Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Cut by American censors sensitive to its anti-nuclear, anti-war message on its previous Western release, the original Godzilla is back in cinemas in its full-length, full-strength glory. Several Japanese ships are lost and a remote island is terrorised following H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Investigating scientists come face to face with the cause - an invulnerable thirty-storey Jurassic throwback with radioactive breath and a major talent for destruction. And he's headed for the mainland.

From the brisk, dourly lit opening to the fittingly ambivalent end, the contemporary Japanese attitudes to nuclear weapons pervade throughout. Dead animals, searing winds, giant waves, radiation, orphans, fire and fear - this flick deals with the truly disturbing, but it rattles along with such a light touch, and to such a tremendously exiting score, that the entertainment always outweighs the horror.

"A LANDMARK IN THE HISTORY OF FILMMAKING "

Takeshi Shimura, in the same year as his definitive role as Kambei in Seven Samurai, brings a sureness to the palaeontologist hero Dr Yamane that sells the tale from the start. But a warning: modern audiences will flinch at the special effects. The Godzilla suit is fine, but much of the miniature work, groundbreaking though it was, has aged horribly - one car crash in particular looks straight out of Postman Pat. Come Godzilla's main attack, though, and the sight of Tokyo in flames remains as awesome and terrifying as it must have been half a century ago.

Godzilla has a lot to say about war, and the arrogance of presuming to control indiscriminate, overwhelming power. But even its heaving subtext aside, this is a landmark in the history of filmmaking, and must be seen. Sadly there has been no restoration of either the print or the soundtrack - Godzilla needs and deserves better - but I expect we haven't seen the last of him.

In Japanese with English subtitles.