Yet Another Sixteen Screams For Halloween: Day 9 (Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack)

It is once again time for an annual staple during this here spooky marathon thing, as we transition nicely from Japanese tokusatsu to Japanese kaiju pictures. They're in the same boat, so to speak, and we even get to talk about Godzilla again on here! It feels like it's been a while since I've done that, as I spent like three years going on about Gamera in the 1990s. Gamera 3 is still really good, y'all. The pal who got me watching those Gamera movies also got me to view this one with them, and they really like it a lot. I definitely have a swirl of thoughts about... what's the full title of this again? Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. Just rolls right off your tongue. They call it GMK for short, so fuck it, let's do that. This isn't Non-Specific November Writing Month, these things don't have a word count. What is there to say, then, about GMK?

It is definitely a film of spectacle and style, that's for sure. Yes, it's a movie in which iconic Toho monsters duke it out in a series of elaborate battles, which means that spectacle and style is usually a given. The scale of things just feels amped up this time around, though. The destruction really goes for the maximum excess it can, and every flaming fireball and blast of atomic fire breath is an awe-inspiring spectacle. It tickles something of a basic instinct. Watching shit blow up is really cool, and shit goes boom in this movie on a whole other level from your typical Godzilla picture. Then again, this isn't your typical Godzilla picture. It once again goes for the back to basics approach where only the 1954 original has happened in this universe, meaning that Godzilla has had as many "only the first one is canon" reboots as fucking Michael Myers has. Maybe more, if I forgot something. This film's unafraid to fuck with the mythos for its own ends, either. For one there are a trio of guardian kaiju who look over Japan to protect it from calamities if they're awakened, the trio being Baragon, Mothra, and Ghidorah. For another, Godzilla in this film is like... the vengeance of the innocent Japanese killed in World War 2 made manifest, come back to destroy all things in hate? Godzilla even has blank white eyes in this movie, a zombified soulless thing that goes on a rampage and fights the good monsters.

It certainly is one of the ideas of all time, but as much as I'd like it to cohere into some grander message that has something to say, the film never really did that for me. That whole thing faded into the background to focus on the spectacle and the fighting. If that's your jam, jam with it. I personally need a little more meat on the bone, and I didn't get it on that front from this. There's also several scenes where teenage delinquents and/or hooligans are fucking around, they break one of the sacred stones sealing away the guardian kaiju, and then get fucking obliterated as the things wake up. Quite a marked contrast from just ten years prior with Godzilla vs. Biollante, where the youth of Japan were the future, open-minded both figuratively in heart and metaphorically with esper power. The times, they are a-changing. Speaking of things I can't do much with, the main human protagonist of this is a reporter girl named Yuri Tachibana. I should be over the moon about this. Combining two names from two special interests of mine should have my internal landscape sparkling, but it's not with that. She's just kinda named that.

The last thing to mention about this movie is that is just has this meanness to it. Maybe it plays off the anger of those war victims which animate Godzilla, and maybe it's because of how amplified the explosions and shit are, but this movie really likes to twist the knife with its destruction and damage. People get fucked up in this movie, and the movie takes great care in showing that the buildings getting blown to bits or stamped into paste are inhabited. The rage of a bygone era, lashing out and destroying its own future, like the hungry ghost of House who literally eats the post-war generation of that movie? There's an edge to this movie, and I don't know if that edge hit a particular point for me or not. I think that's where I bow out of talking about GMK. It's a bit more of a mixed reception for me, but it's not a kaiju picture entirely without merit. It is an escalation, an angry screed of giant monster destruction, and though it did not entirely work for me I know people for whom it did. That's good stuff. 

What if I told you about a kaiju picture I did really love, though?