Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla

is a 1974 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Jun Fukuda, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Distributed by Toho and produced under their effects subsidiary Toho–Eizo, it is the 14th film of the ''Godzilla'' franchise, and features the fictional monster characters Godzilla, Anguirus, and King Caesar, along with the mecha character Mechagodzilla. The film stars Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, Gorō Mutsumi, and Akihiko Hirata, with Isao Zushi as Godzilla, Satoru Kuzumi as both Anguirus and King Caesar, and Kazunari Mori as Mechagodzilla. The film marks the first appearances of King Caesar and Mechagodzilla in the franchise.

''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'' was released theatrically in Japan on March 21, 1974, to generally positive reviews. The film received a limited release in the United States in 1977 by Cinema Shares, under the title ''Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster''. It was then quickly re-released under the title ''Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster'' which was also the UK theatrical title.

The film was followed by '' Terror of Mechagodzilla'', released on March 15, 1975.

Plot

In Okinawa, an Azumi priestess has a vision of a city being destroyed by a giant monster. Masahiko Shimizu discovers space titanium while spelunking and takes it to Professor Miyajima for examination. An excavation led by Masahiko's brother Keisuke uncovers a chamber filled with ancient artifacts and a mural bearing an ominous prophecy: "''When a black mountain appears above the clouds, a huge monster will arise and try to destroy the world; but when the red moon sets and the sun rises in the west, two monsters shall appear to save the people.''" Keisuke is joined by archaeologist Saeko Kaneshiro, who translates the prophecy and takes a statue bearing the likeness of Okinawa's guardian monster King Caesar to study. Two men stalk them, one claiming to be a reporter while the other attempts to steal the statue.

Following the appearance of a black cloud resembling a mountain, a Godzilla imposter emerges from Mount Fuji and begins a destructive rampage. Godzilla's ally, Anguirus, confronts the imposter, only to be injured and forced to retreat. Keisuke arrives shortly after to check on Masahiko and Miyajima. As the Godzilla imposter's rampage continues, the real Godzilla confronts the imposter, revealed to be Mechagodzilla, a massive mecha with advanced weaponry made of space titanium. Both monsters injure each other and retreat.

Keisuke and Saeko take the statue back to the temple, but are confronted by the thief once again. During the fight, the skin on half of the stranger's face melts away, revealing an ape-like alien from the Third Planet of the Black Hole called Simeon. The Simeon intruder attempts to kill Keisuke, but an unseen gunman kills him before Keisuke and Saeko catch a brief glimpse of the reporter. Godzilla arrives on Monster Island during a thunderstorm and is struck by lightning multiple times, reinvigorating it.

Masahiko, Miyajima and his daughter Ikuko explore the cave where the space titanium was found, but are captured by Simeons, who plan to use Mechagodzilla to conquer Earth. Their commander, Kuronuma, forces Miyajima to repair the mecha. While Saeko checks into a hotel and guards the statue, Keisuke leaves to meet Masahiko at the caves, only to encounter the reporter, who reveals himself as Nanbara, an Interpol agent who has been tracking the Simeons. After Nanbara and Keisuke infiltrate Simeon base and free the prisoners, Keisuke and Ikuko leave to pick up Saeko and the statue while Miyajima, Nanbara, and Masahiko stay behind, only to be recaptured by Kuronuma.

The next morning, a lunar eclipse results in a red moon and a mirage of the sun rising in the west. Seeing this, the team realizes they have to awaken Caesar. They meet with the priestess and her grandfather and place the statue in the temple, revealing Caesar's resting place. As Kuronuma dispatches Mechagodzilla, the priestess sings to awaken Caesar and Godzilla arrives. The two monsters join forces to fight Mechagodzilla. When the mecha tries to escape, Godzilla creates an electromagnetic field to attract Mechagodzilla before tearing off its head, destroying Mechagodzilla. While the Simeons are distracted, Nanbara and the others free themselves, kill their captors, and sabotage the base, fleeing as it explodes. With the enemy defeated, Godzilla heads out to the ocean and Caesar returns to his resting place while the humans rejoice.

Cast

Production

As with all previous entries in the ''Godzilla'' film series, the ''kaiju'' characters featured in ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'' were depicted through suitmation. The body of the Mechagodzilla suit, worn by suit actor Kazunari Mori, was made from a polyethylene material, while the suit's head and hands were made using fibre-reinforced plastic.

King Caesar

King Caesar (キングシーサー, Kingu Shisa), is a fictional kaiju resembling a combination of a lion and a dog, who first appeared in the 1974 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. King Caesar also appears in the 2004 film Godzilla: Final Wars, along with other media including comics, television series, and video games.

King Caesar's name and design are based on shisa, which are artistically embellished stone lion-like dog statues common in Okinawa, where the film took place. They are an Okinawan variation on the Chinese guardian lion (石獅; Shishi, meaning "Stone Lion"), which in turn originates from Buddhist tradition in India, where Asiatic lions are native. Shisa only loosely resemble actual lions on account of being based on second-hand descriptions by people who had never seen one in person. In the 1970s, general East Asian folklore were relatively unknown to Western audiences, which resulted in the translators interpreting name "Shisa" to be a Japanization of the name "Caesar".

King Caesar's character concept was inspired by a traditional Okinawan folk tale in which a shisa protects a village from a rampaging dragon. This myth is referenced in its debut film, in which Mechagodzilla plays the role of the evil "dragon". It is portrayed as a loyal and powerful protector of mankind, in reference to the role shisa play in Okinawan tradition. Character profiles in supporting media describe the monster as standing tall and weighing 30,000 tonnes (33,069 short tons)-50,000 tonnes (55,115 short tons). King Caesar is shown to be swift and athletic. It can also draw an enemy's energy weapons into its right eye and reflect them back from its left eye with ten times the force, and empower itself with solar energy.

Appearances

*Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
*'' Terror of Mechagodzilla'' (1975) (King Caesar appears in stock footage used in the opening credits)
*'' Godzilla Island'' (1997-1998)
*'' Godzilla: Final Wars'' (2004)
*'' Godzilla Singular Point'' (2021) (King Caesar appears in the end credits, alongside Manda)
*''Godziban'' (2019-) (Represented through his children Young Caesar and Miyarabi)

Video Games

Release

''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'' was released in Japan on March 21, 1974, where it was distributed by Toho. The film was followed up with a direct sequel in 1975 titled '' Terror of Mechagodzilla''.

The film was released in the United States in March 1977. It was released by Cinema Shares in the United States under the title ''Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster'' where the film was shown predominantly at Saturday "kiddie" matinees. The Cinema Shares theatrical version deleted four minutes of credits, profanity and blood-letting from the film. Universal Television threatened to sue Cinema Shares over the use of the name "Bionic" in the film's title, as they owned the rights to ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' and ''The Bionic Woman'' TV series. The film title was quickly changed to ''Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster'', which was also used for the 1977 U.K. theatrical release.

Box office

The film made slightly more money than ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'', but was still not making as big a box office profit as the other films in the ''Godzilla'' series had in the early 1960s. The 1974 Japanese release earned a distribution income ( rentals) of .歴代ゴジラ映画作品一覧
/ref> It also grossed overseas, for a worldwide total of about by 1980.

Home video

In 1988, New World Video restored the film on home video, using a complete and unedited print titled ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla''.
In 2004, TriStar released the film on DVD as ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'', with both English and Japanese audio included. In 2019, both the Japanese version and export English version were included in a Blu-ray box set released by the Criterion Collection, which included all 15 films from the franchise's Shōwa era.

Reception

In a contemporary review in the ''Monthly Film Bulletin'', Tony Rayns stated that at this point in the ''Godzilla'' series, there was no way the film "could have been anything other than formulary, but it could clearly have been much less shambling than it is." Rayns noted that Shinichi Sekizawa's story was "for once, quite ambitious" while noting that the film's "'mythic' elements are never coherent or impressive enough to match the array of alien technology, and the script seems to forget all about fulfilling its own prophecies as it hurries towards the regulation free-style wrestling climax."

From retrospective reviews, Stuart Galbraith IV discussed the film in his book on Japanese genre films. Galbraith described the film as a "complete mess", finding that the aliens in the film were a rip-off of ''Planet of the Apes'' and that the film had poor effects work and "equally poor direction of Jun Fukuda." Galbraith opined that the film was "an improvement over '' Godzilla vs. Megalon'', but that's not saying much." Among the positive attributes, Galbraith noted that Masaru Sato's score was interesting and series veterans Akihiko Hirata, Hiroshi Koizumi and Kenji Sahara "make welcome appearances." In Phil Hardy's book ''Science Fiction'' (1984), a review stated that "the final fight is suitably impressive although the tongue-in-cheek reference to Leone slows the action down too much."

On Rotten Tomatoes, an approval rating of 86% based on 7 reviews, with a rating average of 6.3/10."

See also

* List of Japanese films of 1974
* List of science fiction films of the 1970s

References

;Bibliography

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External links

Godzilla on the web (Japan)
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{{Jun Fukuda

1974 films
1970s Japanese-language films
1974 fantasy films
Films about alien invasions
Films about extraterrestrial life
Films scored by Masaru Sato
Films directed by Jun Fukuda
Films produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Films set in Okinawa Prefecture
Films set in Shizuoka Prefecture
Films set in Tokyo
Giant monster films
Godzilla films
Japanese science fiction films
Japanese sequel films
Kaiju films
1970s monster movies
Toho films
Mecha films
Films with screenplays by Shinichi Sekizawa
Apes in popular culture
1970s Japanese films
Films about princesses
1974 science fiction films
Saturn Award–winning films
Japanese robot films