REVIEW: GOJIRA NO GYAKYUSHU
REVIEW: GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER
REVIEW: GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN
REVIEW: MOTOYOSHI ODA [ 1955 ] 82'
REVIEW: TOHO COMPANY LTD.
CAST: HIROSHI KOIZUMI, MINORU CHIAKI,
CAST: SETSUKO WAKAYAMA, MASAO SHIMIZU
WTFFILM RATING:

For every successful film franchise, there is a bastard child of sorts. For Indiana Jones it was THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. For JAWS it was pretty much everything from 3 on up. And for Romero's Dead trilogy it was DAY. That doesn't mean that these under appreciated films are bad (aside from the aforementioned JAWS sequels which are too horrendous to relate). But for whatever reason, they are outshone by their counterparts. (Almost) All of these underdogs, however, have something to offer. For TEMPLE OF DOOM it was the kick-ass Chinese kid. For DAY OF THE DEAD it was the sharp- shooting zombie, Bub. In spite of whatever merits these films possess, they are consistently looked down upon by movie-goers and critics alike. That brings me to the topic for today: the salvation, if you will, of one bastard child in particular.

In 1954 a monster film was released that would change pop culture forever. Gojira, the giant walking embodiment of nuclear superpower, was unleashed upon the Earth. His first feature film was a serious attempt at allegory that echoed the fire bombings of WWII as well as the aftereffects of the atom bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That and it had a really big monster in it that destroyed cities and boats and things. Regardless of what its message was Gojira was a huge success. After grossing enormously in Japan it was sent to foreign shores. Americans got a hold of it, cut out most of that potent allegory stuff, inserted Perry Mason, and sent it to theater goers a la carte, in 1956. Again, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956) was a huge success.

But we don't care about the silly Americans right now. Skip back to a year before GOJIRA's stateside release. Toho Company ltd. had taken considerable notice of the profit potential that a guy in a charcoal grey lizard suit tearing stuff up could bring. Thus the sequel was born. GOJIRA NO GYAKYUSHU, the first bastard child of the Gojira series (take note... there were several others. They include but are not limited to SON OF GODZILLA, ALL MONSTERS ATTACK, and everything from GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER to GODZILLA VS MEGALON, though opinions on these films certainly differ). Released in 1955 to packed houses in Japan, it was also a success. Not only was there a nice post-WWII theme to this one, but there were two really big monsters this time around to destroy cities and boats and things. Audiences ate it up.

Tsukioka (Koizumi) and Kobayashi (Chiaki) are two fish-spotters for a large Japanese fishing company. Things are going quite normally until Kobayashi's engine stalls - and eventually stops - forcing him to land off the shores of the deserted Iwato Island. Tsukioka, his friend and co-veteran of the Pacific conflict, takes to searching for him and, upon finding him, lands for a bit of idle chit-chat before heading back to mainland Japan. The two are rudely interrupted by the appearance of a second Gojira doing battle with a strange spike covered monster in the hills above them. The two monsters eventually tumble into the ocean, giving Tsukioka and Kobayashi time enough to escape.

The authorities are alerted and an emergency meeting (including the re-appearance of Takashi Shimura as Dr. Yamane) is held to decide what the new monster is and what to do with the two of them. Dr. Tadokoro shares his opinion on the new monster, christening it Anguirus after a species of Ankylosaurus. Footage of the first Gojira's attack is shown to the group and Yamane regretfully announces that the only known means of destroying the monsters is no longer a viable option since its creator died using it, taking his invention with him. It is decided that blackout conditions should be observed in the vicinity of these new monsters with flares - the original Gojira had a strong reaction to light, presumably because it reminded him of the hydrogen bomb tests that brought it into our world - being used to lure the monsters away from land.

Non-stop searches are put into action to track the movements of the two monsters. Eventually they begin moving towards Osaka. A city-wide blackout is initiated, the citizens evacuated, and flares used to lure Gojira from making landfall. Everything is going according to plan until a group of convicts who are being evacuated escape. Three of them make their way to a gasoline tanker which they proceed to crash through a wall in an oil refinery, thus killing themselves and starting an enormous fire that draws Gojira to the shoreline. To make matters worse, Anguirus has been attracted by the flares. The two monsters do battle, leaving Osaka burning in their wake. Gojira defeats Anguirus in a climactic struggle in the Osaka castle grounds, leaving the military with one less monster to contend with but still no viable means to destroy it.

This film, while certainly not on par with the first film of the series, is quite good in my opinion. It presents the viewer with a Japanese society attempting to rebuild itself, both mentally and physically, from the pains of WWII (or, in this case, a prior ginormous monster assault). Our two fish spotters are former air force pilots who are trying to get their lives together after the war. Kobayashi's death just before the climax of the film, while rather stupid and not entirely necessary, provides the inspiration for what the military eventually does to defeat Gojira this go around. Add to that the overall dread presented by the mandatory blackouts and evacuations, the omni-presence of defense force aircraft flying over the cities, and the imminence of the assault by the titular monster and his newfound sparing partner (all more echoes of WWII), and you have a nice setup for some pretty awesome monster bashing.

American distributors didn't care much for all of the post-WWII "Rebirth of the Motherland" stuff, so they made the decision to cut all of it out, shoot some new monster footage, and shoot a new story to tie it all together. The final product was going to be called THE VOLCANO MONSTERS and had a screenplay from Ib Melchoir (of KRONOS and THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE fame) attached to it. Pretty cool idea, they thought - Toho even sent two monster suits to America for the production.

The production company in charge of THE VOLCANO MONSTERS went unexpectedly out of business, so Ib and his idea were scrapped forever. Paul Schreibman garnered the rights to the film and inserted some more American-friendly "Hard work and Happiness" stuff to the beginning and end as well as an inordinate amount of stock footage to pad the story and remove the original Japanese motifs. The script for the dubbing ensured constant narration on the part of the main character (there's no narration to speak of in the original film) as well as a grotesque number of defunct colloquialisms ("banana oil" being the one most oft quoted) that ensured a terrible response from American critics. To top it all off, all but a few brief moments of Masaru Sato's score was replaced (predominantly by music from the much underrated scifi opus KRONOS; 1957). The end result is one of the absolute worst Americanizations ever of a Gojira film. GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER, released through Warner Brothers in 1959 on a double bill with TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE (worth all of its tedious idiocy for the shear hilarity of the gigantic plastic crayfish attack at the end), wasn't much in the way of a success. Critically panned, this American version sank lovingly into obscurity before ending up on TV and VHS.

Horrendous as it may be, it was this American version of the film that I grew up on. I first saw it on a late night showing on the Disney channel (back before it went totally kiddie) under the Toho retitle, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN. I loved it as a kid, though my parents and relatives were obviously more aware of its faults than I was at the time and persisted in poking fun at it anytime I watched it. Even I, as a child, found the puppet head for Gojira (or Godzilla... or Gigantis...) to be, shall we say... less than convincing.

And so we come to the faults in the original version of the film. First off is the story. Though the same writers who were responsible for the original GOJIRA were responsible for the script for this one, the story isn't nearly as compelling. The parts concerning the monsters and the parts concerning the people never coalesce like the did in the original (or in the 1964 sequel, MOSURA TAI GOJIRA). The characters this go around aren't terribly interesting either, though they are played quite well enough by the generally excellent cast. Toho itself can be blamed for many of these issues - the studio rushed the film into production after the success of the original and replaced the inimitable Ishiro Honda with stock director Motoyoshi Oda for this outing. As such, the film never evokes the same amount of interest from viewers that the original can.

There are a number of good things about the film, however. First off are the special effects. Horrendous hand puppet head aside, Eiji Tsubaraya and his crew managed to pull off the vast majority of the film's effects work stupendously and, at some points, in a fashion superior to that of the original. The monster battles are performed with quicker motions than were used in the original film (1/3 accidentally, since at least one cameraman wasn't filming at the proper frame rate), which works to make the battle between the two monsters quite effective. The miniature effects are also well done - the destruction of Osaka castle is certainly the most impressive scene in the film (on the other end of the spectrum is the destruction of a lighthouse by Gojira's tail just before the attack on Osaka - it is pretty pitifully executed, especially in comparison the other miniature work throughout the film). There is also extensive composition and matte work throughout the film, the vast majority of which is exceptionally done considering the time constraints and time period in which the film was produced.

Also of note (in my opinion) is the sound design of the film. While the original GOJIRA was, in no way, a "loud" film, its sequel is quieter still - with long stretches of ominous silence. Masaru Sato's minimalist score adds to the effect, as much of the music throughout the film is decidedly low key. Sato is reported to have cared little for his score to this film. While anything other than the main theme (repeated a few times throughout) would certainly make for a rather dull standalone listening experience, I think his music works well for the film itself. The American distributors, as I mentioned earlier, effectively destroyed the quiet nature of this film. Not only was gratuitous narration by Key Luke added at every turn, but monster roars (mostly mismatched) were also added to scenes ad nauseum, making the GIGANTIS cut of the film one that just never seems to shut up.

GOJIRA NO GYAKYUSHU certainly can't hold a candle to the original film. With the possible exception of MOSURA TAI GOJIRA (1964), however, neither can any of its sequels. It's my opinion that this film is unfairly criticized, namely due to its atrocious 1959 American release and the fact that it came after what is largely considered the best film of the series. GOJIRA NO GYAKYUSHU doesn't feature the colorful plots and characters of the sequels produced from 1962 on and tends to seem quite generic in comparison to those films. Made at a time when the studio behind it wasn't looking to make a franchise of what eventually became its most valuable film asset, GOJIRA NO GYAKYUSHU is oft forgotten and much maligned - but it's definitely not the worst film of the series, from a critical standpoint, and deserves more respect in this reviewer's opinion than most of the fan community at large is willing to provide.