Godzilla
Godzilla is a 1954 film from Japan, directed by Ishirō Honda, running 100 minutes. reelscum files it under kaiju & tokusatsu.
- Year
- 1954 · 1950s films
- Country
- Japan
- Runtime
- 100 min
- Director
- Ishirō Honda
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (3/100)
- Also known as
- Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece · Gojira · Godzilla, King of the Monsters! · Godzilla 1 - Godzilla · Godzilla 1954
Defined in the glossary: Kaiju & tokusatsu
Not a monster romp. A sober film about nuclear annihilation, made nine years after.
Not a monster romp. Ishiro Honda made a sober, grief-stricken film about nuclear annihilation, released nine years after Hiroshima and months after an American test irradiated a Japanese fishing crew. The creature is a walking atom bomb, and the film treats the destruction of Tokyo as genuine catastrophe, not spectacle.
The effects are handmade and the tone is funereal, closer to a war film than a creature feature, and the scientist's moral anguish over the weapon that can kill Godzilla is the real drama. The American recut with Raymond Burr guts most of this.
Watch the Japanese original. It is a serious film, and a great one.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 8 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
Filed alongside
King Kong vs. Godzilla
The most-watched Godzilla film in Japan, and essentially an ad-industry farce with two giant monsters.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
The film where Godzilla becomes a hero. Three of Toho's monsters team up against a golden space dragon.
Destroy All Monsters
Eleven monsters, no restraint. Honda cashing every chip at once.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah
The psychedelic pollution one. Godzilla fights a smog monster, and the film goes completely strange.
Mothra
The most charming of Toho's roster, and openly anti-colonial about it.
Rodan
Toho's first colour kaiju. A supersonic pterosaur levels a city with its wingblasts.
War of the Gargantuas
Two giant humanoid brothers, one good, one savage, tear up Japan. Weirdly beloved, and Brad Pitt's favourite.
Gamera, the Giant Monster
Daiei's cut-price answer to Godzilla. A flying turtle. Children loved it.
Matango
Honda's mushroom-people film. Far bleaker than anything else Toho made.
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
Bleeding skies, a forehead-splitting alien, and an ending with no comfort in it whatsoever.