The Return of Godzilla

Directed byKoji HashimotoScreenplay byStory byTomoyuki TanakaProduced byTomoyuki TanakaStarringCinematographyEdited byYoshitami KuroiwaMusic byDistributed byToho103 minutesCountryJapanLanguagesJapanese
Russian
EnglishBudget$6.25 millionBox office$14 million

The Return of Godzilla, or simply Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira), is a 1984 Japanese kaiju film directed by Koji Hashimoto, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Distributed by Toho and produced under their subsidiary Toho Pictures, it is the 16th film in the Godzilla franchise, the last film produced in the Shōwa era, and the first film in the Heisei series. The film serves as both a sequel to the original 1954 film and a reboot of the franchise that ignores the events of every Shōwa era film since the original. The Return of Godzilla stars Ken Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Yosuke Natsuki, and Keiju Kobayashi, with Kenpachiro Satsuma as Godzilla.

After the commercial underperformance of Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), Toho placed the franchise on hiatus. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, the character's creator, was determined to revive the series with a more serious tone that returned closer to the spirit of the original 1954 film. He conceived the story for what would become The Return of Godzilla. Progress began in 1977 but languished for years in development hell, delayed in part by American studios unsuccessfully pitching their own Godzilla projects. The film went through multiple working titles and several screenwriters before wrote the final screenplay in early 1984. Ishiro Honda, director of the original Godzilla, was initially expected to return but declined the offer. The project was instead assigned to Hashimoto, who had just made his directorial debut with the science fiction film Bye Bye Jupiter (1984). Principal photography ran from July to September 1984, with special effects photography continuing into October. It was the second Japanese film ever to use computer-generated imagery for visual effects, after Bye-Bye Jupiter.

The film was released theatrically in Japan on December 15, 1984, to lukewarm or mixed reviews from critics. It was the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 1985, earning ¥1.7 billion ($6.8 million) in distributor rentals against its $6.25 million budget. The following year, a heavily re-edited localized version, Godzilla 1985, was released in the United States by New World Pictures, changing the film's political leaning. It features new footage, with Raymond Burr reprising his inserted role from Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), itself an American localization of Godzilla (1954).

In Japan, the film was followed by Godzilla vs. Biollante in 1989.