MONSTER ZERO: Invasion of Astro-Monster

Invasion of Astro-Monster (original Japanese title, 1965); Monster Zero (original American title, 1970) – The 6th Godzilla Film – Directed by Ishiro Honda – Starring Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Kumi Mizuno, Jun Tazaki, Akira Kubo, Yoshio Tsuchiya, and Haruo Nakajima.

Originally titled INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER, the film was re-titled MONSTER ZERO for its American release five years later. I’m reviewing the American version because that’s what Netflix played when I hit play. It’s not surprising, of course, that they’d play the American version of the film for the American audience, but it is a little weird that they don’t give you the option on which version to watch. Perhaps this is a right’s issue, or perhaps they’re lazy, or perhaps research tells them this is what people want. To be honest, I don’t really mind because it’s just nice that they have some of these films streaming since most Godzilla films are marked with the unfortunate “Short Wait” designation.

It’s also important, I think, to watch the American versions from time to time as these would have been the films I was raised on, if I actually watched these entire films growing up instead of just watching the bits where the monsters beat the monsters out of each other.

MONSTER ZERO / INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER is the sixth film in the Godzilla franchise and after the original GOJIRA, that this is my favorite of the lot, so far. This is an amazing, amazing, amazing, movie, hitting all sorts of proper notes. Once again, it shows just how amenable Godzilla is to all kinds of genres. This time out, we get Ishiro Honda’s version of a 1950s sci-fi invasion flick. Like the bulk of his Godzilla work, Honda gives us a simple, but compelling human story to support the monsters.

This time around, we get an American added to the mix. Nick Adams plays Glenn, an American astronaut sent with his partner Fuji (Akira Takarada), to investigate Planet X, a newly discovered planet just beyond Jupiter. When they arrive they find a 1980s New Wave rock band that opened for Devo on the New Traditionalists Tour. Glenn and Fuji are politely captured by the aliens, who tell them that they have a kaiju problem – Ghidorah. Glenn and Fuji recognize the monster from the last Godzilla film and the leader of Planet X, the Controller, tells them they need the Earth’s help to rid them of Ghidorah, or as they call him, “Monster Zero.”

What the Controller needs is Monsters 1 and 2: Godzilla and Rodan.

Glenn and Fuji think this is crazy, which is kinda silly because if I lived on Earth and had two massive monsters occasionally showing up to destroy a city and some New Wave playing aliens hiding behind Jupiter wanted them to help beat up a third monster … well, I mean, the aliens wouldn’t have to promise me a cure to all diseases to get me to let them borrow my monsters.

MONSTER ZERO succeeds, in part, for the sheer insanity of the plot – aliens want to borrow Godzilla and Rodan to beat up Ghidorah because they watched the last movie and saw Godzilla and Rodan beat up Ghidorah. (They don’t mention why they don’t want Mothra, but it’s probably because the Shobijn creep them out.) What makes all of the oddities work, though, is the very human relationship between Nick and Fuji.

The movie was filmed with Nick Adams speaking his lines in English and Akira Tarada speaking his in Japanese. Did either of them understand what the other one was saying? You’d be hard pressed to convince me that Adams and Tarada weren’t pals in real life because their chemistry is the heart of the film. More than any previous Godzilla movie, I feel like ASTRO-MONSTER survives and thrives based on personality. Where previous films have often given us characters that felt functional (which is not to say they weren’t often also excellent characters), MONSTER ZERO has personality oozing out of Americans, Japanese, and Kaiju.

Check out this exchange between Fuji and Glenn. After coming back from Jupiter, they’re sitting in a restaurant waiting on Fuji’s sister to arrive with her nerdish boyfriend, looking like two swinging dudes at a Vegas joint waiting for Danny Ocean to come fill them in on the night’s plan. Glenn tells Fuji he’s got a date of his own to get to.

“Japanese girl?” Fuji asks. “Not the wrong kind, I hope.”

“If you had to check up on a girl’s past every time you went on a date,” Glenn replies quickly, “you’d never fall in love.”

Glenn and Fuji have this type of back and forth chemistry throughout the film, with Fuji playing the straight man to Glenn’s more cavalier approach to life, but it’s not just the humans who get a dose of individuality in MONSTER ZERO, it’s the Kaiju, too.

When Godzilla and Rodan get taken to Planet X and beat up Ghidorah for the first time, Godzilla dances. Yes. Dances. It’s not an overly complicated number that you’d set to the musical accompaniment of “Suit and Tie” or anything, but Godzilla happily jumps in place. The film’s sound emphasizes the BOOM whenever he lands, but it’s pretty clear Godzilla is so pleased with what he and Rodan did that he’s dancing in place. Even better, however, when Glenn and Fuji climb into a rocket to head back to Earth, Godzilla and Rodan watch them go like they’re sad puppy dogs in the window not wanting to be left behind. The astronauts even make a point to mention it, and you can see the continuation of the theme from earlier films that there’s more to these monsters than being monsters.

The Controller and Planet X folks then pull the “Ha, ha! We’re actually interested in conquering you!” move, and now they’ve got Ghidorah, Godzilla, and Rodan under their control. It’s the Fuji’s sister’s nerdy boyfriend who comes up with the solution, thus saving the Earth and proving himself to Fuji. The aliens are defeated, the boyfriend proves himself, Glenn sees his lady friend get killed because she’s really an alien spy who loves him and love cannot be tolerated by the logic-driven aliens, and when it’s all done, Glenn basically slaps Fuji on the back and says, “Let’s go to the Playboy club. I heard Draper’s in town.”

But the scientist standing near them isn’t having it. “Oh, no,” he says in response to Glenn saying they need a vacation, “you’re going to be our first Ambassador to Planet X.” Glenn’s like, “Are you kidding?” but says it in a way that tells you his first thought was that there’s a whole phalanx of women on Planet X who are look-alikes for his dead girlfriend and he intends to enjoy himself. The best part, though, is Fuji laughing at him and giving him a thumbs down, the more restrained astronaut finally relaxing and enjoying himself.

There are few movies about which I would say that if you haven’t seen this film, your life is missing something, but INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER / MONSTER ZERO is definitely one of those films. I can’t wait to buy it and add it to the collection. This is an amazing movie.

This is why popcorn was invented.

GHIDORAH, THE THREE HEADED MONSTER: If Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla All Cooperate

Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster (Japanese, 1964; American, 1965) – The 5th Godzilla Movie – Directed by Ishiro Honda – Starring Yosuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Emi Ito, Yumi Ito, and Haruo Nakajima.

GHIDORAH, THE THREE HEADED MONSTER is an excellent movie, but it’s the first time in the Godzilla series I wish Ishiro Honda had broken with his strong desire to tell a human-driven story and instead just gone balls out with monster mayhem.

I understand that I’m going rogue on this, that one of the most detestable things a sequel can do is simply over-indulge on the signature moments from an earlier film, but there’s such an awesome set-up here of having Mothra, Godzilla, and Rodan team up to take on Ghidorah that I could have forgiven Honda and Toho if they’d simply gone, “F*ck the story, how many cities can we destroy in 90 minutes?”

The plot here is almost irrelevant to the mayhem, yet that is what gives the Honda/Toho films such strength. Even though the human portions of the film aren’t nearly as awesome as the monster portions, they’re actually more compelling. It’s a fascinating approach to storytelling and movie making – the humans are used to tell a gripping story while the monsters are used to deliver the action. Imagine if Die Hard had sent 2/3 of the film telling Holly’s story and then the last 30 minutes showing John McClane and Hans Gruber punch and kick and shoot each other.

But yeah, the real selling point of GHIDORAH is the big battle between four monsters and six heads.

Without question, the single best moment of the film and one of the single greatest scenes you will ever see comes deep into GHIDORAH where the Shobijn (Emi Ito, Yumi Ito) and the humans are watching Mothra (in caterpillar form) try to convince Godzilla and Rodan to stop beating the crud out of each other and team up to defeat Ghidorah. What’s amazing about the scene (beyond the simple awesomeness of watching a camera cut between an upright lizard, a flying dinosaur, and a slug nodding their heads at each other) is that the Shobijn translate the discussion for the humans standing with them.

It’s amazing.

A.

MAY.

ZING.

It’s utterly insane and bizarre and incredibly humanizing to hear the Shobijn translating all of these screeches and grunts into normal conversation: “Mothra is trying to get them to help but Rodan and Godzilla don’t want to. They say humans hate them.”

What? Godzilla has feelings?

Brilliant.

Madly brilliant.

The chat goes on forever, too, so the movie wants you to know these aren’t just GODZILLA SMASH styled mindless monsters. They’ve got actual intellects, so even though the Kaiju typically appear in a movie because the humans have unwittingly uncovered them, there’s more going on in their brains than we’ve seen. Even given that the Shobijn are putting the monster talk into human talk (and it’s a further translation given that I watched the English language version because that’s what Netflix streaming defaults to showing), it’s a mindbendingly awesome sequence.

I love the human sidebars, too, where they become increasingly frustrated that Rodan and Godzilla refuse to help. Detective Shindo (Yosuke Natsuki) laments, “these monsters are as stupid as human beings!” and that’s the entire film series brilliantly boiled down to a single line. The best line, however, goes to the Shobijn, who during their translating refuse to repeat one of Godzilla’s lines and instead offer up, “Oh Godzilla, what terrible language!”

I haven’t said much about the human plot of GHIDORAH because it’s kinda bland this time around. There is a solid subplot with an escaped Princess (Akiko Wakabayashi) who thinks she’s a Martian and can predict the future but it doesn’t gain a lot of traction with me. I kept thinking that there’s four big monsters coming, let’s get to them quicker for a change and integrate the human plot with the destruction instead of setting up the destruction. This is the fifth movie in the Godzilla series and I wouldn’t have minded if they’d altered the formula.

GHIDORAH is a step down from MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, but it’s still a fine addition to the franchise.

MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA: Or Godzilla vs. The Thing, Or Godzilla vs. Mothra, or Godzilla Against Mothra

Mothra vs. Godzilla (Japanese release, 1964) – The 4th Godzilla Movie – Directed by Ishiro Honda – Starring Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yu Fujiki, Emi Ito, Yumi Ito, Yoshifumi Tajima, Kenji Sahara, and Katsumi Tekuza.

What’s most impressive about the GODZILLA movies to me through four films is not just their versatility, but their willingness to make you wait for what you came to see: monsters crushing monsters.

There is a real attempt to give you a story in these opening GODZILLA films, and what’s incredibly interesting about MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA (or whichever of the four names you prefer) is that it’s Godzilla who feels like he’s entering Mothra’s universe more than the reverse, but ultimately it feels like both monsters are intruding upon contemporary Japanese society.

Which is pretty impressive since it keeps happening.

Ishiro Honda expertly blends the two monster worlds together with modern Japan, merging the fanciful aspects of Mothra’s first movie with the darker aspects of the Godzilla films, and still keeping humanity’s story at the center.

MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA opens with an oceanic storm, and in all of the resultant damage, a giant egg washes up on the shore. Local businessman Kumayama (Yoshifumi Tajima) and Happy Enterprises do what local businessmen do best and attempt to profit off the egg. Our protagonists for this go-round repeats the journalist/scientist dynamic from MOTHRA. Journalist Ichiro Sakai (Akira Takarada) and scientist Professor Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi) attempt to investigate the massive egg, but Happy Enterprises shoos them away, telling them that they have bought the egg fair and square from the locals and will not allow anyone else access.

Kumayama is just the face for Happy Enterprises, however, as company head Jiro Torahata (Kenji Sahara) is overseeing the operation. While these two are scheming, the tiny female Shobijn (Emi Ito and Yumi Ito) show up to tell the businessman that they’re from Infant Island and the egg is from Infant Island and if the egg isn’t returned to Infant Island, there’s gonna be lots of monster smashing because the egg belongs to Mothra.

The Shobijn are annoying, but they’re important to Mothra’s story and so it’s nice to see them kicking around this movie, too. The real joy about this egg-hatching angle, though, is that the baby Mothra isn’t going to smash Japan because it’s evil but because when it hatches it’ll be a newborn desperately searching for food. It’s not going to destroy anyone out of malice, but out of a primal need for food.

Happy Enterprises isn’t interested in anything the Shobijn is selling, so the tiny ladies turn their attention to Sakai, Miura, and Sakai’s photographer Yoka Nakanishi (Yuriko Hoshi), where they find a much more receptive, but powerless audience.

Into all of this comes Godzilla, who’s been displaced by the same storm and decides to attack Nagoya because he’s f*cking Godzilla and that’s what Godzillas do. Look, I know that there’s a dude in a rubber suit (Katsumi Tekuza) smashing models, but it’s awesomely rendered. I could watch Godzilla smashing stuff all day and not get tired of it because Tekuza, Honda, and the effects team are at the top of their game here. I will say that Godzilla does feel like an interloper at times and almost unnecessary until we get to the point where Godzilla turns his attention on the egg and we get the big Godzilla versus Mothra throwdown.

This is a great monster vs. monster sequence. Mothra gets the upper hand but then Godzilla kills her with his atomic breath. Mothra dies on top of the egg in a very motherly, tender display, and Godzilla is off to stomp and roar elsewhere. The Shobijn help hatch the egg with their singing and two little Mothra appear to go double team the attack on Godzilla, and they defeat him by tying them up with their silk spray.

MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA is another good installment of both the Godzilla and Mothra series. Honda paces his films to build tension and work the narrative to a point where the monster battles mean something more than just active destruction. When I started watching these Godzilla films, I thought I’d get a kitschy kick out of them, but I am honestly and truly really enjoying them, so far. If you’ve never seen them, I highly recommend checking out these early movies.