Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

For the discussion of Toho produced and distributed films or shows released from 1999 to 2015.
Post Reply
User avatar
eabaker
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 13758
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:16 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by eabaker »

Stump Feet wrote:As bad as this movie was, it’s still leagues better than Against Mechagodzilla imo.
I'm in the opposite camp. I'm not a big fan of either, but Against Mechagodzilla establishes its characters better and has more of a structure.
Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world.

User avatar
Tyrant_Lizard_King
Sazer
Posts: 12850
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:57 am
Location: The Planet Trade HQ
Contact:

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

I like it just slightly better than Against Mechagodzilla. Again slightly better. Its still a largely forgettable film. Its just kinda there. Though it is weird how the new pilot just kinda pops into the narrative with little to no background or buildup.
Rocker, paleo buff, cryptid enthusiast, Dragonball fanatic, and lover of comic book, video game, manga, & anime babes!
Follow me on Twitter, if you dare! https://twitter.com/TLK_1983
Image

User avatar
Godzillian
Xilien Halfling
Posts: 5789
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:36 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Godzillian »

Tyrant_Lizard_King wrote:I like it just slightly better than Against Mechagodzilla. Again slightly better. Its still a largely forgettable film. Its just kinda there. Though it is weird how the new pilot just kinda pops into the narrative with little to no background or buildup.
Always hated how we dropped the characters from the last movie. I have no problem with the mechanic but it would've been nice to at least have the same pilot and see the scientist again
Image

GojiDog
G-Grasper
Posts: 1223
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 6:16 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by GojiDog »

Tokyo SOS has the best special effects of the Millennium films, so it has that going for it.

I also kind of liked how they tied things to the original Mothra film, including bringing Chujo back. That was a nice touch.

It was also kind of neat that basically the whole back half of the film was one long monster parade. It wasn't a handful of battles in different locations, but rather one really long and changing battle in one location, which was actually kind of neat.

Being honest, Against Mechagodzilla isn't one of my favorites, mainly because the movie didn't payoff most of what it had set up and barely stands on its own. This film, at least, tries to follow up on the Kiryu is alive idea and provide some closure to that. And at least the debate of whether or not it is even ethical to have this thing is handled a little better, as opposed to the last film where the only person arguing not to use Kiryu was a little girl who thought her dead mom was a plant. (Yeah I'm mean, sue me).

I guess if there is anything wrong with Tokyo SOS, it is that Mothra's inclusion in this film feels like a greatest hits album of her previous work. Basically almost everything she does in Mothra 61 and Mothra Vs. Godzilla 64 is repeated here in some way shape or form. I actually would have liked for there to be more of a payoff to Mothra's opposition to using undead Godzilla as a weapon by having her and Mechagodzilla actually fight at one point. That's never happened on screen and it would have been neat, and it would have given us a three way monster battle, as opposed to Godzilla Vs. Everybody, which we already saw in GMK.
White Male Genocide is necessary.

Kill all white men.

User avatar
Anguirus
Gotengo Officer
Posts: 1724
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2014 10:31 am

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Anguirus »

I think the addition of Mothra added to the film for me, and made it one of my fave Godzilla films, unlike GXMG. The battle scenes I just love rewatching. To be honest, this and 2000 are the only Millennium films I can truly say I like.

User avatar
Stump Feet
Gotengo Officer
Posts: 1831
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2019 10:45 am

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Stump Feet »

There's a behind the scenes photo or something like it somewhere that shows a wider shot of the kaiju DNA canisters at the end, if any of you could find it for me, I'm going to ask LSD Jellyfish to translate the Japanese text on each canister so we can find out who's DNA is at their disposal.

If any of you know what I'm talking about and could help me out, I'd really appreciate it.
*Looks at GKOTM’s box office numbers*
Long Live The Sting

User avatar
kamilleblu
G-Grasper
Posts: 1383
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:46 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by kamilleblu »

It seems like a lot of people don't like the cast of this movie. But, judging it against the Godzilla films of the 1990s and 2000s, does anything else surpass it when it comes to characters and the utilization of those characters? There's the obvious choice like GMK. No doubt about it. Maybe Godzilla 2000 or Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla. But what makes this movie such a punching bag? The shorter runtime and quicker pacing helps to mitigate its underwritten nature.

User avatar
eabaker
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 13758
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:16 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by eabaker »

kamilleblu wrote:It seems like a lot of people don't like the cast of this movie. But, judging it against the Godzilla films of the 1990s and 2000s, does anything else surpass it when it comes to characters and the utilization of those characters? There's the obvious choice like GMK. No doubt about it. Maybe Godzilla 2000 or Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla. But what makes this movie such a punching bag? The shorter runtime and quicker pacing helps to mitigate its underwritten nature.
I'd definitely point to Godzilla 2000.

Also, while most of the 90s flicks don't have the strongest overall ensembles, most of them have at least a couple of characters I find relatively engaging, which is faint praise, but still better than I can say for Tokyo S.O.S.. For example, as much as people like to make fun of Aoki from GvsMGII, he's at least charismatic and memorable. And Yuki in GvsSG has one of the more discernible arcs in a post-Showa Godzilla movie.

Weird that I just pulled examples from what may be my two least-favorite Godzilla movies of their era.
Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world.

User avatar
kamilleblu
G-Grasper
Posts: 1383
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:46 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by kamilleblu »

eabaker wrote:For example, as much as people like to make fun of Aoki from GvsMGII, he's at least charismatic and memorable. And Yuki in GvsSG has one of the more discernible arcs in a post-Showa Godzilla movie.
Aoki is one of the more memorable faces. But he fades from relevance early into GvsMGII. And, like everything else in GvsSG, Yuki's "arc" is very poorly handled. The film is ready for him to stop being angry, so he just stops. What I like about Tokyo S.O.S. is how it introduces and keeps its characters involved throughout the film. We have a prime minister burdened by an unenviable dilemma (abandoning the nation's best defense and relying on a monster that caused problems in the past), a politician torn between his concerns about the well-being of his child and allowing that child to fulfill dangerous ambitions that benefit the greater good, and a mechanic who must overcome his biases in order to understand the bigger picture. You never forget the characters are relevant. Akira Nakao finally gets to flex his muscles some, Hiroshi Koizumi's role is one of the meatiest given to a veteran actor, and Miho Yoshioka (salvaging a nothing role) did more for me than most of the actresses from this period of Godzilla films. It's flimsy. But all of it is kept mercifully short and has a lot of monster action sprinkled in. I find it more effective than most of the films surrounding it.
Last edited by kamilleblu on Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
LSD Jellyfish
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 14258
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:57 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

Just watched this, and a day after Mothra 1961, which this film is also a direct sequel to. Man this film squanders so much potential.

Mothra looks amazing, and the early moments of it flying around with the Jets in the clouds are beautiful. Same for her landing on the villa with the snow. The entire film is full of beautiful shots of Mothra flapping around, like when she appears in Tokyo. It’s cool that they also reference the “summoning Mothra symbol” and I’m pretty sure this is the only time other than the 1961 film where it’s used.

The film also is interesting for having an engineer on Kiryu be the lead. Not the pilot.

What’s frustrating is so many cool ideas are at play, but never fully developed.

Similar to how GXMG has Kiryu going berserk as an afterthought, this has a complete lack of any consequence or real meaning behind the whole “return the bones” idea. Sure, characters bring it up, but it’s never satisfying, and it’s strange how the Shobijin make such a big deal out of it, only for them to kinda backpedal.

Similarly, at the end, Chujo makes this note of Kiryu sort of communicating with him out of nowhere. Why not have a bunch of earlier scenes alluding to this, when Chujo is working on Kiryu, before it launches?

Since most of the film is just fighting Godzilla, and the plot is probably the most barebones, there’s no reason why all of these things couldn’t have been elaborated on. It’s frustrating because a lot of the action in the film is pretty good, and the film does a good job at varying up what would otherwise be a bland city setting.

Additionally, I sort of realized, a lot of people keep saying on this site that they want a a “continuation” of the Showa series, and I’m surprised this never gets brought up of why that’s a bad idea. This film is a literal sequel to the early showa era, both continuity wise and a lot of specific choices (Godzilla using a mix of melee, lots of monsters, etc...). But, the film comes off as a carbon clone of trying to emulate the Showa era, which is pretty much impossible. Japan won’t look the same, the camera and style of shooting a film are different, and it’s a different era. I’m not even saying Tokyo Sos is bad (it’s an enjoyable watch) but it’s made me realize how “continuing the Showa series” is a mistake. Everyone is better off with these new takes on Godzilla, such as Shin.
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

User avatar
Terasawa
Xilien Halfling
Posts: 5841
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:06 am

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Terasawa »

I think most fans are very imprecise about what they want when saying they want a Showa continuation. It’s not another Showa-styled movie but one that features the same versions of those monsters: in short, they only want to see that c o n t i n u i t y revisited. Some, maybe most, of the same fans consider GFW and KOTM to be like the Showa movies when they both have their own styles that owe so much more to modern Hollywood than the cinema of Ishiro Honda.
寺沢. He/him/his, etc.

User avatar
LSD Jellyfish
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 14258
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:57 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

Stump Feet wrote:There's a behind the scenes photo or something like it somewhere that shows a wider shot of the kaiju DNA canisters at the end, if any of you could find it for me, I'm going to ask LSD Jellyfish to translate the Japanese text on each canister so we can find out who's DNA is at their disposal.

If any of you know what I'm talking about and could help me out, I'd really appreciate it.
Wait, can anyone actually show me this? I wasn't aware.

Added in 9 minutes 1 second:
Terasawa wrote:I think most fans are very imprecise about what they want when saying they want a Showa continuation. It’s not another Showa-styled movie but one that features the same versions of those monsters: in short, they only want to see that c o n t i n u i t y revisited. Some, maybe most, of the same fans consider GFW and KOTM to be like the Showa movies when they both have their own styles that owe so much more to modern Hollywood than the cinema of Ishiro Honda.
I think Toho (and film makers) ultimately did the right thing by leaving the Showa continuity. Nothing to really continue.
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

User avatar
godjacob
Futurian
Posts: 3439
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:16 am

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by godjacob »

The monster fights were fun enough, but I disliked the decision to swap the pilots for Kiryu/Mecha G. Felt the new guy was blander than Akane and really felt they wasted all her development and in general the previous cast in return for swapping them out for the new batch of characters.

Though the guy from the OG Mothra coming back was a welcomed addition. Mothra was also a fun mix to the battle to keep it fresh even if I felt the argument the fairies had for dumping Mecha G was pretty weak.

"Mothra will protect you in its place!"

*Mothra proceeds to get curb stomped by Godzilla.*
Last edited by godjacob on Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image

User avatar
Voyager
Keizer
Posts: 7831
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:34 pm
Location: On a boat

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Voyager »

Somehow this movie (the worst MG movie) has the same score on letterboxd as ToMG (the best MG movie).
Image
For Emperor and Empire!

BlankAccount
Sazer
Posts: 12648
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 10:49 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by BlankAccount »

godjacob wrote:The monster fights were fun enough, but I disliked the decision to swap the pilots for Kiryu/Mecha G. Felt the new guy was blander than Akane and really felt they wasted all her development and in general the previous cast in return for swapping them out for the new batch of characters.

Though the guy from the OG Mothra coming back was a welcomed addition. Mothra was also a fun mix to the battle to keep it fresh even if I felt the argument the fairies had for dumping Mecha G was pretty weak.

"Mothra will protect you in its place!"

*Mothra proceeds to get curb stomped by Godzilla.*
*New monsters showing up*

*Mothra not around*

*New Godzilla shows up*

*Mothra still not around*

*Kiryu is built*

Twins: "Wait that's illegal."

User avatar
Gigantis
Sazer
Posts: 10492
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:52 pm
Location: Nebula of the Orion

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Gigantis »

The only way i think i can even describe this movie is boredom.
Image

A guy who randomly stumbled upon this place one day, invested much too much time into it, and now appears to be stuck here for all eternity..and strangely enough, i do not regret it!

mikelcho
EDF Instructor
Posts: 2594
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:23 pm

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by mikelcho »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:
Stump Feet wrote:There's a behind the scenes photo or something like it somewhere that shows a wider shot of the kaiju DNA canisters at the end, if any of you could find it for me, I'm going to ask LSD Jellyfish to translate the Japanese text on each canister so we can find out who's DNA is at their disposal.

If any of you know what I'm talking about and could help me out, I'd really appreciate it.
Wait, can anyone actually show me this? I wasn't aware.

Added in 9 minutes 1 second:
Terasawa wrote:I think most fans are very imprecise about what they want when saying they want a Showa continuation. It’s not another Showa-styled movie but one that features the same versions of those monsters: in short, they only want to see that c o n t i n u i t y revisited. Some, maybe most, of the same fans consider GFW and KOTM to be like the Showa movies when they both have their own styles that owe so much more to modern Hollywood than the cinema of Ishiro Honda.
I think Toho (and film makers) ultimately did the right thing by leaving the Showa continuity. Nothing to really continue.
I'd have loved to see them do Godzilla vs. Gargantua (or whatever it was going to be called) back in the 1970s. That would've been a good ending and The War of the Gargantuas could've been officially part of the original Showa Godzilla storyline in addition to Frankenstein vs. Baragon.
Last edited by mikelcho on Thu Sep 17, 2020 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
HedorahIsBestGirl
Gotengo Officer
Posts: 1774
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2019 10:17 am

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by HedorahIsBestGirl »

I used to think that Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla was the worst live action Toho-produced Godzilla movie but I'm starting to think that this one might honestly take the cake. At the very least, Space Godzilla has some (poorly executed) novel ideas and I have fond childhood memories of it. Godzilla: Tokyo SOS was the first film in the franchise that I saw in a big screen premiere, at whichever G-Fest that was, and it still made almost no impact on 8-year-old me.
The wisest words ever spoken on TK: "When I Saw The Showa Movie's white My Friend's They seid WTF is This Your showing Me to Men Fighting In suit's they found At party city Butt when I Showed Them The Heisei film's they thoght They where pritty fun To Watch"

:Godzilla68: and :Anguirus: were never really friends.

:Hedorah: is best girl, :Baragon: is best boy

Online
User avatar
darkcancer
Monarch Researcher
Posts: 377
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:00 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by darkcancer »

Just rewatched this movie and I'm going to be a contrarian here. I actually liked this movie more over the years. Seeing a face from a different era is always enjoyable, even if he kind of "disappears" from the movie early on. The total amount of time spend on kaiju action is also nice, with it feeling like the last 60+ minutes feature some form of action between the 3 title monsters. I do agree the plot was pretty thin but that's nothing new for a Godzilla film so I don't really hold that against it. The Mothra scenes were well done and a few mentioned by other people I actually remembered from my prior viewings.

However, I do wish the berserk aspect of MechaGodzilla either had more of a role or was "figured out" by some upgrade as it appeared to basically be an afterthought at the end of the film.
Godzilla & Gamera High Grade (gashapon) collector.
Looking for: spare High Grade insert papers (various sets)

User avatar
Kaltes-Herzeleid
JXSDF Technician
Posts: 1086
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:07 pm
Location: The Great Tomb of Nazarick

Re: Talkback: Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

Post by Kaltes-Herzeleid »

Mothra's scenes were amazing. Props to the effects team for pulling off arguably the best Mothra visuals since the 1960s.
Resized Image

Post Reply