Noel's Movie Night RECAP! Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974)

Welcome to another installment of my "weekly" movie night recap. Those who have been watching along might notice a few changes. I decided to leave behind the Tokusatsu Tonight (previous Tokusatsu Tuesday) moniker simply because we've already expanded well beyond that concept in threads here and there. Regardless, the viewing list remains locked in place as we continue our exploration of the evolution of kaiju flicks and Japanese effects film, but that's a foundation that we're branching off of in fun ways as we go along. We're about to hit the Kongsploitation boom of the 70s! Then the rise and career of legendary Tokusatsu director Roland Emmerich! Then if we're doing the genre fantasies of Nobuhiko Obayashi, why not go deeper with more of his work I'd love to share, since almost all of it blurs the lines of genre anyways!

So the night hasn't changed much, just the name on the sticker to reflect how far we've evolved from this initially just being an excuse to watch the Showa Godzilla line. As always, feel free to follow our viewing list on Letterboxd if you want to see where we've been and learn about updates as we get to them.

The latest feature!

GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (1974)
aka GODZILLA VS THE BIONIC MONSTER
aka GODZILLA VS THE COSMIC MONSTER

Tokusatsu Tonight RECAP! Japan Sinks (1973)

So what is Tokusatsu Tonight? It's a movie night I've been hosting for friends that started back at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, and has been running for over 70 weeks and as many films at this point. It started with the idea to go thru the Showa Godzilla films, since I picked up that wonderful Criterion set. Then I decided to add the entire Toho line so we could see the broader work of the shared crews, and how they both informed and were informed by the development of said Godzilla series. Then I thew in Gamera. And Daimajin. And other odds and ends. And the entire Gamma franchise. And Yokai. And the whole thing just grew into a massive night of wonders, exploring films both familiar and obscure, mostly in chronological order, and somehow built around or peripheral to the original meaning of the word Tokusatsu: the "effects film". And while we're mostly sticking to Japan, we're taking little side trips around the world as those technicians spread their influence, and others started picking up on what they started.

This is the first post in a series that's already been running for a while. I'm not sure if I'll lever loop back and cover the films we've already watched, but you can see the full list on Letterboxd, and I'll make sure to fill in a bit of context if I ever reference back to anything.

This week's film!

JAPAN SINKS (1973)
aka TIDAL WAVE
aka THE SUBMERGENCE OF JAPAN