Godzilla Raids Again
Director: Motoyoshi Oda
Year: 1955
Rating: 5.5
And there goes Osaka. I am still getting
my Godzilla's in a row. This is the second one coming soon after Godzilla
(1954). Too soon according to many. The director of the first film, Ishiro
Honda, said that no one had planned on making sequels to Godzilla - that
it was a considered a standalone film. But the success of the film changed
that and the head of Toho studio decided he wanted a sequel right away. Six
months after the first one, the new one was on screens. Unfortunately, Honda
was busy making another film and so the directorial reins were passed to
Motoyoshi Oda, best known for being able to deliver a film on time and on
budget. He was able though to bring the special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya
along with him. They had worked together before - the best known film being
The Invisible Man (aka The Invisible Avenger aka Tōmei ningen). The special
effects hold up pretty well here but the film overall doesn't have the impact
of the first one. It did not do that well at the box office and they put
Godzilla on the blocks till his return in 1962. One suspects that if this
had been the first film there would have been no Godzilla franchise. It isn't
terrible but it doesn't seem any better than other monster films being made.
One thing in its favor is that they bring
Godzilla on stage quite early in the film. Kobayashi (Minoru Chiaki - in
a number of Kurosawa films) is a pilot for a fishery company and when his
plane loses power he has to land and get on a small island. His friend and
fellow pilot Tsukioka (Hiroshi Koizumi - who was to appear in a number
of Kaiju films over the years) lands and joins him. Just as they are ready
to leave they hear some rumbling - a real rumble - Godzilla is fighting another
Kaiju who is like a giant porcupine. Now Godzilla from the first film died
- again they were not expecting sequels - so this is a new Godzilla. An imposter.
A charlatan. But apparently he becomes the Godzilla for many of the following
films.
They get back to head quarters and report
that Godzilla is back and he brought a little friend with him. Godzilla is
tracked headed to Osaka and they go into emergency mode. But then he seems
to stop - the city is in blackout mode like a defense against air raids -
but then continues and it turns out Mr. Porcupine (Anguirus) is with him.
They get into a huge fight and much of Osaka is left in rubble - clearly
the highlight of the film - the imagery looked like a city after an air raid
or a nuke. Now the question only Kaiju academics can answer is whether Godzilla
was there to save the city from Anguirus or was he there to cause trouble.
Sort of like Vietnam - we have to kill them to save them. At any rate, the
military decides he has to be destroyed and track him to an ice island where
it looks like a number of planes do a kamikaze run in order to bring down
an ice avalanche on him. Of course with Climate Change good luck with that.
Woven within this are the personal stories of Kobayshi and Tsukioka and the
women they love. This is shot in black and white - the last one to do so
- and that makes it look cheaper than future films.
A few years later the USA bought the rights
to the film and in 1959 released it dubbed and edited as Gigantis, the Fire
Monster. I have not seen it but have heard nothing good about it. I mean
they didn't even use the name Godzilla.
