GOJIRA/GODZILLA
1954

The problems of dealing with foreign films are legion. Aside from the problems of translation, use of dialect etc., there is the entire notion of culture that is sitting behind every film. It is possible to appreciate a foreign film from the point of view of a person outside that county and have an interpretation that is quite different from that of the natives of that culture. The problem comes from reading the symbols of one culture with meanings from the other.

There are similar problems when watching films from earlier times in one’s own culture When we watch a film from another culture and another time the problems are multiplied.

This is the first of the “big” monster films to come to the US. From the Japan. It made quite a hit even though the American version was altered significantly from the Japanese one and it lost a great deal of the meaning of the original

It is quite clear that makers of the film had seen both King Kong and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and rely rather heavily on the latter. It is interesting to note the differences between the American films and this one from Japan.

Tsubutaya, the Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen special effects expert in Japan said he was impressed by Kong and the Beast and wanted to do this film in stop motion. But this was 1954, only 9 years after the war and 2 years after the American censors left and no one in Japan knew how to do stop motion. Tsuburaya thought it would take about 7 years for them to gain the expertise they would need to do the film and had to settle for an actor in a suit. (Actually two actors in a suit – at different times, both of whom appear in the film in the news room scene,. One sits to the left behind a cloud of smoke, the other gives out the assignment to the reporter to interview Dr. Serizawa).

The suit was inflexible and very hot. Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka are the actors in the suit.. It is reported that on occasion one or the other actually passed out in the suit from the heat. A pair of “Godzilla” pants was made which the stunt men wore when the feet alone were visible so the players didn’t have the heat problem.

A puppet Godzilla is used for close ups of the head, and also when it appears on the island and in the underwater shots near the end.

Because the names are unfamiliar here are the main characters and their relationships to one another:

Dr. Yamane is a paleontologist who lives with his daughter Emiko. Emijko is betrothed to Dr. Serizawa but actually in love with Ogata, Shinkichi is a boy orphaned by the attack made by Godzilla on Odo Island and who know lives with the Yamane’s in Tokyo

The family is seen as relatively well off in 1954 in that the house is in good condition and they have a television. This is a good example of what a viewer might miss if they were unfamiliar with the times period.

The fifties were a tense time in Japan as well as the US. The memories of the war, the occupation and the development of nuclear testing were on people’s minds in Japan. There were clear memories of food shortages and so on. There was some tension about the developing friction between the US and the Soviets which placed Japan in an awkward position. As late as the 80’s Russians were seizing Japanese fishing boats as a way of retaliating against American actions they objected to. It wasn’t really possible to attach the US directly, but it did through its allies.

The US occupied Japan after the war and had an enormous amount to do with what happened to Japan after the war. The US wrote the new constitution which forbids the Japanese from having an army, but does allow it a self defense force called the Jietai which is forbidden to leave the country.

In addition to strict regulations about the military and so on, the Americans established a censorship bureau which oversaw film production in Japan, making sure that no “pre war values” which the Americans disliked could be shown and glorified. The censorship ended in 1952 when the occupation was basically over.

By 1954 there was still some tension about the situation and so some of the Godzilla materials are interesting as to what is actually said and what is implied. Notice for example the shots of people on a train discussing Godzilla

While Japan has a long history of dragons, which could easily have been the model for Godzilla, it appears that the people involved in the making of the film were interested in dinosaurs, not dragons. While Godzilla actually looks like no real dinosaur, they and the dinosaurs created in The Lost Word and King Kong were clearly the inspiration for the film.

After the Film

There is little doubt that the dropping of a “weapon of mass destruction” (namely two atomic bombs) on Japan was something very much in the minds of the Japanese, along with the firebombing of Tokyo in 1945 which killed over 100,000 people. Also very fresh in their minds would have been the disaster of the Lucky Dragon 5, a small Japanese fishing vessel which had been close to Bikini when the Americans tested the hydrogen bomb there.

(See web site http://www.american.edu/ted/lucky.htm )

The members of the crew all showed symptoms of radiation poisoning and one crew member died. Tuna from the ship had been sold and led to a wide spread panic about contaminated tuna.

Honda, the director of the film had been conscripted into the Japanese army and had been in a POW camp. When returned to Japan, the route took him through one of the cities on which the atomic bomb had been dropped.

Honda became strongly anti-war and anti nuclear and the film certainly is indicative of that. The film, however, shows little evidence of being anti-American, but Japanese movies had been censored for years by the American government after the war and the censors had left only 2 years before. Censorship involved anything glorifying anything about Japan that was pre-American occupation, or anything that was critical of the US.

There are some complex shots done in the special effects with glass mattes (the footprints on the beach, the electric fence etc, which you should watch for)

Godzilla was, of course, ground up, and regurgitated as a different film in its US release. Raymond Burr was given a part and he was cut into a butchered version of the original Japanese film. It was many years after its original American release before Americans were able to see the original version of the film which we will show today.

Like American films, (and American culture) Japanese society has a number of statuses (although the roles may be somewhat different. Like American films of the period there are scientists, military , reporters and government officials along with civilians,

As is the case in American films it is important to see how these all interact and what the film makers impression is of each of them

It was not uncommon from American films to show the actual bomb go off that triggers its effect on the “monster: in the film. Not all films in American did – Them! for example does not, while The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and The Amazing Colossal Man do. Much has been made about this in the analysis of Godzilla, but there are sufficient American counter-examples to indicate that it is not that significant.

First appearance of the monster is over the hill on the island. We have been aware of his existence from the peculiar light from the sea when the ships are sunk early in the film (remember the ships sinking in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms)

Similarities to Kong and Beast

Godzilla is also attacked by planes (Kong on Empire State building)

Godzilla attacks train

Initially the scientists look a an island with somewhat superstitious primitive nature) for clues about Godzilla. This will continue with Mothra etc. until we reach Monster Island.

Godzilla destroys a major city (Kong has a go at NY)

Differences

Kong and Beast are killed publically by individuals in the city

Godzilla dies underwater almost privately, in its own habitat, killed by a set of related people (Yamane, Emiko, Ogata and Serizawa.

The young people in the cast were really young,

Akira Takarada (Ogata) was 20 and made his debut in this film

Momoko Koochi (Emiko) was 22: She made one film in 1953 and three in 1954 before Godzilla

Akihiko Hirata (Serizawa) had made 4 movies in 1953 and Godzilla was the fourth in 1954!

All the young leads went on to stardom,

Takeshi Shimura (Prof. Yamane) was already a well known actor with 204 films to his credit. He appeared in Seven Samurai, Ikiru and Rashoomon before Godzilla. He was associated with Kurosawa

The major character responsible for the death of Godzilla, Serizawa, commits suicide (in effect to protect the world from finding out the secret to his oxygen destroyer, but in part as a kind of atonement or taking responsibility for his actions in creating the device).

TEXT:

A possibly prehistoric monster (thought by some characters in the film to be a mythological being) is roused from the ocean by the destruction of food by atomic test in its environment and attacks the land. Although the food element is minor in film, it is discussed as is the idea that the creature itself is suffering radiation poisoning.

The creature has attacked an island inhabited by fishermen and their families and caused considerable damage. Scientists and military arrive to examine the damage and discover radiation from the monster as well.

Ultimately the story of Godzilla connects to a scientist and his daughter who is involved with a romantic triangle. The story concludes with one of the scientists killing Godzilla and himself to save people and destroying the secret of his terrible weapon thereby leaving the way open for the woman o marry the man she loves.

The film makes few bones about its SUBTEXT which deals with an anti-war anti nuclear theme which permeate the story and frequently show the personal suffering caused by the catastrophes of war and the testing and use of atomic weapons. This is often shown graphically by showing the effects of Godzilla on people and especially on children.

The scenes of devastation in Tokyo are very much the kind of vista that had been seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombs had been dropped.

Honda’s anti government position is apparent when we see members of the diet fighting about whether to release the story or not, while scenes of the military being unable to stop the attack indicate his dissatisfaction with their ability to handle matters.

Unlike western films where the monsters tend to represent communism, Godzilla represent the horrors of war and the dangers of nuclear testing and the use of nuclear weapons.

The most interesting character is Serizawa who is torn by the problem of having discovered this enormous power which would be a new weapon and the disintegration of his arranged marriage. (note especially the sequence where things start to “disintegrate” for him”. He comes up from hi lab and we see only Emiko in the room. As Serizawa enters we see Ogata is there too. He wants to talk to Serizawa who suspects it is about Emiko, only to discover she has told Ogata about Serizawa’s secret weapon which she promised not to reveal.

The physical fight which follows is completely ignored by the camera which focuses only on the fish tank reminding us of what the battle is actually about. In addition of course, the film avoids showing any personal violence, concentrating almost exclusively on the pain and suffering of the people which results from Godzilla (read war, nuclear weaponry). Not only do we not see Serizawa strike Ogata, but at no time do we see Godzilla actually killing or hurting anyone. There are no scenes like those that occur in Kong where natives are cruched or chewed upon, or people dropped from high rise hotels. Nor do we see police being eaten as occurs in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, or the New Mexico State Police office being killed by giant ants in Them! The film concentrates not on the actual event, but rather the aftermath with all the human suffering. For example we see the mother on the street with her child as Godzilla approaches an she talks calmly to the child about joining her (apparently deceased) father soon. We do not see the actual encounter between her, the child and Godzilla, but we do see the mother later, dead, in the hospital and child who clearly has been exposed to radiation. It is this that causes Emiko to break her promise to Serizawa NOT to tell anyone about his oxygen destroyer. Later he understands this, even though it means destroying his work and himself.

The film raises questions about the social responsibility of the scientists who can not pretend to live in an ivory tower and hold that what they do has no moral or ethical implications. What can Serizawa do, but release the device that will destroy Godzilla but become a potential pawn in an ever escalating arms race? The invention may have no morality per se, but the use of it is what troubles Serizawa. He is in effect releasing another “atomic bomb”.

American monster movies tend to be action movies in which a single hero protagonist is involved in the final battle between the monster and the humans. In this film the battle is hardly single handed and rivals Ogata and Serizawa are together underwater. The resolution to the love triangle leads to the resolution of the problems with Godzilla. The two stories become intertwined and have a common resolution.

Yamane does not want to kill Godzilla – wants to learn how it survived blast.

(Compare Codrington in The Thing)

Peculiar ending – in the end science destroys the monster. Is it then good? What if there are more tests and more Godzillas

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