GODZILLA: Still thrilling Japanese fans

Godzilla movies are made much the same way as they were in 1954

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- As Godzilla lumbers towards his 50th birthday in two years time, Japanese studios are still making movies starring the world-famous monster.

Godzilla has died in several of his movies, but that doesn't seem to bother his Japanese fans, who grew up with him. Nor do they care that the films still star men in rubber monster suits.

Key scenes in Japan's 26th Godzilla movie -- Godzilla versus Mecha-Godzilla -- are made much the same way as the first Godzilla movie in 1954.

But its theme -- a battle between a flesh-and-blood creature and a high-tech robot -- is for the 21st century.

"We use Godzilla as a mirror to reflect issues faced by our society," says the film's producer, Shogo Tomiyama.

It has been that way from the beginning. Nine years after World War II ended with nuclear bombs dropped on two Japanese cities, the United States tested a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific in 1954.

When the first Godzilla movie came out later that year it featured a mutant nuclear monster, symbolizing the many Japanese fishermen that came down with radiation sickness following the test.

Metaphor

"Japanese people knew exactly what Godzilla meant, he was a metaphor for nuclear disaster. In the 1956 American version Godzilla was presented as something unknown," according to author Peter Musolf.

Author of a book on Godzilla, Musolf says the American re-cuts and one full remake largely ignored Godzilla's social messages. Those messages weigh heavily in a new museum exhibit devoted to the monster.

"Godzilla has been squashing cars like bugs and smashing buildings like toys for almost 50 years now. But for his Japanese creators and re-creators Godzilla can never really die, because he represents the consequences of human behavior."

Generations of Japanese grew up influenced by Godzilla movies. Many included themes like environmental disaster, or a cold war turned hot.

"Godzilla movies taught us the world we live in is not stable at all," says a young man viewing the exhibit.

But one thing about Godzilla is stable ... he's always really just an actor in a rubber suit.

Curator Hiroshi Ohsugi says Japanese moviegoers don't care if he looks fake, because Godzilla is a symbol -- a symbol of all that's frightening about the real world.