1/20/09: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)We’re more selective than you might think with our Godzilla films. For example,
Destroy All Monsters has alien villains who talk about saving the planet, but it’s not quite enough of a plot point. In contrast, the aliens of
Godzilla vs. Gigan are a real bunch of creeps. We first meet them when our (pretty lame) hero Gengo Kotaka is having a hard time selling his comic book characters. His aggressive agent/girlfriend lines him up an interview with the Office Director for a fabulous new park called Children’s Land.
The only thing that’s been constructed so far is some big polka-dotted mushrooms and a giant replica of Godzilla that doubles as the Children’s World on-site offices. That’s where Kotaka pitches his creations of the Homework Monster and the Strict Mom Monster. The executive is impressed, and begins to tell Kotaka about the Children’s Land vision.
“This is a place where children will learn about the notion of Peace,” he explains. “Peace. Do you understand?”
“It’s already pretty peaceful,” replies Kotaka.
“No, it’s not. Feigned peace will easily fall apart. I’m talking about absolute peace. That’s the only thing that will save the world.”
Kotaka recalls that the Godzilla building will also host a monster museum: “Monsters and peace? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does. Children will learn about absolute peace here.”
The Office Director can’t shut up about absolute peace. Kotaka asks about incorporating the famous Japanese mutations that populate Monster Island.
“Those monsters aren’t very peaceful…so, when Children’s Land is completed, we’ll destroy Monster Island.”
We like the idea of Monster Island better than we like the idea of absolute peace. Kotaka still doesn’t get suspicious until the next day. He goes to a building to meet the Chairman of the company behind Children’s Land, and runs into a young woman fleeing the building. She drops a tape that Kotaka pockets. He soon learns that some Children’s Land henchmen are chasing after the woman. He doesn’t reveal that he has the tape, but asks if the woman was an industrial spy.
“Worse than that,” replies the Chairman. “An enemy of peace…we’re working very hard to bring absolute peace to the entire world.”
SPOILER territory here, if you haven’t seen many Godzilla films. The executives behind Children’s Land will turn out to be aliens looking to take over Earth for their own means. They’ve got the usual rap about how the humanoids on their old planet ruined the place with their evil polluting ways, so now the aliens are going to do Earth a favor by killing all the humans.
The aliens also mention that they’re the sole types on their planet who could survive catastrophe. This is more SPOILER stuff, but the kind that makes the film worth watching. It’ll turn out that these creeps blathering about absolute peace are cockroaches.
That leads to a big climax with one of the best death scenes in the history of delusional peace creeps trying to take over the world. We’ve covered a lot of those, but
Godzilla vs. Gigan has the most accurate portrayal of the types who try to drag children into their big pacifist con. It’ll make you happy that this is a children’s film.
There are some great monster battles, too. Godzilla and Anguirus protect Earth, while the alien forces are represented by Gigan and King Ghidorah. There’s a reason that Gigan gets top billing in the American version. King Ghidorah looks pretty banged up in this one. You also have to be prepared for this one bizarre scene where Godzilla speaks—but it’s not as laughable as another moronic plot point at the end of the film. That’s entertainment, though.
Also—as with
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster—there’s some weird contrast between the dubbed version and the English subtitles at the end of the film. We’re not sure if the filmmakers' big message was a comment on technology or something about cockroaches and their weird idea of peace. No particular reason to be overthinking that, anyway.
Make it your own: Is there any Godzilla movie not available
on DVD? If there is, it’s probably the most conservative one yet, and we haven’t seen it.
