Gojira (1984)

Directors:

Koji Hashimoto
R.J. Kizer

Writers:

Shuichi Nagahara (writer)
Tomoyuki Tanaka (story)

Release Date:

23 August 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Your favorite fire-breathing monster... Like you've never seen him before!

Plot:

Thirty years after the original monster's rampage, a new Godzilla emerges and attacks Japan.

Plot Keywords:

Kaiju | Giant Monster | Godzilla | Sequel | Remake

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Ken Tanaka	...	Goro Maki
Yasuko Sawaguchi	...	Naoko Okumura
Yosuke Natsuki	...	Dr. Hayashida
Keiju Kobayashi	...	Prime Minister Mitamura
Shin Takuma	...	Hiroshi Okumura
Eitarô Ozawa	...	Finance Minister Kanzaki
Taketoshi Naitô	...	Takegami, Chief Cabinet Secretary
Mizuho Suzuki	...	Foreign Minister Emori
Junkichi Orimoto	...	Director-General of the Defense Agency
Hiroshi Koizumi	...	Geologist Minami
Kei Sato	...	Chief Editor Gondo
Takenori Emoto	...	Desk Editor Kitagawa
Sho Hashimoto	...	Captain of Super X
Nobuo Kaneko	...	Home Affairs Minister Isomura
Kunio Murai	...	Secretary Henmi

Also Known As:

Godzilla (International: English title)
Godzilla 1985: The Legend Is Reborn (USA)
Godzilla: 1985 (USA) (closing credits title)
The Return of Godzilla

Runtime:

Germany:82 min | Japan:103 min | USA:87 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Russian | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-11 (DVD) | Finland:K-14 | Australia:PG | Spain:13 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Actor Akihiko Hirata, who portrayed Dr. Serizawa in the first Godzilla feature was supposed to have a role in the new update. Unfortunately he had succumbed to throat cancer just before filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Godzilla picks up the train car he lifts it up to his eye so he can look inside. When the camera cuts back to a full body view, he is holding it at waist level (US version only).

Quotes:

[US version]
Steve Martin: Nature has a way sometimes of reminding Man of just how small he is. She occasionally throws up terrible offspring's of our pride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in the face of a tornado, an earthquake, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of Man are often dwarfed by their dangerous consequences...

Movie Connections:

References Ghost Busters (1984)

"Godzilla 1985"

I may be one of few, if only, people to say I actually liked "Godzilla 1985," the first in the second generation of kaiju-eiga films that began after a 10-year hiatus, since the last Toho-backed "Godzilla" effort "Terror of Mechagodzilla" (1975), which concluded the first generation of movies.

Godzilla is the most popular movie monster from the East and I've been watching these films since I was five. Of course, in "Godzilla 1985" (which is 1984 in Japan time), Godzilla returns to his old stomping grounds of Tokyo. He first attacks a fishing boat and kills everyone on-board except one, then a Soviet submarine, a nuclear reactor (which is where we see the glorious Big Guy for the first time), and finally has his eyes set on Tokyo. What hinders this film big time, especially in the American version, are the ugly Cold War-era politics that played into many of the film's changes in order to accommodate polarized audiences in the United States. Russians are portrayed as being inherently evil and the Japanese are shown as being weak and totally dependent on America. But by making America the hero in this picture, Americans are shown as being quite pigheaded and arrogant, with the exception of Raymond Burr, who also appeared in the American version of the original "Godzilla" (1954). (So it looks like the American producers really screwed themselves big time with this transition.) This seriously makes the movie dated and draws attention from away from the stronger, more relevant issues the original Japanese screenwriters had envisioned. On the plus side, Toho created a rather terrifying and truly menacing Godzilla, whose presence is made all the more frightening by those blood-red eyes and thunderous roar of his. This Godzilla is the embodiment of true screen menace, in a return-to-form from the previous incarnation in the '70s. Even though he is the villain in this picture, one could shed a tear at the film's ending (which you wouldn't need to do if you care to watch the superior 1989 sequel "Godzilla vs. Biollante"). The special effects are magnificent, though dated; one of my particular favorite sequences is Godzilla's showdown with the Super X attack fighter and his attack on the nuclear reactor.

I'd recommend this entry only if you're a die-hard kaiju-eiga fan; if not, you should probably skip this one and go straight to "Godzilla vs. Biollante," which is my personal favorite "Godzilla" film from the second generation. But it's a shame that "Godzilla 1985" was ruined by American intrusion in its transfer from Japan to the U.S.

5/10