“Godzilla versus Kurosawa: Presentation and Interpretation of Japanese Cinema in the Post World War II United States”

Abstract

This tale of two movies contrasts American reception of the most famous Japanese movies of the 1950s: Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon (1951) and Honda Ishiro’s Gojira/Godzilla (1956). The former played in art houses and critics lauded it; the latter ran mostly at drive-ins, and reviewers dismissed it as trash cinema. While the films may have differed somewhat before they left Japan, the huge gulf in their perceived value was due to the decisions of American producers, in terms of venue as well as translation techniques. But while Godzilla won little respect upon its U.S. release, this may have been a fortunate circumstance in the long run. The image Rashomon offered of Japan reinforced U.S. foreign policy goals at the time, presenting Japan as a cultured and non-threatening ally. Gojira, in contrast, offered a sharp critique of U.S. nuclear testing. Producers’ refusal to preserve the movie in a pristine state and their attempts to disguise its foreign origins neutralized any potential threat to the U.S.-Japan diplomatic alliance. Moreover, treating Rashomon as an artifact from a foreign culture removed it from the tastes and habits of most middlebrow Americans, whereas Godzilla was able to storm into U.S. popular culture eventually to become a transnational icon.