The History of Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

[Music] [Music] 1989's godzilla vs biollante directed by kazuki omari with the return of godzilla having moderate success in japan tanaka had approval from toho's higher-ups that the godzilla series could continue tanaka would get cold feet however because in 1986 king kong lives bombed at the box office in the united states then a movie named little shop of horrors came out later that year and it had success which made tanaka question himself once again looking for some fresh ideas toho placed advertisements in newspapers in the fall of 1985 asking readers to submit their own stories the contest would get over 5 000 entries with the stories being judged by a six-member panel that included tanaka himself one story idea of note had godzilla being controlled by adolf hitler the winning entry was titled godzilla vs biollante and it was submitted at the last minute by a dentist named shinichiro kobayashi he did have experience writing science fiction and wrote scripts for suburaya productions the return of ultraman series in kobayashi's story he shifts the emphasis off of atomic weapons and onto the dangers of biotechnology this is similar to what yoshimitsubano did with godzilla vs hedera making pollution the primary cause for concern originally kobayashi would have godzilla fight a monster named detarius i'm probably butchering that name godzilla would proceed to defeat the monster and then go on to eat it after that godzilla would go on to fight biollante whose original design was a feminine face attached to a mutated plant body after the winning story was collected tanaka would hire young writer kazuki omari to touch up kobayashi's story it was seen as a weird choice omari was known for directing teen dramas and he would come off as brash in his first meeting with tanaka even telling the longtime producer that the godzilla movies of the 1960s and 70s were an embarrassment and that he was going to take godzilla in a new and exciting direction even the return of godzilla was something omari thought was stuck in the past we could make a better movie than this amore didn't endear himself to godzilla fans right away either as he was quoted as saying i'm not such an enthusiastic fan although movies are more or less in some ways unreal or complete fabrication godzilla seems like the biggest fabrication of them all perhaps in damage control he would later say that he was a fan of godzilla films when he was a child but as an adult he was more of a fan of james bond films and other american made movies either way he took the job seriously and continuously updated the revised story for a year and a half while tanaka waited for the right time to begin production before beginning i studied for a long time reading adventure novels biotechnology and botany textbooks in the meantime omari would work on three separate projects for touhou while writing and revising the screenplay for godzilla vs biollante he would scratch the giant rat monster from the story and ask for a redesign of biollante which would be an arduous process he would incorporate godzilla into the biotechnology theme by making godzilla's cells an important plot device after years of waiting shooting for the movie would finally start in august of 1989 and would finish a few months later in november amore would continue to make changes to the story even while filming was ongoing this godzilla movie is packed with subplots the most important being dr shiragami's after his daughter erica dies he splices her dna into a rose and then adds godzilla's cells erika is played by yasuko sabaguchi who played naiko in the previous film sawaguchi also voiced chihiro's mother in the classic film spirited away the story also has different factions trying to get their hands on godzilla's cells left over from its attack on shinjuku in 1984. the u.s pharmaceutical company major bio the japanese self-defense forces and the fictional middle eastern republic of ceradia basically saudi arabia all want godzilla's cells omari's love of james bond movies is mostly seen here with secret agents fighting over the cells godzilla survived the fall into the volcano at the end of the return of godzilla but has been trapped inside mount mihara for the last five years despite this japan's military is still monitoring the monster with alert levels that we see throughout the movie this gives the film a suspenseful mood as we await godzilla's eventual return thrown into all of this is a psychic girl named mickey played by megumiotika otika won the touhou cinderella contest in 1987 but she had never seen a godzilla movie before and was afraid of the godzilla suit until she became acquainted with suit actor kenpachiro satsuma otika would become a fan favorite and so mickey would become a recurring character she would appear in each of the preceding heiseira godzilla movies in fact mickey's character was included in the return of godzilla manga in the manga her parents are both killed in godzilla's attack miki was inspired by the main character in the popular manga series mai the psychic girl godzilla manga or comics have been around since 1954 and mostly are adaptions of the different films though tanaka hiring omari as director was a move that garnered attention it was the rise of kochi kawakita as special effects director that would perhaps be the most impactful on the heisei era kawakita was immediately known for being the special effects director of gunhead which was released in july of that year its plot was based on a story entered into touhou's contest where godzilla fights a super computer additionally kawakita had been working for toho and then subaraya productions since the 60s and was an assistant to teriyoshi nakano for years nakano had made the most convincing looking godzilla to date in his final outing but kawakita would outdo his predecessor here the main difference between the two special effects masters was kawakita mastered the craft of mats multiple shots in the film showcased this ability without any visible matte lines showing the scene when mickey uses her psychic powers on godzilla is visually impressive compared to what was the norm in godzilla films it's also interesting that the monster is shown to be just as tough mentally as he is physically as godzilla's mind overpowers the young mickey kawakita further separated himself with the amount of camera angles and practical effects used in each scene pyrotechnics would be fired at satsuma while he was doing battle with these remote control helicopters kawakita would redesign godzilla once again he wanted godzilla to look more animalistic using dinosaurs and crocodiles as a reference but tanaka insisted godzilla remain a monster not just a dinosaur damn it he's a monster i tend to agree kawakita would compromise keeping some of the features from the 1954 godzilla like the ears and fangs but the head would be smaller and more pointed the mouth now looked like a snout and the whites of godzilla's eyes were removed considered a distinctly human feature as i already said satsuma returned to play godzilla and this time things would go much smoother as the man tended to have a lot of bad luck on the set in preparation he would visit the zoo much like nakajima did to study animal movements and work on his own godzilla style veteran suit maker nobuyuki yasamaru and his protege tomomi kobayashi created two new suits with lighter and more durable materials one suit was for the land and the other was for the water satsuma would comment that this would be the most comfortable suit he ever worked in he still had to be careful if at any point he fell over in the water he could drown and because kawakita's insistence on practical effects and real explosives satsuma saw it fit to wear protective goggles to prepare for these films satsuma created godzilla kempo a combination of karate and godzilla's movements keeping with the theme of practical effects over cg the dorsal fins on the suit would be lit up in real time with fiber reinforced plastic and electric lining and because it wouldn't really be a godzilla movie without satsuma getting hurt he would receive an electrical shock the first time they turned the lights on on the fins four mini robot models of the upper half of godzilla were created and like nakano's cybot from 1984 these would be used for close-up shots these robots gave godzilla more expression with eye neck and tongue movements redesigning godzilla was the easy part creating the other star of the film was much more difficult nobody knew exactly what godzilla's foe would look like until the final days of filming within the context of the movie biollante is a giant plant monster with the dna of godzilla arose and erica dr shiragami's deceased daughter biollante's first form is called the flower beast form and she uses her tendrils to attack godzilla in lake ashino biollante is considered female because of erika's dna so this monster joins mothra and the female rodin in the girls club of the monsters in touhou's universe after her first battle with godzilla biollante would turn into golden particles before departing into the sky but she would return in a new form the plant beast form is biollante's most powerful giving her the ability to fire corrosive sap from her mouth toho wanted biollante to be just as dangerous as godzilla and i think they succeeded the idea of monsters having different forms would become a staple of the heiseira films i prefer to have monsters transform it provides more entertainment for the members of the audience and it serves as an identifying characteristic of the current godzilla films kobayashi got the idea for the monster and the story from having the morbid thought of his six-month-old daughter dying which led him to thinking about genetic engineering all of these thoughts combined with the image of godzilla being consumed by a giant plant is what birthed biollante when coming up with the monster's name kobayashi was inspired by a passage from a particular poem by the 19th century french poet paul verlaine biollante's design went through many changes with up to a hundred drawings made up to 32 piano wires were used to operate biollante's final form which is 10 more wires than king ghidorah who was also hard to operate nobody on the film crew knew that violente was going to run towards godzilla except for director omori who decided to add that scene on the day of filming they loved the shot so much they used it twice having the camera shake violently to make it seem like the ground itself was shaking masashi tagumi was inside the massive biollante suit but didn't have to do much as the plant beast form was built on top of rollers tagumi couldn't see when firing the acidic sap so just in case he fired it in the wrong direction amari had the cameraman wrapped their cameras in plastic kawakita loved creating small military type machines so a scene was added where godzilla fights the military's maser tanks the real japanese self-defense forces would collaborate with touhou providing personnel equipment and video clips this movie is crammed with secondary characters like ss9 goro gando and major shokuroki japanese films usually have many secondary characters that move the plot whereas american films tend to have a single protagonist do that and all these characters have their moments ss-9s death at the end of the film is so satisfying i couldn't stand that [ __ ] goro gondo's death is the funniest he's the first person to talk [ __ ] to godzilla's face that's just [ __ ] awesome but he does pay the price he's a funny character who stood out despite not a lot of screen time interestingly when we get to see gondo's office earlier in the film we can see the oxygen destroyer sitting in the back which is a nice easter egg and perhaps some unintended foreshadowing quirky scenes aren't as suspenseful because the new super x2 is remote piloted unlike the previous movie where those poor bastards were actually in the flying tank and got a building dropped on them so corky and his crew are never in danger the super x2's reflective ability stumps godzilla for a while as the japanese military is portrayed as more competent in the heisei era films than they were in the show era whether right or wrong the perception at the time around the world was that japan had cutting-edge technology and so these movies tend to play on that perception the film introduces anti-nuclear energy bacteria as a new super weapon to use against godzilla godzilla is injected with the bacteria multiple times but it isn't until his body heats up at the end of the movie that it starts to have an effect the water scenes are the most impressive to date the man in charge of lighting was karo saito and he had the idea to use reflectors above touhou's pool set which gave the water surface a more expansive feel the underwater scenes were made more convincing by using a water filter over the lights because scenes with godzilla are always slowed down water scenes always have the issue of having water appear in slo-mo as well toho's big pool set had been around since 1960's storm over the pacific which re-enacted the bombing of pearl harbor with miniatures and special effects created by aegis subaraya this was actually the second time suburaya portrayed the attack on pearl harbor the first being what he did in 1942 in the movie hawaii mar oki kasan the visuals were so convincing that after the war the film was confiscated by the allied powers who thought it was real footage of the attack ever since terra of mechagodzilla toho recognized that godzilla's first scene in a movie needed to have some pomp to it we've come a long way after terrorists from major bio free godzilla in a botched blackmail attempt for godzilla cells we get this awesome scene with akira if akube's godzilla theme playing godzilla triumphantly returns after a five year hiatus if akube's classic themes were used in some scenes because kochi tsugiyama score didn't impress tanaka now best known for his music in the dragon quest video game series tsukiyama created the music without ever seeing the movie so it's understandable if the music didn't match up well tanaka felt that infusing if akube's music would help balance things out more i think this was a good decision but tsugiyama's theme for when godzilla and violente battle simply titled godzilla 1989 reminds me a lot of the jaws theme and i think it's his best contribution to the film after godzilla breaks free tv reports start going out musician demon kaguri makes a cameo here and interrupts his show with the godzilla news the musicians showed what a godzilla super fan he was and he would win the godzilla roar alike contest where he roared like his favorite monster and when he heard that a new godzilla movie was being made he got so excited that he announced it on his radio show that he would like to be in it and i guess someone in touhou must have been listening also i love that gondo is excited about godzilla's release just making his character even more badass one cool moment during the monster's first battle is when the camera pans to godzilla's face and it just has an expression like enough of this [ __ ] and godzilla lights up biollante it was an ingenious way to give godzilla expression without it being over the top and the subtle movements of godzilla's head are perfect in this shot as it makes godzilla seem perplexed or overwhelmed when the tendrils are launched at the monster again godzilla gives off expression without it being over the top or human but my favorite scene of them all in the movie doesn't have godzilla in it per se it's when mickey and asaka asked the psychic kids what they dreamed of [Music] just awesome this scene does what godzilla alerts do but even better as it adds to the atmosphere of dread that the characters are feeling at the idea that godzilla might be coming back almost like the build up in a freddy krueger or jason movie the characters are scared but the audience is excited but i also see this scene as a nod to the fact that even though godzilla was at this point being made for adults the king of monsters will always be popular with kids it also reminded me of when i was a kid in school my notebook was always filled with terrible drawings of godzilla and looking at these drawings now who knows maybe shin godzilla had some inspiration speaking of being a kid this is the first godzilla movie to be made by what we can consider the godzilla generation by that i mean most of the people working on this film were children when godzilla first appeared on screen and on a personal note this godzilla movie would come out the year i was born the final fight of the film is simply above and beyond anything godzilla fans had seen before i must have rewound my vcr over a thousand times watching this fight as a kid godzilla takes some serious damage and it was crazy to see another monster attempt to eat godzilla godzilla is supposed to be the big badass of the film and biollante comes along and steals the show and perhaps tired of getting shot in the mouth itself godzilla turns the tables and does it to biollante this battle also marked a shift in how the monsters would fight going forward in the showa era films godzilla would get up close and wrestle with the other monsters kawakita didn't like this style the monsters seem too human when they wrestle each other so godzilla's atomic breath is utilized heavily and once again godzilla shows off a new ability the nuclear pulse attack it's used for the first time to blow away biollante's tendrils and turn the tide of the fight in godzilla's favor and originally this scene was filmed in stop motion but it didn't match up well with the live shots another scene that was deleted was after the monster's first battle you get to see godzilla walking amongst a beautiful array of flowers i think this shot should have stayed in the film as it's really cool to see godzilla juxtaposed to such colorful flowers considering godzilla represents death and flowers can represent life multiple concepts were thrown around about how the movie should end one idea was to animate violently absorbing godzilla but ultimately it was rejected but we would see this idea realized in a future godzilla film the final battle ends with godzilla stumbling away weakened by the bacteria so this is the second movie in a row the japanese military didn't kill godzilla but neutralized the monster for the time being biollante reverts to her particle form and floats into space with an image of erika showing briefly dr shiragami has it rough in this movie he has to see his daughter die twice once at the hand of a bomb and the other at the hand of godzilla though shiragami does say that biollante is immortal and incapable of dying so i don't know but then he gets shot and dies so yeah tough break if you haven't noticed it already it's a pretty funny coincidence that little shopahara's was the movie that made tanaka feel safe in making another godzilla movie especially considering biollantes similar to audrey ii but this was a coincidence according to tanaka despite all the effort and creativity pumped into this movie godzilla vs biollante would only sell 2 million tickets sadly special effects director kalakita took the news hard and would develop a drinking problem but kawakita would get vindication now i'm not a part of any godzilla communities online or anything like that i've never been to any conventions or anything but i always got the idea that this film was well regarded amongst godzilla fans it's definitely one of my favorites either way kawakita amari and tanaka would get another shot at it this time with godzilla fighting a familiar foe next up is 1991's godzilla vs king ghidorah [Music]

Channel: Big Action Bill

Views: 139,979

Keywords: Godzilla History, History of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Kong, Toho, Japan, Eiji Tsyburaya, flying godzilla, Kenpachiro Satsuma, Pulgasari, Gojira, mothra, rodan, king ghidorah, godzilla king of the monsters, Ishirō Honda, Tomoyuki Tanaka, sh monsterarts, Gigan, Godzilla on monster island, Godzilla vs. Biollante, Biollante, Megumi Odaka, Heisei Era, History Biollante, monster movies, monster madness, cinemassacre, godzillathon, Biolante, Erika Biollante, Godzilla vs Plant

Id: 6ClDl7uPq48

Length: 20min 24sec (1224 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 15 2022