Socio-Political Aspects of Kaijū Eiga Genre: A Case Study of the Original Godzilla

Robert Dudziński

Kaijū eiga – literally “monster movie” – is one of the most easily recognizable genres of Japanese cinema, as well as one of its biggest export products. Yet, despite its tremendous popularity in North America and Europe, for decades this genre was ignored by Western film scholars. The main goal of the present article is to discuss the kaijū eiga phenomenon as an area of intersection between escapist entertainment and socio-political commentary. As kaijū eiga productions are numerous, detailed analysis of even the most important representatives of the genre is beyond the scope of a single paper. Therefore, I have decided to focus on the first instalment of the Godzilla series. In the first section of the article I present a brief history of the Western reception of kaijū eiga, from its disregard by mainstream film criticism to its recognition as an important cultural phenomenon by the academic community. The second section serves as a brief review of the canonical and unorthodox interpretations of the original Godzilla that appeared in the subject literature during the course of the last three decades. In the next part of the article I discuss Honda Ishirō’s influence on the Godzilla form and purport within the context of his world-view and the traumatic events of his past. The last section of the article is devoted to the changes introduced to the film by its American distributors that led to the distortion of its original purport.