GOJIRA (GODZILLA) (1954)
Released just nine years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is Japan’s post-war trauma made flesh: the ultimate monster, born of nuclear fire, impossible to outrun, indifferent to human existence.
This is the film as director Ishirō Honda intended. Stripped of the dubbed dialogue and additional footage which softened it for US audiences, the original cut is something far darker – what happens when humanity’s hubris comes back to bight? A question so powerful, it spawned an ongoing global franchise that refuses to die, remaining as relevant as ever.
With introduction by leading scholar.
Directed by Ishirō Honda, Japan, 1954, 96 min, M
Starring: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura
In Japanese with English subtitles.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
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