Steve Ryfle Commentary Godzilla Raids Again

Godzilla Raids Again / Gigantis the Fire Monster

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The first sequel to the seminal 1954 original Gojira rode the unstoppable wave of its predecessor's astounding popularity, but otherwise Godzilla Raids Once again (Gojira no gyakushu, 1955) is a decidedly minor Japanese monster picture. That said, it's also so dissimilar from every other Godzilla entry -- and its Americanization, originally titled Gigantis the Fire Monster so baroque -- that those interested yet unfamiliar with it volition want to see both versions at least one time. Archetype Media'south supplement-packed presentation offers both incarnations of the motion picture, an audio commentary track and other extras. (Full disclosure: this reviewer briefly appears on the disc's commentary track.)

Unlike the more familiar Godzilla movies of the 1960s, Godzilla Raids Again eschew the usual line-upwardly of reporters, scientists, and military figures in the main roles and the high-tech weaponry ordinarily associated with the genre. Instead it focuses its narrative on an Osaka-based fishery and the company's two spotting pilots (Hiroshi Koizumi and Minoru Chiaki), who discover a new Godzilla forth with some other behemothic monster making his serial debut, the spiky-backed quadruped Angilas.

Despite the rushed nature of the production -- it was conceived, scripted, planned, shot, edited and scored, and out in motion-picture show theaters across Japan in less than six months after the commencement Godzilla's premiere -- Special Furnishings Director Eiji Tsuburaya's miniatures and optical effects are ambitious and elaborate, admitting not done with quite the intendance and precision of the kickoff film.

The highlight is Godzilla and Angilas' thrashing of Osaka which, in a bad script structuring move, comes halfway through the film. From hither the story shifts to Hokkaido where the big climax, in which the Japanese Self-Defense Forces try to bury Godzilla in an avalanche of ice cubes, completely lacks the high-stakes tension of the middle section.

The film was directed by prolific Toho contractee Motoyoshi Oda, making his sole contribution to the giant monster genre. Though a gimmicky of Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda, and Senkichi Taniguchi (all studied nether highly-regarded mentor Kajiro Yamamoto), Oda'south career was pretty much limited to endless B-flick comedies and thrillers produced on the cheap to fill out Toho's package of double-bills.

Nevertheless, Oda'southward direction is actually pretty good considering how rapidly this was fabricated. By contrast Ishiro Honda preferred tableaux, putting a bunch of people together in a frame and and so they tend to interact in static medium shots. Oda, conversely, uses a lot more close-ups and has a tendency to begin and sometimes stop scenes with a lilliputian chip of dollying, tracking in and out of the admittedly pretty sappy melodrama. He inventively uses hand-held cameras in the nightclub scene, which lend the picture show a documentary-like, you-are-there feeling (and these images of early postwar Japan are by themselves interesting) and this hand-held technique was pretty unusual for a fiction film made by a Japanese studio dorsum and so. And his direction of the first unit footage of the Osaka destruction sequence is tightly edited and dynamic.

Unfortunately, the production cuts corners in the set department. Throughout the film characters stand in front of featureless sets and their lack of detail and personality give Oda and his characters little to practice but stand up around and mope about Godzilla'south destruction. The principal characters are curiously uninvolving, this despite the fact that Hiroshi Koizumi is an immensely likeable actor, sort of a Japanese Richard Carlson, and Minoru Chiaki was i of the land's best supporting actors, famous for his roles in such films as Seven Samurai (equally the woodcutter samurai) and The Hidden Fortress (every bit the bumbling peasant that served as the model for Star Wars' C-3PO).

If the Japanese version is undone by poor story construction and a general blandness, the American version is such an exasperating hodgepodge that it's best enjoyed as high camp. Every bit Steve Ryfle details in his Sound Commentary Track, the U.S. distributors originally conceived a much more ambitious film to be chosen "The Volcano Monsters," which was to use about of the spfx footage, shoot some additional effects in America, and build an entirely new story around it set in San Francisco. Instead, producer Paul Schreibman, plain using sometime RKO caput Howard Hughes every bit his role model, opted to alter his acquisition with ceaseless reediting, rescoring, extremely bad dubbing, and added stock footage -- all of which serves only to make the movie look awesomely ridiculous. The near notable improver is its Constant narration (past an uncredited Keye Luke) by Koizumi'due south graphic symbol, who yammers endlessly nigh stuff we already know, events we have already seen or that's onscreen at the moment, or which the audition couldn't care less nigh.

Video & Audio

Godzilla Raids Again is presented in its original full-frame format, and is a big improvement over previous home video versions, which tended to be printed so nighttime that at times it was difficult to even see the monsters fighting one another. The Japanese version offers English subtitles in rather unattractive yellow font that, on the plus side, is at least easy to read. The original Gigantis the Burn Monster title carte as been optically removed in favor of Toho's preferred Godzilla Raids Over again moniker via video supering.

There is an encoding glitch on some copies of the DVD at the i:04 mark in which the image momentarily has combing/interlacing bug. Customers experiencing this problem tin become replacement discs here.

Extra Features

The primary supplement is an splendid sound commentary past Steve Ryfle "and Friends". Ryfle goes into considerable detail on both films, frequently pointing to the endless absurdities of the English-dubbed version. Some accept criticized his jokey attitude simply unlike, say, the folks as Mystery Science Theater 3000 or the unendurably smug gag-fests on discs like Naked Pursuit, Ryfle'southward comments illustrate the English version'southward ludicrousness in which the picture, not Steve, is its own worst enemy, and his comments are buttressed by a mountain of primary research bankroll upward these wry observations. Ed Godziszewski is on hand mainly to discuss and comment on Tsuburaya's special effects scenes while Bob Burns and this reviewer appear briefly to discuss other aspects of the film.**

As well included is the Godziszewski-written and produced Art of Adjust Acting, an informative and charming tribute to the men who donned those fiendishly heavy and oxygen-deprived costumes and so that Eiji Tsuburaya'due south crews could shoot missiles and whatnot at them. It's loaded with great, center-popping stills. Finally, there's a slideshow of Godzilla movie posters and anteroom cards from the Japanese release, many quite colorful. Rather surprisingly, in that location's no trailer for the Japanese version, even though one exists.

One time again, special kudos to Archetype Media for their first-class packaging and animated menu screens, which really set the mood.

Parting Thoughts

Godzilla Raids Over again had for years been i of the hardest Godzilla pictures to see in America as it all but vanished during the '60s and '70s only to turn upwardly every bit a bargain VHS release in the early on-1980s. It's far from the series' all-time, but Classic Media'south presentation has much to recommend information technology.

**Ryfle crams so much commentary onto the disc that well-nigh of what this reviewer recorded concluded upward on the cutting room floor. I was especially sorry to hear that my list of director Oda's other credits, mentioned to requite the listener a sense of his career, was deleted. For the tape what I said was: "He too directed Toho's first role-colour motion picture, 1946's Juichi-nin no jo gakusei, or "eleven Schoolgirls," which had Fujicolor sequences. By and large though he fabricated programmers like A Immature Couple Oversleeps, a Kingoro Yanagiya comedy chosen Stubborn Begetter and Musical Daughter, a Tony Tani comedy called Family Affairs: They're Stupid, Aren't They?, a thriller chosen The Virgin with the Scapel, and Employee with the Hole-and-corner Savings and the Autocrat Company President: The Employee with the Hole-and-corner Savings Fights Bravely. Try sticking that on a marquee!

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV'due south most recent essays announced in Benchmark'south new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel.

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Source: https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/25249/godzilla-raids-again

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