Gojira (film)/Trivia

No Export for You: The film was sent to America in 1955 catering Japanese-Americans. However, it was picked up later and Americanized as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. In 2004, the original version was viewed (finally) in it's original form. And the fans rejoiced when it was released in 2006 by Classic Media and Criterion Collection recently.
Too Soon: At the time of this film's release, World War II had only been over for 9 years, and would still have been fresh in the minds of its viewers. Considering Ishiro Honda's direction of the screenplay (and he did direct it), there are several references to Japan's experiences in World War II. These include:
- Godzilla himself is not just a metaphor of the atomic bomb (or nuclear weapons in general), but a rather living nuclear weapon. A rather sad part, Godzilla in the climax is treated as the monster itself is innocent, since it experienced the aftershock of the nuclear weapons that gave the monster its powers. How it went to "Kill every single human that stands in my way", we will never know.
- The exchange with Ogata and Dr. Yamane when Ogata agrees with the army to kill Godzilla because of him being a reminder of the atomic bombings. Unfortunately, Yamane doesn't take it well, and kicks Ogata out of his house. Good job, Ogata. You completely changed the subject from marrying his daughter to killing Godzilla (which is why he's even at the Yamanes' house). What an idiot.
- After Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo, we're shown scenes on TV of the many victims in the hospital, some with radiation burns. This was almost certainly drawn from similar scenes in the Japanese news that would have followed the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
- The fire raids. Those of you don't know about the fire raids, look it up.

Back to Gojira (film)