GODZILLA VS KING GHIDORAH
Director: Kazuki Omori
Genre: Kaiju eiga
THE MOVIE
It's strange that after all of King Ghidorah's appearances in the Showa movies, it wasn't until 1991 that there was a movie released called Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. But that certainly isn't all that's notable about this movie. GVK remains one of the least seen of the series and wasn't even released on home video until 1998, when most of the Godzilla catalogue was put out on DVD in anticipation of the American remake. GVK also features a truly loopy time travel plot and is the only movie to date to give Godzilla a real origin story (even King Ghidorah is given one, in a departure from his usual space monster origin). If that wasn't enough going on, it also is the sole appearance of Mecha King Ghidorah.
The Heisei Godzilla movies feature a relatively tight continuity, and GVK serves as a sequel to Godzilla VS Biollante. Godzilla recuperates from his brush with the giant plant monster and the anti-radioactive bacteria used against him when a strange craft appears over Japan. It turns out the craft is from the Earth's future and its occupants (two Westerners, a Japanese woman and an android) offer to help Japan eliminate Godzilla because, they warn, in the future, Japan is a desolate nuclear wasteland due to the monster's attacks. They offer to travel back to Godzilla's origins in World War II, to prevent the beast from ever being created.
These Futurians, a Japanese author, and psychic Miki Saegusa (introduced in Biollante and a mainstay of the 1990's movies) travel back to 1944 during the Pacific campaign of World War II, in which a Japanese platoon is attacked by American soldiers but rescued by a rampaging dinosaur relic, a "Godzillasaurus" and the creature that will become the King of the Monsters after being exposed to American nuclear testing. The Futurians abduct the wounded dinosaur and bring it back to the present, thus insuring that it will not become Godzilla. However, they do leave behind three golden chirping creatures in its place...
It turns out that the Futurians wanted to remove Godzilla from the equation so that their own monster, now formed into King Ghidorah could take its place and destroy Japan. In their future, Japan is the dominant country on Earth even more powerful than the U.S., China and Russia and this mission is to prevent Japan's ascendancy. Now, I'm not sure why the Japanese woman wanted to go along with it, but whatever.
However, the Godzillasaurus is mutated by a Russian nuclear sub, resulting in the creation of Godzilla, who battles and defeats both Ghidorah and the UFO. The Japanese Futurian returns from the future with a cyborg version of King Ghidorah, with which to defend Japan from Godzilla. Although, Mecha King Ghidorah fails to defeat Godzilla, it does lead him into the sea and away from Japan.So, you can see that still-complicated summary that Godzilla VS King Ghidorah has a pretty weird and convoluted plot, which is one of the reasons that it is one of my favorite Godzilla movies. I like to think of it as the Back to the Future II of the Godzilla series. It has the best story out any movie of the series, although it is not necessarily executed very well.
GVK is also the most controversial Godzilla movie, due to the sequence that is set in World War II and features the Godzillasaurus violently attacking American troops. It is a discordant reminder that despite the often cozy post war relationship between the two countries, the US and Japan were bitter enemies at one point. It is also a little distasteful to juxtapose a fantasy monster sequence with the human loss and suffering of WWII. For this reason, it took quite a long time to release the movie in the US. However, GVK does solidify Godzilla's relationship to the war which culminates in the great 2003 movie Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack in which Godzilla is literally an embodiment of the war dead
Godzilla has always had a complicated relationship to World War II. In the original 1954 movie, his rampage is an obvious allegory for the destruction visited upon Japan by the two atomic bombs which ended the war. And while the monster's creation is almost always caused by US atomic testing, over and over again, Godzilla terrorizes Japan in a kind of cinematic self flagellation. He doesn't destroy Los Angeles or San Francisco, he makes it his mission to punish the Japanese. Going from an a brutal military power that is deeply despised in the region to a nation that was humiliatingly defeated in a rain of atomic Hellfire, to a largely peaceful prosperous people is a dizzying journey to take in a lifetime and, in their own way, the Godzilla movies document and comment on that journey.
Godzilla VS King Ghidorah came at a time of relative tension between the U.S. and Japan as it was the height of Japan's economic surge. People in the States were wary of the country's power (much the way that they are now with the growth of China). In the movies, this discomfort manifested itself with subtle and not subtle barbs toward the Japanese. In popular culture in the 1980's and 1990's the Japanese were usually depicted as drone-like businessmen working for monolithic corporations with a laser-like focus for buying everything in sight and speaking in sinister Engrish ("Whay-ah is Rutenent Liprey?). More often than not, they served as stern bosses to American characters.
Godzilla VS King Ghidorah feels like part of the other side of that conversation, with the movie's entire plot revolving around jealous foreigners attempting to thwart Japan's glorious future. The scenes in which Japanese soldiers honor the giant dinosaur that saved them from the Americans, is particularly interesting since Godzilla is a such an icon of Japanese popular culture. In a very superficial way, it is as though the Japanese were able redeem a bit of their wartime past using one of their most potent post-war symbols.
THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
We get one of the better Godzilla suits in this movie and it is a slight evolution of the Biollante version of the character. The Heisei version of the character is beloved by fans and this is one of his better looks. The Godzillasaurus, however, leaves a lot to be desired and is rather awkward. Remember, this was a few years before Jurassic Park when dinosaurs were usually realized as puppets or anamatronics.
This movie features the first appearance by Ghidorah since the 1970's and for the most part, the King looks pretty good, although the flying sequences are pretty weak. Mecha-King Ghidorah is a pretty cool creation (his whole middle neck and head are mechanical) and in the Heisei continuity, he serves as the basis for that version of Mechagodzilla.
While the monster effects in the movie are quite good, anything else is pretty awful. The android character tries really hard to be be Terminator but both the acting is awful and he is the center piece of some truly terrible special effects.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
I really like the WWII scenes for their cultural subtext and for making the connection between Godzilla and the war more explicit than it had ever been.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
As part of a two pack DVD with Godzilla VS Mothra: The Battle For Earth.
TRAILER
Patrick Garone
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