The Return of Godzilla

Godzilla returns after thirty years. A fishing boat is found, its crew dead, and the sole survivor cannot describe what happened. While the Japanese government tries to suppress the news, the creature sinks a Soviet submarine and the matter becomes a Cold War question overnight: America and the Soviet Union want to use nuclear weapons, and Japan refuses. The film is not interested in monster fights. It is interested in nuclear bargaining: much of it takes place in the cabinet room, and the argument over how to deal with Godzilla turns into two superpowers deciding over Japan. One of the most political films in the series. The form is traditional: a Godzilla suit, a miniature Tokyo, wide destruction sequences. The tone is deliberately dark, severing the link with the child-facing Godzilla films of the preceding years. Koji Hashimoto directed. The film was built as a direct sequel to the original Gojira of 1954 and disregards every sequel in between; an attempt to restart the series. In America it was released as Godzilla 1985, with newly shot Raymond Burr scenes and a changed edit; Burr had done the same job in 1956. Who it is for: viewers who like the Godzilla series and the political side of kaiju films. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action. The film carries long stretches of talk and the creature is onscreen less than you would expect.