Nature, technology and sound design in Gojira (1954)

In the last decade, studies dedicated to Japanese monster films, and the Gojira/Godzilla (Honda Ishiro, 1954) film series in particular, have expanded. Though many academics examine the Gojira films through a lens of popular culture and socio-historic context, almost no one considers the importance of sound in the movies and its contribution to the narrative. This article fills this current gap in the scholarship. An analysis of the sound design for the original Gojira (1954) reveals a more nuanced understanding both of the film and the era of its conception. The soundtrack for Gojira aurally characterizes a crucial issue in post-war Japanese culture, an issue that continues to have relevance today: the balance between nature and technology.