This delightful little tale delves into the ‘roots' of Godzilla and hints from whence he came, a nuclear by-product from Lagos in WWII. Seems the Japanese soldiers that were based on this desolate island were the only garrison that avoided the dreaded American army and their heinous bombings during the war. As the Americans attempted to plummet the Japanese army on the island, they were turned away by a large and powerful dinosaur. When the Japanese finally fled the island, the dinosaur remained and nuclear testing on nearby islands resulted in the mutated creature we know and love as Godzilla! Or so the story goes .......

Through the years, and from the beginning of Godzilla history way back in the 50's, Toho Studios has continued to infer that Godzilla was the result of the devil American army and their devastating bombs that were dropped on their cities. Originally Honda, Godzilla's creator, set about to show the American people the destruction that the bomb dropped by my friend, Paul Tibbets Sr., wrecked on their country. In an effort to not anger the American citizens further, Honda invented Godzilla as a display of this carnage to his country. I haven't seen Paul for many years, but I wish now I had asked him what his take was on this Godzilla creature. Another missed opportunity. Anyway, on to Godzilla and his new nemesis ‘King Ghidorah'.

Who else would build an amusement park devoted to monsters?
Yoshio Tsuchiya is a rich businessman, who is the owner of this amusement park - a sort of shrine to monsters. He was, during the war, stationed on Lagos and knows the history of the dinosaur that protected the Japanese soldiers. Newspaper reporter Isao Toyohara hears the story of the ill fated dinosaur and in his wisdom comes up with the theory that it is what eventually evolved into Godzilla. He approaches Tsuchiya with his theory, which is soon backed up by three space travelers from a flying saucer.

Now this was a nifty little twist to the general Godzilla tale, the saucer lands and the three demand to speak to the Prime Minster of Japan, indicating they had ‘great news from the future for him'. These boobs were from the year 2204 and arrived in what they called a time capsule. We have the standard two masculine guys (Chuck Wilson and Richard Berger) in their Saturday Night Fever polyester jumpsuits (quite colorful I might add) and Emmy (Anna Nakagawa), who greets the crowd with "Hi, I'm Japanese".

These three miscreants (well, actually the guys only, as it turns out) spins some yarn about how they have returned to have Godzilla eliminated from history - something that is a big no-no in time travel you know - in order to change the course of history because if they don't, well, poofy, Japan is gone from the Earth by the year 2204. Of course this is all wolves in sheep's clothing bunk, because what they really want to do is introduce their buddy, King Ghidorah, to come in and destroy Japan so they can assume world power.

Anyway, they ‘time travel' back to 1944, and the island of Lagos, to destroy the dinosaur before he can turn into Godzilla and eventually become both friend and foe to Japan, depending on which story he is starring in at the time. Assumably they are successful in their attempt. In addition, they leave behind three cute little creatures known as Dorats (kinda like Furbys with wings) which turns into King Ghidorah, when he is exposed to the nuclear testing instead of Godzilla.

Hopping back in their time machine and returning to Godzillaless 1992, the two guys chortle with glee as they watch their three-headed pet, Ghidorah, use his dragon powered breath to wipe out Tokyo. Meantime, Godzilla, never one to be beaten down, becomes even bigger and more powerful because he has been exposed to sunken nuclear subs at the bottom of the ocean. He manages to come back to life, just like he always does, and heads to Tokyo to fight Ghidorah.

Emmy, catching wind of the guys evil ways, and being totally amazed I might add, comes to the rescue by getting in the time machine and traveling to the future and reviving the Ghidorah that Godzilla managed to kill in 1992. Manipulating some robotic third head on Ghidorah, she comes after Godzilla and puts her nubile little self in peril. Whew!

Sitting on the sidelines
This got very confusing. Way too many stories going on in one little monster movie for me. You've got WWII, you've got dinosaurs being nuclear geneticed, you've got flying saucers and weird space people, you've got three-headed monsters, you've got monster amusement parks and of course you've got your love interest. The love interest kinda fizzles though when Emmy makes some confessions later on in the movie, but I'll leave that one to you. It was a busy movie, that's for sure.

Naturally, Tokyo gets leveled for the umpteenth time in the 50 years that Godzilla has been on the screen. But he's a much more powerful guy in this movie. Bigger and badder than before but they didn't change the music or that distinctive roar. To those of you that are familiar with the Godzillan run of monsters that fight against him, you might have had a peak at Ghidorah in a previous release. Fortunately, with improved computer graphics and such, he is much better this time around, as is Godzilla himself.

Sure, this ain't nobodies Matrix or any computer generated cgi's, we've basically still got our men in rubber suits playing the part of the monsters, but there is just something about this Godzilla guy that continues to draw the audiences, no matter how phony he may look and no matter how tatty that rubber suit gets over the years. Honda, and Toho Studios, have always remained true to this guy, doing little over the ½ century to spiff him up and give him a shiny suit.

When the American's tried to step in and take over in 1998 and give us a new and sleeker monster and drop HER (the nerve!) into New York, we stepped right up and demanded that HE be returned to the Japanese and to Tokyo where he belongs and where he returned in Godzilla 2000 .

With Ghidorah we have the wonderful Tonka toy trucks and tanks again and the delightful English dubbing with the voices that never match the character. Ya just can't change a good thing! Now I'm not saying you should run and out rent this bad boy, I is after all just standard Godzilla tripe, but there is an interesting story to this one and some of the theories kinda make you scratch your head and wonder. Those polyester jumpsuits, though, they gotta go!

Aka Gojira VS Kingugidora (1991)

Written and directed by Kazuki Omori, starring Kenpachiro Satsuma as Godzilla.

Thanks,
Susi :)





Recommended: Yes