The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Original title: Gojira

After nine years away from our screens, Godzilla was back in the first of what was to become known as the Heisei series, a word that roughly translates as “peace everywhere” and is used to describe the reign of Emperor Akihito from 1989 to 2019. Godzilla was brought back from the dead to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the very first Godzilla film, also titled Gojira/Godzilla (1954) and overseen by original series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, and makes a clean break from the so-called Show series.

Toho had been trying to resurrect Godzilla for some time before the 1984 version of Gojira was released. The Rebirth of Godzilla was in development in 1977, intended as a straight remake of the 1954 film, and Henry G. Saperstein worked with Toho a year later on Godzilla vs the Devil though neither project got any further than merely talking about it. But the opportunity to mark the thirtieth anniversary was too good to miss and so Godzilla returned to the screens in a blaze of publicity in December 1984. And the good news is that the film ignored the events of the many 1960s and 70s sequels and returned Godzilla to his roots as a virtually unstoppable force of nature.

Gojira, also released as The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla 1985, begins as a straight remake of the original with the crew of the fishing vessel Yahata-Maru struggling to keep their vessel afloat during a violent storm. The nearby Daikoku Island suddenly erupts, freeing a giant monster from its volcano. Reporter Goro Maki (Ken Tanaka) and the sole survivor of the Yahata-Maru, Hiroshi Okumura, survive an attack from a giant Shockirussea louse and back in Tokyo realise that the monster was a new Godzilla. When the monster destroys a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific it triggers a serious diplomatic crisis that nudges the world to the brink of nuclear war and Japan is forced to reveal the existence of the new Godzilla, something they had been trying to keep quiet.

This new Godzilla is hostile to humanity and craves nuclear energy, attacking the Ihama nuclear power plant and feeding from its reactor – at one point he’s likened to a living nuclear weapon. Realising that this Godzilla can be distracted by homing signals given off by a passing flock of birds, a plan is hatched to lure it into Mount Mihara on Oshima Island where a volcanic eruption could be artificially triggered, trapping Godzilla forever. But a secret Russian plot to nuke Godzilla from an orbiting satellite threatens the plan and the Japanese Self Defence Force are powerless to stop Godzilla’s rampages, even with their powerful Super X aircraft…

In the States, the film was re-edited to once again include Raymond Burr as the reporter Steve Martin who had witnessed the original Godzilla’s rampage in the Godzilla, King of the Monsters, the re-cut version of the original Godzilla. Though purists will quite rightly balk at the very idea of messing with a foreign language film, lets’ be grateful that Burr forced distributors New World Pictures to scrap their original plan, to re-dub the dialogue with “comedy” one-liners a la Woody Allen’s re-dubbing on Senkichi Taniguchi’s comedy spy film Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi (1965) to make What’s New, Tiger Lily? (1966). What the newly shot (directed in three days by R.J. Kizer) footage for the American cut did have was an extraordinary amount of product placement for the Dr Pepper soft drink. As is so often the way, it’s best avoided if possible.

The American cut wasn’t much liked by the critics though to be fair, the original Japanese cut had more than enough problems of its own. It commendably restores Godzilla to the nuclear metaphor of old, tapping into worldwide fears that the world was wandering blindly towards war as real-world tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union escalated. But it’s all a bit dull and, dare we say it, too silly for its own good, that nonsense about Godzilla and the bird song being the most egregious example, though the infamous moment in which Godzilla seems to sneak up on an unsuspecting soldier, though it gives us a memorable first glimpse of the new suit, runs it a close second.

But the battle scenes are spectacular, particularly Godzilla squaring up to the Super X fighter and wreaking havoc on Tokyo, an even bigger and more densely populated city than it was in 1954. New director Koji Hashimoto shows real flair in dealing with Godzilla and his rampages, more so than 70s Godzilla guardian Jun Fukuda ever managed. And the redesigned Godzilla suit is a joy – this is a nastier, scarier Godzilla than we’d seen on screen for three decades, though as ever his height changes at whim throughout the film, that series-long problem with perspective still bot quite getting sorted out.

The special effects, by Teruyoshi Nakano, were slammed in some quarters but in truth they’re not all that bad at all. Inevitably three decades or more on and they’ve started to show their age but for the time they’re perfectly adequate without ever being game-changing. Apparently inspired by the utterly dreadful full-sized Kong robot built for Dino De Laurentiis’ 1976 remake of King Kong (in God’s name why? It was dreadful!) Toho invested a reported $475,000 into Cybot, a 16 foot tall Godzilla to be used for close-ups. Thankfully, Cybot was rather better than Dino’s robot and it’s hard to tell where – or even if – it actually appears in the finished film. The effects were certainly impressive enough to earn it the Japan Academy Award’s prize for best special effects.

The Return of Godzilla wasn’t a massive box office success in Japan but it did well enough – a good, solid performance rather than stellar box office. Toho tried to boost its takings by giving it a wide release overseas but, perhaps wounded by the critics’ indifference, it didn’t do so well in the all-important US market. It’s not the best Godzilla film, though it’s very far from the worst, and though it drags a little here and there it was a decent attempt to return Godzilla to the big screen. Toho was happy enough to pay for a sequel, though it would take another five years before the sequel, Gojira tai Biorante/Godzilla vs Biollante (1989) reached the screen.