The rail yard as seen in Godzilla's Revenge (1969), which still exists today. Photo by Brett Homenick.
While perhaps not one of the more popular entries in the series, Godzilla's Revenge (a.k.a. All Monsters Attack, 1969) boasts a few memorable locations. As they are so integral to the look and feel of the film, the sprawling railroad tracks and towering smokestacks usually stand out in the mind of anyone who watches it.
The rail yard is called Kawasaki Kamotsu Station, and all these decades later, it still exists in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. But don't let the fact that it's a train station in Japan mislead you -- this station's for freight trains only. Actually, it's quite a distance from the nearest commuter train station (Kawasaki Station), so I would not recommend going there on foot. I took a taxi to the location and hopped on a bus bound for Kawasaki Station on the way back.
The rail yard itself seems to have changed very little since 1969, although the surrounding area does not seem to have fared so well. Most of the empty fields seen in the film have been replaced by even more buildings and assorted clutter. What's more, the billboard that comes into play toward the end of the movie seems to have been removed. (At least it wasn't apparent in the places I looked.)
I should also point out that this rail yard was easily the scariest place I've visited in Japan. It seems a small shantytown was set up next to the tracks, and while at first I decided to walk along it in order to see if I could spot some specific locations from the movie, I quickly decided that was a bad idea and turned around. That said, Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, so I must say it was only "scary" by Japan standards. If you're planning to check out this location for yourself, though, forewarned is forearmed.
The day I visited was pretty dreary, and it was lightly raining as I walked around, which made it rather unpleasant to trudge my way through. Still, it was a fascinating experience, and it's always great to walk through an actual location used in the Godzilla series (as opposed to, say, famous landmarks like Tokyo Tower which are usually just recreated as miniatures in the films).
I plan to visit even more locations in the coming weeks and months, so keep it here for further updates.
Brett, you never stop amazing with your blog posts! They are so very interesting and bring back great memories. Your latest one is a nice coincidence because I just got the Godzilla's Revenge Toho Blu-ray yesterday in the mail. I looked over the special features tonight and thought maybe you could answer a question, assuming you have the disc yourself. There's a segment that features Teruyoshi Nakano and another gentleman I do not know--I can't read Japanese unfortunately. Do you perhaps know who that other gentleman is? Thank you so very much for your time, and your always entertaining articles!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mike! Regarding the Blu-ray, I don't have it myself, and I checked a few Japanese sites, but all they seem to mention is the commentary by Koji Hashimoto and an interview with Kunio Miyauchi, both of whom passed away quite a few years ago. If you sent me a screen cap, I might be able to tell you who it is.
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