Japan Expo celebrates 70 years of Godzilla

It is one of the oldest franchises in cinema since 1954. Godzilla celebrates its 70th anniversary and has evolved with the times. Japan Expo is dedicating a major exhibition to this monster that frightens as much as it fascinates and that has become an icon of pop culture.

In this 300m² exhibition you can trace the entire history of Godzilla, from his first film to his recent successes, such as Godzilla Minus One or Shin Godzilla. There are 39 Godzilla films. The filmography has been divided into several “eras”: Shōwa (1954-1975), Heisei (1984-1995), Millennium (1999-2004) and Reiwa (2016-2019). The directors are Japanese, but also American.

It all started in 1952, when the event screenings of the films King Kong (by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack) and The monster of lost times (by Eugène Lourié) encourage Tanaka to offer his monster movie to the public.

Early sketches depicted an ape-like creature, while another depicted it as a giant octopus, but Tanaka recalled Eugène Lourié’s film and opted for a dinosaur. The animal, dubbed Gojira (a contraction of kujira, Japanese for “whale,” and the word “Gorilla”), would be renamed Godzilla internationally, which phonetically approximates the creature’s pronunciation in Japanese.

The film directed by Ishiro Honda was released on November 3, 1954 and was a huge success. This would generate a craze for special effects and giant monsters in Japanese cinema. This was the birth of kaijù-eiga (monster films), a cinematographic genre in its own right. The first two feature films were in black and white (Godzilla, The Return of Godzilla), the transition to color will then take place. In the 1970s, a new term appeared to designate productions focusing on the spectacular effect of these practical special effects techniques (stop animation, models, costumes, real explosions, etc.): “Tokusatsu”.

Over time, the different Godzillas address many issues. The first Godzilla in 1954 follows the war and nuclear power that affected Japan.

The real start of the Godzilla saga took place in 1962 with the release of King Kong vs Godzilla. He then becomes a kind of superhero who defends Japan against other creatures, like in Invasion of Planet XAt the end of the 70s, he will fight against pollution, in the 80s, he becomes evil again and embodies the nuclear bomb again.

“We also sometimes find a societal side in the saga, with films which accredit a Japan in full industrial boom (Godzilla’s Revenge) and others which paint the life of the inhabitants of the archipelago with great accuracy and modesty”we can read in the exhibition.

In Shin Godzillahe embodies post-Fukushima Japan and Minus Onereinvents the myth. These two opuses are a huge success both nationally and internationally. Godzilla is no longer just the symbol of an entire country, he is also that of world pop culture.

When Eiji Tsuburaya began the special effects of the film Godzilla in 1954, he was seriously short of time. So he invented his own technique, the suit-mation (or suitmation), in which a man in a suit tramples over particularly elaborate miniatures of megacities. This revolutionary process was used until very recently in the latest installments of the King of the Monsters saga.

The first man to wear the uncomfortable costume will be Haruo Nakajima for the first 12 films of the saga. Other actors will take over throughout the Showa era (1954-1975). For all the films from the beginning of the Heisei era, from 1984 until 1995, the King of the Monsters is played by Kenpachiro Satsuma. Tsutomu Kitagawa will be the last actor to play him for Godzilla: Final Warsbefore the arrival of digital.

Throughout the ages, Godzilla has become a global icon, represented on hundreds of goodies, through figurines and posters, some of which are presented in the exhibition. It ends with a huge photocall!