Product Description: Godzilla is back and this time he's not alone! While scouting the seas for schools of fish young pilots Tsukioka and Kobayashi encounter Godzilla and the spiny monster Anguirus in heated battle on a small Japanese island. The two beasts tumble into the ocean and soon resurface in Osaka laying waste to the city in a fight to the death. As the threat of destruction mounts the two heroes muster their courage for the final showdown with Godzilla.Features:Audio CommentariesSpecial packaging featuring original lobby card artworkFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 796019801805 Manufacturer No: LVD685680
Gigantis, the Fire Monster... ^ The first of many sequels to the original Godzilla, this relatively obscure film suffers in comparison to its predecessor, yet still stands out as an innovative entry in the series. In 1955, Toho was just cutting its teeth in the daikaju genre, but managed to produce a film with some remarkable special effects work and atmospheric cinematography. Viewed in context, Godzilla Raids Again remains a treat for Godzilla fans.
Giant monster movie fans may remember this 1955 sequel to Godzilla, King of the Monsters, by its original American release title: Gigantis, the Fire Monster. This excellent Classic Media DVD release presents both the original Japanese version as well as the 1959 American release, and features an informative commentary by daikaiju authorities Steve Ryfle, Ed Godziszewski, and Stuart Galbraith IV.
Unlike the original Godzilla, which was a powerful allegory about the horrors of nuclear war, Godzilla Raids Again plays more as a standard 1950's monster-on-the-loose melodrama, and stands as the first in the cycle of monster-vs.-monster movies for which Toho is famous. However, the often-superb special effects and moody cinematography elevate this one well above most of its contemporaries. Godzilla's first foe, Angilas (who, over the course of the Godzilla series, became one of Toho's most popular daikaiju), makes a striking debut in this picture.
Unfortunately, the Americanization, supervised by Paul Schreibman, is a farce, and results in the entire production playing as unintentional camp. Flawed though it might be, the original Japanese version stands as a noteworthy entry in the Godzilla series, and is highly entertaining in its own right.
Decent- if flawed- sequel to the original classic ^ Godzilla Raids Again has a few distinctive qualities: it was the first Godzilla sequel, the first to have Godzilla fight an adversary, the first to feature a score by Masaru Sato, and the last to be filmed in black and white. Despite all this, it still suffers from sequelitis, probably due to its rushed, six-month production schedule. After the first Godzilla was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in the previous film, a new Godzilla is discovered battling another monster called Anguirus. Unsuprisingly, the two end up duking it out in Osaka. Godzilla ends up killing Anguirus (though he somehow reappared in three or four more Showa films) and for some reason heads to an icy island, where he battles the air force.
Godzilla Raids Again suffers from a bland love triangle and tedious sequences involving how the monsters are affecting the Japanese fishing industry. Hiroshi Koizumi would go on to be a series regular and Takashi Shimura reprises his role as Dr. Yamane in a brief cameo. The action sequences are okay, but the fight between Godzilla and Anguirus looks very odd due to the cinematographer under-cranking the camera instead of over-cranking it the way he should have (Eiji Tsuburaya liked this effect and kept it in for some bizarre reason).
That being said, the film has an effectively eerie mood thanks to its creepy, atmospheric score by the brilliant Masaru Sato (who would go on to score three more Godzilla films after this), and a script that takes the subject matter seriously. While the grim, bleak tone of Honda's first film is mostly gone, Godzilla Raids Again is still a straight-faced sci-fi thriller without the camp of the later films. While Gojira was done in the style of a disaster film, Godzilla Raids Again plays like a war movie, with Japan readying itself for an inevitable attack by unstoppable enemies. The scenes with the coastal cities enforcing a blackout as Godzilla approaches are eerily effective, and bring back images of the Allies' conflict with Japan during WWII. In addition, Godzilla's climactic battle with the air force is one of the best- and most original- action sequences of the Showa era.
If you want to see this, stick with the Japanese version, as the American version has Godzilla's roars replaced with Anguirus's (seriously) and has the voice actor for Tsukioka incessantly- and infuriatingly- narrating every tiny detail in the film, right down to what he's doing on camera! The American version also adds pointless (not to mention idiotic) stock footage and replaces Masaru Sato's score with inferior stock music from Hollywood B-movies. Godzilla Raids Again isn't a classic; it's talky and obviously inferior to the original, but at the same time it stands out from the rest of the early Godzilla films because of its unusual mood and tone.
'Exploitation Madness' - GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN ^ Christopher William Koenig of 'Exploitation Madness' presents yet again another DVD review of a Japanese monster movie; in this case it's the sequel to the first Godzilla film titled "Godzilla Raids Again". This is a rather okay sequel and the original Japanese cut is worth seeing, but the American version is a different beast in itself!
GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (1955; Japanese Title: "Gojira No Gyakushu"/US Title: "Gigantis the Fire Monster")
Tsukioka (Hiroshi Koizumi) and Kobayashi (Minoru Chiaki) are pilots working for a local fishing company in Osaka. Once Kobayashi has engine trouble, he lands on the desolate Iwato Island. Tsukioka meets his buddy on the island and both discover that another Godzilla is around. Not only that, but Godzilla has an adversary: Anguirus, a giant spiky armadillo monster. Tsukioka and Kobayashi warn the officials about their discovery and with some brief help from Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura), the military attempts to find a way to stop the monsters. But as their plans fail, Godzilla and Anguirus show up near Osaka and proceed to duke it out in the city! While Godzilla is able to defeat Anguirus, even with one monster out of the way the military must stop Godzilla before it strikes again!
The success of "Godzilla" in Japan was tremendous, but producer Tomoyuki Tanaka didn't exactly know what to do next until the executives at Toho Studios told him to make another picture. That is, make another Godzilla picture. Utilizing once again the effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya, story writer Shigeru Kayama, and scriptwriter Takeo Murata, these three were brought on to conceive the sequel. However, gone were the directional talents of Ishiro Honda and the music composer Akira Ifukube, replaced by semi-effective direction of Motoyoshi Oda and then-upcoming composer Masaru Sato. What seemed like a good start for a sequel comes off as a slight disappointment. "Godzilla Raids Again" has an interesting story concept, but it feels too loose and lags once we get past the 40-minute mark. Once we are introduced to Godzilla and Anguirus within the first 10 minutes of the film, the mystery is pretty much revealed and we are then relegated to watch underdeveloped characters trying to understand what to do. Then, once when the monsters show up to devastate Osaka, it's Eiji Tsuburaya who saves the show as Godzilla and Anguirus battle ferociously, all the while flooding subways and demolishing buildings and landmarks such as the great Osaka Castle. After all this is over, the story switches gears to another location, in this case Hokkaido, and the characters act as if everything is over and done with, despite Godzilla still being at large! Story-wise, this is all over the place and would have worked much better if Ishiro Honda had a hand with the script. Motoyoshi Oda's direction is strictly so-so as his pacing goes between fast and slow, and sometimes this affects the scenes that need good pacing most of the time. It's quite clear that Toho made the wrong decision to have Oda handle this follow up and would not make the same mistake again with their future sci-fi film's of the late 1950's and 1960s as they would be helmed by Ishiro Honda. On the other hand, Masaru Sato delivers an effective score that while not as good as Akira Ifukube's music from the first Godzilla picture it still comes off well and doesn't feel like typical music one can find in a standard American B-movie. Sato claimed because this was his first assignment he was not impressed at what he came up with and that he would later be able to conduct better scores for later Godzilla films like "Son of Godzilla" (1967; Japanese Title: "Kaijuto No Kessen: Gojira No Musuko") and "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" (1974; Japanese Title: "Gojira Tai Mekagojira"). Hiroshi Koizumi and Minoru Chiaki are quite good in their roles as the buddy fisherman pilots, but they are given very little to do with their characters in terms of development. Once the two get together with their girlfriends, it doesn't make the proceedings any better, as the chemistry between them doesn't gel well. And the great Takashi Shimura returns to his role of Dr. Yamane from the first Godzilla, but it's rather brief as his character comes and goes rather quickly, not giving us much insight as everything he's said is repeated from the first film.
Despite "Godzilla Raids Again" coming off as a semi-average sequel worthy of viewing, it's the American version "Gigantis the Fire Monster" that should be looked at as a curio of what not to do when releasing foreign product in re-edited form. After the American version of "Godzilla" was released in the United States around 1956 by the distributors Joseph E. Levene and Paul Schreibman, Toho was already promoting the international distribution of the sequel in hopes that it too would be picked up for American release. Schreibman picked up the distribution rights to "Godzilla Raids Again" for AB-PT and felt it had commercial possibilities for release if it could be changed drastically for American tastes (or, at least, American B-science fiction tastes). Whereas the re-cut of "Godzilla" incorporated an American interacting with the original Japanese footage, Schreibman felt "Godzilla Raids Again" could be re-edited as an American feature and utilizing only the Japanese effects sequences, cutting out most of the original cast in the process. Hiring writers Ib Melchoir and Edwin Watson, they would form a script entitled "The Volcano Monsters" which would be entirely different from "Godzilla Raids Again". The re-worked story goes as follows: a volcanic earthquake occurs on an island outside of Japan and two scientists are sent to investigate, only to find two dinosaurs dormant in a cave. The dinosaurs are sent to California, but are revived by a lightning bolt and go on a rampage. Because Godzilla and Anguirus are attacking Osaka in the original effects footage, to have this work with the new American location Melchoir and Watson have the destruction take place in Chinatown (yes, Chinatown, that's really convincing...I mean, it's not every day you see the Osaka Castle in Chinatown!). It was also decided that some new effects scenes needed to be filmed, so Schreibman asked Toho if they could send the original Godzilla and Anguirus costumes for use and they complied. The costumes were sent to Howard A. Anderson's optical effects house, witnessed by none other than American International Pictures effects artists Paul Blaisdell and future prop collector Bob Burns. However, the production suddenly came to a halt, primarily because AB-PT went under and left several more projects behind, most notably the co-production of Toho's later monster film "Varan" (1958; Japanese Title: "Daikaiju Baran"/US Title: "Varan the Unbelievable"), which was to be released to both Japanese and American television. But while Toho was able to complete "Varan" for Japanese theatrical distribution, the proposed American re-working of "Godzilla Raids Again" quickly faded from view.
Eventually, Schreibman decided that not only would it be better if the picture was slightly edited and dubbed in English, he also decided that Godzilla would be called 'Gigantis' for this reason: Schreibman didn't want the audience to confuse the film as being a re-issue of the original "Godzilla". Even worse, in some scenes Godzilla's roar is replaced with that of Anguirus, due to the English dub claiming the monsters are of the same species. However, this all would have worked if only dubbing editor and director Hugo Grimaldi would have removed the sequence featuring Dr. Serizawa explaining about the Oxygen Destroyer and showing footage of Godzilla's rampage thru Tokyo from the first film via film projector during a briefing, because leaving this in doesn't even attempt to disguise this from being a follow up! Even worse, the English dubbing is just plain bad with lousy translations and various goofs of the monsters identity: once Godzilla is called 'Gigantis', Dr. Yamane shows the clips of Godzilla attacking from the first film and the English dubber labels Godzilla being the first 'Anguirus'! This also didn't stop Grimaldi from removing most of Masaru Sato's score and replacing it with stock music cues by Bert Shefter and Paul Sawtell's that could be heard in other science fiction B-flicks like "Kronos" (1957) and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" (1958). And then just when you think Schreibman and Grimaldi couldn't top themselves, they decided to add in some bizarre prologue featuring stock footage of experimental rockets being fired into space while some serious-minded narrator babbles away at the progress of man's work into other ventures causing them to focus less on the mysteries of our own world! More stock footage is used for montage scenes, most of them lifted from some bad American propaganda newsreel from World War 2, all the while the English dubber for Tsukioka's character keeps on narrating everything - and I mean everything! - and not shutting-up for one moment! Adding more insult to injury, the Japanese crew is misspelled in the American credits: Eiji Tsuburaya is called 'Eliji Tsuburaya' and Motoyoshi Oda is called 'Motoyoshi Qdq', all the while Schreibman and Grimaldi remain intact! Released by Warner Bros. in 1959, "Gigantis the Fire Monster" suffered from poor critical reviews and bad audience reactions in which everybody wondered why the dubbers weren't calling the monster Godzilla, only to show just how bad of a mess Schreibman and Grimaldi made the film out to be!
Classic Media's release presents the original Japanese cut, which was never seen in the United States before, as well as the standard American cut. Originally intended to be a two disc release from early press ads, Classic Media abandoned that idea for reasons unknown and decided to go with one disc instead. The Japanese cut is presented with optional English subtitles and, like with the company's release of the first Godzilla film, the results are hit-or-miss. Picture quality looks fine and is said to be much better than the old Japanese laserdisc, as that one was reported looking too dark, especially with the scenes of Godzilla and Anguirus fighting in Osaka at night. However, the picture looks to be a tad too bright, exposing far more grain than usual: it's not that overpowering, but had the contrast been lowered a bit during the transfer process it would look much better. The subtitles are another issue: Classic Media has decided to use that God-awful yellow subtitling with no bold spacing between letters, causing some words to bleed together. And, as usual, there are some sentence structure problems and a few spelling errors here and there: note to Classic Media, it is not hard to spell check your subs.
We also get the American cut on the same disc and the results are so-so. "Gigantis the Fire Monster" vanished after its disastrous theatrical release and would show up on television a few times. It eventually was released on home video in the late 1980s by Video Treasures; the video cover called it "Godzilla Raids Again" but the print retained the on-screen Gigantis title. For Classic Media's release of the American cut, the old VHS master is used and it looks okay if a bit soft and with brief video damage in some parts. However, it seems that Toho really hated the 'Gigantis' title and thus it's replaced with a digital title of "Godzilla Raids Again", but keeping the dubbed Gigantis dialogue intact will cause slight confusion to those who aren't familiar with either version. It's a shame that an existing 35mm print of the American cut couldn't be located and since this was released theatrically by Warner Brothers a few prints might be in storage there, but it'll take somebody with time and money to search the vaults to see if any are there. Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski return to give an audio commentary on the American cut and deliver some informative info on the two versions. A short documentary 'The Art of Suit Acting' is presented, using behind-the-scenes stills and photos, with narration by Ed Godziszewski is nicely done, but once again Godziszewski's delivery is pretty cut-and-dry. And last we get a slide show of posters and advertising of the film using the main title music to good effect.
This disc is recommended to those who are interested in seeing the original and somewhat more superior Japanese version. As for the American edit, I'd say approach that one with extreme caution!
A Transition Flick for the Big Lizard ^ If you watch "Gojira" the first movie featuring Godzilla, it's a much different film from most of the usual entries in this long running series. Instead of a monster smackdown where most of Tokyo gets destoryed, "Gojira" is a dark and sombre film showcasing the fears of the atomic age.
"Godzilla Raids Again", the direct sequel to "Gojira" starts to take the series in a new direction. Godzilla comes back to Japan, this time accompanied by another large monster, Angilus. Kind of porcupine-like thing, walking on all fours and featuring a turtle-like shell covered in spikes. While these two begin slapping each other around Osaka, lots of fireballs erupt and miniatures get destroyed. "Raids Again" features a lighter tone than the first film and gives Godzilla (called Gigantus throughout this film though) a large adversary to fight..a keystone to almost all future entries in the series.
"Raids Again" is a fun movie, that begins setting the tone for what is to come later in the series. One of the highlights of this film for me is the relationship between the two pilots, Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi. The two friends, both working for the same fishery, find themselves caught in the middle of the Godzilla madness. Their relationship as things unfold is one of the more entertaining aspects of the film, specifically the comic relief provided by Kobayashi.
I think the reason this is the "forgotten" Godzilla film is that it's probably has the most limited appeal to a Godzilla audience. Too serious a tone from the later entries in the series, but a much lighter tone than the first film. Add in that it's a black and white film, and you'll eliminate a good many folks as well.
Still, I've always enjoyed this film and think it's well worth adding to your collection.
Japanese version much better than American ^ I got this DVD as part of the Godzilla collection, and I was so happy that they included the original Japanese release with English subtitles. I had the American version on VHS and never really liked it. The American version mutilated the monster sounds by having Godzilla (which was renamed Gigantis, dumb!) sound like Angalus and vice versa. They also striped some of the music. The Japanese version has the sounds correct. I did find it unusual that the fight scenes where fast action, as opposed to the slower action in all the other Godzilla movies. It's not one of my favorites, but it's OK. The soundtrack isn't as good as the other movies and I think it's the lamest Godzilla suit in the early years. The subtitle have some minor translation errors, but it I got a kick out of it.
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