Godzilla (1954)

[ゴジラ]

Director: Ishiro Honda
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira, Takarada

Synopsis:
Strange phenomena off the coast of Japan are linked to a rampaging sea monster known as Godzilla.

Impressions:
I was a pretty big fan of Godzilla as a kid. I knew about the original but never really got a chance to see it. Being familiar with the much cornier movies that came later, it's a bit of a surprise to see just how serious the original was. It's a pretty dark movie with a lot of allegory and commentary on postwar Japan and the Atomic Age. It's worth noting that this is basically the genesis of tokusatsu films. Before this, there never was much of a push for special effects in film and there were even some overseas critics who wondered why the Japanese were even trying. A lot of the effects are on the cheesy side, but even without accounting for the fact that there was no real precedence for this kind of filmmaking in Japan at the time, it's pretty impressive all the same. The movie spends a lot of time building up Godzilla. You don't consistently see him onscreen until latter half of the film. It's an effective technique and all the best monster movies are similarly sparing with the monster's screentime. I didn't really connect with most of the human characters except for Dr. Serizawa. I could appreciate what they were doing with Dr. Yamane, but I didn't find his character as interesting. I like how they set up a power trio with Serizawa, Ogata and Emiko, but the latter two characters weren't nearly as strong. Still, you're here for the monster and the movie definitely delivers. By all means, give this one a watch.

Rating:
Watch It