The Wrath of Godzilla, Part 1: In the Beginning

My Big Project.  This is something I've wanted to do for a while, cuz I'm a big kid at heart - review the entire Godzilla saga, 1954 to present day.  With a new, big budget American reboot in production, as well as a return to Japanese movie screens in 2014 (his 60th birthday) via Toho Studios, I figured that now would be a good time to reflect on the Big G's legacy.  Plus, it will keep me busy and out of trouble.

For the record, I will review all of the Godzilla films in the order of their original releases (with one exception).  I will also be reviewing many of the peripheral kaiju (giant monster) movies released by Toho Studios during the intervening years - these I will not be reviewing in the exact order of their releases, but they will will be, more or less, in something I like to call "aesthetic order".  It's just my excuse to give each Wrath of Godzilla entry some kind of overarching theme.  You'll see.

The entire Godzilla catalog is divided into three different eras/series.  The first is the Showa series (1954-1979), next is the Heisei series (1984-1995) and finally the Millenium series (1998-2004).  I will be explaining the differences between each of these as I go along.  Basically, each series is a new beginning for the Big G (Godzilla, for the lay person).  Alright, time to begin. . .


Gojira a.k.a. Godzilla (1954)

It's always struck me how Japan's most recognizable and revered cultural icon is also the embodiment of the country's most horrific national tragedy, the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I've always felt that Japanese pop culture, in general, has a strange sado-masochistic core, almost like the Japanese people are punishing themselves for their involvement in World War II.  Even when Godzilla is saving the people of Japan from evil aliens, he still decimates entire cities in the process.  And he can never, ever, be stopped.  Permanently, at least.  It's all kind of weird.

This is the most serious and dramatically sound Godzilla movie of all time.  Do not confuse this movie with the recut American version "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" (1956 - I'll properly review this one later), which is not only 20 minutes shorter, but features newly-shot scenes with American actor Raymond Burr, which were shoehorned into the movie.  Much of the original Japanese version's power was lost in this translation, but for the past 50 years "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" was the only version of the original movie that was available in America - until 2004, on Godzilla's 50th birthday.  Classic Media, God bless 'em, finally released the Japanese version of "Gojira" onto big screens everywhere.  Ah, I remember the day I finally got to see the original as it was meant to be seen, in theaters - and I also remember being quite surprised at how effective and powerful some of the scenes were.  I gained a new respect for my childhood icon that day.

Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka's current film project falls apart.  Toho Studios needs a movie to fill the void, so Tanaka, spurred on by the success in Japan of the American flick "Beast From 20,000 Fathoms", decides that a monster movie would be the way to go.  He assembles his team: science fiction author and screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, Akira Kurosawa pupil (and first-hand witness of Hiroshima) Ishiro Honda as director, legendary composer Akira Ifukube, and special effects master Eiji Tsuburya.  The story: atomic bomb testing in the Pacific has mutated a sea-going dinosaur into a 150 ft tall, atomic fire-breathing engine of destruction.  Soon Tokyo becomes the target for Godzilla's wrath, and only a superweapon created by Dr. Serizawa, the Oxygen Destroyer (a side effect of Serizawa's search for a new power source) can stop the beast.  But would unleashing a power greater than the atomic bomb truly solve the problem?

So where did the name Gojira come from?  Apparently, it's a hybridization of the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale".  According to legend, there was a rather large man who worked behind the scenes at Toho Studios nicknamed "Gojira".  The producer decided to name the monster after him. This monster goes on to become one of the most popular icons in cinema history.  I think "Shifty Bastard" would be a pretty good name for a movie monster, don't you?  Well?

Godzilla was originally intended to be brought to life with stop motion animation, like "King Kong" (1933), but was deemed too costly and time consuming a process to be effective.  So special effects man Eiji Tsuburya created the classic man-in-suit and miniature model effects that would become the staple of the entire series (although there are still two stop motion moments in the movie).  Shot in moody black and white and coupled with Akira Ifukube's brilliant and haunting musical score, the look and feel of this film was a revelation at the time.  Also keep in mind that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened less than 10 years earlier, and this movie features some rather stark recreations of the destruction and desolation of those events.  It was the first movie to deal with the horrors of the bombings head on, and at the time it was considered to be quite overwhelming to many audience members.  Heck, there's a scene where a mother is cradling her children while the whole city is burning around them, consoling her kids with assurances that they'll "soon be with their father".  It still gets me.

Sure, much about this movie is dated.  The effects are old school, but still charming and effective in their own right.  When the character of  Dr. Yamane is explaining dinosaurs to a group of gathered officials, it shows how far the field of paleontology has come in the last 60 years.  And there are some soap opera theatrics to please the soap opera theatric portion of the audience - there's a love triangle of sorts between Dr. Serizawa, his fiancee Emiko, and a sailor named Ogata (trivia bit - Momoku Kuichi, who plays Emiko, would later reprise her role 40 years later in "Godzilla vs Destroyah").  Nonetheless, it was a groundbreaking movie that started a whole genre and was the wellspring for over a half-century's worth of stories.  A great movie.

Did I mention Ifukube's brilliant score?  Dark, melancholy and classic.

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

After the international success of "Gojira" (except in America - it wouldn't appear here until '56), Toho quickly produced a sequel.  Tomoyuki Tanaka returned as producer, and Eiji Tsuburya came back to create the special effects, but other than that, it was a new team of filmmakers led by director Motoyoshi Oda.  In this one, a new Godzilla appears, fighting another mutated dinosaur named Anguirus (which looks like a spiky armadillo).  Their battle takes them from a coastal island to the city of Osaka, and eventually to an icy island in the North Pacific.  The story is witnessed through the eyes of a couple of "fish spotters", pilots who work for fishing companies by flying over the ocean and spotting schools of fish for their fleets to catch.

It's a decent monster movie, but that's just it - coming after the emotionally resonant "Gojira", it pales in comparison.  But it's fun.  While still in black and white, gone is the moody cinematography.  Also missing is the great score by Ifukube.  The new score is typical B-monster movie fare.  And the new director just doesn't shoot the special effects sequences as effectively as Honda did.  Oftentimes, the monster fights are shot in fast motion instead of slow motion, adding to the hokeyness.

Still, it features Godzilla in his first monster battle.  And it also features actor Hiroshi Koizumi as one of the fish spotters.  He would later return in many different roles in many more Godzilla movies.  And Takashi Shimura reprises his role from "Gojira", Dr. Yamane.

-Spoiler Alert-
So Godzilla was killed in the original movie, completely dissolved by the Oxygen Destroyer.  How could he star in a sequel?  My theory - there were two Godzillas mutated by the A-bomb tests, a mated pair.  I think that the original Godzilla was the female and the new Godzilla, from this movie onward, is male.  Why do I think this?  Because this new Godzilla kind of acts like a male jackass.  He's constantly picking fights.  He acts like a strict Japanese father figure when his kid comes around ("Son of Godzilla").  And he develops a crush on a cute native islander girl in "Godzilla vs the Sea Monster".  And Anguirus?  Godzilla clearly kills Anguirus in "Godzilla Raids Again", yet an Anguirus appears a couple of more times in future movies.  Another mutated mated pair?  Perhaps.  All speculation.

"Godzilla Raids Again" was eventually released in America.  The distributor recut the movie and added lots of unnecessary narraration (also listen for the voice of George Takei, a.k.a. Mr. Sulu, as one of the dubbed voices).  They also changed the title to "Gigantis, the Fire Monster".  Why, you might ask, since "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" had been such a big hit in America, would they omit Godzilla's name entirely?  Nobody knows for sure, but it's widely suspected that the new distributor feared that there would be legal repercussions if they used the "Godzilla" name, so they changed it just to be sure.  They probably didn't have to, but they did.

Varan the Unbelievable (1958)

Here it is, the final black and white kaiju movie released by Toho.  After burying Godzilla in an avalanche at the end of "Godzilla Raids Again", Toho decided to try their hand at making some all-new monsters to take over for the Big G.  One of the first was "Varan the Unbelievable".

In a remote area of northern Japan, referred to as the "Tibet of Japan", a couple of university students have gone missing while looking for a rare Siberian butterfly.  The sister of one of the missing men (a reporter), accompanied by her fat, funny photographer co-worker and another university student (who's only motivation, I can figure, is to get into the young lady's pants) travel to a remote village who's inhabitants live in fear of their "god" who lives in a nearby lake.  Then a stupid dog crosses the village/lake barrier, followed by a stupid kid, chasing the dog.  Then our stupid heroes decide to go after the stupid kid and the stupid dog.  Our stupid heroes manage to convince the stupid villagers (except for the high priest) to join them in their search.  This pisses off the "god", which is actually a giant four-legged lizard named Varan, who lives in the lake.  Varan eats the high priest, who was the only smart person in the area.

Then the stupid military arrives.  They stupidly decide to shoot the lake full of poison, which pisses off Varan.  Varan says "screw this" and takes off into the air like a flying squirrel.  He heads for (where else?) Tokyo.  The stupid military throws everything they have at him, pissing him off even more.  Then a scientist shows up (played by Akihiko Hirata, who also played Dr. Serizawa in "Gojira") with some high powered bombs they use to blow up mountains.  They make Varan swallow a couple of these bombs, then detonate them.  Varan, in major need of some extra-strength Rolaids, shambles out the sea.

The moral of the story: humans just can't leave well enough alone.

The original team who made "Gojira" reunited for this one - director Honda, writer Sekizawa, effects man Tsuburya, composer Ifukube.  Lightning, however, did not strike twice, and "Varan the Unbelievable" never took off either in Japan or America (where it arrived in a heavily edited and reworked version).  Varan does return, however.  He makes a cameo appearance in "Destroy All Monsters" (1969).  Still, this movie is fun in a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" sort of way, and Ifukube goes above and beyond to deliver another classic score - many of the musical tracks from this movie would go on to become classic Toho monster movie themes in the years to come.  Here's the trailer for the American version. . .

Whew.  Thus endeth the lesson for today.  When we return, Godzilla gains a couple of disciples and his legend continues to grow.