War of the Gargantuas

Today we discuss The War of the Gargantuas! A Toho kaiju movie that's not about Godzilla, Ishirō Honda again directs, with Haruo Nakajima starring as the main villain Gaira. For the first time that we've seen so far Gaira is a direct villain! While early appearances of Godzilla could be argued to be villains, I would argue that he was more "force of nature" than evil or villainous. But bad guy Gaira in this movie is a distinctly "bad" character, so it might be fun to see Nakajima be a proper villain.

This movie is extremely popular among film-makers and film-fans. Famous American actor Brad Pitt claims that War of the Gargantuas is the first movie he ever saw and the one that made him want to pursue acting. Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, and Tim Burton (among others) have high praise for it. So hopefully that bodes well for what's coming up!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A ship is attacked by a giant octopus. When all hope seems lost, a giant green monster attacks the octopus. After driving it away, he goes ahead and attacks the ship and eats the people himself.
- Convinced, partially by the single survivor, that Frankenstein attacked the ship, a separate group of people try to convince the world that Frankenstein is a kind and gentle giant monster.

- More reports of Frankenstein to happen as the green monster (Gaira) attacks a beach. But this time there are two simultaneous sightings, one on a beach (Gaira) and another in the mountains of Japan. Both can't be true!

- Gaira attacks again, in the city this time, and eats a woman before being driven away by the sun. The military conclude that green monster Gaira is sensitive to bright lights.

- Interrupting a fancy party featuring a fancy song by a fancy singer, Gaira almost eats her before some bright lights chase him away just in time.

- With the military now hunting Gaira, he defends himself. One scene in particular is awesome because he straight up picks up tanks and throws them into houses, which is a rad idea no one has used before now. Gaira also demonstrates his hops, grabbing two helicopters out of the sky in fiery balls of death.

- The military eventually manages to use Gaira aggression him to lure him into a trap, destroying an entire forest in the process. Seeing a forest get bisected by lasers as a giant monster jumps around it is honestly a very cool effect.

- Just as Gaira is nearly killed, a yellow monster springs from out of nowhere and protects Gaira from the lasers. It harms no one but does carry Gaira off to safety. This is Sanda, harkening back to the sighting of the "Frankenstein" in the mountains.

- Sanda proves himself to be a good guy when he saves a woman from falling off a cliff to her doom, at moderate cost to himself.

- Apparently unaware of Gaira's habit of eating people, Sanda finds Gaira's stash of human snacks and attacks him. This he cannot abide. Gaira runs away.

The city is evacuated as Gaira returns to attack, either looking for food or wanting to finish off his brother (or both). His previous hatred of bright light is gone now, as he knows bright lights are where he can find delicious people.

- Eventually, Sanda appears to save the city from Gaira's fury. He initially tries to talk sense to Gaira, in monster language, but it predictably devolves into a city-shattering melee.

- As they take the fight into the sea, both monsters appear to die in an underwater volcano explosion.

Kaiju Notes

- The giant octopus from the first scene actually looks very good. If I didn't know better I would assume they actually just filmed an octopus playing with a model ship. Hell, they might have, I don't really know better.

- Gaira is horrible. It's a good look for a kaiju! With just the right amount of humanity with a mix of monster, Gaira's design makes him seem deliberately villainous because he appears to have a thinking brain that he uses to eat people. The teeth in particular are a good, inhuman touch that make him seem both more dangerous and more animalistic than his otherwise humanoid form.

- Sanda, on the other hand, is boring. Perhaps because he's really just "yellow Gaira," he also lacks the distinct teeth and some of the inhumanity of Gaira. While this does make him more sympathetic and relatable looking it also makes him dull, especially by comparison to his counterpart.

- Neither seem to have any powers beyond "big, strong, tough, and occasionally pissed." In their defense, this will usually get you quite far, but most other kaiju would probably beat the brakes off these boys.

- The suit acting is actually quite good in this film, especially compared to most. While we know when Godzilla or the others are triumphant and they've even communicated on screen before, we rarely get a chance to get in their heads. Sanda is clearly a gentle soul who doesn't want to fight at all and this is communicated even through his fighting style. Gaira on the other hand is all id and anger, communicating his intent to harm everything that stands in his way through his grunting and gesturing, and his fighting style is significantly more aggressive (and effective). Were it not for the military helping, Sanda would almost certainly have lost. His ability to be a clear kaiju communicator probably saved him!

Anyone who is an avid reader of this extremely well-read and far-reaching blog will know that I did not care of Frankenstein Conquers the World. BUT this movie is actually pretty enjoyable. Gaira being a mean green machine with Sanda being a relatively boring but generally benevolent lil guy is a tried and true dynamic, and they pull it off relatively well. The human story manages to be supplemental and not too much of the focus, as is often frustrating in kaiju movies. And as mentioned above, the suit acting is actually some of the best that I've seen in the genre so far. Perhaps they leaned into it because the two main monsters were supposed to be human-oid like Frankenstein, but when I see it it really just makes me wish that the suit acting was this good in all of the movies. A great example is the conversation between Rodan, Mothra, and Godzilla in an earlier movie. While the general tenor was clear from the body of each beast in that example, it did leave some confusion about the motivation or intent of the monsters until it was explained by the human characters. In War of the Gargantuas, however, the humans have to explain relatively little. Even Sanda growing enraged on finding the leftovers of Gaira's human feast was done without any aid, and without paying attention to the nearly silent acting of the kaiju in this film you would have no clear idea why the two turned on each other. Sanda's first appearance is similar, he protects Gaira out of what seems like obligation, and the human characters seem both caught off-guard and understanding of this.

Like many of these movies, War of the Gargantuas is not some deep flick about human nature of the consequences of violence or anything, but it is a pretty good time. While I am not yet understanding of why it is such a popular choice among film-makers and actors, the previous paragraph might provide some insight. The conflict is reasonable and understandable, the conclusion relatively satisfying, and the human and monster sides of the plot mesh relatively well. As far as kaiju movies go this is definitely an example of it functionally firing on all cylinders, and especially given it's progeny I was surprised to enjoy this one as much as I did.

Next: Destroy All Monsters!