Godzilla Raids Again (1955) on Netflix
Approved19551h 18mActionAdventureHorror
Pilots Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi find Godzilla battling a second monster on Iwato Island. In Osaka, with the Oxygen Destroyer gone, authorities try to lure it away from the city.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb5.7/1010,029 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes64%
Trailer
Plot summary
Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi fly for a Japanese fishing company, guiding trawlers toward schools of bonito. When Kobayashi's engine fails, he sets his plane down on Iwato Island, and Tsukioka lands beside him to bring him out. There the two men see two giant creatures locked in battle, Godzilla and a quadruped the authorities later identify as Anguirus, before both tumble into the sea. The pilots report to Osaka, where Dr. Yamane says no proven countermeasure remains: the Oxygen Destroyer killed the first Godzilla, and the scientist who built it is dead. He proposes cutting the city's lights and luring the creature with flares. Tsukioka's girlfriend Hidemi, a plane dispatcher for the company, tells him of her concern for Osaka, and an alert goes out for the Osaka area as Godzilla turns toward Osaka Bay.
Cast
- Yukio Kasamaas Koehi Yamaji, President of the Fishery
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Before dubbing Godzilla Raids Again, its American rights holders planned a new film, The Volcano Monsters, that would reuse the Japanese monster footage, with Ib Melchior and Edwin Watson hired to write the screenplay. It was cancelled when funding collapsed and the film was dubbed instead.
- For Godzilla Raids Again's opening scene, Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka stayed inside the Godzilla and Anguirus suits as they plunged into the water so the suits would not float on impact. Handlers were on set to stop the two actors from drowning.
- While shooting Godzilla Raids Again's effects, three cameras were set up, two at high speed and a third inadvertently left at a slow speed of 18 frames per second. Eiji Tsuburaya kept the slow footage and afterwards used different camera speeds for different scenes.
- The Osaka castle miniature in Godzilla Raids Again collapsed only after Eiji Tsuburaya called "cut", because the crew did not hear him and the cameras had stopped rolling. The model then had to be partially rebuilt.
- Katsumi Tezuka, inside the Anguirus suit, had to crawl on his knees with the bottoms of his feet exposed, so the effects crew hid them by placing trees, buildings and other obstacles in the foreground and filming from angles that concealed the hind legs.
- Godzilla's suit in Godzilla Raids Again was built on a cloth base with latex over it, and a motor in the head moved the eyes and mouth, powered by batteries at the base of the tail. Haruo Nakajima felt discomfort every time he jumped in the suit.
- The ice island battle in Godzilla Raids Again was partly filmed on an outdoor set, and to bury Godzilla in ice the crew borrowed an ice machine from a Tokyo skating rink.
- Godzilla Raids Again introduced the monster-versus-monster formula that became prominent and synonymous with the franchise, and Toho afterwards featured Anguirus, the new monster it pitted against Godzilla, in various multimedia.
