Godzilla [Gojira] *** (1954, Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada, Haruo Nakajima) – So Bad It’s Good Movie 4

‘Incredible, unstoppable titan of terror!’ The 1954 Japanese Godzilla movie Gojira has legendary cult status and it’s a classic horror film. It was then Japan’s most expensive movie but, with its very elementary special effects, it’s, er, a little dated. 

‘Incredible, unstoppable titan of terror!’ The original Japanese Godzilla movie has legendary cult status and it’s a classic horror film. People are very fond of it, and that’s great. At the time it was the most expensive Japanese movie ever made, but let’s just say that, with its very elementary special effects, it’s a little dated.

Directed by Ishiro Honda in 1954, Godzilla or Gojira is a direct, cheeky Japanese response to America’s 1953 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. The name Gojira is a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira), because the original design a gorilla-whale monster. But when producer Tomoyuki Tanaka saw The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, he turned Godzilla into a dinosaur monster.

In this one, the 50-meter tall monster reptile with the radioactive breath is awakened by H-bomb tests and stomps off to terrorise and destroy Tokyo. The Japanese don’t really know how to stop the monster or even if it should be killed.

In this case, it’s American nuclear weapons testing that results in the creation of the seemingly unstoppable, dinosaur-like beast. Interestingly, the 1998 American remake Godzilla was more comfortable with the idea of the French as the bad guys. And of course it was Manhattan that was under attack not Tokyo.

Looked at today, Godzilla [Gojira] is really quite a bad movie, but it plays as pretty good fun with lots of laughs, helped by the cheap, hilarious special effects (Godzilla is played by an actor in a rubber suit!) and zany music. Bad as it is, it’s arguably still the best of all the Godzilla films. Hugely popular, it started an apparently endless series of Godzilla films and other Japanese monster movies.

Originally called Gojira, it had a running time of 98 minutes that were cut by 18 minutes for the American version in which the Terry Morse-directed sequences with Raymond Burr as an American scientist (called Steve Martin!) were added and clumsily intercut into the film.

The original subtitled version appeared in the US in 1982 and was finally premiered in Britain on Channel 4 on December 24, 1999. It’s hard to put hand on heart and say it’s an improvement on the US version. The original subtitled version is quite a cult item, but still in the so bad it’s good category.

King Kong-style stop motion animation was rejected because of time and cost, hence the man in the rubber suit. The 6′ 6″ tall performer Haruo Nakajima struggled to move in the first Godzilla suit weighing 200lb, so a new lighter, more flexible suit had to be constructed.

Nakajima was given the Mangled Skyscraper Award by the Godzilla Society of North America at the G-FEST XV convention in July 2008 in Chicago. He deserved it – he suffered many injuries including burns, electric shocks, and near-suffocation. He played Gojira in 12 films, more than any other actor.

The simultaneous production of this film and Seven Samurai nearly forced Tôhô studios into bankruptcy. It turns out they needn’t have worried because both were huge international hits, putting Japanese cinema on the world map. Haruo Nakajima is in both films, by the way.

It tested the Japanese technicians to the max as they weren’t used to making this kind of effects-led movie (special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya).  So the entire film was storyboarded for the first time in a Japanese film. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura.

Director Roland Emmerich’s 1998 remake Godzilla sees the old dinosaur with radioactive breath being awakened by French H-bomb tests in the South Pacific and stomping off to terrorise and destroy New York. It’s up to scientist Dr Niko Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick) and Philippe Roaché (Jean Reno) to investigate and save the day with the US military.

A new Godzilla was finally on the way for release on 15 May 2014, rebooted by director Gareth Edwards (Monsters), and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Bryan Cranston. It premiered in Los Angeles on May 8, 2014.

The 29th Godzilla film produced by Toho, Shin Gojira [Shin Godzilla] (2016), opened in Japan on 29 July 2016.

Haruo Nakajima, who wore the Godzilla bodysuit for every Godzilla film from the original to 1972’s Godzilla vs Gigan, died on 7 August 2017 at 88. His career began in samurai and war films, most notably Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress (1958).

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