Alternate Titles: Gigantis the Fire Monster, Godzilla's Counterattack
Year: 1955
Director: Motoyoshi Oda
Special Effects Director: Eiji Tsuburaya
In The Suit: Haruo Nakajima

For true Godzilla fans, in some ways, this second Godzilla movie is even more significant than the first. After all, the Godzilla in that first movie isn't even the one that appears in the rest of the films. And the first movie is just a giant monster on a rampage, but what we're really all about is giant kaiju fighting each other, and that's delivered for the first time here, in this movie that introduces the long enduring Anguirus.

The human side of this movie features a pair of pilots who have careers as fish spotters. They fly around, locate schools of fish, and then radio back to headquarters so that the fishing ships can be sent to that spot. I've never heard of such a thing outside of this movie, but it makes perfect sense and i'm sure it's a real thing.

We get to our monster plot when one of the pilots, Koji Kobayashi, has engine trouble and he has to make an emergency landing on the remote Iwato Island, and the other pilot, Shoichi Tsukioka (played by Hiroshi Koizumi, who will be a Toho regular), has to go and rescue him. When Tsukioka lands, they see the top of Godzilla's (or a Godzilla's) head, and he's battling with another monster.

The two pilots get the hell out of there, and the next we see they're at the police headquarters, going through a mugshot line-up of dinosaur pictures from children's books. They pick out the ankylosaurus to identify the monster Godzilla was fighting.

It's said that the dinosaur was also called Anguirus, which... no it wasn't! I feel a little racist writing this, but according to the Wikipedia page, apparently in Japan "ankylosaurus" is pronounced "angilosaurus" and from there we get to Angilas and then finally Anguirus.

Bad dinosaur science!!!!

Takashi Shimura is brought back to reprise his role as Dr. Yamane (although he's demoted to "Mr." Yamane this time)...

...and he brings with him his usual despair, telling the authorities in Osaka that they basically have no hope of stopping Godzilla. He even shows them a silent highlight reel of the first film to hammer home the point, and reminds them that there's no more Oxygen Destroyer. It's also confirmed that this is a new Godzilla. Another one has been awoken by nuclear testing, as Yamane feared at the end of the first film.

As for Anguirus, ankylosaurs are described as an "atrocious, carnivorous dinosaur, and it moves quickly despite its size". And he's got "brains in several parts of his body, including the head, abdomen, and the chest."

I briefly thought that maybe Iwato Island was a precursor to Monster Island, with Godzilla and Anguirus having been battling there indefinitely, but according to the scientists it's only a matter of time before they come to Japan now that they've been discovered, so i guess the idea is that they've only recently been born/awakened (Godzilla is later described as being "born from the hydrogen bomb").

Yamane revives the idea that was neglected in the last film, which is that light makes Godzilla angry. The reasoning is that it revives his memories of the nuclear bomb testing. This time, it turns out to be a key point in the movie, since initially Japan manages to avoid rampages by enforcing blackouts. This might have been an idea that was left out of the first film since, in addition to that line being included despite being irrelevant, the idea of having to keep the cities dark would have reminded people of the days of bombing runs in World War II, and that's very much in theme with the first movie.

That's pretty much it for Mr. Yamane, whose role in this movie is really closer to a cameo. There's another scientist who becomes our go to science guy for the rest of the film.

As predicted, the monsters start to arrive on the coast of Osaka. Godzilla is first, and the blackout does give him pause, and then army jets use flares to lure him back to sea. And Godzilla may have been smoking pot, because the pretty lights cause him to get a little spaced out.

Ooooooooh! Shiny!

Someone could benefit from a little orthodontic work.

Turning to go towards the flares, his giant tail accidentally knocks down a lighthouse. He's totally sorry about that, you guys! He's just really big!

So the plan is basically working, but then some criminals (who were being transported during the blackout and Godzilla scare?!) escape their paddy wagon and, in the resultant chase, accidentally drive into a wall at an oil refinery (big oops!) and cause a huge fire.

I think we should get a drink for that wall totally sneaking up on them from 500ft away.

Despite this taking up a good 10 minutes, when we get to Godzilla he hasn't moved much past the lighthouse, so i'm actually not sure if the flares were really working all that well after all. But in any event, the huge fire is a much bigger lure for him. And worse, ironically, the flares have also attracted Anguirus...

...and so the battle between the two giant monsters begins anew.

Anguirus must have been a difficult monster to play since he's four legged, which means the actor would have to crawl around on hands and knees. Occasionally he stands upright and is then very clearly a guy in a suit.

This film is much less shy about showing its monsters than the previous one, and the fight is an extremely extended one, with lots of clear and full shots of both creatures. Director Motoyoshi Oda (his only Godzilla film) also takes the weird approach of having the film significantly sped up for long periods, resulting in comically fast movements for the two giant monsters. Well, the scientists did say that ankylosaurus was fast. Beyond that we get a lot of biting and a lot of pro-wrestling type moves that will be a staple for the films to come.

Since the fight goes on for so long, there are a lot of cutaways to the human characters reaction, including a comical scene of a group of cops pulling out their hand guns, as if they would have any effect on the 150 foot monsters. Just get out of there before you get crushed, you guys. Not that it really looks like you're anywhere near the fight to begin with.

I keep thinking of "The Lion and The Unicorn" when i see these two fight because it's a traveling fight. And they're completely focused on beating the crap out of each other, oblivious to their surroundings. It just happens to be an unfortunate result of their fight that everything in the area is decimated. Perhaps the people of Osaka should have tried offering them plum cake to get them to leave.

After the battle moves to the "world famous Osaka Castle" (it was a really impressive model. it was pretty painful to watch it get smashed), which is destroyed, Godzilla eventually kills Anguirus, with a fatal and cruel neck bite that goes on way longer then necessary, and then just to really be a dick he goes for a flame breath fatality (Up, Up, Down, Down, Strong Punch). Of course Anguirus will return in the Showa series, but not until Destroy All Monsters, which takes place in the future, so there's no continuity or explanation for his revival.

Having defeated Anguirus, Godzilla decides to pack it in for the time being and heads back out to sea. The fight is dubbed the "battle of the century".

From there we get into a long focus on the humans. The pilot Tsukioka is engaged to the boss's daughter, but everyone thinks that Kobayashi ought to get married as well. He's transferred to another branch of the fishing company (since the Osaka branch was destroyed) where the branch supervisor takes the responsibility of finding him a girl, and people start calling him Mr. Groom and there's all sorts of euphemisms comparing fish spotting to wife hunting. This ends with a long drinking party where Tsukioka meets some old college friends who i guess are on the Godzilla Defense Force although nothing is called that in this movie (there is a Maritime Defense Force). The party is interrupted with a report that Godzilla has been spotted. The poor guy, having defeated Anguirus, has wondered onto an icy island with (i don't know if there's a word for this) a kind of valley that is only open on one end. And he's basically just kinda standing there, looking harmless and lost, and oblivious to the planes that are tracking him.

Doh do do do doh. Just minding my own business here.

So the army gets the idea to close out the one open end of the valley (the specific words used are "make flame gate here").

Tsukioka is the first to get to the island, but he's running out of fuel, so he returns home and is replaced by Mr. Groom. Mr. Groom realizes that Godzilla is about the leave the valley, so he heroically sacrifices himself, diving at Godzilla and getting hit by the radioactive flame. His crash causes a mini avalanche that holds Godzilla in place.

What Metallica's song Trapped Under Ice is really about.

Back at the control booth, his diary is discovered and in it is a picture of a girl, presumably the one Mr. Groom's been hinting he's in love with.

Kobayashi's death gives the airforce a better idea, so they work out a new plan to cause a bigger avalanche to permanently bury Godzilla.

It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station.

These guys are meticulous; they spared no effort to beautifully render that mountain for their battle plans.

Look at that shading!

While the pilots are loading their planes with missiles (instead of the bombs they were originally going to use to close the valley) a group of navy men go forward with the flame gate idea to keep Godzilla inside the valley. I'm not quite sure if it works, or if was even a good idea to try, since the bright light of the flame just brings him towards the entrance. But it's moot because the jet pilots arrive for their Death Star run, and after numerous passes, Godzilla is fully buried in the ice.

This whole flame gate plan is beyond me. How are a bunch of oil drums set on fire supposed to pen in Godzilla, a 150 foot monster who regulary walks through fires cause his clumsy tail keeps knocking over exploding things?

And that's where he'll remain until 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, which will show him still frozen inside an ice block.

I should note that it's still not stated that Godzilla has radioactive breath or what exactly it is that he's breathing, but while it still looks like steam, it's described as "incandescent light" at one point.

Incandescence

Oh, Min wanted me to capture a scan of this lamp:

Cause it's a lamp shroud! Why does she have a lamp in a shroud?!

As with the first movie, there were plans to totally rework this for the American release. The plans were scrapped but there are still some revisions, including a dropping of the entire Mr. Groom plot. A prologue about the atomic bomb is added. It starts with some footage of a nuclear blast...

...and then starts talking about rockets and how they are "mechanical monsters" devised by scientists to find more and more efficient ways of killing us. And then it says that this is "the story of the price of progress to a little nation of people" and shifts to some stock footage of Japanese farmers, talking about how happy they are to have their simple lives, before beginning the movie properly.

There is also some additional stock footage added to the front of the replay of the first Godzilla movie. Actually, the narration during this part is really crazy. It starts by saying that the earliest forms of life were creatures that lived in the magma that was on the surface of early Earth...

...and then those creatures went underground and after several periods of warming and cooling they came back up and i guess were the dinosaurs.

It's a little unclear (a little?). By the time we get to the final dinosaur shot above, the narrator is talking about nuclear testing and how it is driving these monsters to the surface. So it's possible in this telling that the Earth is overrun with these "fire monsters". But i don't think that's the case. It's all difficult to parse because the script is absolutely insane.

If we took a drink for each individual instance of bad dinosaur science, we'd have alcohol poisoning from this scene alone. Crazy. Sauce.

The non-Yamane scientist says "the horrors in the world of science are part of nature's plan" and then tells us that "a new book came out and we learned so much and it is called 'Angilosaurus, Killer of the Living'." Someone asks, "Angilosaurus?", and he responds, "True", and then continues, saying that the angilosaurs were "murderers, original plundering murderers who killed everything in their way. And then reads directly from the book (this is the children's dinosaur book, mind you), which says, "Somewhere, although it is not known when, these creatures may come alive after years of hibernation due to radioactive fallout. He has brains in several parts of his body including the head, abdomen, and the chest. He is a member of the Angilas family of fire monsters and can wipe out the human race." The scientist then says, "These boys are both Gigantus and Angilas", (or, possibly, "These, boys, are both..."). Then a member of the military introduces Mr. Yamane as someone who can tells us about, the "Gigantus monster of the Angilas family".

Holy crap. Is he reading out of the D&D Monster Manual? Fire monsters?! Dinosaurs are fire monsters?! Yeah, well, then that whole "flame gate" idea's totally going to work.

As you can see from the dialogue above, the weirdest change is that the American version tried to pass off this as not at all a sequel to the first Godzilla movie, with the movie getting renamed Gigantis the Fire Monster and with Godzilla's characteristic roar getting replaced with the same roar used by Anguirus.

The above dialogue is just a sampling of the script of the English version, which is awful, awful, hilariously awful. It is absolutely worth your time to watch the Japanese version and then sit through the first 15 minutes or so of the English version to see the difference. One thing you'll notice right away is the Roy Thomas worthy narration that describes in painstaking detail every thing that is happening on screen. If you can see it happening, he's describing it. Scenes that are silent in the original are overloaded with words in the US version.

I have a theory. I think the guy scripting the English version was under the impression this was going to be presented to the public as a radio broadcast. Because why else in holy god would he think swapping out Godzilla's roar for Anguirus' was going to fool anyone with eyes? And the narration...the endless, hyper-detailed narration. He was one step away from telling us each time the character blinked.

The other thing, somewhat more common to dubbed movies, is that the dialogue is adjusted to account for how people's mouths move. So, from Wikipedia, here's one example:

One infamous dubbed line in the U.S. release used the slang term 'banana oil'. George Takei [who voices Tsukioka and is responsible for the lengthy narration i described] has noted on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that the phrase was used to synchronize with the mouth movement of the original Japanese word, "bakayarou", loosely meaning "idiot" or "bonehead".

I looked up "banana oil slang". And having done so, i still say if anyone exclaimed "Banana oil!" at me, i would suspect they had Tourette's.

Another example is when Tsukioka shows up to rescue Kobayashi in the beginning. In the Japanese version, Tsukioka tells Kobayashi that he should thank the two women operating the radios at the fish factory for his rescue, and Kobayashi says, "Are you saying I owe my life to those two annoying women?". And Soichi responds, "You may have to listen to them more for now on." In the American version, he instead says, "Down boy! I guess I honestly wouldn't know what to buy." And Kobayashi responds, "Trying to please a woman is like trying to swim the ocean ha ha ha ha!". And in general there's the weird halting way of speaking and then cramming together lots of words to try to fit with how the actors mouths are moving, and it's terrible!

Godzilla Drinking Game
	Someone thinks it's a good idea to drag a giant monster across the ocean on a raft (giant eggs count).	Two movies in and we haven't seen this one yet!
	Attacking planes fly directly at a monster, with no possibility of avoiding a crash even if the monster didn't swat them down.	This does happen, but it's by design since the way to defeat Godzilla is to dive at him while in the narrow ice cave. So it happens for a perfectly valid reason and doesn't count for the purposes of this game. But the pilots do often get awfully close to Godzilla.
	People refuse to believe in the existence of a giant monster even though they've already acknowledged that Godzilla exists.
	A submarine explodes.
	Teens have a dance party on a boat. Two drinks/head smacks if they get attacked by a monster during the party.	Well, there's a party and there's dancing, but no teens and no boat.
	The government is completely ineffective when faced with a corporation doing something illegal.
	A humongous lumbering monster manages to sneak up on someone. Two drinks/head smacks if it's the army and they're supposedly using radar.	Those criminals that started the fire get their comeuppance when they're later running from the police and suddenly Godzilla rears up over a wall and knocks it down (and then they flee into the subway which floods and presumably drowns them). I was feeling lenient and wasn't going to count this since the criminals had their police pursuers on their mind, but Min says it counts.
	A scientist suddenly figures everything out with little-to-no information and explains it all to everyone.	Yeah, the scientists sure seem to know a lot about Anguirus and the revived Godzilla from very little information provided by two fish spotters.
	A monster suddenly grows in size just because.
	People expose themselves to major amounts of radiation with no concern.	Well, it depends on whether we're supposed to know that Godzilla has radioactive breath at this point. The fishing company people sure don't mind sifting through the ash and rubble of their destroyed building in the aftermath of the battle between two radioactive monsters.
	Everyone suddenly knows a monster's name. Two drinks/head smacks if everyone else nods appreciatively and repeats it.	Not quite, although when the fish spotters identify Anguirus in front of the rest of the fishing company, everyone pauses, and then nods and repeats the name appreciatively.
	Army missiles can't seem to hit a 150+ foot monster and instead explode harmlessly around it.	Oh yes. During the first part of the battle between Godzilla and Anguirus in Osaka, missiles fly past in both directions, with the vast majority failing to hit either giant monster.
	A woman falls down for no reason.
	Bad dinosaur science. You have to give a little leeway for the time period, but pretending a children's picture book is a scientific journal is always worth two drinks/smacks.	This is the movie that inspired this item. The picture book is the clincher, but the idea of an ankylosaur being a speedy meat eater would qualify all on its own. I might give some leeway for "brains in several parts of his body, including the head, abdomen, and the chest", because at one time people did think that the large nerve clump in the rear of some of the larger dinosaurs (more like the Apatosaurus than the Ankylosaur) was a second brain, but three brains? That's totally off the rails, as far as i know. The English version is even worse and might as well be describing some alternate universe. I just died from alcohol poisoning.

Monsters Appearing: Anguirus, Godzilla