Kaiju Friday: The Return of Godzilla/Godzilla 1985

The Return of Godzilla/Godzilla 1985 (1984/5)


Plot Summary

A reporter named Maki (Ken Tanaka) investigates the disappearance of a ship. He finds the ship and discovers that all the hands have been killed by a giant sea louse except for one. The lone survivor, Okumura (Shin Takuma) then tells the reporter that the ship was attacked by Godzilla (Gojira). Fearing a panic, the Japanese government then takes the survivor into custody to keep him from revealing that Godzilla has returned. However, a Soviet nuclear submarine is destroyed and the situation puts them and the United States on the brink of nuclear war, until the Japanese decide to come clean and admit that it was Godzilla. Soon Japan and the rest of the world are on red alert as they wait for Godzilla to begin his rampage anew.

With the holidays firmly behind us we now continue on with the big Godzilla project. This was a reboot of the Godzilla series and essentially wipes the slate clean of all the other sequels and thus becomes the direct sequel to the original 1954 film. This does a lot to clean up the craziness that the Godzilla mythos had accrued over the years. So basically this is only the 2nd Godzilla monster to attack Japan in the 30 years between '54 and '84 which gives the movie a far more realistic and return to a darker, more mature take on the subject matter. This movie is essentially the '54 film with modern mid '80s sensibilities.

I really love the way the movie handles things from the political tension to the whole idea that Godzilla is a force of nature rather than something that's looked upon with a mix of fear and awe. The political aspect of the story really works as we see Tanaka rescuing Okumura only to see his story of a strange monster attacking the sea vessel being completely censored out because the government had issued a news blackout as they tackle on the idea that Godzilla is back for the first time in 3 decades. It's that touch of realism and cynicism that makes it all work. Tanaka of course finds a way to keep himself involved in the story as he first meets a prominent scientist in Dr. Hayashida (Yosuke Natsuke) and his assistant Naoko (Yasuko Sawaguchi) who just so happens to be Okumura's sister. Tanaka even uses her for his own ends as he reveals to her that her brother is still alive and is holed up in a police hospital. Of course she goes racing to see her brother and Tanaka stealthily follows along and has his photographer snap shots of brother and sister reuniting. This would be a sore point between Tanaka and the siblings but would be dwarfed by the incoming danger of Godzilla.

At this point no one in the world knows that Godzilla is back until the Big G attacks and destroys a Soviet nuclear sub and the Soviets blame the US putting the world on the brink of nuclear war. The Japanese have to come clean and now Japan faces a crisis in how to destroy Godzilla. The military comes up with the idea of the Super X flying fortress equipped with Cadium shells that would kill Godzilla meanwhile the US and Soviets bring in envoys and tries to convince the Japanese Prime Minister (played wonderfully by Keiju Kobayashi) to let them unleash a small nuclear weapon on Godzilla. This would set up some of my favorite none Godzilla moments of the film which i'll get into in a bit.

At the same time Hayashida, Tanaka and the Okumuras discover that Godzilla works on the principle of a homing beacon similar to how birds use internal radar so they build a short wave device which should be able to move Godzilla away from Japan.

Will the Cadium shells work? Would Japan really allow the US and Soviets to unleash nukes on mainland Japan? Would Hayashida's plan to move Godzilla to a volcano and entrap him work? You'll just have to find out though I may actually answer one of those questions :D

This movie has a very dark and bleak look to it which fits the horror of Godzilla descending upon the people and the SFX are pretty good for the period. This was the transitional phase in SFX where you still had charming practical effects and the beginning of using computers/robotics etc etc to make things more "realistic". Godzilla is now an 80 meter tall behemoth compared to the 50 meter tall original and seeing him walking and rampaging through the cities of Japan is just a glorious sight. The initial military attack on Godzilla at Tokyo Bay is done excellently with missiles blasting him and jets shooting at him as well. We even get a view of pilots in the jets shooting at him which adds a human element to the attack.

This isn't the most action packed Godzilla movie but it's one that has something else going for it. The Cold War politics is strong in this one. As I mentioned the US and Soviets try to get the Prime Minister to allow nukes to kill Godzilla. The backroom cabinet meetings between the Prime Minister and his advisors have a sense of urgency as we see all sides of the debate being hashed out while the Prime Minister looks on pensively. He doesn't want to allow nukes mainly because it would involve bending the principles of Japan being a non nuclear nation and the fact that it isn't known for sure if the nukes could kill Godzilla in the first place.

Keiju Kobayashi gives the Prime Minister the look and feel of a man who has the weight of the world on his shoulders as he desperately wants to do the right thing but not at the expense of throwing away Japan's moral stand against nukes. The only thing that would make this better would've been a scene between the Prime Minister and the Emperor discussing the crisis. Even after declaring that no nukes would be used a nuke from space is accidentally shot off. I would love to tell you about the difference in how that's portrayed in the US version as opposed to the Japanese but I think that'd be telling too much. Let's just say that Cold War politics extended beyond the fictional world of this film and into the real world.

As for the other actors in the movie? I thought they were all pretty credible. Hayashida is presented as a cool and rational man who used to want to destroy Godzilla but his plan is merely to trap Godzilla in the volcano where he came from rather than outright killing the creature. Tanaka is pretty much a paint by numbers kind of guy while Okumura and his sister are pretty blah. Even the love story aspect is pretty pedestrian in this one as the movie is clearly more plot oriented than character driven.

There is a cute bit in this movie with a homeless vagrant who first raids an empty restaurant and yells at Godzilla when he approaches. The same vagrant ends up helping Tanaka and Naoko when they've been trapped in the Dr's lab and again the guy has a funny moment afterwards.

All in all this was an excellent reintroduction of Godzilla to movie goers old and new. The darker and more mature take on the subject matter was very badly needed after some of the more goofy stuff in the '70s. Hell, Toho really upped the budget and went all out with this one as it really has a strong cinematic quality to it.

I give this *** stars.