![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Remember how I posted a few weeks ago about having a craving for Godzilla movies? Well, I found out that one local rental place actually carries a bunch of giant monster flicks. So I've been renting and watching a couple of movies a week, limiting myself (so far) to Toho Studios daikaiju movies I haven't already seen. Unfortunately, it seems like several of the Heisei-era movies are not available in the U.S., or at least a lot harder to find.
I intended from the beginning to post reviews of what I've watched. Originally this was supposed to be a couple of short reviews a week at a time, but I kept putting it off. Now I've watched too many to review all in one post, so I'll just be going one at a time, in the order I watched them (roughly). Without further ado:
This is the first of the many sequels to Godzilla, and the first appearance of Godzilla's "pal" Anguirus. The DVD actually had both the American and (subbed) Japanese versions, and I watched both. It's interesting seeing how much damage re-editing can do.
( The plot )
The original Japanese version is not bad. Not spectacular, but decent, and entertaining in its own right. Of course, that's assuming that you can suspend disbelief for the rubber-suited monsters (it helps that, like in the original Godzilla, the Godzilla costume does not sport the cartoonish googly eyes it would in later, more child-oriented installments). The most awkward thing about it is the fact that the big showdown between Godzilla and Anguirus takes place in the second reel, rather than at the climax, leaving the movie a bit top-heavy in terms of action pacing. Toho Studios regular Takashi Shimura, perhaps best known for playing the leader of the Seven Samurai, reprises his role from the original Godzilla, but does little other than look dour and provide an infodump.
The American version's title card is replaced by a new still one with the title "Godzilla Raids Again" clearly added digitally, because the original American title was "Gigantis: the Fire Monster". Otherwise it's unchanged from the theatrical version, and Godzilla is referred to as Gigantis throughout. The American edition takes some serious liberties, beyond just the dubbing: the operating principles seemed to be (1) "We've got a bunch of stock footage, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste" and (2) "We know American movie audiences are morons, so we need to explain everything in voice-over, and especially need to remind them at every opportunity that this is set in Japan or they'll probably forget". Also, since Kobayashi is a bit chubby and gets teased a few times, the U.S. producers apparently decided that he was the Big Dumb Comedy Relief, and dubbed him with an over-the-top doofus voice. The results made me glad I was watching it with my dad (who hadn't seen the Japanese version) so we could trade off riffing on it MST3K style (making fun of movies is way more fun with an audience).
The U.S. version starts with some stock footage of nuclear bomb tests and a generic voice-over about the destructive potential of nuclear power, before starting the movie proper. Tsukioka (dubbed by George Takei!) gets the voice-over for the rest of the movie. For the most part the voice-over just describes what's going on onscreen, like the redundant captions in Silver Age comics (in a panel showing a villain levitating a table to block some of Green Arrow's shots, "But the villain levitates a table, blocking Green Arrow's every shot!"), such as scouting for fish. The military's clip show from the original Godzilla gets particularly mangled, as by the magic of stock footage it's turned into a primer on the history of the dinosaurs, starting with the Big Bang and the creation of the Earth (I wonder how the army got footage of that!), then using a really hilarious clip from the Z-movie Unknown Island of a bunch of guys in "dinosaur" costumes wandering around in circles dumbly in the middle of the desert, before finally catching up and showing some Godzilla clips. My favorite edit, though, somes before the attack on Osaka. In the original, there is a scene change to a nightclub where Tsukioka is dancing with his fiancee when they hear that Godzilla has appeared, but in the U.S. version they add a voiceover "Everyone enjoyed their favorite entertainment", and cut from the nightclub to some stock footage of a bunch of women playing the samisen (wtf?!) before cutting back. The completely pointless, BY THE WAY THIS IS JAPAN GUYS DON'T FORGET stupidity of this edit just cracks me up. A subplot about Kobayashi looking for a wife is almost completely eliminated, a victim of replacing some plot-heavy lines with commentary on the scale of the destruction, and by the way we're in Japan.
Watched, to review: King Kong vs. Godzilla, Varan the Unbelievable, Godzilla vs. Desotoroyah, Rodan, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, Mothra, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Rented, not yet watched: Terror of Mechagodzilla
*Spoilers if you haven't watched the original (which is actually a pretty good movie, I recommend it):Godzilla is killed at the end by an "oxygen-destroying bomb". The inventor of the oxygen destroyer, afraid that its destructive capacity will accelerate the global arms race and lead to a catstrophic war, burns his plans, and goes down into Tokyo Bay with the bomb so that the idea will die with him. The bomb not only skeletonizes Godzilla and kills its inventor, but destroys all life in Tokyo Bay. The Godzilla in later films of the original series are apparently another Godzilla. This plot point would form part of the premise of the later, Showa-era film Godzilla vs. Desotoroyah.
I intended from the beginning to post reviews of what I've watched. Originally this was supposed to be a couple of short reviews a week at a time, but I kept putting it off. Now I've watched too many to review all in one post, so I'll just be going one at a time, in the order I watched them (roughly). Without further ado:
Godzilla Raids Again
This is the first of the many sequels to Godzilla, and the first appearance of Godzilla's "pal" Anguirus. The DVD actually had both the American and (subbed) Japanese versions, and I watched both. It's interesting seeing how much damage re-editing can do.
( The plot )
The original Japanese version is not bad. Not spectacular, but decent, and entertaining in its own right. Of course, that's assuming that you can suspend disbelief for the rubber-suited monsters (it helps that, like in the original Godzilla, the Godzilla costume does not sport the cartoonish googly eyes it would in later, more child-oriented installments). The most awkward thing about it is the fact that the big showdown between Godzilla and Anguirus takes place in the second reel, rather than at the climax, leaving the movie a bit top-heavy in terms of action pacing. Toho Studios regular Takashi Shimura, perhaps best known for playing the leader of the Seven Samurai, reprises his role from the original Godzilla, but does little other than look dour and provide an infodump.
The American version's title card is replaced by a new still one with the title "Godzilla Raids Again" clearly added digitally, because the original American title was "Gigantis: the Fire Monster". Otherwise it's unchanged from the theatrical version, and Godzilla is referred to as Gigantis throughout. The American edition takes some serious liberties, beyond just the dubbing: the operating principles seemed to be (1) "We've got a bunch of stock footage, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste" and (2) "We know American movie audiences are morons, so we need to explain everything in voice-over, and especially need to remind them at every opportunity that this is set in Japan or they'll probably forget". Also, since Kobayashi is a bit chubby and gets teased a few times, the U.S. producers apparently decided that he was the Big Dumb Comedy Relief, and dubbed him with an over-the-top doofus voice. The results made me glad I was watching it with my dad (who hadn't seen the Japanese version) so we could trade off riffing on it MST3K style (making fun of movies is way more fun with an audience).
The U.S. version starts with some stock footage of nuclear bomb tests and a generic voice-over about the destructive potential of nuclear power, before starting the movie proper. Tsukioka (dubbed by George Takei!) gets the voice-over for the rest of the movie. For the most part the voice-over just describes what's going on onscreen, like the redundant captions in Silver Age comics (in a panel showing a villain levitating a table to block some of Green Arrow's shots, "But the villain levitates a table, blocking Green Arrow's every shot!"), such as scouting for fish. The military's clip show from the original Godzilla gets particularly mangled, as by the magic of stock footage it's turned into a primer on the history of the dinosaurs, starting with the Big Bang and the creation of the Earth (I wonder how the army got footage of that!), then using a really hilarious clip from the Z-movie Unknown Island of a bunch of guys in "dinosaur" costumes wandering around in circles dumbly in the middle of the desert, before finally catching up and showing some Godzilla clips. My favorite edit, though, somes before the attack on Osaka. In the original, there is a scene change to a nightclub where Tsukioka is dancing with his fiancee when they hear that Godzilla has appeared, but in the U.S. version they add a voiceover "Everyone enjoyed their favorite entertainment", and cut from the nightclub to some stock footage of a bunch of women playing the samisen (wtf?!) before cutting back. The completely pointless, BY THE WAY THIS IS JAPAN GUYS DON'T FORGET stupidity of this edit just cracks me up. A subplot about Kobayashi looking for a wife is almost completely eliminated, a victim of replacing some plot-heavy lines with commentary on the scale of the destruction, and by the way we're in Japan.
Watched, to review: King Kong vs. Godzilla, Varan the Unbelievable, Godzilla vs. Desotoroyah, Rodan, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, Mothra, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Godzilla vs. Hedorah
Rented, not yet watched: Terror of Mechagodzilla
*Spoilers if you haven't watched the original (which is actually a pretty good movie, I recommend it):
