Godzilla (1984) aka The Return of Godzilla

Godzilla (1984) aka The Return of Godzilla

A Toho Production, Japan

Directed by Koji Hashimoto

Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka

Written by Shuichi Nagahara

I first saw this film when I was nine years old. I remember the rented video copy, and watching with my then best friend. That version was, of course, dubbed (badly, as I recall) and the plot made little sense, but had something to do with Godzilla appears, Godzilla is too powerful for modern weapons, Godzilla falls into volcano at the end. I didn’t know at the time that I was watching a re-edited (some would say bastardised) version. It transpires that the American distributors were not happy with the Japanese version (which ran to some 103 minutes) and edited it down to 87 minutes whilst also including some specially shot insert footage, and making the Russians more of the ‘bad guys’. Happily, the Japanese version is now available (online, if you look carefully), and while it’s not a completely different film from the one I remember, it’s certainly more thoughtful, and certainly truer to the spirit of the original Godzilla from 1954 than most of its predecessor films. I think it’s fair to say that the intervening Godzilla films had become quasi parodies of themselves, with Godzilla becoming too ‘kiddie friendly’. Godzilla 1984 was effectively a reboot of the franchise and the launch of what has become known as the Hensei series of Godzilla movies.

Godzilla 1984 gets back to the horror of the first film – a horror that is a concept rather than anything displayed on screen: Godzilla is the by-product of nuclear weapons testing, a nightmare given form – that of an 80 metre tall beast. Godzilla is the personification of the unintended consequences of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, and the beastly motivations that brought them into existence. Crude though the comparison may be, Godzilla is the Japanese icon for the manifestation of death and destruction, in the same way that Death is personified by Ingmar Bergman in The Seventh Seal as a man with a pale white face, dark cloak and scythe.

Godzilla 1984 sidesteps any continuity problems with the interceding films (most of which were set in the future anyway) by treating them as never having existed. Godzilla 1984 links itself directly to Godzilla 1954. In so doing, it gives itself the licence to look seriously at the issue of nuclear proliferation and bring that issue (then) up-to-date.

What is remarkable about Godzilla 1984, and what I found more interesting than actually watching Godzilla smashing up Tokyo, was the realpolitik that the film allows itself to indulge in. It’s a fascinating insight into the Cold War paranoia of the 1980s. Over 25 years on, the concerns expressed by the politicians in the film seem incredibly dated, and yet, that is precisely what I found so interesting and compelling about them. And while the politics that is shown in the film is no doubt far removed from any kind of reality, the allegory is clear. And what is even more fascinating is to see the Cold War conflict from the Japanese point of view. Even more surprising (watching the film today), but actually quite moving, when one understands that the film was made a mere 40 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is the decision of the Japanese Prime Minister in the film to not allow the use of nuclear weapons to destroy Godzilla. While the shadow of the fictional monster that is Godzilla towers over the fictional protagonists of the film, one has the feeling that the shadows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki loom even larger over the Japanese. Interestingly, both the Americans and the Soviets are presented as trigger happy rivals, both pleading to be allowed to use nuclear weapons on Godzilla. There’s a wonderfully funny and ironic moment when both the American and the Soviet envoys are jointly petitioning the Japanese Prime Minister (played with wonderful dignity and gravitas by Keiju Kobayashi) to allow a nuclear strike, and the American envoys points to his Soviet counterpart and says “He’s right!”. I don’t recall that bit being in the version I saw as a boy, but it is one of the highlights of the film.

As for Godzilla himself, to be honest, the monster is not all that convincing. While the Godzilla costume is an improvement on the ones that came before it, it still looks – fake, even by the daikaiju (giant monster) film standards. Of course, at nine years old I wasn’t complaining, and, truthfully, I’m not now. If anything, this is what gives the film part of its charm, and requires the viewer to enter into its world and, for the duration of its 103 minutes, suspend disbelief.

Godzilla is certainly portrayed as the ‘heavy’, the monster that must be dealt with, but at all times there is a recognition that Godzilla is only Godzilla because of man. Godzilla is certainly the enemy, but one that deserves understanding. And in the final reel of the film, Godzilla is not destroyed, he is sent back to his subterranean sleep by being blasted into an active volcano – to reappear again? Certainly that remains a credible possibility at the end of the film (and is exactly what happened).

The other special effects are pretty good. The miniature Tokyo is by and large convincing, and gets thoroughly trashed by the guy in the Godzilla costume (Kenpachiro Satsuma).

Credit is also due to the other lead actors, Ken Tanaka as Goro Maki, Yasuko Sawaguchi as Naoko Okumura, Yosuke Natsuki as Prof. Hayashida and Shin Takuma as Hiroshi Okumura, who are all very convincing.

Godzilla 1984 dared to take itself seriously. It posed some serious questions, and in its own way, was a thoughtful entry into the series. I’m glad I saw it again.