The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Vol. 1: 1954-1982 by John LeMay

The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Vol. 1: 1954-1982 

by John LeMay

I have been diligently watching giant monster movies since 1989 when I got a VHS copy of Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster for Christmas. As soon as I was locked into the genre, I frequently checked out books on the topic, too. In my youngest days, we had limited information: the best book was Ian Thorne’s Godzilla. Other books, like Movie Monsters and Monsters from the Movies (both) by Thomas G. Aylesworth, or Great Monsters of the Movies by Edward Edelson, were limited in information (and accuracy) when it came to Godzilla coverage. There were some fanzines during the early 1990s that covered the genre, but I didn’t have easy access to them—frankly I didn’t know they existed.

Things started to change when the American Godzilla film—GINO, if you will—was made in 1998. Books started coming out of the woodwork. We got a quartet of Young Adult action novels by Marc Cerasini based loosely on the Heisei series. The summer of 1998 gave us Giant Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!  and The Ultimate Godzilla Compendium. A year or two later, we got Steve Ryfle’s Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star: An Unauthorized Biography of the Big G. All of these books were full of information, reviews, stills and photos, and synopses of Godzilla films that hadn’t (or had barely) gotten release in the States. For us younger fans who hadn’t discovered the grey market, these books were super important.

Sadly, when I moved to Brazil, I left most of my Godzilla collection (films and books) in the States. I brought my Cerasini books with me. Some years later, my mom brought me my Ultimate Godzilla Compendium. Sadly, the other books were inadvertently given away when the family storage unit was cleaned out. So, I lost my Ryfle book and, more importantly, my Ian Thorne book. That hurts me to this day.

But, as the years pass and I start making more money, the opportunity to rebuild my Godzilla collection has continuously presented itself. So, I may no longer own some of these books—I was able to re-purchase the Dark Horse trade paperbacks here in Brazil—John Lemay’s tireless efforts to self-publish as many kaiju-themed non-fiction books as humanly possible have filled that hole in my life.

The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Vol. 1 is a collection of write-ups about all the Japanese monster movies made between 1954—the release of Gojira—and 1982, two years before Godzilla 1985 came out in Japan. Like The Ultimate Godzilla Compendium and Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star, the entries give us the names in front of and behind the camera, a brief-but-detailed synopsis, followed by a write-up that discusses various elements of the film’s history and Lemay’s thoughts on the film. That is followed by some trivia regarding the movie. Lemay allows his love for the genre to manifest itself in each write-up, but without the Toho-approved pandering of the Compendium and overly-critical tone of Ryfle’s book. Lemay strikes a healthy balance in between those two extremes: he enjoys the films for what they are, but he will point out glaring flaws where they apply.

Lemay covers all of Toho’s giant monster films made during the specified time period, as well as the collected works of Daiei and Toei studios, too. And of course, he does not omit the trippy contributions to the genre made by Shochiku and Nikkatsu studios, either. But…Lemay goes a step further. He reviews most of Toho’s sci-fi films on the whole, with the glaring exception of The Secret of Telegian. He also covers Toho’s excursion into vampire territory with its “Bloodthirsty Trilogy”, some of their disaster films (except Conflagration), and a few non-Japanese films, like Hong Kong’s Inframan and The Mighty Peking Man, and South Korea’s Yongary, Monster from the Deep. All of those films enjoyed the assistance of Japanese FX technicians, so their inclusion is appropriate.

Does Lemay cover all of the films he could have? Not in the second edition, which Lemay was gracious enough to send me as “payment” for some articles I wrote for his Lost Films Fanzine. I assume a few more movies were included in the third edition, which came out in 2020 (although I think that was before the rare Korean film Space Monster Wangmagwi reached American shores). It also has a more professional cover, although I like rustic charm of the art on the first and second edition covers. I understand that the issue of the lack of stills and photos is not addressed, although that has a lot to do with Japan and their lack of concept of “fair use.” You can’t really blame Lemay for not having the money necessary to pay for the rights to include pictures. 

In the end, I recommend The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Vol. 1: 1954-1982 to any and all fans of the genre, from those newbies who were converted by the Monsterverse or Godzilla Minus One to those old school fans who are now in their 60s and 70s who had the opportunity to see many of these films in the theater (or on TV) when they first came out.