GODZILLA-THON #12 - Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

After the "disaster" - according to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka - that was Godzilla vs. Hedorah, work was swiftly underway to produce a new Godzilla film that hewed closer to the tried and true formula. Rather than allow someone else new to the series to have creative control, Tanaka brought back director Jun Fukuda, who had already enjoyed moderate success with his two previous Godzilla pictures Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla. This entry, Godzilla vs. Gigan, would be the first of three pictures in a row he did for Toho. Gone were heavy messages and social commentary; this was to be a return to the plot lines that Tanaka felt worked best: alien invasion and mind control, featuring a roster of top monsters. The script went through a number of changes before deciding upon exactly who those monsters would be, with names like Varan and Rodan in the mix at one point. There was also talk of drafting some new kaiju into the fold, giving Godzilla some new adversaries to combat. Eventually, the screenwriters settled on having Godzilla team up with his old buddy, Anguirus, who just had a new suit made for 1968's Destroy All Monsters. On the opposing side, the golden space dragon, King Ghidorah, would be paired up with a new villain, the cybernetic, cosmic, cyclopean, curved-claw chicken from outer space, Gigan.

The aliens this time around are human-sized cockroaches who assume the form of people that have recently died. They operate a massive playground known as World Children's Land, where a massive Godzilla tower has been erected as the centerpiece control tower. Their plan is to use a series of "Action Control Tapes" to manipulate space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan to destroy the Earth so they can inhabit it because their home world is dying. Gengo, a freelance artist who gets a gig with the company, stumbles upon one of their tapes and plays it, drawing concern from Godzilla and Anguirus on nearby Monster Island. After the two have a conversation - yes, a monster conversation - Anguirus decides to go investigate, drawing the fire of the military upon arrival. So, he takes off back to monster Island to let Godzilla know something is going down and Earth needs their help. Ghidorah and Gigan enter our atmosphere and promptly begin to smash everything in sight just before Godzilla and Anguirus arrive to challenge them. The fight eventually moves back to World Children's Land, where the aliens have concealed a massive laser inside the Godzilla tower. This weapon seriously neutralizes Big G, and just when it looks like he may be down for the count Gengo and his crew of hippie radicals send an elevator full of explosives up the tower, annihilating the controls and every alien inside. With the laser death ray compromised, Godzilla regains his composure, confers with Anguirus, and then proceeds to deliver a crate of whoop ass to both Ghidorah and Gigan, forcing them both to retreat back to the cold vacuum of space.

A chief complain about this film is that it relies too heavily on stock footage, which is absolutely true. This was Teruyoshi Nakano's second film as special effects supervisor after Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), but there was only so much he could do with the limited budget this film was afforded. It's confusing as to why so much stock footage was utilized because they clearly had the required costumes for the shoot. It isn't like Ghidorah was added in using the power of film editing; the suit was on set! There are clips from numerous productions spliced in, including Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, and even non-Godzilla properties like Rodan and War of the Gargantuas. Needless to say, the fight scenes often appear to have been hastily cobbled together. It's bad enough to do this because Godzilla fans will immediately notice the suits aren't matching up between shots, but a couple fights foolishly use daytime footage during a nighttime battle, and no amount of color correction can fix such a glaring, gaping hole. And, again, Toho's actions here only hurt the film. The suits for all four monsters were on set, ready to shoot, so why not just do whatever you can with what you've got? The tag team battles that were shot for this film came off beautifully, featuring some of the best multi-monster mayhem since Destroy All Monsters. This would be the last time the SoshingekiGoji suit was used as the hero costume for a film, having previously appeared in the prior three pictures. The suit was in a state of disrepair, likely why so much footage was reused for this film, and in some scenes you can clearly see pieces of it are coming undone and looking a bit shoddy. Godzilla even appears to be sporting the eye injury he received from Hedorah.

Speaking of the battles, this is the first entry to show Godzilla bleed when attacked. Previous special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya resisted the urge to show open wounds, fearing it would scare many of the young children who had become fond of Godzilla. Nakano clearly didn't share the same sentiment - he had no qualms with temporarily blinding Godzilla in his fight against Hedorah, and here he allows Gigan to draw blood twice. Even Anguirus isn't safe, running headfirst (kind of a stupid move) into Gigan's power-saw stomach. Having seen the film dozens of times as a kid and an adult, I can see where both special effects men were coming from. It was terrifying to see Godzilla bleed when I was a youngster, my mind immediately drawing the conclusion that he was going to be killed since nothing else had made him bleed in the past. Now, older & wiser, I find it simply imbues the film with extra tension that hadn't been employed before. There's a dreadful sense that Godzilla & Anguirus might be defeated by these cosmic scoundrels, though in the back of our minds we all know nothing is taking Godzilla down.

This would be the final time that legendary actor Haruo Nakajima donned the Godzilla suit. He had been toiling away under every iteration of the suit since its inception, masterfully perfecting his craft to add a sense of graceful power to Godzilla's movements. The end of his tenure marked almost 20 years of embodying Japan's most famous monster.

Also making his final appearance: King Ghidorah, who would remain dormant on movie screens until his rebirth nearly 20 years later, in 1991, when he was once again pitted against Godzilla. 

Akira Ifukube "returned" to his scoring duties for this entry. "Returned" is in quotations because the entirety of his work is re-purposed from his efforts on other Toho films, not just pre-existing Godzilla tracks. Only the most eagle-eyed, hardcore fans would be able to tell, though, since Ifukube had a tendency to reprise his most common themes throughout the series, making it nearly impossible to know if a piece of music was new or old. Tanaka did state that he wanted this film to be a return to form for Godzilla, and using his trademark themes was a surefire way to see that happened.

Godzilla didn't continue his upwards ascent after this film as Tanaka had planned, because the next in the series is often considered one of the worst right alongside All Monsters Attack. Released the following year, Godzilla vs. Megalon is another entry that shoehorns Godzilla into a pre-existing story, uses stock footage, and is usually credited with the public's perception of Godzilla as a form of children's entertainment and nothing more. 

GODZILLA-THON #5 - Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)

 What's this? Another Godzilla film in 1964? Yep. King Kong can't be the only monster to get two films in one year (King Kong and it's sequel Son of Kong hit in '33... and they were stop-motion!). Toho, seeing flashes of dollar signs after King Kong vs. Godzilla proved to be a huge international success, jumped right into production on another entry in the Godzilla series after he finished battling Mothra just a few months earlier. This entry, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, would be significant for a number of reasons, featuring many firsts not seen in a Big G picture up until now. Chief among those would be the introduction of Ghidorah (renamed "Ghidrah" for U.S. audiences because...?), the eponymous flying dragon that would go on to become Godzilla's most formidable foe. In fact, Ghidorah proved to be so popular as a villain that he (it?) even appeared in non-Godzilla properties, such as Rebirth of Mothra (1996) and one of its sequels. This was also the first entry to feature Godzilla taking on multiple monsters, as he winds up fighting Rodan, larva Mothra, and King Ghidorah, though eventually everyone just decides to gang up on Ghidorah and beat his ass back into space. The entry was the first time use a central plot focused on aliens infiltrating Earth for nefarious, nebulous purposes. Alien races would go on to be used in numerous sequels in the series, being employed frequently right up through Toho's (currently) final Godzilla film, Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). And, as a minor first that would be capitalized upon later, Godzilla is less the villain and more an anti-hero who begrudgingly helps the Earth by teaming up to defeat Ghidorah. From here on out, virtually every film in the series would have Godzilla in this role, with only a few exceptions. These firsts weren't just important because they introduced characters and themes that would recur throughout the series' history; they also were the reason why many fans consider this film one of the best Toho produced during the Showa period.

Although the canon of the series got progressively more muddled as time went on, the early entries maintained a timeline that tended to follow each sequel respectfully. At the end of the last picture, Godzilla, having just been the target of a Mothra larva bukkake fest, was vanquished to the sea. Here, that exactly where he rises from before scuttling with Rodan and destroying an ocean liner. The human element to the plot focuses on a Martian (or Venusian, depending on which cut you're watching) princess who is the target of an assassination plot by men wearing garish mid-century outfits. The princess publicly makes bold predictions, correcting prophesying that Rodan would rise from a crater neat Mt. Aso, and Godzilla would rise from the sea. Oh, and there's also a last-minute mention of a cosmic creature named King Ghidorah that decimated her people on Mars and now he's landed on Earth in the form of a meteoric egg getting ready to hatch, oh, right about now.

The story for most Godzilla sequels is practically latent, since the real reason everyone watches these is for the monster porn. There have been at least a dozen highly memorable allies and villains across G's long career, and this film puts together some of the top talent by including fan favorites Rodan (whose name is actually Radon, a contraction of pteranodon) and Mothra - both of which had solo outings years prior - along with King Ghidorah, a then-new kaiju that quickly rose up the ranks to be the fans' favorite adversary for all benevolent monsters. As usual, the action is sporadic until the film has around 15 minutes left, at which point it becomes a full-on kaiju slugfest with Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra (in larva stage) teamed up to pummel Ghidorah. Shockingly, the only time Godzilla ever uses his atomic breath is during a skirmish with Rodan, never on Ghidorah. Instead, he just chucks a lot of rocks at him. Come to think of it, he does that to Rodan, too. And he did it to Mothra in the last film. The guy has atomic breath that can fuck everything in its path up... and he throws rocks. Still, there's really nothing more enjoyable (to me) than watching all these glorious Golden Age characters, brought to life by men in suits, duking it out.

As usual, changes were made to the existing Godzilla suit, dubbed Mosugoji by fans, though this time around they were relatively minor, leading to this new suit to be dubbed Mosugoji II. The head piece had become damaged during the last film, meaning effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya had to reinforce the mouth and rebuild the sculpt a bit. The result is on-par with Mothra vs. Godzilla in terms of quality, delivering one of the best looks G has ever enjoyed. As a point of trivia, there is one scene where the old suit is used: just as Godzilla makes his entrance from the depths of the ocean. Toho preferred to use older suits for any water or effects shots, when possible, so the old suit makes a quick (and literal) pop-up before being retired for the new one.

The version of this film I grew up watching as a kid was, unsurprisingly, the American edit. If you bought it on VHS back in the '80s, that was all you had available to watch. And do you think a 6-year-old kid knew, or cared, either way? Exactly. Plus, despite the fact that AIP butchered Akira Ifukube's score, removing nearly all of it from their version of the picture, they did a fair amount of judicious editing by removing some of the subplot material. Subplot meaning anything not featuring Godzilla. The resulting version runs around eight minutes shorter than Toho's cut, which, really, is the best version to watch. Also, I can't confirm it now but it sounds like they used a newer dub for the English cut, and not an old AIP dub track that at least holds some kitsch factor. New dubs sound like shit on these old films. Classic Media's DVD contains both versions of the film, and unsurprisingly the Japanese edit not only looks and sounds better, but you're getting the full picture to boot.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster went on to become one of the most lauded entries in the series, even garnering a few accolades from American critics, who are never an easy sell with these movies. Godzilla had begun his turn to defender of the Earth and... :shudder:... friend to children everywhere. Eiji Tsuburaya said he enjoyed making these pictures so kids could enjoy them, a philosophy producer Tomoyuki Tanaka also favored, so it was bound to happen eventually. Not that he ever got too cuddly or anything, Godzilla's Revenge aside. But before the series was to move on to other foes for the Big G to conquer, there was still one more bout with Ghidorah on the table...