The seventy-year-old "Godzilla" franchise is revered all over the world – but it didn't start that way. These filmmakers put their careers on the line to make what, at the time, was the riskiest film ever made in Japan.
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00:00 The 69-year-old Godzilla franchise is revered all over the world, but it didn't start that
00:05 way. These filmmakers put their careers on the line to make what, at the time, was the
00:11 riskiest film ever made in Japan. Ishiro Honda's 1954 kaiju film Godzilla became a cult phenomenon
00:19 that eventually birthed an ever-expanding franchise, which is still a significant part
00:24 of Japanese pop culture.
00:26 Honda's original is very much a spectacle with a prehistoric monster at the center of
00:31 the tale. However, the film is also intensely melancholic because it reflects the socio-political
00:37 situation in Japan at the time. Japan was still recovering from the aftermath of the
00:42 nuclear attacks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so the shots of a radioactive beast terrorizing
00:48 the streets of Tokyo deeply resonated with audiences.
00:52 The fact that Honda's Godzilla spawned more than 30 sequels is a testament to its influence
00:57 on popular culture, and you could assume that the film's cult hit status was a given at
01:02 the time of release, but that's anything but true. Godzilla was conceived during a time
01:08 of great uncertainty in the film industry, during which Honda and his team were threatened
01:13 with termination if the film were to be a critical and commercial failure. So much depended
01:18 on the success of Godzilla that Honda gave his team an ultimatum. Due to the risky nature
01:24 of the endeavor, Honda asked his team to read the script and leave the project immediately
01:29 if they were not convinced.
01:31 When Honda was preparing to take on Godzilla, it was the kind of film never made before
01:36 in Japanese cinema. Apart from being a wildly expensive film because of its special pseudomation
01:42 effects, Godzilla was an ambitious project with a rather ridiculous premise. For those
01:47 curious, pseudomation is a term created to represent the way that Godzilla was brought
01:52 to life. Rather than using techniques like stop-motion animation, an actor in an elaborate
01:58 suit performed on set among carefully constructed miniatures and environments. Post-war Japanese
02:05 cinema by the likes of Nagisa Oshima and Akira Kurosawa were generally artistic, somber period
02:11 pieces with nuanced social commentary. But Godzilla was mainstream in its appeal, and
02:17 its serious themes were interspersed with shots of a kaiju defying human defenses and
02:22 destroying anything in its path. Because of these concerns, Honda understood the importance
02:28 of taking Godzilla seriously from the get-go. The film's production house, Toho, originally
02:34 intended for Senkichi Tanikuchi to spearhead the project. The director declined the offer,
02:39 most probably due to its risky nature. After Honda came on board, he demanded the utmost
02:45 dedication to the project from his team. It was a fair demand, as he knew that everyone's
02:50 careers hinged on the success of the movie. If the film were to flop, Honda and his team
02:55 would have to deal with the loss of the humongous production cost of $275,000, which would have
03:02 understandably derailed their careers.
03:04 "No matter how you look at it, it's not a simple matter."
03:10 Intense attention to detail was taken after the project took off. Honda supervised the
03:15 construction of miniature sets and worked closely with special effects director Eiji
03:20 Tsuburaya, who was a pioneer in his field. Honda also carefully crafted the tone of the
03:26 film. It was intended as a mixture of creature feature and disaster flick, with sci-fi and
03:32 horror themes embedded into the narrative. Thankfully, all of these efforts paid off.
03:37 Honda's directorial debut was a romantic tragedy titled "Blue Pearl," which he followed up
03:43 with several post-war dramas such as "Eagle of the Pacific." Over the years, Honda worked
03:48 closely with Tsuburaya, which eventually helped him bag "Godzilla" after Tanikuchi declined.
03:54 After Honda and his "Godzilla" team beat all the odds stacked against them, the film received
03:59 global recognition and was marketed in the U.S. as "Godzilla, King of the Monsters,"
04:05 which was a heavily edited, Americanized version of the original.
04:09 This led to the glorious Kaiju-era monster films in Japan, which adopted Tsuburaya's
04:14 pseudomation technique to create massive monster battles that blended seamlessly with more
04:20 grounded human stories. Honda became synonymous with creature features and allowed him to
04:25 influence the megamonster and disaster genres. After directing a bunch of dramas and comedies,
04:31 Honda returned to his field of expertise with the likes of "Battle in Outer Space" and "Mothra
04:37 vs. Godzilla."
04:39 By this time, the Kaiju genre had caught on with mainstream audiences, leading to several
04:44 installments with "Godzilla" at the center. The franchise expanded with time. Most recently,
04:51 "Godzilla -1" has terrorized the big screen to great effect. It has also inspired video
04:56 games like "Shadow of the Colossus" and shows like the "Ultraman" series. From massive risk
05:02 to cultural phenomenon, Ishiro Honda's "Godzilla" changed the face of blockbuster movies forever.
05:09 [Explosion]
05:12 [Music]
05:14 (upbeat music)