It was exactly six years since I saw and reviewed Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla swan song Terror of Mechagodzilla, a direct sequel to Jun Fukuda’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, I movie I have no memories of at all - even if I know I’ve seen it. But that seems to be the thing with most movies Fukuda been involved in. The man can’t tell a story and always fucks up the proud tradition of Japanese kaijus by making them even more silly than they deserve. I usually say this is the first Godzilla I saw, but it’s a small lie. I think my first one was Son of Godzilla or Invasion of the Astro-Monsters, but Terror of Mechagodzilla was somewhere during the same weekend. So don’t worry. Son of Godzilla didn’t taint my taste too much.
After all the silliness Toho delivered to the poor Japanese audience it feels like Honda wants to take back part of what he created once and for all. It’s still - on the surface - a silly film, involving aliens taking control over Titanosaurus and, once again, Mechagodzilla, to take over the world and literally wipe Tokyo from the face of the earth. But Honda and screenwriter Yukiko Takayama takes a darker path involving a sinister, almost incesteous, plot involving a mad scientist, Dr. Mafune and his daughter Katsura - who happens to be a cyborg, transformed to that by the aliens. We’re talking dark characters here, far from the light-hearted style. The mad scientist, played by legend Akihiko Hirata, finds himself and his work hijacked by the aliens and filled with revenge against mankind himself he tries to help them - but there’s this deep understanding that the main reason why he’s doing this is because of his daughters situation. The movie itself is more violent - including several deaths, some of them bloody, and cyborg boobs. Two boys are also stomped by Titanosaurus, which makes the film a lot more cynical and dark than it already is.
Sorry for my rant here. It’s a bit difficult to write down the story, but it’s a good story - compared to what Fukuda and his colleagues did. The reason why this movie came to exists is by itself pretty interesting. Yukiko Takayama was a young fresh screenwriter from the school The Scenario Center when she heard that Toho had a story-writing contest to come up with the sequel to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka liked the idea and told her to write the script - and amazingly enough they changed very little. This was also the heart of the script and what was most important for Yukiko, or as she put it once: “My original version of the script focused on Katsura Mafune, the girl who had been turned into a cyborg by aliens from outer space. Even after she had been altered, she had emotions. As long as this idea was not removed from the script, I didn't care all that much about what was done with it.”
One thing Yukiko was disappointed with was how the finale was done. Originally Tokyo was suppose to be totally destroyed, but due to budget issues that part of the story was moved to a smaller town outside Tokyo and the action was less than it was suppose to me. This doesn’t mean it’s not spectacular! The scenes of destruction is very impressive and when Mechagodzilla blasts the city into tiny, tiny, tiny pieces is fantastic. We’re talking some big, fat, brutal explosions here. The action is overall quite good and Honda feels inspired. It’s violent, gritty and totally over-the-top.
I still consider Terror of Mechagodzilla as one of the best films in the long line of Godzilla-adventures, but the strongest part of it is the story and actors. Which once again proves that if it’s well-written you easier can buy budgetary problems. Yukiko and Ishiro brought darkness back to where it belongs, in the Japanese cinema soul.
"The movie itself is more violent - including several deaths, some of them bloody, and cyborg boobs.2
Oh....cyborg boobs.......I have to see this one!
"Two boys are also stomped by Titanosaurus, which makes the film a lot more cynical and dark than it already is."
Killing kids is unusal......even in creature features.
"I still consider Terror of Mechagodzilla as one of the best films in the long line of Godzilla-adventures, but the strongest part of it is the story and actors. Which once again proves that if it’s well-written you easier can buy budgetary problems. Yukiko and Ishiro brought darkness back to where it belongs, in the Japanese cinema soul."
Interesting.....I have never seen it......good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | May 21, 2014 at 23:11