Godzilla 1985/ Return of Godzilla (1984)

“Now he is back. And he’s more magnificent, more glamorous, more devastating than ever. Prepare yourself. The greatest star of all has returned,” proclaimed the television promo for Godzilla 1985. The last time movie audiences had seen the giant lizard in action was in Terror of Mechagodzilla.  In the original movie, Godzilla was a metaphor for the atomic bomb, but by the time Terror of Mechagodzilla has rolled around, he had become a defender of the Earth. His adventures became increasingly sillier throughout the decades. Return of Godzilla was Toho’s attempt to bring the monster backs to his roots; as a result, the movie is a direct sequel to the original movie and ignores that more kid friendly movies of the 60s and 70s.  New World Pictures acquired the rights and distributed it in the states as Godzilla 1985. In order to “Americanize” the movie, over twenty minutes of footage was cut, and new scenes with Raymond Burr (reprising his role as reporter Steve Martin from Godzilla, King of the Monsters) were added.  Therefore, it is not surprising that many fans consider Godzilla 1985 to be a complete bastardization of Return of Godzilla. 

This assertion isn’t entirely false – in a fairly dubious piece of re-editing, the Soviet Colonel Kashirin pushes a red button and launches a nuclear missile, while in the original cut he dies trying to prevent it from being launched; it’s fascinating to find a piece of American Cold War propaganda in the middle of a Japanese monster movie. 

 The character arc of the Maki is completely discarded in the New World edit. He begins the movie as an opportunistic reporter looking for the big scoop; when brother and sister, Hiroshi and Naoko, have their tearful reunion, Maki crashes onto the scene with his photographer in tow. It makes for a great human interest story. This reunion has been arranged by Maki; he informs Naoko that her brother is alive and tells her which hospital he is staying at. She, naturally, assumes that Maki is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, rather than for his own ulterior motives.  She later takes him to task for his callous behavior. It clearly has an effect on him, because by movie’s end he is a more compassionate figure.  It is also interesting to note the difference between Japanese and American cinema - if Return of Godzilla was a traditional American blockbuster, the relationship between Maki and Naoko would blossom into a full fledged romance. The movie would end with them locked in a passionate kiss, completely oblivious to the massive destruction that surrounds them. However, the romance is merely hinted at and the only intimate moment the two characters share is a brief hug at the end.

The New World edit also jostles around a few of the scenes; the meeting between Prime Minister Mitamura and the American and Soviet ambassadors happens before Godzilla’s attack on the nuclear power plant, rather than after.  The Prime Minister initially wants to keep Godzilla’s reappearance a secret, but that plan gets shot down after a Soviet submarine is destroyed by Godzilla, and the Russians assume that the Americans are responsible for the act. After it is revealed that Godzilla is responsible for the attack, there is a long debate as whether or not nuclear weapons should be used to stop Godzilla.  This is a crucial plot point in Return of Godzilla, but is only briefly touched upon in Godzilla 1985. There is a scene where the Prime Minister debates this idea with his cabinet before giving his answer to the Russian and America ambassadors.  

However, with all that being said, Return of Godzilla is hardly the masterpiece that many of the fans would have you believe. Maki's character arc is fully realized by the middle of the movie; all attempts at characterizations are abandoned in the second half as Godzilla lays waste to Tokyo.

 
 In a few instances, the editing in Godzilla 1985 is actually better than the Japanese version – the attack of the giant sea louse is great example of this. In Return of Godzilla, the scene is longer and we are given a good look at the sea louse prop and it is pretty laughable. In the New World edit, this scene is fairly brief and we are only given a few  glimpses of the sea louse as it attacks our protagonist – it is a much scarier sequence.  The New World edit is quicker paced and direct to the point – in Godzilla 1985, after Maki reveals to Naoko that her brother is alive, the movie immediately cuts to her running into Hiroshi’s hospital room.  In Return of Godzilla, the conversation between Maki and Naoko is slightly longer, but is fairly redundant.

The added scenes with Steve Martin and the pentagon officials are fairly pointless; Raymond Burr stands around and utters such banalities like, “Godzilla will win.” He is a complete wet blanket and there is really no reason for him to there other than name recognition. At least in Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Steve Martin had the function of narrator - he was an audience surrogate and we saw the events unfold through his eyes.  Still, it is slightly amusing to see Burr reprise a role he played thirty years earlier and under the exact same circumstances.  

As silly as the dubbing in Godzilla 1985 is, it is preferable to the International English version that is on the Return of Godzilla DVD. The dubbing in Godzilla 1985 maybe cartoonish at times, but at least the voice over actors give emotional performances, whereas voice over acting on the International English version is fairly monotonous and actually slows the pacing of the movie. Plus, Godzilla 1985 had some genuinely memorable lines; my favorite is when a wino shouts at Godzilla, “Don’t act like such a big shot, hick, you just got to town. If you want to hang with me, you better learn some manners.” 

It is great that Return of Godzilla is finally available in the United States, but I would like to see a decent print of Godzilla 1985 released on Blu-ray. It may be bastardization, but it is also an interesting relic from the Cold War era.

Credits (for Godzilla (1985)
Cast: Raymond Burr (Steve Martin), Ken Tanaka (Goro Maki), Yasuko Sawaguchi (Naoko Okumura), Yosuke Natsuki (Professor Hayashida), Keiju Kobayashi (Prime Minister Mitamura), Shin Takuma (Hiroshi “Kenny” Okumura), Hiroshi Koizumi (Professor Minami), Kenpachiro Satsuma (Godzilla), Warren J. Kemmerling (General Goodhoe), James Hess (Col. Raschen), Travis Swords (Major McDonough), Eitaro Ozawa (Minister of Finance Kanzaki).
Directors: Koji Hashimoto, R.J. Kizer.
Screenplay:  Shuichi Nagahara, Straw Weisman, Lisa Tomei. Tomoyuki Tanaka (story)
Running Time: 91 min. 103 min (Japanese version)