I just finished David Kalat’s excellent book, A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series. This is the definitive book on the Godzilla movies that every Godzilla fan should read. I highly recommend it to everyone who has seen more than one Godzilla movie and liked them.
David Kalat worked overtime to research his topic and it shows in this book. Part history and part film criticism, the reader is treated to a wealth of information about the first 22 Godzilla movies and each movie is evaluated by an informed film critic. I also learned about the early days of Toho Studios, the careers of the men who created Godzilla, the film distribution system in Japan and many other topics related to Godzilla and science-fiction movies in Japan.
This book is a “must-buy” as it is but after corresponding with the author I have learned that next year (2010) will see the publication of the revised edition. This newer edition of the book will cover the 6 Godzilla movies of the Millennium Series and the 1998 American movie with Matthew Broderick. I’ll definitely be ordering my copy as soon as it hits Amazon.com.
If you have any interest in Godzilla or live-action Japanese science-fiction movies then you shouldn’t miss this book.
Thanks for the note about the book and the link to All Day Entertainment. I’m glad I saw your post before I tried to buy the book–which seems to only be found on Amazon or Half.com at a high price. I think I’ll wait for the 2010 edition. The kaiju phenomenon deserves more scholarly attention than it’s been given.
I’m glad my post helped you out. It’s such a good book that I’m going to pay for the revised addition.
I’m reading August Radone’s biography of Eiji Tsuburaya now. It’s good too.
This is not the definitive book on the Godzilla series. While it is a good read, its no where near as well written, researched, and informative as Steve Ryfle’s 1998 book “Japan’s Favourite Mon-Star”. That book is considered by the fans to be the best English language book written on the Godzilla series.