First came the blogspot
Then was the Medium.
Now… it’s still technically the Medium blog since I’m going to be crossposting, but now I’ve decided to move on to Substack. To finally post my reviews here. Excited.
And to continue from last year…
Yes, it’s the next era of Godzilla: The Heisei era.
The year is 1984. Ronald Reagan has just won reelection, dooming humanity. The Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics. A chemical leak in Bhopal, India kills over 3,700 people, on top of 587,000 injured.
In Japan, the Showa Emperor is … still alive, but the Godzilla franchise has been dormant on film since the box office of Terror of Mechagodzilla in 1975. After several attempts to revive the franchise sputtered out (including an attempt by American Steve Miner to do a stop-motion version), Godzilla creator Tomoyuki Tanaka decided to take cues from the recent trend of darker, edgier science fiction films in America, including Alien and The Thing, as well as the Cold War, which was heating up with President Raygun in the office.
In doing so, they discarded much of the tone and continuity of the Showa era, jettisoning the aliens and Godzilla as a superhero. Instead, it is a full sequel to the original 1954 film, with themes that go back to the anti-nuclear metaphor of the original.
Said metaphor is made clear in a pivotal scene where the prime minister of Japan shuts down any notion of using nuclear weapons to stop Godzilla, stopping the machinations of the US and USSR. Indeed, their attempts to use weapons anyway end up causing more trouble later on when a Soviet satellite accidentally launches a missile and a US missile sent to intercept it ends up reviving Godzilla, allowing him to continue his rampage.
The Cold War is very much hanging over the characters. Indeed, said scene very much feels like a pure repudiation of the increasing tensions between the US and Soviet Union, from the perspective of Japan, the one nation that had suffered two atomic attacks on civilians. Prior to the scene, there’s even the implication that the two Cold War rivals are going to use Japan as a experimental group for nuclear weapons on the battlefield.
Ishiro Honda declined the director’s chair for the film, believing that the franchise should’ve ended with the death of special effects maestro Eiji Tsuburaya, but Honda’s influence can be seen with new director Koji Hashimoto, who uses a lot of Honda’s own tropes, including extensive government meetings and large scenes of people fleeing. Both are winning formulas, especially for a film like this, with how it emphasizes Godzilla as a threat. No longer the friend of humanity, he’s back to an unstoppable force of nature, and the film breathlessly emphasizes this by not showing Godzilla much, and amping up the violence whenever he does appear.
Speaking of which, the effects are great in this film. Teruyoshi Nakano, who started out as Tsuburaya’s assistant, and later became VFX director for Godzilla following Tsuburaya’s death, does a magnificent job with updating the effects for the 80’s, while still retaining the charm of the film. Godzilla is still a guy ( Kenpachiro Satsuma, who played Hedorah and Gigan during the Showa era) in a suit (very well designed by Noboyuki Yasumaru), stomping around a small set, but there’s a lot more oomph to it. A lot more seriousness to it. Especially helped by the close-ups (Toho constructed a 16 foot Godzilla robot called the “Cybot” to make the head shots more realistic. Ironically a technique popularized by Willis O’Brien in the original King Kong)
If there’s a complaint I have about the film, it’s that the main plotline with reporter Goro Maki (Ken Tanaka), his love interest Naoko Okumura (Yasuko Sawaguchi), and scientist Makoto Hayashida (Yosuke Natsuki) feels underdeveloped. It’s built up well in the first act, with them discovering that Godzilla came back, and hatching a plan, but with the big government meetings and the plot about the missiles, it feels forgotten, such that you forget what the plan they had was until the end.
It’s interesting that this, while ignoring the events of Godzilla Raids Again, essentially has the same ending, but a lot more interesting and better done, with Godzilla being trapped inside Mount Mihara on the Island of Izu Oshima. Feels like a better, more sustainable plot than the usual deus ex machima inventions they usually do in these films.
As an introduction to the Heisei era, this darker, serious take on Godzilla is very well-done, and definitely a worthy successor to the original. It firmly reestablishes the character and makes his presence known in this new era. It also makes him a force to be reckoned with, after years of being a superhero and thought of as a children’s character. Highly recommended, especially for fans of the original Godzilla.
So, we got Godzilla back, and now we can go on with the business that Godzilla is known for doing: kicking the snot out of other monsters, with Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989).
As said earlier, I will be cross-posting this and all pieces moving forward onto my medium page. Thanks for reading, and hoped you enjoyed!