- AKA “Gigantus The Fire Monster”
- Directed by Motoyoshi Oda, Ishiro Honda
- Written by Takeo Murata, Shigeaki Hidaka, Shiergu Kayama, Ib Melchior, Ed Watson
- Stars Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 18 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afODInhsCOQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Another Godzilla is back again to cause mayhem in Japan, and this time around, to fight another giant monster – the first time he does. It’s interesting seeing it as part of the progression of films in the series, but many parts of it are not very gripping, and it hasn’t held up well over time.
Synopsis
We get a voiceover about nuclear weapons and space rockets. Are there not darker and more sinister secrets here on Earth? “This story is the price of progress to a little nation of people.” Credits roll.
We open on a small village near Osaka, which mostly focuses on fishing. Tsukioka is the pilot of a small airplane that usually scouts the seas for tuna. He spots a big catch and radios into the headquarters, which relays his message to the ship. Hidemi is Tsukioka’s girlfriend, and she works the radio back at the base.
The other pilot, Kobayashi, runs into engine trouble, so he also calls headquarters. Hidemi asks Tsukioka to fly that way to see about rescuing Kobayashi. Tsukioka finds the man standing on a small deserted island. Tsukioka lands, but it’s too late at night to take off.
It’s not so dark, however, that they can’t see Godzilla when he walks past to fight some other giant monster. The two huge beasts fall off a cliff and continue to fight underwater. The two pilots head home and report what they saw.
Zoologist Dr. Tadokoro says that the second dinosaur that the men identified, Anguirus, has brains in several parts of his body and is one of a breed of fire monsters. There’s no weapon that can kill such a monster. The leader of the group shows a film of the monster that attacked Tokyo just last year. They killed that one with an oxygen bomb, but the inventor died with the bomb, so they can’t do that again.
And now there are two monsters. Tsukioka and Hidemi talk about his bravery or lack thereof. The world awaits reports on the monsters’ location, and it comes soon enough. The creatures are expected to attack Osaka tomorrow morning. When that doesn’t happen, everyone goes out for a night on the town.
Then, the radio announces that the monster has been spotted at the coastline. All defensive units get into position. The city is evacuated as well as it can be.
Tsukioka and Hidemi drive to her father’s place in the country. Meanwhile, a busload of convicts escape and run through the night. A couple of cops flag down Tsukioka and Kobayashi and have them follow the escaping criminals. The criminals crash and burn, but they also start a big fire that’s large enough to be spotted by Godzilla, who makes a beeline toward it.
The army shoots Godzilla with everything it has, which isn’t enough. Then, the second monster comes ashore. Godzilla and Anguirus soon start fighting, and Osaka pays the price– many buildings are destroyed, and the city burns. The monsters continue to fight until Godzilla kills Anguirus.
Morning comes, and everyone goes back to the cannery and starts to rebuild from the ruins. The boss tells Kobayashi that he’s being reassigned to Hokkaido. He moves and starts over, flying and spotting for tuna in the ocean. Tsukioka and Hidemi arrive in town, and Kobayashi has a surprise for them. Tsukioka gets to meet some old Air Corps buddies– it’s a big party!
At least it’s a good party until the boss comes in and says the fishing boat has been sunk; it must be the monster. Tsukioka goes up in his spotter plane to see if he can find the creature. Tsukioka reports the monster’s position, and Kobayashi rushes out to join him. They trade places, and Tsukioka goes back to the base to report.
Nine fighter jets arrive at the island, and they all shoot at Godzilla. Kobayashi flies too low, and Godzilla shoots his plane with fire breath. The planes shoot at the mountain instead and drop an ice slide on the monster’s head. Tsukioka wants to join the fighters on the second pass.
The bombers start again, shooting at the ice wall behind the monster, but Godzilla manages to shoot down several planes with his monster breath. Eventually, they thoroughly bury the monster under tons and tons of ice.
Commentary
Is this racist if it’s all dubbed in English, but everyone has a very stereotypical waiter-in-a-generic-Asian-restaurant kind of accent? Tsukioka was dubbed by Keye Luke, a well-known Asian actor, so maybe that’s OK, but when Paul Frees does it, not so much. George Takei has an uncredited role as various voices, and I actually picked that up not knowing he was even in this. This was his first acting role.
This was the first time Godzilla fought another monster, something that would come up time and again in the many sequels. Also, they never use the name “Godzilla” in the film; everyone calls him “Gigantus.”
Much of the film is narration, told by Tsukioka, instead of dialogue spoken by characters on screen. The monster battle was decent, but over with pretty quickly. The rest of the film, with the military fighting Godzilla just wasn’t that interesting, but probably since we’ve seen it done so much better in newer films. This was probably great at the time, but it just doesn’t hold up very well.