into existence.

https://i.ibb.co/LnxqjYW/minya.jpg
Did someone slip some LSD in those mangos?

The idea was, if we could make something that looked kinda like Godzilla, but also like a human child, the girls would find that adorable and yada yada yada. Call me culturally insensitive, but something inside me doubts that a thing that looks like Godzilla had sex with a potato and grunts like a donkey when it's in trouble would be the sort of thing that would result in a love connection in Japan in the late 60s, and there wasn't any sort of spike in the birth rate in Japan until the early 70s, so the data I fastidiously collected over the course of a 2 minute internet search backs up my claim.

Just as big an offender as the design of Minya for this film, perhaps even worse, was the design of the Godzilla suit itself. In an effort to make it look more kawaii, they tried the old lets make the eyes big AF trick. Unfortunately, what they accomplished was more kowai than kawaii. Lets see if any kotakus pick up that reference. Anyway, the end result of the design had Godzilla's eyes sticking out the top of his head like ears on a corgi, with a permanent sort of squint to them that made it look like he was really, REALLY baked.

https://i.ibb.co/Cz22JDC/son2.jpg
Hey! Who wants to order dominos?!?

And take a look at those tiny carnie hands! Are you gonna breath atomic fire at me or pick my pocket? At any rate, the end result was a Godzilla that was really hard to take seriously, but I doubt that was the intention to begin with.

But even worse than the misbegotten aesthetics of the thing was the practicality of the suit. In order to give it its more "maternal" (their words, not mine) look, they created a suit that was much more bulky and heavy than its predecessors - so bulky, in fact, that Godzilla stalwart Huruo Nakajima was only able to shoot two scenes in the damn thing. And his replacement broke his hand while wearing it during filming. Finally, a third, much bigger and stronger suit actor was able to finish the Godzilla scenes without injury. Here's hoping that, once filming was done, they dropped the thing into the Mariana Trench, never to be seen again.

However, not all was a total shit-show with this film. If you're able to ignore the cheesy Minya bits, there is a nice silly jungle adventure to be had here, with a team of scientists messing with nature and learning a horrible lesson. Akihiko Hirata, who by now you could be forgiven to think that he was contractually obligated to be in every Godzilla film ever made, gives his most prominent performance since his turn as Dr. Serizawa in the original, and it was nice seeing him front and center once more. On a more somber note, he's smoking in virtually all of his scenes, which given that he would years later die of lung cancer, well, you know..

Another enjoyable performance was Akira Kubo, who shows all the pluck and spirit in this film that would make him an excellent leading man in Destroy All Monsters a few years later, a big shift from his role as a nerd in Invasion of Astro-Monster a few years before.

Behind the camera, Jun Fukuda was at it again, speeding up the pace and brightening up the colors, with Masaru Sato again delivering a light hearted genre-defying soundtrack, something one would expect to see in a Roy Rogers Western. Hell, there were even the clip-clops of horse hooves playing, I shit thee not. On a Tropical Island. What is this, Rancho del Coconut?

Working the special effects again was Sadamasa Arikawa, now actually credited as the Director of Special effects for the first time. And interestingly enough, it should be noted that this film stands out as the only film in the Showa Series where none of Godzilla's adversaries were men in monster suits - the giant mantises and spider were all marionettes, the spider being the most impressive feet of puppetry in the entire Showa series, requiring as many as two puppeteers for each of its eight legs. Coordinating the almost two dozen puppeteers to move that thing must have been quite the feat.

Still, all that wasn't enough to make this film a success, its box office returns down about 30% compared to Ebirah before it. Apparently the whole idea of Minya as date movie fodder didn't quite fly with the fans. Who knew? And I agree with the fans. While the plot of the movie itself is serviceable, it is the design choices of Minya and Godzilla that really kill my enjoyment of this film. It's not Minya's existence in and of itself that bothers me - the Heisei Era Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla has a baby Godzilla, and its adorable without being obnoxious - it's just that... I mean, look at the fuckin' thing. It looks designed by committee, micromanaging the finer points of what people want without regard to how they work together. Just because I like tomatoes and I like chocolate, doesn't mean I like them together.

Still, I got to give this film a bit of props, if for nothing else than the fact that its disappointing performance in the box office made Toho about ready to pull the plug on the whole franchise. And that, my friends, would result in my favorite Godzilla movie of all time. But that, intrepid reader, is a topic for a separate post.

Next: Destroy All Monsters

[megladon8]

Yay!! This thread is back!!

Love it! Son of Godzilla I was never too fond of. I think your write up is better than the film itself.

Wasn't the son named something like Godzookie?

[bac0n]

Yay!! This thread is back!!

Love it! Son of Godzilla I was never too fond of. I think your write up is better than the film itself.

Wasn't the son named something like Godzookie?

Glad you're enjoying the write-up more than the movie, tho admittedly the bar is pretty low.

In the Showa films, depending on who you ask, the name of Godzilla's kid is either Minya or Minilla.

Gadzookie is actually a character in the 70s Hanna Barbara Godzilla Cartoon which I obsessed over every Saturday morning. And yeah, he was Godzilla's son in that cartoon.

[Idioteque Stalker]

"Hey! Who wants to order dominos?!?" Bwahaha

[Scar]

I’d have to be drugged and tied up to watch Son of Godzilla.

[Scar]

We might witness maximum Bac0n with Destroy All Monsters.

[megladon8]

Glad you're enjoying the write-up more than the movie, tho admittedly the bar is pretty low.

In the Showa films, depending on who you ask, the name of Godzilla's kid is either Minya or Minilla.

Gadzookie is actually a character in the 70s Hanna Barbara Godzilla Cartoon which I obsessed over every Saturday morning. And yeah, he was Godzilla's son in that cartoon.

Thar's it! Yes! Remembered the name but not that it was from the cartoon.

I need to track that cartoon down to revisit...

[DFA1979]

Ok so I liked Son Of Godzilla (https://madman731.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/horrorfest-2020-presents-son-of-godzilla-1967-jun-fukuda/)

[bac0n]

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

https://i.ibb.co/P6hYFsZ/damposter.jpg

Back in the mid-80s when I was in junior high and going to the smallish school attached to my church, my 8th grade teacher put us in teams of four to create five-minute news broadcasts of sorts, covering the major events of the previous week. One kid would do headlines, the other local news, the other sports, the other, I dunno, celebrity news or something. I even remember the name: TW3. This, of course, was in the interest of teaching us the importance of following current events.

Now, there just so happened to be an empty slot at the end of the TW3 unit for any four kids who wanted to team up and do a TW3 show for extra credit. Didn't have to be one of the assigned teams either. Any 4 kids could team up and do it. Me and my best friends at the time, Moorelord, Hanley, and Canoe-Man, we all had the same idea. We get to be on a team together? (there was a good reason we were all placed on separate teams) It's all for extra credit? (meaning: we could do whatever the fuck we wanted)

WE WERE SO IN.

Well, I am pretty sure you can guess how things went down. Without getting too much into the gory details, let it be known that we took full advantage of our carte blanche and threw together one spectacular half hour shitshow of a news broadcast that ultimately ended up with the entire school having to be evacuated due to us lighting a smoke bomb in the middle of class. It was GLORIOUS.

Anyway, my point: this whole story serves to demonstrate how I know exactly how Tomoyuki Tanaka and the rest of the Godzilla crew must have felt after Son of Godzilla landed with a thud at the box office and Toho told them, basically, ya got one more Godzilla film and we're pulling the plug. Do whatever the fuck you want, we don't care. We're not gonna give you a ton of money to make it, but here are the keys to the entire Toho prop warehouse. Grab whatever you want. It's all going in the trash anyway.

You mean, we can use all these monster suits? Even from non-Godzilla movies?

Yup. Go nuts.

Varan? Gorosaurus? Manda? How about Baragon from Frankenstein Conquers the World?

Yup. Go nuts.

King-Kong?

No, not King Kong. Our license ran out on that one. Anybody but King-Kong.

Okay, how about these flying saucers and this space ship and these ray guns and this moonbase shit?

As I said: GO. NUTS.

So, there they were. Didn't matter if the movie they made would make any money or not, Godzilla was hitting the dusty trail either way. They were given free reign to do whatever they wanted, and an entire treasure trove of 20+ years worth of daikaju props, set pieces, and of course, rubber suits at their disposal. But most importantly perhaps, they were possessed of a certain... shall we say, equal parts romantic and nihilistic attitude that, if Godzilla is gonna go out, he's gonna go out Klingon Style. Kinda like the final act of Animal House, but with a bunch of middle aged theatre nerds.

I can imagine that it would have been an easy sell for the old crew, and sure enough, the dream team was on board and available: original Gojira director Ishiro Honda was back behind the camera and also working on the story. Akira Ifukube was back to work his magic on the soundtrack, and even special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya was back, albeit in an adisory role. His protege, the very able Sadamasa Arikawa, returned as the official director of special effects.

In front of the camera, a whole lot of familiar faces were to be found as well, albeit notable absences abounded: Akira Takarada (the dashing young hero of Gojira and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster), Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Serizawa in Gojira, along with prominent roles in virtually all other Godzilla flicks), and Hiroshi Koizumi (The Prof in Mothra, Ghidorah, and Invasion of Astro-Monster) were all off doing something else. Rats.

But those lucky enough to be part of this movie, they sure made the most of what they got. Akira Kubo, in particular, went all in on his inaugural turn as the leading man in a Godzilla flick, playing Captain Yamabe of the spaceship Moonlight SY-3 with all the gusto and stalwart resolution of a man who could totally squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond between his asscheeks if he put his mind to it. I wouldn't bet against him, that's for sure. It's a long way from his turn as a nerd in Invasion of Astro-Monster. Going from receiving atomic wedgies to piloting an atomic powered rocketship is what I would call "upward career mobility".


https://i.ibb.co/LPm8vZt/akira.jpg

Traveling in the opposite direction at a speed of Mach12, however, we have Susumu Korobe, who Tokusatsu (Japanese sci-fi) nerds will immediately recognize as the one and only Shin Hayata, dashing alter-ego of the original Ultraman. How he could, in the span of just two short years, go from the giant alien defender of Japan from legions of monsters, aliens, and annoying school children, to an evil alien flunky, is, well, the mind boggles. HOW COULD YOU, MAN?


https://i.ibb.co/gVbbFdB/susumu.jpg

In all seriousness, tho, DAM is not the only Showa Era daikaiju flick that Korobe-san would appear in. Off the top of my head, I know he also appeared in King Kong Escapes as, you guessed it, another evil henchman. If there is one gripe I have about the Showa Era of Daikaiju flicks, it is how underutilized this fella was. Susumu deserved better. I mean, look at him. He's almost as handsome as I am. But I digress.

Anyway, marching orders in hand, Ishiro Honda went to work on the script, and to the surprise of precisely no-one, he went all auteur and shit, folding social commentary into the story, this time his subject being utopia, futurism, and technology's role in making everyone's lives better, imagining a world 30 years in the future (1999 to be exact, remember how futuristic that year was?) where world peace had been achieved, humanity had all come together under the benevolent banner of the United Nations, and travel to the moon was a quick hop, skip & a jump, about as pedestrian as catching a 1 hour flight to Chicago.

Mind you, this was back during the height of the space race. Less than a year later, the US would put a man on the moon, and the cynisicm of the Vietnam war had not yet taken hold. People back then actually thought that things would be better 10, 20, 30 years out (the fools) and it reflected in their cinema. Further, they also assumed that the speed of (benevolent) technological advances would continue to accelerate - next year the moon, the following, Mars, then the stars! Shit, according to Bladerunner, we were supposed to have achieved interstellar travel 5+ years ago. Another sci-fi promise broken.

In Honda's defense, though, it's easy to imagine how people would think that the tide of human progress would sustain itself, especially when you consider that there were people alive to watch the moon landing who were born before the advent of cars.

Perhaps unfortunately, perhaps not, the suits at Toho put the kybosh on most of Honda's more ambitious schemes. He wanted to really get in to the details of how the technology of the time really worked, particularly with the workings of Monsterland, the Pacific island sanctuary where all the giant monsters were held in captivity, underneath which was an underground base which was used for their study.

For their part, Toho did give Honda a little love, allowing him to show through expository dialog and narration the technology in place to keep Godzilla and the rest of daikaiju in Monsterland, and the fancy gadgetry running the science base underneath, as well as some of the advanced civil defense systems protecting some of the world's cities, such as missile launchers that folded out of the top of apartment buildings, which would probably not fly in the real world, but whatever. But that was about it - 2001: A Space Odyssey, this was not.

Instead, the model first employed in Invasion of Astro-Monster was repeated here, albeit hopped up on steroids, the model I am calling "STFU lets blow shit up". No sooner than we found out about all these neat gadgets, then the aliens showed up and slapped those gagdets aside, and all the monsters started going apeshit, starting with the giant tyranosaurus with one mean dropkick, Gorosaurus, busting out from the ground in front of the Arc de Triumph in Paris, but joke's on him, cuz the French had likely already surrendered by then. Right after that, we saw Rodan attacking Moscow, Mothra attacking London, and Godzilla showing up in Manhattan to blow up the UN with his atomic breath. Take THAT, world peace!

And things just got more gonzo from there. Tokyo got leveled by several daikaiju at once, those apartment launched missiles about as effective as screen doors on a submarine, followed by the space-trotting hijinks of the intrepid crew of spaceship Moonlight SY-3, as they zipped around the world and to the moon and back trying to find a way to foil the aliens' means of controlling the giant monsters who were wreaking so much havoc around the globe.

And it all came to a head at the end when, spoiler alert, the monsters were freed of their control by the aliens, and from then it was game on motherfucker, and they all congregated at the alien base cracking their monster knuckles, with Mount Fuji as the backdrop. How's that for iconography. You could almost hear the Jets singing "here come the Jets like a bat out of hell, someone gets in our way someone don't feel so well!" playing in the background.

And what followed is the most ambitious, and I'm gonna come right out and say it, the downright kickassest fight scene in the history of daikaiju cinema.

Now, naturally, the aliens had an ace up their sleeves. They summoned The Planet Destoyer, King Ghidorah, to attack the monsters, with a smug look on their faces that leads me to believe that they missed the memo about ol' KG being 0 and 3 against Godzilla & pals going into that fight - and the previous fights that KG lost, he was only outnumbered at worst 3 to 1. Apparently the tactical geniuses that were the alien Kilaak thought that having KG take on four times the amount of monsters all by his lonesome was how he would finally get that first win. And not only that, lets just drop him right in the middle of all of them so he can be instantly flanked! Ooookaaaayy.....

To put it bluntly, what immediately followed was pretty much the most severe ass-whuppin' of the Showa Era. Once Gorosaurus hit KG in the back with his flying dropkick, sending the big guy to the ground, the fight was essentially over. But it didn't stop there. The monsters then pretty much all started gleefully stomping the bastard into the ground. Even punk-ass Minya got into the act, breathing an atomic fruit loop thing which horseshoed right around one of KG's long necks.

And, ya know, that last monster fight, particularly the crazy curb-stomping of King Ghidorah, is kind of a microcosm of the entire movie itself. Crazy, joyful mischief. While Destroy All Monsters may not be great, or even all that good by the standards set by many of the movies chatted and argued about on this very board, one thing it is, is it is delightfully self aware. It knows it is not bringing home any oscars, and, ya know what, it doesn't care. It is an homage to itself and the Godzilla movies that came before it. The last hurrah for a bunch of guys, who, at the time, thought they were putting Godzilla to pasture. All they wanted to do was to make a movie that was just a lotta fun to watch.


https://i.ibb.co/nMX08jV/dam1.jpg
The maestros, from left to right: Special Effects Director Sadamasa Arikawa, director Ishiro Honda, Special Effects Advisor Eiji Tsubaraya, and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka

And that is what I love about Destroy All Monsters, and that's what I love about all daikaiju cinema, particularly the Showa Era, specifically the period from about 1962 to 1968, before the budgets and as a result the production values started to really tank and the film-makers started to lean too heavily on stock footage and gimmicks. Movies like DAM, King Ghidorah, Invasion of Astro-Monster, King Kong Escapes, Gamera vs. Barugon, Daimajin, all produced in these four years, all movies which I could watch again and again and again and still get a thrill, still feel like a kid again.

But the crown jewel remains Destroy All Monsters. And why shouldn't it be? It was supposed to be the final Godzilla movie, the swansong, the final sendoff after a very respectable 14 year run. All of the people involved in the film were told it would be the last of its kind, and they poured all their love and appreciation for Godzilla into it, and it shows. They wanted the big guy to go out on top. And if it was to be the last of Godzilla's films, he would have.

But of course, fate would have other plans. And that, my friends, is a topic for another post.

[DFA1979]

Destroy All Monsters rules. I was going through the Criterion box set and that's the last one I viewed so far. I'm gonna get back to the other ones soon as they're all rewatches at this point. The only ones I hadn't seen prior to getting the book box set was Horror of the Deep and SOG.

[DFA1979]

BTW I was at my local library and I found that they had a copy of Return of Godzilla. So i could have just rented that instead of watching it on my phone via some website. Smh.

[bac0n]

Hahaha - actually a few months ago, the local Alamo Drafthouse had a Godzillathon of sorts, playing the first two Godzilla's of the Heisei series - Godzilla 1985 (Known in Japan as The Return of Godzilla) followed by Godzilla vs. Biollante. Took the whole family, and Spun Lepton too. It was glorious.

Even better, they played the original Japanese theatrical cut of RofG, which of course omited all of Raymond Burr's scenes, but it was the first time I had seen that version of the film.

As a side, Godzilla's Revenge (aka All Monsters Attack) writeup is currently WIP. It is slow going, as the movie is pretty painful to watch.

[DFA1979]

That all sounds fantastic.

Incidentally Godzilla's Revenge is the one in the Criterion box set I'm stuck on. I recall it being pretty bad.

[DFA1979]

Also RIP to Akira Takarada.

[bac0n]

All Monsters Attack (1969)

https://i.ibb.co/dMtGLT2/ama.jpg

If you have made it this far into my self-indulgent Godzilla thread (congrats! a true test of endurance!), chances are, you are familiar with this guy.

https://i.ibb.co/CPJ8qYd/gamera.jpg

Yup, it's Gamera, the giant fire breathing turtle, friend of children, introduced to a lot of us on this side of The Pacific (present company included) thanks to Joel Hodgeson, Tom Servo, Crow, and the rest of the folks behind Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

For the uninitiated, Gamera was Toho rival Daiei's entry into the daikaju genre, an initally destructive beast who rapidly transitioned to a hero in a series of progressively lower-budget affairs targeting the Saturday morning cartoon set. At the end of the day, most people think of Gamera as a knock-off of Godzilla.

But what if I were to tell you that a strong argument can be made for the exact opposite being true?

Still here? Allow me to explain.

Flashback to the year 1968. The Godzilla franchise was running on fumes, and Toho had all but decided to let Godzilla ride into the sunset with Destroy All Monsters. Meanwhile, over at Daiei Studios, that same year saw the release of Gamera vs. Viras, their fourth film release featuring the monster.

Now, everything about Gamera vs. Viras was designed to allow it to be done on the fast & cheap. The titular evil monster, a giant silver squid thing, looked like it was made by 4th graders for a school production of Little Mermaid. Also, Viras had very little actual screen time, not showing up until the final 9 minutes of the film, minimizing the need for repairs and extra suits. The battles took place in the country, so no need to spend budget on things like buildings and explosions. There were some spaceships, but any moron could see that they were just painted beach balls glued to a hula hoop. Neither a corner was not cut nor a shortcut not taken in the making of Gamera vs Viras - and boy did it show.

https://i.ibb.co/Dtt64Vc/viras.jpg

Hell, even the plot itself was designed to minimize production costs: at one point in the film, the approaching aliens decide to do a threat assessment of Gamera by probing its memories of past battles - a stupid plot device designed to allow them to just replay as-is entire fight scenes from previous Gamera films. At another point in the film, Gamera was mind-controlled so they could use even more stock footage from his bad-boy days when he was trashing cities instead of saving them, shamelessly including even black and white footage from the original Gamera. Black and white stock footage stitched into an otherwise full-color film. Yeah, they actually did that.

In the end, over fifteen minutes worth of stock footage was used. That's over 20% of the movie's entire 72 minute run time!

Predictably, what they wound up churning out would make even the worst of the Godzilla films look like Citizen Kane by comparison. Yet, the movie still made bank. Why? Because it was firmly and squarely targeting younger audiences, who apparently gave zero fucks about the abysmal production values, insipid plot, embarrassing dialogue, and recycled footage. In case there was any doubt as to the intended audience, Daiei set the film's main human protagonists as a pair of 10 year old boy scouts who all by themselves foiled the dastardly alien plot, freed up Gamera from alien mind control, who then of course proceeded to save the day. And I'll betcha having those two kids as the heroes saved them on labor costs as well.

I can't tell you how much money Gamera vs Viras made upon release, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that it didn't do quite as well at the box office as Destroy All Monsters. But box office revenue is not the important number anyway. The important number, and the number that got Toho's attention, was Gamera vs. Viras' production cost. At 20 million yen (roughly 460K in 2022 USD ), it cost literally one tenth as much money to make Gamera vs. Viras as it did Destroy All Monsters. In fact: for the cost it took to make Destroy All Monsters alone (200M Yen), you could have made all four Gamera movies that had been released up to that point.

While Gamera vs. Viras likely brought in nowhere near the revenue that Destroy All Monsters did, it must have absolutely wiped the floor with DAM in terms of profit margin, which is the number that executives really pay attention to. And as a fella who's crunched numbers of the sort for CEOs on more than one occasion over the years, I can tell you from experience, that if you're able to pull off more than 30 points of margin, sales execs start foaming at the mouth, and investors start throwing money at you hand over fist.

The reason is, a profit margin of 30 percent means that for every dollar the movie makes at the box office, 30 cents goes straight to profit. That means that with a production budget of 460K, if Gamera vs. Viras were even to pull off as little as 920K at the box office, we're talking a whopping 50 points of margin (that assumes there were no additional costs such as marketing, but you get the picture). That's INSANE. By comparison, that laptop you're viewing this post on likely pulled in the between 5 and 9 points of profit margin.

I can only imagine the dollar signs the Toho suits had in their eyes as they pondered the kind of profits they were gonna pull by applying this formula to Godzilla. Surely, they thought that if a cheaply made kids movie starring a giant turtle with a waffle iron for a chest could make good money, just think of the kind of money they could make off a similarly cheaply-made movie, but starring a monster with the kind of name recognition and established fanbase that Godzilla had. They were gonna be rich!

And just like that, the Toho suits decided to make a Godzilla movie which was, at its core, a Gamera movie knockoff. Tomoyoki Tanaka, who probably died a little inside when the suits told him what his assignment was going to be, was again picked to produce, and Ishiro Honda, who for reasons unbeknownst to me didn't tell them go go fuck themselves, was recruited to direct, and they were given a meager budget to work with, all but guaranteeing they would have to re-use sets, props, monster suits, and, sigh, stock footage.

Joyless task in hand, Tanaka and Honda set about making this film. Shinichi Sekizawa, who penned the vast majority of the Showa Era Godzilla films, threw together a script that was, just like Gamera vs. Viras before it, specifically designed to recycle as many set locations and footage from previous films as possible, while at the same time zeroing in on the 5-12 year old demographic.

The plot, such as it was, revolved around a 10 year old latch-key kid named Ichiro in a blue collar part of town, who's only friends are an elderly toymaker (played with a delightful grandfatherly charm by Hideyo Amamoto, in stark contrast to his run as the diabolical Dr. Hu in King Kong Escapes) and a young girl named Sachiko. Ichiro has a bully problem, a punk kid named Gabara and a bunch of his toadies who torment him every day on his way to and from school.

And, ah, the formula is starting to take shape. Young protagonist: check.

https://i.ibb.co/2gHRX7M/ichiro.jpg

Compounding Ichiro's troubles, his parents are always working, and so he passes the time by daydreaming about Godzilla on the magical Monster Island, the place where all dreams come true. And, wow, those dreams sure do look a lot like scenes from Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster... Yup, all of Godzilla's initial scenes were stock footage, checking off another box:

Lifting entire fight scenes from previous films: check.

https://i.ibb.co/R9ZMq3m/ebirah.jpg

It doesn't take long for Ichiro to get into trouble on Monster Island, and soon he finds himself being chased by some stock footage of Kamacuras the giant preying mantises. He manages to evade them, but falls into a pit, and since this is a dream, he doesn't break both his legs and split his head open. Soon after that, a vine lowers into the pit for Ichiro to climb out with, and when he gets out, dammit, it's fucking Minya, and he wants to be pals, and worse, now he talks.

The monsters now are friends with the children: check.

https://i.ibb.co/WncNR4y/friends.jpg

Believe it or not, this was the first time I had actually seen the Japanese subtitled version of this movie, and was relived to not be hearing Minya talking with a voice that sounded like Slim Pickins doing an impression of Goofy. However, the Japanese version was disturbing in its own right, instead sounding like an 8-year-old girl speaking through a gas mask. At any rate, turns out, Minya has bully problems of his own, as he is being hounded by a punk Kaiju named, whattaya know, that thing's name is Gabara too!

Ridiculous looking villain monster: check.

https://i.ibb.co/Hrfm275/Gabara-Kaiju-Guide.webp

So, yeah, it's a giant blue cat-faced monster with a messy orange toupe, something that Maurice Sendak would possibly draw after a bar fight. And I don't think it's a huge spoiler to say that Minya eventually works up the courage to stand up to the big galoof, and learns a valuable lesson along the way - and of course Ichiro is in turn inspired to standup to his own Gabara, and even foils a pair of bumbling robbers while he's at it, checking off the final box of the Gamera formula:

The children save the day: check.

https://i.ibb.co/8xYXKmd/win.jpg

And there you have it: a paint by the numbers kid-centric kaiju flick, invented by Gamera, perfected by Godzilla. Well, "perfected" might be a bit strong of a word, but for all its faults, All Monsters Attack is worlds better than the latter several Gamera films, and to be honest, I must admit that my opinion of All Monsters Attack, which I grew up knowing as the equally deceptively titled "Godzilla's Revenge" (revenge for what, exactly? did someone steal his chalupa?) has softened somewhat. Now, don't get me wrong, I have no desire to see this film again any time soon mind you, but I can't say that I hate this movie with the same strident fervor as I did in my 20s, when I was under the delusion that cynicism was a virtue.

For starters, back then, I was of the opinion that the weakest part of the film was little Ichiro. I saw him as little more than a squealing brat who's parents really needed to buy him a pair of shorts that didn't ride all the way up his butt crack. Nowadays, having had kids of my own who were introduced to Godzilla via this very movie, I view Ichiro instead as the best thing about the movie. The kid has pluck, I'll give him that. He's also quite resourceful. He has a good imagination too. Great traits for anybody to have. He's relatable, I am sure, to a lot of kids who have had bullies or similar challenges to deal with. Gods knows, I was one of them. And further, he's the only human protagonist in a Showa era Godzilla film since Dr. Serizawa in the original Gojira who was given an appreciable character arc. That's kind of a big deal!

But still, the movie's overreliance on stock footage and recycled props and sets makes it hard for me to recommend this film for anybody over the age of 10. Which I guess is more than I can say for Gamera vs. Viras, which I wouldn't recommend to anybody with a pulse.

In the end, the good news for the Godzilla franchise, is that they would pull back on the stock footage and blatant pandering to children thing, probably owing to the fact that this movie underperformed at the box office relative to expectations.

On the other hand, Daiei would only double down on this shit, culminating in the laughably atrocious Gamera Super Monster, which relied exclusively on stock footage for all of Gamera's fight scenes, the only exception being the "finale" which saw what looked like a Gamera pinata colliding head on with an alien space ship, itself a blatant ripoff of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Not long after that embarrassing pile of garbage was released, Daiei went belly up.

But not Toho! Godzilla would persevere! And get.. kinda trippy!

But that, my friends, is a topic for another post...

[DFA1979]

That entry is godawful and the only Godzilla film from that period to get a negative rating from me. Yet I own it anyways thanks to Criterion. Yey for box sets lol!

[DFA1979]

Also of course I'm reading. I may quit writing reviews here, participating in polls, not making any more threads and I've basically abandoned giving a shit. But leave behind this thread? Never!

[Skitch]

I'm still reading for sure.

[bac0n]

Appreciate it, hope you're enjoying!

[megladon8]

You know I read every entry!! Just don't always have something to say.