Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla & Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S.
Posted by Skrud at Monday, August 2nd 2004 at 7:38pm
Since I was very much entertained by the original Godzilla I saw earlier this year at Fantasia, I decided to hit the Godzilla double bill: “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla”:http://www.fantasiafest.com/en/films/filmdetail.php?id=1079 (ゴジラ x メカゴジラ) and “Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S.”:http://www.fantasiafest.com/en/films/filmdetail.php?id=1080 (ゴジラ x モスラ x メカゴジラ: 東京 S.O.S.). These are the two latest Godzilla movies dating to 2002 and 2003 respectively (the next Godzilla movie is currently in production and has the same director has “Azumi”:http://skrud.net/index.php?p=192, Kitamura Ryuhei and is called “Final Wars”:http://www.godzilla.co.jp. So it should be pretty damn good.
Anyway, I was thoroughly impressed by Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, which was a ridiculously entertaining movie. Granted the story isn’t exactly anything particularly brilliant: Godzilla comes out of the water to attack Japan and so the government hires the best scientists to build a mechanical Godzilla using the bones of the original Godizlla from 1954. Equipped with missiles, rocket launchers, maser guns, lasers, and an “Absolute Zero Beam”, Mechagodzilla is ready to take on Godzilla. Shaku Yomiko plays the lead role, Akane, the pilot whose duty it is to control Mechagodzilla. What follows is essentially a large scale battle across the streets of Tokyo that involve much mayhem and destruction. The movie is also full of great dialogue like “Every since 1954 Japan has been repeatedly attacked by giant monsters.” I just find it incredibly amusing. However the battle ends in a draw…
In between both movies there was a little Fantasia celebration for Godzilla’s 50th birthday. First we were shown a montage of various Godzilla clips including making of movies dating way back to the original and lots of cool stuff on the stunts and the sets (all scale model miniatures!) and special effects used. Then Godzilla himself came out to terrorize the crowd, followed by two very sexy scantily clad women dressed as the Mothra fairies to perform what I will call the “Sexy Godzilla Belly Dance” and wheel out a giant birthday cake, which Godzilla promptly destroyed.
Which brings us to Tokyo S.O.S. which picks up right after Godzilla Against Mechagdozilla and we learn that Akane and her crew are off to the U.S. to train their skills at fighting giant monsters. (If you ask me this doesn’t make much sense since I don’t think the U.S. has nearly as much experience with giant monsters as Japan does… well, there was King Kong…). Anyway, now there’s a new crew of young pilots ready to take on the challenge of defending Japan from giant monsters. The timing couldn’t be worse as Godzilla suddenly reappears to wreak havoc, and Mechagodzilla is still undergoing the repairs from his last battle. On top of all this the Mothra fairies come to warn an old man (whose nephew is a Mechagodzilla mechanic) that men should not disturb the souls of dead and the bones of Godzilla must be returned to the ocean. But then who will defend Japan? Mothra will. So essentially we have a movie about Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, and Mothra, (as well as some Mothra larvae and a mechanic) and yet the destruction of whatever was left over from the set of the previous movie. I have to say, I was remarkably entertained by this movie. I can’t wait for Final Wars. (And in the meantime I should catch up on the 50 or so Godzilla movies from the past).
