Godzilla first appeared in the 1954 Japanese film Gojira directed by Ishirō Honda. The movie was a metaphor for nuclear destruction, referencing the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific. In the early films, Godzilla was portrayed by an actor in a rubber suit, a technique called "suitmation." This method was a significant part of the charm and the creativity behind the special effects in the films.Godzilla influenced an entire subgenre of Japanese cinema, the kaiju genre, where giant creatures battle one another. The success of Gojira sparked numerous follow-up films, spawning a culture of monster movies in Japan and globally.Godzilla’s popularity wasn’t confined to Japan. The character has been rebooted in Hollywood with Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), all of which contributed to expanding Godzilla's global reach.
