- For better or worse, Ishirō Honda's Godzilla is undeniably Japan's most famous and influential film. While it is a far cry from being Japan's best film (and wasn't even the best film released by Toho Studios in 1954), it is nonetheless an impressive early monster movie that manages to weave in a much more interesting subtext than most. Everybody already knows the main story, namely that a giant dinosaur-like creature named Godzilla emerges from the ocean to attack Japan. Everybody probably also knows that these events are intended as an allegory for the worldwide threat posed by nuclear weapons. Even someone like me who has seen Godzilla multiple times can be forgiven for forgetting about the film's unconvincing love triangle between Emiko (Momoko Kōchi), Ogata (Akira Takarada), and Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata), although I had an easier time remembering Emiko's father, Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura).
- But the real star of the show is of course Godzilla himself, and his rampage through a convincing miniaturized version of Tokyo is certainly the highlight of the film. Godzilla's eerie roar and his relentless march across Japan create an indelible set of images that have influenced countless monster movies since, including the three-dozen subsequent films in the Godzilla series. Although much has been made of the fact that Godzilla is fundamentally a guy (Haruo Nakajima) in a lizard suit, the live-action approach admittedly avoids the intrinsic artificiality of stop-motion animation. The film's central message, namely that nuclear testing can have dramatic unintended consequences, is one that remains true today. While the more recent Godzilla films have gotten better about building tension while the monster is offscreen, the creature himself really hasn't improved all that much in the past 70 years.
- Oddly enough, Godzilla is described as being two million years old, which seems a bit young for a dinosaur.
