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

[MechaGoji Bro7503]

Ditto. This film's in my top 10 and will remain there. I gave it a great speech on the G-Force podcast episode about the film. Ultimately, there's something sweet about Nakajima's last role as Godzilla being alongside Anguirus.

[Terasawa]

If they did, odds are Ifukube would not have been on board to score as between DAM and TOMG, he seemed to be actively avoiding Godzilla by that point.

Isn't it really more likely that Ifukube wasn't being asked to score the films made during that span? He wouldn't have made sense as the composer for Godzilla vs. Hedorah or Godzilla vs. Megalon, for instance.

[Arbok]

If they did, odds are Ifukube would not have been on board to score as between DAM and TOMG, he seemed to be actively avoiding Godzilla by that point.

Isn't it really more likely that Ifukube wasn't being asked to score the films made during that span? He wouldn't have made sense as the composer for Godzilla vs. Hedorah or Godzilla vs. Megalon, for instance.

It's documented that Jun Fukuda preferred working with Masaru Sato, which he got again for Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Ifukube was asked to do Latitude Zero and Space Amoeba in that time. For the Godzilla films from 1971-1973, my assumption was keeping the budget low was why we got a combo of stock music and Riichiro Manabe who I always assumed was a cheaper option in contrast to Ifukube or Sato but have nothing to back that up.

[edgaguirus]

Stock music would be cheaper, but the film also did have some music cues written by Ifukube for the Mitsubishi Pavilion at Expo 70.

[LegendZilla]

^If I were to guess, Kunio Miyayuchi from Godzilla's Revenge would've done an original score to this film had Toho could've afforded.

[Legion1979]

^If I were to guess, Kunio Miyayuchi from Godzilla's Revenge would've done an original score to this film had Toho could've afforded.

I really doubt that. The entire idea going in was for this movie to emulate a Honda film.

[LegendZilla]

^If I were to guess, Kunio Miyayuchi from Godzilla's Revenge would've done an original score to this film had Toho could've afforded.

I really doubt that. The entire idea going in was for this movie to emulate a Honda film.

He did compose what little original music was in the actual movie. The end song in particular.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Despite this being a personal childhood favorite of mine, upon this most recent rewatch I can’t get over how derivative it is. It really is a loose remake of IOTAM, down to a fake-out with the protagonists being blasted while escaping (instead of boat, replace with car). Then tonally it’s also the last two films mixed with EHOTD…Minus the manga influences, the Godzilla Tower, and the strong but underdeveloped cast, the movie does little to differentiate itself from past films and is the most “standard” so far. Each film up until this point had a very distinctive tone and plot from what immediately came before.


Gigan’s design, the costumes the space m hunters wear, the music, and the characters all do so much heavy lifting. I actually really like the first half of the film and it’s a solid build up to an OK second half.

I usually don’t have fights make or break films for me, but the final fight just keeps going. Worst use of stock footage so far, and as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews it feels unnecessary given the amount of new footage shown. And I’m not a fan of how Godzilla just starts winning, after getting his ass repeatedly kicked in by Ghidorah, Gigan, and the Godzilla tower. It’s very random and a line or two about Godzilla somehow absorbing energy from the tower or some BS would’ve been fine.

Some fun observations:
-Corn cob hippie eats the corn between the original stick-up scene and when the mangka awakens.

-The brief discussion of Monster Island and the montage of monsters, continues to do the heavy lifting of creating a definitive monster roster in the audience’s mind, following both DAM and AMA. Interesting to think that although Kamacuras, Minya, and Mothra will never appear again in this continuity there seems to have been an effort to acknowledge their continued existence.

-I never noticed that the meteor that King Ghidorah travels in is almost identical to the one in GTTHM. It’s very brief, but it never clicked with me that it wasn’t just a plot point exclusive to that film.

-This is the first time I’ve seen the film with the explicit knowledge of the film originally being Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. Unlike the Kong and EHOTD, this does feel like a very immediate last minute change and a lot more makes sense now. It’s not noticeable without this factoid, but a lot of subtle details back this up.

King Ghidorah is the first space monster shown to be emerging from space. The leader of the JDSF recognizes King Ghidorah’s call, while Gigan doesn’t get as much attention. Gigan is one of the least established and built up to monsters in history. Megalon in the immediate follow-up has a more clear backstory. Gigan is very lucky that it has such a good design and fans like it.

I used to complain that Gigan flees, and it’s weird how Ghidorah is the finale monster defeated…but suddenly that makes sense. That back spike blow to Ghidorah, followed by the repeated montage of Godzilla judo tossing Ghidorah suddenly feels like a climactic coup de grace, rather than a random extension after the film’s alien antagonist and titular monster have been defeated. It’s neither a problem or something that needed to be fixed, but I can see what happened.

Overall, not bad, and a childhood favorite, but I can no longer say it’s one of the best.

[StardustGenius]

Despite this being a personal childhood favorite of mine, upon this most recent rewatch I can’t get over how derivative it is. It really is a loose remake of IOTAM, down to a fake-out with the protagonists being blasted while escaping (instead of boat, replace with car). Then tonally it’s also the last two films mixed with EHOTD…Minus the manga influences, the Godzilla Tower, and the strong but underdeveloped cast, the movie does little to differentiate itself from past films and is the most “standard” so far. Each film up until this point had a very distinctive tone and plot from what immediately came before.


Gigan’s design, the costumes the space m hunters wear, the music, and the characters all do so much heavy lifting. I actually really like the first half of the film and it’s a solid build up to an OK second half.

I usually don’t have fights make or break films for me, but the final fight just keeps going. Worst use of stock footage so far, and as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews it feels unnecessary given the amount of new footage shown. And I’m not a fan of how Godzilla just starts winning, after getting his ass repeatedly kicked in by Ghidorah, Gigan, and the Godzilla tower. It’s very random and a line or two about Godzilla somehow absorbing energy from the tower or some BS would’ve been fine.

Some fun observations:
-Corn cob hippie eats the corn between the original stick-up scene and when the mangka awakens.

-The brief discussion of Monster Island and the montage of monsters, continues to do the heavy lifting of creating a definitive monster roster in the audience’s mind, following both DAM and AMA. Interesting to think that although Kamacuras, Minya, and Mothra will never appear again in this continuity there seems to have been an effort to acknowledge their continued existence.

-I never noticed that the meteor that King Ghidorah travels in is almost identical to the one in GTTHM. It’s very brief, but it never clicked with me that it wasn’t just a plot point exclusive to that film.

-This is the first time I’ve seen the film with the explicit knowledge of the film originally being Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. Unlike the Kong and EHOTD, this does feel like a very immediate last minute change and a lot more makes sense now. It’s not noticeable without this factoid, but a lot of subtle details back this up.

King Ghidorah is the first space monster shown to be emerging from space. The leader of the JDSF recognizes King Ghidorah’s call, while Gigan doesn’t get as much attention. Gigan is one of the least established and built up to monsters in history. Megalon in the immediate follow-up has a more clear backstory. Gigan is very lucky that it has such a good design and fans like it.

I used to complain that Gigan flees, and it’s weird how Ghidorah is the finale monster defeated…but suddenly that makes sense. That back spike blow to Ghidorah, followed by the repeated montage of Godzilla judo tossing Ghidorah suddenly feels like a climactic coup de grace, rather than a random extension after the film’s alien antagonist and titular monster have been defeated. It’s neither a problem or something that needed to be fixed, but I can see what happened.

Overall, not bad, and a childhood favorite, but I can no longer say it’s one of the best.

This is fighting spirit. Toukon. 闘魂.

Digging into your heart and guts and fighting back. Very pro wrestling coded stuff. The stuff pioneered by the likes of Rikkidozan, and Antonio Inoki (who guess what, founded NJPW this exact year in 1972). Inoki was known for telling the kind of story where he is bleeding out like hell and fighting back and winning. The kind of stuff that would go on to influence anime and manga later on. The more one looks at this part through that lense (a tag team pro wrestling match) it makes a lot more sense.

This particularly never bothered me, because I grew up on a lot of WCW (Godzilla was on TBS a lot back in the day, which also happened to be the flagstation for WCW!) and understood it exactly this way

You don't have to like this explaination, or think its a copout, but I think this is what the film makers were trying to convey.

[LSD Jellyfish]

While that all makes sense and comes off as intentional to me (he’s literally bloodied and beaten) it still feels a bit disappointing to have one of the biggest moments yet of Godzilla on the ropes just get reversed. Fine!

Oh, here’s something I wanted to add about the M Space Hunter. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I am thinking it is. In the beginning of the movie, the mangaka shares that he wants to make monsters that children would be scared of, which include homework and angry mothers. It occurred to me that the two villains, Kubota and the leader are a teacher and good student respectively. The leader is a kid, doing complex math problems. There’s something funny about this.

[StardustGenius]

Considering who the writer was (Shinichi Sekizawa), I'm mostly sure that these kind of story beats were intentional. You see it throughout his work. Ebirah Horror Of The Deep and this movie do have a lot of similarities, and I'm glad you brought it up. I like our quirky cast, and Jun Fukuda makes them work.

One more thing I wanna add about this movie is that I think it has probably one of the best Godzilla dubs ever, and Gengo's voice actor was the subject of quite a rabbit hole that only recently got solved.

[Terasawa]

The English dub has one of my favorite dialogues in a Godzilla movie:

Gengo -- "Monsters and peace, huh? Doesn't seem to be a connection."
Kubota Alien - "There is, but you have to be a child to appreciate what it is."

This seems to be a fairly liberal translation of the Japanese dialogue ("Kubota" simply seems to be saying that the children will learn "peace" at the park) and therefore might not represent Sekizawa's intent, but I think it encapsulates quite well the Japanese concept of monsters as heroes, developed over the course of the Godzilla series to this point and especially pushed by Eiji Tsuburaya.

Also, early in the film while Gengo and Tomoko discuss his next job interview, the diegetic music playing in the restaurant is an instrumental of a then mega popular Japanese song, "Children Who Don't Know War." Source music like this doesn't *need to* be relevant to the plot or develop the story's theme, but I think this is very relevant. It's essentially a protest song from the perspective of a Japanese person born after the war, i.e. the period in which Japan formally --even if only ostensibly-- abolished war. In 1971, when the song was written, recorded and released, that generation of Japanese was entering adulthood and was the country's future. The Wikipedia article does a good job explaining the lyricist's ultimate point, that that generation was looked down upon by its elders for not having known the strife of the war or the colonialist period leading up to it. Compare this to Americans of the same generation, who prolifically wrote songs about the injustice of the draft, of the American youths dying for What Cause in Vietnam, of the ever-present specter of nuclear war. Their Japanese contemporaries knew many of the same (or similar) fears and protested the same deadlocked Vietnam War. The Japanese had to live with the promise of American security and had to give their land to American troops who would come from and go to Vietnam.

That is the protest: true, that Japanese generation didn't know firsthand the war their elders experienced, but they surely saw the deep, long scars that war left behind. They saw too the warfare continuing elsewhere in the world, almost right next door. This generation was not weak for growing up in a country that had legally abolished its right to wage war, they weren't weak for having long hair and listening to rock 'n roll and wanting "perfect peace."

Even as an instrumental, this immensely popular song would have been at once recognizable to the 1972 Japanese audiences. Think about what the lyrics mean and think about how it fits Sekizawa's story like a glove.

An acceptable English translation of all but the final verse here.

[StardustGenius]

Thank you Terasawa, I love seeing your comments. That's a neat new facet of this movie I didn't know that before!

The way the Godzilla series evolved over the years is something I know for sure that a lot of modern film folks (especially YT film people) seem to gloss over. "It was serious before, now it isn't. How could this happen???"

[MechaGoji Bro7503]

Wow, great find Teresawa! That was a joy to read, and I loved your breakdown of its meaning plus how the new Japanese and American generations at the time were essentially fighting the same fight.

Whenever I find myself writing a Godzilla script or premise for fun, I usually find Sekizawa's work to be what draws me in the most. And if not intentionally, usually subconsciously. The way he tied contemporary feelings and distraught to the human stories of his films, has made them age wonderfully.

Gonna give the song a listen.

[Terasawa]

Sekizawa definitely had his finger on the pulse of the times and found clever ways to weave hot-button issues into what increasingly became Monster vs. Monster stories. Although he drafted treatments that were to become Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, he didn't script them, and I think his absence is very much felt in those. (Godzilla vs. Megalon *tries* to address nuclear testing, but I think everyone agrees it feels pat.)

Oh, here’s something I wanted to add about the M Space Hunter. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I am thinking it is. In the beginning of the movie, the mangaka shares that he wants to make monsters that children would be scared of, which include homework and angry mothers. It occurred to me that the two villains, Kubota and the leader are a teacher and good student respectively. The leader is a kid, doing complex math problems. There’s something funny about this.

Additionally, the Fumio alien also wears a high collared jacket sorta resembling a Japanese school uniform, and Kubota-seijin sprinkles his speech with English vocabulary; their human counterparts died as a high school student and a jr. high English teacher, respectively. It's like the alien disguises are so intricate that the aliens mimic even fine details like that.

Come to think of it, that the aliens didn't change the names of their human disguises might have led to their failure. I mean, even Ultraseven was wise enough to choose the pseudonym "Dan Moroboshi" for the human whose appearance he stole.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Yeah, I noticed the English dialogue as well. And of course, they’re cockroaches, which seems to be the sole exception to the idea of kids liking and collecting bugs. Never seen or heard of a kid collecting roaches, hah.

I think the peace element, and the ideas you present are certainly there and hinted at, but just never click together in a completely satisfying way. Discussing what Kubota meant by that, and Japan’s postwar history and generational culture clashes is more interesting than what the film does with it by itself.

I do like how the aliens are defeated though. It’s one of the funniest and unique ways to beat aliens. Raw violence and military power dont stop them; just a funny and almost too dumb trick. In any other film it would feel possibly anti climactic, but I love it.

And although not as explicit or unhinged as its previous entires, I do think that this film, alongside AMA and Vs Hedorah, has this weird kinetic energy involving children and their interests.

AMA is about children’s emotions and dealing with making friends.
GvH features a child dealing with an environmental disaster and also has weird elements of a children’s science lesson.
Godzilla vs Gigantic features young adults and aliens bickering and literally fighting over what kids are interested in, and what kind of world they grow up in.