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Film: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (Gojira tai Mekagojira)
Year: 1974
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: Jun Fukuda and Hiroyasu Yamamura
Starring: Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama and Reiko Tajima
Review:
This film begins with showing Anguirus coming out of the ground and then we see flashes of light. The rocks explode, but we do not see what emerges.
We then see a woman doing a traditional dance with people watching her; she is played by Beru-Bera Lin. Two of the men watching her are brothers played by Masaaki Daimon and Kazuya Aoyama. She collapses and faints. Her grandfather, played by Masao Imafuku, comes to help and she tells him that she had a vision of a giant monster attacking the city and killing everyone.
Aoyama is dropped off at a cave and he goes inside. While there he finds a piece of metal that is making noise and shining in the dark. He takes it to have it looked at. Daimon works for a construction company and a new cave is uncovered. An archeologist played by Reiko Tajima comes to help make sense of it. They find a statue for a guardian creature named King Caesar. The hieroglyphics on wall speak of a mountain above the clouds, a monster coming to destroy the world, two red suns, the sun rising in the west and then two monsters would appear to save the world. They are spied on by a mysterious man with an odd ring, played by Shin Kishida.
Aoyama goes to see a professor about the metal he found, the professor is played by Akihiko Hirata. Along with his daughter, played Hiromi Matsushita, Hirata tells them that the metal is space titanium. He shows them a strange pipe he made that is magnetic as well.
Daimon and Tajima end up on the same flight as Tajima is going to see a professor about the statue and the mural she found. Daimon sits next to her and Kishida ends up in front of them. He introduces himself as a reporter that exposes scandals. They look out the window to see dark clouds that look like a mountain above them.
When they land it turns out that the professor Tajima is Daimo’s uncle, played by Hiroshi Koizumi. They meet with him together.
That night Daigo Kusano tries to steal the statue from Tajima. He is working for Gorô Mutsumi. Kusano fails, but we see that Kishida is interested in what happened. The statue of King Caesar’s eyes glow, but no one seems to notice it.
An earthquake happens and then Godzilla appears from a mountain, the same place where Aoyama found the strange metal. He finds more while driving in the path of destruction from Godzilla as well. Godzilla destroys everything before him, including fighting with Anguirus. He actually nearly breaks its jaw and it flees.
Godzilla continues his assault until he is confronted by another Godzilla. They begin to do battle, but when the first one is hit, there is metal underneath. Mutsumi is an alien, which Hirata begins to expect. Mutsumi reveals that the first Godzilla is really a machine that is named Mechagodzilla. Godzilla battles it, but Mechagodzilla malfunctions. He is brought back to base.
Aoyama, Hirata and Matsushita go to the mountain where the metal was found and are taken hostage by the aliens. Mutsumi forces Hirata to fix the head of Mechagodzilla.
Following the prophecy, Daimon and Tajima are trying to take the statue to the castle where King Caesar is supposed to rest. Mutsumi has his alien agents after them to get the statue before they can. We see that they look like humans, but they are really an ape-like race when hurt. These two get some help from Kishida, who turns out to be an Interpol Agent. His partner, Takayasu Torii, also lends his aid.
Will Hirata fix Mechagodzilla? Will his daughter and Aoyama be allowed to live if he does? Can King Caesar be enough to help Godzilla if Mechagodzilla is fixed? Can the aliens be defeated?
Much like some of the ones right before this sequel, they are sticking with using more blood for the battle scenes. I liked that his one brings out the giant monsters early to start the battles. I thought the final battle was good as well. I like that it seems with each installment, Godzilla has to learn or use a new move or power in order to defeat the monster he is faced with. It just shows that the creators are thinking of ways to make the films different than the previous ones. I really like the concept of Mechagodzilla and King Caesar is interesting, even though I’m not quite sure what it is. I like that King Caesar is more agile than most giant monsters we see as well. The acting was pretty good and the surrounding story is a similar idea to previous ones, but just a different race and approach to taking over Earth.
One issue I had with this film is that they do get the giant monsters in pretty early and then there is a long stretch in the middle where we don’t get them. I understand that a lot of this is due to Mechagodzilla being fixed, but in reality it is for the film to build story and it probably due to the time didn’t have a lot they could do with the giant monsters. Then my other issue, Mechagodzilla walks across the countryside, destroys a few buildings and breaks? These are supposed to be aliens that are advanced enough to conquer Earth, yet they need a human to fix their machine? It doesn’t seem realistic in this aspect.
With that said, I feel this is one of the better films in the series, especially compared to some of the ones that come before it. I like the idea of aliens creating a machine version of Godzilla. I also like that they incorporated a local legend, even if it was created for the film. The acting isn’t bad, the story itself isn’t either and I feel the monsters battling were solid as well. Not the best film in the series, but one of the better ones that have come later in it. I would recommend giving this one a viewing if you like Godzilla and want to see the films in the series.
My Rating: 6 out of 10