Gojira tai Biorante

Godzilla vs. Biollante
Godzilla der Urgigant

Japan 1989
produced by
Tomoyuki Tanaka (executive) for Toho
directed by Kazuki Omori
starring Kunihiko Mitamura, Yoshiko Tanaka, Masanobu Takashima, Koji Takahashi, Toru Minegishi, Megumi Odaka, Toshiyuki Nagashima, Ryunosuke Kaneda, Kazuma Matsubara, Yasunori Yuge, Yoshiko Kuga, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Haruko Sagara, Koichi Ueda, Kosuke Toyohara, Kazuhiko Sasaki, Hirohisa Nakata, Kenzo Hagiwara, Kenpachiro Satsuma, Masashi Takegumi, Yoshitaka Kimura, Shigeru Shibazaki, Demon Kogure, Kurt Cramer, Derrick Holmes, Beth Blatt, Abdalla Helal, Manjot Beoi
story by Shinichiro Kobayashi, screenplay by Kazuki Omori, music by Koichi Sugiyama

Godzilla

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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The Japanese, the American Genetic Corporation and the Arabian oil-ich contry Saradia fight over Godzilla tissue, especially since Godzilla, who seems to have been killed at the end of Return of Godzilla, resurfaces again. Somehow, the Japanese ultimately get their hands on it, to create an anti-nuclear bacteria that is supposed to be able to destroy Godzilla - but of course can also be used in warfare. But somehow, genetic engineer Doc Shiragami (Kohji Takahashi) gets his hands on a fraction of the tissue and crosses it with the tissue of a rose he believes holds the soul of his daughter (Yasuko Sawaguchi) who died in a fight over Godzilla-tissue years ago ... and a few days later, Shiragami's little experiment has developed into a giant rose with thentacles with teeth (!). Soon enough though, Godzilla stops by and destroys the rose, which is about his size and technically his closest relative ...

And after being diestracted by the giant (and occasionally deadly) rose for a while, the Japanese now have more familiar (and pressing) things on their minds: Godzilla, who once again levels cities and proves to be unstoppable. Even when the army is finally able to inject him the anti-nuclear bacteria, that doesn't seem to slow him down ... until scientist Kirishima (Kunihiko Mitamura) realizes Godzilla is a cold-blooded creature and has to be heated up a little for the baceria to multiply. Soon the army almost cooks Godzilla, and the bacteria begin to show effect ... but ultimately, fighting and defeating Godzilla is left to Biollante, who returns as a giant monster with teeth all over to have his/her/its revenge ... and wins of course.

Once Godzilla is defeated, Biollante disintegrates and its particles float away to space, while Godzilla - defeted but not dead - returns to the deep sea. And Doctor Shiragami, the only man who could produce anti-nuclear bacteria for warfare ? He sees the error of his ways, but nevertheless is shot by a Saradian agent in the end (who of course gets his just desserts as well).

Numerous subplots involve Doc Kirishima's girlfriend Asuka (Yoshiko Tanaka), her friend the psychic girl Miki (Megumi Odaka) - who would go on to become the only fixture in the second Godzilla series -, Major Kuroki (Masanobu Takashima), the leader of the Godzilla defense forces, and Gondo (Toru Minegishi), leader of the Godzilla surveillance team ...

One thing up front: Biollante is probably the coolest monster Godzilla ever had to fight, simply because it doesn't resemble a dinosaur, an insect or a robot like ost of Godzilla's other foils but is a completely original - and quite haunting - creature. Consequently, the fights between Godzilla and Biollante are pretty good, as is Godzilla's by now familiar city stomping. What brings the film down a bit is its esoteric undercurrent that seems to be out of place in a giant monster spectacle and doesn't help the story to get along, and its way too many often unrelated subplots - the film could have done without half of them and be even more comprehensible. Still, despite all that, Godzilla vs Biollante is one of the better films of the series, and at least Godzilla-fans should find it easy to enjoy the film.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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