Gigantus: The Fire Breathing Monster
(aka: Godzilla Raids Again)
(1955)
review by Big McLargehuge

Following on the success of Gojira, Toho studios tapped a growing market for escapist entertainment; this time pegging director Motoyoshi Oda to take the reigns of the Godzilla property. This would be his only film in the Toho Kaiju family.

The change in directors shows. Where Honda focused on the conflict between beneficial technology and man's darkest urges in the original Gojira, Oda takes the film in a different direction.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The Godzilla suit in this is a little different than that of the first film. Most notably Godzilla's ears are gone and the eyes are softened, but only just so. My guess is that these alterations were made to differentiate the Godzilla of this film with that of the original, who died at the end.

This film focuses on the trials and tribulations of the Osaka Fish Company, and its two tuna spotter pilots, Tsukioka and Koboyashi.

Unlike Godzilla, Saperstein's edit of Gigantis does not graft American actors shot on US soundstages into the film. This is certainly much less costly, but the tradeoff is instead of a character with which we can identify we get relentless narration. I mean, the Americanized script of this movie literally narrates everything that happens. Even when characters present their dialogue our narrator explains what has just been said.

I tend to watch this one with the voice turned down…

We also get a few weird minutes of footage of other films shoved in as Dr. Yamane (the only cast member of the first film to make an appearance in this one) explains something weirdly psychotic about "the fire monsters" rampaging through Osaka.

This is all obviously part of the American scripted stuff and makes absolutely no sense at all in relation to the monster it attempts to explain, nor to the film in which it resides. It almost feels as if someone spooled a stock footage reel of dinosaur shots and had the Dr. Yamane voice guy simply add-lib his way through.

This is perhaps the worst moment in the any Godzilla movie. However, that said, it is also unbelievably hilarious.

Anyway. Godzilla is discovered on a remote island engaged in combat with Anguirus (Angillas, Angilas, Angorus depending on who you talk to) who is a spiky anklysaurus looking monster. Anguirus would go on to appear in several of the later films, most often as Godzilla's ally against much more powerful monsters.

In this film, however, Godzilla kills him.

Motoyoshi Oda did not learn the most important Kaiju filming lesson from the first Gojira either. He shoots most if not all of the monster sequences during the day (or on a day lit set) and does not use slow motion to give the creatures the necessary ponderous weight required to impart the feeling of awe generated in the original Gojira.

This does take a bit away from the viewing experience and renders several of the longer monster sequences less ominous and more silly.

The story follows Tsukioka and Koboyashi's experiences with two enormous monsters battling through Osaka while the military tries desperately to drive them off.

Once Anguirus meets his maker (a jaw break always seems to kill these things) Godzilla heads out to sea.

We get several great sequences in this film, especially the denoument when Godzilla, now floating on an offshore iceberg, faces off against hordes of air force jets intent on burying him in the ice. We certainly get a nice sense or scale from this bit too.

This film has pretty much everything Kaiju fans have come to expect. Personal sacrifice, and guilt at the banishment of the monster, the keen drive to rebuild and the perpetual terror of not knowing when the next attack will come.

The narration is awful though. Still, that said, I watch the VHS copy of this pretty often. I am not sure that this is one of the ones released on DVD. If so it probably suffers the same fate as the Godzilla King of the Monsters DVD and lacks the original Japanese language track and cut of the film. So, I probably won't buy it even if I stumble across it somewhere.

I know there are some VCDs and DVDs of the Original in the Japanese market, so if anyone happens across either, drop me a line here at Horrorview… Or better yet, send one to me as a gift.