Godzilla 4K 1954 Ultra HD 2160p

Storyline
When 17 vessels explode and sink near Odo Island, Professor Kyohei Yamane, his daughter Emiko and the Marine Hideto Ogata head to the island to investigate. Soon they witness a giant monster called Godzilla by the locals destroying the spot. Meanwhile Emiko meets her boyfriend, the secluded scientist Serizawa, and he makes she promise to keep a secret about his research with oxygen. She agrees and he discloses the lethal weapon the Oxygen Destroyer that he has developed. When Godzilla threatens Tokyo and other Japanese cities and the army and the navy are incapable to stop the monster, Emiko discloses Serizawa's secret to her lover Ogata. Now they have to convince Serizawa to use the Oxygen Destroyer to kill Godzilla.

User Review
The original, Japanese version of "Gojira" is the best giant monster film I've ever seen. Some fans get carried away and call it one of the best movies ever made; I wouldn't go quite that far, but it's damn good.

This film is quite different from the 20+ sequels that followed. Here, Godzilla is not so much a creature as he is a walking incarnation of the atomic bomb. His death ray, which became a rather amusing cartoon laser blast in later films, is here depicted as a sort of radioactive mist that sets its victims on fire. These "radioactive horror" images still resonate today - and imagine the impact they must've had on Japanese audiences fifty years ago.

From a production standpoint, the film holds up well. Godzilla's costume is much more convincing than the silly monkey suits that featured in the 60s and 70s Toho films, and due to the grayscale photography, the model cityscapes look convincing in most shots - or at least respectable. Ifkube's music score is stirring (you know it has to be good, as they kept recycling it in later movies), and director Honda makes great use of camera angles and imaginative special effects to give Godzilla a genuine aura of menace.

For once, the human characters don't let the side down. There's a compelling love triangle, and a dramatic sacrifice made at the end of the film that adds enormously to its emotional impact. The American version ("Godzilla: King of the Monsters") cut out much of the character development, and is thus clearly inferior; but never fear, Rialto is apparently releasing "Gojira," in all its original glory, sometime this year (2004).

In the later Godzilla films, the destruction he causes is almost incidental. Here, it's the whole point - he's a force of nature. Impressive.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (75.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Info Audio

#Japanese: FLAC 2.0
#Japanese: FLAC 2.0

Info Subtitles

English, Dutch, French (Parisian), German, Japanese, Spanish (Latin American).