Kaiju Fri..er, Saturday: Terror of Mechagodzilla(1975)

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Plot Summary

Aliens from a dying galaxy plan to destroy our cities and build their new home on Earth. Their weapon is Mechagodzilla, a 400-foot-tall robot armed with powerful lasers and guided missiles. Only Godzilla is mighty enough to stop the colossal machine, but when Professor Mafune (Akihiko Hirata) joins the aliens, not even Godzilla will be able to defeat them. Mafune controls Titanosaurus, a gigantic amphibious dinosaur, through a biochemical connection with his cyborg daughter, Katsura. (Tomoko Ai) Godzilla is no match for Titanosaurus and Mechagodzilla together, but Interpol agents have discovered Titanosaurus' weakness, which may give Godzilla the fighting chance he needs to save the world!

It's been a while since i've done this and I admit to getting a bit burned out as the last few Godzilla movies have left something to be desired. It's clear that the writers were running out of things to do so Toho wisely decided to make this film the swan song for Godzilla for the foreseeable future. They brought back THE Godzilla director Ishiro Honda to helm this, his last Godzilla film. This would be a good decision because Honda gave us a more adult and at times dark film.

This was basically yet ANOTHER "Aliens out to conquer the world" plot but it serves almost as a direct sequel to the previous film as the aliens are from the same part of the galaxy and the head honcho is the same guy that played the head alien in the last film. The real draw to this movie for me was the theme dealing with humanity. This movie tackled the idea that humanity is not just flesh and blood but something more. In fact, the relationship/interplay between Katsura, her father and marine biologist Akira Ichinose (Katsuhiko Sasaki) is one that fuels this aspect of the film as Ichinose wants to finish the work of Katsura's father in the discovery of Titanosaurus but unknown to Ichinose (at first) is that Dr. Mafune has found a way to control Titanosaurus and is in working in league with the aliens and the rebuilt Mechagodzilla.

The father/daughter relationship is almost a twisted Astroboy/Professor Ochanomizu or Pinocchio/Geppetto analog as Mafune loves his daughter and he's had her help over the years in his research but she died at one point and the aliens just barge in his house (really it was surreal) take her away and turn her into a cyborg. She doesn't believe in her father's MUAHAHAHAHA "I wanna take revenge" philosophy her father espouses as he was drummed out of academia for wanting to control animals remotely. She tries to show him that Ichinose wants to continue the research and prove him right but Mafune is so deep in it with the aliens that he has to do what they say,

Katsura however sees the good in Ichinose and in people in general. In fact, she shows more humanity than everyone else in the film as even the Interpol agents working the case are a bit heartless. Ichinose somewhat inexplicably falls in love with her and by the end of the film he knows she's a cyborg but still loves her. Unfortunately her father and the aliens have used her brain to be the remote control for Mechagodzilla which leads to a poignant ending. I have to give lots of props to Tomoko Ai as her role could've easily have been butchered but she gives a soft hearted and tender performance when she's not influenced by the aliens. She does a good enough job in the scenes where she's being manipulated/controlled that you really buy that she's a cyborg.

This movie has one of the more darker endings as just about everyone of the bad guys actually die on screen and the heroes are the only ones left. As a sendoff to the first wave of Godzilla films this was pretty good. I liked the poking around at the idea that humanity is within the spirit of the being rather than the physical nature of it.   Mafune loved his daughter but his lust for vengeance ultimately cost him in many ways. At one point he asks for her forgiveness after the aliens have revived her from death a 2nd time and have implanted the remote control without her knowing.

So I give this a strong ** and thus closes the chapter on the first wave of Godzilla movies. I'll jump back into this in January when i'm sure i'll be re-invigorated by Godzilla 1984!