All Kaiju Attack!
70 years of Japanese monster movies
To mark the 70th anniversary of the first Godzilla film, we look back at a selection of the finest Japanese monster movies, featuring Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and even a toxic smog monster.
In 1954, the first ever Godzilla, a dark, thrilling movie masterpiece, was released in Japan. It was a box office phenomenon, and launched a franchise that has continued to this day. While these films featuring kaiju (literally “strange beasts”) have long been beloved in Japan, until relatively recently the reception in the west has been inconsistent, where releases with crude dubbing and savage edits to running times, making the stories incoherent, have led to mockery.
As restorations with English subtitles become easier to access, the inventiveness and sheer joy of these films have found greater appreciation, culminating with Godzilla Minus One winning an Oscar. To celebrate Godzilla’s anniversary, we are screening the wildest Japanese monster movies from seven decades in our biggest cinema with introductions from historians and experts.
In collaboration with the Japan Foundation
