I’ve been on a huge Godzilla kick this weekend for whatever reason. I bought a Showa-era box set and found a couple Heisei-era films on obscure streaming services. I really didn’t have much familiarity with the Heisei series at all; the Showa films were the ones that were always on TV when I was growing up and until now I’d never had much desire to explore the franchise further. I’m definitely going to be taking a look at more of the Heisei stuff now, though. They’re so delightfully weird but played completely straight. Anyway, the ones I’ve watched the last few days are:
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, 1956 (American edit of Gojira) - This one is indisputably inferior to the original Japanese version, but it’s far from the unwatchable travesty a lot of people make it out to be. The addition of the Raymond Burr scenes is clumsy and unnecessary, but strange enough to be kind of interesting.
Mothra vs. Godzilla, 1964 (Japanese version) - This was my favorite as a kid and it holds up as well as can be expected. The score leans a little too heavily on the Godzilla theme from earlier movies, but the original material is great. The whole business with the fairy twins adds some cool mythology and really opens up the world more than any of the previous films had. Also, I think this might be Godzilla’s last appearance as a villain until the Heisei series.
Godzilla 1985, 1985 (American edit of The Return of Godzilla) - The first film in the Heisei series, this is one of the few from that era that I saw as a child, and even then it struck me as bizarre that the Japanese characters were dubbed but the Russians were subtitled. This one was recut for its US release just like the original; an Orson Welles-looking Raymond Burr even came back for additional scenes. The design and effects here have a cool look and the pacing’s a little better than many of the Showa movies, but in terms of story it’s exactly the same as every other Godzilla reboot. I can’t blame it for that since this is the first, but it had an effect on my enjoyment nonetheless.
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, 1993 (Japanese version) - This is a weird one. One of the protagonists’ only real character trait is that he’s super into pteranodons, another character is recruited from what seems to be a telekinesis and telepathy school, which is portrayed as a totally normal thing, a group of schoolgirls sing creepy choral music to a baby Godzillasaurus for no real reason, etc. Real 1990s Japan stuff. But hey, Rodan was in this one, so thumbs up.
I might fire up Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster later tonight. One thing about this box set that’s kind of disappointing is that only the Japanese cuts seem to be restored; the American versions I’ve looked at so far all had abysmal transfers. These are probably the only movies in the world I’d prefer to watch dubbed, mostly for nostalgia purposes. I’m considering taking a crack at recutting the footage from the Japanese versions to match the American soundtracks.
