A ship explodes and sinks near the coast of Japan. Soon more mysterious catastrophes occur. Navy officer Ogata gets involved in the cases surrounding these incidents. Meanwhile a village on Odo island near Japan is attacked at night during a rainstorm by a mysterious, giant creature. One of the elders tells a scary story from his youth about "Gojira", a giant, horrible monster from the seas. Then scientists, led by Dr. Yamane, arrive in the village to investigate what happened. Based on Dr. Yamane's discoverings, Japanese media start to report about the giant monster. Dr. Yamane and Ogata, who is in love with Emiko, Yamane's daughter, watch in horror as Gojira/Godzilla appears in mainland Japan and attacks Tokyo. Every measure taken by scientists and the army fails, as the giant, dinosaur-like creature attacks Japan's largest city two times, destroying everything with his radioactive breath. Yes, Gojira is the consequence of the A-bombs that hit Japan during the recent war, come back to life because of them. When the monster leaves the burning city, panic and tragedy is everywhere, the hospitals are filled with wounded and dying people and crying children. Hopelessness once again fills people's heart, and shocked Emiko breaks a promise: She tells Ogata of her cousin, scientist Daisuke Serizawa (who loves Emiko too), and his well-protected secret. It's called the oxygen-destroyer, and it is the most horrible weapon ever created by mankind. Now it's the last and only hope against Godzilla, and it's use will seal Dr. Serizawa's fate...
So goes the story of "Gojira", one of the two greatest classics of Japanese cinema (the other being "Shichinin no samurai", made the same year by the same film studios and even featuring some of the same actors - like Takashi Shimura). There are still some people thinking of this as a "B" movie - they are as wrong as one can be. Made by Tôhô Eiga Company, Japan's largest movie company, that had to stop two other big projects in order to finish work on "Gojira", it became the most expensive Asian movie ever made at the time of it's release, costing 62'893'455 Yen. Back then, this was around US-$ 1'000'000. Surrounded by a tragic case in which a fisherman died because of radioactivity, the film became a gigantic success in Japan (and later in the US, too). Otherwise, Tôhô studios would have collapsed because of the film's costs, if it's true what I heard. Fortunately, this never happened! Instead, it became one of the most popular Japanese films ever, and rightly so, because the film is a timeless masterpiece. Cut to shreds in every version seen outside of Japan, this refers to the original Japanese version only!! The Americanized version is one of the worst: Removing half of the original footage, it includes senseless new scenes (shot in one day!) and still runs 16 mins shorter than the original version at 96 mins.! But the original film, being one of the most anti-American movies ever made with it's metaphoric message, was impossible to release in the USA... The one and only version to see is the Japanese one. It's, without a doubt, one of the best SF/horror films ever.
So goes the story of "Gojira", one of the two greatest classics of Japanese cinema (the other being "Shichinin no samurai", made the same year by the same film studios and even featuring some of the same actors - like Takashi Shimura). There are still some people thinking of this as a "B" movie - they are as wrong as one can be. Made by Tôhô Eiga Company, Japan's largest movie company, that had to stop two other big projects in order to finish work on "Gojira", it became the most expensive Asian movie ever made at the time of it's release, costing 62'893'455 Yen. Back then, this was around US-$ 1'000'000. Surrounded by a tragic case in which a fisherman died because of radioactivity, the film became a gigantic success in Japan (and later in the US, too). Otherwise, Tôhô studios would have collapsed because of the film's costs, if it's true what I heard. Fortunately, this never happened! Instead, it became one of the most popular Japanese films ever, and rightly so, because the film is a timeless masterpiece. Cut to shreds in every version seen outside of Japan, this refers to the original Japanese version only!! The Americanized version is one of the worst: Removing half of the original footage, it includes senseless new scenes (shot in one day!) and still runs 16 mins shorter than the original version at 96 mins.! But the original film, being one of the most anti-American movies ever made with it's metaphoric message, was impossible to release in the USA... The one and only version to see is the Japanese one. It's, without a doubt, one of the best SF/horror films ever.