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Gojira

Godzilla
Berlinale Classics 2024
© 1954 TOHO CO., LTD.
Atomic bomb testing off the coast of Japan has roused a prehistoric sea monster that lays ruin to Tokyo. While an older professor wants to study the creature to find out how it survived the radioactive fallout, a younger scientist has secretly developed an oxygen destroyer that could be used as a weapon to dispatch Godzilla to the hereafter… After a Japanese fishing boat fell victim to fallout from American atomic bomb tests in 1954, Ishirō Honda created a cinematic memorial to the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; a film in which the nation’s trauma could be dealt with by having actors claim victory over the gigantic radioactive lizard.
The new 4K restoration of one of the most successful films in Japanese cinema history pays tribute to more than just the film’s optical brilliance, not least in its rendering of the model miniature of Tokyo that was trampled underfoot in Toho Studio by an actor in a monster costume. The excellent sound design, with the frightening cries of the behemoth and its defenceless victims, as well as the stirring music by Akira Ifukube, also gets the attention it deserves.
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by Ishirō Honda
with Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, Fuyuki Murakami, Sachio Sakai, Toranosuke Ogawa, Ren Yamamoto Japan 1954 Japanese 97’ Black/White World premiere of the digitally restored version Rating R 12

With

  • Akira Takarada
  • Momoko Kōchi
  • Akihiko Hirata
  • Takashi Shimura
  • Fuyuki Murakami
  • Sachio Sakai
  • Toranosuke Ogawa
  • Ren Yamamoto

Crew

Director Ishirō Honda
Screenplay Takeo Murata, Ishirō Honda
Cinematography Masao Tamai
Editing Kazuji Taira
Music Akira Ifukube
Sound Norio Tone, Hisashi Shimonaga
Art Directors Satoru Chūko, Takeo Kita
Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka
Executive Producer Iwao Mori

World Sales

Toho Co., Ltd.

Additional information

DCP: Toho Co Ltd., Tokyo

Photos

In Focus