Review: Son of Godzilla

Journalist Akira Kubo arrives on an island where a meteorological experiment is being conducted by a team led by Tadeo Nakashima and also featuring Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara, and the surly Yoshio Tsuchiya. Whilst the experiment goes horribly wrong, Kubo is busy hanging out with an island girl (Bibari Maeda), as well as Godzilla and his dorky son Minya (AKA Minilla, depending on the version/language). Other monsters like the spider Kumonga and a couple of giant praying mantis provide non-human conflict.

No one is gonna try and convince you that this 1967 film from director Jun Fukuda is a good film. It’s not, and it won’t get a good score from me (Being the hypocrite that I am, I probably won’t apply this same logic in every case. This ain’t an exact science, folks). If some want to call it one of the worst Godzilla films ever made, fair enough. I’m not entirely certain I could mount a terribly convincing counter-argument, aside from ‘Well, I could name several that are worse’. However, if you’re gonna try and tell me that this film is completely worthless? Yeah, I’ll call bullshit on that. Scripted by Shin’ichi Sekizawa (“Mothra”, “Godzilla vs. Mothra”, “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero”) and Kazue Shiba (who collaborated with Shin’ichi Sekizawa on something called “Zero Fighters: Great Air Battle”), this is uneven but occasionally fun in a goofy way. The goofy fun here even extends to the music score by Masaru Sato (who did great work on Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress” and “The Bad Sleep Well”), which sounds like something out of “Leave it to Beaver” and perfect for this oddball, juvenile picture.

The monsters here don’t look terribly good (by this franchise’s standards, I mean), but it’s also part of the film’s silly charm. I mean, Kumonga the giant spider is fairly OK all things considered, but the giant Kamacuras/Gimantis (Praying Mantis) are among the franchises least effective-looking monsters. They make Mothra look like Brock Lesnar. The title character, although pretty terrible in any rational way of thinking, is basically 50% of the charm of the whole film (the other 50% being his dad). Looking like The Pilsbury Doughboy after being dropped in a giant vat of acid, and blowing cute little smoke ring-like lasers instead of breathing menacing blue fire like his dad, Minya/Minilla is adorable. Dorky as hell, but adorable. There’s only a couple of seconds of monster footage in the opening 30 minutes, which is quite frankly far too long to be getting to what the audience has tuned in for. It’s the main reason why I can’t give the film a good score, to be honest. However, once we do get to the monster side of things, it’s enjoyable…possibly not for reasons entirely intended by the filmmakers. Don’t get me wrong, the sight of Godzilla powerslamming the fuck out of a giant praying mantis and fire-breathing another to death is a lot of mostly un-ironic fun. The real joy though, is the frankly bizarre, slightly questionable, and frequently hilarious father-son relationship on display between Godzilla and Minya/Minilla (who instead of an intimidating roar like his dad, appears to have the sound of a sea lion). Godzilla’s ‘tough love’ approach to parenthood is certainly…interesting to view in 2019, I must say. I’m also pretty certain that Godzilla hitting his son in the head with his tail was a deliberate and slightly cruel act. Perhaps even worse, to get his son to stop blowing cute little smoke rings and emit fire like his dad, Godzilla steps on the poor kid’s tail. Minya/Minilla is a bit ‘special’ it has to be said, his ineptitude is hilarious and oddly charming, as it Godzilla’s seeming exasperation with his son’s very um…slow development. If these were humans, obviously this material would be ghastly and indefensible. With monsters? I can’t help but find it funny, oddly endearing, and cute.

Unfortunately, despite its title, the focus of this film is definitely not on Godzilla and son. Instead, the humans get the majority of the focus and aside from the brooding and slightly unhinged Yoshio Tsuchiya and Toho regular Akira Kubo (again nerd-ing it up a bit), none of the cast are terribly interesting. Akihiko Hirata is surprisingly dull and poor Kenji Sahara barely registers on screen in a nothing role.

It’s unfortunate that Toho put the emphasis on the wrong things here, because it takes too long to get to the fun stuff, and probably lessens that fun a bit once it arrives as a result. Quite dull at times and with a wrong-headed focus on humans, this juvenile-oriented Godzilla outing is a mixed bag. The monster footage is a lot of fun in a campy and silly way, but the human scenes are too plentiful and mostly tedious. It’s not among the top Godzilla films and not as much fun on repeated viewings either, but there’s certainly some fun in here from time to time.

Rating: C+