Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

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edgaguirus wrote:Any fan of Anguirus is a friend of mine.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

One thing that I always forget about this film, is Kabuto and the alien leader, even though it’s a big plotpoint. Every time I watch it I’m always creeped out with the implication that the aliens stole the dead bodies and the roaches are merely wearing their skin. Either way, the moment you find out the main dude should be dead Feels right out of a horror film.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by eabaker »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:One thing that I always forget about this film, is Kabuto and the alien leader, even though it’s a big plotpoint. Every time I watch it I’m always creeped out with the implication that the aliens stole the dead bodies and the roaches are merely wearing their skin. Either way, the moment you find out the main dude should be dead Feels right out of a horror film.
Yeah, there's definitely a horror element to this movie. Conceptually it really hits when we find out Sudo and Kabuto should be dead, and stylistically of course it really lands with the reveal of their cockroach shadows.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

So rewatching this:

My main issue is Gigan. No no, don’t get your pitchforks yet, Gigan is easily one of my favorite Kaiju, and I know he certainly has his fans. Gigan has one of the best and unique designs, as well as interesting methods of attack that make him a stand out. My main issue is though, is how he fits into the story. He doesn’t have an origin, or backstory, and he could be swapped out with pretty much any other monster. He doesn’t tie well into his own story. Arguably the Godzilla Tower has more development.

Just as a few examples to show you:
-Kamakuras and Kumonga we’re both spawned by a combination of the science expirements and Minilla. Likewise, both monsters tie into Minya by him being the source of food. The main characters also wake up Kumonga while trying to flee Kamacuras.

-Gabara is a personified dream version of a bully. He represents Ichiro’s fears.

-King Ghidorah in his debut film was said to have wiped out Venus, and plays into his respective plot by being a big bad that gradually wakes up from a meteor. He ties into the main plot of the monsters stop fighting and working together.

Pretty much every monster to this prior has more development, maybe minus things like the giant condor, giant octopus. Gigan could’ve been way more interesting if he just played a bigger role in his own film.

Also while yeah this film has a lot of stock footage, it does make up for it with a lot of new footage. I think Gigan destroying Tokyo is really underated. While it doesn’t co get the horror from the 1954 films, it’s one of the few bonafide city destruction scenes that isn’t brief. It goes on and on and you can really feel the city crumble. It’s not like in Mothra vs Godzilla, where Godzilla takes a brief stop in Nagoya to take out a few iconic spots, nah it goes on and on. Additionally Gigan and Ghidorah get to interact with the military for a bit. There’s a great mix of destruction, military stuff and monster brawling.

The stock footage isn’t as bad as it is in Godzilla vs Megalon, and they do some unique things, with it. Ghidorah’s fights with Godzilla, using stock footage from GTTHM, get a little egregious, and I think the film would actually be way better if some of those sequences were severely trimmed down. The way that Godzilla and Angurius team up to beat Angurius is awesome. It does make you want a more satisfying beat down to Gigan though. It’s funnt because Godzilla vs Gigan, doesn’t feel cheap, in comparison to Godzilla vs Megalon and Goddzilla’s Revenge.

Human cast is good because they’re not stock chracters. A lot of them have great outfits and memorable lines, and there’s some good chemistry between them. They also serve an important function of destroying the aliens. It does make me wish though that they had just a little more screen time, and I do feel that while the lead, corn cob hippie, and mamagon are all execellent, I can’t felt help but think that the sister, and to an extent her scientist bro are a little under developed.

Overall, a really fun Godzilla film. While it has its issues with stock footage and the alien invasion plot is stale, it gets a lot right and is fun to watch. It has a lot of little unique and fun things.
Last edited by LSD Jellyfish on Sun May 12, 2019 4:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

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LSD Jellyfish wrote:I think Gigan destroying Tokyo is really underated. While it doesn’t co get the horror from the 1954 films, it’s one of the few bonafide city destruction scenes that isn’t brief. It goes on and on and you can really feel the city crumble.
I agree. While you're right that Gigan isn't particularly well established in terms of plot - both he and KG could be swapped out for any other generic monster, and nothing about the narrative would change - he looks great in those shots, Satsuma brings a real sense of glee to the destruction, and Nakano was just a master of pyrotechnics. If you're into these movies for city destruction, this one is definitely a highlight.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Terasawa »

Not that this solves the problems of undeveloped villainous kaiju but this was shot as "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah: Earth Attack Command," so Gigan wasn't intended to be the focus of the narrative.

In this case I think the "A vs. B" title is deceptive because like Monster Zero it's a film about humans defending Earth from an alien invasion via kaiju. I'd argue that in MZ King Ghidorah could just as easily be swapped out with any other monster. The big difference is that Ghidorah was a recurring character in the 1965 film whereas Gigan was completely new here.
Last edited by Terasawa on Sun May 12, 2019 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Gothicserpent »

Having rewatched this recently, I liked it SO much more then the last time I saw it. Yes, the stock footage sucks and there's too much of it. But there's more new footage and almost all of it is great.

The plot is fun and quick, Gigan is a wonderful villain who comes very close to killing Godzilla, the fights are good, and the new destruction scenes are fantastic. The weak links are sadly Ghidorah and Anguirus. Ghidorah just.....stands there and it seems like they couldn't find out a way for Anguirus to fight so he also mostly.....stands there.

Overall its a fun time and fine entry to the series.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by JAGzilla »

Anguirus definitely gets some fighting in. There were the scenes where he jumped backwards and smashed Ghidorah with his carapace, for example.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

Terasawa wrote:Not that this solves the problems of undeveloped villainous kaiju but this was shot as "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah: Earth Attack Command," so Gigan wasn't intended to be the focus of the narrative.

In this case I think the "A vs. B" title is deceptive because like Monster Zero it's a film about humans defending Earth from an alien invasion via kaiju. I'd argue that in MZ King Ghidorah could just as easily be swapped out with any other monster. The big difference is that Ghidorah was a recurring character in the 1965 film whereas Gigan was completely new here.
I agree and understand this, but even if Gigan wasn’t in the title he still doesn’t get any development. In monster Zero, we get both development and a quick review of all three monsters, and they also tie directly into the story. Gigan just appears randomly. Ghidorah also had prior development.


Regarding Angurius, while it’s true he does have some stock footage from DAM, he definitely gets a lot of hits in and does get knocked about by Gigan a lot. It’s true Ghidorah is the weakest link. At least a lot of his stock footage conceptually fits what’s going on. A random knockdown he does to Godzilla in GTTHM, where Godzilla is knocked into the bridge, is used in the sequence where Godzilla is being pushed towards the tower. It fits narratively.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Godzillian »

Tbh I think this movie would've flowed a lot better if we cut ghidorah and just had Godzilla and Anguirus battling Gigan together. Gives us time to focus on the new threat
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Gothicserpent »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:
Terasawa wrote:Not that this solves the problems of undeveloped villainous kaiju but this was shot as "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah: Earth Attack Command," so Gigan wasn't intended to be the focus of the narrative.

In this case I think the "A vs. B" title is deceptive because like Monster Zero it's a film about humans defending Earth from an alien invasion via kaiju. I'd argue that in MZ King Ghidorah could just as easily be swapped out with any other monster. The big difference is that Ghidorah was a recurring character in the 1965 film whereas Gigan was completely new here.
I agree and understand this, but even if Gigan wasn’t in the title he still doesn’t get any development. In monster Zero, we get both development and a quick review of all three monsters, and they also tie directly into the story. Gigan just appears randomly. Ghidorah also had prior development.


Regarding Angurius, while it’s true he does have some stock footage from DAM, he definitely gets a lot of hits in and does get knocked about by Gigan a lot. It’s true Ghidorah is the weakest link. At least a lot of his stock footage conceptually fits what’s going on. A random knockdown he does to Godzilla in GTTHM, where Godzilla is knocked into the bridge, is used in the sequence where Godzilla is being pushed towards the tower. It fits narratively.
About Anguirus, I just meant that I felt like he just sorta waddled around and got hit by things for most of the fight. Its like the filmmakers couldn't figure out a way for him to realistically take part in the battle.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by HedorahIsBestGirl »

This movie has long been one of my favorites, and I just rewatched it tonight. Glad I did. I think this is one of the better Showa Godzilla films and certainly one of the most underrated. I hate seeing other fans throw it in the same garbage barrel as Godzilla vs. Megalon. Of course it's flawed, but name me a more enjoyable Godzilla film. I'll wait.
Let's talk the good, the bad and the ugly with this movie.

The Good:
- The final battle is the best of the whole Showa series. It's long, it's brutal and it has some moments that made me cheer as a kid (and made mildly-intoxicated me cheer tonight).
- Gigan is one of the best Godzilla villains ever, and not just because of his great design. Some people on this thread have commented that he has no proper origins story and I agree, that's a bit of a problem. But he has SO MUCH personality. He's a vicious bully but also a coward; like Gabara, with a much, much, much, much better design. Notice how throughout the fight, he targets Anguirus the underdog almost exclusively, only moving in on Godzilla when he's been softened up by King Ghidorah and the Godzilla Tower. When Godzilla starts putting the hurt on him, he turns tail and flees to space. He's like that "sociopath" kid we all knew in middle school who thought it was funny to torture animals but ran crying when another kid hit him. There's no other Godzilla villain with this much character. King Ghidorah, Hedorah and Mechagodzilla are awesome, but they're just Big Bads with not much of a personality. Gigan is a sadistic little prick, and it's satisfying to watch Godzilla get some payback.
- Anguirus is Gigan's polar opposite. He's the underdog we can all root for, and this movie is at least 50% of the reason most fans (me included) love him. He gets his ass whooped by Gigan the whole fight and yet still, by the end of it, he has the balls to attack King Ghidorah, who's 10x stronger than he is, single-handedly. He gets his damn head sawed open, he gets kicked and smacked and crushed and gravity bolted, and he keeps on fighting. The transition to Godzilla's loyal sidekick, which began in DAM, is completed here, and I love it.
- The human characters in this movie are great. I love the dorky artist, I love his kickass blackbelt girlfriend, I love the corn-munching hippie. These characters don't get much development (as per the Godzilla series norm) but they're clever and funny and I enjoy watching them almost as much as I enjoy watching the kaiju.
- The aliens are my kind of cheesy. From the orange suits to the infamous cockroach shadows scene to the constant rambling about "perfect peace"... sorry guys, I'll take them over the Xiliens as my favorite alien bad guys.
- The musical score is fantastic. Yes, I know, it's all stock music, but who cares? The movies immediately before and after this had original scores that were pretty awful. I'll take a "best of Ifukube" soundtrack over a crap original score any day.
- The pacing is on point. The build-up is good, the plot unfolds at a steady rate, and then we get a long and very entertaining climactic showdown. The human protagonists play their part by blowing up the Godzilla Tower but, unlike damn near every other Showa Godzilla film, the scene doesn't cut from the kaiju fighting to the humans watching every thirty damn seconds.
- The Godzilla Tower is dope.

The Bad:
- Okay, the stock footage use got carried away. I don't mind the stock footage of the JSDF vehicles in action, but I hate the slightly-darkened reused daytime footage from Ghidorah and DAM spliced into the final battle. The shots where Rodan and Mothra are left in are especially distracting. It takes me out of the action and I'm honestly tempted to make a fan edit that cuts all of this out.
- I don't hate that the aliens are cockroaches, and I find the shadow scene hilarious but the shot of the actual cockroaches burning is pretty cringeworthy. If we'd left it at the shadows, that would've been a lot better than showing what the aliens look like when not masquerading as "human receptacles".
- That ending song is pretty bad. Definitely worse than "Save the Earth", but not nearly as horrible as "Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, Punch, Punch, Punch!"
- The monsters talking is not okay. Whether it's voices or speech bubbles, just no. It was bad enough with Minilla in a dream in Godzilla's Revenge, it's worse here.

The Ugly:
- Those Ghidorah and Gigan flying models... good God(zilla)... that might be the worst special effects work in the whole damn series.

Overall, I rank Godzilla vs. Gigan sixth in the Showa series. Godzilla '54 first, Mothra vs. Godzilla second, Terror of Mechagodzilla third, Godzilla vs. Hedorah fourth, Monster Zero fifth, and then Godzilla vs. Gigan. Easily my favorite Jun Fukuda-helmed Godzilla movie (followed closely by Son of Godzilla, another underrated classic).
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

HedorahIsBestGirl wrote:- The monsters talking is not okay. Whether it's voices or speech bubbles, just no. It was bad enough with Minilla in a dream in Godzilla's Revenge, it's worse here.
I agree with the vocals in the dub being atrocious, but I think the speech bubbles are genius. It's a stylistic choice, that intentionally adds to the backdrop of the film having a "manga" style that is pervasive throughout the film. We see this with the lavish outfits, the design of the outfits, the profession of the lead, and how the films 'elevator bomb'.

Also I love the ending music!
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by HedorahIsBestGirl »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:
HedorahIsBestGirl wrote:- The monsters talking is not okay. Whether it's voices or speech bubbles, just no. It was bad enough with Minilla in a dream in Godzilla's Revenge, it's worse here.
I agree with the vocals in the dub being atrocious, but I think the speech bubbles are genius. It's a stylistic choice, that intentionally adds to the backdrop of the film having a "manga" style that is pervasive throughout the film. We see this with the lavish outfits, the design of the outfits, the profession of the lead, and how the films 'elevator bomb'.

Also I love the ending music!
I'm so glad you made this point, because I'd never really thought of Godzilla vs. Gigan as live-action manga before, but now I see it and it just makes me enjoy this movie more. I retract what I said about the speech bubbles; looking at the film through this lens, they totally fit. But yeah, the voices in the dub are godawful. We'll have to agree to disagree on that song though.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Terasawa »

The English-dubbed version of Godzilla vs. Gigan is a masterpiece.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Ultimategodzilla2054 »

Terasawa wrote:The English-dubbed version of Godzilla vs. Gigan is a masterpiece.
I would argue with that statement if it wasn't true
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by edgaguirus »

I prefer the sub myself.
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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Omegazilla »

Terrible movies with awful shameless stock footage everywhere but it introduced Gigan who is an iconic and unique monster in his own right. So if I am bored enough I will watch this every now and then.

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Re: Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Post by Terasawa »

Omegazilla wrote:shameless stock footage
Not so shameless, according to this interview in Japan's Favorite Mon-Star:

Q: How did you feel about using so much stock footage for the special effects sequences in [Godzilla vs. Gigan]?

Teruyoshi Nakano: I hated it, but there was no choice. Of course it hurt me when I had to re-use those scenes, but there was no other way - we did not have the time or the money to film new scenes.
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