Godzilla vs. Gigan

Gengo Odaka is a struggling freelance Manga artist. He gets a job, working for a company building a theme park, which includes a tower designed to look like Godzilla as it’s centrepiece. But there’s something rather off with the people he is now working for. They keep talking about the idea of perfect peace, the chairman is only 17 years old, and they want to destroy Monster Island; which is fair enough, the place is filled to the brim with giant monsters. But how can the owners of a children’s theme park possibly achieve this goal?!

Released in 1972 and directed by Jun Fukuda; Godzilla vs. Gigan is a Japanese monster movie, and the 12th film in the Godzilla film series. The film stars Hiroshi Ishikawa, Tomoko Umeda, Minoru Takashima, Yuriko Hishimi, and Toshiaki Nishizawa, with Kunio Murai, Zan Fujita, and Gen Shimizu in supporting roles. Godzilla vs. Gigan is also the last film in the series to feature Haruo Nakajima playing the part of Godzilla, a part he had played since the original 1954 film.

It is very easy to spot the flaws in this film. Firstly the film uses a lot of stock footage from other films, which includes fight sequences, tanks moving around, and people running away. Several other shots from the film itself are used over and over again, to fill up the time too. And then there’s the Godzilla suit itself, which doesn’t in any way try to hide that it was falling to bits. Yes, it is one of the weaker films in the series, but it is quite possibly the strongest of the weaker entries. And whilst you may hope for me to drone on about it’s failings, I don’t really want to. I instead want to focus on the three things that to me stand out the most. Although you can probably guess which of those three points I am going to talk about first…

Yep, it’s the talking scene. I held off for as long as possible before I mentioned it once. Now for those who have never seen the film before, I am not talking about any scene where human’s talk. Nor is it like on episodes of The Joy of Painting, where Bob Ross brings on an animal, and then asks if it will talk a little bit, No. By talking, I mean actual talking, from two of the film’s giant monsters.

When the film was initially released in Japan (as Godzilla on Monster Island), the scene involved strange noises coming from Godzilla and Anguirus, but instead of actual words being spoken, speech bubbles appear, suggesting the two are talking about something serious. But when the film was picked up for an English language release, instead of just replacing the Japanese text with English, they chose to remove the speech bubbles entirely, and dub it. Thanks to this approach however, we gained an insight into the personalities of these two amazing monsters. For instance, I never knew Anguirus had the attitude of a grumpy teenager, or that Godzilla suffers from a permanent sore throat. It’s a really weird scene, and an experiment which has so far not been repeated in any film since.

The plot for Godzilla vs. Gigan is a really interesting one, with a mystery thriller like vibe about it, as the lead characters note that something weird is going on, and try to figure out what. Although to be fair, it is blatantly obvious. The lead group of characters do come across as rather slow. They know something is a bit off, but choose to ignore blatant signs of something far worse. For instance, Gengo (Ishikawa) gets a job working for a theme park, which is interested in having an exhibition featuring monsters. He suggests a few that he has been working on, and also suggests the monsters on Monster Island. At this point, one of the company directors (Nishizawa) states his desire to destroy the island. Now, again this is fair enough, I bet many people in Japan don’t like the idea of a nearby island full of Giant Monsters. But, he actually states his intention to kill all the monsters on it. He has just declared to his new employee, a plan to commit an act of terrorism, and yet our hero, doesn’t really say anything about it…?

Then there’s the scene where Gengo runs into a mysterious girl (Umeda), who has dropped an odd looking tape, whilst running out of an admin office, followed by the afore-mentioned company director, and several blokes who look like hired goons. They don’t dress like security, they look like mindless thugs. The director then asks why his new employee, has arrived at the company’s main office, before then chasing after the girl. Gengo goes into the office, to find a room with strange artistic sculptures, and not a single desk. He then meets the chairman (Fujita), who has a sinister looking revolving desk. Gengo is at least surprised at how young the company chairman looks, but less concerned at how the chairman isn’t doing any regular paperwork, but is instead working on very advanced mathematical equations, and mentions that it has something to do with a celestial body. Then both the chairman and his assistant openly talk about the girl being an ‘enemy of peace’.

And then after this Gengo is accosted outside by the girl, and her boyfriend (Takashima), faints, and finds himself being looked after by these two, in his own appartment (nothing sinister about that, it’s just weird they knew where he lived, and how to get into his own apartment). And then there’s more, as through their research, the group finds out that the chairman and his assistant, have been dead for over a year, which is weird, but they don’t really do anything about it, or tell anyone.

Basically, something weird is going on, but it’s not like insider trading, corruption, or market manipulation, No! Two owners of a children’s theme park are planning something big, like an act of terrorism for instance, and they are so confident in it’s success, they openly discuss it, with members of the public in earshot. And yet, the heroes just don’t see it. Ok, fair enough, the police aren’t all that fussed about these claims either (choosing to turn a blind eye to a kidnapping), but why are the lead characters, who are so close to the story, none-the-wiser?

So, we’ve talked about the talking scene, and the rather ignorant lead characters. But now we move onto the third point, and what is quite easily, the best thing about this film: The soundtrack. Godzilla films have often used old pieces of music, or stock tracks from previous films as a score, and Godzilla vs. Gigan is no different. If you listen very carefully, you can hear the tank chase theme from Mothra vs. Godzilla, along with pieces from films like Frankenstein Conquers the World, Atragon, and The War of the Gargantuas to name but a few.

But Godzilla vs. Gigan is also one of the more unique films in the series when it comes to music, and features some of the most memorable themes in the entire series. Which is especially interesting when you learn that said pieces, weren’t originally made for this film. They weren’t even composed for any film originally!

At the 1970 Osaka Expo, the Mitsubishi Pavillion (named after the company that paid for it), provided guests with video elements produced by Toho. The overall theme for the pavillion highlighted the nature of Japan, and featured images of wild weather, the sky, sea, and even a volcano. Accompanying these images, was a soundtrack provided by Akira Ifukube. That in a nutshell is what the score for this film was originaly created for. But then a few years later, wanting some extra pieces for this film, they recycled them. Which was a really good idea, as without it, international audiences may never have got the chance to listen to these epic pieces of music. Particular pieces to look out for include the Storm, and the Volcano, which is used for the film’s opening credits, and the final battle.

Godzilla vs. Gigan does have it’s issues. From it’s over reliance on stock footage, which creates considerable continuity issues, to the crumbling suit of the lead monster. But due to some of it’s other weird production choices, it actually comes across as one of the more stronger, and memorable films in this series (and for good reasons). Yes the talking scene is weird, but it’s not particularly bad. The plot is really interesting, and frequently very dark, it just doesn’t help that the lead cast are missing the most obvious signs, but it’s compelling nonetheless. It’s a great debut for Gigan, making Godzilla bleed for the very first time (also, King Ghidorah is in this film too, which is always a bonus). And to cap it all off, it features some of the best music ever featured in the entire series. It may be weak around the edges, but it’s pretty robust everywhere else!