With the renewed interest in the Godzilla franchise, I want to share my thoughts on, and experiences with, one of my all-time favorite films: Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah, a kaiju (Japanese giant monster) movie I first saw on TV at a cheap Gettysburg, PA motel in the late '90s.
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah was the first Godzilla movie I'd ever witnessed, and it broadened my perspective of cinema. I didn't realize movies like this were possible! The elaborate miniatures; incredible practical effects; the impossible creatures brought to celluloid life: It was too much for my brain to process. I couldn't wait for the commercials to end, I was so thrilled over the movie. In 2004, I bought the DVD at Pittsburgh's Monster bash film convention. At college, I screened it for my friends in their dorm room, and we ended up with a crowd, as passersby stopped in their tracks to watch it with us! Everyone took the movie seriously, and the excitement was as magnetic as Mechagodzilla. My Sony-issue DVD is English dub only, and the picture is cropped. But I don't mind, because it replicates the movie as I first saw it on that fateful night.
My Pet Monster loves this movie, because freaks of nature stick together.
I once let a girlfriend borrow my Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah DVD, never to see it again. I had to search for years to find a replacement (for the disc and the girlfriend). When I got married, I had the Trendmasters Godzilla toy below depict me on the wedding cake! I'm not that bad, am I? (Adrienne was represented by a Barbie.) I'm a Big G fan to this day, and own all the legitimate (read: "Japanese") Godzilla films on physical media.
If you've never seen a Godzilla film, you've probably heard they're cheesy. English dubbing is largely responsible for this. The Japanese take their Godzilla (or more accurately, Gojira) movies very seriously; he's a source of national pride. The English release of Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah has some truly asinine dubbing, including a Japanese fighter pilot with a southern drawl that would sound excessive in a Western. Up your cultural game and watch foreign movies subtitled. Or even better, learn the language! Years of anime watching came in handy for our Tokyo honeymoon. (We stayed at the Keio Plaza Hotel, within walking distance of the skyscraper that gets destroyed at 1:56 in the above trailer.)
While the uninitiated would likely assume Godzilla's arch nemesis to be Mothra, that distinction actually goes to King Ghidorah. But for good measure, my DVD also features Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth. Those stakes sound pretty high! At the time of Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah's release, the titular golden dragon had long been a fan favorite, making his debut in 1964's Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster. Yeah, King Ghidorah's name was changed, just like Prince's. (King? Prince? I can't decide if that joke is brilliant or terrible.) Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah serves as a new origin story for Ghidorah, in the same vein as Godzilla's share of reboots.
In Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah, Japan is paid a visit by the Futurians, people from the year 2204. They come bearing a warning that in their era, Japan no longer exists due to Godzilla, and offer their help to eliminate his existence through time travel. But can they be trusted? Probably not, or there wouldn't be much of a movie!
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah was written and directed by Kazuki Ohmori, who also penned and directed the previous entry, 1989's super-fun spectacle Godzilla Vs. Biollante. In fact, Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah is a direct sequel to Godzilla Vs. Biollante, referencing the events of that film.
Godzilla Vs. Biollante had failed to meet box office expectations, and Ohmori was looking for a new hook for his next Godzilla script. After attended a showing of Back to the Future Part II, Ohmori was convinced that audiences wanted time travel, and Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah was born. Some of the Back to the Future inspirations in Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah become obvious once you know this backstory: Below is the Futurians' time machine readout, not a far cry from the DeLorean's time circuits! For what it's worth, Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah did outperform Godzilla Vs. Biollante in ticket sales.
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah boasts some of the most epic practical effects sequences ever filmed. The movie's monster battles are nothing short of awe-inspiring, and include great mecha sequences once King Ghidorah receives some bionic upgrades in 2204. You'll also be treated to impressive puppetry (dig those dorats in the below clip), and there's low-rent Terminator vibes with the Futurians' android M-11. Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah could very well be your gateway drug to the wild world of Japanese giant monster cinema. You may view CGI kaiju flicks as inferior product after seeing this movie, and you would be correct in that assessment.
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah features a segment wherein the main characters time travel back to World War II. The film's story is told from a strictly Japanese perspective, making the Americans the de facto bad guys. Director Ohmori got some backlash from the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, who thought the movie was "in very poor taste." Even original Godzilla director Ishiro Honda criticized Ohmori for the sequence wherein Godzilla (as a pre-mutated dinosaur) steps on and kills some US soldiers. Ohmori stated in 2006 that he is not anti-American, and that the American actors were more than willing to get squashed by Godzilla.
There's a great sci-fi movie in-joke between the American soldiers which I'll let you discover for yourself, but in my opinion the US forces' best moment is this unintentionally (?) hilarious bit. You can't say he's not being accurate!
I'll take physical craftsmanship over pixels any day. As Retro Injection has said before, dependence on CGI kills movies. I'm disappointed that Godzilla's parent studio Toho has resorted to making CGI Godzilla films, starting with 2016's Shin Godzilla, aka Godzilla Resurgence. I bought Shin Godzilla from Family Video, but I couldn't sit through it. Godzilla films should have guys in monster suits laying waste to miniature sets. The end. Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah shines with its weighty, astounding practical effects from a time before everything could just be thrown on the Mac. Godzilla Final Wars (2004), with only a smattering of CGI, was the last "real" Godzilla film for my money.
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah is literally tons of fun. It doesn't always make complete sense (at least with the English dub), but don't let that detract you from seeing it! Who will prevail in the film's thrilling climax? How is King Ghidorah so freakin' cool? In the immortal words of Neil Diamond, "Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies," because unlike '80s horror movies, this flick is a blast for the whole clan.
You seem to be into monsters, so check out Retro Injection's review of The Monster Squad (as well as our interview the film's director Fred Dekker), and our G1 Transformer writeup on Repugnus and the Monsterbots. Also sneak a peek at the Monster in My Pocket figures in "Unsupervised in the Mall: My Memories of Kay-Bee Toys."
コメント