(often abbreviated as GMK) is a 2001 Japanese kaiju film directed and co-written by Shusuke Kaneko. The 26th film in the Godzilla franchise and the third of the Millennium era, it serves as a direct sequel to Godzilla (1954) and shares a standalone continuity with the 1998 American film, ignoring the events of every other installment in the series. Chiharu Niiyama stars as a reporter covering the story of Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah defending Japan from Godzilla, an onryō creature possessed by the souls of those killed during the Pacific War. The supporting cast includes Ryudo Uzaki, Masahiro Kobayashi, Shiro Sano, and Hideyo Amamoto, with Mizuho Yoshida as Godzilla, Akira Ohashi as Ghidorah, and as Baragon.
Kaneko first pitched the idea of directing a Godzilla film to executive producer Shogo Tomiyama in 1991. Following the success of his Gamera trilogy (1995–1999) and Pyrokinesis (2000), Toho offered Kaneko the project in June 2000 with an unusual degree of creative freedom. He developed a story in which Godzilla battles three elemental guardians. At Toho's request, Varan and Anguirus were replaced with the more marketable Mothra and King Ghidorah, leaving only Baragon from the original trio. Development was nearly canceled after Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) underperformed at the box office, but Tomiyama persuaded Toho to proceed. Principal photography took place from May to August 2001 on a () budget. Although Kaneko had hoped to direct the special effects (tokusatsu) himself as well, scheduling conflicts led to Makoto Kamiya helming them instead. Kow Otani composed the score, blending orchestral and electronic elements.
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah premiered in incomplete form at the Tokyo International Film Festival on November 3, 2001. Toho released the completed film throughout Japan on December 15, as a double feature with Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land. The double bill earned (over ), tying for the third-highest-grossing Japanese film during 2002. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah received generally positive reviews from critics and is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the Godzilla franchise and ultimately the most critically and commercially successful film in the Millennium series. Critics initially praised its direction, characters, and special effects, but were divided on the darker tone, monster reimaginings, and third act. Its performance ensured the franchise's continuation, leading to Masaaki Tezuka's Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002), set in a different continuity.
Plot
In 2002, during a Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) briefing for cadets regarding the first Godzilla's attack and death in 1954, Admiral Taizō Tachibana warns the trainees to remain vigilant. He notes that reports of monster sightings are increasing worldwide, including a similar monster that recently attacked New York City. Tachibana is then alerted that an American nuclear submarine has gone missing off Guam. Search-and-rescue units find the submarine destroyed and capture footage of an undead Godzilla's dorsal plates moving in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, Tachibana's daughter Yuri, a reporter working for the pseudo-documentary television company BS Digital Q, is filming with her crew at Mount Myōkō when an earthquake strikes. That night, another earthquake buries a group of bōsōzoku bikers who had vandalized a roadside shrine; the lone surviving trucker witnesses the subterranean monster Baragon emerge. The next day, Yuri's colleague, Mitsuaki Takeda, supports her theory that a monster may have caused the mysterious earthquakes and gives her a book about Japan's legendary Guardian Monsters: Baragon (God of the Earth), Mothra (God of the Sea), and King Ghidorah (God of the Sky).
At Lake Ikeda, Mothra, in her larval form, attacks a group of teenage vandals who disturbed her shrine and spins a cocoon. Yuri interviews Professor Hirotoshi Isayama, a mysterious elder arrested by Motosu police for destroying a shrine. Unbeknownst to the authorities and Yuri's team, Isayama authored the Guardian Monsters book. He warns that the guardians must be awakened to prevent Godzilla from destroying Japan. Yuri and her colleagues visit the Guardian Monsters' shrine, where she finds a stone, then returns to continue interviewing Isayama. In the process, she discovers that the vengeful souls of soldiers and civilians who were killed during the Pacific War are embedded within Godzilla and are lashing out due to modern Japan's denial of its past crimes. Elsewhere, in Aokigahara, a suicidal man accidentally discovers a frozen, 1,000-year-old dragon, Ghidorah.
Godzilla surfaces in Yaizu and battles Baragon in Hakone, killing the smaller guardian. Yuri is injured during the fray and goes on her own after Takeda refuses to take her to Godzilla's location. When the JSDF's jets fail to stop Godzilla's course toward Tokyo, Tachibana sets up a defensive line in Yokohama. As Mothra emerges from her cocoon in her imago form, Isayama awakens Ghidorah to combat Godzilla. However, Godzilla overpowers both guardians and attempts to attack the JSDF soldiers. Mothra sacrifices herself, transferring her spirit to Ghidorah. The empowered dragon injures and drags Godzilla underwater. Amidst this, Tachibana and his colleague Yutaka Hirose board miniature Satsuma submarines to launch D-03 missiles into Godzilla's wound.
As the battle continues, the Yokohama Bay Bridge collapses under Godzilla's atomic breath while Yuri and Takeda are reporting from it. A shrine stone falls from Takeda's pocket and revives the injured Ghidorah, who saves Yuri and Takeda from their fall, and they swim ashore while the monsters continue to fight. Godzilla defeats Ghidorah, but the combined spirits of the Guardian Monsters pull Godzilla deep beneath the sea. Tachibana enters the creature through its mouth and fires a final D-03 missile from the inside. Godzilla resurfaces and attempts to kill Yuri and Takeda with its atomic breath, but the ray erupts through the shoulder wound instead, building pressure within Godzilla. Tachibana escapes as Godzilla sinks and explodes.
As Japan rejoices in victory, Yuri's colleagues discover all traces of Isayama have vanished from their recordings and that he had disappeared, presumed dead, during the 1954 Godzilla attack at age 75. Meanwhile, Yuri reunites with Tachibana, who salutes his colleagues and the Guardian Monsters. On the ocean floor, Godzilla's disembodied heart continues to beat.
Cast
The film also features Yukijiro Hotaru as a suicidal businessman who accidentally discovers Ghidorah; Nobuaki Kakuda as the commander of the Yokohama Garrison; as the director of BS Digital Q; Houka Kinoshita as the biker gang leader; as a village mayor; Takashi Sasano as the trembling truck driver; Yu Tokui as the director of the news helicopter; Kaoru Mizuki as the lady at the supermarket who does not believe Godzilla exists; as a school teacher who witnesses the mushroom cloud caused by Godzilla's atomic breath; Tarō Ishida as a JSDF officer; Kyōsuke Ikeda as a boy at Hospital; Shogo Yamaguchi as a university student at Lake Ikeda; and Masaya Takahashi as a bicycle shop owner. Appearing onscreen together were Katsuo Nakamura and Ryo Kase as Yaizu fishermen and Yoshimasa Kondo and as a couple at Ōwakudani.
Guest appearances include Tomoe Shinohara as an innkeeper attacked by Godzilla twice; Koichi Yamadera as a television producer; Hinako Saeki as a woman on a ropeway; Takashi Matsuo as a police officer; Kenji Mizuhashi as a JSDF soldier; Jiro Sato as a JSDF officer; Yoichi Nukumizu as a man urinating at the inn; and as a Chinatown resident. Director Shusuke Kaneko's wife, Nanako, also appears as a meteorological observer.
Cameos include Ai and Aki Maeda as twin sisters watching Mothra flying over Kagoshima (paying homage to the monster's twin priestesses); Godzilla 2000 (1999) star as a pilot; and Kōichi Kawakita, the special effects director for the Heisei era's Godzilla films, and Godzilla vs Megaguirus (2000) director , making uncredited cameos as a JASDF officer and a JSDF officer, respectively.
Production Development
Emerging filmmaker Shusuke Kaneko had long desired to direct a Godzilla film. He first contacted Toho's Godzilla executive producer Shogo Tomiyama in December 1991 with a New Year's postcard, shortly after Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) opened and Toho announced plans for the next entry. However, Takao Okawara had already been selected, and the project became Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). Kaneko continued approaching Tomiyama for subsequent films but was repeatedly too late, as another director was usually already attached. Tomiyama nevertheless kept him in mind.
Kaneko gradually gained Tomiyama's confidence through his critically acclaimed Gamera trilogy (1995–1999) and the film Pyrokinesis (2000). During the making of Godzilla 2000 (1999), Tomiyama decided to give Kaneko the third film in the new Millennium series. To test whether Kaneko could adapt to Toho's studio system, Tomiyama first assigned him Pyrokinesis without revealing the true motive.
During the wrap party for Pyrokinesis in April 2000, Kaneko was informed that Toho was considering him to direct the next Godzilla film. On June 14, a few days after Pyrokinesis opened, Tomiyama, producer , and other Toho executives formally offered Kaneko the job. At the time, the film was planned as the final entry in the Millennium era. After nearly a decade of persistence, Kaneko finally realized his ambition. Toho granted him an unusual level of creative freedom for the franchise: rather than receiving a producer-driven concept, Kaneko was allowed to develop the project from his own ideas and personally select his key collaborators. This gave him what was reportedly the greatest degree of directorial control over a Godzilla film since the Shōwa era (1954–1975).
Kaneko's Godzilla film was originally scheduled to be formally revealed on December 16, 2000—the release date of the second Millennium film, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus—but the announcement was cancelled at the last minute. Kaneko confidentially told reporter Norman England that Toho would proceed only if Megaguirus performed well at the box office. When the film underperformed, grossing against a budget, Toho executives moved to cancel Kaneko's project and end the franchise. Tomiyama successfully defended it, pointing out that development was already well underway and expressing confidence that Kaneko could deliver both a critical and commercial success.
Western media first reported Kaneko as director of a new Godzilla film in mid-January 2001. In February, the studio confirmed a new film was in development, without naming the director. The official production announcement was held on March 6 at Toho's headquarters, unveiling Kaneko as director, the film's title, story details, release date, and a Godzilla maquette based on Kaneko's design. Both Kaneko and Tomiyama attended the press conference.
Conception
While attempting to devise the film's story, Kaneko cycled through various concepts. At first, he suggested pitting Godzilla against Kamacuras, his son's favorite kaiju, but, according to Kaneko, this was scrapped because Kamacuras was considered "too obscure" and Godzilla had fought a similar insectoid kaiju in the previous entry.