We're making history here, fellas. With the longest title in the Godzilla series, there is also another distinction in this film, but we'll get there. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (or GMK from here on out) is another in the Millennium series but is also distinguished in that it's also one of the few Godzilla movies that fully embraces the supernatural. If you want to know exactly how, you'll have to read the synopsis! But let's talk about one other interesting facet of the movie: the titular monsters are all in a melee, but it is not the three-way fight one might expect. King Ghidorah is actually a heroic kaiju in this one, for the first time ever ole KG is one of the good guys. It's honestly a bit strange to consider, but here it is in all its glory. Mothra does remain on the side of the good guys, so she teams up with King Ghidorah (and one other monster) to try to bring down Godzilla in GMK.
Shusuke Kaneko directs, returning to kaiju movies after making the excellent Gamera trilogy in the mid 90's. Mizuho Yoshida retains his position as Millennium Godzilla, and Akira Ohashi is King Ghidorah. But the best credit goes to Rie Ota as Baragon, in the greatest performance of all time. Period. We love Rie Ota on this blog and in this life, end of. Let's talk about GMK.
If You Haven't Seen it Before
- An American nuclear submarine has gone missing. While searching for it, the fun of a giant creature which resembles Godzilla is caught on camera. In this continuity, Godzilla has not been seen (officially) since 1954. While some sightings have been suspected, there's been no major attacks.
- A while later, Baragon appears on land and attacks. Many people assume this to be Godzilla's return, but we will discover this is not the case.
- A filmmaker/documentarian named Yuri Tachibana is our main human character, and she is given a book about the Guardian Monsters. These are Mothra, Baragon, and King Ghidorah.
- Elsewhere, a Mothra larva is woken up and kills several people when it capsizes their boat.
- Given a clue while investigating Mothra's awakening, Tachibana and her crew head to the supposed location of King Ghidorah. They find a mysterious stone and told that Godzilla is on its way to destroy Japan as punishment: Godzilla being either the manifestation of or fuelled by people who died during World War II, including soldiers, civilians, and .
- A man who was preparing to hang himself falls into King Ghidorah's cave, bringing all of our kaiju players into the story.
- As the human characters debate exactly what's happening and whether they believe the fairy tale of Godzilla being the manifestation of casualties of WWII and the Guardian Monsters awakening to fight him off, Baragon destroys the building they are in.
- While Baragon is initially mistaken for Godzilla, the true Godzilla appears on the nearby coast. The two monsters must now do battle.
- Baragon clamps down on Godzilla's arm and is simply tossed around due to his small size in comparison. After throwing Baragon to the ground, Godzilla simply stomps Baragon out and continues throwing him around the area before ending the fight with an Atomic Breath attack. This was not even close.
- With one of the Guardian Monsters dead and Godzilla destroying the country and the JSDF, Ghidorah and (Imago) Mothra return to the scene, finally fully emerging from their hiding places.
- Tachibana, always been closest to the developing story, warns the JSDF (and father, an admiral in the JSDF) to not attack Mothra or Ghidorah as they are actually allies of humanity.
- Mothra arrives, and attacks, first. Her speed proves to be a decisive factor and Godzilla can't make full contact.
- As Mothra gains an advantage by attacking Godzilla's neck and head, Ghidorah joins the fray and uses his three heads to bite at Godzilla and deliver Gravity Beams to his body. Unfortunately for him, having three necks means he has triple the targets and Godzilla clamps down on him.
- Ghidorah is defeated relatively quickly, Godzilla biting his neck and weakening him before aiming Atomic Breath at him for the finish. Fortunately, or unfortunately since she's been way more effective thus far, Mothra intercepts the beam and takes the hit for Ghidorah.
- While the Guardian Monsters recover, Godzilla is attacked by the JSDF and wipes them out too. Mothra attempts to sneak up on Godzilla and deliver some devastating attack but receives a point blank atomic blast for her troubles. She explodes into a golden mist which rains down on Ghidorah.
- Ghidorah, empowered by Mothra's sacrifice, rises from the ground and becomes 1000-Year Old Dragon Ghidorah, a powered up version of regular Ghidorah (with extra golden color!). He overpowers Godzilla in a Battle of the Blasts.
- Taking the battle into the water, Ghidorah seems to be winning. To take advantage of this opportunity, Tachibana's father plans to pilot a submarine to destroy Godzilla, expecting to die in the process despite his promise to Tachibana to return home.
- Reporting on the events as they happen, Tachibana falls off a bridge after it's destroyed as collateral damage of the kaiju battle.
- The submarine nearly manages to hit Godzilla with their special missile, but the Big G is clever and instead turns so Ghidorah take the impact. When it flinches, he Atomic Breaths Ghidorah and knocks him out.
- Tachibana, close to the battle and falling from a bridge, drops the stone she found earlier into the sea where Ghidorah is and Ghidorah is revived once more. Now on his 3rd chance, he takes flight while Godzilla stays in the water.
- This doesn't work, and Ghidorah is once again hit with Atomic Breath, this time full exploding so there's no more question about whether he's going to come back.
- The spirits of the Guardian Monsters linger in the air and seem to make one last (spiritual) attack against Godzilla which sends him underwater. Admiral Tachibana seizes the chance to pilot his submarine into the throat of Godzilla.
- Seeing a vision of his daughter encouraging him not to let Godzilla win, the Admiral launches the special missile into Godzilla's open wound. It slows him down but doesn't prevent him from gathering his Atomic Breath to laser the nearby (younger) Tachibana to death.
- Fortunately for both Tachibana's the gaping wound means that Godzilla's atomic power instead rips through him and destroys his body. Godzilla is finally dead, and Admiral Tachibana pilots his submarine back to the surface.
- Everyone celebrates, but as a final shot we see foreboding image of the still beating heart of Godzilla at the bottom of the sea.
Kaiju Notes
- Baragon is the cutest, bestest boy. While he's in this movie only very briefly, he's got beautiful floppy ears, a cool horn, and coloring we don't often get to say (reddish). He has no real powers worth mentioning considering how quickly he got his ass whipped, but we stan Baragon on this blog. His roar is a bit shrill but distinct. It's got nothing on what will always be his true roar: Rie Ota.
- Godzilla's appearance has changed somewhat from the previous Millennium films, and he is more menacing this time. His teeth are less jagged, his dorsal fins seem less pronounced and more orderly, and his eyes are all white at all times which gives him an aura of being possessed. While every element is actually less "wild" than his previous incarnation, this actually makes it seem like Godzilla is more designed for maximum efficiency rather than a wild animal. His Atomic Breath also causes mushroom clouds to longer where he uses it, really driving home the World War II connection.
- Mothra has been given longer legs and purple eyes, but otherwise looks very similar to every other Mothra design we've ever seen. She also looks more realistic than she ever has, the previous Mothra puppets having a certain "stuffed animal" feel to them.
- Ghidorah's necks have been shortened, which probably makes the suit much easier to manipulate. The golden color is muted because his only scenes are at night, but when the light catches it just right it looks quite good. 1000 Year Old Dragon Ghidorah gains fangs and some extra golden glow, but otherwise looks about the same as always.
Early on after the monsters begin to appear, there is a moment where, after Godzilla uses his Atomic Breath, a Japanese school teacher sees a mushroom cloud in the sky after a brief flash of light. Especially given Godzilla's origin story being directly tied to World War II, it's a genuinely affecting moment. The movie does not linger or dwell on this instance, but that is perhaps what makes it worse (and more effective). In perhaps a meta-commentary on it, whether intentional or not, the Japanese don't have the luxury of dwelling on the situation.
In one hilarious moment the military is watching the battle from a skyscraper which Mothra has used as a base from which to launch attacks. When she returns to the building at one point, Godzilla is trying to Atomic Breath her and we watch the soldiers inside realize they're about to explode as Mothra flies straight toward them before shooting up to the top of the building. If we didn't know better, we'd have to assume she did it on purpose because she hates soldiers. She might!
On the previous point, while I found that one example somewhat amusing, this film does a better job than many in the series of establishing the consequences of Godzilla's various battles. Rubble falls onto people, occupied buildings are destroyed, and people get caught in the crossfire while the kaiju battle it out. It's a small but underused element, in my opinion, in kaiju movies in general. Dwelling on the deaths of humans isn't really the goal, but making sure the audience can feel that these events are truly significant for more than just property damage makes the movies seem more relatable to me. It's the same effect as "kaiju destroys tanks and ships" versus "actually watching people react to their impending doom". It hits very different.
Godzilla is the literal manifestation of the casualties of World War II, apparently attacking Japan particularly because of their refusal to account for their own crimes during the war. It's an oddly pointed metaphor for Godzilla to embody when kaiju movies which bother with metaphors at all often go with the environmental or anti-nuclear message, but now we have the physical embodiment of the sins of war (both committed on and by the Japanese). It's not really clear whether that means Godzilla is supposed to be a consequence of mankind's fondness for violence or a simple monstrous representation of it, but the undying heart of Godzilla at the end somewhat implies the latter. It's also the first example of Godzilla's origin story being explicitly supernatural, and one of the relatively few Godzilla films to embrace supernatural elements entirely. It's what make me think that while this Godzilla is the casualties of WWII, the idea behind this one is that there will always be a Godzilla, even if it's the physical form of some different aspect of the horrors of humanity.
GMK is a mixed bag. The story and all of the elements truly do work. Even King Ghidorah, somehow, make a decent hero. Godzilla comes off as a truly unstoppable force, killing all of his kaiju enemies off either easily or multiple times. While Baragon is adorable and deserves better, crushing the cutie so ruthlessly makes Godzilla meaner and harsher. And anyone with experience in Godzilla movies knows that King Ghidorah is typically quite threatening, so watching his get killed by Godzilla on multiple occasions is like seeing the Undertaker lose at Wrestlemania. The story of the two Tachibana's is effective and blends nicely into the rest of the film, never overtaking or undermining the kaiju story. The only true downside is that the Guardian Monsters looks incompetent throughout and it becomes much harder to believe they have any chance at all as the movie continues. In fact, they really don't succeed at all, Godzilla ultimately being killed by the combination of a human weapon and his own immense power. And, as an aside, in a 50 year old series of movies about a cool and often heroic Godzilla, it's a little bit difficult to root against him. Seeing him beat the brakes off of King Ghidorah is oddly and viscerally satisfying even though we know we're supposed to be on the other side. It doesn't damage the movie in any significant way and remains quite fun throughout, but the behind the scenes decisions behind this one make it just a little harder to get behind than it could have or should have been. Definitely worth a watch, though!
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