Godzilla (1954)

## Godzilla

Ishiro Honda

Rialto Pictures (US) 2004 and 2014

$412,520US 2004 (US)

$150,191US 2014 (US)

80 minutes (US)(1 hour, 20 minutes)

***Godzilla*** (ゴジラ *Gojira*) is a 1954 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho, and the first installment in the Godzilla series as well as the Showa series. The film was released to Japanese theaters on November 3, 1954, and to American theaters as *Godzilla, King of the Monsters!* on April 27, 1956.

Responsible for launching the long-running *Godzilla* series as well as the genres of both kaiju eiga and tokusatsu in general, *Godzilla* was an incredibly successful and influential film both in Japan and internationally. The film tells the story of Godzilla, a huge prehistoric beast roused from his ancient slumber by H-bomb testing in the South Pacific, who proceeds to lay waste to Tokyo. Only the young scientist Daisuke Serizawa holds the key to possibly defeating the invincible monster, a deadly chemical weapon called the Oxygen Destroyer. However, even as the destruction mounts, Serizawa fears revealing his invention to the world out of fear it will become a far worse threat to humanity than nuclear weapons.

The Film is in almost all of the Millennium Godzilla films, in the Godzilla vs. Megaguirus Timeline, the Godzilla in this Movie is the same Godzilla in the Godzilla vs. Megaguirus Film.

## Plot

The Japanese freighter *Eiko-Maru* is attacked by a flash of light from the water near Odo Island and sinks. A rescue boat, the *Bingo-Maru*, is sent out to investigate the accident, but meets the same fate. A second search boat is sent out and finds a few survivors in the area, and like the other two boats, is shipwrecked.

Meanwhile, on Odo Island, the natives of the fishing community are unable to catch anything. An elder says that Godzilla must be the cause. According to legend, Godzilla is a kaiju who lives in the sea that comes from the ocean to feed on mankind. Whenever fishing was poor, the natives used to sacrifice girls to prevent Godzilla from attacking the village.

Later, a helicopter carrying investigative reporters arrives on Odo Island. The natives all believe that the recent disasters in the ocean were caused by Godzilla, but the reporters remain skeptical. That night the natives perform an exorcism in hopes that Godzilla will not attack again. As the natives are sleeping, a storm hits the island, and much of the village is destroyed, as though it was crushed from above. The family of Shinkichi Yamada is killed during the storm, and Shinkichi insists they were killed by a giant monster.

The next day, the witnesses are brought to the National Diet Building in Tokyo. Paleontologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane requests that an investigative party be sent to Odo Island. A ship is sent out and arrives safely on the island. Yamane finds giant footprints contaminated with radioactivity, along with a trilobite. Suddenly, the village alarm is set off and the villagers run towards the hills. Godzilla pops his head over the hill and roars. The villagers discover that Godzilla is too large to fight and flee for their lives. Godzilla then leaves for the ocean.

Afterwards, Yamane presents his theory that Godzilla is actually a prehistoric, semi-aquatic reptile, intermediary between land and sea reptiles. He has discovered that the sediment from Godzilla's footprint contained a massive amount of Strontium-90, which could have only have come from a nuclear bomb. Thus, Yamane proposes that repeated recent hydrogen bomb testing in the South Pacific completely destroyed Godzilla's underwater habitat, irradiating him and driving him from his sanctuary. After Yamane's presentation, a man from the crowd, Mr. Oyama, suggests that the information should not be publicly known. Since Godzilla is the product of atomic weapons, the truth might cause some bad consequences, since world affairs are still fragile. However, a woman objects to Mr. Oyama's suggestion because the truth must be told. After she insults Oyama, chaos breaks loose in the Diet Building.

Godzilla's origins are then revealed to the public. An anti-Godzilla fleet is immediately sent out and uses depth charges against Godzilla, in an attempt to kill the monster. In his home, Yamane sits alone in the room with the lights out. Yamane, being a zoologist, does not want Godzilla to be killed, but rather, studied.

That night, Godzilla suddenly rises in Tokyo Bay in front of a party ship. Within a minute, the monster descends back into the ocean, but his brief appearance causes nationwide panic. The next morning, officials ask Yamane if there is a way to kill Godzilla. A frustrated Yamane explains that Godzilla has already survived a massive amount of radiation, and believes that he should be studied to see what keeps him alive.

Yamane's daughter, Emiko, is expected to marry Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, a friend and colleague of Yamane's. Emiko, however, is in love with Hideto Ogata of Southern Seas Salvage. When Emiko visits Serizawa to tell him that she loves Ogata and plans to marry him, Serizawa reveals to her his own dark secret. He had unintentionally created a device that can destroy all life in the sea while performing experiments with the element oxygen. This device is called the Oxygen Destroyer, and is more powerful than any nuclear weapon. He gives Emiko a demonstration in his lab, by using the device in a fish tank. All the fish are disintegrated, only leaving skeletons which are then liquefied as well. Shocked by this discovery, Emiko leaves Serizawa, promising not to tell anybody what she witnessed. She was unable to tell Serizawa about Ogata, or that she planned to marry him.

That night, Godzilla appears again out of Tokyo Bay and attacks Tokyo's Shinagawa ward. While the monster's attack is relatively short, it causes much destruction and death. The next morning, the Self Defense Forces hastily construct a line of 40 meter electric towers along the coast of Tokyo that will send 50,000 volts of electricity through Godzilla, should he arrive again. Civilians are then evacuated from the city and put into bomb shelters. The JSDF then prepares a blockade along the fence line.

When night falls, Godzilla surfaces from Tokyo Bay again. The monster easily breaks through the giant electric fence, with no pain inflicted. The bombardment of shells from the JSDF also has no effect. As Godzilla breaks through the high-tension wires, he uses his atomic breath to melt the electric fences. The tanks and artillery are useless against Godzilla, who continues his raid well into the night. By the end, the entire city is destroyed and thousands of innocent civilians are dead, dying, or wounded. As Godzilla wades back into Tokyo Bay, a squadron of jets fire rockets at the monster, which while they do not phase Godzilla though do manage to lead him out to sea, where he disappears beneath the waves.

The next morning, the city is in absolute ruins. Hospitals are overrun with victims, many exposed to heavy doses of radiation. As Emiko sees the many victims of Godzilla's attack, she takes Ogata aside and tells him Serizawa's dark secret, in hope that together, they can convince Serizawa do something against Godzilla.

Ogata and Emiko visit Serizawa to ask that they use the Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. Serizawa refuses and storms down to his basement to destroy the Oxygen Destroyer. Ogata and Emiko follow him down in order to prevent him from doing so. However, this only results in a short fight between Ogata and Serizawa, with Ogata receiving a minor head wound. As Emiko treats the wound, Serizawa apologizes. Ogata tries to convince Serizawa that he is the only one who can save the world.

Then, after the argument, a grim television program appears on the air, showing the devastation and deaths caused by Godzilla, along with prayers for hope and peace. Shocked by what he's witnessing, Serizawa ultimately decides to use his last Oxygen Destroyer, but only one time. Serizawa then proceeds to destroy his research, knowing that this weapon was almost as dangerous and destructive as Godzilla himself, and that destroying this weapon will be for the betterment of society.

The next day, the ship *Shikine* takes Ogata and Serizawa to plant the device in Tokyo Bay. Serizawa requests that he be put in a diving suit to make sure the device is used correctly. Ogata at first refuses, but soon gives in on the condition he accompany him. Ogata and Serizawa then descend into the water, and find Godzilla resting. Seemingly unaware of the divers, the monster slowly walks around the ocean floor. Ogata then is pulled back to the surface while Serizawa activates the Oxygen Destroyer. As Serizawa watches Godzilla dying from the destructive weapon, he cuts his cord and dies with Godzilla, sacrificing himself so that his knowledge of the horrible weapon dies with him. A dying Godzilla surfaces, lets out a final roar, and sinks to the bottom of the bay, disintegrating.

Although Godzilla is destroyed, the tone is still grim. As the people aboard the ship look to the sun and salute the sacrifice of Serizawa, Yamane suggests that it is unlikely Godzilla was the last of his species. He says that if nuclear testing continues, another Godzilla will probably appear somewhere in the world again.

## Staff

*Main article: Godzilla (1954 film)/Credits.*
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

* Directed by   Ishiro Honda
* Produced by   Tomoyuki Tanaka
* Music by   Akira Ifukube
* Cinematography by   Masao Tamai
* Edited by   Yasunobu Taira
* Production design by   Satoshi Chuko and Takeo Kita
* Assistant director   Koji Kajita
* Director of special effects   Eiji Tsuburaya
* Story by   Shigeru Kayama
* Screenplay by   Takeo Murata, Ishiro Honda
* Suits modeled by   Teizo Toshimitsu, Eizo Kaimai, Kanju Yagi, Yasuei Yagi, Yoshio Suzuki
* "Prayer for Peace" written by   Shigeru Kayama
	+ Composed and conducted by   Akira Ifukube
	+ Performed by   Toho High School of Music

## Cast

* Momoko Kochi   as   Emiko Yamane
* Akihiko Hirata   as   Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, scientist
* Takashi Shimura   as   Dr. Kyohei Yamane, paleontologist
* Fuyuki Murakami   as   Dr. Tanabe
* Sachio Sakai   as   Hagiwara, daily newspaper reporter
* Toranosuke Ogawa   as   President of Southern Seas Salvage
* Ren Yamamoto   as   Masaji Yamada, fisherman
* Miki Hayashi   as   Chairman of Diet committee
* Seijiro Onda   as   Representative Oyama
* Takeo Oikawa   as   Chief of task force
* Keiji Sakakida   as   Inada, man of Odo Island
* Toyoaki Suzuki   as   Shinkichi Yamada, Masaji's brother
* Kokuten Kodo   as   Old man, elder of Odo Island
* Kin Sugai   as   Mrs. Ozawa
* Tamae Kawai   as   Young lady of Odo Island
* Shizuko Azuma   as   Dancing woman on pleasure boat / woman on train
* Tsuruko Mano   as   Kuni Yamada, Masaji's mother
* Tadashi Okabe   as   Dr. Tanabe's assistant
* Kiyoshi Kammoda   as   Dancing man on pleasure boat / man on train
* Ren Imazumi   as   Japan Coast Guard officer
* Masaaki Tachibana   as   TV tower announcer
* Ichiro Tate   as   GHK live commentator
* Yasuhisa Tsutsumi   as   Odo Islander
* Jiro Suzukawa   as   Odo Islander
* Saburo Iketani   as   GHK live announcer on *Shikine*
* Katsumi Tezuka   as   Godzilla / daily newspaper desk worker
* Haruo Nakajima   as   Godzilla / daily newspaper reporter
* Masayoshi Kawabe   as   *Eiko-Maru* crewmember (uncredited)
* Masaki Shinohara   as   *Eiko-Maru* crewmember / newspaper reporter on *Shikine* (uncredited)
* Yu Fujiki   as   *Eiko-Maru* wireless communications officer (uncredited)
* Sokichi Maki   as   Commander of Coast Guard (uncredited)
* Saburo Kadowaki, Akira Kitchoji, Mitsuo Matsumoto, Takuya Yuki   as   Japan Coast Guardsmen (uncredited)
* Shigemi Sunagawa   as   Coast Guard officer / man looking up at Godzilla (uncredited)
* Kamayuki Tsubono   as   Coast Guard officer / newspaper reporter on *Shikine* (uncredited)
* Mitsuo Tsuda   as   Coast guard officer / police commander (uncredited)
* Hideo Otsuka   as   Coast guard officer / doctor (uncredited)
* Nobuo Katsura   as   Coast Guardsman (uncredited)
* Akiu Jiro   as   Southern Seas Salvage executive (uncredited)
* Masako Oshiro, Matsue Ono, Sumio Ueno   as   Women, family members of missing sailors (uncredited)
* Kyoko Ozawa   as   Woman, family member of missing sailors / female delegate (uncredited)
* Yasumasa Onishi, Masahide Matsushita   as   Men, family members of missing sailors (uncredited)
* Tokio Okawa   as   Man, family member of missing sailors / man looking up at Godzilla (uncredited)
* Hideo Shibuya, Junichiro Mukai   as   Newspaper reporters (uncredited)
* Kuro Sakurai   as   Newspaper reporter / task force member (uncredited)
* Kenji Sahara   as   Newspaper reporter / member of couple on pleasure boat (uncredited)
* Shizuji Yoshida   as   Rescued sailor (uncredited)
* Hiroshi Akitsu, Ryutaro Amami, Akio Kusama   as   Odo Islanders (uncredited)
* Hiroko Terasawa   as   Young woman of Odo Island (uncredited)
* Toriko Takahara, Tenji Tsurue   as   Women of Odo Island (uncredited)
* Goro Amano   as   Man on *Shikine* (uncredited)
* Keiichiro Katsumoto, Akira Sera, Shoichi Hirose   as   Representatives (uncredited)
* Takuzo Kumagai   as   Undersecretary of Defense (uncredited)
* Yutaka Sada, Kazuo Hinata   as   Men at countermeasures headquarters (uncredited)
* Junnosuke Suda   as   Train driver (uncredited)
* Junpei Natsuki   as   Substation engineer (uncredited)
* Rinsaku Ogata   as   Task force communications officer (uncredited)
* Koji Uno   as   Man who gives message to correspondent at task force headquarters (uncredited)
* Toshitsugo Suzuki   as   Newspaper reporter / man who escapes from Godzilla (uncredited)
* Shigeo Kato   as   Man who escapes from Godzilla / searchlight operator (uncredited)
* Teruko Mita   as   Mother cradling children (uncredited)
* Soji Shima   as   GHK staff member (uncredited)
* Kazuo Imai   as   Refugee along the Sumida river (uncredited)
* Hideko Ebata   as   Nurse (uncredited)
* Yoshie Kihara, Kazuyo Mochida, Yayoko Kitano   as   Nurses on TV (uncredited)
* Kazuko Ejima   as   Victim (uncredited)
* Eisuke Nakanishi, Takeo Inoue   as   *Shikine* crew (uncredited)
* Haruya Sakamoto   as   Newspaper reporter on *Shikine* (uncredited)
* Koji Uruki, Yukio Kawamata   as   Assistants to announcer on *Shikine* (uncredited)
* Yutaka Oka   as   Voice of warning announcer (uncredited)
* Toho High School of Music students   as   Students singing "Prayer for Peace" (uncredited)

## Appearances

* Godzilla
* Trilobite

## Production

With war films becoming frowned upon in Japan's film industry after World War II, Toho Studios looked for a new genre of films to make. Tomoyuki Tanaka, coming back to Japan after making progress on an overseas production, had a thought of "what if a giant monster awoke from nuclear radiation and attacked Japan, taking residence in Tokyo Bay?" While nuclear-radiated monsters started becoming popular at the time, the use in this film is due to the accident of the Lucky Dragon No. 5 fishing boat which was unknowingly catching fish too close to the Bikini Islands when an atom bomb test was conducted.

Chosen to direct was war veteran and pacifist Ishiro Honda, who would later on direct a good half of the *Godzilla* series during the Showa era, along with several other science-fiction films. To handle the special effects were Eiji Tsuburaya and Yasuyuki Inoue. Eiji Tsuburaya was one of the greatest masters of miniature effects on film; one of his WWII works (a recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor) was later mistaken for actual war footage. Eiji Tsuburaya originally wanted to film *Godzilla* in stop motion like the recent 1953 sci-fi blockbuster, *The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms*, and the earlier classic and personal favorite of Tsuburaya's, *King Kong*. However, Haruo Nakajima quoted Tsuburaya in saying that "...it would take seven years to make..." so it was decided to portray the titular monster through an actor in a suit, a style of special effects that would be popularized by this film and later known as "suitmation." The Godzilla suit was originally brown, and weighed over 200 pounds. When suit actor Haruo Nakajima tried to move in it, it took several minutes. A lighter suit was made along with a pair of suspended legs. The filming took approximately three months.

## Alternate titles

* ***Godzilla, King Of The Monsters!*** (United States)
	+ ***Monster King Godzilla*** (怪獣王ゴジラ?, Japan)
* ***Godzilla - The most sensational film of the present*** (*Godzilla - Der sensationellste Film der Gegenwart*; Germany)
* ***Godzilla: Monster of the Sea*** (*Godzilla: Monstret Från Havet*; Sweden)
* ***Japan: Under the Terror of the Monster*** (*Japón: Bajo el Terror del Monstruo*; Spain)
* ***The Monster of the Pacific Ocean*** (*O Monstro do Oceano Pacífico*; Portugal)
* ***Godzilla, the Monster of the Century*** (*Godzilla, το τέρας του αιώνος*, *Godzilla, to téras tou aió̱nos*; Greece)
* ***Godzilla, The Sea Monster*** (*Godzilla, O Monstro do Mar*; Brazil)

## Theatrical releases

* 1957 (*Godzilla, King of the Monsters!*)
* United States - April 27, 1956; May 7, 2004; April 18, 2014 (re-release), September 13, 2014 (LA Eigafest) ;
* Taiwan - December 7, 1955
* Czechoslovakia - 1956
* Mexico - 1956
* West Germany - August 10, 1956
* Brazil - October 24, 1956
* Spain - November 5, 1956 (Madrid)
* Denmark - November 26, 1956
* Australia - 1956
* Sweden - January 28, 1957
* Cuba - 1956
* France - March 15, 1957
* Italy - 1957
* Belgium - 1957
* Portugal - July 24, 1957
* Turkey - March 5, 1958
* South Korea - May 17, 1960
* England - October 14, 2005
* Germany - January 22, 2009 (Japanische Filmwoche Düsseldorf)
* Greece - July 11, 2013 (DVD Premiere)

## Box office

The film had a budget of ¥64,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $900,000), with marketing costs ending up at ¥37,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $600,000), for a total of ¥101,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $1,500,000). The film sold 9,610,000 tickets and grossed ¥152,000,000 (roughly adjusted to $2,250,000).

*Godzilla, King of the Monsters!* was given a $25,000 lease by Toho, which made its budget just about $25,000 more than the original Japanese film's. The film grossed $2,000,000, making it a box office hit. Both films grossed a combined total of roughly $4,250,000.

## Reception

*Gojira* opened in Japan in 1954 and sold approximately 9.6 million tickets, gaining a lot of money for the time. While successful, it was small in relation to other works of the same year such as Akira Kurosawa's *Seven Samurai*, which along with *Gojira* have become Japan's most famous films. A sequel was rushed into production. In America, it was also more successful than anticipated. The re-edited version of the film would be the one shown all over Europe and gained Godzilla an unprecedented audience which has since made the monster an icon as recognizable as Superman. Its box office earnings were 152 million Yen ($2.25 million).

For the German theatrical version 13 minutes of the film were cut, cutting out Dr. Kyohei Yamane's return to Japan, shortening his speech and presentation of what Godzilla is and shortening the final scene. This version was used for all home video releases of the film. The uncut director's cut was not released until 2004, when it appeared in a special 50th anniversary box set by Splendid Film, along with the German version and for the first time ever the U.S. version, plus a two disc edition of *Final Wars*. *Godzilla* was then made available as an individual release. In the U.S. and Canada, Classic Media released *Godzilla* in 2006 as part of its 'Master Collection'; this release was a two-disc set, with one disc being the Japanese original version and the other being the American version with Raymond Burr.

## Trivia

* In the original film, no specific date in 1954 is given to the day when Godzilla attacks Tokyo, but the "*Cozzilla*" version of the film places it on August 6, 1954, nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima.
* While the *Godzilla* series has been rebooted several times, many films in the series include references to the original film and the year 1954, whether they actually share continuity with it or not.
	+ *Godzilla Raids Again* features many references to the original film, along with a stock footage sequence of Godzilla's raid on Tokyo.
	+ *The Return of Godzilla* features some mentions of the first Godzilla's attack on Tokyo, while Doctor Hayashida at one point shows Hiroshi Okumura a photograph of Godzilla destroying the Diet Building from this film.
	+ In *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah*, it is revealed that the Oxygen Destroyer used to kill Godzilla in this film mutated a colony of Precambrian crustaceans under Tokyo Bay into the monster Destoroyah.
	+ In *Godzilla vs. Megaguirus*, Godzilla simply returned to the ocean after destroying Tokyo in 1954 and did not appear again until 1966. In this continuity, the Oxygen Destroyer was never used.
	+ In *Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*, Godzilla was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in 1954, but its use was kept secret by the government, who gave the J.S.D.F. credit for killing the monster. Godzilla's remains were later possessed by the restless spirits of the people killed by the Japanese military during World War II, and he regenerated and attacked Japan again almost 50 years later.
	+ In the Kiryu Saga, Godzilla was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in 1954, but his skeleton survived and was used as the framework for the Mechagodzilla known as Kiryu, which was used by the Japanese government to battle the new Godzilla.
	+ In *Godzilla: Final Wars*, it is stated that Godzilla first appeared in 1954, and the Earth Defense Force was formed to fight him and other giant creatures. Aside from this reference, the two films do not share continuity.
	+ In Legendary Pictures' *Godzilla*, it is stated that Godzilla was awakened by an American nuclear submarine in 1954 and menaced American and Soviet forces in the South Pacific until the Castle Bravo nuclear test was conducted in an attempt to kill him. As with *Godzilla: Final Wars*, this film only shares a reference to the year 1954 with the original film and is not part of the same continuity.
	+ In *Shin Godzilla*, the plot references the 1950s as the timeframe for which Godzilla as a being came to be, due to careless dumping of nuclear wastes, an obvious nod to *Godzilla*.
* A puppet of Godzilla's upper body is utilized for close-up shots of Godzilla.
* The sound effects team originally tried to create Godzilla's roar by using animal roars that had been edited. They sampled all kinds of birds and mammals, but nothing seemed to be the right match for the reptile-like noises a monster like Godzilla would make. Akira Ifukube, who was the film's composer, proposed stepping away from using animal samples. He took a string off of his contrabass and rubbed it with gloves soaked in pine tar. The sound that came from it was used as Godzilla's roar.
* In the Wii version of *Godzilla: Unleashed* the Godzilla from this movie appeared as a playable monster.
* Although Godzilla's first film appearance was in this film, released in November of 1954, he made his first official debut four months earlier, in July, when an earlier version of the film's script was read on a radio as an 11-part radio drama.
* In a strange error during the film, after Godzilla's raid, the television that airs the memorial program turns on all by itself. None of the three characters present turn it on, nor do they take notice of the seemingly impossible occurrence.
* At the time of its release, *Godzilla* was the most expensive Japanese film ever made. The combined production of both this film and *Seven Samurai* in 1954 almost plunged Toho into bankruptcy, but both films ended up being sizable box office hits.