© 1998 Lawrence Tuczynski
| Title: | Godzilla |
| Japanese Title: | Gojira |
| Movie also known as: | Godzilla 1984 Godzilla 1985 The Return Of Godzilla |
| CD Label: | Futureland / Toshiba EMI Japan |
| CD Number: | TYCY-5360 |
| Music by: | Reijiro Koroku |
| Number of tracks: | 55 |
| Running time: | 57:19 |
| Number of discs: | 1 |
| Year of release/manufacture: | 1993 |
| Year Movie Released in Japan: | 1984 |
| Year Movie Released in U.S.: | 1985 |
| NOTE: | As with the original Godzilla, the Japanese and U.S. versions of this film are quite different. The Japanese versions of these movies do not have Raymond Burr in them among other things. |
| REVIEW |
Updated February 24, 2002 This is the first in the 2nd round of Godzilla movies and is known as The Heisei Series (1984-1995). With this film we are supposed to forget all the others ever existed except for the original in 1954. Godzilla is no longer the fun, kiddy monster helping mankind but instead takes on a darker persona as he did in the original. For this first film in the new series Toho throws another new composer at us, this time a composer named Reijiro Koroku. It's a nice full disc clocking in at over 57 minutes and for some reason is almost impossible to find. It took me 7 years to track down an affordable original copy of this CD. Most of the score here is slow, pleasant music more in the vein of Masaru Satoh than the rousing music of Akira Ifukube. After finally getting an original copy, I have listened to this CD several more times recently and found it has grown on me and I like it much more than I did before. Considering this CD is basically an expanded version of the "Godzilla" CD on the King Records/Star Child label, # 230A 7022, it really surprises me that except for "Main Title" all the track title translations are different even though most of the music is the same. There are a few nice action pieces thrown into the mix and some suspense type music but the majority of the music is pretty mellow stuff. I personally prefer listening to this score over the King Records/Star Child version. I feel it works a little better as stand alone music. Of course after nearly 10 years of no new Godzilla films I would have preferred a more Akira Ifukube oriented type score. As with the original 1954 film, this film was released in Japan with no Raymond Burr and the Americanization of this film via adding Mr. Burr and also altering other scenes and aspects of this film such as the Dr. Pepper swilling U.S. military leaders makes the U.S. version of this film inferior in my opinion. As a new beginning of Godzilla films I enjoyed the film and the music but was not overwhelmed by it. |
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06/24/2000 Some title translations updated Thanks to input by Barry Hatrick U.S. Title: Godzilla 1985
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