Godzilla (Gojira, ゴジラ) is widely regarded as being one of the most iconic characters in Japanese popular culture. Since his debut in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film Gojira, he has starred in further films, novels, video games, comic books, TV series and more. The runaway success of the Godzilla character spawned an entire genre known as the Kaiju (かいじゅう, 怪獣) genre, which roughly translates to monster or strange beast.
The original 1954 Gojira told a cautionary tale about the dangers of mankind experimenting with weapons of mass destruction. It is suggested that the savage monster Godzilla was summoned as a result of mankind’s use of nuclear weapons. At the time, the recent memory of the terrible events surrounding Nagasaki and Hiroshima led many people to believe that Godzilla was a metaphor for the United States and the risk of recurring nuclear attacks.
The 20+ Godzilla films that Toho Film Company have churned out since the 1960s have done little to lend intellectual credibility to the original Gojira character. Godzilla started out as a terrifying allegory of mankind’s self-destructive potential – the embodiment of Japan’s post-World War II anxiety. He was later portrayed as a sort of hero, battling other monsters and inadvertently saving mankind in the progress.
Besides pioneering the use of a guy flailing around in a rubber suit, the use of grainy black-and-white film to mask dodgy special effects made the film a infamous visual spectacle for it’s time. Later Godzilla films were shot in colour, which had the unfortunate effect of emphasising the awkward motion of their rubber-suited actors, and allowed audiences to spot matte background seams, wires etc. In addition, the increasingly bizarre and contrived plots resulted in Godzilla quickly developing a reputation for being a somewhat goofy and brainless character with little motivation to anything other than destroy things and sleep for indeterminable periods of time.
Having spent time in present day Japan, I get the impression that Godzilla now exists purely as a visual motif, a cult icon whose original meaning has been lost through countless reinterpretations and sponsored appearances. I recently watched the original Gojira after wading through several of the ‘Godzilla Versus…’ films, and I’m happy to say that it felt refreshing despite being over 60 years old. The special effects remain impressive, and the cautionary message is as relative today as it has ever been.
If you have never had the chance to see Ishiro Honda’s Gojira then please buy, rent, or borrow a copy and familiarise yourself with one of Japan’s finest cinematic masterpieces. If you’ve seen it already then why not leave a comment? I would love to hear your opinion!
