Written by Cameron Geiser

Ever since the Criterion Collection put out their impressive box set of the first fifteen Godzilla movies released during Japan's Showa era, I've wanted to check it out. I grew up on several of the old Godzilla movies and with this version being released on blu-ray with all of the bells and whistles that come with the Criterion touch, I knew I had to have it one day. Earlier this year during one of the collection's flash sales, where all films are fifty percent off for one full day, the time had come: those monster movies would be mine! It was an entertaining and informative experience watching all fifteen films in rapid succession. There were some delightful surprises along the way, and some underwhelming rose-tinted nostalgia that failed to live up to my expectations in a few instances as well. Below I have ranked the films based both on objective criticism, and personal enjoyment.

15. Son of Godzilla (1967)

Admittedly, when considering a marathon of these films and then ranking them accordingly, I always knew which one would earn last place. In fact, I was almost annoyed that Son of Godzilla would even be in my film collection, but hey, sometimes you’ve gotta take the good with the bad. In this film, Godzilla gets parental. The story follows a team of scientists experimenting with some weather altering technology on a remote island. Initially, the scientists foul things up by testing their equipment, in this case a radioactive balloon, which is detonated too early due to an unexplained signal jamming their systems. This results in a wild radioactive storm that ravages the island overnight.

The storm alters the creatures living on the island, turning only relatively large praying mantises into Kaiju-sized behemoths. These insipid insects are later found digging up a giant egg that hatches our titular child-monster whose telepathic wails were what caused the tech to malfunction in the first place. It isn’t too long before Godzilla shows up on the scene to defend his (it’s?) child and try to teach the young one how to be a proper monster. This film has some decent costuming and good practical effects for the Praying Mantises, but this is easily the worst looking Godzilla Suit of the franchise. While Godzilla’s progeny doesn’t yet speak in this film (which is a point in the film’s favor), the pacing is awful and the few bits of monster fighting that we do get feel sloshy and awkward. Son of Godzilla may not be as cringe-inducing as the next entry, but it’s also simply uninteresting when compared to the rest of these films. Not a lot happens, and there’s a lot of filler. The film also gets points detracted for giving us the insufferable Minilla (The name doesn’t come into play until later films) in the first place.

14. All Monsters Attack (1969)

Oh boy, is this one B A D. All Monsters Attack is the epitome of the “Godzilla for Kids” era of Godzilla films. Though the worst version possible is the english dub of the film, as the voice actor for our son of Godzilla, Minilla (pronounced Min-yah), is downright painful. So, the basics of the plot are that young Ichiro is a “Latchkey” kid living in the polluted Kawasaki who comes home to an empty apartment nearly every day while his parents are at work. He’s got a super-active imagination and he regularly takes naps to escape the local bullies and his loneliness. During these naps, he imagines flying to Monster Island where he goes on various adventures. There is a bit of genre fun wedged into the real-world Ichiro’s storyline where he gets kidnapped by a couple bank robbers while wandering through an abandoned warehouse.

Turns out he accidentally picked up one of their wallets with their ID in it and the two criminals hedge their bets by getting back their evidence and the kid for a bargaining chip with the cops. This is about the only interesting thing that happens in the film though. The majority of the runtime is spent on Monster Island during Ichiro’s fantasies, but nearly all of those scenes are reused footage from Ebirah- Horror of The Deep, Son of Godzilla, and Destroy All Monsters. Budgetary constraints were mostly the cause of this, but still, it cheapens the film overall while making it the silver screen equivalent of a “flashback episode”. Ultimately, some may enjoy this one because of it’s weird, bad, and annoying characters or tone, but it certainly wasn’t for me.

13. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

If you thought the new match-up between Godzilla and King Kong was a silly B-movie about two of the most well-known monsters fighting each other, well, it has those roots in their first bout. This one is the perfect distillation of a midnight monster movie. Being only the third movie in the Godzilla franchise, we may all think of Godzilla as the more prominent movie monster, but at that time it was King Kong who was the reigning champ in the minds of international audiences. He was, after all, the first movie monster and had captured the world’s imagination in 1933. The massive success of this film at the box office was what gave Toho the confidence to invest further in the Godzilla franchise after their seven-year hiatus after Godzilla Raids Again. In fact, this movie remains one of the most well attended Godzilla movies in all of Japan’s box office history. The story at hand is a fun amalgamation of 1960’s Japanese satire of TV audiences and their producers, and pharmaceutical executives, as the villains.

Initially, both monsters are disturbed by the Americans and the Japanese equally. The Americans accidentally get one of their nuclear submarines caught in the same iceberg that entrapped Godzilla at the end of the last film, which awakens the similarly nuclear-powered monster. Surprise! Godzilla destroys the submarine and goes about his destructive ways. Meanwhile, Mr. Tako, head executive of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, is dismayed by the low ratings of TV shows that his company sponsors, and when he gets word of a new monster on Faro Island, he sends a team there to capture the beast and exploit it for publicity and monetary gains. We also get a fun sequence on Faro Island where Kong fights a giant Octopus. There was some clever imagery where the filmmakers superimposed footage of a real octopus demolishing models of tropical huts. Overall the film is mostly concerned with getting the two monsters to fight at specific locales, like on Mount Fuji, destroying the Atami Castle, or having Kong climb the National Diet Building (Japan’s Legislature where the House of Representatives and House of Councillors meet and collaborate on governmental issues) with Fumiko, Sakurai's sister, in hand.

Yes, King Kong performs the highlights of his own movie while Godzilla does his traditional shtick as well, wrecking Tokyo and whatnot. The joy in the film is seeing the ridiculous things that both the monsters do to each other, but also in how the people around them react to this showdown. Some of the best stuff was even slipped into the new film, like Kong being drugged on a giant boat and being flown to various locations. Notably, he was carried by helicopters in the new film- not here, it’s time for some giant balloons baby! I’ll also note that I did watch the American English dub as it’s the main version most people have seen, though a version of the original Japanese edit does exist in the Criterion Collection’s supplements disc in the Showa Era Collection. This isn’t the worst entry by far, but it’s incredibly cheesy and not as meaty as the series’ best efforts regarding satire or incredible special effects. It’s worth a watch with measured expectations.

12. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Sure, this is definitely part of the children’s era of Godzilla movies- but it’s also one of the stranger entries in the Showa era. There’s a strong anti-pollution theme to this one, it’s incredibly on the nose and in your face- but, hey, why not? This is the Godzilla film that takes the strangest risks and goes all out with the style of the time of its release. It’s the most representative of its time through style, music, tone, and its depictions of societal culture. There’s a lot of experimentation with this one: There's a short black and white sequence, many scenes of people just hanging out at bonfires with guitars, several short animations throughout the movie, and it’s generally more violent at seemingly random intervals.

For example, there's a scene early on where a kid brutally knifes Hedorah in order to escape its gelatinous wrath! The score is equally strange, resulting in one of the most memorable, but oddball, scores in the franchise. It’s jazzy, bombastic, and just plain weird. The film also has drastic tonal shifts throughout, swinging from slightly disturbing to surreal and psychedelic. Oh, and yes, this is the one where Godzilla uses his atomic ray to propel himself backwards through the air while holding his tail as the barreling trumpets of the score see him out of the frame. This one has some fun ideas, it's strangely violent at times, and it consistently sticks to the anti-pollution theme. It’s a weird one, but worth a watch for all of the bizarre choices!

11. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

If you recently caught the Netflix anime Godzilla: Singular Point that dropped earlier this summer and wondered where Jet Jaguar came from in the Godzilla mythos- it’s this one. While this is still part of the “Godzilla for Kids” portion of the Showa era, it’s got a lot of strange world building that’s an interesting diversion from the formula. This film returns to the series’ roots with the inciting incident of the story relating to how nuclear weapons cause great harm to the environment, with unintended consequences in tow. Godzilla vs. Megalon opens with an earthquake caused by underwater nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean. It causes a fissure in the seabed to open and a lake to get drained, which had some really good prop work done to depict this! This results in the destruction of a few buildings deep in the underground nation of Seatopia, a people that live quite literally under the sea. Which prompts the cave dwellers to conjure Megalon, their eternal protector, and order it to destroy the surface dwellers.

Seatopia even gets a backstory, an Atlantis-adjacent facsimile wherein the ancient continent of Lemuria sank into the sea and sometime thereafter the people that survived built a civilization deep beneath the ocean floor. There’s a few points of interest to note, first being that they decided to keep the strangely out of place score from Godzilla vs Hedorah, and I’m not sure why. There’s some reused effects shots from earlier movies featuring King Ghidorah’s gravity beams repurposed here as destruction a la Megalon. Jet Jaguar, the occasionally kaiju-sized robot mech, doesn’t realize his growth potential until an hour into the film and all of the monster fights that follow that point are visually goofy as hell.

Jet Jaguar holds his own against Megalon, even with a surprise appearance by the alien Kaiju Gigan, but Godzilla does eventually arrive to tag-team the villains with Jet Jaguar. In fact, at one point Jet Jaguar is holding Megalon’s arms behind his back as Godzilla, somehow, horizontally floats a dropkick right into his abdomen. It’s easily one of the strangest maneuvers Godzilla has ever attempted on screen. There were a few changes to the big G’s suit in this one as well. Larger eyes, with rounder features overall, I suspect this was to make him more palatable to children than earlier entries that reused suits from more tonally serious films. It’s definitely one of the weirder Godzilla films, but it has its merits.

10. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

After the wild success of the first crossover in Kaiju history with King Kong Vs. Godzilla, Toho wanted to replicate those box office winnings and largely succeeded with this film. Indeed, this film is consistently lauded as a creative highpoint in the Showa era of films. After a strong typhoon whips through the Japanese coastline, a giant blue-hued egg washes ashore and it’s not long before two businessmen plan to exploit the irregular discovery. The plot is a simple one overall, but it’s one that future films in the series would look back to for structural guidance, though this would be the last film in the Showa era to depict Godzilla as a solely villainous antagonist. It’s not long before the Shobijin, two tiny twin fairies who share a telepathic link with Mothra, arrive to warn them that the egg belongs to Mothra and if the larva hatches- it will cause great damage searching for food. They initially plead with the businessmen to bring Mothra’s egg back to Infant Island, where Mothra and the people that worship her live. Their hopes are quickly dashed though when the executive makes an attempt to kidnap the Shobijin to add them to the tourist attraction they’re building around the giant egg.

This is where journalist Sakai, his photographer Junko, and professor Miura come in. Sakai and Junko had arrived on the scene early on to report the egg’s arrival and had tried to get an interview with the professor but were rudely interrupted by the businessmen shooing people away saying they had already bought the egg. So, after escaping from the greedy executives, the Shobijin seek help from Sakai and company. They try to help the fairies out but after several editorials are published decrying the crimes against Mothra’s egg, even Sakai gets discouraged; "...public opinion is powerless against the law”. Defeated, the twin fairies express gratitude to Sakai and Junko for their attempts, but leave for Infant Island. Meanwhile, Godzilla emerges and goes about destroying everything in his path.

One of the other reporters suggests that maybe Mothra could defeat Godzilla, but suspects that the Insect God and her people wouldn’t have it due to previous nuclear testing that ravaged Infant Island. From there we get some good monster fights, with the fully matured Mothra and the two Kaiju larvae that eventually hatch from the egg. If you wanted to know generally what the spirit and overall tone of the Showa era films are, this would be a great place to start. Mothra vs. Godzilla helped set the foundation of the franchise and guided the trajectory of two of the most memorable movie monsters in cinema’s history.

9. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

According to an ancient Okinawan legend, when a black mountain appears in the skies above the clouds, a dastardly creature bent on destroying the world will appear. The prophecy also suggests that two other monsters will appear and defend humanity together. There’s a bit of trickery afoot when Godzilla emerges from a dormant volcano and goes on a particularly violent rampage nearly resulting in the death of Anguirus, one of the most beloved foes/monster friends of Godzilla. Then, to everyone’s surprise, another Godzilla appears and battles the doppleganger. After the second Godzilla hits the first with his atomic ray, it chips away chunks of fake flesh to reveal the shiny metallic body of Mechagodzilla underneath.

Perhaps the best design of Mechagodzilla, this one has a heavy emphasis on large bolts, huge spinning parts of its body that fire off finger missiles and charge up an electrified shield, the whole design is bombastic and generally a lot of fun. Which is why it’s so disappointing that the second act drops the pace to a dead stop. Once the monster fights get going and the other monster is revealed- King Caesar, a lion/god-like creature that has to be awakened by a surprisingly long song- the pace shoots back to a far more manageable pace. The score is also very light and playful this time around, it really energizes the tone of the film. It’s eventually revealed that *surprise* the villains are aliens again, though this time they're a more ape-like species. All in all, a relatively fun spin on the series, with a few speed bumps along the way.

8. Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

The first sequel in the franchise, Godzilla Raids Again skillfully introduced an idea that would come to dominate the future of the series. How do you up the ante after successfully introducing audiences to Godzilla just a year before? You have him fight another monster, obviously. With the (spoilers) death of Godzilla in the first film, the sequel attempts to explain away the existence of “Another Godzilla” instead of simply revealing that the atomic lizard had survived Serizawa’s ‘Oxygen Destroyer’. They likely didn’t want to undercut the ending of their recent box office success, but a half-measure can always be felt and while it’s a bit awkward and clunky, it works for the context of this film.

The story mostly follows two pilots, Tsukioka and Kobayashi, that work for a fishing cannery in Osaka. They routinely fly out over the ocean to spot schools of fish for their boats lying in wait. On one such journey Kobayashi’s plane malfunctions and the two are forced to land on a nearby remote island. Tsukioka quickly finds Kobayashi alive and well, but they then witness a new Godzilla fighting another monster, an ankylosaurus who’s quickly nicknamed Anguirus. The pilots watch the two Kaiju duke it out for a brief moment before they knock each other into the Ocean. After Tsukioka and Kobayashi make it back home to Osaka they inform the authorities and Dr. Yamane (played by the legendary Takasi Shimura) returns from the first film to show a highlight reel from the first movie and to assist with the obligatory exposition detailing that since both the Oxygen Destroyer and Dr. Serizawa are now gone, they will have to find a way to handle the evolving new normal of life with Kaiju.

The remainder of the film deals with Osaka and it’s people warding off both Godzilla and Anguirus with some pretty good special effects depicting both of the titans as they destroy some intricately detailed model work together. Out of all of the films in the Showa era, there’s only a couple that reflect Japanese life and culture back as intimately as this one. I think this may be the only film to show sliding doors, or Shoji, and the typical Japanese seating on the floor with low furniture. While this one may be simply a tale of monsters and mayhem, it’s well crafted and it has some good character work with Tsukioka and Kobayashi. It may be a bit predictable at times, but it’s a quality entry in the series.

7. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

This is one of the darkly weird ones. I’m mostly referring to the actual lighting and color palette of the film- but the villains themselves have always seemed slightly more unsettling than your run-of-the-mill alien conquerors. Maybe it’s because they use recently deceased Human bodies to hide amongst us, or because they’re actually giant cockroaches who escaped an earth-like planet’s destruction and are trying to wipe out all Human cities in order to inhabit Earth and become the dominant species. The aliens’ plan this time around involves a Godzilla-themed theme park with a focus on “peace”. From their secret headquarters in the accurately-sized Godzilla-shaped tower of the park, they plan on using specific audio frequencies to control two Kaiju from space (Similarly to how audio frequencies were used in Godzilla King of The Monsters 2019), King Ghidorah and introducing for the first time in the series, Gigan. Gigan looks like he belongs on a heavy metal album cover. He’s got curved blades for arms, a cyclops-like red laser beam that emits from his eye, and a spinning circular saw that comes out of his chest. Seems like a friendly chap!

After a manga artist is hired by the aliens to draft up some concept art, he accidentally discovers their plan by mistakenly taking the wrong audio tape from their lair. When he plays the tape Godzilla and Anguirus are the ones that hear the frequency first instead of King Ghidorah and Gigan. Sensing that something isn’t right, Godzilla orders Anguirus to go check out the source of the frequency. Poor old Anguirus then swims from Monster Island to mainland Japan where he’s driven away by the Military who obviously misinterpret the Kaiju’s intentions. When he returns to Monster Island Anguirus informs Godzilla of what happened (they have animated speech bubbles now!) and they swim back to the mainland to investigate the situation together. The duo end up fighting both King Ghidorah and Gigan after the human characters disable the powerful laser hidden in the Godzilla tower’s head, and everything eventually returns to normal once the villainous Kaiju are forced back into the blackness of space. This one may reuse some of the usual themes and structure of past films, aliens as villains, “Pollution is bad!”, but it does just enough to make itself unique among the rest of the films.

6. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

One of the few films in the Showa era to be a direct sequel to the previous film, Terror of Mechagodzilla opens with a title sequence that gives us the highlights of the first Mechagodzilla film. This may be the last film in the Showa era of the franchise, but it’s also one of the most entertaining of the bunch! This one has everything; there’s a mad scientist, a new Kaiju in the Titanosaurus, Aliens, Cyborgs, and a rebuilt Mechagodzilla to boot! The story is pretty straightforward for the series with the usual culprits and structure, but the execution is so good it transcends the familiar to become a more refined version of the past tropes and genre goodness.

Most of that freshness may lie in the edit. It’s a much tighter and faster paced film than its predecessor. There’s a surprise romantic development between a Marine Biologist and the daughter of said Mad Scientist, turns out one of them was a cyborg this whole time! This time around the aliens use a betrayed, rejected, and hurt Mad Scientist who assists them in repairing Mechagodzilla with upgrades while also controlling Titanosaurus, an incredibly fast underwater Kaiju. As you may have guessed, Godzilla eventually gets word of this potential upheaval of the world order- and shows up to throw the beat down on Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus. There’s some pretty good monster action in this one, and the genre antics with over-the-top acting really sealed the deal for me personally.

5. Ebirah, Horror of The Deep (1966)

This one was a fun diversion from the majority of the Godzilla films released during this time. Ryota, a young man searching for his brother lost at sea, stows away on a bank robber’s yacht but they all end up shipwrecked when the giant crustacean Kaiju Ebirah notices their boat during a storm. The crew barely survive and end up swimming to a nearby island that's run by the "Red Bamboo", a terrorist organization manufacturing heavy water for nuclear bombs. It isn’t long before our heroes discover that the Red Bamboo has enslaved some of Mothra's people from the nearby Infant Island to make a yellow compound that keeps Ebirah at bay.

This film, with it’s tropical setting and unique storyline make it distinctively fun as a standalone adventure. Though, for the uninitiated- there are several long song sequences devoted to Mothra. The enslaved people of Infant Island call out in song to their insectoid God to save them, and these sequences can drag on a bit, but if you’re a Mothra-stan, this should be right up your alley. There’s also some pretty decent monster fights once Godzilla is awakened. Godzilla is shown asleep a couple times in the caves near the shore of the island, after the two previous films in the series where he fought King Ghidorah twice in a row- the big guy just needed some shut eye. His fight with Ebirah is pretty entertaining and has a good snappy pace to the editing. After one too many tribute songs Mothra eventually arrives to save her people and the other humans in a giant net as the island violently explodes from Godzilla's rampage. Though there is a quick moment when the two Kaiju mean-mug each other, they still have a bit of a grudge since their last encounter, and I thought that was a nice touch to the continuity of the franchise.

4. Invasion of Astro Monster (1965)

Invasion of Astro Monster is a classic monster movie of the era. It gets a lot right, but it's also supremely weird. While not a direct sequel to its predecessor in Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, this film acknowledges the past as characters within the film recognize King Ghidorah and Rodan as both were introduced previously. Upon the detection of a mysterious planet hidden behind Jupiter, dubbed Planet X, a two man team of Astronauts from Japan and America travel to the newfound planet in search of discovery. What they find is the series’ first encounter with Alien life in The Xiliens.

After a brief interaction with the Controller, the leader of the Xiliens, the new species of intelligent life seem benevolent enough to be trusted. They also happen to be under a routine siege by King Ghidorah, which our heroes Fuji and Glenn bear witness to. Under threat of near constant barrage by the golden space dragon, the Controller makes Fuji and Glenn an offer. The Xiliens want to borrow two of the Earth’s Kaiju, namely Godzilla and Rodan, to combat King Ghidorah. In return, the Xiliens would give humanity the cure for Cancer. The Astronauts accept and inform their respective governments upon their return of the offer, and they begin the search for Godzilla and Rodan. Curiously, the Controller is seen several times around the globe before being spotted and making his presence known. He apologizes for any indiscretions and offers to help in the search for the Kaiju. Two Planet X spaceships quickly scoop up the Kaiju and the Controller offers Glenn, Fuji, and one of their superiors to participate in what essentially ends up being a galactic ride-along where they watch their Earthly Kaiju give King Ghidorah another deserved Shellacking.

Godzilla dances a weird jig and the Xiliens gift the humans a box that they say has the cure within. After returning home and opening the box during an international meeting, they find an audio reel. Once played, they recognize the Controller’s voice as he details an ultimatum for the people of Earth. Surrender or be destroyed by all three Kaiju that the Xiliens now control, Godzilla, Rodan, and *gasp* King Ghidorah! This film was a great deal of fun! Quirky costumes, over-the-top arch villainy from the Xiliens, and some inner Solar System space travel! It’s the first time we’ve had technologically superior Aliens as villains, something the series would return to again and again for the better portion of the Showa era. It also focuses heavily on Science saving the day with an emphasis on audio frequencies that can violently repel those pesky conquerors from space! This one’s an outright classic and a good time despite, or due to, the sci-fi cheesiness that comes with the territory.

3. Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster is one of the most integral films in the franchise as it introduces so much of what works best in the series as a whole. This film introduces Godzilla’s best villain in King Ghidorah, the three-headed golden dragon from outer-space. This film does an outstanding job building expectation and the threat of Ghidorah long before he awakens from the meteor that he crash lands in near the beginning of the story. There are three parallel story threads running throughout the movie. First there’s Princess Salno from a small Himalayan country traveling to Japan (She’s actually a descendent of the aliens from Venus that survived their planet’s destruction and assimilated with the humans on Earth- but more on that later). Secondly, Godzilla and Rodan awaken and fight each other for a good portion of the first half of the film. Lastly we have information slowly revealed to us of the inherent danger of King Ghidorah’s arrival.

There’s some fun stuff with Princess Salno as she’s overtaken by an Alien presence that details, in grave exposition, of how King Ghidorah had also laid siege upon her planet Venus and destroyed it ages ago. They really lay on the doom thick with this one. I loved how seemingly even the planet and atmosphere were reacting to the presence of this otherworldly Kaiju- wild changes were taking place with the weather and seasonal temperatures fluctuated to concerning heights while scientists studied the glowing and magnetic meteor that held Ghidorah. The tone is deadly serious throughout the film, and I loved the dedication to that, it’s one of the only films in the Showa era to mimic the dark tones of that first film. With the introduction of Rodan into the Godzilla franchise, this film completed the trifecta of Showa mainstays with Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan who all ultimately team up, after some disagreement, to take on the fearsome King Ghidorah and force him off the planet together. This is my personal favorite film in the Showa era of Godzilla films. It’s the first time Godzilla has ever acted as a Hero of the Earth and not solely a figure of destruction and they even got Takashi Shimura to appear in one last Godzilla film to play a similar role to his previous performances in the franchise, though it is canonically a different character.

2. Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Perhaps the most surprising film of the bunch, I had never actually seen this one until now. Destroy All Monsters is the perfect example of the heights that the Showa era Godzilla films could reach. Initially this was meant to be the end of the film series, so Toho went all out with set-pieces, special effects, and number of monsters by including every featured Kaiju the series had crafted thus far. This paired with the tried-and-true method of making aliens from outer-space the villains again (They’re called Kilaaks now) made this Kaiju Blockbuster a hit in Japan. The film takes place in the far off future of 1999 where Humanity has collected and subdued all of the Earth’s Kaiju on Monster Island.

There the Kaiju are kept sedated through a gaseous cloud emitted from a series of pipes that lead back to the center of the island where a team of scientists and researchers monitor the monsters. Mysteriously all of the monsters suddenly vanish from the island and are seen on News Reports across the globe as each monster destroys monuments and buildings galore. Godzilla is sent to New York where he attacks Manhattan, Rodan flies over the skies of Moscow, Mothra besieges Beijing, Gorosaurus destroys the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and Manda wrecks the London railways. All of these scenes are a lot of fun, especially with the musical score. It feels almost like a wartime anthem- but cheery. After awhile the United Nations Science Committee sends Captain Yamabe and the crew of his spaceship, Moonlight SY-3, to investigate Monster Island. There they discover that the scientists have been lulled into servitude by the all female alien race, the Kilaaks. These villains are about as arch as it gets if I’m being honest, but that’s part of the fun.

Once they’re discovered, the aliens reveal their plan: Force the human race to surrender or face total annihilation by the Kaiju they now control. After the Kilaaks are found to be the cause of the monster mayhem it’s revealed to us that the first wave of attacks was a plot to divert attention away from their efforts in building a base of operations inside Mount Fuji. Eventually Captain Yamabe and his crew discover that the true source of the mind-control device subjugating the Earth’s Kaiju is being emitted from an underground laboratory on the Moon. So, after a quick trip to the Moon resulting in the destruction of the Kilaak’s secret base and return to Earth, the stage is set for the final showdown in which the monsters of Earth all work together to crush the new headquarters of the Kilaaks. Once things start getting dicey for the Kilaaks they bring in the big guns with King Ghidorah, who they manipulate to fight all of the Earth's monsters at Mount Fuji. All retaliate against the golden dragon and even a secret weapon that the Kilaaks use as a last ditch effort to salvage their conquest of the Earth! This one was highly entertaining, and very very 1960's in tone and depiction. I loved the incredibly saturated color palette, the heroes’ goofy and obtuse costumes, detailed models and sets, and the delightfully over the top acting from, well, everyone. Highly recommended.

1. Godzilla (1954)

The one that started it all, Godzilla isn’t just a damn good monster movie, it’s one of the best films to come out of 1950’s Japan- and that’s saying a LOT! Step aside Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujiro Ozu, it’s Ishiro Honda’s time in the limelight (by the way if you don’t recognize any of those names mentioned, please give them a google and check out their work. It’s some of the finest cinema in world history). The film begins with an investigation into the sinking of several fishing boats and their subsequent search parties near Odo Island. An Elder on the island says that the cause must be Godzilla, a local myth the native fishing community heeds with great caution. We’re given clues as the lead up to the reveal of the King of the Monsters nears. An eyewitness claims that during a rainstorm the previous night that his family was crushed to death by a monster. The witnesses to this mysterious phenomenon are then brought to the National Diet Building where after hearing the details firsthand Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura), a high ranking Paleontologist, requests that a more formal investigative party be sent to Odo Island.

Data collected from destroyed houses on Odo Island reveal they were indeed crushed from above, as well as some revealing radioactive footprints. One of the giant tracks even had an ancient trilobite wedged into the muck. Just when Dr. Yamane and the others are putting the evidence together, the island’s emergency alarms wail wildly and everyone heads for high ground. As they approach the hills, Godzilla pops his head over the ridge and roars defiantly. The shock of such a large beast appearing sends everyone fleeing in disarray. Godzilla then heads for the sea, towards mainland Japan. Once back in Tokyo Dr. Yamane does as much research as possible trying to find reasoning for such an aggressive evolution. The good doctor then holds a presentation where he reveals that the soil samples taken from Godzilla’s footprints contain extreme amounts of Strontium-90- which could only have come from a Nuclear Bomb. Chaotic debate ensues, some believe the world should know Godzilla’s atomic origins, while others believe it would only upset the newly established, and still fragile, world order with the war still looming large in the minds of all. They eventually decide to reveal the beast’s backstory, and immediately an Anti-Godzilla fleet is organized and sent to the Kaiju’s last known location to swarm him with depth charges.

Believing that the creature has been killed, Dr. Yamane distresses alone that we should have studied the creature to learn more than simply striking out at it before we understood it. Later that night Godzilla makes a brief appearance in Tokyo Bay rising from the depths in front of a well attended party boat which garners national attention and spreads fear far and wide. While all of this is taking place, there’s also some quality human drama unfolding parallel to the apocalyptic beast’s introduction. Dr. Yamane's daughter, Emiko Yamane, is engaged to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, a colleague of Yamane's. However, she’s come to love another man, Lieutenant Hideo Ogata. When she goes to Serizawa to confess her love for Ogata and break their relationship off- Serizawa reveals his dark secret to her. He has just completed a device even more destructive than that of the atom bomb, the Oxygen Destroyer. He has told no one but her, and decides to show her it’s power by instantaneously killing an entire tank of fish leaving only their skeletal remains. Shocked by the violent demonstration and Serizawa’s revelation of this destructive power, Emiko leaves him in a rush, forgetting to tell him the real reason she came.

I won’t break down the entire film here, but the remainder of the film relishes in Godzilla’s rampant destruction and skirmishes with Japan’s Military as the nation witnesses the failure of conventional weapons in the face of this new threat. The film really wallows in the destruction and impact Godzilla’s presence has on the people in his path. A particularly poignant shot zooms in on a child’s weeping face as a geiger counter reveals her obvious fate. The whole film is far heavier and more grim than the rest of the Showa era films. In fact most of the darker, headier themes of the series wouldn’t return until the Heisei era of films reset the franchise in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla, which entirely ignores the Showa era films with exception of this film. If you’ve never seen this one, I highly recommend giving it a shot. You can find it in multiple formats, though I do recommend giving the Criterion edition a try in physical form, or through their streaming service The Criterion Channel.

Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.

Ranked! The Showa Era Godzilla Movies (1954-1975)