Gojira (1954)

American nuclear weapons testing results in the creation of a seemingly unstoppable, dinosaur-like beast.

Gojira is a 1954 Japanese science fiction kaiju film featuring Godzilla, produced and distributed by Toho. It is the first film in the Godzilla franchise and the first film in the Showa series. The film is directed by Ishirō Honda, with a screenplay by Honda, Takeo Murata, and Shigeru Kayama and stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as the performers for Godzilla. Nakajima would go on to portray the character until his retirement in 1972.

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships explode and are sunk. At first, the authorities think its either underwater mines or underwater volcanic activity. The authorities soon head to Odo Island, close to where several of the ships were sunk. One night, something comes onshore and destroys several houses and kills several people. A later expedition to the island led by paleontologist Professor Kyôhei Yamane, his daughter Emiko, and young navy frogman Hideto Ogata (who also happens to be Emiko's lover, even though she is betrothed to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa) soon discover something more devastating than imagined in the form of a 164-foot-tall (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. Can the monster be destroyed before it is too late, and what role will the mysterious Serizawa play in the battle?

The original, Japanese version of "Gojira" is the best giant monster film I've ever seen. Some fans get carried away and call it one of the best movies ever made; I wouldn't go quite that far, but it's damn good. This film is quite different from the 20+ sequels that followed. Here, Godzilla is not so much a creature as he is a walking incarnation of the atomic bomb. His death ray, which became a rather amusing cartoon laser blast in later films, is here depicted as a sort of radioactive mist that sets its victims on fire. These "radioactive horror" images still resonate today - and imagine the impact they must've had on Japanese audiences fifty years ago.

The music by Akira Ifukube is memorable. From his stirring main title music, to Godzilla's destructive, ponderous theme music, to the poignant ending. Again, Ifukube's work for this film sets the standard for his work in the fantasy film genre.

The love triangle between the character leads blends in very well with the monster plot. Godzilla, making his first attack on Tokyo, created haunting scenes of death and destruction and poignant moments of dismalness in the aftermath of his wake. A compelling story by Shigeru Kayama, marvelous screenplay by Takeo Murata and superb special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Actors Takeshi Shimura, Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi and Akihiko Hirata gave outstanding performances. And, Haruo Nakajima, Katsumi Tezuka and Ryosaku Takasugi did a terrific and realistic job on portraying Godzilla.

Just to make sure I clarify.  This is in reference to the original Japanese movie...not the edited version that was released in America with Raymond Burr. There's no comparison to the Japanese version. Plus I can't look at Raymond Burr and not think of the stories that he liked to lay under a glass table while his dates would shit on it.  Yeah you read that correctly. 

Director of special effects for this movie Eiji Tsuburaya, (he was the first of his kind in Japan) once commented in an interview that ever since he saw King Kong, he wanted to make a movie just like it. He got his chance in this movie made 20 years later. Tsuburaya commented on the hardship he encountered when he tried to make the first Godzilla suit when right kinds of foam and rubber materials were not yet abundantly available in Japan at the time. He mentioned that he even used concrete to make part of the suit. Eiji Tsuburaya is also the inventor of the blue screen technique which later evolved into today's green screen technique. Modern movie owes Tsuburaya a lot for his pioneering works. Many people mistakenly credit Inoshiro Honda for the fantastic action scenes in this movie but it was Tsuburaya who did the work. Tsuburaya later went on to invent other characters such as "Rodan" and the original "Ultraman" series which is still popular today

"Gojira" is no doubt Toho's greatest film and one of Honda's greatest masterpieces. With this film, the ultimate franchise was born, with three series, 28 films, and lasted 50 years. And hopefully with many more films to come.

Hi

Trivia:

During Godzilla's rampage through downtown Tokyo, one of the buildings he destroys is the Toho Theater. In fact, some fans who were watching the film in that theater actually thought the theater was being attacked and tried to run out of the theater.

The sound department tried numerous animal roars for Godzilla but felt they were unsuitable for an animal of such immense size. Akira Ifukube came up with Godzilla's roars by rubbing a coarse, resin-coated leather glove up and down the strings of a contrabass (double bass), and reverberated the recorded sound. Also, Godzilla's thunderous footsteps were made by beating a kettle drum with a knotted rope.

One of the most famous legends regarding the production of this film has Ishirô Hondaand Eiji Tsuburaya on the observation deck of what was then one of Tokyo's skyscrapers. They were planning Godzilla's path of destruction. Other visitors on the deck became concerned when portions of their conversation were overheard. The pair was stopped by authorities and questioned.

The electrical towers that Godzilla melts with his radioactive breath were actually made of wax. The special effects crew melted them by blowing hot air on them, as well as shining hot studio lights on them for the white-hot effect.

The Oxygen Destroyer

Because of the complexity of the production, the entire film was storyboarded. This is believed to be the very first time this was done for a Japanese film.

Was the most expensive Japanese movie ever made at the time of its release.

Stop motion animation in the style of King Kong (1933) was rejected because of the time it would take and the subsequent cost. Also, according to special effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya, there was simply no one in Japan who was skilled and experienced in doing that kind of stop motion animation.

SERIES TRADEMARK: In the Japanese version, right after Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura) makes his first appearance (at the conference for the Oto Island survivors), he is embarrassed to notice that his tie was loose, and tucks it back into his jacket. This scene, perhaps one of the film's only bits of comedy relief, has become a pop-culture reference to Godzilla fans in Japan. The film Godzilla 2000 (1999), pays tribute to this predicament when the character Shiro Miyasaka (played by Shirô Sano) straightens his loose tie back into his jacket at a military briefing.

The film received a Japanese Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, but lost to Seven Samurai (1954). However, the film did win the award for Best Visual Effects. It is the only Godzilla movie to receive a nomination for Best Picture.

Originally when Gojira (Godzilla) makes his first appearance, there was supposed to be a bloody cow in his mouth. After reviewing the test shots, Masao Tamai, the cinematographer, felt it was far too graphic and convinced director Ishirô Honda to re-film the sequence without the cow.

There was a common misconception that the name "Godzilla" was Americanized by its US distributors from Gojira. The name Godzilla was actually the idea of Tôhô and its international sales division. "Godzilla" or "Go-dzi-la" is the proper pronunciation of "Gojira" in its native Japanese and Godzilla (1954) was described by Tôhô as "Godzilla" in their 1955 English language sales catalogue, a full year before finding an American distributor. The film even played briefly in Japanese-American owned theaters in Los Angeles and New York that year under the title of "Godzilla", before being picked up by Transworld and released in an Americanized version featuring Raymond Burr that following year as Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956). Tôhô has since been the sole owners of the name Godzilla.

The name Gojira is a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira). The monster was so named because his original design was that of a gorilla-whale monster, which is recounted by people who worked on the film. 'Shigeru Kayama' (who was hired by Tomoyuki Tanaka to write the original story) recounted in a book of memoirs he published in Japan, that Tanaka told him the creature would be a sea monster that was "a cross between a whale and a gorilla". After producer Tanaka saw the American monster film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), he got the idea to turn Godzilla into a dinosaur monster. Despite the physical change the name of the monster was kept. There has always been a legend that Godzilla was named after a hulking man nicknamed Gorilla-Whale who worked at Tôhô, but this is untrue. Not only is there no evidence of this man even existing, but the various stories about him kept changing through the years (he worked as a stagehand, he worked as a PR man, etc.). According to Kimi Honda, wife of Ishirô Honda, the Gorilla-Whale man was just an inside joke between her husband and various others on the Tôhô lot - specifically producer Tanaka.

Since no film like this had ever been made in Japan, they had never attempted a suit like the one needed for Godzilla. Much of the attention on the first version was on visual design. They had neglected to consider the requirements of the performer inside. Some of the poured latex was very inflexible. This factor in the 6 1/2- foot tall and over 200-pound suit made it almost impossible to move. A new suit had to be constructed that would be somewhat lighter and more flexible at the appropriate points.

When you're a star you get all the best pussy

It was not uncommon for a cup of Haruo Nakajima's sweat to be drained from the Gojira suit.

One of the original Godzilla designs was a monster with a head shaped like a mushroom, intended to recall images of mushroom clouds. A sketch of this design can be seen on the special edition "Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece" DVD, and on the 2009 Godzilla (1954) Blu-Ray release.

Originally there was a flashback scene filmed showing Emiko and Serizawa as teenagers that was to explain their relationship. However, it was deleted because it was felt that it slowed down the film.

One of the potential names for Godzilla was Anguirus. The name was discarded but used in the second Godzilla film, Godzilla Raids Again (1955) as the name of the monster that Godzilla fights.

In one of the early script drafts, Doctor Yemane was written as a very dark and sinister character. In fact, one of the original ideas was to have Yemane sneak into the control room that controlled the electrical towers and sabotage the attempt to electrocute Gojira (Godzilla).

The building whose clock tower Godzilla tears off is the Wako department store. It was completed in 1932 in the Ginza district and still stands today, clock tower intact.

The scenes of Godzilla underwater were filmed "dry for wet" with an aquarium (complete with fish) placed between the camera and the monster-suited Haruo Nakajima. Actual underwater footage of divers was combined with additional "dry for wet" footage of Ogata and Serizawa.

Godzilla hates when his train is late

Special Effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya originally wanted Godzilla to be a giant octopus. He would later get his wish of having one though in the movies King Kong vs. Godzilla(1962), a deleted scene in Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965), and The War of the Gargantuas (1966), where the octopus would meet his end. It was even given the name Oodako. The octopus also made an appearance in the TV series Urutora Q (1965), and was up for consideration to be Godzilla's opponent in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).

Some of the designs for the Godzilla suit were similar save for the texture of the monster's skin. One Godzilla's skin was very warty, while another was more like that of an alligator. The final design, giving Godzilla his familiar rocky hide, was meant to suggest that the nuclear bomb blasts which awakened him had burned him.

Haruo Nakajima could walk about thirty feet in the original costume, which weighed over 200 pounds (91 kilograms). Later costumes were a little lighter but all of the costumes were very heavy. It was also very hot inside the costume. All of the costumes after the first one were easy to work with, as they were made to fit Nakajima, whereas the one that had been built for Godzilla had not been made for his body size.

The scenes of the troops going to the coast to face Gojira were actual Japanese Defense Force troops. They were on maneuvers when Honda shot the footage of them.

There were three cables coming out of the back of the costume. Two were for the operation of the eyes, and one was for the operation of the mouth. Kaimai Eizo was responsible for the movement of the eyes and the mouth. Batteries were installed in the Godzilla costume that was made for Godzilla Raids Again (1955). They were for the operation of the eyes and the mouth. The batteries made the costume even heavier than the one that had been constructed for the first Godzilla (1954) film.

Excuse me

There were supposed to be more scenes filmed on Odo Island. One was to have Dr. Yemane, Emiko and Ogata visit the graves of those that died during the typhoon when Gojira (Godzilla) came ashore. That scene was to have helped to establish the previous relationship between the Yemani's and Shinkichi's family. Another scene was to have been filmed on the beach and in that one Emiko and Ogata become frightened when the get their first glimpse of Gojira (Godzilla) as they see his tail splashing in the water.

Akira Takarada was originally cast as Dr. Serizawa and Akihiko Hirata was to play Ogata. It was reportedly director Ishirô Honda who felt that Hirata was more suited for the darker tragic hero of Serizawa. Honda had the actors switch roles.

In the Japanese language version of the original Gojira, when the characters refer to the oxygen destroyer, the Japanese actors say the English words "oxygen destroyer."

Godzilla's general design was partially based on the work of Czech painter Zdenek Burian, specifically his outdated, early 20th century reconstruction of the dinosaur Iguanodon. Godzilla's posture, the way he holds his hands and to a degree his skin texture were taken directly from Burian's artwork. Interestingly, the dinosaurs in Burian's pieces also have folds in their skin, much like Godzilla due to him being a rubber suit.

Although some earlier Japanese movies (most notably Rashomon (1950)) have made it to a few foreign markets and were met with positive reception, Godzilla was actually the first Japanese film to receive widespread notoriety practically all across the world. It gained a huge pop-cultural status and opened the gates for later Japanese media products to spread over the globe. This success can partially be attributed to the movie's American recut, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), which was its most widely distributed version.

There was another ending considered for the film: a scene with Emiko and Ogata (presumably after they had gotten married) flying over Tokyo Bay in a helicopter and throwing a floral wreath in the water in memoriam of Serizawa. However, that ending was scrapped because Honda felt that they had already paid tribute to Serizawa after he sacrificed himself to destroy Godzilla.

The movie's scenes of destruction and human panic effectively replicate the appearance and feel of real life news-film scenes of war time devastation that would have been painfully familiar to audiences in the 1950s and 1960s, providing these scenes with a resonance and verisimilitude that modern viewers will not experience. The best way to experience that replication is to watch actual news-reel films of World War II devastation in Europe and Japan before watching the film.

To audiences who could still remember World War II's toll on civilians and soldiers, Godzilla's movements would have been recognizable as eerily similar to the movements of a burnt and traumatized soldier or civilian undergoing a severe episode of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, wandering in a confused daze rather than consciously causing devastation. This casts a tragic, sympathetic, even victimized light on Godzilla that sets him apart from the majority of cinema giant monsters or kaiju eiga