About Godzilla 1954

ゴジラ
Godzilla

日本映画始まって以来の試みである特殊撮影を存分に駆使した「ゴジラ」は二百万年以前の侏羅紀に棲息したといわれる海棲爬虫類の巨大な怪獣を想像創作したもの。水爆実験によって海底數千呎に二百万年の眠りをさまされ、日本に上鹽、丸ビルほどの巨体をもつて放射能を吐き散らし、人間が全能力をあげて空陸海から挑戦するという一大スペクタクル映画である。原作を科学冒険小説の権威香山滋に依嘱、製作は田中友幸で、村田武雄と本多猪四郎が共同脚色し、本多猪四郎が監督する。この映画の成否を左右する特殊技術は「太平洋の鷲」の円谷英二、向山宏、渡辺明が中心に伝統を誇る特殊撮影陣を総動員、半歳の準備をとくのえて万全の自信をもつてあたり、撮影玉井正夫,美術中古智,録音下永岗、照明石井長四郎、音楽伊福部昭のベストスタッフで臨んでいる。出演者は怪獸ゴジラに学者的良心で向う山根博士に志村喬、その娘を河内桃子、その恋人で熱血のサルベージ青年所長に宝田明、水中酸素破壊剤を完成し遂にゴジラと運命を共にする悲恋の青年化学者に平田昭彦、その他村上冬樹、小川虎之助、堺左车夫、高堂国典、山本廉らが活躍する。

“Godzilla,” which makes full use of special photography, an attempt since the beginning of Japanese cinema, is an imaginative creation of a gigantic marine reptile monster that is said to have lived in the Jurassic period 2 million years ago. Hydrogen bomb tests thousands of miles under the sea awakens caused it from two-million-year slumber on the ocean floor, and it reached Japan, spewing radioactivity with a body as large as the Marunouchi Building, and humanity is now using all its capabilities to take on the challenge from the air, land, and sea. It’s a big spectacle movie. The original work was written by Shigeru Kayama, an authority on scientific adventure novels, and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, co-adapted by Takeo Murata and Ishiro Honda, and directed by Ishiro Honda. The special techniques that will determine the success or failure of this movie are made possible by mobilizing a long-established special cinematography team led by Eiji Tsuburaya, Hiroshi Mukaiyama, and Akira Watanabe from “Operation Kamikaze,” and with full confidence after six months of preparation. The best staff members included Masao Tamai for photography, Satoshi Nakako for art, Eiji Shimo for recording, Choshiro Ishii for lighting, and Akira Ifukube for music. The cast includes Takashi Shimura as Dr. Yamane, who faces the monster Godzilla with a scholarly conscience, Momoko Kawachi as his daughter, Akira Takarada as the hot-blooded young salvage director who is her lover, and a tragic love story that finally shares Godzilla’s fate after completing an underwater oxygen destroyer. Young chemists such as Akihiko Hirata, Fuyuki Murakami, Toranosuke Ogawa, Sakai Sakai, Kuninori Takado, and Ren Yamamoto are active.