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.
