Godzilla's return in 1984 proved to be mostly popular, with the film selling over three million admissions, making a modest return on the $6 million dollar budget. The sequel, though, would take five years to produce. Toho decided to hold a fan contest again, this time selecting the winning script from Shinichiro Kobayashi, a dentist and part-time sci-fi writer. As usual, however, Toho and director Kazuki Omori heavily reworked the script until they had a version they found satisfying. Original plans had Godzilla fighting a rat/fish hybrid creature, to be called Deutalios, which would have been quickly killed before the eventual final fight with Biollante. This idea was scrapped along with the bulk of Kobayashi's script, the final version only containing some elements of his original work. Even though Toho still did their own meddling with the winning script - something any studio would have done - this entry shook the standard formula up more than expected. This was going to be the first film of the Heisei series to feature Godzilla doing battle, and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka wanted to being some new kaiju into the fold. He wanted to avoid relying on past monsters, preferring to give Godzilla a new set of villains to fight against. Even though that idea didn't last long (see: the very next movie), Biollante was certainly a creative creature concept on a number of levels. In addition to the monster fights, we've got chicks with ESP, nations battling over Godzilla's cells, gene splicing, a sunglasses-wearing mustachioed assassin, and another standout score from a first-time composer.
In the aftermath of Godzilla's rampage in Tokyo, top secret soldiers from the U.S. working for a corporation called Bio-Major pick through the rubble, looking for tissue samples from the creature. They find some, but soon after are killed by a mysterious assassin from the country of Saradia. During this time, Dr. Shiragami is working in the Middle East on genetic research and getting ready to leave back to Japan. A terrorist bombing at his facility kills his daughter and destroys much of his work, leaving him distraught.
The film cuts to five years later and we find that Tokyo has been largely rebuilt. There's even a Godzilla Memorial Lounge located inside a building he literally put his foot through. Shiragami is haunted by the death of his daughter, throwing himself headfirst into his work on the possible physic power of roses. He works alongside Miki Saegusa, a teacher at a center for gifted children with physic abilities, who herself has ESP capabilities. Dr. Shiragami is being monitored by both Bio-Major and the Saradian assassin, with both groups intent on stealing his work on Godzilla's genetics. Shiragami had been working on something called Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria, made from Godzilla's own cells, which is a radiation-consuming bacteria that could prove fatal to Godzilla. During a skirmish at Shiragami's lab, the two groups are attacked by a plant-like creature with tentacled arms. Only one man manages to escape. The next morning, the creature has massively grown in size, standing tall in the nearby bay. It looks like a giant rose, with leaf-like arms and a call like a whale. Shiragami confesses that he combined the DNA of Godzilla with the cells of a rose and the DNA of his dead daughter, Erika.
Bio-Major still wants Shiragami's research, so they effectively hold the nation hostage by threatening to blow up Mt. Mihara, thereby releasing Godzilla, if their demands aren't met. When agents go to meet the assassin, a struggle ensues and eventually the timed bombs go off when the countdown cannot be stopped. Godzilla has been awakened, and he's heading straight for the mainland. Troops attempt to combat him with the newly rebuilt Super X II, but it is only capable of partially slowing Godzilla down. Eventually, he reaches Biollante and a fight commences, leaving Biollante seemingly dead after a blast from Godzilla's atomic breath sends her cells scattering out into the atmosphere. Weakened and needing fuel, Godzilla heads for the nearest power plant to recharge his batteries. The government tries to stop him by miscalculates where he will surface, but Miki Saegusa steps in and tries to use her ESP abilities to convince Godzilla not to exit the bay. She only succeeds momentarily before Godzilla's own will power overwhelms her, causing her to faint.
The only hope now is to use the Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB from here on out), so Godzilla is lured into downtown Osaka by the Super X II just before he destroys it. Lt. Gondo and his team of men use RPGs to fire missiles containing the ANEB into his body and mouth. Wouldn't you know it, but the stuff doesn't work. The government surmises it must need to heat Godzilla's body temperature to activate it, but that plan, too, fails when the microwave plates they use against Godzilla do nothing but provide more fodder for him to demolish. Just at that moment, however, Biollante returns to the earth in a much more aggressive form, looking like the perfect marriage between organic plant matter and Godzilla's regenerative cells. The hulking behemoth advances forward on her myriad tentacles, ensnaring Godzilla and causing him great physical damage. The battle sees Biollante using her Venus flytrap-like arms to drag Godzilla in closer so he can be consumed. Just as it looks like Biollante is winning, Godzilla delivers a devastating blow with his fiery breath. The blast reverts Biollante into shiny space cell form, shimmering her way back into the ozone. Godzilla passes out headfirst in the ocean like a sloppy drunk, too wounded to move. The subplot with our hirsute assassin and the government team finally comes to a head with one of the series' coolest human deaths: instant microwave combustion. Then Godzilla wakes up, reminds everyone who's boss by skreeonk-ing like a boss, and the film concludes.
Biollante is one of the most elegant and horrifically beautiful kaiju I think I've ever seen. It's a gorgeous design, massive and overflowing, with hints of Godzilla scattered throughout its design without looking overtly like a Godzilla/plant clone. Just check out her scales, which look like tiny versions of G's signature "maple leaf" dorsal spikes. And her jawline and facial sculpting contain the essence of Godzilla's visage. It's remarkable work, all done by Koichi Kawakita, a first timer to the series. The creature's bulk is impressively huge, making it the largest of any monster seen in the series. She's also immortal, so even though she "dies" in the fight with Godzilla it's shown later she's now a big rose orbiting Earth. Despite that fact, this stands as Biollante's only appearance in the series.
Kawakita also gave audiences a new Godzilla, sporting a sleeker look than his 1984 counterpart and sporting some of the most fluid movements ever seen in a suit before. Kawakita's design cues included a lot of new features, such as a smaller, slightly elongated head, a more robust & muscular body, double rows of teeth with fangs less prominent, larger dorsal fins cast from a heavier material to make them look sturdier, and a head that could move back and forth for the first time ever. As good as fans agree Godzilla looked for his second debut in 1984, this suit was the beginning of an era that would see what is arguably Godzilla's most iconic design ever. I'm saying that in the sense of how the public and many fans perceive the image of Godzilla at large. I'm as much a fan of the Showa suits as anything else, but the notion of Godzilla in my head, the beast that I envision him as, is just like Kawakita designed him. Huge yet sleek, lumbering yet agile, not a hero but not an enemy, all of his trademark features looking just as they should.
Godzilla vs. Biollante also sees a new composer stepping in, with Koichi Sugiyama taking over scoring duties. His work here is much more lively than Koroku's score for Gojira (1984), but I like that once again the series is taking the sound in a different direction. His main theme in particular is quite haunting, with some eerie notes that reminded me of the opening to Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). There are numerous suites that make up the score, being culled from a larger selection of cues that Sugiyama composed for the film. This has the effect of giving each major scene of the film a life of its own. Themes are rarely reprised here, preferring to keep the score moving forward without many recurring motifs. Gotta say, so far this Heisei era is starting off with some killer composers to bring Godzilla to life.
This film was more or less the last Godzilla film I watched as a kid. Finding it on VHS was really difficult. Don't forget, at that time even though a film was released straight to video, as Miramax decided to bypass a theatrical release, it doesn't automatically mean you can buy an affordable copy. Rental? Sure. But to own was upwards of $100, depending on the title. I had a hard time acquiring the Heisei series on tape, either because I wasn't trying hard enough or, more likely, I was becoming a teenager and had "more important' things to do. I'm excited to dig back into the series from this point onward because, frankly, I'm not nearly as familiar with the films. I can practically recite any Showa series film by memory - even the "bad" ones - but the later films were only glimpsed by me a handful of times each.
The next entry would see Tomoyuki Tanaka reneging on his idea to introduce new monsters when he felt this film didn't perform up to standards. It managed to sell two million tickets, barely making a profit. So, he felt fans wanted to see the return of old favorites. Who better to lead the pack than the other King? Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) is a film I have fond memories of despite the fact I didn't see it for a number of years after its release...
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