Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla - 35MM

“When a black mountain appears above the clouds, a monster will arrive and try to destroy the world… The ancient prophecy is coming true.”

“But I never would have guessed… that the monster could be Godzilla!”

The two sides of Godzilla – the unstoppable force of mass destruction introduced in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 Gojira, versus the lovable protector of humankind in the candy-colored kiddie matinees that followed – come to a head in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Jun Fukuda’s psycho-delic masterpiece follows a band of humanoid ape-aliens who try to conquer the earth with a Godzilla made of space-titanium, disguised in reptile flesh. The quadrupedal monster Angilas smells a rat immediately, and human onlookers are shocked to see “Godzilla” massacring Angilas, widely understood to be his closest friend. Soon enough, the real Godzilla emerges from Monster Island to redress the balance against his strongest adversary yet, with an assist from the half-dog half-lion superdeity “King Caesar” – a monster inspired by the shisa, an authentic figure from the mythology of the Ryukyuan community in present-day Okinawa.

The late Teroyushi Nakano (1935-2022) supervised special effects on over a dozen Godzilla features, but would cite Mechagodzilla as his personal favorite, in part due to the film’s breathtaking and gory monster-on-monster violence, plus the unhinged volume of fireball explosions. In his honor, as well as that of Godzilla Day (November 3, the Japanese release date of the original Gojira), Roxy Cinema New York is proud to present Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla on a vintage 35mm CinemaScope print, dubbed into brain-breaking English. Introduction by writer/programmer Steve Macfarlane.