Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by Terasawa »

Sato's score (which I think even he realized later was not up to par) really drags this down for me. The same scenes play better in Gigantis when scored by Shefter, Sawtell, and others. Maybe an Ifukube score wouldn't have helped, but I do think a Sato score that doesn't try to emulate Ifukube would have.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by Grievous »

(All comments are referring to the Japanese cut only)

Well...I have to be honest & say I REALLY like this film.

While one could call it "Quickie Sequel" & move on...
Godzilla Raids Again is (IMO) a fine film in its own
right & introduces the concept of Godzilla fighting
other kaiju with his first ever rival (& eventual ally)
Anguirus.

Thank the Gods for the Classic Media release in 2006.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by eabaker »

Grievous wrote:Well...I have to be honest & say I REALLY like this film.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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eabaker wrote:We should be friends.
Sure...

You want to come over & read some comics?

No Homo...
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by Godzillian »

While not a great entry I do find a lot to like with this one. Anyone else felt like the planes bombing Godzilla doesn't get enough love? It really has some great tension to it and some great shots. I love Godzilla roaring and firing one last blast of atomic breath just before being buried by the ice.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by edgaguirus »

The bombing is a good scene. It brings a sense of purpose to the death of the pilot, and is a clever way of dealing with a monster that seems invincible.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

So, last night I rewatched 54 as part of my Godzilla marathon, and now today I watched GRA again. Rather then just say it’s boring, I decided to take note of things, and note why it’s bad, and why it’s a bad sequel:

-Too much of the film is heavily reliant on coincidences, accidents, or plain idiocy to occur. Where the first film had Godzilla as a catalyst, and the trio of characters earning overcoming him, GRA fails in that regard. Kobayashi’s engines just happen to fail, leading to the discovery of Godzilla and Angurius. Later, the whole prisoner scene is absolutely ridiculous. Note that the prisoners are not handcuffed, and that the drivers don’t immediately stop after two of them are taken out in the back. To make matters worse, the truck they find still apparently has a key in it. Following the worst car chase scene in history, it’s really slow, the truck randomly speeds up and they just happen to crash into a refinery that leads Godzilla and Angurius back. There should’ve been way easier ways to get the same thing done. Later in the film, Godzilla randomly migrated north, and basically puts himself in a big trap. It’s especially nonsensical when you realize how far Osaka is compared to the north. Additionally, it appears Kobayashi’s death was dumb idiocy, or trying to show off to Hidemi. Compare this to the clear catalyst for the plot of 54, the H-Bomb awakening Godzilla, and Godzilla’s gradual build up before rampage. Ogata, Emi and Serizawa solve the issue while Kobayashi and Tsukioka barely do a thing.

-I realized that the directors and writers may have intentionally been trying to use the love triangle of the first and mirror it. However, it fails horribly. Kobayashi loves Hidemi, who is marrying Tsukioka. However, unlike Ogata and Emi from 54, Emi seems to still care about Tsukioka and doesn’t return any feelings for Kobayashi. Additionally, while there’s a clear reason why Emi would like Ogata, a strong willed naval man, versus Serizawa, a traumatized anti social war veteran gone mad scientist, there’s no reason for Hidemi to not just be with Tsukioka. Additionally, Kobayashi comes off as creepy by keeping a photo of her in his pocket, and pestering her to find out what she’d like. Rather then admit his feelings, or have a dramatic scene, Kobayashi’s secret is only accidentally discovered, and nothing results of it. He also drinks and gets drunk. The love triangle is horrid, and such a failure compared to the first.

-Early on, right after Kobayashi and Tsukioka discover Angurius and Godzilla, we are greeted to a boring “b-movie expository scene”. Unlike the prior film, which had build up to what Godzilla was, Angurius is instantly shown in a book. There’s also a really weird detail of Angurius having a brain inside his chest (how would they know this?) and it’s just an exposition overload. Interestingly, the film actually treats Angurius in dialogue as if Angurius is just an Ankylosaurus. Until Dr. Yamane speaks, Godzilla is also absent from the discussion, and no one really reacts despite the obvious “oh fuck Godzilla is back”. We are also greeted with a montage from the first film, which was helpful back in 55, but now I notice its completely silent, and has a bunch of non diagetic shots. This whole scene deflated the mystery or suspense of two monsters very quickly.

-The fight with Godzilla and Angurius...is fine. The speed up thing actually makes the entire fight seem way more feral and rough. Angurius gets some good savage charges at Godzilla, but then it just revolves into them pushing each other around. I get that it’s the first Godzilla fight, but other then the end it’s all pretty basic. I do have to give the film credit for how much destruction occurs in the city. The sets for the time look good. Unfortunately, the fight is also intercut with shots of the remaining prisoners. Additionally, minus a brief scene of Godzilla confronting the military, that’s really all we get of an Osaka rampage.

-The film has too many repeated shots and drags on. Note how there’s a lot of repition when Tsukioka is looking for Kobayashi. Things like this occur throughout.

-Angurius is fine too, but he really is just another big monster. His shell isn’t used or discussed, and he doesn’t have anything else interesting going for him. He’s also sortve pointless; replace the fight with Godzilla just destroying Osaka. Once he’s dispatched he’s not brought up.

-The most egregious thing is how no one cares that Osaka got destroyed. The first half of the film builds up to everyone being upset if Osaka, and the fishing company, are destroyed by the monsters. It climaxes with the president/boss, dramatically rushing to the factory while the monsters are rampaging in the city. The next day, after the fight, everyone is cracking jokes and laughing, talking about moving to Hokkaido. There’s no somber atmosphere, and everyone continues on. It kills all the drama and makes all the mentions of the company a waste. Additionally, while I thought the snow in the following scene originally indicated that the seasons and time changed, they’re in Hokkaido which just means that the party could’ve happened immediately after.

-I actually really dug they stuck to the whole “Godzilla hates lights thing”. After this to dropped. However, what’s really strange is how at the end in order to keep Godzilla in the ice valley, they put a wall of barrels. Wouldn’t the fire draw Godzilla out of the valley then? This isn’t even ignoring the fact of how Godzilla is around and creates fires all the time.

-The final sequence of the planes swooping in is great, and very unique, but as mentioned above, a lot of it doesn’t make sense. Why did Godzilla walk right into a trap? How come he basically stands there and waits for the planes to return? Why doesn’t his beam, shown to melt steel, not melt ice? Godzilla swimming out of Osaka, up north, past Hokkaido, and even more north is super ridiculous.

-Godzilla doesn’t really do much or actually have much presence in this film.

Things to note for future films:
-Really the only important things that happened in this film were bringing back Godzilla, and introducing Angurius. Godzilla is trapped in ice at the end which leads to the next film. I realized this is probably the most inconsequential entries in the series.
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 #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by JAGzilla »

I watched Godzilla Raids Again a little while ago; it was my third viewing. First saw GRA in 2011, and then Gigantis in 2012. Hadn't seen either version since. Anyway, I won't argue with most of LSD's critiques above, except that Kobayashi's death definitely wasn't idiocy or showing off; IIRC, the fighters were out of bombs and he was trying to help keep Godzilla from escaping until the fire gate could be set up. It felt like he was legitimately doing what he could and died a hero's death for it. Also, while the Three Stooges escaped convicts probably shouldn't have been in the movie at all, their cutaways during the Osaka battle helped to sell the violence and devastation going on around them. Having them die in a flooding subway tunnel was a pretty cool way to dispense justice, too.

Another flaw worth discussing is that party scene right after the battle. That thing is just very cumbersome. At first, I was like, okay, we just had a major action sequence, of course we're going to have things settle down and watch the characters go forward. A few minutes later, I was starting to drum my fingers a little bit, because this scene really does just stop everything dead for no real gain. It practically felt like it belonged in a different movie. Eventually, I got used to it and settled in to enjoy this new movie for what it was worth- Godzilla's been sighted. It's just a really abrupt shift right back into high gear, so jarring that it took me a minute to shift my own gears and get excited for the new action.

For all that, though, I really like this movie. It's extremely unique among Godzilla films, feeling a lot like a typical monster-on-the-loose B-movie, where none of the others really do. That could be called a problem, but I see it as something to embrace. It also has sort of a war movie feel, with all the planes flying around calling out coordinates, cities being blacked out, etc. And then our cast of characters that aren't soldiers or scientists or even reporters that you would expect to go looking for the monsters, just ordinary civilians swept up in events larger than themselves and volunteering to do what they can for the war effort.

Godzilla is more generic than usual in this one, but I do like his suit and even the sloppy, snaggle-toothed puppet. I love the range of roars he has, too; the '54 roar returns of course, as does a precursor of his '84-'91 roar, and that cool lion-like growl that helps him feel animalistic and vicious. I loved how destructive the battle in Osaka was, too; I'd forgotten how great a lot of that looked. It's one of the best urban battles in the franchise.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by edgaguirus »

InnocentClarke wrote:


I concur. It's refreshing that they didn't try to make another Oxygen Destroyer or anything like that. They realised they didn't have a proper weapon to take him down, so some luck and ingenuity saved the day... at least for a while. Good thing they didn't kill him, too, considering all the aliens and other monsters that tried to destroy the world later. Regardless, it's a thematically appropriate choice to be unable to kill him permanently, something pulled off well (at least to me) in Shin Godzilla. All they did is postpone his inevitable return.


That also fits into the themes of the movie. This movie is all about ordinary people dealing with a disaester. They don't have fancy weapons or super science to fight Godzilla, but they do have their courage and wits. Like in G vs Gigan, we see that it doesn't take a genius or mechs to be able to stand up to what we fear.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by SuperPawnageGigan »

During the Godzilla and Angurius fight in Osaka when it's sped up. I just hum the Benny Hill theme in my head.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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I think we all do lol
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by Rhedosaurus »

I downloaded the movie from YouTube via Freemake. It's a respectable sequel that manages to reprecate the carnage of the first one quite well. And the ending is quite remarkable since it gives mankind more hope for the future. Probably inspired by the Americanized version of the first Godzilla movie.

That being said, 3 things bothered me.

1. Godzilla being called Gigantis. Why didn't they just say that he's another Godzilla like the first movie predicted would happen?

2. How this new Godzilla has Anguruis roars. It just annoys me.

3. The sped up fights.

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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by szmigiel »

Rhedosaurus wrote:I downloaded the movie from YouTube via Freemake. It's a respectable sequel that manages to reprecate the carnage of the first one quite well. And the ending is quite remarkable since it gives mankind more hope for the future. Probably inspired by the Americanized version of the first Godzilla movie.

That being said, 3 things bothered me.

1. Godzilla being called Gigantis. Why didn't they just say that he's another Godzilla like the first movie predicted would happen?

2. How this new Godzilla has Anguruis roars. It just annoys me.

3. The sped up fights.
1 Watch the subtitled version not the dub.
2 Watch the subtitled version not the dub.
3 Well documented, one camera was cranked in the wrong direction, and they really couldn't go back and reshoot.

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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by Maritonic »

And I think the sped up fights, mostly, work in the film's favor. It's adds a level of viciousness and intensity that other fights in the franchise don't have. Especially with the few moments of stillness between, where both kaiju stare down each other.
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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szmigiel wrote:
Rhedosaurus wrote:I downloaded the movie from YouTube via Freemake. It's a respectable sequel that manages to reprecate the carnage of the first one quite well. And the ending is quite remarkable since it gives mankind more hope for the future. Probably inspired by the Americanized version of the first Godzilla movie.

That being said, 3 things bothered me.

1. Godzilla being called Gigantis. Why didn't they just say that he's another Godzilla like the first movie predicted would happen?

2. How this new Godzilla has Anguruis roars. It just annoys me.

3. The sped up fights.
1 Watch the subtitled version not the dub.
2 Watch the subtitled version not the dub.
3 Well documented, one camera was cranked in the wrong direction, and they really couldn't go back and reshoot.
I take it the one I downloaded was one of the ones before the Classic Media version came along?

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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by GojiDog »

Godzilla Raids Again is, overall, kind of a dull sequel that is missing almost everything that Honda brought to the table in the original film. The original Gojira stands on its own, where as this film feels like it fits right in with any other B movie of the time period and kind of lacks much about it that is special.

The weird thing about this movie is that I actually prefer the US edit because it is so much worse.

The Japanese original is a competently made, but unremarkable film. Yes Anguirus is in it, and it started the tradition of having Godzilla fight other monsters, but there is very little else about it that really stands out to me when compared to the original film and most of the films that came after it. Again, it just kind of feels like any other monster movie of the time period, and I still can't get over how much steam the movie loses by having the climactic monster battle in the middle of the film.

The US Edit though is so hilariously bad that at least it makes me laugh. The stock footage they use at various point in the film make my jaw drop. The lengths they go to hide the fact that it is a Godzilla sequel is probably the most baffling decision I've ever seen in a US edit of a foreign film. They gave Godzilla a new name and Anguirus' roar but they also showed a recap of the original film. First of all, why hide that it is a Godzilla sequel when the first movie was a hit in the states? Second, if you are trying to hide that it is a sequel, why do you leave in the scene that ties it the original film? And the dubbing is probably the most giggle inducing dub I have ever heard with nonsense lines like "Banana Oil", narration that never freaking stops, and Kobayashi sounding like Yogi Bear playing a Japanese stereotype. Its all so funny-bad I can't help but get a sick enjoyment out of it.

One fond memory I have was attending a con where I got to meet George Takei. Knowing that he was part of the dub cast for this movie, I asked him to sign my picture with "Banana Oil". He laughed and said "You remember Banana oil? That's great". That made my day!
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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GojiDog wrote:nonsense lines like "Banana Oil"
Using an idiom that is no longer at the height of its popularity does not equal "nonsense."
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by GojiDog »

eabaker wrote:
GojiDog wrote:nonsense lines like "Banana Oil"
Using an idiom that is no longer at the height of its popularity does not equal "nonsense."
Fair enough.

Does "archaic terminology" work better?
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by eabaker »

GojiDog wrote:
eabaker wrote:
GojiDog wrote:nonsense lines like "Banana Oil"
Using an idiom that is no longer at the height of its popularity does not equal "nonsense."
Fair enough.

Does "archaic terminology" work better?
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Re: Talkback Thread #2: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Post by Rhedosaurus »

GojiDog wrote:The US Edit though is so hilariously bad that at least it makes me laugh. The stock footage they use at various point in the film make my jaw drop.
Funny you mention the stock footage. I remember seeing stock footage of the 3 Ceratosaurs from Unknown Island in the movie.

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