Posts Tagged ‘Toho’


Godzilla

January 28th, 2012 | article by | No Comments »
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dir. Ishiro Honda
1954 / Toho Co. ltd / 96′
written by Shigeru Kayama, Ishiro Honda and Takeo Murata
 director of photography Masao Tamai
music by Akira Ifukube
director of special effects Eiji Tsuburaya
starring Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, Sachio Sakai, Katsumi Tezuka and Haruo Nakajima
Godzilla, along with Godzilla King of the Monsters!, is now available in a deluxe Blu-ray edition from the Criterion Collection

Unleashed upon an unsuspecting Japan to massive popular success in late fall of 1954, the original Godzilla was one of those rare perfect storms of cinema, a picture so tremendous in its impact that it ushered in not only a distinct new genre of Japanese film, but a bona fide pop culture revolution as well. It also touched a chord with a post-war Japan fresh from years of occupation, and finally allowed to openly discuss the full sum of its wartime experiences. Godzilla‘s considerable box office take all but ensured the long run of increasingly silly sequels that followed, and those familiar with those alone might be forgiven for expecting the same here, but the father of them all is an intelligent and at times downright cerebral affair, possessed of a raw power not seen in the genre since. Much more than just another monster movie, Godzilla is a spectacular public exorcism of the specters of World War II, and the tumultuous, emotional expression of a nation’s struggle to come to terms with its history as both a perpetrator and victim of incalculable wartime devastation.

The story, for those unfamiliar, begins with a series of dreadful shipping accidents off the coast of Japan, an investigation into which leads reporters and government officials to remote Odo Island, a sparsely populated speck of land near where the accidents occurred. There they find no answers beyond the superstitious ramblings of one of the island’s elders, who is convinced that the mythical Godzilla – a mysterious sea beast the Odo Islanders once sated with human sacrifice – is responsible for the maritime troubles. No one believes a word of it until something comes ashore one storm-torn evening, leveling several of the island’s residences and leaving a set of impossibly huge footprints in its wake.

A scientific expedition headed by noted zoologist Dr. Yamane (the great Takashi Shimura) is swiftly mounted to survey the destruction and investigate its cause. Once the scientists are on the island they make a series of surprising discoveries. The footprints left behind are intensely radioactive, and the area around them dangerously contaminated. What’s more, they’re littered with ancient sediments and the remnants of primitive life long thought extinct, leading Dr. Yamane and his team to the conclude that the impressions were made by something straight out of prehistory. It isn’t long before more conclusive evidence arrives in the form of a mountainous Jurassic-age monster, the Godzilla of legend, who has his sights set on Japan’s thriving metropolitan heart – Tokyo.

Co-written by director Ishiro Honda and Takeo Murata (Rodan) from an original story by Shigeru Kayama (which he also novelized), the basics of Godzilla‘s narrative development are pretty traditional, writ large, the origins for the monster having been freely adapted from elements of the classic King Kong (an island, a legend, talk of human sacrifice) and the contemporary The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (about a prehistoric monster roused from its icy slumbers by an atomic test in the Arctic). Indeed, the idea of a dinosaur wreaking havoc on modern civilization was nothing new in 1954, having been seen previously in the silent The Lost World, Max Fleischer’s Superman short The Arctic Giant, as well as in Godzilla‘s most direct inspiration, the aforementioned Beast. The difference, as ever, is in the details.

Under the creative auspices of Honda, Kayama, Murata, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, effects director Eiji Tsuburaya and even composer Akira Ifukube1, Godzilla‘s eponymous monster becomes one of the most singularly loaded metaphors in cinema history. Through references, both overt and subliminal, to such events as the irradiation of the fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru by the Castle Bravo H-bomb test, the fall of radioactive rain resulting from Soviet atomic tests, the firebombing of Tokyo and the A-bombing of Nagasaki, Godzilla becomes a fearsome and direct manifestation both of the horrors of World War II and the new and frightening realities of the Atomic Age. The monster’s steady, methodical destruction of modern Tokyo is a sequence unlike anything before it. Godzilla advances with the unrelenting force of an atomic blast, sending whole blocks crumbling into smoldering rubble and engulfing the city’s skyline in a curtain of nuclear flame. Dialogue clarifies whatever doubts may be lingering as to the rampage’s symbolic significance - “Godzilla’s no different from the H-bomb still hanging over Japan’s head…“

In Godzilla’s wake millions lie dead or dying, both of physical injuries and radioactive contamination, while countless traumatized survivors wonder what terrors are yet to come. The imagery here – endless corridors filled with the wounded and an entire city reduced to wasteland – is potent, and evocative not only of the haunting aftermaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but of the wartime razing of Tokyo as well. Even Godzilla himself is granted a history of victimization, with Dr. Yamane insinuating that, much like Japan’s A-bomb survivors, the creature is traumatized by its recent brush with American nuclear might. “Don’t shine searchlights on Godzilla!” he gravely begs of a military officer, fearful that they might remind of the blinding flash that tore him from his deep sea niche and send the monster into a deeper rage. Of course Godzilla is not just a victim, but an aggressor as well, and the vision of a dragon rising from the Pacific alludes strongly to the ugly flip side of Japan’s wartime misfortune – the fact that through their own militant nationalism, and the brutal campaign of conquest that resulted from it, they had brought that misfortune upon themselves.

To that end the central dramatic conflict of the film might be viewed as an allusion to the position of the Allied forces during the war. Godzilla, awakened by the H-bomb and impervious to all modern munitions, seems unstoppable, but a brilliant young scientist – Dr. Serizawa (a convincing young Akihiko Hirata) – may have found an answer. The problem? His discovery has such immense destructive potential that any use of it, however good the cause, could prove catastrophic. It’s a narrative development that dramatically echoes the creation and eventual use of the Atom bomb in the final days of World War II, and that implies a certain understanding by Honda and his crew of the position of the Allied forces at the time. With a marauding force like the Imperial Japanese at large, do you set aside your most powerful weapon for fear of the horrific consequences of its use, or do you use it in spite of them? What the Allies decided is history, and their decision is paralleled by that of Dr. Serizawa – the result is that Godzilla is stopped, though at a tremendous cost. Another elemental force, as horrifying as the H-bomb, has been let loose in the world, and the film concludes with a grave Dr. Yamane wondering what other Godzillas might be unleashed as a result.

In terms of drama Godzilla has certainly aged in the decades since it was made, and a forgettable love triangle between Toho’s brightest young stars (top-billed Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi and Akihiko Hirata) will be of minimal interest to modern viewers, but the complex substance of the thing remains, its power undiminished over the near-60 years since it was fresh. Godzilla is perhaps the best of its kind ever made, the ultimate, indelible atomic monster experience and the birthplace of an unlikely pop-culture icon. It’s must-see material, folks, and that’s all there is too it.

1 Some of Ifukube’s cues for the film, both the elegiac pieces set to Godzilla’s aftermath and demise and the descending motif that accompanies the earlier ship disasters, are highly evocative (and in the latter case a direct adaptation) of his past work on Kaneto Shindo’s Children of Hiroshima (a somber, thoughtful film about the human toll of the Hiroshima bombing), an allusion that only further cements Godzilla‘s connection to World War II and the burgeoning Atomic Age.

disc details:
released January 24, 2012 by the Criterion Collection
disc: dual layer BD-50
video: 1080p | AVC | 1.37:1
audio: LPCM 1.0 Japanese
subtitles: English
supplements: commentary track with David Kalat, interviews (star Akira Takarada, suit actor Haruo Nakajima, effects men Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai, composer Akira Ifukube, critic Tadao Sato), composite test footage, The Unluckiest Dragon illustrated audio essay, theatrical trailer and Godzilla King of the Monsters! (also featuring a David Kalat commentary and theatrical trailer)
retail price: $39.95
Available now from Amazon.com, and also available on 2-disc DVD

The Criterion Collection has certainly started the year off right, getting one of their most anticipated releases of 2012 onto store shelves right from the start. A few niggling video issues may keep their high definition presentation of Godzilla from being the end-all be-all of the format, but compared to what’s come before (an awful edition from Classic Media and a dull, over-processed alternative from Toho itself) it’s a revelation. Those simply wondering as to whether or not their Blu-ray is worth the price of admission need read no further – of course it is, so get out there and buy it you fools!

The thorn in Godzilla‘s side is just a case of Criterion cramming too much stuff (and there’s a lot!) onto one disc – this really should have been a 2-disc Blu-ray, a la the simultaneously released 2-disc Criterion dvd, and the video presentation suffers a bit for it in the form of artifacting. The AVC-encoded video for Godzilla, running a modest average bitrate of 23.5 Mbps, does well by the majority of the show, but moments of flatter contrast and more ambiguous detail (like the underwater finale) present with notable, if not exactly damning, grain artifacts.

Otherwise I’ve nothing to complain about with this 1080p presentation, which Criterion have sourced fresh from a fine-grain 35mm master positive (the original negative for Godzilla is long gone) with excellent results. Detail improves handily over past editions, finally appearing at a level in keeping with the show’s 35mm photography, and contrast is dead-on. The usual limitations associated with Godzilla are all here, including some flicker and an assortment of damage, but Criterion’s work to clean up the material will be obvious to anyone familiar with past iterations. There’s a lot of obtrusive, large-scale damage I’m used to seeing that just isn’t here, and Criterion have struck their usual attractive balance between cleanliness and source authenticity. It may not be pristine (given the state of surviving elements it was never going to be – the first three Godzilla films are all in rather dire condition, with King Kong vs. Godzilla evidently having no usable 35mm elements at all for some scenes), but for the first time ever the film looks as good as it rightly should. This gave me the most satisfying viewing of Godzilla I’ve had to date, enough so that my boundless devotion to the 2006 BFI dvd has finally been broken, and those with realistic expectations for the title should be thrilled.

Screenshots were taken as full 1920×1080 resolution .png in Totem Movie Player, then compressed to .jpg at a quality setting of 95% using the ImageMagick command line tool. See our complementary review of Godzilla King of the Monsters! for screenshots from that version of the film.

Strong as the image can be, my minor quibbles aside, the audio is tremendous. Criterion present Godzilla in its original Japanese courtesy of a robust uncompressed 24-bit LPCM 1.0 track that restores the film’s sound mix to its original luster. I usually complement the score with regards to these uncompressed jobs, and Ifukube’s work sounds better than ever here, but it’s Godzilla’s roar that really hooked me on this track. There’s a visceral depth to it that I had never caught onto before, in my many viewings of the film, and at times it can be downright chilling. Complementing the audio is a wonderfully translated new set of subtitles that are more complete than those on the BFI edition.

Supplements are stacked, beginning with the full 80 minute American edition of the film, newly transferred in 1080p from a fine-grain 35mm master positive and a 16mm dupe negative, which comes with its own commentary track and trailer (see our review of Godzilla King of the Monsters! for more details). Otherwise there’s a fine commentary with critic David Kalat, as well as a solid slate of interviews, most newly-produced, and a substantial piece on the Daigo Fukuryu Maru. The standout for me is a retrospective interview with late composer Akira Ifukube, recorded in 2000, that runs a whopping 50 minutes. Everything here appears to be rendered in HD (though a couple of pieces are upscaled from SD), and the menu is conveniently accessible disc-wide. Bill Sienkiewicz’s packaging design is earning no end of fan ire, and I can confirm that which has so many in an uproar - that is, in fact, one of the Millennium-series Godzilla designs illustrated on the interior pop-up (itself a bit of an oddity, but kudos for thinking outside the box). Having finally seen it in person I can’t say that I mind – the art has terrific impact, particularly the front cover image, and those for whom the offending bits are an honest distraction will find them easily enough avoided in the Blu-ray edition (you have to fully unfold the two-fold digipak-style interior to see the pop-up, and the disc can be accessed without doing so). A booklet featuring a nice essay by J. Hoberman rounds out the package.

There’s some lost potential here with regards the encode (spreading the content over two discs instead of just one would have readily solved that problem, which is much more pronounced in Godzilla King of the Monsters than it is here), but overall the Criterion Collection’s Godzilla is as strong as fans might have hoped. The film has never looked, sounded, or read better than it does here, and that alone makes this Blu-ray more than worth the price of admission. Recommended!

Continue to Godzilla King of the Monsters!


Godzilla King of the Monsters!

January 28th, 2012 | article by | No Comments »
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dir. Terry O. Morse
1956 / Jewell Enterprises / Trans World / 80′
written by Al C. Ward
 director of photography Guy Roe
edited by Terry Morse
starring Raymond Burr, Frank Iwanaga and Mikel Conrad
Godzilla King of the Monsters! is now available, along with Godzilla, in a deluxe Blu-ray edition from the Criterion Collection

“This is Tokyo, once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of man’s imagination. Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown – an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could, at any time, lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world. There were once many people here who could have told of what they saw. Now, there are only a few.”

Though a phenomenal success in its native Japan, garnering nearly 10 million admissions during release, Godzilla remained relatively unknown abroad – unknown, that is, until the international distribution rights were secured by Jewell Enterprises (otherwise best, and seemingly only, known for the Mara Corday crime picture Girls on the Loose and the shabby cavegirl adventure Untamed Women, one in a long line of shows that repurposed the creature effects from Hal Roach’s One Million B.C.). The firm would would go on to hire Terry O. Morse, an experienced film editor with limited directing experience, to oversee their American adaptation of Godzilla, and cast recognizable talent Raymond Burr, here just before his rise to fame on television’s Perry Mason, as their new star. The resulting film would eventually be seen world wide, even in Japan (where it was retrofitted for ‘Scope projection for a 1957 release), and bestow upon its eponymous attraction a title still familiar to this day – King of the Monsters.

Though drastically restructured for its Stateside adaptation, the meat of Godzilla King of the Monsters!’ narrative remains familiar. Ships are disappearing off the Japanese coast, their survivors recounting stories of boiling seas and brilliant light. Officials are at a loss for why until an expedition to an isolated island near to the disappearances reveals the terrifying truth: Godzilla, a monster right out of prehistory, has been torn from its undersea niche by Pacific H-bomb testing and is making a bee-line for the Japanese capital. Impervious to all known armaments, Godzilla seems unstoppable until a young inventor reveals his own horrifying discovery – a new elemental power with more deadly potential than the atom.

The difference lies in the framing, accomplished through new footage starring Raymond Burr as American press correspondent Steve Martin, who recounts the majority of Godzilla‘s events in flashback. On layover in Tokyo, Martin takes to investigating the shipping disappearances out of a natural journalistic instinct, but soon finds himself witness to the utter destruction of Tokyo.

Though filmed in a matter of days, the footage that serves as Godzilla King of the Monsters!’ backbone is remarkably ambitious for its type, with a good deal of effort made to match locations and even actors (with doubles only seen from behind) so that the new story line fits properly with the old. One can question just how Martin so insinuates himself into some of the film’s lesser drama, like an underlying romantic triangle, but writ large the material works quite well, and no future attempt at the same would ever be so successful. A lot of that success is undoubtedly linked to the casting of Burr, who could deliver a stereo manual with thrilling authority, but the script by seasoned television writer Al C. Ward is no slouch either. Martin’s narration remains sensible and intelligent throughout, even when he’s privy to unlikely plot details, and the few new dramatic scenes – largely between Burr and Frank Iwanaga, playing a Japanese official – are well drawn and plot-driven. It’s much more than could be said of the comparable Half Human, the American adaptation of Ishiro Honda’s second monster feature Ju Jin Yuki Otoko, which has John Carradine ponderously spilling the full details of its foreign action from the comfort of an office chair.

Despite being shorn of some of its original drama (including all overt references to World War II) and re-structured with a distinct focus on action, Morse’s Godzilla King of the Monsters manages to retain much of the feel of the original. Morse shows a notable respect for his material throughout, something lost on the purveyors of many of these fantasy and science fiction imports, remaining true to the Japanese source during the occasional dubbed scenes (much of the dialogue is retained in Japanese) and leaving Akira Ifukube’s phenomenal score untouched. He even gets away with some critical commentary on the H-bomb, courtesy of Dr. Yamane’s dubbed remarks, an intellectual thread dismissed by critics at the time. “We assure you that the quality of the picture and the childishness of the whole idea do not indicate such calculation,” notes a condescending Bosley Crowther, writing for the New York Times in May of 1956. “Godzilla was simply meant to scare people.”

Regardless of contemporary critical opinions Godzilla King of the Monsters! was immensely successful upon release, and helped to pave the way for the colorful kaiju boom of the 1960s, as well as for the original Godzilla‘s more recent rediscovery. Indeed, with memories of the unvarnished Godzilla so fresh in mind I was a little surprised to find that this still works as well as it does, fifty-six years after it first stomped onto domestic screens. That’s not to say that Godzilla King of the Monsters! is a perfect film, not by a long shot, but it’s better than it really should be and a bona fide piece of film history besides, and worthy of the care and attention it has finally received.

disc details:
released January 24, 2012 by the Criterion Collection
disc: dual layer BD-50
video: 1080p | AVC | 1.37:1
audio: 24-bit LPCM 1.0 English
subtitles: English 
supplements: commentary by David Kalat, theatrical trailer, plus the original Godzilla (featuring its own commentary, interviews, documentary subjects and more)
retail price: $39.95
Available now from Amazon.com, and also available on 2-disc DVD

When the Criterion Collection’s Godzilla arrived I actually watched Godzilla King of the Monsters! first, and with some reservations I was duly impressed. Those familiar with the history of the film know that Toho has no elements of their own for the title, and as such no new transfer from quality material has been minted for decades. The 2002 Classic Media DVD and their later 2-disc edition, as well as earlier VHS releases from Simitar, Paramount and others have all been sourced from the same transfer, but change (for the better) is finally afoot courtesy of Criterion, who tracked down privately owned 35mm and 16mm elements from which to mint their new HD transfer.

Sourced from a combination of fine-grain 35mm master positive and 16mm dupe negative at the original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, Criterion’s new 1080p transfer of Godzilla King of the Monsters! represents the best that can be expected of the title at this point in time. There is damage, of course, plenty of which was inherent in the materials from the start, but don’t let that dissuade you. Godzilla King of the Monsters!, like its Japanese counterpart, finally exports a level of detail consistent with its 35mm photography, with excellent contrast to match. Guy Roe’s photography shines in close-up, even if lighting is flat compared to the Japanese footage. It all looks quite good overall, though there are issues worth noting for those wishing to give the transfer a closer look. Godzilla King of the Monsters! suffers most from Criterion’s efforts to stuff everything onto a single BD-50, and its modest 17.6 Mbps AVC encode just isn’t healthy enough to support the finer points of the transfer. Grain artifacts are evident throughout and the image just doesn’t hold up consistently to really close scrutiny, but it’s important not to overstate the issue (this is nowhere close to being an encoding disaster on the order of Horror Express). In motion I must admit that this looks very good, and ultimately I’d rather have the film available, even in a slightly insufficient encode, than not have it at all.

Screenshots were taken as full 1920×1080 resolution .png in Totem Movie Player, then compressed to .jpg at a quality setting of 95% using the ImageMagick command line tool. Comparison shots were taken from the 2002 Classic Media DVD of Godzilla King of the Monsters! in VLC in .png format, and compressed to .jpg using the same method as above. Frame matches in comparisons are exact. See our review of Godzilla for screenshots from the original version of the film.

More Blu-ray Screenshots:

Audio is again presented in uncompressed 24-bit LPCM, and the limitations of Godzilla King of the Monsters!‘ low budget mix are readily apparent. The track is clear enough (Criterion’s restoration has worked wonders on some of the crackle and damage) but sounds quite flat, and both the sound effects and score lack the dynamism evident in the original Japanese. That said, it also sounds perfectly accurate to the source, and I wouldn’t ask for more. Criterion have even provided optional English subtitles, leaving me no room to complain on that front. Supplements are limited for this cut of the film, unsurprising given that it’s a supplement itself, and include another commentary from critic David Kalat and the original theatrical trailer (featuring some of my favorite film ad phrasing – “A cyclonic cavalcade of electrifying horror!”).

Godzilla King of the Monsters! may not be enough to recommend this Criterion Blu-ray outright, but its inclusion certainly helps, improving upon an already strong release. Like plenty of others I know this is the Godzilla film I grew up with, watching it on TV or renting it from the video store at every opportunity before some enterprising adult finally decided I deserved a copy all my own. Seeing it looking as good as it does here was a real treat, and fans should be very pleased.


Godzilla’s Revenge

December 23rd, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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Origintal Title: Gojira, Minira, Gabara: Oru Kaiju Daishingeki Alt.: All Monsters Attack
Year: 1969   Company: Toho Co. Ltd.   Runtime: 69′   Director: Ishiro Honda
Writer: Shinichi Sekizawa   Cinematography: Sokei Tomioka   Music: Kuniyo Miyauchi
SPFX Director: Ishiro Honda   Assistant SPFX Director: Teruyoshi Nakano
Cast: Tomonori Yazaki, Eisei Amamoto, Sachio Sakai, Kazuo Suzuki, Kenji Sahara,
Machiko Naka, Shigeki Ishida, Yoshifumi Tajima, Chotaro Tagin,  Ikio Sawamura,
Godzilla: Haruo Nakajima   Minya: “Little Man” Machan,   Gabara: Yu Sekida
Order this film on DVD (Japanese and English versions) from Amazon.com

When it comes to the King of the Monster’s 10th screen adventure I can honestly say that my memories are fond.  It aired on television constantly as I was growing up (being one of the U.P.A. Productions of America properties that TNT broadcast on a regular basis) and, thanks to a grandmother sympathetic to my monster obsession, it was also one of the first Godzilla films I ever owned.  Produced at a fraction of the cost of the previous year’s big budget box office disappointment Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla’s Revenge would be the first entry in the series to be aimed squarely at children – something that has earned it the ire of many a tokusatsu fan in the years since its release.

Godzilla’s Revenge (or All Monters Attack, as Toho would prefer it be called) is easily the most compact of all the mosnter’s outings, focusing not on prehistoric behemoths laying waste to modern civilization but on a child who, in his day-dreaming, visits Monster Island as a means of coping with the problems in his life.  You’ll be forgiven for thinking that sounds a little strange – it is.  But it also makes the film one of the most narratively intriguing of the lot, for Godzilla’s Revenge takes place in a Japan unlike any other in Godzilla history; one in which the eponymous monster is entirely fictional.

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Godzilla’s Revenge Trailer Show

December 23rd, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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One of the real oddities of the franchise, Godzilla’s Revenge follows latchkey kid Ichiro as he deals with life’s difficulties through imaginary visits to Monster Island.  More drama than fantasy, it’s clear that even Toho didn’t know how to market this one – the company opted to bypass the human drama and focus almost exclusively on the monsters.  The problem is that there’s not much in the way of original monster footage in the film to begin with, and plenty of the stock footage used in the trailer doesn’t even appear in the final cut.

Released domestically through U.P.A. Productions of America and Maron Films in 1971, American advertising for Godzilla’s Revenge focuses even less on the human element, and instead decides to lie to the audience outright with regards to what the film is actually about.

Those are, sadly, the only two pieces of advertising I could locate for Godzilla’s Revenge, but since so much of its monster content was lifted from Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla (both of which had been released directly to U.S. television a few years prior to Revenge‘s theatrical debut) I’ve included a pair of domestic television spots for them as well:


Mothra vs. Godzilla

December 22nd, 2010 | article by | 2 Comments »
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Origintal Release Titles: Mosura tai Gojira / Godzilla vs. The Thing
Year: 1964   Company: Toho Co. Ltd.   Runtime: 89′   Director: Ishiro Honda
Writers: Shinichi Sekizawa   Cinematography: Hajime Koizumi   Music: Akira Ifukube
SPFX Director: Eiji Tsuburaya   Assistant SPFX Director: Teruyoshi Nakano
Cast: Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yu Fujiki, Emi Ito, Yumi Ito,
Yoshifumi Tajima, Kenji Sahara, Ikio Sawamura   Godzilla: Haruo Nakajima
Order this film on DVD (Japanese and English versions) from Amazon.com

In the wake of a powerful typhoon a gigantic egg is found drifting off the coast of Japan.  Seen as a bad omen by some, the egg is soon taken over by an enterprising young billionaire and his sidekick, a greedy talent agent, who intend to make it the centerpiece of an amusement park.  There’s just one catch – the owner of the egg is none other than the god-monster Mothra, and she wants it back!

Enter reporter Sakai (Takarada) who, along with his photographer girlfriend Junko (Hoshi) and the helpful Professor Miura (Koizumi), takes up the cause of Mothra and her envoy, a pair of twin foot-tall princesses (the Ito sisters).  Before anything can be done about the egg another disaster strikes – buried in the muck left behind by the typhoon is Godzilla, who emerges from his temporary prison to lay siege to the Japanese countryside.  Sakai and his friends must travel to the nuke-blasted Infant Island, home of Mothra and her peaceful followers, in hopes of convincing the only good monster in the neighborhood to help save Japan and its people from the unstoppable onslaught of Godzilla.

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Mothra vs. Godzilla Trailer Show

December 22nd, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Of all the Godzilla films I’ll be reviewing this Kaiju Christmas, this is the one you should really be ashamed about having never seen.  An A-class fantasy production from Toho Company in 1964, Mothra vs. Godzilla pits the King of the Monsters against the kaiju god of Infant Island, fresh from making a killing in her 1961 solo debut.

For once, the U.S. cut of this one isn’t half bad!  Dubbed by Titra Studios and released through American International Pictures, the retitled Godzilla vs. The Thing even features an effects sequence – the famed Frontier Missile scene – produced in Japan exclusively for foreign distribution.

There’s not much to say about this Godzilla vs. The Thing television spot, aside from that it looks just awful.


Godzilla Raids Again

December 21st, 2010 | article by | 3 Comments »
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Origintal Release Titles: Gojira no Gyakushu / Gigantis the Fire Monster
Year: 1955   Company: Toho Co. Ltd.   Runtime: 82′   Director: Motoyoshi Oda
Writers: Shigiaki Hidaka, Takeo Murata, Shigeru Kayama (for his novel “Gojira“)
Cinematography: Seiichi Endo   Music: Masaruo Sato   SPFX Director: Eiji Tsuburaya
Cast: Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura, Masao Shimizu,
Seijiro Onda, Sonosuke Sawamura, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Haruo Nakajima, Katsumi Tezuka
Order this film on DVD (Japanese and English versions) from Amazon.com

At the end of the 1954 classic Godzilla, paleontologist Dr. Yamane (veteran Toho star Takashi Shimura) gravely intones that, should nuclear testing continue unchecked, the world may soon be faced with more Godzillas.  He couldn’t have guessed how right he was, though for other reasons all together.  Godzilla was a smash success in Japan, seeing over 9 million admissions in its initial theatrical run and earning two Japanese Academy Award nominations, and producer / distributor Toho Company was eager to strike again while the iron was hot.  It wouldn’t take long for Dr. Yamane’s prediction to come true - Godzilla Raids Again marched onto Japanese cinema screens in April of 1955, less than 6 months after the debut of its predecessor.

Not long after the events of the first film a downed tuna spotter and his friend discover a new Godzilla, alive and well on a remote Japanese island.  Worse still, the creature seems locked in mortal combat with a new giant monster – the prehistoric Angilas!  The Self-Defense Force mobilizes and the country lies in wait, fearing the destruction that would result should the dueling titans make landfall…

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Godzilla Raids Again Trailer Show

December 21st, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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This direct sequel to the original Godzilla has the honor of presenting the King of the Monsters with his first ever monster opponent: Angilas, who would return to the series as an ally to the Big G until 2004′s lamentable Godzilla: Final Wars.  Otherwise Godzilla Raids Again offers little of interest, unless dull melodrama is your thing.  The original full-length Japanese trailer for this film seems to have gone missing, and this shorter piece is flanked (in my copy at least) by a trailer for the superior Rodan:

Though dull in its original language, the film was made outright stupid in its loose English translation.  Paul Schreibman’s Gigantis the Fire Monster stank up American screens in 1959, with its biggest selling point hidden behind a dumb new name.

This lazy television spot, comprised entirely of still images, seems oddly suitable for the film in question:

The most interesting bit of advertising I’ve come across is this brief television spot, which gets Gigantis the Fire Monster out of the way early and quickly moves on to advertising Columbia’s 1960 release of Toho’s Battle in Outer Space.  The editor knew just what Gigantis needed to spice things up – an outer space dogfight!


Godzilla vs. Megalon

December 20th, 2010 | article by | 3 Comments »
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Origintal Title: Gojira tai Megaro Year: 1973   Company: Toho Co. Ltd.   Runtime: 81′
Director: Jun Fukuda   Screenplay: Jun Fukuda   Story: Takeshi Kimura, Shinichi Sekizawa
Cinematography: Yuzuru Aizawa   Music: Riichiro Manabe   SPFX Director: Teruyoshi Nakano
Cast: Katsuhiko Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi, Robert Dunham, Kotaro Tomita,
Wolf Otsuki, Shinji Tatagi, Hideto Odachi, Tsugutoshi Komada, Kenpachiro Satsuma

I’ve never been known for having my finger on the pulse of good taste, so I suppose it’s only to be expected that one of the (and perhaps the) most universally reviled of all Toho Company’s beloved Godzilla franchise would also happen to be one of my personal favorites.  The first of the series to be released domestically through Cinema Shares and the only of them to retain its original Toho-given English title*, Godzilla vs. Megalon was a staple of UHF television programming in my youth – I can at least claim to have come by my bias naturally.

It seems important to note that Godzilla vs. Megalon initially had nothing to do with Godzilla at all.  Toho had conceived the project as the solo debut of the robot Jet Jaguar (the result of a creative children’s contest held by the company the year before), a concept they abandoned out of fear that the new character would be unable to carry a feature all his own.  The shooting schedule was eventually slashed to a mere three weeks and the screenplay altered to include both Godzilla (in his first new suit since 1968) and his previous foe Gigan.  Whether or not Toho’s scheming worked is difficult to assess, but one thing is for certain – Godzilla fought Megalon to the lowest audience turnout ever seen for the franchise up to that point**.

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Godzilla vs. Megalon Trailer Show

December 20th, 2010 | article by | 5 Comments »
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I don’t generally post film trailers, but Kaiju Christmas 2010 is a special time – at least around these parts.  We’re beginning the festivities with coverage of one of the most universally reviled (and one of my most beloved) of all the King of the Monsters’ adventures: 1973′s Godzilla vs. Megalon.  Seatopia is sick of us petty Earthling’s nuking their civilization into oblivion, and send forth the mighty Megalon to teach us a thing or two…

Godzilla vs. Megalon was domestically released by Cinema Shares through Downtown Distribution in 1976 – it was to be the first of three Godzilla films to see release through the companies, and the only one to retain its original title.

Note how the framing of this TV spot randomly changes from cramped 4:3 to slightly less cramped 1.85:1 and back again.  It’s magic!

My favorite trailer of the bunch is this television spot for a monster triple feature I’d love to have been around to see – Godzilla on Monster Island, Godzilla vs. Gigan and “the classic” Godzilla vs. Megalon.  It was these three Godzilla outings I grew up seeing the most, as they all received regular airplay on the UHF stations I frequented through the beginning of the ’90s.


Prophecies of Nostradamus: Catastrophe 1999 (1974)

August 23rd, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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Toho’s epic 1974 disaster-a-minute masterpiece needs no introduction to anyone familiar with this site, where our review of it remains one of our top-read month after month.  Directed by Toshio Masuda (Tokyo Blackout) and starring Tetsuro Tanba (Bohachi Boshido: Code of the Forgotten Eight), Toshio Kurosawa (Evil of Dracula), Kaoru Yumi (ESPY) and Yoko Tsukasa (Yojimbo), the film was pushed into production after the box office superstardom of 1973′s Submersion of Japan and took top honors in its release year of 1974.  Prophecies of Nostradamus: Catastrophe 1999 (original title, Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen) remains a picture well ahead of its time in terms of concept, predating the nonsense mega-disaster hits of Roland Emmerich by several decades.

Though sold to me as a lobby card, this Mexican poster measures in at a considerably larger 16.5 x 21 inches.  Prophecies of Nostradamus: Catastrophe 1999 is another Toho effort produced with international distribution in mind, and included a lengthy English language sequence set in New Guinea, in which an investigative team goes out to hunt for one earlier lost only to discover that they have been reduced to a state of putrid living-death by a lingering radioactive fog.  This sequence would cause Toho considerable trouble shortly after release, when the shocking nature of both it and a late-film look into a post-apocalyptic future enraged advocates for survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The offending footage was subsequently cut from Japanese release prints, with Toho banning the picture from screenings entirely after its initial theatrical run.

Nevertheless, the film made a pretty penny in international markets and left an indelible impression on my young mind when it finally made its way to domestic television in the early ’80s in its truncated The Last Days of Planet Earth form.  This poster showcases one of the film’s most memorable moments, featuring two stills from the controversial New Guinea sequence.  The rest of the artwork, including a ship on a frozen sea, a Concorde SST, a desolate war-ravaged Earth and a chillingly reflected cityscape, are culled from the original Japanese one-sheet design.  The title translates to The End of the World: The Prophecies of Nostradamus Fulfilled! (El Fin del Mundo: ¡Las Profecias de Nostradamus se Cumplen!).


The Last War (Sekai Daisenso) 1961

August 17th, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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I picked up this beauty just over a year ago and, finding myself with a bit of free time this morning, decided to scan it for your amusement.

This small Thai theatrical poster (it measures just 15 1/2 by 21 inches) for Toho’s The Last War dates back to 1962 and is a nice variation on the art produced by the studio for the film’s domestic release, showing an ominous red-saturated mushroom cloud looming over decimated Tokyo.  The artwork features Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Nobuko Otawa and even the American actor who first pushes the button quite prominently, while top-billed Frankie Sakai is suspiciously absent.

Typical of Thai posters from this time period, the colors are bold and vibrant even if fine detail is lacking (as in the rather crude renditions of the Eiji Tsuburaya effects set pieces featured at the bottom).  The title conveniently appears in Thai, Japanese and English, lest anyone be confused as to what film they’re going to see.

The Last War was marketed broadly and was picked up for most international markets and was picked up by Brenco Pictures (along with Gorath and The Human Vapor) for theatrical release in the United States.  With the failure of the other two properties and the folding of Brenco itself The Last War never made it to US cinemas, and its considerably abbreviated English language edit remains one of the harder to find of Toho effects imports.


Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster

March 29th, 2010 | article by | 1 Comment »
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a.k.a. Sandai Kaiju Chikyu Saidai no Kessan,
Monster of Monsters Ghidorah!
company: Toho Company, LTD.
year: 1964
runtime: 93?
country: Japan
director: Ishiro Honda
cast: Yosuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi,
Akiko Wakabayashi, Hiroshi Koizumi,
Emi & Yumi Ito
writer: Shinichi Sekizawa
cinematography: Hajime Koizumi
order this film from Amazon.com

1964 turned out to be a prolific year for Toho Studios and their kaiju eiga output. The studio’s Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) had reaped massive success at the box office and Dogora the Space Monster (1964) wasn’t the box office disappoint one might assume. And next year’s Godzilla movie was on the horizon… But there was one hitch for Toho that year—the shooting of Akira Kurosawa’s current film Red Beard (1965) was running over schedule and was not going to meet its December 1964 release date. Toho was in a pickle. They needed a big New Year’s release and Kurosawa’s new film was out of the question. So much like the characters in the resultant film, they turned to Godzilla to bail them out, and the movie that would have been released in 1965 wound up being pushed into production to replace Kurosawa. If there’s one force on earth that could accomplish such a task, it’s the King of the Monsters and did he ever deliver…

As we begin our story, an intrepid reporter named Naoko Shindo (Hoshi) is investigating a group of scientist/stargazers who are hoping to find some evidence of the “saucer people” in hopes that they may explain the great heat wave Japan is suffering in the middle of January. No saucers (or for that matter, saucer people) are spotted, but a meteorite shower does bring an unwanted cargo to the earth. One such meteor strikes the earth near the famous Kurobe Dam.

That same night, young Princess Selina Salno (Wakabayashi) is on a flight to Japan to avoid assassins in her home country of Selgina who hope to end the monarch rule and bring about communism. Before going to bed, Princess Salno’s unconscious mind tells her that she must leave the plane, and she summarily jumps out the escape hatch. Seconds later, the plane explodes.

Professor Murai (Koizumi) and a team of geologists hoof it into Kurobe Gorge to study the fallen meteorite. They nearly get lost when their compasses begin pointing the wrong direction and are flabbergasted to find that the meteorite has a strong magnetic pull.

Back in Tokyo, Salno’s would-be chaperone and Naoko’s brother, Detective Shindo (Natsuki) discovers that a mysterious vagabond woman who claims to be from Venus (Mars in the U.S. version) that has popped up warning people of future dangers bears a strong resemblance to the princess he was supposed to protect. Naoko is assigned to follow the mystery woman, who appears at Mt. Aso warning of the reappearance of Rodan (Masaki Shinohara). The Venusian is met with jeers but almost immediately, Rodan breaks forth from the crater of the volcano and wings it into the air.

The conspirators in Selgina have since discovered the story of the Venusian and believe her to be Princess Salno, but aren’t 100% sure. The lead man (who, along with his fellow Selginians, is dressed like a harlequin) orders his top assassin, Malness (Hisayo Ito) to travel to Japan to finish the job. Malness and his gang (which includes a thin-mustached Susumu Kurobe—Hayata from Ultraman) arrive on the island nation and begin plans to find the Venusian and discover whether she’s truly Princess Salno or not.

The doll-sized Shobijin (the Ito sisters) of Infant Island have been visiting Japan and doing television broadcasts (why is never explained) but are planning to return to their home via cruise ship. The Venusian appears out of nowhere and warns that the ship mustn’t set sail. Covering the Shobijin’s egress, Naoko takes the Venusian away to do a story about her.

Once in a Yokohama hotel room (but unfortunately, exactly across the hall from the assassins) and after discovering the Shobijin listened to the warning, the Venusian again explains that the ship shouldn’t have set sail. Out at sea near the ship, a pod of whales surface and fearfully swim away. Just behind them is Godzilla (Haruo Nakajima), having returned to activity after his defeat in the previous film. In a magnificent optical effect, Godzilla’s back lights up and he incinerates the cruise ship with his heat ray.

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King Kong Escapes

January 30th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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part of the Goin’ Bananas B-movie roundtable:

a.k.a. Kingu Kongu no Gyakushu
rating:
company: Rankin/Bass Productions
and Toho Co. ltd.
year: 1967
runtime: 96′ / 104′
country: Japan / United States
director: Ishiro Honda
cast: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama,
Linda Miller, Akira Takarada,
Eisei Amamoto, Shoichi Hirose,
Toru Ibuki, Nadao Kirino
writer: Takeshi Kimura
cinematographer: Hajime Koizumi
music: Akira Ifukube
special effects direction: Eiji Tsuburaya
dvd company: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
release date: November 29, 2005
retail price: $14.98
details: Region 1 / NTSC / Single Layer
feature: progressive / 2.31:1 anamorphic
audio: Dolby Digital English (2.0 Mono)
subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
order this film from Amazon.com
single disc | double feature with King Kong Escapes


Plot: The evil Dr. Who conspires to mine the mysterious radioactive Element X using his mechanical King Kong.  It’s up to commander Nelson and the real King Kong to stop them.

The second and last of Toho Co. ltd.’s King Kong cycle is a real doozy of a motion picture.  Co-produced with Rankin / Bass Productions (of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Last Dinosaur fame) and based on that company’s earlier collaboration with Toei Animation, The King Kong Show, it’s easily one of the sillier things to originate on Toho’s lot.  But that’s okay, as King Kong Escapes is immense fun regardless.

Baring no relation to the earlier King Kong vs. Godzilla, with the exception of the fact that the character of Kong is in it, King Kong Escapes concerns UN submarine commander Carl Nelson (Rhodes Reason, younger brother of Rex This Island Earth Reason) and his scientific interest in the Kong legend.  When his submarine runs into mechanical trouble near the island where Kong is said to live, Nelson and his friends, Lt. Commander Nomura (Akira Takarada) and Lt. Watson (Linda Miller), decide to take the opportunity to investigate it.  There they find living dinosaurs (rather, a living dinosaur and a giant sea snake), a single elderly native, and the giant ape King Kong, who takes a shining to Lt. Watson after saving her from the jaws-n-claws of of a scaly island inhabitant.

Meanwhile at the North Pole, the fiendish Dr. Who (Eisei Amamoto), arch nemesis of Commander Nelson, is using his super-machine Mechani-Kong (the plans for which the fiendish Dr. Who fiendishly stole from Commander Nelson) to mine for the rare radioactive Element X.  But Mechani-Kong is no match for the power of the element, its delicate wiring destroyed by Element X’s deadly emanations.  With Mechani-Kong out of commission until repairs can be made and the country backing the project threatening to pull financing, Dr. Who is left with no alternative but to fly to Kong’s island and kidnap the real thing . . .



Writer Takeshi Kimura (Attack of the Mushroom People, Rodan, Gorath) must have had quite the time trying to craft a half-way serious story around the basic framework of the Rankin / Bass cartoon show (the villain Dr. Who, Mechani-Kong . . .), but the result, even if it is little more than an exercise in high camp (complete with heroes, villains, and a hypnotized giant ape), isn’t half bad.  The past relationship of Commander Nelson and Dr. Who goes largely unexplored, though they certainly behave as stereotypical old enemies that they are, playing chess and chortling about the futility of each other’s plans.  A bit of human interest is a boon to the silly dramatics, and the G-rated romance between Lt. Commander Nomura and Lt. Watson figures well into the climactic Kong / Mechani-Kong battle.

The focus of proceedings is, as it should be, squarely on the monsters, and there is no development in the full running time that doesn’t somehow involve them.  Even the representative of the unnamed country financing Dr. Who, a beautiful Mie Hama (You Only Live Twice) in her final giant monster film appearance, has a change of heart at their behest, deciding that nuclear domination of the world isn’t worth a few thousand human casualties at the hands of Kong and his mechanical alter ego.  Kimura’s story brings the human cast and their monstrous counterparts together early and often, a fact that’s sure to make genre fans happy.

There’s a strong sense of humor running throughout the film, and while Kimura and director Ishiro Honda never allow the picture’s self awareness to interfere with the storytelling comedy is still an important part of the proceedings.  Dr. Who’s hard-hatted henchmen are played with a distinctly comic edge, and when introduced to Commander Nelson and his crew his Mechani-Kong (a machine seemingly ready-made to break down at the worst of possible moments) offers up a friendly wave.  Dr. Who himself, full of over-the-top schemes and brimming with ego in spite of his utter lack of success, is the kind of villain you almost hate to see get his just deserves.

Eiji Tsuburaya’s special effects production is on the fantastic and colorful side, appropriate for a film inspired by a cartoon series.  The miniatures still look great after all these years, and even the smallest (a toolbox that drops onto Kong’s face, spilling its contents) are rich with detail.  The best part of the show remains the climactic Tokyo showdown, which sees the dueling Kongs exchanging blows atop a massive reconstruction of Tokyo Tower.  Limits on time and budget rear their ugly heads in a few snippets of stock footage and in the constrained scope of the miniature downtown Tokyo, though the lively action keeps them from being as distracting as they were in films like Monster Zero.



King Kong Escapes fared well when imported for American distribution in 1968, receiving an English dub well above the norm for the genre and a slight edit that tightens the pace while adding a few shots and angles nowhere to be found in the Japanese release variant (a la War of the Gargantuas).  This 96 minute cut, around 8 minutes shorter than the Japanese, is my favored cut of the film, and the slight editing only really becomes an issue in the few moments where it clips Akira Ifukube’s score (notably during the Tokyo Tower sequence).

Universal Studios, the American distributor of the film, had been sitting on renewed rights to King Kong Escapes since 1996, only stepping up to release it on home video in 2005.  Like the simultaneously released King Kong vs. Godzilla disc, those hoping for any kind of deluxe release will be disappointed as Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s DVD is about as bare as bare-bones releases get.  That said, the film itself looks better than ever before – a big win for kaiju fans here in the States.

Universal presents King Kong Escapes in its original scope (actual aspect ratio 2.34:1) for the first time stateside since its original theatrical release.  The detailed progressive transfer is smooth in motion and remarkably void of damage, save some light speckling.  The bright color scheme really pops and contrast looks spot on.  This is a gorgeous transfer with some visible grain and great detail, and one of the best of an older Toho SPFX film that’s been seen in the States.  Audio is presented in a fine Dolby Digital 2.0 monophonic English track that sounds quite good, retaining nice punchiness in the low end and doing justice to Ifukube’s excellent score.  Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles are available, and there are no supplements.

For a disc with such horrendous packaging design (from the menus to the disc art to the sleeve, the graphics are consistently awful throughout), it sure does a fine job of presenting the film in question.  I was very late catching up to this (four years, and I call myself a fan!), and have no problem recommending the release or its double-feature pairing with King Kong vs. Godzilla to those who have yet to pick it up (a lot of retailers appear to be dumping the two pack from their stock, and I got my copy at well below the Amazon price – shop around!).  As for the film, it’s one of the more enjoyable of Toho’s late ’60s product and a fixture of my memories of growing up on aging UHF stations. Highly recommended.


King Kong vs. Godzilla

January 29th, 2010 | article by | 4 Comments »
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part of the Goin’ Bananas B-movie roundtable:

rating:
companies: Universal International
and Toho Company Ltd.
year: 1963
runtime: 91′
countries: United States / Japan
directors: Ishiro Honda
and Thomas Montgomery
cast: Michael Keith, Harry Holcombe,
James Yagi, Tadao Takashima,
Kenji Sahara, Ichiro Arishima,
Yu Fujiki, Jun Tazaki, Akihiko Hirata
writers: Paul Mason
and Bruce Howard
music: Peter Zinner (supervisor)
dvd company: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
release date: November 29, 2005
retail price: $14.98
details: Region 1 / NTSC / Single Layer
feature: progressive / 2.31:1 anamorphic
audio: Dolby Digital English (2.0 Mono)
subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
order this film from Amazon.com
single disc | double feature with King Kong Escapes

Plot: A television executive has King Kong imported to Japan while Godzilla is simultaneously unleashed from his imprisonment in an iceberg.  The two march inexorably towards each other, leading to an epic final battle atop Mount Fuji.

Like all the earliest of Toho’s science fiction and fantasy films (Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, Gigantis the Fire Monster, Half Human, Varan the Unbelievable, The H-Man, Gorath, The Human Vapor, and The Last War in particular), King Kong vs. Godzilla was altered considerably for importation into the American market.  In this case co-producer John Beck, working from a treatment by an uncredited and unpaid Willis O’Brien, was given full reign over how Toho’s production would be presented in the States as part of his contract with the company.  The end result is a film almost entirely unique from the Japanese original, and one of the most altered Toho productions outside of Crown International’s treatment of Varan the Unbelievable.

In its original form King Kong vs. Godzilla is much less science fiction than comedy, a satire of television marketing.  Producer Beck was none too pleased with the light-hearted sensibilities of the picture and sought, with his version, to present audiences with the more traditional monster romp they were undoubtedly expecting.  His success in this regard was minimal, his efforts to improve things rendering King Kong vs. Godzilla an unintentional comedy rather than an overt one.

Taking a cue from Terry Morse’s financially successful redux of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! a few years earlier, Beck oriented his film around newly-shot sequences featuring news reporters in the United States (Michael Keith, The Worm Eaters) and Japan (James Yagi, of The Outer Limits episode The Hundred Years of the Dragon).  Neither Michael Keith or James Yagi had the star credentials of Raymond Burr, who had appeared as the villainous Lars Thorwald in Hitchcock’s Rear Window just two years before his turn as Steve Martin in Godzilla: King of the Monsters!.  More unfortunately, Beck’s integration of their sequences into the film proper is poor at best.  They play as little more than lengthy info-dumps between the Japanese footage and stop the pacing of the film cold.

Michael Keith plays UN reporter Eric Carter, who communicates with James Yagi’s Omura via stock inserts of the alien satellite from The Mysterians.  Beck must have been working under considerable financial limitation here, as the two sets the reporters occupy have all the depth and realism of a sub-par grade school shoebox diorama.  Each comes complete with a ‘television’, or rather a piecing together of cardboard slabs upon which crumpled monochrome prints of shots from the film are stuck.  It’s sad stuff, indeed, and a far cry from the comparably lavish production values of the rest of the picture.


Harry Holcombe (The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Billy Jack Goes to Washington, Empire of the Ants), the most accomplished of the American cast by a wide margin, appears as Dr. Arnold Johnson, who is perhaps the worst paleontologist in screen history.  Using a children’s picture book as a visual aid, Johnson explains to reporter Carter that the recently appeared Godzilla may well be a cross between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegosaurus while comparing his brain to a marble and recommending that electricity might be a viable offensive measure against him (given that he’s a reptile, as though his being anything else would make him any less susceptible to electrocution).  Yes, it is as dreadful as it sounds, though not entirely without its unintentional comic charm.

The English overdubbing of the Japanese footage isn’t nearly so bad as it could have been here, besting Columbia’s for the earlier Battle in Outer Space and a marked improvement over the endless narration found in Half Human or Gigantis the Fire Monster, though Beck’s attempts to play the film straight appear to have been lost in translation.  Television executive Mr. Tako (the wonderful Ichiro Arishima) still comes across as a daft madman and Furue (Yu Fujiki) still plays the bumbling sidekick to Sakurai’s (Tadao Takashima) straight man.  Furue provides one of the most memorable parts of the dubbed version, introducing a minor subplot about his corns and how they ache when monsters are afoot.  The dubbing even improves upon the original Japanese in one respect, making the American submarine crew sound less like the amateur actors they are.

Beck’s King Kong vs. Godzilla runs just 91 minutes, five minutes shy of the original running time, but I’d wager that no more than 75-80% of the original survived the editing process.  Lost is much of the early character development, replaced by Beck’s bricks of exposition.  Perhaps the biggest loss is in the soundtrack department, where Ifukube’s score (one of the very best of his career) is replaced with stock tracks from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Monster that Challenged the World, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, among others.  The stock tracks aren’t bad by any means, but their unconnected bundle of disparate themes can’t compare with the power of Ifukube’s work.


Thankfully, the majority of the monster footage remains intact, less a few shots here and there.  Reviews of the film in America more or less ignored the dramatic inadequacy of the film, focusing on the aptitude of the Japanese effects crew instead.  In this respect Beck’s King Kong vs. Godzilla still makes for an entertaining watch, in spite of its disparaging ineptitude in other areas.

Universal, who released the film domestically as Universal International in 1963, missed a grand opportunity to present a deluxe edition of this film when it chose to bring it to DVD in 2005, but such is the nature of the business.  Those looking for the uncut original will have to rely on Toho’s own expensive home video iterations, as this Universal Studios Home Entertainment DVD caters only to the American release version of the film.

King Kong vs. Godzilla is in a horrendous state of preservation in its native Japan, and Toho’s recent high definition restoration had to rely, in part, on an awful standard definition video master from the ’90s in order to account for footage in too sad a shape to be transferred.  Universal’s print is in comparatively excellent shape, with much of the footage lost in the Japanese restoration appearing nearly pristine here.  The 2.35:1 progressive and anamorphic widescreen transfer presents the film in its original aspect ratio for the first time on American shores and, save for some damage (dust and scratches), its a beauty.  Beck’s additions to the drama look even cheaper in the original scope, while Eiji Tsuburaya’s effects production shines.  Audio is English only Dolby Digital 2.0 monophonic, with optional English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles available.

The single layer disc boasts absolutely nothing in the way of supplemental material, not even a trailer.  Still, the price is low (at least for the double bill with King Kong Escapes) and the quality of transfer high, making it worth the upgrade from the awful pan-and-scan Goodtimes releases that have been kicking around for the past decade plus.  Fans will certainly want to indulge.


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