It may come as a surprise to some that 1984’s The Return of Godzilla (known in the heavily modified American version as Godzilla 1985) is one of only two films in the series where Godzilla is the only monster present. Aside from it and the original Gojira, Godzilla shares the screen with at least one other kaiju in all twenty-six remaining films. The reasons for this should, adversely, not come as a surprise to virtually anyone. Watching two or more giant monsters fight each other holds more potential for entertainment than watching just one take on hopelessly outmatched human beings and their fragile cities in much the same way that watching two boxers fight is infinitely more entertaining than watching one of them hit bags in the gym.
But why is this? It might seem like an obvious fact, but determining the psychology behind the why is less clear. After all, filmmaking logic dictates that the greater the odds are against the protagonist, the more interesting his struggle to overcome them will be. What throws this rule on its head when it comes to the kaiju genre is that the audience will usually view the giant monster as the protagonist, even when it is clearly cast as the villain – such as in in this film. There are several reasons this is not true of films like Pacific Rim and Cloverfield, but it is undeniably true of Godzilla. This is partly because the success of what we paid money to see (the kaiju destroying stuff) is adversely related to the success of our “heroes” (the human characters). It is also because Godzilla has had six decades of pop-culture absorption for us to adopt him as a transcendent character capable of defying cinematic convention.
The curious thing about “Godzilla vs. _________” films is that the odds against our protagonist (Godzilla) are much less stacked against him than they are against humans when Godzilla technically plays the villain. No matter how powerful the monster fighting him is, Godzilla will always be a closer match for it than we are for him. We have already established that Godzilla has the luxury of defying these kinds of conventions, so what makes it work in this case? At the risk of making the last three paragraphs seem hopelessly overthought (hey, let’s see YOU make those observations!) I think the reason is something as simple as variety. There is just a lot more you can do with two monsters than with one – which brings us back to The Return of Godzilla. As good and intellectually interesting as this film is, Godzilla really doesn’t do shit in it.
I might come to change my mind on this when I re-watch the rest of the films, but for the moment I feel comfortable saying that Godzilla is the most inactive here out of every film in the series. Over the course of 103 minutes, Godzilla does the following: 1) irradiates a fishing boat (off-screen), 2) sinks a Soviet submarine (off-screen), 3) lifts the reactor core out of a nuclear plant, 4) destroys ONE Mitsubishi F-1 plane out of dozens attacking him, 5) vaporizes a dock packed with JSDF forces (actually pretty cool), 6) picks up a bullet train, 7) drops said train, 8) drags his hand through the side of ONE building, 9) allows himself to be poisoned by the Super-X (basically a flying tank) with only flares and shells full of cadmium, 10) wakes back up only AFTER a nuclear missile explodes in the atmosphere directly above him, 11) blasts the flying tank with his atomic ray (without destroying it), 12) pushes over a building onto the flying tank, 13) follows a device emitting the sound of birds chirping up to a volcano, and 14) falls INTO the volcano….
Godzilla in this film is hardly at his most aggressive or cunning. He has maybe three or four moments at best where he actually does something interesting. The rest of the time he just walks around Tokyo doing basically nothing while things happen to him (with virtually no reaction) or simply around him.
I don’t know if it is fair to attribute Godzilla’s stoic nature solely to the filmmakers. Though they were series newcomers, it would be preposterous to assume director Koji Hashimoto and writer Shuichi Nagahara wanted their Godzilla to do as little as possible. The only other creative talent with sufficient input would have been special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano. But this was Nakano’s big chance to finally realize a serious, destructive Godzilla on a massive scale with a budget to match. He had previously been stuck with meager budgets and limited resources after taking over for Eiji Tsuburaya at the end of the Showa series, so he would never have wanted to blow his big chance to really unleash his vision for Godzilla. Instead, I believe the true culprit is none other than Godzilla himself – or more accurately his suit.
The new Godzilla suit (84-goji) brought back the size, proportions, and many of the identifying features from the original Shodai-goji design. It also had the same infamous weight and inflexibility. Even worse, it was built to be work for a much taller actor than the one who went on to actually play the role. Kenpachiro Satsuma was a veteran of the roles Hedorah and Gigan, and stepped in to play Godzilla in RoG when the primary actor became unavailable. This meant acting in an already poorly constructed suit that was also much too big for him. The suit looks aesthetically fantastic from some angles, and cringe-worthy in others, but its immobility is its defining attribute. The suit is so inflexible that Satsuma can barely do more than walk in a straight line and wiggle the arms a bit. If the suit was constructed with more consideration for the actor inside, it is my belief that RoG could have seen near 1954 levels of on-screen destruction.
I have now gone almost 1,000 words without even mentioning the characters or plot. That’s cool, I guess. RoG is the first film of what has come to be called the Heisei Series. The previous run from 1954 to 1975 was termed Showa, to retroactively coincide with the reign of the now-deceased Emperor Hirohito (ending 1989). RoG was technically released during this period, but it is more properly considered part of the continuity of the following six films, which were all released during the reign of Hirohito’s successor, Akihito. This time in Japanese history is known as the Heisei Period, and thus RoG becomes the first film of the Godzilla Heisei Series. These years also marked the height and end of the Cold War, which forms the geo-political backdrop for this film’s plot.
Our main character is presumably reporter and occasional yachtsman, Maki. He happens upon the drifting wreck of the Yahata Maru, a fishing boat exposed to Godzilla’s radioactivity in the first scene. Maki goes onboard and finds the entire crew dead except for one terrified sailor, Okamura. Back on land, a biophysicist named Hayashida pays Okamura a visit and concludes based on his eyewitness account that Okamura’s ship witnessed the reawakening of Godzilla. RoG is a reboot that ignores everything made after Gojira, so this would in actuality be the first time anyone has seen Godzilla since 1954.
Maki’s editor refuses to print his story on Okamura and the Yahata Maru because the government has ordered a full news blackout on anything related to Godzilla. If the public gained wind that Godzilla was still alive, the economy would collapse and all of Japan would go into a mass panic. Pissed off that he won’t get credit for the scoop of the century, Maki goes to visit Hayashida, who we learn was orphaned by Godzilla’s attack in 1954. He also just so happens to be the employer of Okamura’s sister and Maki almost immediately falls in love with her (and we don’t care). Hayashida has studied Godzilla for years and for the first time firms up facts about the kaiju that the series has only alluded to: Godzilla is a genetic mutation caused by nuclear testing. He feeds on nuclear energy and needs it to survive. By virtue of his mutation, Godzilla is otherwise indestructible.
While all of this is going on, Godzilla destroys a Russian nuclear submarine. The Russians come to the only natural conclusion they can, and immediately blame the United States. It couldn’t have been a giant monster, because who in the bluest of hells would ever believe that? A nuclear war between America and Russia quickly brews, so the Japanese Prime Minister has no choice but to lift the news blackout and announce to the world that Godzilla exists and is responsible for the sub disaster. Mutually assured destruction is averted for now and the world focuses on locating Godzilla.
Sounds like a pretty sweet movie, huh? Well it absolutely is! RoG is as grounded in reality as any Godzilla film has ever been and depicts how our politically fragile world would react to Godzilla’s existence better than any other. The Cold War elements are compelling and build tremendous tension, which refuses to die down even after Godzilla’s reveal. It turns out that America and Russia now understandably want to use their nukes to attack Godzilla. But Japan will have none of that because they have experienced devastation from both Godzilla and nuclear weapons in the past. The Prime Minister must personally convince delegates from both nations not to act on their impulses. “How would you react if Godzilla appeared in Washington or Moscow?” he implores, “Would you be so eager to use nuclear weapons then?” Things don’t go entirely to plan however, as Godzilla’s arrival inadvertently triggers the launch of a nuclear missile at Tokyo, raising the stakes even higher, if unfortunately lifting the mantle off of Godzilla more than we’d like.
So Godzilla inevitably comes ashore in Tokyo and… walks around a lot. While this is going on, Hayashida examines tape of Godzilla from earlier in the film and figures out that he will respond to the frequency of birds chirping (Godzilla may be part dinosaur after all, and dinosaurs may have evolved into birds). If they can reproduce the sound of a flock of birds, they just might be able to use it to lure Godzilla into the mouth of a volcano and set off explosives to push him inside! Hayashida presents his findings to the government and they set out to do exactly that. Only problem is, we still have half a movie to sit through and now we know exactly how it is going to end. Imagine instead if they tried this plan and it backfired, only making things worse by agitating Godzilla and forcing them to think on their feet! But alas, it doesn’t and the movie ends exactly the way we are told it will.
There probably can be no such thing as a perfect Godzilla film. RoG gets a lot right, but also quite a lot wrong, and the next one gets a bit more of the former and bit less of the latter. If Legendary Pictures is serious about changing the largely unaware public’s perception of Godzilla with their 2014 film, they would be well served to use elements from The Return of Godzilla as a template.
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