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Production staff associated with the Godzilla films throughout the years took to the stage at the Tokyo International Film Festival during the Godzilla remastered 4K Digital screening to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original 1954 film.
88-year old Yoshio Suzuki, who worked as an assistant sculptor on the original film, shared his experiences on a panel alongside Oscar-winner Yamazaki Takashi, writer and director of Godzilla Minus One.
The remastered digital version had its world premiere at the Berlinale earlier this year.
Suzuki first worked on the 1954 Godzilla film as an 18-year old.
“I was a first-year sculpture student at Tama Art University and was looking for work as I was short on cash,” said Suzuki. “My classmate, Yoshio Tsuburaya, told me that his uncle was making a movie called Godzilla and suggested that I try to work on that set. I got a letter of introduction and brought it to Toho Studios, which was not too far from the university campus and met special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, telling him that I was interested in a part-time job.”
Suzuki said that creating the Godzilla suit was a “repetitive process of trial and error.
“One of the members in the team would use his connections to find the appropriate materials and plastics for the suit. He would go to factories and storehouses. We had discussions about how we were going to use the materials to make the suit and asked for advice from specialists too,” added Suzuki.
However, Godzilla actors Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka disliked the suit.
“This was the very first Godzilla suit and it did not work very well,” said Suzuki. “It was very difficult to maneuver in and it was very heavy. The actors were angry because it was a hard suit to act in.
“We were shooting at a high speed so we had to have very bright lights on the actors, so they sweat a lot. It was very hot in those suits and they would show us the pools of sweat that had formed at their feet in the suit.”
Suzuki also revealed that the suit used in the 1954 black-and-white Godzilla film was mainly gray, although some parts had silver, brown and green.
Yamazaki’s 2023 film, Godzilla Minus One, became the most successful Japanese Godzilla film in history. Yamazaki and the visual effects team also became the first Japanese crew to receive the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
“There are many renditions of Godzilla made throughout the years here as well as in the United States, but we are very aware of that legacy that we have to follow, which is the Japanese Godzilla,” Yamazaki said. “In making the latest one, I really had in my heart, the message that the first Godzilla had, which was anti-nuclear and anti-war.”
