Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995)Director:Takao Okawara
Writer:Kazuki Ohmori
Starring:Takurô Tatsumi ... Dr. Kensaku Ijuin
Yôko Ishino ... Yukari Yamane
Yasufumi Hayashi ... Kenichi Yamane
Megumi Odaka ... Miki Saegusa
Sayaka Osawa ... Meru Ozawa
Saburo Shinoda ... Professor Fukazawa
Momoko Kôchi ... Emiko Yamane
I am a proud owner of an original movie poster of this filmThe Plot:In 1996, after the events of SpaceGodzilla, Birth Island, the current home of Godzilla and his "son" is found destroyed. Little Godzilla, is presumed dead at first but later reveals himself as a larger and more powerful sub-adult due to the excess radiation and is re-named Godzilla Junior. Godzilla, covered in glowing lava-like rashes, enters Hong Kong and destroys most of the city. G-Force representatives hire college student Kenichi Yamane, the grandson of Dr. Yamane, who we met in from the 1954 film, to come work at the center in an attempt to unravel the mystery of Godzilla's condition.
Yamane suspects that Godzilla has been influenced by the volcanic euruption on Birth Island, starting a self destruct sequence in himself and will suffer a nuclear heart attack. His death would result in triggering an atmospheric chain reaction which will take Japan, and the entire Earth with him.
G-Force deploys a flying combat vehicle outfitted with anti-nuclear cold weapons to forestall this; the Super X III.
Strange life forms appear where Godzilla was thought to be killed in 1954, and a host of deadly creatures called Destroyah begin wreaking havoc. Soil samples reveal that Destroyah is connected to the Oxygen Destroyer used against Godzilla in 1954, which mutated Precambrian era life forms. After several deadly skirmishes with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, the Destroyah evolve beyond the J.S.D.F.'s containment abilities and psychic Miki Saegusa must use her failing powers to lure Junior to the area in an attempt to combat Destroyah in Tokyo.
Godzilla, who is searching for his son, follows Junior, but complications arise. Due to his encounter with the Super X III, Godzilla will meltdown once his body reaches 1,200 degrees Celsius and the Earth will be destroyed.
During Junior's first battle, he is wounded. Godzilla and Junior meet in Narita, but Destroyah returns in his final form. Destroyah knocks down Godzilla and kidnaps Junior, dropping him from an extreme altitude that brings the child monster close to death. Godzilla, enraged, attacks Destroyah and a battle ensues that destroys Tokyo. Born from the only weapon that was thought to have killed Godzilla, Destroyah at first shows an advantage, but Godzilla's radioactivity has increased his own power. Destroyah's body decomposes into many smaller Destroyah which attempt to swarm Godzilla from all sides, but Godzilla uses a nuclear pulse to incinerate the miniature Destroyahs.
Godzilla's heart continues to fail. Suddenly, Destroyah returns for one last attack. Godzilla's demise begins, resulting in his power increasing once again significantly. In a fury of rage, Godzilla begins reigniting Destroyah with his powerful atomic breaths, severely burning and mortally wounding the beast.
As Godzilla reaches meltdown and begins to die, the Super X III freezes him with ice beams to stop him from the destroying the planet and are successful. Godzilla's final moments of life are long, strenuous, and sad as he is overcome with immense pain, with his flesh and body slowly melting away. The King of the Monsters gives one last faint roar before he becomes nothing more than a pile of melted flesh and ashes.
The victory is a costly one however, for the radiation has made Tokyo an uninhabitable city. Miki holds her hat in salute to the creature she had cared about for so long. Suddenly, radiation levels begin to plummet, and from within the thinning smoke, is a revived and full grown Godzilla Junior.
My Thoughts:I suppose I've done you all an injustice by not reviewing 1993's "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla" remake. It wasn't till watching this one did I remember how important it was to know that there was another Godzilla running around! My apologies! Maybe I'll fill in all the gaps one of these days.
This is a phenomenal film! Marking the 40th anniversary of "Godzilla", it relies heavily on the original film and is true to the mythos that surrounds Godzilla, even bringing back actress Momoko Kôchi to reprise her role as "Emiko". (Sadly this was also her last appearance before she passed away a few years later)
This is a very emotional film, especially with the character of Miki Saegusa, who had found herself with a sort of psychic bound with the Godzilla monsters. The actress is very good at making you believe everything her character is feeling is genuine. When it comes to the sorrow at the loss of Godzilla, maybe it is.
I'll admit to getting very somber at the end of the film myself. After 21 films, it was very sad to see the big guy finally taken down, not by a monster or a weapon, but the very thing that created him and allowed him to survive all this time.
There was some logic in destroying this Godzilla. Over the years he had changed size some. This scale of the monster was much larger than the original and therefore it made it a lot harder to create the miniatures and have them look believable. The new Godzilla revealed at the end of the film resets his height to something a little closer to the original.
Though the monster we see at the end looks nearly identical to his "father", a very new look is brought the Godzilla in subsequent films. We'll touch on that with the next film, "Godzilla 2000".
