Just the Ticket #233: Godzilla - Tokyo S.O.S.
a.k.a. The Ticketmaster.
I'm not mad; just disappointed.
Last week, I praised Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla for its world-building, strong female lead, thematically rich writing, and compelling action sequences. This week, I feel like I've been anesthetized by radioactive bug pollen. And that was before we lost Dolly Parton and Tim Curry in the span of less than two days. Rest in peace and power, legends! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of shit upon my chest that needs to be sent to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism....
Besides Tezuka and Yokotani, returning cast and crew include composer Michiru Ōshima, Tsutomu Kitagawa as Godzilla (the suit re-molded with a chest scar from the point-blank Absolute Zero Cannon shot the big guy took in the finale), Akira Nakao, Kô Takasugi, Yūsuke Tomoi, and Yumiko Shaku reprising their roles from the previous film (though, early in the runtime, Akane and Hayama are [un]ceremoniously reassigned to America, where good Japanese stuff that isn't anime goes to die, apparently), and Hiroshi Koizumi reprising his role from Mothra (though he also played other roles in Godzilla Raids Again, Mothra vs Godzilla, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, and Return Of Godzilla). Koizumi's reveal here as Dr. Shinichi Chujo is paced like the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield arrivals in No Way Home: a "hold for the theatrical audience to lose their collective shit" moment that I recognized before I recognized the aged Koizumi himself, and felt compelled to look him up, thereby taking myself out of the viewing experience and ruining it by having to explain it to myself. I understand that Koizumi is an acting legend and this moment would have had the desired reaction in Japan during its theatrical run, but I am not Japanese and it's 2026 now, not 2003, so my subjective experience is my own, and it didn't hit for me.
But this feeling of nostalgia pandering and a rushed, contrived writing process doesn't stop there because Tokyo S.O.S. struggles with whether to be a Mothra sequel or an Against Mechagodzilla sequel. It's the latter because Kiryu is still there, being repaired, the characters that return (and don't get sent to America to die on the way back to their home planet and never be seen again) continue doing what they did before because they aren't that important or interesting and the characters who were important and interesting last time completed their arcs, so I guess Tezuka-sensei's hands are tied. But because the movie has to be a sequel to Mothra, too (we know from the last movie that it and War Of the Gargantuas happened in this timeline, among other non-Godzilla kaiju films, as I'll talk about later), it just so happens that Dr. Chujo's nephew Yoshito (Noboru Kaneko, Hyakujuu Sentai GaoRanger) is a skilled mechanic working on the Kiryu repair crew. But because this has to be a sequel to Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, the tech genius has to be smitten with a female member of the Kiryu Squadron (Azusa Kisaragi, who gets a "slow-walk with glow-up filter and chimes" introduction, can identify kaiju corpses on sight, and is played by Miho Yoshioka, Sun Scarred —a parent revenge fantasy action-drama by Takashi Miike) and the main character has to beef with a hot-headed male member of the Kiryu Squadron (Kyosuke Akiba, who can quip at Godzilla like he's a young Gondo or something, catch flies bare-handed, and is played by Mitsuki Koga in his first role) and spend the movie proving themselves. So Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. is an early 2000s sequel that manages to feel like a 1980s "just do the first one again but slightly different" sequel and a modern, "remember that‽" legacy sequel by turns. And it doesn't work either way because the references don't land (for me) and the changes to the formula (specifically the new Kiryu pilot and the almost nonexistent—but age-appropriate this time—romance subplot) make the retread ground feel rote, lethargic, and hollow.
Something I've noticed as a theme in the Millennium Era despite it being the Oops! All Reboots! Era (besides finding any and every excuse to low-key take the piss out of Godzilla '98), and as a rare positive I can say about Tokyo S.O.S., is how Godzilla has shifted from a nuclear war allegory to a beyond-natural reflex against man's increasing efforts to destroy him; Godzilla is no longer destruction and fallout given physical form, nor a hater or consumer of man-made energy (one of the stupidest interpretations of Godzilla's purpose ever written), but a nigh-indomitable answer to military escalation. In most of the Millennium films so far, Godzilla has appeared in response to something humanity has done, found, or created. Unleash a prehistoric UFO while looking for a new energy source? Godzilla appears to destroy it. Create a weapon to pierce his skin? Godzilla has a healing factor. Try to exploit his healing factor for scientific gain? It mutates an ancient alien hive mind into a Doom boss that Godzilla destroys because he fights by Highlander rules. Oh, and he'll step on the guy who's been trying to kill him all movie. Create an army of prehistoric insect kaiju because of survivor's guilt and a science-grifting politician funding your reality-warping doomsday weapon that you had built just in case Godzilla returned? Godzilla will return, kill the bugs, and survive your space cannon twice by strafing and digging. Did your country side with multiple fascist dictators fifty years ago and kill tens of millions of people, get attacked by Godzilla, and then forget about all of it? Godzilla will literally come back from the dead with thirty million extra souls just to remind you he exists. Create a cyborg kaiju/mecha superweapon from his ancestor's skeleton and DNA? Not only will Godzilla seek it out on instinct alone to fight and kill it, but the dead Godzilla will possess the cyborg, also on instinct alone, and take it for a rampage that only stops because the batteries died so that you are fully aware of the scale and degree to which you fucked up. Basically, all anyone has to do in a Millennium Era Godzilla film is remember Godzilla and not create experimental sci-fi bullshit in preparation for his return. He's like a prophecy from a classical Greek tragedy...or Shoeless Joe from Field Of Dreams.
Don't build it, he will not come. And your kingdom and your mother's dignity will remain intact.
But because it's already been built and used against Godzilla, Godzilla is inevitable, Kiryu is Iron Man, and Mothra is just itching to go for the head. And considering her desperation attack is dandruff, maybe she should go for the shoulders, too.
Anyway, Mothra is perhaps the best she's ever looked, thanks to this Era's use of CGI for effects enhancement of her practical model's usually stiff movements, and the pre-title sequence where she does a flyby on the JASDF is a cool, unique, and ambitious visual. Her reason for being in the movie? Kiryu is an affront to the natural order, and the Shobijin (explained as a new generation and shown to have powerful telekinetic abilities for their size, played by Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka, Godzilla: Final Wars) visit Dr. Chujo to plead that Gojira's bones be returned to their resting place, otherwise Mothra will attack Japan once more alongside Godzilla. However, Chujo's grandson (Kenta Suga, the Always: Sunset On Third Street trilogy) convinces the Shobijin and Mothra (the latter by using desks to form her sun symbol, both as a callback to the Mothra film and as the titular Tokyo S.O.S.) to help Kiryu protect Japan from Godzilla, and a fight ensues for most of the movie's runtime that features some creative fight choreography (the exchange where a grounded Godzilla using his tail to trip Kiryu into an atomic breath blast to the face was a standout for me, and Mothra even gets some solid hits in on the big guy), but also feels overlong (it's an hour of the movie's ninety-one-minute runtime at the very least) thanks to Shōwa Era pace-killers like waiting for the Mothra larvae to hatch (despite the Shobijin being from a twin/duality-centric culture, the subtitles have them act surprised that there are two larvae that are twins—fraternal rather than identical here, as they are different genders and colors with different jaws—when all they do is say each other's names: Hio and Mana) and swim to the fight, and Heisei Era drudgery like beam struggles and a couple of agonizing phase transitions.
In the end (which I had to watch twice because the action and the cutaway to Yoshito repairing Kiryu put me to sleep), Gojira overtakes Kiryu again (even though the DNA and programming were altered last time so that wouldn't happen, suggesting more of a spiritual aspect to things, which was made clear earlier as well with Mothra's soul stone—a concept last seen in GMK) and carries the wounded and cocooned modern Godzilla out to sea to drown them both.
This is supposed to read as a thematically important, highly emotional scene where we bid farewell to both Godzillas and celebrate the survival of our three main human characters (particularly Yoshito, who had a spiritual connection with Kiryu like Akane did and was willing to resign himself to death for its sake, because all we know about Kyosuke and Azusa—I had to look up their names just now—is that he is the hot-headed, quippy badass piloting Kiryu, she is a jet pilot and kaiju nerd, and the editing can't decide if they're in the same cockpit or not). And it's supposed to show that those in power have learned the Millennium Era's recurring lesson about using increasingly more powerful weapons to fight and kill Godzilla.
But Prime Minister Igarashi's final order is to have Kiryu finish off Godzilla (at which point Gojira takes over Kiryu as mentioned above, so those in power haven't learned a damned thing), and there's a post-credits scene that undermines the message as well, for the sake of more pandering references because although Kiryu and Godzilla were identified as lost at sea and the natural order has been restored to the satisfaction of the Shobijin (who are completely ignorant of their own culture, as you may recall), it's revealed in said post-credits scene that a secret government genetics facility has been collecting kaiju DNA samples for cloning and DNA-cyborg purposes (including Gojira and presumably Kamoebas and Ganimes from Space Amoeba, Sanda and Gaira from War Of the Gargantuas, Varan the Unbelievable, and Ebirah, as these were planned to appear in an unmade third Kiryu film along with Baragon, Gorosaurus, and Kumonga). Again, nobody learned a damned thing besides how cool it can be to weaponize science when you ignore the moral and spiritual implications of doing so.
D
I could have said more, but nothing should be forced to live longer than intended and I now have three days to watch Luffy kick Doflamingo's ass for twenty-five episodes, so Stay Tuned for that and tomorrow's Time Drops on the September to come. And as always, please continue to support me and what I do by Becoming A Ticketholder (you haven't yet), leaving a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, helping out my ad revenue as you read because it costs a lot of money to look this cheap, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.
18
Ticketmaster,
Out.
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