Events

The movie's plot is pretty straightforward. A mutated, prehistoric sea creature is disturbed from its habitat by nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean and proceeds to destroy Japanese fishing boats and eventually make landfall in Japan itself. Godzilla's rampage in Tokyo is iconic cinema, and an obvious metaphor for the U.S. military's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. What is much less remembered today is that this movie was written and filmed in the aftermath of the notorious "Castle Bravo" incident of 1954. An experimental U.S. H-bomb blew up three times stronger than advertised which, when combined with strong winds over the Pacific that day, spread radioactive fallout over a Japanese fishing boat that was supposed to be in a safe zone. One of their sailors soon died from acute radiation poisoning, and the incident quickly reopened old wounds in Japan dating back to the atomic bombings of 1945.

This film should not be confused with the heavily re-edited and Americanized _Godzilla: King of the Monsters_ that was released in 1956, and remained the only version of the movie available to Americans until 2004. That version unfortunately dilutes and dumbs down some of the most important themes of the original Japanese version of the film. And while this movie is but one of many (mostly American) sci-fi movies addressing the social anxiety of suddenly being in an Atomic Age, Godzilla (1954) greatly exceeds all of its peers. There's an emotional weight to Godzilla that the American movies seem to lack, probably because the Japanese actually knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of nuclear horror.

Accessibility note: We will be watching the movie with its original Japanese audio and English subtitles. We apologize to anyone who will struggle to "read the movie." Anyone who needs to sit a bit closer to the screen to read the subtitles is welcome to do so.

Discussion will follow the movie.

This event is free and open to the public. The Black Cat House welcomes all ages, and is a drug and alcohol-free venue. To help keep everyone safe and healthy, we ask that all guests wear face masks in our space. We are wheelchair accessible.