As a kid in the 1970’s any time a Godzilla movie was on TV I, and my friends, would stop what we were doing, drop to the floor, and watch it. I have no particular recollection of seeing Godzilla Raids Again but may have seen the American release of it- Gigantis the Fire Monster at some point. I can say that this was definitely my first time seeing the original Japanese cut of the film. This was the first follow up to the original Gojira in 1954 and it’s a pretty good film on it’s own.
Two fishing fleet scout pilots witness a new Godzilla battling another monster on a nearby island. With the knowledge that there is another Godzilla creature, and another beast they call an Angilus, are so near Japan and will be probably make their way to the main island of their nation the military and great minds of Japan try to form a plan. The weapon used on the original monster was a one and done and the man who invented it has since passed away so there is no solid plan to combat Godzilla let alone two creatures. They decide that since light makes Godzilla so angry that he wants to beat up on it (yep) it is decided to evacuate a city when it appears the monster is coming. As Godzilla approaches shore bright flares are fired into the sky behind him and out to sea to draw the giant lizard away from land. It seems to be working when some escaped convicts accidentally drive their escape vehicle into a factory causing it to burst into flames. That raging fire draws Godzilla to land and his rampage begins. The Angilus arrives shortly after and it and Godzilla battle it out doing even more damage. After dispatching the Angilus, Godzilla seems satisfied and heads out to sea again. A few months later he is spotted coming ashore again. Now they really have to figure out a way to stop him.
I did like this first Godzilla sequel and for the one reason that I usually don’t like the old Godzilla movies...the people. By the mid 1960’s the kid friendly Godzilla movies was the formula. The people in the films were just in the way. At least that’s how I usually felt. Godzilla Raids Again’s strength is it’s human characters. The main characters- the fishing company pilots, and the ground control dispatcher girlfriend of one of them are the heart of the movie. You really do care about them and their well being. The performances are pretty good too in comparison to what we got used to in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. They bring some of what we now call “the feels” to this ‘50’s giant monster movie. Bringing to mind the last Godzilla movie I watched, the recent Godzilla Minus One. Where the story of the humans was as important as the monster they needed to stop. The Godzilla, and Angilus, suits are fine. A slight improvement over the original but still a pretty obvious guy in a suit or sometimes a hand puppet. The miniatures are still obviously miniatures, my favorite thing about those are the little people on the miniature vehicles bouncing around. I will say that, while they do look fake, they work better in black & white than in the color films that would follow.
After the success of 1954’s Godzilla, Toho ordered a sequel to happen ASAP. It is a little surprising just how good this movie is seeing as it was a basically a quicky sequel. Director Ishiro Honda did not return for this film. This time Motoyoshi Oda took the reins. He was a very prolific director for Toho, but this is really the only film he made that was shown outside of Japan. Honda would return for several Godzilla movies in the future. I think Oda does a pretty great job having to follow up a huge hit. Godzilla Raids Again was an even bigger hit in Japan than the first movie and I think a lot of it’s success was due in no small part to Oda. This was the first time we saw Godzilla battling another giant creature, which would become a hallmark of the series. There is one sequence where the two monsters are fighting which was undercranked so they are fighting really fast. The story goes that Oda really wanted it to be in slow motion but the camera operation undercranked instead of overcranking. When they looked at the footage the
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