Rating: NR
Length: 98 minutes

Standard 1.33:1 B&W Not Anamorphic

JAPANESE: Dolby Digital Mono

English

A large prehistoric-like radioactive creature attacks both ships and land in Japan. Can anything/anyone stop it?

Before getting into this, a quick history lesson for those of you that slept through that class in High School. In 1945 the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to quicken the end of the war. Prior to that they dropped tons of incendiaries on Japanese cities causing great damage and loss of life; buildings at that time were highly flammable. This movie was made nine years after the atomic bombs; all of the adults tied to this project were alive when the bombs dropped.

Ok, enough with the history lesson. Atomic testing has altered a creature known as Gojira (Godzilla) and he has gone on a rampage in Japan. There are moral and government issues throughout that, in all honesty, are the same ones we deal with today such as how much should the government let the civilian population know and when should they know it. There is one particularly sad scene involving a mother and her daughter crouching on the street that will make you wonder how many times that played out in real life in Japanese cities during the war.

Yes, the special effects are dated but still effective. My biggest problem was with the thin subtitles which were difficult to read on the few occasions that the picture was bright. I would have also liked some more extras and a cleaner picture but hey, this blu-ray is not as expensive as most. Having said that, if you have this film on dvd, I couldn't honestly recommend upgrading to blu-ray.

• Audio Commentary
• "Making of the Suit" Featurette
• "Story Development" Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer

Anyone that says this is just another typical creature feature either didn't watch the movie, couldn't speak Japanese or failed to turn on the subtitles. This is a very anti-war and moralistic film that is still more than applicable today. This film should be on every movie fan's shelf in some format.

Miki Hayashi - Chairman of Diet Committee

Akihiko Hirata - Daisuke Serizawa-hakase

Momoko Kôchi - Emiko Yamane

Kokuten Kodo - The Old Fisherman

[The Seven Samurai]

Tsuruko Mano - Shinkichi's Mother

Fuyuki Murakami - Professor Tanabe

Toranosuke Ogawa - Nankai Shipping Company Manager

Takeo Oikawa - Chief of Emergency Headquarters

Seijiro Onda - Parliamentarian Oyama

Sachio Sakai - Newspaper Reporter Hagiwara

Takashi Shimura - Kyohei Yamane-hakase

[The Seven Samurai]

Kin Sugai - Ozawa-san

Toyoaki Suzuki - Shinkichi

Akira Takarada - Hideto Ogata

Ren Yamamoto - Masaji the Fisherman