That week out of town felt like a month. I had actually worked at that store before, and I was right that I wouldn’t want to work there again (if I have a choice). It could be a better store, but it’s always had its issues. More importantly, it’s made me think about what my life will be like on the other side of the promotion more concretely. I need to really think about how I spend my time and how I approach things emotionally if I want to recover time for my art. I know part of that will involve more discipline in certain areas, but more so I need to relax and find the joy and motivation in what I’m doing. More time and pressure at work means I need less pressure at home.
This week, we are in my Heisei rewrite series’ entry for Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II. This movie is not a sequel to Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, which came out in 1977; that sequel was 1978’s Terror of MechaGodzilla. No, this is just the second movie called Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla. At this point, it’s safe to say that Toho wasn’t recovering from Biollante so much as they were riding the wave of nostalgic monster reprisals that was working so well for them. The film doesn’t explore a lot around MechaGodzilla, but it is in many ways one of the more interesting takes, in terms of what he means.
If you’re not familiar with Godzilla, you’re probably wondering why, in world, anyone would make a robot shaped like Godzilla to kill Godzilla. There’s two really good reasons. The first, used in the original movie, was alien invasion. The aliens wanted to attack key facilities and test human military capability without drawing attention to themselves while they shored up their plans. Since this Earth had a Godzilla, it was easy to make a powerful weapon disguised as Godzilla, so the humans wouldn’t suspect aliens. The second, used in the Millennium era movies, built a robot around a Godzilla skeleton. After the original Godzilla was killed by the Oxygen Destroyer, the skeleton was left behind, and so an arsenal of weapons was built around it. A cool concept in action, and packed with metaphorical value. So why was the Heisei era MechaGodzilla built, as opposed to a powerful warship like the Gotengo, or a humanoid robot like Jet Jaguar? No reason given. They just did it.
In exchange for that questionable design choice, this MechaGodzilla is best positioned to ask the question: What happens after you kill Godzilla? Just like the Oxygen Destroyer before it, if MechaGodzilla were to succeed, then Japan would have made the only weapon more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. We can only create more Godzillas. Japan could make this robot because they salvaged technology from the wreckage of Mecha-King Ghidorah, who came from the future; there’s an inevitability of humanity’s capacity for destruction built into MechaGodzilla. Honestly, the biggest thing I want to do with this movie is to have the characters speak to that more directly. At one point, main character Azusa Gojo says that she’s no longer sure killing Godzilla is in the best interest of humanity. Like, yes, expand on that for even a couple more lines. Overall, I would like a harder stance against MechaGodzilla presented throughout the film. They try to have their cake and eat it, too, by ostensibly using the robot as the villain, but still present all the characters working with and for the military as heroes and to overall not imply that the JSDF can do anything wrong (there’s a whole thing to talk about with the relationship between the Godzilla movies and the military, in the context of Godzilla being an anti-war metaphor).
Another big part of this movie is the introduction of two other monsters. The first is Rodan, a classic monster who, like Mothra, debuted in his own movie before being brought into the world of Godzilla. Here, Rodan is born from an egg on an island used as a nuclear waste dump. He loses an initial battle with Godzilla, then revives with greater power and an atomic heat ray of his own that he uses in the battle with MechaGodzilla. By the end, in a touching scene emphasizing family and heart overcoming soulless war machines, Rodan gives his life energy to revive and empower Godzilla so that he can defeat MechaGodzilla. The other monster is the second egg on that island, which hatches into Baby Godzilla. Baby is a plant-eating Godzillasaurus, who has a psychic connection to both Godzilla and his “half-brother” Rodan. Baby goes on to be a key character in the next two movies as Godzilla’s son. That being said, it’s notable that this movie doesn’t specify where either of these monster eggs came from. They were just two identical eggs sitting out in the open on a rocky island, belonging to long-extinct species. I think they wanted to avoid saying Godzilla gave birth since he’s always gendered masculine, but like…did Godzilla also give birth to Rodan? Where did that egg come from? I guess I don’t really want an answer there, so much as I would like if the eggs were in a volcano crater or something less exposed. Somewhere I could believe a Pteranodon egg was preserved since ancient times.
One of the more important things that Baby does is humanize Godzilla. Now as a father to a gentle and endearing son, Godzilla isn’t simply an avatar of human atrocity. With this movie effectively using MechaGodzilla as the villain in spite of his heroic position, Godzilla is repositioned in his metaphor to the victim of nuclear bombs. That’s always been in his design, with his Japanese maple leaf-shaped spines and his melted rubber skin, and it’s a really smart move to refocus him in that way when faced with the only weapon more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. To highlight the lack of humanity that MechaGodzilla represents, the military uses Baby as a lure to trap Godzilla for the final attack. Though there is opposition to this plan, I think the movie could have used a more forceful resistance by having a scene where the heroes try to sneak Baby out and away. This could have created a divide with Kazuma Aoki, the designer and pilot of the Garuda, when he decides not to help because he thinks they have to do whatever it takes to kill Godzilla. Miki Saegusa returns in this movie and is made to help pilot MechaGodzilla so she can use her psychic powers to locate the second brain in Godzilla’s hips that controls his legs (a now-outdated theory of dinosaur locomotion), so they can destroy it and leave Godzilla vulnerable. She is reluctant in the film, but I think it would have improved things if she fully refused the call and they forced her into it anyway. I realize scenes like these likely would have made the film darker than they wanted, but you know, the goal is to make MechaGodzilla look like a bad idea.
I mentioned the Garuda just now. That’s a big airplane with giant laser turrets introduced in this movie. It was the first thing they made from MKG parts, but they sidelined it for the MechaGodzilla project when they determined it wasn’t strong enough. It’s later modified to combine with MechaGodzilla like a backpack to make Super MechaGodzilla, combining their engines and giving him two more guns. It’s obvious that was the plan the whole time, and they got some use out of Garuda by fighting Rodan. I would have liked a brief scene at the beginning where we got to see Garuda fighting Godzilla, as the way they determined it wasn’t strong enough. More importantly, I want Aoki to have been pushing for that design from the beginning in order to salvage his project, with team MechaGodzilla thinking that it’s too complicated and risky to use. Miki and Azusa can find out Aoki finally convinced them to do it when they ask for his assistance freeing Baby; not only has he refused to help them, but he’s taken a step even further in the other direction. Compelling stuff. All of these movies could use a more compelling version of the human stories.
That’s about it. In comparison to the previous two films, this one is already very solid and just needs some tweaks to strengthen the strong points. I want some changes to make the stakes around MechaGodzilla clearer and to make the human drama more compelling to watch. The only other thing I can say is that, much like I described in the past couple entries, I want more physical fighting. We get some with Godzilla fighting Rodan, but very little with MechaGodzilla. The whole advantage to having a giant robot, as compared to a pair of butterfly puppets, is that the robot can punch and kick back. Anyway, the next film coming up is an all-time great and a truly bonkers premise that barely makes conceptual sense, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.
Life in the Gutters 