Return of the King: Celebrating Godzilla’s Triumphant Return - Part 2

It occurs to me that amongst fans, I may have something of a rather divisive opinion regarding certain eras of Godzilla's history. To any of my fellow kaiju fans, know that I have a healthy love and respect for Godzilla as an entity both at his highs and his lows.

All comments and discussions regarding disagreements are welcome. Just know that the opinions that I hold are opinions that I hold solidly and I will happily discuss disagreements, if I am approached to do so respectfully. I respect anyone's right to enjoy or dislike whatever entries they so choose that I may not necessarily agree upon.

Just remember, any reactions I give will carry the same amount of respect the question itself shows me.

Godzilla vs. Mothra

As previously mentioned, “Mothra vs. Godzilla” is the first movie of the series to have a more substantial story than military scientists serving as spectators to big brawling beasts.

Shifting away from the excuse plots for special effects at the center stage of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” and “Godzilla Raids Again” provided the building blocks for a more meaningful setting that allowed for the deeper exploration of “Gojira’s” central themes of man’s weakness in the face of nature, which would be expounded upon in future films of the franchise and even become a mainstay element of the Kaiju genre throughout its Heisei (Mid 1980s-Late 90s) and Millenium (Post 2000) incarnations.

This was accomplished through necessity of the film’s premise. Unlike “King Kong vs. Godzilla’s” loose play with the fairly isolated mythology of King Kong, “Mothra” had a little bit too much backstory to simply brush over and ignore, making the need for a single mythology blending cohesive continuity essential.

“Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster” is of course wear the fruits of this film’s labor were wonderfully reaped but “Mothra vs. Godzilla” also bestowed upon the series an additional layer of complexity to the portrayal of its kaiju.

If Godzilla represented the wrath of nature, brought about by the man’s arrogance in his belief that he was the master of the Earth and not the other way around, then Mothra was clearly conceived of as the opposite; a benevolent creature whose very presence is intended to represent the best of mankind.

As later film’s would demonstrate, she is very clearly not above staying out of the fight in order to teach humanity a lesson whenever it steps out of line but overall, Mothra represents the first time a kaiju existed sheerly to defend us; the earth’s gift to humanity in exchange for striving to do better and a monster that changed mankind’s dynamic with monsters. Mothra was not a feared bringer of destruction and lamentation caused but rather an inspiration, revered for her selfless bravery and willingness to take on Godzilla despite being unmatched at no personal gain to herself.

 

Additionally, the movie gloriously reminds the audience of the awe inspiring nature of kaiju by selling a particular aspect of the giant monster premise that had begun to fall to the way side. That aspect being that giant monsters are, well, giants.

What kaiju see.

What you would see.

To this day, few moments of the series, in an attempt to convey the weight and power of skyscraper sized creatures, have rarely topped the sequence of two men fighting over a sum of cash, while Godzilla ominously approaches and effortlessly crushes the building, from the sole occupant’s perspective. It is a moment so chillingly effective that it nearly transcends the outdated and lower budget production values put into it.

Shifting gears from the “lesser of two evils” mentality of previous sequels, the morality of “Mothra vs. Godzilla” paved way for more unique monsters driven by more seemingly personal motivations which in turn offered more storytelling opportunities that would ultimately remind audiences and fans of what made the original film so great long after the remainder of the Showa era petered out due to increasingly lower budget box office duds.

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla/Godzilla Tokyo SOS

The new millennium brought with it a new age for tokusatsu (Japanese special effect driven live action drama) and as a result a new age for kaiju and subsequently, the Godzilla franchise. With CGI becoming more mainstream, reducing the cost of visual effects and production values increasing with the advent of DVD and the eventual rise of high definition, the future prospects for this franchise looked pretty bright.

Unfortunately the actual results were… less than spectacular.

Hastily started with the release of “Godzilla 2000” by Toho as a means of countering the negative reception of the Tri-Star American Godzilla film directed by Roland Emmerich, the Millennium era proved to be better outings than the 1997 film but not by much. With limp writing bogged down with an overreliance on soulless and mindlessly dull blockbuster action, the Millennium era did little to restore box office faith in the big G and after several box office disappointments, the series was forced into retirement in 2004, without much of a legacy to present to the modern day. Except for these two.

Usually, I find featuring two films in a single instance to be a copout but in this case, it was simply unavoidable. “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla” and “Godzilla: Tokyo SOS” are not only the only entries of the Millennium era that share direct continuity with one another but are practically companion pieces and the only worthwhile films of their era that show what modern technology and production values could do in order to bolster the genre’s storytelling.

A recurring theme of Godzilla and kaiju movies as a whole to an extent is that the giant monsters are more or less forces of nature given physical form as a means of demonstrating the weakness of humanity in the face of the Earth’s elements despite technology making us arrogantly believe otherwise.

For decades, the franchise has demonstrated this by throwing countless amounts of military at an antagonistic Godzilla as cannon fodder, not to be even remotely thought about as the presence of the monsters have provided for more pressing matters to attend to.  Finally, after a 48 year history, the series received a cold and intense deconstruction from the military’s perspective in the form of “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla,” the franchise’s fourth entry to follow the King’s mechanical counterpart.

Through following the point of view of the PTSD struggling Lieutenant Akane (played by the lovely and talented Yumiko Shaku), the audience is presented with the perspective of armed forces that have to worry not about fighting each other but rather an enemy that has thus far proven all but unstoppable.

The military, often portrayed within the series as a tool for hubris was now humanized into a point of pride, offering something of a darker look on previous entries of the series if you keep in mind that the intense thrashing that the film opens up on, is ultimately considered routine in this world.

“Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla” is a gripping ride and an excellent reminder of how well Kaiju concept can work even when taken seriously in the modern age. Despite sharing a similar level of high quality however, its sister entry “Godzilla: Tokyo SOS,” opts to explore the franchise from the tonally opposite of the spectrum.

Suddenly the threat of men in rubber suits becomes a lot more convincing, doesn't it?

It’s been theorized that the primary purpose of deconstruction is to study the parts of something in order to gain a greater understanding of how it works in hopes of reconstructing it into something even better. I’m not entirely sure if this applies to all of fiction but director Masaaki Tezuka clearly had to have had this in mind when making “Tokyo SOS.”

The grim and tense atmosphere of “Against Mechagodzilla” is replaced with a more idealistic tone that celebrates a variety of kaiju stories and subject matters by expanding the setting beyond the focus of Godzilla and tying into several other Toho creations, including “Space Amoeba,” “War of the Gargantuas,” and, of course, “Mothra.”

A science team studying the corpse of the "Space Amoeba" monster, Kamoebas, allegedly murdered by Godzilla

Where “Against Mechagodzilla” focused intensely on humanizing the military in humanity’s conflict with the kaiju, “Tokyo SOS” is the only entry of the Millennium era that successfully places an effort on world building. The movie does not back down from embracing the Showa era silliness and spirituality that has given the franchise its more ludicrous reputation. However, it does so with an eye that manages to create a context for it offering storytelling that is so compelling, you just may find yourself playing along with it rather than laughing at it.

As the direct sequel to “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla,” “Tokyo SOS’” shared interpretation of Mechagodzilla is that of a tool devised of by humanity in order to fight other kaiju, using state of the art technology and molded around the skeleton of the original Godzilla that attacked Japan in 1954.

Such a concept may seem preposterous, outright contrived even. The film itself even makes no attempt to justify why directly utilizing said creatures skeleton was a good idea. Why should you not care about the ridiculous nature of such a plot thread? Because the conundrum’s it brings up forces its audience to ask questions about the series that had never really been raised before.

Mothra’s disapproval of humanity’s disrespect for the dead by cybernetically enhancing the dead Godzilla’s remains sees her threatening to refuse future aid to mankind. It also makes the crew running Mechagodzilla think twice about the work that they’re doing. Is the pilot comfortable with serving as the pilot of a creature with a vengeful spirit? Does the mechanic actually want to work on him any more knowing that he’s disrespecting a departed soul? Does the original Godzilla’s spiritual unrest explain the numerous unexplained “mechanical” problems that Mechagodzilla has been having? If Mechagodzilla is scrapped, will Mothra be sufficient enough to defend Japan against the current Godzilla when he recovers and returns?

The evolution of the Showa era’s wacky antics may have served as a distraction when they seemingly came out of nowhere but the exploration of some form of literal spirituality amongst the kaiju made for a fascinating and even emotional study of whether or not these creatures are any different from us despite their unique shapes and sizes.

In exploring and humanizing both sides of conflict back to back, “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla” and “Godzilla: Tokyo SOS” made for a fairly impressive introspective look at the franchise using its best tropes both old and new alike at a time when this franchise was struggling to prove its continued worth and when special effect driven dramas in Japanese Cinema were slowly going the way of lazy popcorn fluff.

They prove themselves as two of the few entries in the Millennium era worthy of their legacy and stand among the best that the franchise has to offer, as well good studies for America to look at should the future of kaiju in the West remain so bright. 

Next time in Part 3...

The Rise of the Heisei era