Review of “Godzilla” (1954) and “Godzilla King of the Monsters” (1956)

I. Godzilla (1954)

In 1954, a Japanese film appeared with a monster named Gojira—Angelized as Godzilla—that terrorized people near the (fictional) island of Odo near the Japanese coast, destroying ships before taking on Tokyo. Survivors describe their disasters: “It was like the sea exploded.”

The people of Odo Island see their fishing nets come back empty. The elders say Godzilla is eating the catch, though younger people laugh at such tales.

A traditional dance takes place. An elder says that in the old days, when the fish disappeared, they would put a young girl on a raft for Godzilla.

ICK.

That night, a storm hits and wreaks terrible damage, more than one would expect from a storm. Something moves out there.

And viewers get their first glimpse of a huge dinosaur-like tail in the dark disappearing around a corner.

After the islanders apply to the authorities for disaster relief, a research team arrives from the mainland: Professor Kyohei Yamane  (Takashi Shimura), his daughter Emiko Yamane (Momoko Kôchi), and Ogata (Akira Takarada), a Marine Salvage specialist with the Coast Guard, romantically attached to Emiko. This last bit is a wrinkle for her fiancé, the research scientist Dr. Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata), to whom she has been engaged since she was a child.

Um, ICK.

Serizawa saw the party off at the dock. He wears an eyepatch—a war wound—but even with one eye, he sees what’s going on with Emiko and Ogata. Mrs. Serizawa didn’t raise no fool.

On the island, they find footprints big enough for humans to stand in. Their Geiger counters go nuts.  Godzilla puts in an appears, poking his head over a hilltop the islanders have fled to.

In Tokyo, there is discussion: how do the people prepare for Godzilla’s arrival? Soon, the old lizard himself emerges from Tokyo Bay, ripping through the defenses, stomping on trains, smashing buildings, and sending people running.

Dr. Serizawa has developed a terrible weapon that can be used to defeat Godzilla, but he is reluctant to do so. What if it falls into the wrong hands? Dr. Yamane, on the other hand, wants to study Godzilla. What makes him immune to radiation?

For a monster flick, the themes are surprisingly profound, and the ending poignant. The monster is something humans have been able to live with more or less but supercharged with the blasts of nuclear experimentation, it can now ravage whole cities. And the cure may prove worse than the disease.

II. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956)

The anti-nuke message of the original Gojira was deemed too strong for an American audience in 1956, so it was toned down. Much of it was cut, and a Western actor, Raymond Burr (before he took up law), was added to the film, playing the part of journalist Steve Martin who happens to be in Tokyo at the time of Godzilla’s attacks.

Instead of the attack on the Japanese freighter, the movie opens with scenes of destruction in Tokyo and Martin recovering enough to stumble to a hospital, where he meets Emiko Yamane. He travels with her and her father to Odo Island, sleeping in a tent when the storm and Godzilla hit.

He spends a lot of the movie observing things, often against backgrounds different from the rest of the actors. For example, in the scene where the Yamanes and Ogata depart for Odo Island, everyone stands at the ship’s railing, waving to those on the dock—everyone except Steve Martin, who stands in front of what might be a white bulkhead by himself, observing.

The damage to the village on Odo Island and the destruction of Tokyo still figure large in this movie, as do the love triangle and the poignant ending. Both feature Japanese high school girls singing “A Prayer for Peace.”

The American version is still a powerful movie, but it lacks some of the wrinkles of the Japanese version. For example, Professor Yamane’s wish to study rather than kill Godzilla does not appear in the American version that I could see. American audiences at the time were probably also unaware of the 1954 tragedy of the tuna-fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), whose crew was exposed to fallout from an unexpectedly large blast from the Bikini Atoll experiments (Castle Bravo). The scenes depicting a blinding light and a churning ocean would recall the incident to 1950s Japanese.

While the dubbing in the American version is great, there are passages of Japanese spoken by minor characters that remain untranslated. For example, while Godzilla makes mincemeat out of Tokyo, there is a shot of a woman crouching, holding her small children close. What she says to them is not translated. In the Japanese version, the subtitles read, “It’s okay, children. We’ll be with Daddy soon.”

Which movie is “better”? Hard to say. But certainly, the Japanese version has elements the American version left out. I enjoyed both of them. I enjoyed watching Raymond Burr observe stuff. Yet the Japanese version offered more food for thought.