Just the Ticket #220: The Return Of Godzilla

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Ticketmaster.

I'm kind of glad I ended up delaying my Godzilla vs Megalon review, because it means I'm ending the month of my birth by entering a new Era of the Goj-Year-ra project with a film that premiered in my year of birth, and it's among my favorite Godzilla films that I've seen so far.

Nearly ten years after Terror Of Mechagodzilla closed the Shōwa Era with a polarizing commentary on mid-70s gender politics, the Heisei Era kicked off with a thirtieth anniversary reboot sequel to 1954's Gojira, titled The Return Of Godzilla (which was just called Gojira in Japan, proving that the most recent generation of Hollywood didn't invent the "let's do a reboot sequel with the same title as the original genre film" concept, and complicating matters further, we also got an Ameri-satsu version with Raymond Burr returning as Steve Martin, titled Godzilla 1985).

Directed by Koji Hashimoto (in his second directorial effort, though he previously assistant-directed on King Kong vs Godzilla, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion Of Astro-Monster, and Some Monsters Almost Attack, so he's worked with Honda himself and he clearly knows what he's doing), The Return Of Godzilla ignores all Shōwa continuity but the original Gojira, and adheres to the time gap while keeping to its themes of anti-nuclear horror, now applied in the then-contemporary context of Cold War paranoia and the timeless threat of "well-meaning" political authorities abusing civilian freedoms to cause a panic in the process of trying to suppress a panic.

I didn't realize how much I missed the slow-burn politics of Honda's early Shōwa films until this movie put into perspective just how many "little guy and group of friends somehow manage to stop an alien invasion with amateur espionage" plots the later entries had, and while the runtime here certainly lends itself to pacing issues, I do genuinely miss when Godzilla movies were like this.

When reporter Goro Maki (Ken Tanaka) stumbles across a derelict ship (starting things off with a suspenseful horror sequence involving a giant, radioactive sea louse that has reduced most of the crew to shriveled husks), he discovers a survivor in Okumura (Shin Takuma, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla), a crewman who claims the ship was scuttled by a new Godzilla (as identified by Professor Hayashida—Yosuke Natsuki, Yojimbo and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster—whose parents were killed by the first Godzilla, and if you were wondering, there were no Hayashida characters credited in the 1954 film). To the ignorance of his sister Naoko (Yasuko Sawaguchi, Godzilla vs Biollante and Spirited Away), Okumura is sequestered in a police hospital as part of a government effort to hide the movie's title from the public and prevent the aforementioned panic.

Despite Maki's rebellious efforts (because the press has been suppressed, too) to reunite the Okumura siblings and leak Godzilla's return for as many scoops as he can photograph, he ends up pissing off Naoko (who works for geologist Professor Minami—Hiroshi Koizumi, Mothra vs Godzilla), setting up a compelling but obvious "couple who hate each other bond in a crisis" romance that builds throughout the runtime, and the presence of Godzilla is kept under wraps until the big guy attacks a Russian submarine, nearly triggering a nuclear war with the United States (the Special Envoy for whom is acted hilariously badly by Walter Nichols, as if he's dubbing his own voice).

Thankfully (no sarcastic qualifier this time), Japan has sense, and is able to arrive at several non-nuclear methods of dealing with Godzilla so that America and the Soviets don't end up using their country as a testing ground for World War III just to stop him (except for that one Russian soldier who triggered a nuclear launch from space and died in Godzilla rubble before he could shut it down again).

Quick aside on Japanese, but in my first Kaiju No. 8 review, I talked about the nuances of "kaiju" meaning "strange creature." In Shōwa Era films, it was subtitled interchangeably with "monster," but I noticed during the conversation between Maki and Hayashida here that the word "bakemono" was used when Maki asked if Godzilla was an animal, kaiju, or monster, so it interested me enough that I thought I'd bring it up. Also, I'm thinking about doing a special for next Halloween on the Monogatari franchise, one of which is titled Bakemonogatari (which I now recognize as a portmanteau meaning "Monster Story"), and that's how I managed to notice that word in the dialogue.

Getting back on topic, as slow as the human content can be in Return Of Godzilla, I feel what they're conveying, and aside from Nichols' hilariously AI-esque line delivery, the acting is perfect for the tense, dramatic tone that the movie is going for.

Equally perfect is Godzilla himself. Having portrayed Hedorah and Gigan in the Shōwa Era, Kenpachiro Satsuma was no stranger to suit-acting kaiju villains, and this new Godzilla is a towering menace with articulate, glaring eyes (thanks to an expensive animatronic that was built to ape—puns!—the 1976 King Kong remake's effects) that catch a demonic glow from the radiation-reddened atmosphere in the film's third act, his teeth are sharp and predatory, his gait thunderous and purposeful, his strength unlike anything we've seen in the previous era; '84 Godzilla is genuinely terrifying as both a design and a performance, and it's evident that nothing short of science fiction (or that thing Wilson referenced in that one Home Improvement episode about birds and cavemen having iron deposits in their noses for instinctive electromagnetic navigation) can stop him from laying waste to the planet with his imposing figure and nuclear Kamehameha breath.

So while Maki develops from scumbag reporter to chivalrous action hero in a collapsing building with Naoko (the humans get some incredible action sequences in this movie), the Japanese Self-Defense Force unleash the Super-X (a flying fortress armed with conventional weapons as well as laser beams, flares—to distract and manipulate Godzilla—and cadmium ammunition—to neutralize his nuclear physiology and probably give him cancer) for a pretty unique but ultimately futile action sequence as Godzilla movies go, and Minami and crew head to Mount Mihara to broadcast a magnetic signal that will lead Godzilla into the active volcano.

It's kind of predictable at this point in the series that government military might will fail by stepping on its own toes (the Super-X's cadmium rounds do work for a time, but the interception of that wayward Soviet nuke causes atmospheric fallout that grounds the fortress and revives Godzilla) and science will prevail, and the nuke is a literal plot device. But the cinematography, especially in the third act, is insanely good, the elemental juxtaposition of the finale is brilliant (Godzilla dies in an artificially generated volcanic eruption instead of being frozen like the ending of Raids Again), and as terrifying as he is in this movie, Godzilla's death almost brought me to tears.

Add on the melancholy pop balad that plays over the ending credits ("Godzilla Love Theme" by The Star Sisters), and even with the clear technical issues (the rear-projection and compositing being painfully obvious in color and with the improved film quality), Return is on my Godzilla Mount Rushmore.

A-

Tomorrow, I'll have my plans for June figured out, so Stay Tuned for that and please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see, receive the latest news on my content, and get me closer to surpassing myself.

Ticketmaster,

Out.