Gojira (aka Godzilla (1954))
Download link: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4177000/Godzilla-Toho_Ultimate_38_Movie_Collection_(Hx3) (This contains not only Godzilla, but just about every Godzilla film ever made, apart from, strangely, Son Of Godzilla. The link is a Torrent, so you will require a torrent program such as Bittorrent or uTorrent to download)
Plot Summary from IMDB
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships explode and are sunk. At first the authorities think its either underwater mines or underwater volcanic activity. The authorities soon head to Odo Island, close to where several of the ships were sunk. One night, something comes onshore and destroys several houses and kills several people. A later expedition to the island led by paleontologist Professor Kyohei Yemani, his daughter Emiko and a young navy frogman Hideto Ogata (who also happens to be Emiko's lover even though she is betrothed to Doctor Daisuke Serizawa)soon discover something more devastating than imagined in the form of a 164 foot tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well. Can the monster be destroyed before it is too late and what role will the mysterious Serizawa play in the battle?
Pretty involved plot summary for a movie most people see simply as a Monster film. Characterisation? In a Godzilla film? Well yes, because this is the original Japanese film from 1954. This was before Godzilla became a monster to pit against other monsters, this Godzilla is a symbol, and is used as a metaphor for the horrors of nuclear power and especially nuclear weapons. Remember this movie was released only nine years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so the idea of a nuclear powered giant monster (Godzilla has an "atomic breath") was particularly impactful on Japanese audiences in the fifties.
This review is of the original Japanese language film, Gojira. The distributors in America picked up this film, recut it, added scenes starring Raymond Burr, to make it more palatable for American audiences. The result, Godzilla:King Of The Monsters is more geared towards a horror monster film than the Japanese. While it is worth watching, Gojira has the level of masterpiece. Godzilla:King Of The Monsters is simply a good film.
Four and a half Darios
