Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Japanese filmmakers know how to make Godzilla films. Nearly 50 years after giving us the original "Godzilla," Japan films present "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." The technical, special effects, CGI, and all aspects are superb. This film launched a renewal in Godzilla lore on film. It completely outdoes the lame 1998 American "Godzilla" by TriStar.

As with the original black and white, Godzilla looks the part of the monster it is - a unique hybrid not a dinosaur-age imitation or look-alike. The other monsters in this one, especially Mothra and the Red Monster look more cartoonish. The battle scenes, rampage and destruction around Tokyo again has a real feel to it.

This plot has an interesting twist. The original Godzilla was conceived as an aberration that resulted from nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean. But, in this film, a question surfaces more than once, after a reference to Godzilla having been in New York (the 1998 American film). "Why Tokyo again?" a couple of Japanese officials ask rhetorically. And the female lead, Yuri Tachibana (played by Chiharu Niiyama) says that it may be because Japan has to acknowledge its inhumane actions in the Pacific war. That's how the reference is stated regarding World War II and Japan's inhumane aspects in its conduct of the war.

Even though it doesn't specify any of the bad deeds, this is an acknowledgement that the Japanese did some heinous things during the war. That's interesting coming in a film 55 years after the end of WW II.