![]() The pure horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was only nine years old at the time of the film’s release, and its scars are all over the film. There are numerous references to the atomic bombs throughout the film, most are very subtle, such as a widowed mother telling her two frightened children that they’ll be reunited with their father soon. Most importantly, the original cut also heightens the depiction of the monster as a walking radioactive metaphor for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bombs…something that was barely hinted at in the American cut that I grew up watching. Godzilla as walking radioactive nightmare a far cry from the kiddie-friendly reptilian wrestler I grew up watching on TV. His eyepatch reflects a man who has seen too much, and has perhaps even paid a physical price for that insight. Serizawa is deeply conflicted about his new “oxygen destroyer” weapon that also might be Japan’s sole defense against the unstoppable radioactive nightmare. In the original, the deeply anti-social Serizawa is a more brooding, haunted character a clear stand-in for the tormented Dr. Serizawa is depicted as an “old college friend” of Burr’s Steve Martin in the American version. Serizawa not exactly the social butterfly ‘college roomie’ type reimagined in the American version. Amiko’s father, Professor Yanabe (Takashi Shimura) also had more material as well. Serizawa (Akihito Hirata) and her young Naval officer paramour, Hideto (Akira Takarada). The original Japanese cut deepened the wrenching love triangle between young Emiko (Momoko Kochi), her tormented, brilliant fiance Dr. Amiko is (unfortunately) largely defined by the men in her life. Amiko tries to comfort her father, Professor Yanabe. The Raymond Burr footage and flashback structure was mercifully gone, and the story was told in a more linear fashion. ![]() All of the differences I’d read about in the old CFQ article were quite evident. Ifubuke’s main title score (the ‘Godzilla march’) boldly opened the picture now. Sitting in the dark, with the booming sounds of Gojira’s off-camera footsteps, and the familiar but eerily pitched-down roar of the monster, I was hooked. where a rare, Japanese-language print of the original film was being shown with English subtitles for the first time in the US. It wasn’t until spring of 2004, the 50th anniversary of “ Gojira” (a great year for G-fans like myself) that I went with some G-fan friends of mine to the NuArt Theatre in L.A. The NuArt Theatre in L.A… where I saw the real Gojira for the first time. After “Godzilla 2000” I soon had other opportunities to see Godzilla films theatrically (though it usually involved a sluggish, hour-plus drive into Los Angeles…). At that point, I hadn’t seen any of the original Japanese cuts of the films either… only the slightly dumbed-down Americanized versions on TV or home video. It wasn’t until the age of 33 that I’d even seen a Godzilla film theatrically (“Godzilla 2000”). “Godzilla 2000” (1999) was the first Godzilla film I’d seen theatrically, after a lifetime of watching G-flicks on television and home video. CFQ magazine’s article broke down the differences between the 1954 Ishiro Honda-directed “Gojira” and the 1956 recut version known more commonly in the US as “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”, starring Raymond Burr as reporter “Steve Martin” ( a wild and crazy guy…). As a little kid, I’d always assumed Godzilla was a Japanese/American coproduction, like “War of the Gargantuas” or “Godzilla vs. It was quite a revelation to read that the original “ Gojira” didn’t include any footage of Raymond Burr. Godzilla tears through electrical barriers that were supposed to be Tokyo’s last line of defense.Īt the tender age of 29, in 1996 (the Americanized Godzilla’s 40th anniversary), I read an article in Cinefantastique magazine about the original Japanese cut of the 1954 film “Gojira”. All of those years watching these films as a kid, and it wasn’t until my mid-to-late 20s that I came to understand just how little I really knew about them. I remember going through many ink markers trying to draw my own versions of those colorful keiju-eiga creatures I enjoyed. They also gave me lots of imagination fuel back when dinosaurs and monsters were a huge part of my life (thank you Forry Ackerman, and “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine!). Sitting too close to the 25” cathode ray tube TV, eagerly watching poorly dubbed, pan-and-scanned prints on Saturday afternoon television… ah, childhood! Back then, the Godzilla movies were frothy fun … colorful monsters kicking the crap out of other colorful monsters. The Godzilla (“ Gojira”) franchise is one that I’ve been a fan of for literally as long as I can remember. Mechagodzilla” sees the legendary monster battle a heavy metal doppelgänger.
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