Godzilla Raids Again... or Does He?

“Godzilla Raids Again” (1955)
Starring Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Takashia Shimura
Directed by Motoyoshi Oda
Written by Takeo Murata, Shigeaki Hidaka and Shigeru Kayama
Not rated

Well, it didn't quite take me a year to follow up on watching an original Godzilla double header with the next installment, “Godzilla Raids Again.”

And if you'd rather watch the movie yourself before I discuss it with spoilers aplenty, click away now; I will not be offended.

Now that you've been warned, let's address the radiation-spewing dinosaur in the room: That's not Godzilla.

And I don't mean that in the way some people might look at the 1997 “Godzilla” starring Matthew Broderick and say, “That's not Godzilla” or “That's not my Godzilla.” I mean, Dr. Yamane (Shimura) – the only character to return from the original unless you count archived footage of Godzilla Classic attacking Tokyo – says the one from the previous movie bit the dust courtesy of the oxygen destroyer, and the one discovered on an island by two scout pilots for a fishing company is a different creature, but also a Godzilla.*

More importantly, godzilla 2.0 isn't alone: He's fighting Anguirus, an ankylosaurus also awakened by hydrogen bomb testing, who looks as if he was designed by someone who looked at an ankylosaurus and thought, “Needs more spikes.” The original movie certainly had a foreboding sense of dread and metaphors for the horrors of nuclear weapons, but it sorely lacked another giant monster for Godzilla to fight. Problem solved!

Anguirus and godzilla 2.0 seem sped up at times, a filmmaking technique I'm guessing was supposed to make the creatures look more realistic? Not sure if it worked, but I do give Oda and company credit for obscuring Anguirus' hind legs in many shots so I couldn't tell for sure if, like in another movie I saw him in, it was obviously just a dude in a suit crawling. I mean, it's not like that was the only way I could tell it wasn't a real, giant, mutant ankylosaurus, but it is rather jarring.

Dr. Yamane gets called in by scientists and government officials to tell them how to deal with a Godzilla. He tells them that without an oxygen destroyer, the best they can do is distract him with lights. The plan actually works until some prisoners stage an escape and wreck a stolen truck, causing an explosion in Osaka that gets godzilla 2.0's attention over the flares being dropped by planes. Then Anguirus shows up, and they have a kaiju showdown that ends with godzilla 2.0 apparently killing him by biting his neck, then flambeing him right there on the coastline.

Godzilla, King of the... Vampires?

You know what? I'm just going to go ahead and capitalize his name and drop the “2.0” thing, OK?

Having asserted himself as king of the monsters, Godzilla heads back into the ocean, and our two POV fish company pilots, Tsukioka (Koizumi) and Kobayashi (Chiaki) try to get back to work... except their place of business has been destroyed. So Kobayashi gets sent to Hokaido, with Tsukioka soon following with his fiancee, Hidemi (Wakayama), who also happens to be the owner's daughter.

I jumped straight to Godzilla and Anguirus, because those are the characters I came to see. I know humans have always been part of Godzilla stories, but giant mutant dinosaurs fighting is usually going to get my attention over people dealing with life and feelings and stuff.

That's not to say these characters aren't likable. Kobayashi seems like a fun guy to hang out with, although maybe not someone I would trust with a plane? He and Tsukioka were in the military together and seem to have a knack for appearing when something kaiju-related is going down. Not only did they find the beasts in the opening, but the police commandeered their car to go after the escapees who messed everything up in Osaka.

In Hokaido, they meet up for dinner with some old military friends, who keep assuming Tsukioka and Hidemi are already married. At some point, Kobayashi is inspired to find his mate, and his boss at the Hokaido office volunteers to play matchmaker.

But wouldn't you know it, Godzilla shows up in Hokaido and winds up frying Kobayshi's plane. But the crashing plane triggers an avalanche, which leads Tsukioka and company to discover the next best thing to oxygen destoryers – avalanches. They decide to trap Godzilla under a whole lot more debris, and Dr. Yamane isn't around to dissuade them. Tsukioka volunteers to help with the operation to avenge his friend.

The plan works and, despite my question about the scale of Godzilla not being taller than these mountains, there are some tense moments when he's trying to dig out of the debris. As luck and the script would have it, Tsukioka fires the shot that triggers the avalanche that buries Godzilla for good, or at least until “King Kong vs. Godzilla” six years later.

This one isn't on the level of “Godzila,” but it's still enjoyable. I kid about not caring about the humans in a Godzilla movie, but Tsukioka and Kobayashi are all right dudes, and I did feel bad when the latter bit the dust. I don't know that it will have much rewatch appeal for me, but its place in history as the second Godzilla movie and the first to feature a throwdown between the big guy and another monster made it a rewarding experience.

Now, I go back to the questions I had last time: Do I jump straight to “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” probably my favorite that doesn't feature Jet Jaguar? IMDb lists “Mothra” next. But it looks like “Rodan” came out four years earlier, in 1956. Most of the lists I'm seeing don't include these, but I am a bit of a completionist, sometimes to my detriment.

I really hope this is the most difficult decision I have to make this year...**

* - Should that be lowercase then?

** - Ron Howard: It wasn't.