Godzilla vs. Gigan

Godzilla vs. Gigan (Chikyû kôgeki meirei Gojira tai Gaigan) (1972)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Jun Fukuda

Starring: Hiroshi Ishikawa, Yuriko Hishimi, Minoru Takashima, Tomoko Umeda, Toshiaki Nishizawa

From: Toho

a.k.a. The One where Gojira & Anguirus talk to each other, their words appearing in cartoon bubbles.

It’s been awhile since seeing anything from this franchise; as there’s only a few left before all have been viewed—I feel there’s no rush to complete what’s been a fun journey. As I was struggling last night deciding what to check out-a struggle that sometimes occurs-suddenly the inspiration struck to view then review this.

There are other reasons why this entry is rather silly. Our hero is a manga artist who at one point draws an image best described as “suited for a Garbage Pail Kids card” and sometimes literally stumbles around like a buffoon. He’s hired by “Children’s Land”, an amusement park under construction who has a suspiciously young chairman. Yep, they’re aliens (cue meme image of that one dude w/ wacky hair) whose actual form is incredibly on-the-nose.

I can carp about that, how more than one character doesn’t change clothes all that often for days-I guess that saves on the wardrobe budget-or how a key dude is a chubby Japanese hippie. Yet, that chubby Japanese hippie was a hoot & the human story was fine; the fact that they did more to defeat the villains than some franchise entries was an asset. They were goofy without becoming irritants.

As juvenile as this could be and as obvious as it slides in another message concerning pollution-when that was the key theme in the last movie, Godzilla vs. Hedorah-I still had fun with the movie. As typical, the miniatures & effects were swell, and most important for kaiju fans, the monster battles were a blast. It was Godzilla & Anguirus vs. King Ghidorah and the titular Gigan, a bipedal creature with a buzzsaw on its belly. Wacky, yet certainly memorable. For the first time, Godzilla bled on camera.

The cost-cutting was unfortunate—stock footage from earlier efforts were used, and so was the score. At the same time, I was satisfied. Godzilla vs. Gigan was not total juvenile inanity like All Monsters Attack, after all.