Biollante. The plant with the human spirit.
After Godzilla was driven from Tokyo and imprisoned at Mount Mihara. Cells from the monster were collected and brought to the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science. They were to be merged with the cells of plants in the hope of bringing fertile land to the desert. Dr. Genshiro Shiragami (Koji Takahashi), and his daughter Erika, are hired to work on the project. A terrorist bomb destroys the lab and the cells and kills Erika.
Five years later, Shiragami has merged some of Erika’s cells with those of a rose vine in order to preserve some of her soul. Scientist Kazuhito Kirishima (Kunihiko Mitamura) and Lieutenant Goro Gondo (Toru Minegishi) of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) have some Godzilla cells of their own and are trying to create a weapon to use against Godzilla, just in case. They want to create what they call "Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria”. They want Shiragami to help them in their quest but he refuses.
An explosion from the volcano at Mount Mihara damages Shiragami's home, and his roses. Shiragami now needs access to more Godzilla cells so he agrees to work at JSDF. Shiragami merges the Godzilla cells with his roses. Why? Cause that’s what scientists do. The plant grows. Everybody wants Godzilla cells. When armed secret agents break into Shiragami’s lab they are attacked by an aggressive plane-like creature. The creature escapes and ends up in a nearby lake. Shiragami names the creature Biollante.
Evil agents threaten to blow up Mount Mihara and release Godzilla if the Godzilla cells are not turned over to them. Things do not go well and Mount Mihara is blown up. Godzilla is released and heads for the nearest power plant. Biollante, however, has other plans.
“Godzilla vs Biollante was released in 1989 and was directed by Kazuki Omori. In the Fall of 1985, Toho held a contest to decide the plot for the next Godzilla movie, inviting writers and fans to submit story treatments for the project. Out of the 5,024 submissions, and with 10 finalists, the winner was Shinichirô Kobayashi, a dentist and part-time screenwriter. One of the story concepts that did not win was an idea in which Hitler controlled Godzilla.
The movie did not do well in Japan when it was first released; however, it has gained a large fan base since then.
It took over twenty people and over 32 piano wires to operate the Final Form Biollante suit, breaking the previous record held by King Ghidorah (22 piano wires).
Biollante is, of course, not the first killer plant. Who could forget Audrey the carnivorous plant from “Little Shop of Horrors” 1960 or the incredible “Revenge of the Venus Flytrap” 1970. But Biollante is a lot cooler looking than they were.
I liked the movie. Even though TOHO still uses miniatures and the ‘guy in a suit’ effects, they have gotten a lot more sophisticated over the years. The Biollante Kaiju was also a good looking monster in both adaptations of it. The movie itself is also an interesting mix of spy movie and monster movie. It was a pleasant hour and forty-four minutes.
English dubbed
Japanese subtitled