Chikyu Kogeki Meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan

Godzilla vs Gigan

Japan 1972
produced by
Tomoyuki Tanaka for Toho
directed by Jun Fukuda
starring Hiroshi Ishikawa, Yuriko Hishimi, Minoru Takashima, Tomoko Umeda, Toshiaki Nishizawa, Zan Fujita, Kunio Murai, Gen Shimizu, Kurayoshi Nakamura, Kuniko Ashibara, Akio Murata, Noritake Saito, Yasuhiko Saijo, Naoya Kusakawa, Wataru Omae
story by Takeshi Kimura, screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa, music by Akira Ifukube, special effects by Teroyoshi Nakano

Godzilla, Gigan, King Ghidorah, Anguirus

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Comicbook artist Gengo (Hiroshi Ishikawa) desperately tries to sell his monster creations, so he signs a deal with Children's Land, a weird organisation running an amusement park for kids towered over by a life-size Godzilla monument that also serves as the organisation's headquarters. Soon after he has joined the company though, he runs into Machiko (Tomoko Umeda), who claims the organisation keeps her brother Takashi (Kumio Murai) captive, and soon, Gengo and Machiko, his girlfriend Tomoko (Yuriko Hishimi) and her boyfriend Shosaku (Minoru Takashima) set out to free Takashi from Godzilla tower, and they succeed, too - but learn the dark secret of Children's World at the same time: It is actually run by cockroaches from another planet who have only taken on human form for the time being and plan an invasion, an invasion aided by giant space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan, who arrive on earth soon enough to lay Tokyo to waste. Thank God though earth monsters Godzilla and Anguirus stop by from neighbouring Monster Island to engage the two space monsters in mortal combat, and right on the grounds of Children's Land, too. However, our earth monsters seem to lose the battle because the giant Godzilla Tower shoots laser beams from its top. This of course brings Gengo and company back into play, because they figure the only way to turn the battle in humankind's favour is to blow up Godzilla Tower from the inside, and if they don't know much else, they know how to get in. With the tower going up in a blast, it's no problem for Godzilla and Anguirus to chase the bad monsters away, and then return to Monster Island.

This is not a good film, there are no two ways about it, its story is ridiculous, its buildup less than convincing, the only "new" monster of the film, Gigan, looks positively silly, and the special effects are no match to the stuff by then deceased FX wizard Eiji Tsuburaya had created for earlier Godzilla movies.

And still, the film is pure, mindless fun. So ok, it is anything but a masterpiece, but that doesn't mean it can't be a great party flick, now does it?

By the way, this is the film Godzilla talks (with a human voice) ... but only in the English dubbed version, in the Japanese original he only uses weird noises to communicate with Anguirus - which might somehow qualify as talking, but not fully ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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