Tags:
Film: Godzilla's Revenge (Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Oru kaijû daishingeki)
Year: 1969
Director: Ishirô Honda
Writer: Shin’ichi Sekizawa
Starring: Kenji Sahara, Machiko Naka and Tomonori Yazaki
Review:
This film begins with a bunch of boys getting out of school. The main one we are following is played by Tomonori Yazaki. We learn that he is really into monsters like Godzilla. He is bullied by another boy and he runs away from it. He has befriended a toymaker in his apartment building; he is played by Hideyo Amamoto. Both of his parents are working so he is home alone.
He starts to play and dozes off, going to Monster Island, a place that he has wanted to go. While there he sees Godzilla face off against a lot of monsters like Kamacuras, which are giant praying mantises, Kumonga, Ebirah, the giant Condor as well as fighter jets. Yazaki runs into Minilla, who part of the time is the same height as the boy, but he can grow to its normal size as well. He can also talk to Yazaki. Minilla is bullied by Gabara, which he avoids.
Yazaki is woken up by Amamoto with a message from his mother, which she will be working late. Amamoto asks if he would join him for dinner, which he agrees. While the meal is being prepared, Yazaki goes to an abandoned factory to play. From the beginning of the film, we learn that there were a couple of thieves that have stolen a lot of money and they are on the run. Yazaki finds a driver’s license and then we see it belongs to one of the criminals. They are played by Sachio Sakai and Kazuo Suzuki. They are kind of bumbling, which makes you wonder how they stole the money. They want to find the boy and get the license back then get away.
Yazaki goes back to sleep after dinner and back to Monster Island. He is then kidnapped by the bank robbers. They take him back to the warehouse. One of them goes to look for a getaway car. Yazaki goes back to sleep, knowing that Minilla is in trouble. When he goes back this time, Minilla is standing his ground and fights Gabara. He is joined by Godzilla though.
Will this boy get away from these criminals or will they get away? Can Minilla defeat this Gabara? Will Yazaki get a chance to stand up to his bully and get him off his back?
This film does have some good points. First off the concept it is trying to get across to stand up to bullies is a good message, especially for the world we live in today. The battle scenes are good, but they are mostly archive footage from other films. I will give it a plus if you have a family as this one is very much geared toward children.
Now this film has a lot of issues. The first being the acting is subpar. I don’t believe these bank robbers could be thwarted by a child. To get away with the money they did doesn’t make sense after watching them. I don’t like that there is very little new footage and a lot of archive, it is lazy. Yazaki also throws the first punch and I don’t recall the ‘bully’ ever hitting him, makes me question if that part of the story is even real. I also don’t understand why Minilla can talk in this one or the fact that he can go small to the boy’s size and then back to being a smaller monster, outside of being in a boy’s dream.
With that said, I would avoid this film unless you are trying to watch all the films in the Godzilla series. This one is subpar at best. The acting isn’t all that good. The story is okay; being the message about overcoming bullying is good. The monster battles are good, but they are mostly archived footage so unless you want to see a compilation film, I would avoid this one. It is kid friendly, so that could be selling point. If you want to see a legit good giant monster film, look elsewhere.
My Rating: 4 out of 10