Godzilla vs. Biollante

Godzilla vs. Biollante (ゴジラvsビオランテ Gojira tai Biorante) is a 1989 Japanese science fiction kaiju film in which a grieving botanist attempts to resurrect his deceased daughter by splicing her genes with those of a rose and Godzilla.

Directed by Kazuki Ōmori.  Written by Kazuki Ōmori.

The Super-Beast Battle of the Century  (taglines)

Kazuhito Kirishima

• If they play around with cells, genetic engineers might well create their own Chimera—a new life form, totally alien, totally different to what God intended for Earth. Frightening, don't you think?
• [to Dr. Shiragami] So you did do it. You amalgamated one of Godzilla's cells together with the plant's cells. Are you proud of this? What kind science do you call this?

Asouka Okouchi

• Miki Saegusa; she's the best channeler of ESP that we have at the Mental Science Exploitation Center. It has been shown through a number of experiments over the years that plants have their own fields of mental energy, so it's no surprise that we've found somebody who can communicate with them.

Seiko Okouchi

• Japan has suffered devastation brought by nuclear bombs, and now there's Godzilla. It is only right we should have a weapon that can protect us from our enemies.

Dr. Shiragami

• Godzilla and Biollante aren't monsters. It's the unscrupulous scientists who create them that are monsters.

Erika Shiragami

• [last lines] How long have we been living in such an age? Maybe it started when man first stepped out of the garden of Eden and left his innocence behind. Man would do well to remember this day, forever.

Dialogue

Saradian plant director: As you know, in this country we are wealthy because of the oil wells, but we cannot depend on them forever. We'll have to find a way to transform this expansive desert into a vast granary.

Dr. Shiragami: Well, now. My daughter, Erika, recently succeeded in crossbreeding a new variety of wheat from wheat and desert cactus cells. This new wheat can be grown out in the desert, so if we can add self reproductive genetic information to this from some of these Godzilla cells, then an indestructible new super plant will have been produced.

Saradian plant director: Good. And when that happens, the Americans will be mortified, and their position as the largest grain exporting country in the world will become threatened.

---

Lt. Goro Gondo: Anti Nuclear Energy Bacteria?

Kazuhito Kirishima: In the United States, they've already produced a bacteria that eats crude oil. It's successfully been tested on oil spills and, likewise, bacteria that eats nuclear material has been developed by our scientists here. In the case of a nuclear accident, the bacteria would clear up any pollution.

Lt. Goro Gondo: Eats nuclear material, did you say? Totally?

Colonel Sho Kuroki: Yes, totally. That's why it can work against Godzilla, who feeds on nuclear energy.

Kazuhito Kirishima: You know the situation isn't yet critical? True, an orange alert has been issued, and the bacteria must be brought ready, but still, the bacteria wasn't meant to be used as a weapon. Anyway, the problem with this bacteria is it can't be made by this laboratory, not on its own; we need a cell to create it.

Lt. Goro Gondo: A Godzilla cell, you mean?

Kazuhito Kirishima: Godzilla feeds on nuclear energy. Somewhere in the cell structure, there's a nuclear-digesting set of genes, and so we need that set of genes to make the bacteria.

---

Dr. Shiragami: I just wonder. Did Godzilla come all this way to see Biollante because it knew they were made from the same cells?

Asuka Okouchi: Yes, it's possible. After all, they're from the same family.

Dr. Shiragami: More than just the same family. They are both made from the same cells. They're identical, the same thing. Not brother and sister; they're both the same creature.

Taglines

• The Super-Beast Battle of the Century
• The most terrifying monster of all time is back in his greatest movie ever
• The ultimate battle has only just begun.

Cast

• Kunihiko Mitamura — Kazuhito Kirishima
• Yoshiko Tanaka — Asuka Okouchi
• Masanobu Takashima — Colonel Sho Kuroki
• Megumi Odaka — Miki Saegusa
• Koji Takahashi — Doctor Genichiro Shiragami
• Toru Minegishi — Lt. Goro Gondo
• Toshiyuki Nagashima — Director Seiichi Yamamoto
• Ryunosuke Kaneda — Seido Okouchi
• Kazuma Matsubara — Super X II coordinator
• Yasunori Yuge — Prime Minister
• Yoshiko Kuga — Owada, Prime Minister's wife
• Yasuko Sawaguchi — Erika Shiragami
• Brien Uhl — SSS9
• Koichi Ueda — General Hyodo
• Kōsuke Toyohara — Super X|Super X II controller
• Kurt Cramer — John Lee, Bio-Major spy
• Derrick Homes — Michael Low, Bio-Major spy
• Demon Kakka — himself
• Abdallah Helal — Saradian scientist
• Manjot Beoi — Saradian plant director
• Haruko Sagara — T. V. reporter
• Kenpachiro Satsuma — Godzilla
• Masashi Takegumi — Biollante

Quotes about Godzilla vs. Biollante

• The 1989 Godzilla featured a triangular build, with stocky legs recalling the 1962 Godzilla. The chest and shoulders featured pronounced musculature, which gave the 1989 Godzilla a very powerful appearance. The number of dorsal plates was reduced, but oddly the largest plate placed at shoulder level. The tail was shorter than the previous suit and the underside was smooth, in common with all Godzilla suits from 1962 to 1975. The other features of the 1984 Godzilla, such as the fangs, ears and four toes were all retained. The neck of the 1989 Godzilla was longer and the size of the head reduced. The face was changed radically, and featured a fierce expression with several new features; a feline-like upper lip, multiple rows of shark-like teeth and eyes with large, brown irises and very little white showing. The new face added much to Godzilla’s evil personality, making the King of the Monsters appear fiercer and more dragon-like than before. It also made him look more intelligent, as it seems like he would even know how to make a QR code.
  • Robert Biondi, "The Evolution of Godzilla – G-Suit Variations Throughout the Monster King’s Twenty One Films", G-FAN #16 (July/August 1995)
• That film was such a leap forward in creativity and focused a lot on Godzilla vs humanity, which I actually like more than Godzilla battling other monsters. The film has a lot of weak points, but all the new ideas and techniques were exciting to see.
  • Ed Godziszewski, as quoted in "Interview: Ed Godziszewski", Toho Kingdom (December 1, 2016)
• I don't know much about the score for GODZILLA 1985. However, my impression of GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE is a negative one, both in terms of the direction and the music. For example, the music that is heard while the scenes that take place in Saradia are shown is just ridiculous. The composer used European music instead of some modern Arabic music. By the way, during the production of GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE, Toho asked for permission to use some of my music in the film. I said that I would allow its use as long as it was not turned into popular music. Toho agreed to that, but just before GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE was completed, a Toho representative came to me and said, "Well, your music was turned into popular music." By that time, it was too late to do anything about the situation. After GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE was released, my daughter came to me and said, "No matter how much you try to escape from Godzilla movies, Toho always uses your name and your melodies, so why don't you just score the next Godzilla film yourself?" That is why I agreed to work on GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH.
  • Akira Ifukube, as quoted by David Milner, "Akira Ifukube Interview I", Kaiju Conversations (December 1992)
• As in the original 1954 Godzilla, there is a brilliant scientist who has the unique ability to create a new super-weapon that will supplant nuclear bombs. This then poses the moral dilemma: The new weapon will put Japan ahead of the two former superpowers and likely incite significant international tension. At the same time, the new weapon is essential to defend Japan from Godzilla. Ultimately, the scientist does implement the weapon against Godzilla, but dies, taking the dangerous secret with him.
  Viewed in closer detail, though, important differences between the 1954 and 1989 handling of this theme illustrate a generational change in attitude towards Japan's position in the world. While the first Godzilla series exhibited an optimism born out of Ishiro Honda's political beliefs, the new series reflected a modern, morally complex sensibility.
  • David Kalat (2010), A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series, McFarland, p. 171, ISBN 978-0-7864-47-49-7
• The original idea was to find something that could match Godzilla's power and terror if we were bringing back Godzilla. But simply letting the monsters fight each other had been done many times and, clearly, there was a limit to it. So in order to bring back Godzilla properly we had to create an opponent that can fight properly. If there was something equivalent to the terror of nuclear power it must be the bio-technology which human beings would manipulate life, because it can be very dangerous if it goes the wrong way, ethically, I guess. That's where I found the connection, so the idea of a monster was created by biotechnology was born.
  • Shinichiro Kobayashi, "Making of Godzilla vs. Biollante", Godzilla vs Biollante [DVD] Echo Bridge (2012)
• I felt that the costume I used in Godzilla 1985 controlled me, but that I controlled the one used in Godzilla vs. Biollante.
  • Kenpachiro Satsuma, as quoted by Steve Ryfle (1998), Japan's Favourite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G", ECW Press, p. 263, ISBN 1550223488

External links

• Godzilla vs. Biollante quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Godzilla vs. Biollante at Allmovie
• Godzilla vs. Biollante at Rotten Tomatoes
• ゴジラvsビオランテ (Gojira tai Biorante) (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.