In honor of the premiere of Godzilla 2000, marking the Big Guy's return to the big screen -- with no Matthew Broderick in sight, I decided to tackle his debut film. Both of them -- by taking a look at the original Japanese version -- Gojira, and the Americanized version -- Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Two movies that share a lot of the same footage, but are two completely different films.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens with Tokyo in ruins -- "A smoldering memorial to the unknown." Amid the rubble, we find the severely injured Steve Martin (Raymond Burr -- that a wild and crazy guy.) Martin is a reporter for the United World News Service (I wonder if he knows Carl Kolchak?) and serves as the narrator of our film. He babbles about the mysterious menace that leveled Tokyo, and then passes out.

He awakens in a hospital, filled with the sick and the dying. Those who survived the attack have been poisoned with radiation. Martin sees his friend Emiko (Momoko Kouchi), and calls her over. He asks if her father -- famed Japanese paleontologist Dr. Yamane, survived the attack. To their relief, she tells him that he did. Martin can hardly believe that just two days ago, how different things were…

Uh-oh, flashback...

...With his latest assignment taking him to Cairo, Egypt Martin decides to go by way of Japan so he can see his old friend, Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Airata). Little did he know, but directly below his flight, a lonely freighter roamed the sea. As the crew lounges on the deck, the sea starts to glow, then boil and churn violently. They flee for shelter but it's too late. The ship is destroyed in a burst of flames. After his plane lands, Martin is informed that Dr. Serizawa has been called away for a special meeting, and will be unable to meet him. Security Officer Iwanaga (Frank Iwanaga) questions him and the other passengers if they saw anything unusual during their flight. Although he didn’t see anything, Martin's reporter instincts stand up and salute. Flashing his press credentials, he asks what’s going on. Iwanaga tells him about the maritime disaster and takes him to see the ship's owners at the Nanking Shipping Company. (Iwanaga will serve as a liaison and translator for the rest of the film.) They both listen in as a rescue ship arrives where the first ship went down. Unfortunately, it too meets the same fiery fate. Iwanaga informs Martin that Japan has been plagued recently with a rash of mysterious shipwrecks. Each time they receive the same distress call: First a blinding flash of light, followed by a burst of flame, and then -- nothing.

Martin reports to his home office that eight ships in all have met the same deadly fate. The few survivors that are found, die quickly of shock and strange burns. Until they figure out what's causing the crisis, Japan is forced to shut down all fishing and shipping lines. Martin receives permission to stay and cover the story. The public demands action from the government, so they call in Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura). He suggests that they question the natives of Ohto Island -- the closest land mass to the maritime disasters. In fact, one of the survivors washed up on Ohto's shore before he died. When the expedition is sent to Ohto, Martin manages to finagle his way along. As Iwanaga translates the frightened native’s testimonies, they tell tales of a giant monster that is responsible for the attacks. Hearing this theory, Martin believes the natives have been hitting the saki a little too hard.

That night, they are privileged to observe an ancient ceremony. Iwanaga translates the ritual dancing: it represents how the villagers used to send girls out on a raft as a sacrifice to the monster. Martin asks what the monster was called. The natives answer by chanting one single word: Godzilla. Later, a massice storm blows in. The weather turns so severe that Martin and Iwanaga have to hold on to a tree to not blow away. They're the lucky ones. Something else was blown in from the sea and destroys the village just down the hill.

The village elders are hauled to the mainland to testify before a government committee. While they insist that a monster was responsible for the destruction, Dr. Yamane compares the situation to the Yeti in the Himalayas, and that some mysteries are not yet solved. He volunteers to go to the island to make a scientific study. Martin manages to tag along again, and he comments on their bravery because all the other boats have met a violent end. He also observes Emiko spending a lot of time with Ogata (Akira Takarada), a young naval officer. He knows that Emiko was supposed to marry his friend Serizawa -- by an arrangement made when they were very young. Martin knows a love triangle when he sees one. Reaching the island safely, Yamane’s group finds a lot of devastation coupled with high levels of radiation. Yamane believes that the deep impressions they find are the footprints of some large animal. He also finds a trilobite, an ancient parasite, that was thought to be extinct.

Suddenly, the alarm bell is gonged. Godzilla is coming. Everybody heads for the hills and apparent safety -- on the jog up, Martin pauses for an apparent heart attack! -- but they chose the wrong hill. Godzilla rears his head over said hill, blocking the path they were using. They beat a hasty retreat but manage to get a few pictures of the creature. Then it’s back to Tokyo and the committee. Yamane says that with the strong presence of Strontium-90 (a deadly by product of radioactivity), Godzilla must be a dinosaur, driven from the depths of the ocean by H-bomb tests. (Damn yankees! Buying another pennant. Sorry, I digress.) So they now know what's causing all the destruction, and decide that the best course of action is to kill it. Thusly, they send the navy out to depth-charge the heck out of the ocean to hopefully take care of the problem.

During the lull, Martin calls his friend Serizawa to see if they can meet that evening. Serizawa says no, because he already has plans with Emiko. And Emiko has something important to tell Serizawa: She wants to tell him about Ogata, but he has something more important to show her. After taking her to his basement lab, he drops a small object into an aquarium, teeming with fish, and then puts an electrical charge into it. The water begins to churn. Emiko's eyes grow wide with terror and she turns away. (What did she see? We don’t know. Yet.) Serizawa swears her to secrecy.

Things calm down for awhile, so everyone assumes that the depth charges killed Godzilla -- until he surfaces in Tokyo Bay. The Japanese defense force is mobilized (to the familiar "March of the Monsters" tune.) Godzilla comes ashore, wrecks a train and then returns to the sea. Martin asks Iwanaga if anything can be done to fight Godzilla in case he comes back. Iwanaga shows him a large electrified fence that's being hastily constructed. It will surround Tokyo, and hopefully, the electricity will keep the monster from coming inland again. The fence is barely completed before Godzilla resurfaces and attacks. And the fence was all for naught -- the monster easily melts it with his atomic blast. Unimpeded, Godzilla stomps into the defenseless city, and what he doesn’t crush he sets ablaze with his fiery blasts. 

Watching all of this, Martin does a nice Wreck-of-the-Hindenburgh riff as he calls the play by play of the destruction of Tokyo -- oh, the humanity! He continues to record his testimony until Godzilla reaches the building he’s in and knocks it over, burying him in the rubble. The monster continues his rampage until the Japanese Air Force drives him back into the sea. (Yes, the military actual drove Godzilla away.) Yamane warns that he will be back.

And we rejoin our film already in progress.

Thus endeth the flashback.

Ogata joins Emiko at Martin's bedside in the hospital. Emiko is so distraught over Godzilla's rampage that she reveals Serizawa’s secret to  both of them. 

Not again! We flashback to the flashback and Serizawa’s lab...

Martin begs Emiko to go to Serizawa and convince him to use his potent discovery against Godzilla. She agrees, and Ogata offers to go along to help. But when they ask, Serizawa refuses. He will not unleash another destructive device upon the world, and now that the secret of the Oxygen Destroyer is out, he begins to destroy his notes. Ogata tries to stop him and they fight. Emiko breaks them up and rushes to the battered Ogata's aid. Serizawa sees they are in love. They tune in to a televised national prayer of deliverance by the children of Japan, and this sways Serizawa to use his device. But he finishes destroying all his notes so the Oxygen Destroyer can never be used again.

When Gojira was imported to the states, the distributor felt the need to Americanize the film. Shooting additional scenes with Raymond Burr, they spliced them in making him the center of the movie. The splicing isn't completely seamless, but it’s the best job I’ve ever seen. The dubbing is pretty good, too, except for the pour soul voicing over Dr. Yamane. The guy had a little trouble with the word "animals" and "phenomenon" -- a word he was forced to say three times and never could get it right. I will admit after finally seeing the original Gojira, that some of Raymond Burr’s scenes are shoe-horned in rather clumsily. I also never noticed that whenever he's talking to people, we only get to see the back of their heads. Not very observant of me, but it’s the truth. 

Director Inoshiro Honda and miniature-effects guru Eiji Tsuburaya deliver the goods in Godzilla’s scenes. I’ll take a guy in a rubber suit any day over a digital iguana. And that is the only barb I will shoot at the American remake of Beast from 20,000 Fathoms -- whoops, I mean Tristarzilla. Aw, rats. I mean Tristarzilla was a remake of Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and not Godzilla and -- oh, never mind. I'm truly tired of bitching about that movie.

So Gojira is about a love triangle and anti-nuclear sentiment, while Godzilla is about an American reporter observing a monster running amok in Japan. I do enjoy Gojira for it’s message. But I love Godzilla for the rubber-suited mayhem, and for teaching us all -- for the first time how to do the old Tokyo stomp.

With all that said, let’s go see what this love triangle was all about and take a look at the original Gojira, and see what else they changed.

Posted: 08/18/00. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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