Gojira, Minira, Gabara: Oru Kaijû Daishingeki |
  • Japan • 1969 • 69m •   • Directed by: Ishirô Honda. • Starring: Tomonori Yazaki, Hideyo Amamoto, Sachio Sakai, Kazuo Suzuki, Kenji Sahara, Machiko Naka, Shigeki Ishida, Midori Uchiyama, Yoshifumi Tajima, Chôtarô Tôgin, Yutaka Sada, Yutaka Nakayama, Ikio Sawamura. • Music by: Kunio Miyauchi.      Ichiro is a highly imaginitive, but lonely, boy growing up in urban Tokyo. Every day he comes home to the empty apartment he shares with his railroad worker father and his restaurant hostess mother. His only friends are a toy maker name Shinpei Inami and a little girl named Sachicko. The only other kids that are around is a gang of kids led by a bully named Gabara. To escape his lonlieness, Ichiro imagines that he is on Monster Island where he befriends Minya, the son of Godzilla. It is through his daydreams that he watches Godzilla and Minya fight other monsters, including one also named Gabara who is just as bad a bully as the one that is tormenting Ichiro. It is through these daydreams that he learns that it is okay to fight back and face his fears. These lessons also help him to outwit a couple of bumbling bank robbers as well as finally have the guts to stand up to Gabara and his gang.
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Review:
Child actor Tomonori Yazaki is wonderful as Ichiro (whose name simply means "first male child"), and his parents are simply stuck in their situation. They must work to support Ichiro, but in doing so, they are unable to raise him. Instead, he is cared for by a neighboring toymaker. While this may be seen as any kid's dream, Minami, played by comedian Eisei Amamoto, demonstrates himself a rather inept parent, an old guy who was to eccentric to marry and have children. Whether or not Gojira exists diegetically is open to debate (cf. Gojira tai Hedora for the action figures), although the name is recognizable to the public within the film, is really irrelevant. When this boy fantasizes about having a parent, he fantasizes all wrong, learning lessons appropriate for a monster, but not for a person. Whether the monster itself is naturally exciting (cf. the child in Kingu Kongu tai Gojira) or whether Gojira is a cinematic character really becomes insignificant in the mind of a child anyway. Even if they don't belive something is real, they like to pretend it is, anyway.
When Ishiro Honda cut this film for festival exhibition, he deleted the comic ending which is really inappropriate and suggests that the lessons Ichiro learned from Gojira are okay. This plays against the final scene with the mother, who promises Ichiro she will never work at night again, while her non-verbals convey that she cannot hold to this promise, in effect fulfilling one responsibility mandates coming up short on another of equal importance.
It might perhaps be better if the film were regarded as an experimental drama, one the parents should watch with children and discuss. The intended audience is clearly not young adults looking for action, or worst, campy action.
Review by Scott Andrew Hutchins from the Internet Movie Database.
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