'The Beast' inspired 'Gojira'


When it("The Beast") was shown here in Asia, it was some time after "Gojira".
And it was assumed that the Americans copied on the Japanese,
while it was the other way around.
But "Gojira" was very good, as was its sequel "The Son of Gojira"(1955) where the
2 monsters had nothing better to do than to take their argument into the middle
of poor Osaka.

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I hadn't realized this was before Godzilla until it aired on TCM.

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"The Beast" didn't hit Saigon's screens until 1957.

I saw "The Son Of Gojira" in late 1955(*), while
"Gojira" was shown earlier in July or August of that year.

We found "The Beast" much more impressively realistic
than the fire-spewing invulnerable Gojira, but were much
more scared by the latter(our Asian psychology !)

Some clips from "The Son Of Gojira" appeared from time
to time in the 70s & 80s Japanese Godzilla movies.
Gojira Jr.'s adversary was a kind of giant spike-shelled
dragon-headed turtle, and very nasty-looking.
(Gojira was no cutie either !)

The one scene I remember most was when both found
themselves on opposite sides of what appeared to be
a vast Buddhist temple complex. And instead of going
around to get at each other's throat, the dragon turtle
smashed its way through the edifice, totaling it with
all four paws !
It was perhaps this sacrilegious act that was the reason
for what followed next.

Gojira Jr. got its opponent in the end by catching its
exposed neck(when you are turtle, make sure your elaborate
dragon's headdress doesn't stand in the way of your neck's
quick retreat into the shell) in its vise-like jaws and biting
it to death.
{Morality: 4 Legs Good, 2 Legs Better ! As "Animal Farm" Teaches !}
Gojira then dropped it unceremoniously in The Bay where
it went turtle right away.

And to make doubly sure, Gojira roasted it "pyromaniacally".
The spectators were spared the sight of the(off-screen)
dead monster ablaze, no doubt for budgetary reasons.

(*)April and May of that year were not too good for Saigon
since combats between factions reduced large parts of the
City,espc Chinatown, into smoldering rubble.

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Over here in the U.S., THE SON OF GOJIRA was first shown as GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER (due to copyright issues involving the name "Godzilla," which is what he's called in this area). In VHS form, it was later released as both THE REVENGE OF GODZILLA and GODZILLA'S COUNTERATTACK.

I always enjoyed the GOJIRA/GODZILLA movies (at least, up until THE SMOG MONSTER -- ugh), but for me the the very best dinosaur-on-the-loose-in-a-big-city film remains THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. It's one of my Top Ten movies of All-Time, in fact. Steve V.

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JAPANESE SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR FILMS, by Stuart Galbraith IV, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1994, ISBN 0-89950-853-7.

There you go. Steve V.

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It's a pretty well-researched study. Galbraith has written extensively on the subject. Steve V.

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