The tape that I imported from Japan. Nothing different here.
Hello everyone! I am here to present to you, an unusual tape I discovered of the 1995 Godzilla film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. For those of you who don't know, I'll give you a brief rundown of the story. After many action-packed battles across Japan, Godzilla's heart begins to run out of radiation, and enters meltdown. To make the situation even worse, a new monster called Destoroyah, spawned from the chemical reactions caused by the Oxygen Destroyer in the original Godzilla movie, and it's up to Godzilla to save the nation before he himself destroys it.
Anyway, I came across this VHS tape in 1996, shortly after the film had been released in Japan. Being a serious fan of Godzilla, I obtained the tape by importing it from Japan myself for a small fee. Inserting the tape into my player, I noticed the first major difference.
Rather than the film opening with Godzilla rampaging through Hong Kong, the film opens on Birth Island, which is where Godzilla and his son, Little Godzilla, went home to after defeating SpaceGodzilla in the previous film. Little Godzilla can be seen wandering about the island, blowing bubbles and generally having a whale of a time on the small island. Godzilla dotingly watches from a distance, having flattened several trees to get a better vantage point over the island's coastline. Suddenly, Godzilla's chest pulses, and radiation emits out of the scutes on his back. He roars in agony, and the scene cuts to Little Godzilla, who looks around in surprise as the screen goes white.
The film then continues onward to the Hong Kong introduction, and from this point onwards, the film continues as normal with a few small errors such as Godzilla Junior missing some of his roars, and the lines used to control the Juvenile Destoroyah puppets being visible every so often.
The film next changes, becoming more disturbing when Godzilla Junior is killed by the final form of Destoroyah. Destoroyah lifts Junior into the air, as per usual, but Junior desperately tries to fight back, blasting Destoroyah in the face multiple times with his Atomic Breath. Destoroyah shrugs it off, and drops Junior to the ground. When Junior hits the ground, instead of seeing Miki and her friend's shocked reaction, Junior's face is shown in a close-up, foaming from the mouth in a similar fashion to when he was injected with Micro-Oxygen earlier in the film. He is also shown to be writhing in pain, and the right side of the suit's face is depressed and dented inwards. This continues for about a minute or so before Junior falls limp, with the film cutting to an enraged Godzilla roaring at Destoroyah.
The next scene of interest is of a subject which has become legendary amongst the 'G-Fans'. It is a scene which is often described, but very rarely seen. There is no sound except for what appear to be the grindings of Servos in Destoroyah's suit. The monster braces himself, and the pattern on his chest opens up. What I then saw definitely hasn't been seen by anyone else. Whereas in the normal deleted scene, Destoroyah's actual beam that is fired in this attack isn't seen (probably because it hadn't been edited in yet), in this version, you can clearly see the beam, which was coloured a bright purple, slam into Godzilla, and the screen fades to white.
That marked the end of the film. Rather than being scared, disturbed or even annoyed, I was fascinated by what I had seen. I decided to re-order a new tape, so I could see the final product, but I decided to keep hold of the unusual tape. After all... what more secrets could this valuable video hold?