Starring Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, Reiko Tajima and Akihiko Hirata. Written by Jun Fukuda and Hiroyasu Yamaura. Directed by Jun Fukuda. Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka.
Cool poster
Also known as GODZILLA VS. BIONIC MONSTER and GODZILLA VS. COSMIC MONSTER, this kaiju flick came out to celebrate Godzilla’s 20th anniversary.
This poster is ace!
The movie presents us with our massive reptilian hero tackling his mechanical doppelgänger: Mechagodzilla! This marvellous, monstrous machine is controlled by alien ape-beings who come from a planet orbiting a black hole! Failing to beat his robo-twin in combat on his own, Godzilla is assisted by dog-faced Okinawan god-monster King Caesar (aka King Seeser). Godzilla’s beastly buddy Angiurus returns, and is now capable of leaping at his foes, leading to a very physical fight with Mechagodzilla!
Above: three colourful kaiju pics!
Mecha-G is definitely the stand-out element in this film, with the robo-beast firing rockets from its fingers, discharging lightning bolts from its chest, emitting colourful beams from its eyes, and creating whirling forcefields with its spinning metal head! Woot!
The fights in GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA are really enjoyable, full of multiple explosions and animated power beams. Even Mechagodzilla’s knees are lethal, as they are capable of firing projectiles at Godzilla and King Caesar!
Godzilla and his robotic nemesis!
This film is fun, fun, fun! The ape-aliens look goofy, goofy, goofy! And Mechagodzilla is cool, cool, cool! No wonder the titanium terror went on to become one of Godzilla’s most popular foes.
Starring Takurô Tatsumi, Yôko Ishino, Yasufumi Hayashi and Megumi Odaka. Written by Kazuki Ômori. Directed by Takao Okawara. Produced by Shogo Tomiyama and Tomoyuki Tanaka for Toho.
Will the human protagonists be able to make a difference?
Godzilla is on the verge of a nuclear meltdown and the Japanese defence forces try to freeze the great beast, in an attempt to cool down his rocketing temperature. But there’s another big problem… a mega-monster known as Destoroyah…
Big G is overheating!
GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH was the final Toho Godzilla movie of the Heisei era (this era spanned the years from 1984 to 1995).
Steam rises off the super-heated uber-beast!
Directed by Takao Okawara (who also directed GODZILLA 2000, GODZILLA VS. SPACEGODZILLA, GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA and GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA II), with a script written by Kazuki Omori and special effects by Koichi Kawakita, this film begins memorably with Godzilla, who is coated in hot, glowing, lava-esque rashes, going on a wrecking spree in Hong Kong.
The rampant radioactive reptile stomps through Hong Kong!
It is revealed that Godzilla’s internal nuclear fission processes are going so haywire it seems that Big G is threatening to explode… which is a disaster that could destroy the world. If this wasn’t bad enough, as already mentioned, another monster appears: a creature that is a conglomeration of masses of crustaceans that were mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer weapon used to kill the very first Godzilla back in 1954.
Roaring kaiju!
The winged form of Destoroyah
Destoroyah is a novel, nasty kaiju, becoming a massive beast with a large, central head-horn, glowing orange eyes, big tusks projecting from its face, huge shoulder horns and massive wings!
The monsters have a face-off
Godzilla bests this great beast, which has killed Big G’s son, Godzilla Junior… but Destoroyah returns to fight again, in the guise of a swarm of multiple-legged mini-Destoroyahs! Even after Godzilla wipes out these things, Destoroyah returns yet again in winged form!
Japanese poster
But Destoroyah is eventually killed and the terminally overheating Godzilla stands alone, dying… so the Japanese defence forces desperately shoot cryo-lasers and fire coolant-projectiles to prevent a full-on meltdown. As an Akira Ifukube theme, reworked with choral voices, plays on the soundtrack, Godzilla roars while his flesh falls off him and he decays… and the human characters watch on as radiation levels rapidly reduce… …and the camera moves through the smoke and steam and there, backlit, is Godzilla Junior, who has been brought back to life by his dying father’s energies, and has rapidly matured, ready to take on the role of king of the monsters. This is truly the most emotional moment in Godzilla history! I’m wiping away a tear as I write about it!
Bye bye big buddy
This was an awesome way to end the Heisei-era Godzilla series, with a very memorable-looking Godzilla, who is in pain much of the time, glowing with uncontrollable inner-heat, emitting steam, bleeding lava, his back-plates flickering erratically. In many scenes the water actually boils all around him as he strides through the sea. Great stuff!
Finally, let’s check out an amazing poster by the late, great Japanese artist Noriyoshi Ohrai. Here Noriyoshi ensures that the image of the terminally overheating ‘burning Godzilla’ is centred in the painting, with Godzilla Junior positioned in front of him, hinting at what happens during the movie’s finale…
Directed by Chiang Tai and starring Chen Hsiu-Chen, Hsi Hsiang and Chin Ling Chih.
Poster
Yun Chung Lung, also known as Prince 3, is a golden dragon deity. He is banished to the human world as penitence for causing catastrophic flooding during a battle with another, evil dragon. Lung, now in human form and aided by a young, lovestruck couple, takes on the devils causing problems in the kingdom, including one flesh-hungry villain disguised as an ill, old lady.
Yun Chung Lung
Red Devil…
…confronts a giant, white ape…
…and they fight…
…and, at one point, the ape downs Red Devil with a drop kick!
Also known as MOTHER GODDESS VS THE SEA DEMON, this Taiwanese fantasy production uses stock footage from THE FOUNDING OF THE MING DYNASTY (1971) and EXORCISING SWORD (1975), plus music purloined from the likes of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979), and is of most interest when giant monsters take centre stage. These creatures include a colossal, red-haired, fanged demon-dude with reptilian hands & feet, a massive white ape, two serpentine (marionette) dragons, a bat-eared lake monster that resembles a kind of gigantic gill-man, a large (puppet) cobra and a huge, humanoid monster with long white hair and bulging eyes. Oh, there are various giant, floating heads, too!
Dragon versus Red Devil
Dragon versus dragon
Lake monster!
He’s got bat-ears, fangs and whiskers!
What big, orange eyes you have!
Giant, floating monster head fires green lightning bolts from its eyes!
These beasties, mainly men-in-suit creations, possess varied powers, including the ability to breath flame, shoot electrical power beams from their eyes and, at one point, flip from one monster form to another.
Monster footage from THE FOUNDING OF THE MING DYNASTY is used in this movie
More monster footage is taken from EXORCISING SWORD, also known as THE DEVIL FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
Miniature sets get flooded, animated energy bolts fill the screen, suicide is treated very lightly, the human drama moments tend to drag and, generally, the movie comes across as a cheap, sometimes plodding merging of fairy tale, sub-Toho kaiju flick and baffling mythological yarn.
The non-monster stuff ain’t so hot
Yun Chung Lung zaps the gigantic gill-man
Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien. Plus monsters from other media too, including books and comics.
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