Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) "Review 17"

[abraxas]

Godzilla vs. Biollante is a 1989 kaiju film written and directed by Kazuki Ōmori. It was the seventeenth film to be released in the Godzilla franchise and the second in terms of the franchise's Heisei period. The film is set after the events of The Return of Godzilla. This is the first and only film to feature Biollante.





This is one weird friggin film, Unfortunately the version I watched is the original Japanese versions with no subtitles, and so for the most part I had no idea what was going on.

There is a physic girl, a killer "monster" rose which is possessed with the spirit of a scientists daughter?, spies and god knows what else. On the other hand Godzilla looked bad-ass and his enemy was one of the most unique monsters ever designed, part plant, part human, part Godzilla-ish.....just odd as hell.

I really don't know to say for this film, the battle scene between Godzilla and the plant creature was pretty gory and brutal. At one point the creature sticks one of its....... tentacles? right through Godzilla's hand.

This film continues after the events of Godzilla 1984, and the remainder of the 1990's era of Godzilla films would try and keep a sense of continuity going in the series. The plot is very original and I'm sure if I actually understood what they were saying, I would have liked it very much, it was definitely different.

As a monster Biollante is very unique, its grotesque, frightening, a highly imaginative creation. In terms of coolness it is by far one of the best looking monsters in the entire franchise.


PLOT:

Researcher Genshiro Shiragami looks forward to returning home to Japan with his daughter, Erika. However, a terrorist bombing destroys his research facility and kills Erika. Dr. Shiragami has lately turned most of his attention to the study of the psychic energy of roses. Psychic Miki Saegusa aids him in his research. As it turns out, Dr. Shiragami is involved in the study of Godzilla cells, he is figuring out how to utilize the cells' properties to create Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB), which is supposed to be used as weapons against Godzilla. The bacteria are designed to devour all radioactive material, but Shiragami has been conducting his own secret experiments. A giant flower is seen in a nearby lake, and Dr. Shiragami confesses that he combined the DNA of roses with some extracted from Godzilla's cells. Furthermore, he had, in a fit of grief-driven madness, added Erika's DNA to the genetic composite, so that technically, the creature is partially human as well. He names his creation "Biollante".

EDIT: As with the other film I managed to find subtitles for this one, I love this Godzilla movie, it is very cool, philosophical and interesting, perhaps the most interesting film Ive seen of any genre.

5 out of 5 roars for this one (the originality of the plot deserves a 5 at least, as well as the look of Godzilla and Biollante)

[GL]

Here, I'll help out some:

The scientist's daughter, who was killed by the bomb early on, was genetically engineered into the rose garden he tended, so that she can live on after being killed too early, and once he applicated the Godzilla cells into the flower, the radiation mutated the plant into that giant rose that first appears in the lake. When Godzilla sets it on fire and the spores shoot off into the sky, it was actually absorbing the energy from the ray he blasted it with and combined it with the radiation from the original cell injection to create the monstrosity at the end.

That's actually the creature's thorn that pierces his hand during the final battle, being a giant rose and all.

The first set of spies in the opening, the ones who gun down the Japanese officials, belong a country called Saradia, which is where Dr. Shiragami was working when his daughter is killed. Those cells are intended to be bred with different versions of wheat and desert crops in order to be able to survive the harshness of the desert and can allow them to enter the market place and generate extra income. The lone gunmen who kills the Saradian spies works for a terrorist organization called SS9 (they have nothing to do with Germany or the Third Reich, in case you were wondering but I don't know what the SS part stands for, but I will state for a fact that they're not part of the other group) who is trying to utilize the cells for biological weapons and are at war with the Saradian government.

I think you got most of the other facts right, but those are the main ones you missed.

[abraxas]

Yeah that was a lot easier to figure out after I got the subs for the film, I like it a lot more now that I can understand the intricacies, one of the best Godzilla movies made.

[GL]

It's good, but I think others are a little more satisfying. It's enjoyable, but I wouldn't call it the best.

[abraxas]

one of the best surely, also its about reincarnation in a way and thats of great ingterest to me

[GL]

I wish it would've been handled a lot cleaner rather than "Well, it's new so let's just run with it and hope the cleverness and originality overrules the lack of logic behind it" mentality it displays. It's pretty convoluted, as you no doubt discovered watching the original version of this, and I frankly would've liked to see it just fixed a little.

[abraxas]

Lack of logic, in what regard?

[GL]

One, how does the genetic properties of a rose manage to keep a human's DNA intact within them? A human and a rose are two totally different creatures with different biological and chemical tendencies, how is she able to stay alive within the rose?

Second, why is he handling Godzilla cells, known to be highly radioactive, into the rose after the earthquake? When he's shown stripping the rose fragment and then injecting the Godzilla DNA into it under the microscope, that creates the Biollante monster? It should turn his lab into a radioactive hotspot and basically burn up the rose, not combine with it and mutate.

I admire the uniqueness, but not when it's just matter-of-factly stated that this happens. Create some BS about what happened, it's a little more believable that way.

[abraxas]

Hmmm, that's a tough one

Well if we go by the concept of reincarnation, or in the idea that everything that's exists came from the same source, mythologically speaking, then I guess it could make sense. I don't personally subscribe to the idea that a human might be reincarnated into a flower, an insect or even an animal for that matter. But scientifically I guess it doesn't make much sense, but then again that's why they call it science "fiction" It sort of works in its own reality.

The second is a little more difficult to justify, with the exception of what was said above, possibly......?

[GL]

Well, that's still just if you're going by the reincarnation aspect, which is still entirely glossed over. There's still no account as to how she's able to do so to begin with, why that particular function is chosen, or even why it works.

Like I said, a fundamental lack of logic in this whole area of the film.

[abraxas]

Maybe so but its but I still consider it a new favorite of mine, I think its one of the best Godzilla films ever made, as I said before

[GL]

As do I, in fact, but it's not a flawless film. There's only two of those. This isn't one of them, but it's pretty damn close.