Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (Gojira tai Mekagojira) (1974)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Photo-Image Trivia-Image Trailer-Madman Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1974
Running Time	80:52
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jun Fukuda
Studio Distributor	Toho Company Madman Entertainment	Starring	Masaaki Daimon Kazuya Aoyama Akihiko Hirata Hiroshi Koizumi Reiko Tajima Hiromi Matsushita Masao Imafuku Beru-Bera Lin Shin Kishida Goro Mutsumi Takayasu Torii Daigo Kusano Kenji Sahara
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$14.95	Music	Masaru Satô

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.55:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    It’s tragic that the culturally profound significance of the original Godzilla devolved into such a meaningless franchise. The ‘unsanitised’ 1954 release is still a surprisingly grim tale and obvious metaphor for the Bomb. Who can forget the slice of dialogue - which was removed from the US print - when a man pokes fun at his girlfriend by telling her she’ll be Godzilla’s first victim, she replies – “Not me. Not after what I went through at Nagasaki.” It’s daunting in delivery and has razor-sharp impact. This was a powerful message indeed, cleverly depicted symbolically via a lumbering 50-metre-tall creature that had the capacity to flatten Tokyo with its radioactive death-breath.

    Rivalling Godzilla’s Revenge (1969) as the most witless in the series, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla was the fourteenth of 29 officially produced Godzilla films by Japan’s Toho Studios. Unfortunately, like the proliferation of shoddy Frankenstein vs/meets films, the enduring fascination with the man-plays-God theme eroded away, becoming lost amid mindless spectacle.

    When ape-faced aliens unleash a giant space-titanium robot, which resembles Godzilla, to help them take over the Earth, an Azumi princess calls upon mythic lion-god King Seesar to destroy it. However, it seems that the real Godzilla has its snout out of joint and rises from its resting place to take on the battle.

    Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is an A-Z catalogue of poorly executed special effects, sloppy cinematography and atrocious dialogue. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but the filmmakers seem confused about which target market they're aiming this entry at – the human violence is a bit too strong for the under 12s, while young adults will find the overall tone of the film too juvenile. However, the biggest sin the producers have committed is in making the film so woefully dull. The pacing is constantly interrupted by inane chit-chat and just wait until you hear the room-clearing song performed by the Azumi princess. Worse still, there’s no sense of the film building towards the big climactic duel – even though you know it has to come because the title says so.

    If you’re still awake, the action does kick in at around the 70-minute mark. However, the men in the rubber suits camp it up like they’re auditioning for a gay pantomime. The ‘actor’ playing Mechagodzilla moves more like C-3PO than a menacing robot of destruction, while the ‘real’ Godzilla tosses his arms and head effetely, dancing around his opponent like Dorothy the Dinosaur on Ecstasy. At one point the camera zooms in for a close-up during an hysterically inopportune moment (76:14). When the shot is established it appears as if Godzilla is humping Mechagodzilla like a frisky puppy rather than trying to tear the metal beast apart. Suffice to say, the ultimate clash is as about as violent as watching two female mud-wrestlers pulling each other’s hair.

Video

    Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.55:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The original ratio is listed as 2.35:1. In direct comparison with a 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced transfer the cropping removes about 3cms from the bottom of the screen and roughly 1.5cms from the top on my display. Whilst the extra ‘space’ at the bottom of the screen ensures most of the subtitling fits under the image, I don’t understand why the 2.55:1 formatting was used. Image composition is affected by the already tight framing in quite a few scenes, such as when Godzilla’s head bobs in-and-out of the frame (17:54) and characters’ foreheads are cut off (18:38). Worse still are the close-up shots of the brief preliminary creature fights, like at 20:17 and 20:45, which become a confusing mess of dust, scales and fur.

    Regardless, apart from slight print softness and occasional motion pixelization when the camera moves quickly, this is a very good-looking transfer.

    There’s not a hint of grain to be seen. Shadow detail clarity is sharp even under murky conditions, while black levels are suitably dark and stable.

    For a 32-year-old film, colours are reasonably vibrant and well-saturated. The transfer handles the harsh red lighting at 50:14 quite well with only a thin veneer of background noise detected.

    Subtitles are presented as yellow text and are very easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio options available - a Japanese 5.1, the original Japanese 2.0 and an English 2.0 dub mix.

    Considering that Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla was the first Godzilla film to feature digital stereo, you would think the DVD sound engineers would have jumped at the chance to go hell-for-leather with the soundtrack, score and ambient effects to create a dynamic 5.1 mix. Alas, this is not the case here. Apart from an occasional, almost imperceptible subwoofer rumbling, very little has been done to enhance the soundstage. What about a few of Godzilla’s deafening roars hitting you from behind, or Mechagodzilla’s optic death-laser blasts flung around the room? As it stands, the 5.1 mix is only slightly richer in aural delight due to the fact that the surrounds are used to funnel some low-end orchestrations and effects. A missed opportunity.

    The out-of-place jazz score during the climactic showdown does nothing to enhance the drama of this sequence, while the other orchestrations throughout the film were routine and non-engaging.

    As expected the English dub track is laughable – the voice-over audio makes the actors sound like cartoon characters. It certainly doesn’t help when they’re lumbered with twitchy, grammatically starved lines like:

    “Who are you?” asks the Professor.

    “Commander for Conquest of Earth from the third planet of the Black Hole, outerspace,” the alien blurts out with all seriousness.

    “So I was right, you are spacemen!”

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Original trailer (2:23)

Image galleries

    A series of 44 good quality black and white behind-the-scenes and publicity shots.

Trivia section

    Not much to get excited about here, as I’m sure Godzilla aficionados would be well aware of these four facts. They are presented as text within a large window box with a scene from the film as background.

Madman trailers

    After the incredibly loud and irritating anti-piracy message, the following widescreen trailers appear:

    Godzilla – Final Wars

    Godzilla vs Mothra (Mosura Tai Gojira)

    Beautiful Boxer

    Beautiful Boxer looks interesting – it’s about a young man who becomes a boxer to pay for his sex change operation (!)

    There are six DVD releases of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla available around the globe. Most of them should be avoided as they are hideous full-frame, cut versions taken from battered and beaten print sources.

    For Japanese speaking fans the best version seems to be the R2 (Japan) disc which is supposedly a 97-minute cut of the film and contains an audio commentary (in Japanese only) by Special Effects Director Teruyoshi Nakano.

    For English-only audiences the best version appears to be our own 80-minute version. Taking into account NTSC speed-up, our cut of the film is the same as the Region 1, Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment release. We also have a 5.1 Japanese audio mix not found on the Region 1 release (albeit a rather lacklustre 5.1 mix).

    Aside from the megalomaniacal alien subplot and more explicit violence, there is nothing to really make Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla stand out from this incredibly daft and immature franchise.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall