Godzilla Raids Again: The Concise Cut

Featured
Updated
godzillaraids_front
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1955
Original Running Time:
81
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
61
Time Cut:
20
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
Shiochi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi, two scout pilots, make a horrifying discovery after Kobayashi gets stranded on an island: There is a second Godzilla! To make matters worse, he's brought along a new monster with him: Anguirus! When news of this revelation makes its way to the mainland, fear grips the nation. With these two titans of terror set on a collision course with Osaka, a counterattack is devised to lure the two creatures away. Will the counterattack be successful? Or will Japan have to face destruction at the hands of Godzilla a second time?
Intention:
The main goal of this edit was to improve the pacing of Godzilla Raids Again.
Watching it was always a chore for me. Every time I'd sit down and view it I would think: "They could have cut that part out." or "The robbers add nothing to the story." The movie is literally 25% filler!
But beneath all of that fluff and filler, there's a fairly solid 50s monster movie in there. Seeing as there were no other edits of this sort, I decided to take on the task myself.
I feel that this cut of the film is far more watchable than the original.
Special Thanks:
Addiesin:
For pointing me to Flowframes.

My friends who kept me sane and served as my test audience.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
I wanted to stay as true to the original as possible. I barred myself from using any Ifukube tracks or any Toho SFX created after the 50s. (No late Showa-era Godzilla or Anguirus roars for example.) Whenever I did have to make a substantial change in pacing, I used future Godzilla movies as a reference to how I went about making those changes.
Cuts and Additions:
Cuts:

- Janus Films logo removed
- Trimmed the shot of Tsukioka looking for Kobayashi.
- Tsukioka now only flies around the island once instead of twice.
- Changed the order of the reaction shots.
- Added the sound of Godzilla's footsteps so that the characters are reacting to an actual sound now.
- Slowed down the footage of Godzilla and Anguirus. (Minus them falling into the water.)
- Removed the showing of footage from the previous film. The dialogue still flows perfectly.
- Removed references to the prisoners.
- Cut the second instance of soldiers being relieved.
- Cut out the prisoner subplot entirely.
- Re-edited the refinery explosion scene in a way that doesn't involve the prisoners.
- Godzilla notices a straggler (that was flying backward in the original cut) which fires at him.​
- Godzilla retaliates and the plane crashes into the refinery.​
- Cut to Kobayashi and Tsukioka arriving to imply the crash without showing it.​
- Re-edited the reaction to only have one establishing shot instead of two.
- Added missing explosion sound effects.​
- Restructured the military fight. added sound effects to certain shots to maintain continuity.
- Cut the fishery president looking back into his binoculars at Anguirus.
- Slowed down a majority of the monster footage.
- Added an explosion sound effect that was absent.
- Cut a second establishing shot of the harbor being on fire.
- Added ambient monster noises to the human scene.
- Added a Godzilla roar.
- Changed the pacing of the fishery explosion. It cuts to the president's reaction quicker.
- Added an Anguirus roar.
-Removed any cutaways to the prisoners.
- Cut a few shots of Godzilla fighting Anguirus.
- Added missing Anguirus roars.
- Interspliced original footage with slowed footage.
- Cut a shot of Osaka Castle crumbling.
- Fixed film alignment issue of Osaka Castle beginning to crumble.
- Removed some shots of the burning city.
- Kobayashi is now the first character we see in the Hokkaido office. The interaction between two characters has been cut out.
- Cut out a few shots of boats.
- Cut the scene with the two hostesses and the drinking song.
- Cut exterior shot of plane and Tsukioka's second reaction to Godzilla.
- Replaced the original aerial shot of Godzilla with a repurposed shot from later.
- Cut all references to the fire fence and the navy.
- There is no longer a naval component, all shots of boats and naval soldiers have been removed.
- Replaced all the planes with the ones used in the actual final fight.
- Reworked the overhead shot of Godzilla. Edited it to make it look like he noticed the plane over his shoulder.
- Added a missing roar.
- Replaced the third aerial shot of Godzilla repurposing a previous shot.
- Tweaked bombing footage to use the planes from the original cut's last fight.
- Added missing roars.
-Reworked the final fight.
- Rather than the jets needing to return and the navy holding Godzilla in place until they return, the scene has been changed to make Kobayashi's death more meaningful.​
- The jet's missiles don't work on Godzilla, Kobayashi sacrifices himself, and it's at this moment that our heroes know how to defeat Godzilla.​
- The sequence has been incredibly streamlined. (Far fewer shots of exploding mountaintops.)​
- Some shots from the cut naval sequence are repurposed to better convey Godzilla getting buried under ice.​
- Missing roars have been added in places.​
- A few cockpit shots have been cut to give the illusion that Tsukioka is still in the backseat of the plane.​
- Yamaji reporting Kobayashi's death is moved to be the second to last scene of the movie, giving it a more somber ending.

User reviews

1 review
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0(1)
Audio Editing
 
10.0(1)
Visual Editing
 
10.0(1)
Narrative
 
9.0(1)
Enjoyment
 
9.0(1)
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I really felt like this stream lined the movie and gave a more emotional impact at the end. This edit helps bring the movie in line with the first movie a lot better then the theatrical cut did.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 1 0