Figure 1.--.

Godzilla first appeared in 1954 as an enormous and highly destructive, prehistoric sea monster. He was awakened off Jjapan and empowered by nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident, nuclear radiation was still very fresh in the Japanese consciousness. Godzilla is most commonly seen as a metaphor for nuclear weaponry. [Merchant] The atomic bombs were horific, but a relativelhy minor cauise of death and destruction in World War II, given the more than 20 million people the Japmese killed in the War. It was, however, a way that Japan could transform itself from a merciless, aggressive killer to a victim of the War. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., it is the first film in the Godzilla franchise. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, and Takashi Shimura, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla. In the film, Japan's authorities deal with the sudden appearance of a giant monster, whose attacks trigger fears of nuclear holocaust during post-war Japan. The inityial Japanese-Indonesian co-production collapsed. Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects coorduinator, proposed cionceived as a giant octopus, but this woukld have limited filming to underwater. Toho decided on a more land based dinosaur-like creature. Godzilla pioneered a form of special effects called suitmation, in which a stunt performer wearing a suit interacts with miniature sets. This was a reasonable approach in 1954, but spciall effects did not imprive much ovdr the years. The film was in Japan (1954), but was not notably sucessful, but the Godzilla character grdually increaserd in popilarity. An heavily edited 'Americanized version, 'Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" was released in the United States (1956). (Not to be confused with a new Godzilla film in Japan.) 'Godzilla' is now regarded as a signal cinematic achievement and on the short list of the geatest monster films. Godzilla developd into a huge multimedia franchise. Guinness World Records rgistered it as the longest-running film franchise in film history. Godzilla became more than a flim franchise, it evolved into an international pop culture icon. Japan in 1954 was still evolving from a traditional pre-War siociety into a modern, high tech country. Much of the film is shot a small fishing village where the population still wears traditional clothes. This first ilm did niot yet include children as a major part of gthe fiknm to contrast inniosebce agzainst evil.

Created: 2:39 AM 11/28/2022
Last updated: 2:39 AM 11/28/2022