main information
Godzilla is a 1954 Japanese science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho, directed by Ishirō Honda, and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura and Haruo Nakajima who portrayed the titular character until his retirement in 1972.
The film tells the story of Godzilla, a prehistoric monster resurrected by repeated nuclear tests in the Pacific, who ravages Japan and reignites horrors of nuclear devastation to the very nation that experienced it first-hand. It was the first of many kaiju films released in Japan, paving the way and setting the standard for future kaiju films, many of which feature Godzilla.
In 1956, TransWorld Releasing Corp. released Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, which utilized much of the original film. Their version featured newly shot scenes of Canadian actor Raymond Burr spliced into the original Japanese footage. In 2004 Rialto Pictures gave the original a limited theatrical release in the United States to coincide with the original film's 50th anniversary.
The film tells the story of Godzilla, a prehistoric monster resurrected by repeated nuclear tests in the Pacific, who ravages Japan and reignites horrors of nuclear devastation to the very nation that experienced it first-hand. It was the first of many kaiju films released in Japan, paving the way and setting the standard for future kaiju films, many of which feature Godzilla.
In 1956, TransWorld Releasing Corp. released Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, which utilized much of the original film. Their version featured newly shot scenes of Canadian actor Raymond Burr spliced into the original Japanese footage. In 2004 Rialto Pictures gave the original a limited theatrical release in the United States to coincide with the original film's 50th anniversary.
plot summary
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships explode and are sunk. At first, the authorities think its either underwater mines or underwater volcanic activity. The authorities soon head to Odo Island, close to where several of the ships were sunk. One night, something comes onshore and destroys several houses and kills several people. A later expedition to the island led by paleontologist Professor Kyôhei Yamane, his daughter Emiko, and young navy frogman Hideto Ogata (who also happens to be Emiko's lover, even though she is betrothed to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa) soon discover something more devastating than imagined in the form of a 164-foot-tall (50-meter-tall) monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now, the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan but the rest of the world as well. Can the monster be destroyed before it is too late, and what role will the mysterious Serizawa play in the battle?