Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Director: Jun Fukuda

Written by: Shin’ichi Sekizawa

Once again mankind is threatened from beyond the stars, this time in the form of sinister shapeshifting cockroaches, who assume the forms of dead humans to colonize the world for a mass migration of their people.

To achieve this dastardly goal they create two tapes, each designed to summon and control a colossal space alien to destroy Earth's monsters and leave the planet defenceless.

Thankfully a nerdy manga artist and his karate expert girlfriend are on hand to help thwart the insectile aliens, who have made their home inside a giant Godzilla statue in a children's amusement park.

When one of the tapes is accidentally played, Godzilla senses danger and he and former enemy Anguirus leave Monster Island to combat the incoming threat. Ultimately the cunning cockroaches enact their wicked plan and summon (you guessed it) King Ghidorah and the biomechanical menace Gigan for a brutal four-way clash.

Eventually, our plucky human heroes are able to destroy the tapes and the invading aliens but Ghidorah and Gigan, being the natural a-holes that they are, continue their onslaught. With Anguirus being as helpful as a broken toe, it falls to Godzilla to defeat the two alpha aliens and it’s a brutal fight but Godzilla and Anguirus are finally able to send them fleeing back to the depths of space.

This marks the first Godzilla film where actual Kaiju blood is spilled. It’s hard to express quite what an effect it had on young me, seeing bright arterial blood gush from Godzilla’s neck after a critical cut from Gigan’s brutal buzzsaw belly. I was horrified, for the first time it seemed like Godzilla was in real danger and I remember being on the edge of my seat until the battle was won.

It is also the only movie to feature the Kaiju engaging in conversation, via textual speech bubbles although in the dubbed version they would converse audibly.

Godzilla vs. Gigan also features the most explosions I have ever witnessed in a single movie, to the point where if it were made into a drinking game you would absolutely die (seriously don’t do it), at one point I thought my sound had become stuck on a loop.

This would also be the last time that serious veteran Haruo Nakajima would don the famous suit. Having played Godzilla in every previous installment, it is fitting that the final shot is one of Godzilla/Nakajima turning to roar ‘goodbye’ to the audience.

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