Godzilla vs. Motra vs. Kiryu: Tokyo S. O.S. For the continuation of the film in 2002, Toho offered Tezuka as many as 4 scenarios, but none of them the director did not like and he wrote his own vision of the story, finally sharpening the film for himself: minimum characters, maximum spectacle and monsters. All the same Kiryu-Mehagodzilla fights with Godzilla, but the conflict also brought Motra with his maggots, as an homage to the painting “Godzilla against Motra” in 1964.
The characters of the past film appear here for the most part in cameos, especially the main ones, apparently not to continue to paint their characters and stories. Instead, the plot is reunited with “Motra” 1961, returning the character Hiroshi Koizumi, whose hero found fairies on Infant Island, and now is an elderly grandfather, and covers three generations of his family.
The film surprisingly manages to perform successfully on all fronts, and at the same time touch the strings of the soul of almost any viewer. For fans of the spectacle - from the picture and completely removed the whole horror and the genre of disaster, limiting themselves to a wise spiritual message and the same idea of their mistakes, the truth this time about their correction, not retribution, and filled the picture with just constant action and battles.
For a female and sentimental audience in the plot, the beautiful Motra butterfly and her charming twin worms, one of the best Toho monsters, able to combine both the awe of the insect image and some charm thanks to the cute design. There is also a child character who goes literally through the entire film with brave adventures coupled with his grandfather, so that the young audience would have someone to associate themselves with.
In general, definitely not able to work out other people’s scripts to the maximum, Tezuka painted his own vision of the Godzilla film and shot an outstanding masterpiece, surpassing all his previous works. Except that the music of Akira Ifukube is still not enough for complete happiness, but the director was able to realize the whole facet of the difference between secondary and homage references, because "Tokyo SOS" is so much and favorably different for the better from "Mehagozilla 3".
Considering that this is almost a dilogy, albeit associated with a set of other solo films, this time also with “Cosmic Amoeba” (I said that not all monsters were mentioned in retrospect of the previous film), and the sequel rarely surpasses the original, then we have here a truly unique case when an even more expressive sequel is shot to an already sensible and cool film.
Godzilla’s costume remains the same, it’s essentially the same in Millennium, Megagirus, Mehagodzilla 3 and here, but with a number of small modifications like a scar on the sternum from the last final battle, which is even better than Godzilla would have been left without traces at all. Thanks to the updated facial expressions from the past picture, the activity of the muscles of the face and the moving tongue in the mouth, the monster turned out to be completely alive and natural, in which you fully believe and even experience!
Kiryu is also improved and repaired. And I don’t know how it was so repainted, but if in the last film it seemed plastic at times, here is a full-fledged mechanical robot, which you believe in absolutely in every scene! With new weapons, characteristic clanging and demonstrative mechanical damage after the attacks of the atomic lizard!
Characters were usually Tezuki’s weak spot, but by writing them for himself this time, he managed to touch a number of good developing conflicts, such as the development of the relationship between the confident pilot Kiryu and his technician, as well as more seriously exposed politicians in terms of the importance of decision-making. And Tsutomu Kitagawa dressed in Godzilla costume for the last time.
Adding to the fantastic action film also elements of mysticism - a magical stone with the symbol of Motra, working at the right moment, like a compass, little Fairies with telepathy and telekinesis, in general, the whole magical line about a giant butterfly, now and then affecting the theme of reincarnation, the director managed to saturate the film with even more vivid and memorable scenes.
It is simply impossible to count the spectacular moments that fall into the soul, starting with the grand contrast of the shelling of missiles around a high-rise building and the atomic ray through it, continuing with the spectacular first appearance of Motra in the clouds, the side flight in the first fight, her tragic episode of protecting their babies, their eye color change from blue to furious red, and ending with the touching inscription “Sayonara, Yoshito” on the screen of a reasonable cyborg. By the number of cool and catchy moments, the film surpasses most of even the most successful representatives of the Kaiju genre!
We tried with special effects. Tezuka recalled with what admiration the troops of the Japanese army filmed Honda and Okawara before him, turning the military episodes into a real parade of all kinds of equipment and the anthem of real patriotic courage, whether real tanks or their realistic miniatures. The scenery does not cause the slightest criticism - stone buildings look stone, glass - glass, and cars - real.
The costumes are also beyond praise. Motra’s slightly updated redesign did not touch on the essential details, returning it to a more classical form than the painting of 2001, which added a tail sting to it, but removed the signature pollen – everything is in place here. The larvae are equipped with facial expressions more than ever, so they look quite real. In addition, they have a key and very important plot role here, much more than just revenge for the killed butterfly-mother.
Super-quality realistic monsters and one giant cyborg robot fight each other throughout the picture, barely occasionally interrupted by human conversations, often for the sake of homage to previous paintings, of which fights are not without. Drive and dynamics of actions do not let go for a second, with interest chaining to the screen energetic development of the picture.
The director confidently holds the shot, the composer squeezes the maximum of epic possibilities and pompous organic accompaniment of any scene, not forgetting even about the signature song of Motra performed by two fairies-liliputkas. The connection with various old Toho films only enhances the overall positive impressions of the film, and at the same time gives the picture a corresponding retro charm.
“Tokyo S. O. S.” also became more lyrical and touching, while not only not losing in its visual effect, but also quite gaining entertainment, explosions and effects – because now there is much more kaiju, and therefore the battle with them (well, except for Kameba) will be much more. The film turned out to be beautiful, stylish, dynamic, visually memorable and incredibly exciting!
And the concept of the battle with Motra and her two larvae in addition to Kiryu looks many times more interesting than the past of the usual confrontation with Godzilla, in fact only with Meha-Godzilla. Misaaki Tezuki’s previous films were good and cool, but only this one can be called a grand masterpiece! The talented director finally managed to press on every detail of his outstanding work, producing one of the most remarkable films about Godzilla and the third best among the masterpieces of Shinsei-era, but certainly the most impressive of his own.
10 out of 10
Original