We met up with Wayne and Amy for an early dinner at Monster Sushi in the village. The choice of restaurant was completely, and totally intentional as the event for the evening was a screening of Godzilla (Gojira) at Film Forum.

This screening was based on the original 1954 Japanese film with some 30 minutes added. The original film is not what you normally see in the US. For starters its anti-nuclear stance coupled with references to the then-recent war were (and are) contrary to the US view of the way the world should be.

For whatever reason I was struck by how this must have been received by the Japanese audience in 1954. The war was relatively recent, there's various references to being evacuated again, various people have war-related scars, there's even a reference to someone having survived Nagasaki. I should mention I don't understand much japanese other than iee or hi so I was relying entirely on the subtitles.

I haven't seen the US version in many years, and don't recall much about it other than Raymond Burr is in many scenes as an American reporter, and the story line is completely different.

Anyway...if you're up for such things, I highly recommend seeing this release of the movie. I thought the print was rather dark, otherwise I enjoyed it.