This fun little film was released in Japan in 1955 and proved to, again, be a financial winner.
A spotter of a Japanese fishing fleet has an accident and crashes on an island in the ocean. His friend comes to rescue him and they both find a couple of giant monsters battling each other.
When they arrive back home they inform the authorities and it turns out that Godzilla is alive and well, or at least another Godzilla and so is a strange beast called Anguirus.
Japan again rushes to protect itself from an attack by Godzilla, and they find they can lure him away from Osaka with flairs. This starts working, but the flairs actually draw Anguirus and so the two monsters battle and destroy most of Osaka.
There is an interesting sub-plot about the two pilots and the women they love and their bosses dedication to his employees. The music score isn't by Akira Ifukube this time and it kind of gets lost in the film, but it is not a detriment at all.
This movie was picked up by Warner Brothers in 1959 and pretty much destroyed. The title was changed to "Gigantis The Fire Monster" all of the music was changed to library stock and the dubbing was atrocious. It was from this point on that American audiences decided not to take Godzilla films seriously and they became targets for critics who said they were shoddy films.
With what I have stated above, this is the ONLY version to watch and Criterion has given it a beautiful presentation in their Showa-Era set. RECOMMENDED!!
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