Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003) Review

A muddled mess of a Godzilla film that is a direct sequel to 2002’s much better Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla this is probably the worst of the Millennium series. A weak script that links back to the original Mothra makes it more of little kids movie ala the 1970s entries. UPDATED with “HD” screen captures and Blu-ray details.

When I was a kid growing up, often there would be showings of Godzilla films on broadcast TV, usually Saturday night at 10:30 or in the afternoon. It dawned on me it might be fun to review some of the monster destroying cities films for the blog. So I chose Godzilla: Tokyo SOS as a guinea pig for this project.  I now regret that as I had to sit through the film twice like I do for every review.  Yes, you’ve been warned. Be afraid.

The movie starts out promisingly enough, with a sequence of code showing Mechagodzilla’s DNA based computers being tested segueing to Godzilla’s eye opening in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Moments later a US Air Force base picks up a UFO flying at high Mach speeds towards Japan and notify the local authorities.  Two F-15J Eagles are scrambled to intercept the UFO which has slowed to Mach 2 and is disturbing the cloud layer in a fairly decent CGI sequence.  Warning shots are fired ahead of the object without it reacting.  However, the lead pilot hears singing women and ground control doesn’t believe him.

The giant moth called… well, Mothra, emerges and the two jet fighters engage her with missiles.  Suddenly, the supersonic insect emits a golden cloud of glitter which fools the missiles into missing.  Who knew the beloved Japanese monster had chaff dispensers?

The best scene of the movie follows.  Why is it the best?  Because it has model building in it!  There isn’t nearly enough of my favorite hobby on film or TV, so this almost redeems the movie for me. Almost.  BTW, that is a brush painted Fujimi 1/48 Mitsubishi F-1 kit – I have one in the stash to build. This is a perfect kit to build and give to a kid to play with, which is exactly what happens!

The model builder is Yoshito Chujo (Noboru Kaneko) who happens to be our hero for the movie.  As he finishes arming the plastic warplane, we get conversation that reveals he is a mechanic on the Mechagodzilla.  The afore mentioned model is given to his nephew Chun (Kenta Suga) who is delighted (I actually like this kid) and rushes off to show it to his grandfather.  There is a lovely family moment as they bond, then it gets weird.

Oh great, now they are hearing voices. Specifically voices of two women speaking in synch coming out of nowhere.  They look around in consternation, but don’t see anyone. Not good. Oh wait, it’s the Mothra twin fairies (Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka)!  I seem to remember them not being so scantily attired in the past.

Whoa… Flashback scene to the original 1961 Mothra – I was right, they used to wear more chaste dresses. The grandfather is Professor Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi) the rescuer of the original fairies and they have an ultimatum to deliver to him.

Return Godzilla’s bones to the sea or Mothra will destroy Japan!

Okay, this takes some explaining.  In Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, the giant robot version of everybody's favorite radioactive lizard was created by building a robot around the skeleton of the first Godzilla from 1954.  Wait, you say, didn’t the skeleton dissolve in the original?  Shhh… you are interfering with the story.

From outside comes the squeaky roar of the big moth herself and the Chujo family rushes out to see her perched on a hill.  It is an oddly effective shot with Mothra in the middle of a snowstorm. Don’t get used to that kind of quality. When the humans go back inside the girls are gone with only a small stone left behind.  It has a strange symbol on it.

Bet we see that again.

It was at this point I realized this was going to be a kiddy movie more in the vein of the 1970s Godzilla flicks.  While the big ‘G’ is a villain, it clearly wasn’t aimed at adults with a simplistic plot and unsubtle acting. Oh well.

Expository scenes follow that recap the events of the previous film as the Japanese PM holds a press conference to defend the repairs being done to MechaG (aka Kiriyu) and allay fears that it will run wild again. Oh yeah, forgot to mention the robot had flashbacks to being alive and went berserk – totaling the city it was supposed to defend.  For some reason the public is no longer enthused about the project.  At the same time, the new class of Mechagodzilla pilots march into the base and Yoshito exchanges a meaningful look with the only female in the group.

By the way, the only reason I included the screen capture of the press conference was the dude in the middle who looks like a member of ZZ Top. His facial expressions during the scene were hilarious.

While talking heads on TV drone on and on, Professor Chujo shows his grandson photos from his previous encounter with the faeries.  We also get an explanation that the symbol can be used to summon Mothra. Plot point!

At an announcement and party for the departing and joining pilots, we get a cameo by the heroine of the previous movie, Akane. We also meet Asuza (Miho Yoshioka), the new female pilot and find out she used to be ground crew with Yoshito. Yeah, there is something going on there, but it is interrupted by Akiba (Mitsuki Koga), the new head pilot.  Out of the blue hostility between the hot shot and our hero follows in an incredibly corny scene.

UPDATED: When I took the above right screen shot, I inadvertently caught a problem with the truly disappointing Blu-ray transfer and that’s scratches and hairs appearing in frames. Here a hair is superimposed over actress Yoshioka’s forehead. By the way, she isn’t drunk despite the way it looks. I throw so many captures into the recycle bin thanks to poorly timed blinks, I tell you.

Back to the cameo by Akane, who is my favorite Godzilla movie babe of all time.  The actress, Yumiko Shaku, carried the previous movie and in her brief moments here manages to outshine the rest of the cast.  She is written out of the story by being sent to train in the United States and has a nice moment where she bids farewell to Mechagodzilla.  As she leaves she asks Yoshito to “take care” of MechaG while warning him that Kiriyu doesn’t want to fight anymore.

At this point I found my attention wandering as I was getting less motivated to watch the film.  It didn’t help that it was slow paced and they’d just removed the one character I cared about. By the second viewing I was in actual mental anguish. Now that I am writing the review… Okay, have to pull it together. 

Must finish the review.

The audience is now subjected to viewing the failed attempts by Professor Chujo to get the PM to return the original Godzilla’s bones to the sea.  That goes nowhere fast and we haven’t seen the star of the picture since the beginning. Instead we get the corpse of a giant sea turtle that looks disturbingly like Gamera. 

Actually it is a Kamoebas which was pointed out to me in the comments. Don’t recognize the name? Not surprising since the monster only appeared once in an obscure Toho kaiju film. That’s what made him expendable for this picture.

I only wish I was watching the turtle that all the children love.  Instead it appears Godzilla has murdered him. So where is the big ‘G’?  Oh, there he is trying to eat a US Navy sub in murky CGI. But why is he pulling a Slim Pickens riding the nuke submarine down?  I wish I were watching Dr. Strangelove instead…

Back to the Top Gun wannabe picking on Yoshito.  Bet the girly boy charges the pilot and ends up on the floor.  Alright, done – time for more back story with Asuza.  For some reason she thinks Yoshito loves machines and doesn’t even think about women.  I guess that explains why she is wearing a tank top in the scene, she’s competing with MechaG for his affections. Ah women, they can’t understand that special bond between men and machines made from the dead bones of radioactive monsters.

Now for something completely different – Godzilla!  No.. no we get an X-Files homage complete with a cigarette smoking man.  Shadowy government types want Yoshito to sell out his father.  Good, maybe that will end the movie. 

No such luck, he’s a loyal son. Sigh.

Finally, some Godzilla action as he is spotted by a P-3 Orion subhunter plane.  Japanese destroyers close in on the monster and fire on him, driving him underwater.  Torpedoes are launched and score some hits. More murky CGI there, but the concept was better than Godzilla ‘98. Pity they couldn’t pull it off.

Godzilla is undeterred and keeps making a beeline for Shinigura City, drawn by the bones of the original.  Hey, don’t blame me for the weirdness, I’m just reporting what I witnessed. Twice.  At least there are nice shots of real tanks and helicopters deploying.  It looks like they got a lot of help from the JSDF in making the film, but they do make the models look worse by comparison.

As you can see from the screen capture, all those weapons did nothing to stop Godzilla from trashing the city again.  Makes a person wonder why any Japanese soldier would volunteer to fight ‘G’ knowing he’d be hurling the equivalent of a spitball at a charging rhino. 

While the rampage goes on, the Chujo grandson is running loose at his evacuated school.  He’s yanking desks outside for some reason.  Professor Chujo finds the juvenile delinquent and gets the answer:

Yep, the kid is summoning Mothra.  Amazingly, the gigantic thing shows up instantly.  She must have been loitering, waiting for the Mothra signal and of course has to make an entrance flying out of the sunset.  What a diva!

I just realized why the movie is titled Tokyo S.O.S. Does that mean Mothra’s symbol is insect Morse code? Or maybe I’m just starting to lose it…

So now the fighting begins in earnest!

Okay, I admit I’m faking excitement right now.  It’s hard to be impressed when a giant moth tries to blow Godzilla away by flapping her wings.  Then there is the sneak attack that topples the big guy in a very badly staged bit. You’ll understand what I mean when you see it.

Now I know Mothra is more popular than Godzilla in Japan these days, but come on!  I’m almost missing the boring humans of the movie. Things get very silly indeed as the hyper steroidal insect flaps golden glitter at ‘G’ to stop him. A glitter attack?  Yeah – like that’ll work.

What is this, a rave?  I’m leaving this review if any glow sticks show up.

Uhh… the faeries are back and singing to a giant Easter egg. That’s almost as bad. That’s it then, I’m leaving.

 

 

 

Some time much later…

Where was I? Oh yes, I was watching an episode of When Giant Moths Attack.

Mothra is no match for Godzilla so the PM sends Mechagodzilla into battle.  The gigantic robot is launched in an extended “beauty shot” while the Tokyo Tower is destroyed after Godzilla misses the easiest target in the world.  How many times has it been destroyed in kaiju movies?

Yay. I bet we are getting close to the end with the big finale starting.

With no buildup, MechaG begins his rematch with Godzilla by launching salvo after salvo of guided missiles.  You know, the same kind that didn’t even scratch ‘G’ earlier in the movie.  But it is flashy looking, I’ll give the attack that much. It doesn’t impress the mutated dino anymore than me and he takes Mechagodzilla down with one shot of radioactive breath. In a heroic act, Mothra hits Godzilla in a flying pass only to take one for the team.

Off on the island, the giant Easter egg hatches and not one, but two caterpillars emerge.  The faeries are stunned then happy, I suspect because there will be no more fighting over who is Mothra’s favorite living Barbie doll.

My will to continue the review is fading fast along with whatever coherency the plot had.

A lot of stuff happens, including ridiculous scenes of larvae swimming to Tokyo and judo being used by MechaG against Godzilla. Even more cranky than before, he blasts the robot in the side of the head, taking it out of the fight. His systems are off line so that Yoshito will finally have something heroic to do. Sigh.

The young Mothra’s arrive to annoy Godzilla and reunite with mom in scenes that drag. They are fairly useless in combat and it isn’t believable that they survive the hits they take. Hehehehe, I’m starting to criticize the survivability of giant caterpillars.  My brain cells must be dying in large numbers from repeated viewings.

Oh and momma Mothra takes another hit for her children and explodes in flames.  That angers the little ones, you can tell because their glowing blue eyes turn red.  I know there is a Matrix joke in there somewhere but my will to live is fading fast.

Oh no.  I just realized there’s almost a third of the movie left.

Predictably, Yoshito volunteers to repair the fallen MechG, donning a very funky hazmat suit. In fact, so funky it might not look out of place at a rave.

I’m leaving.

 

 

 

 

A very, very long time later indeed…

Scenes of larvae thrashing, Yoshito on a motorcycle, and faerie telekinesis follow.  Will our hero repair Mechagodzilla and save the day?  Will the young Mothra’s have vengeance?  Will this film ever end?

Thoughts

Godzilla: Tokyo SOS is not a good movie by any measure.  This is somewhat surprising since the director, Masaaki Tezuka, delivered a good movie in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla before making this turkey. I can only attribute the mess to the fact he co-wrote the screenplay this time.

Part of the problem is that this is as much or more of a Mothra movie. The direct tie backs to the original Mothra dominate the story and threaten to relegate Godzilla to being a supporting character. This isn’t the first time that has happened in the series, but it is very disappointing after the previous two films being good to great entries in the series.

Acting was another weak point. Everyone was wooden and seemed only to be there for their paychecks.  Not that I blame them, I’d feel the same way after getting the shooting script.  The message of the movie was so strange I’m not surprised they didn’t feel any passion for being in the film. Even more listless is the English dub voice acting.

The tone of the movie is off as well, supposedly emotional scenes never connect and for me, the whole affair felt like a negative image of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.  In that movie the human parts were the most interesting and in this one the monster parts are.  Sadly, the monster parts aren’t good in the first place.

The special effects aren’t that special and the blue screen used on the faeries is just terrible, especially for a 2003 film.  Some of the ideas for sequences are clever but are ruined by the execution. It really looks bad compared to Godzilla: GMK from 2001 and even the suits are inferior.

The message of the movie was something to do with letting nature take its course or accepting mortality.  I think.

It might have been that you should listen to 12” tall skimpily dressed faeries because they are always right.

Adults will find it a muddled and often boring mess, while children will enjoy it more. Sadly, I can’t recommend it for little kids thanks to the very end of the film, where profanity is spouted in the English dub out of nowhere in what had been a squeaky clean script. That and the violence earned it a PG rating.

I recommend Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. only to diehard Godzilla fans and kids. I would have loved to have seen what MST3K would have done with it or even RiffTrax.

Technical

The 2004 Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment DVD came out in the States as part of Toho’s celebrating 50 years of Godzilla. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on it used last year during my quest to collect all the films everybody’s favorite radioactive lizard starred in.

The film is presented in a 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic transfer from a HD master. Video quality is very good if a little grainy, however there are specks and scratches visible. They won’t be apparent unless you are sitting close up or watching on a very large HDTV. Colors are very good and contrast levels acceptable.

UPDATED: I wish I could say the same about the Sony Pictures Blu-ray release of the two disc set that also includes Godzilla: Final Wars. An extremely heavy filter was used to remove the grain, subsequently destroying all the detail, muddying the colors, and creating halos around dark objects with light backgrounds. On top of all that degradation the contrast is poor, making many scenes positively stygian in darkness.

This release is a perfect example of how not to remaster a movie into high definition. In fact, the DVD looks better scaled up! I’m baffled as to how this is even possible, however Sony has achieved it. I’m now dreading viewing the other seven films put out on Blu-ray in May 2014.

Back to the DVD: Audio is clear Dolby Digital 5.1 surround for both the Japanese and English tracks. Subtitles are only available in English. Full use of 5.1 is made with rockets whistling by you in a proper home theater setup. Buildings being destroyed will give your subwoofer a workout too.

Blu-ray: Thankfully the BD release sounds fantastic and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in Japanese and English are as high quality as the video is not. Sadly it isn’t enough to recommend the Blu-ray over the DVD, though availability and cheapness makes the BD set a deal worth considering. If you have the DVD, don’t bother to upgrade. In fact, it would be a downgrade in my opinion.

The only extra on the disc is a 21 minute behind the scenes featurette titled Making of Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. which is not narrated. Video quality is not the best since it was shot on videotape with handheld cameras and is 4:3 letterboxed.

UPDATE: The Blu-ray has the same extra plus the theatrical trailer in SD, not HD.

You get to see filming of miniatures work, suit acting, and puppets then the finished product in the movie. It’s bare bones and only fun for those of us fascinated by how they make movies like this.

It does put things in their proper perspective and shows how little of a budget they have to work with compared to Hollywood films. A lot of very hard work goes into making the models, yet they aren’t what they used to be.

Watching the filming of suit acting is sobering because you get to see how helpless the suit actors can be if something doesn’t go right. If they fall, they can’t get up by themselves and the water tank work looks terrifying.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

I’ve never understood the appeal of Mothra in larval form. Ugly and pretty much useless in a fight, they are only interesting when spitting out silk. Hmm, makes me wonder what materials could be made out of it. That might be a way to finance the rebuilding of Tokyo. Again.

Oh that’s the Diet Building. That means the Tokyo Tower isn’t the only landmark to get destroyed. Again.

Hey Mothras, can we have some more silk to refinance the Japanese economy?

First a very nasty one-two attack by Mechagodzilla. The drill hand is very old school but the damage done is severe. To my extreme surprise, the hurriedly substituted main weapon, the Hyper Maser, actually works. Not only that, it mortally wounds the rampaging goliath!

And then the Mothras contribute the only way they can. At least the left over silk will save Japan’s finances.

Popping up without warning is unexpected Christian imagery involving the Fairies of all people. It is so deliberately framed that I wonder if it was an artistic statement or a covert insertion of faith. It wouldn’t be the first time Christianity was alluded to in a kaiju film.

The whole bit where Kiriyu takes over due to hearing the death cry of Godzilla is overplayed. The flashbacks to being killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in 1954 telepathically beamed to Yoshito is heavy handed enough, but the area lighting up like a tear of blood is extremely over the top.

I also didn’t like seeing Godzilla reduced to whimpering while dying. That simply isn’t right for any of his incarnations. He’s supposed to be the toughest thing on the planet, if not any planet, for crying out loud!

The physics defying final flight of Mechagodzilla is one of those moments you either accept or don’t. It would help to be between the ages of five and twelve, I think. If you watch the movie multiple times it begins to look normal, I promise you.

Having Kiriyu say goodbye to Yoshito and save his life was supposed to be heart warming. Godzilla, in this incarnation, never showed any signs of intelligence, so this is something of a shock. That’s if you accept it. Me? I’m going straight into denial.

Goofiest moment of the movie has to be Akiba’s ejection seat rescue of Yoshito. It made the canopy to canopy scene in Top Gun look realistic by comparison.

At last the movie ends and so does my suffering. The Mothras swim home with the Fairies, Akiba and Yoshito start a bromance while Asuza smiles insipidly from her cockpit, and the Godzillas plunge to their destruction in the deepest crevice of the Sea of Japan. All is finally right in the world and the credits are nearly over…

What?!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!