1974 Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

• Directed by: Jun Fukuda
• Written by: Jun Fukuda, Masami Fukushima, Shin’ichi Sekizawa
• Stars: Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, Reiko Tajima
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6nue5cHYJc

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This has just the right amount of big creatures battling without it becoming tedious. There are a lot of human characters to keep straight, but it works pretty well. There’s plenty of action and bad aliens who have to be overcome. We liked it quite a bit.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on Monster Island, with Anguirus looking at a bright light in the distance. Suddenly, a mountain explodes, and we hear Godzilla. Credits roll. 

A woman doing a religious ritual is overcome by a vision. She sees that a kaiju will destroy the city. After watching this, Masahiko, a photographer, goes into some deep caves. He finds a shiny rock, or maybe a scale, down there. 

Seako shows up; she’s an archaeologist, looking into ancient Okinowans. There are cave paintings of giant monsters and two suns. The royal house of Azumi has a legend about these monsters. Later, a man with a black ring sneaks up behind Saeko…

Shimizu and Ikoku are flying home to Tokyo, but they see a black mountain appear in the sky, according to the prophecy from the cave. They go to see Professor Wagura, who says the scale is a piece of “space titanium.” There are news reports about a “moving tremor” that is going from Hokkaido towards Tokyo, underground. 

A man breaks into the Professor’s house to steal the artifact they found, and Shimizu fights him.  The mountain explodes and Godzilla is ejected. 

Back in Okinawa, the old high priest talks to the woman who had the vision and says only King Caesar will be able to save the world from Godzilla. 

Godzilla starts pounding buildings until Anguirus shows up, and then they fight. As they battle, bits of Godzilla’s skin flake off, showing metal underneath. Godzilla rips the other monster’s jaw off, so the battle ends. Shimizu finds more space titanium on the scene after the fight. 

All of a sudden, a second Godzilla shows up on the scene, and the new one sounds much more like what we’re used to. We cut to a hidden alien base, where the leader gloats about how he didn’t think the real Godzilla would show up so soon. The Godzilla from the mountain is some kind of cyborg, and Anguirus must have called his buddy, the real Godzilla, to help. 

Godzilla laser-breaths the newcomer, exposing more of the metal beneath. The fake one reveals himself to be Mechagodzilla, a robot! Both giant monsters damage each other, so they split up to rest. 

The professor figures out where King Caesar is buried– it’s at Azumi Castle, where the woman had the prophecy. The alien leader does not want King Caesar involved, as he’ll rally the other monsters to fight them. 

The professor, Masahiko, and Ikuko go back into the mysterious caves. They’re almost immediately captured by the aliens, whose base is down there. They are from Black Hole Planet Three. The leader admits that they studied Godzilla and then made their own version. Ikuko and Masahiko are taken hostage in exchange for the professor’s help with the big robot. 

Godzilla stands in a thunderstorm and is repeatedly struck by lightning, which recharges him. 

Shimizu is attacked by an alien agent and shoots him in the face revealing his inner monster, a green monkey-lizard. The thief, and the statue of King Caesar, goes overboard from the tour boat, lost for good. No– he switched it for a fake, so they’re good. 

Shimizu searches the caves and finds the professor’s very unique pipe. He’s also captured by the aliens, at least until the reporter shows up; he’s really with Interpol. The two men break in and release the professor, Masuhiko, and Ikuko from being boiled alive in their cell. 

Outside now, they notice the moon is red, which is another part of that prophecy. The professor says he helped repair Mechagodzilla, and he knows how to disable the head using his special magnetic pipe. 

Everyone goes to Azumi Castle, where the aliens have taken the priest and his daughter captive. After a quick Interpol intervention, they place the statue on the shrine and wait for King Caesar to wake up, which doesn’t take long. He doesn’t move until the priest’s daughter sings to it (We totally needed a musical interlude at this point). The big furry creature wakes up, and the aliens order Mechagodzilla to eliminate him. 

The two monsters fight, and it soon looks like Mechagodzilla is going to win. Suddenly, a supercharged Godzilla reappears to help. As the two good monsters attack, the robot monster shows that it can multitask, taking them both down. Godzilla’s spurting blood everywhere, and it looks really bad for him. But Godzilla rallies and holds on so the robot is too heavy to fly away. Finally, he rips the robot’s head off. 

The Interpol agent sabotages the aliens’ computer, and they all fall down and revert to their green monkiness. With the monster and aliens defeated, everything explodes. Godzilla walks back into the ocean and King Caesar goes back into his cave to sleep some more. 

All the humans go back to Azumi Temple and give the statue back to the priest there. 

Brian’s Commentary

This was filmed as Godzilla’s 20th anniversary. 

It’s a little hard to follow in the beginning, as there are so many characters who aren’t specifically introduced. There are two brothers, two professors, two women characters, two mysterious strangers, two Interpol agents, and they all seem fairly interchangeable. 

My complaint about the previous film, that the stretched-out fights of men in rubber suits went on for too long, seems to have been addressed here, as there’s not really very much monster action for the first hour, and what we do get isn’t stretched out. 

Kevin’s Commentary

Ironically, I find these much more entertaining when there isn’t an excess of monster battle action. This one has just enough without it becoming monotonous. It’s heavy on humans doing stuff, bad aliens, and retro technology science fiction. I’d rate this as one of my favorites in the series. And what an awesome poster.