Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Yemani soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Hideto Ogata: Akira Takarada
- Emiko Yamane: Momoko Kôchi
- Daisuke Serizawa: Akihiko Hirata
- Kyohei Yamane: Takashi Shimura
- Professor Tanabe: Fuyuki Murakami
- Newspaper Reporter Hagiwara: Sachio Sakai
- Masaji Yamada: Ren Yamamoto
- Shinkichi Yamada: Toyoaki Suzuki
- President of Company: Toranosuke Ogawa
- Chairman of Diet Committee: Hiroshi Hayashi
- Parliamentarian Oyama: Seijirô Onda
- Ozawa-san: Kin Sugai
- Godzilla: Haruo Nakajima
- Mrs. Yamada: Tsuruko Mano
- The Old Fisherman (uncredited): Kokuten Kōdō
- Prof. Tababe’s Assistant (uncredited): Tadashi Okabe
- Employee of Nankai Salvage Company (uncredited): Jirô Mitsuaki
- Radio Operator (uncredited): Ren Imaizumi
- Chief of Maritime Safety Agency (uncredited): Sôkichi Maki
- Young Lover on Ship (uncredited): Kenji Sahara
- Soldier (uncredited): Yasuhisa Tsutsumi
- Chief of Emergency Headquarters (uncredited): Takeo Oikawa
- Power Station Engineer (uncredited): Junpei Natsuki
- Godzilla: Katsumi Tezuka
- News Reporter (uncredited): Saburô Iketani
- Woman with Children (uncredited): Shizuko Azuma
- Partygoer (uncredited): Shizuko Higashi
- Partygoer’s Escort (uncredited): Kiyoshi Kamata
- Mayor Inada (uncredited): Keiji Sakakida
- Mother (uncredited): Tamae Sengo
Film Crew:
- Author: Ishirō Honda
- Director of Photography: Masao Tamai
- Editor: Kazuji Taira
- Story: Eiji Tsuburaya
- Screenplay: Takeo Murata
- Story: Tomoyuki Tanaka
- Art Direction: Takeo Kita
- Original Music Composer: Akira Ifukube
- Visual Effects: Fuminori Ôhashi
- Lyricist: Shigeru Kayama
- Art Direction: Satoru Chûko
- Sound Recordist: Hisashi Shimonaga
- Sound Recordist: Norio Tone
- Visual Effects: Hiroshi Mukoyama
- Sound Effects Editor: Ichirô Minawa
- Costume Designer: Teizô Toshimitsu
- Visual Effects: Sadao Iizuka
- Executive Producer: Iwao Mori
Movie Reviews:
- John Chard: The big political atomic lizard is cheesed off!
After H bomb testing in the pacific, ships start to go missing and a remote island is apparently under attack from a prehistoric monster. Japanese scientists hasten to find out just what is going on, what they find is Gojira, and he is mightily hell bent on destruction…next stop Tokyo.
Gojira is such an influential film, it has spawned many sequels, remakes, copyists, and numerous homages, and of course there is two versions of this film for the viewer to choose from. The American version is a decent enough watch, it has integrated Raymond Burr into this original versions plot, and although it’s unintentionally funny at times, it holds up pretty well as a no brainer piece of fluff. But it fails to compare to this original Ishirô Honda classic because this has a wonderful ambiance of fear at its heart, coming some 10 years after the Hiroshima bomb, the Japanese audiences of the time would surely have noted the heavy aura of destruction seaming through the picture.
Watching it today, now that it’s restored in all its original glory, is still a memorable and exhilarating experience, the build up is perfect, we are practically on the edge of our seats waiting to glimpse the giant atomic creature, and when he/it/she shows up for the first time, it gives us a truly memorable classic piece of cinema. Sadly the film is hampered a touch by a meandering romantic sub-plot, but the performances (notably Takeshi Shimura) are very engaging, while Akira Ifkube’s score is poignantly perfect.
As man in a rubber suit movies go, Gojira has no peers, it’s smart, fun, and above all else, memorable. 8/10