125) Godzilla, aka Gojira (1954)

Halloween 2022's Godzilla-Maniapalloza Extravaganza begins...For the Love of Godzilla.

All Hail, the Monster King!

Long before streaming and YouTube were a thing, a Godzilla movie was a rare and welcomed activity. A movie would occasionally air on television on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. I don't recall seeing Godzilla movies at the local video store. 

If my memory is correct, Godzilla movies were normally broadcast on the local Bay Area stations KOFY-TV 20 or KBHK channel 44. 

I can still hear the station jingle. "We've got what you're looking for! TV 20," followed by "Stereo" spoken in a whisper. Then, in case you didn't catch it the first time, they'd repeat the station identification. 

"KOFY, K.O.F.Y - Stereo T.V. twenty. San Francisco."
The afternoon sunlight would beam through the living room curtains against the back of our 1979 19" RCA color television with the rabbit ears and dials for brightness and contrast. Our first remote control had only four buttons. Volume up. Volume down. Channel up. And channel down. 

Godzilla would spring on the tube, rubber suit and all, and battle some other monster whose names I never knew until now. Mothra and King Kong were the exceptions. I knew who they were.

There may or may not have been a tub of gummy bears on hand depending on whether dad went to Price Club earlier in the week.

Back then, the only Godzilla movies I knew by title were "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962) and "Son of Godzilla" (1967). Anything else I might have caught on television I simply called "Godzilla." 

So, ever since starting this blog back in 2018, I've had plans to dedicate each Halloween season to a specific horror franchise. 

I did precisely that in 2020. I dedicated Halloween that year to the "Tremors" series when I was doing a podcast at anchor.fm/1000daysofhorror. Pardon my shameless self-promotion. 

I watched each of the movies in that series and recorded my commentary on each one.

I'm doing it again this year on this blog as I don't record on my podcast anymore. I'll post commentary on all of the Godzilla movies in the Shōwa era. I couldn't possibly do every Godzilla movie out there. That would take at least a year or two. I started watching and reviewing these Godzilla movies back in June, so this has been a labor of monstrous fandom. 

I hope to continue this throughout the Octobers in the future. 

What's the 'Shōwa Era?'

According to a 2019 issue of Life magazine, Godzilla issue, the "Shōwa" period was a political era in Japan ushered in at the rise of Emperor Hirohito. It lasted until the 1980s. So, the kaiju films (Japanese giant monster movies) produced by Toho Studios in Japan between 1954 to 1975 are known as the Shōwa series. There are 15 Godzilla movies all together in this era. Other monster movies produced by Toho Studios, such as the Gamera films, are also a part of this. 

According to wikizilla.org, these 15 Godzilla movies in can be subdivided into three categories. The originally "duology" from 1954 to 1955 includes "Gojira," and "Godzilla Raids Again." 

The "revival" films between 1962 to 1968 include "King Kong vs. Godzilla," "Mothra vs. Godzilla," "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster," "Invasion of Astro-Monster," "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep," "Son of Godzilla," and "Destroy All Monsters." 

The third subcategory is the Champion Series from 1969 to 1975 with "All Monsters Attack," "Godzilla vs. Hedorah," "Godzilla vs. Gigan," "Godzilla vs. Megalon," "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" and "Terror of Mechagodzilla." These are the titles I'll be posting about in time for Halloween.

A behind-the-scenes shot of director Ishirō Honda on
the set of "Godzilla," 1954. 

Since We're on the Topic

Starting in 1950, classic monster movies that brought in the freakiest from our backyards and European nations - Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the Wolfman, were pushed aside to reign in the atomic age of horror. 

Starting in 1950, and lasting up around 1964, movie producers began making pictures around giant monsters and mutant animals seen in movies such as "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." On top of this carnage, aliens began invading earth in films such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Quartermass 2," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and "The Blob." 

This is when Japan, a nation most familiar with the horrors of atomic catastrophes, gave rise to the King of the Monsters - Godzilla. 

Godzilla is greatly inspired by "King Kong" and "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms."

Unlike the rest of the atomic monsters before, Godzilla is written as a dark allegorical social commentary. Instead of stop-motion or filming real animals and overlaping the film, they stuck an actor in rubber suit.

Japan gave nuclear devastation a face. He's not a dinosaur. 

Director Ishirō Honda says in that same Godzilla issue of Life magazine, "If Godzilla had been a just a big ancient dinosaur or some other animal, he would have been killed by just one cannonball. But if he were equal to an atomic bomb, man wouldn't know what to do. So, I took the characteristics of an atomic bomb and applied them to Godzilla."

The Godzilla franchise is easily one of the most overwhelming sci-fi franchises out there. There's a ton of Godzilla movies between 1954 to 2021. 

After the Shōwa period comes the Heisei era, starting with "The Return of Godzilla," also known

as "Godzilla 1984." 

It continues on until "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah" (1995). 

Up next, the Millennium era begins with "Godzilla 2000" (1999) and concludes with "Godzilla Final Wars" (2004). 

Despite how disappointing I think it is, I have to mention the 1998 American remake "Godzilla" directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Matthew Broderick. It's the first Godzilla movie made outside of Japan.

Toho Studios hated it and struck back with a new movie of their own, "Godzilla 2000." It had both a Japanese and American theatrical release. 

Since audiences generally hated this 1998 remake, the monster has been dubbed by various fans as "Gino" (Godzilla in name only).  

The folks over at Toho Studios started calling him "Zilla" claiming he's not worthy to have "God" in his name. He's even referred to in Toho's 2001 movie "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." I love that title!

There's a scene in that film where the history of Godzilla is discussed among a bunch of smarty pants. One of the characters refers to an attack on New York City back in 1998 and mentions that the Americans think Godzilla was responsible. But he really wasn't. 

Burn!

The American remake spawned an animated show called "Godzilla: The Series" which served as a sequel to the movie. It ran for two seasons from 1998 to 2000, with 38 episodes plus two unaired episodes. 

Gino, or Zilla, or whatever you want to call him, makes an appearance in "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004). He attacks Australia and has a brief bout with the real Godzilla. That movie is a serious trip, to say the least. Reality means nothing in that installment. I really need to review that one someday.

The "MonsterVerse" period is where you'll find the recent Hollywood produced Godzilla movies, starting with 2014's "Godzilla" up to the monster rematch audiences waited 60 years to watch - "Godzilla vs. Kong" (2021).

During this period, Japan released "Shin Godzilla" in 2016. At the time, it was the first Toho produced Godzilla movie in 16 years. And it's a movie I really enjoy!

After "Shin Godzilla's" release, some anime Godzilla films, produced by Toho Animation, came out - "Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters" (2017), "Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle" (2018) and "Godzilla: The Planet Eater" (2018). These animated stories, along with "Shin Godzilla" are part of the current Reiwa series.

I came across the animated films on Netflix. I started watching them but never finished.

Evidently, there's also three short films produced consecutively for GodzillaFest - "Godzilla Appears at Godzilla Fest" (2020), "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (2021) and "G vs. G 2" (2021). 

Toho also had a Godzilla TV series called "Godzilla Island" in Japan. The series has 256 episodes, each approximately three-minutes long. It ran from 1997 to 1998.

So, all in all, according to mykaiju.com there are 37 Godzilla films. The number excludes the aforementioned short films and "Godzilla Island." I say there's really 38 if you count the always appreciated "Bambi Meets Godzilla." 

The Review

"To all our viewers, this is not a play or a movie. This is real, the most extraordinary story of the century."

Director

Ishirō Honda

Cast

Momoko Kōchi - Emiko Yamane
Akira Takarada - Hideto Ogata

Akihiko Hirata - Dr. Daisuke Serizawa

Takashi Shimura - Dr. Kyohei Yamane
Fuyuki Murakami - Dr. Tanabe
Haruo Nakajima - Godzilla

The horror genre often reflects the pains and anxieties of a generation. 

Godzilla's beginning is a personification, or rather a "monsterfication" of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. 

This first Godzilla film, called "Gojira" in Japan, is definitely one the greatest monster movies of the atomic age of horror/ sci-fi films. 

The atomic age reflects the period in history when atomic and nuclear warfare really became a scary reality in our world. As far as the genre goes, it marks the age of alien invasion and giant monsters or oversized animal attacks on the big screen. It was quite a change from Dracula, Frankenstein, and other such European monsters of the 1930s and 1940s. 

Nobody knew the horrors of atomic warfare more than Japan.

"Godzilla" was released in the U.S. in 1956 under the title "Godzilla: King of the Monsters." 

The version I watched for this post is the uncut Japanese version. 

In this movie, several ships are being destroyed while out off the coast of Japan. Officials are baffled as officials often are.

One ship in particular, a Japanese freighter called the Eiko-maru, is attacked by some unknown creature lurking in the sea. Officials send out another ship called the Bingo-maru to assess the damage and find any survivors. 

Unfortunately, it's also attacked. Officials are now baffled-er than before!

Later, a fishing boat that sailed out from the island of Odo is destroyed. Only one person survives. 

Also, the fish population is dwindling to near extinction. Fishing boats are coming up with little to no catches.
All this captures the press's attention, and reporters head to Odo to see what's going on. Officials are still just as baffled.
A villager explains all these events are due to a sea monster called "Godzilla" who's living in the ocean.
In the evening, a terrible storm hits the island of Odo. It not only destroys a news helicopter, it also lures Godzilla out of the water. 

He's briefly seen while he destroys homes and kills people and livestock. And then he ventures back into the water.
The residents of Odo flock to Tokyo demanding assistance and relief. Again, officials are just saturated in baffledness.
The Japanese government send paleontologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura) to Odo in the hopes his research will diminish their being so baffled. 

Godzilla makes use of his atomic breath
in the 1954 film "Godzilla."

Yamane finds giant radioactive footprints and an arthropod called a trilobite, which was thought to be extinct centuries ago.
Godzilla also decides to resurface and is spotted by the doctor and the villagers.
So, Yamane takes his discoveries, and a few pictures, back to Tokyo to present them to the nation's leaders. 

He estimates that Godzilla is 50 meters tall (or approximately 165 feet high) and is quickly evolving from an ancient sea creature to, basically, a land monster. He concludes that Godzilla is a result of underwater hydrogen bomb testing
As leaders and officials, in their baffled state of mind, debate over what to do about Godzilla and whether the general public should be notified, 17 more ships are taken down by the monster.
Godzilla soon finds his way into Tokyo, reducing it to a sea of flames.

While all this is taking place, Yamane's daughter, Emiko (Momoko Kōchi) calls it quits with her fiancé, Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). Instead, her heart yearns for a ship captain named

Hideto Ogata (Akira Takarada).
Ogata shows her Serizawa's project - a weapon called an oxygen destroyer.
The weapon destroys oxygen molecules in water which causes any living organism in the water to die of asphyxiation. Emiko and Ogata think this may be key to defeating Godzilla. But Serizawa thinks otherwise. 

What distinguishes the first Godzilla movie from the others I've seen is the amount of human emotion portrayed along side Godzilla wreaking his havoc. 

The audience is shown quite a bit of human suffering that's the result of the carnage wrought by a monster whose existence is a result of destructive warfare. There's quite a bit of realism in "Godzilla." 

Again, horror reflects the horror of real life, and that certainly includes suffering. The film was released in Japan just nine years after the atomic bombs were dropped. 

The shots and effects are fantastic and well done. Though Godzilla doesn't completely emerge until 45 minutes into the movie, the composition shows just how mammoth and towering he is. The model ratio and detail show how much great care and detail went into this movie. Producers wanted to make a truly memorable film and they certainly accomplished what they set out to do. 

The American version is heavily edited and altered, and stars Raymond Burr. The U.S. version is cut down to 80 minutes with different footage shot specifically for America audiences. All in all, both versions are rather different. To its credit, the America version maintains the message and the metaphor "Godzilla" is meant to be. 

The Japanese version I watched is 96 minutes long. The movie certainly takes it time. But when the carnage occurs, the movie doesn't hold back. 

This is certainly a film that gives the world Japan's point of view when it comes to the horror of atomic warfare and the cataclysmic destruction it leaves behind. 

Director Ishirō Honda has a cameo as a power worker, as well as Haruo Nakajima who wears the Godzilla suit in this movie. Nakajima plays a news reporter as well as an engineer.

He'll portray Godzilla 11 more times, his last time being in "Godzilla vs. Gigan" (1972). 

Najajima has played other monsters for Toho such as King Kong in "King Kong Escapes" (1967), Baragon in "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (1965), the Mothra caterpillar in "Mothra" (1961) Gaira in "War of the Gargantuas" (1966) and Rodan in "Rodan" (1956). He's listed as having various monster roles in the Toho movie "Space Amoeba" (1970).

I'll add here that Momoko Kōchi plays Emiko again in the 1995 movie "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah."

Steve Ryfle quotes producer Tomoyuki Tanaka in his article "Godzilla's Footprint" published in the 2005 issue of "The Virginia Quarterly Review."

"The theme of the film, from the beginning, was the terror of the bomb. Mankind had created the bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge on mankind," Tanaka says.

I can just imagine what Japanese audiences thought as they watched "Godzilla" on the big screen for the first time back in 1954, with the atomic bomb attacks still fresh on the nation's mind. It took Godzilla one film - his first film - to rightly claim the title of "King of the Monsters." All hail, the lizard king!