Godzilla Fights Godzilla

[Mulboyne]

AICN has picked up a report that the last Godzilla film will feature the "traditional" Godzilla and the US CGI Godzilla.
Toho's English Web site says this

"Godzilla Final Wars", the latest in the series, which will surely be the best of the stories, started its production with all the ingredients of the past 27 films over the past 50 years. More than 10 monsters which colored the series as well as the newly improved King of the Monsters "Godzilla" will appear in the film and show us the movements and terrors that we have never seen before.

The film has the best cast ever in the series. Masahiro Matsuoka of TOKIO is the leading star and Rei Kikukawa plays the heroine. One of the top professional fighters, Don Frye, Kazuki Kitamura, Kane Kosugi, and Miki Mizuno are co-stars. Akira Takarada who starred in the first Godzilla film as well as the series veterans such as Kumi Mizuno and Kenji Sahara will also appear in this film.

The film is directed by Ryuhei Kitamura who is the hottest Japanese filmmaker in Hollywood. The film indeed has the best cast and crew in the series history.

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

[Marvin Feltcher]

I just went to the news conference this mob gave (and sat beside Captain Japan). I can say without doubt, it was the worst entertainment-related news conference I have ever seen in my life.
While blabbering endlessly for hours about the artistic and other dubious merits of Toho's special effects, the company said it aims to provide entertainment value to rival Hollywood blockbusters.
With all the babble about entertainment, admittedly made in flat tones with no emotion, the four Toho reps and their yakuza in the background did not emit a single smile for over an hour. The conference was bland, dull and boring, which I truly hope is not a reflection of the movie they've made. I would have felt sorry for them with so many people walking out of the conference along the way and virtually nobody writing it up, but didn't go that far because they were so goddamned arrogant.
Clearly, Toho has little hope for the flick's overseas success (I suspect the conference only took place because the producer lives in the same building as the FFCJ, where the gathering was held) and it did nothing to try and dazzle those there with good intentions of bringing their message to the world. F---ken c--ts!

[Marvin Feltcher]

I must admit that I did get a good photo of me and Godzilla doing a peace sign -- would make a great Random Gaijin Shot of the Day.

[Taro Toporific]

[Marvin Feltcher]

Sorry!

[Captain Japan]

Considering they were talking about a guy in rubber suit, you would think there would have been a little humor mixed in somewhere. But there wasn't. I'm gonna write it up though.

Ok, here's what I came up with:

Toho Breaks the Rules in 'Godzilla: Final Wars'

[Captain Japan]

dp

[Captain Japan]

From the Mainichi...

[Taro Toporific]

From the Mainichi...
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/photojournal/images/2004/12/08godzila267.jpg

[dimwit]

Considering they were talking about a guy in rubber suit, you would think there would have been a little humor mixed in somewhere. But there wasn't. I'm gonna write it up though.

Truthfully, I wish the guy in the suit would have sat in for questions. That would have been great.

Japan; the land where they known how to kill fun. I would have been incredibly envious of you and Ryan for being able to attend what, if they understood the concept of PR in Japan, should have been an really cool event. Ta shame.

[Captain Japan]

Godzilla's return epitomizes uncertain times
Asahi Vox Populi Vox Dei

When Tomoyuki Tanaka, producer of the Godzilla movies, died in 1997, an Ohio newspaper ran a story for an ``obituary.'' The piece revolved around the author's boyhood recollections of the monster.

Apparently, the story was set in a local city in the first half of the 1960s. The writer recalls the day of a Godzilla movie telecast: ``All the kids on the block gathered at the house with the best television.''

It was the age of black-and-white television. With eyes glued to the screen, the neighborhood kids watched, overwhelmed by the monster's terrible march of destruction through Tokyo, saying to each other, ``Did you see that?''

In those days, atomic and hydrogen bombs were just ``the Bomb'' to American children, according to the author. Children knew that the Soviet Union had deployed missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba. They were taught what to do when the siren sounded to warn that missiles were on their way-crouching under desks if they were in school and running to the basement if they were at home.

The monster's identity was an object of intense debate among the author's boyhood friends. To him, Godzilla seemed like just another name for ``the Bomb'' in that both were capable of destroying everything.

In the movies, Godzilla attacks Tokyo when its nap is disturbed by U.S. nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Versions considerably obscuring the nuclear connection seem to have been made for initial distribution in the United States. But American children quickly sensed the link.

The other day, I watched the first Godzilla movie for the first time since my boyhood. I was struck by its strong anti-nuclear message. Another rediscovery was that the film's depiction of confusion caused by Godzilla's assault was a re-enactment of the U.S. air raids on major Japanese cities during World War II.

For Japanese, the film vividly recalled fears that they had experienced in the not-so-distant past. On the other hand, it gave Americans a foretaste of a disaster that might befall them one day.

All this hardly covers the ground that I need to cover for a discussion of what 50-year-old Godzilla stands for. One thing that can be said with certainty is that perceptions of the monster have been perpetually shifting reflections of the state of Japan-U.S. relations.

[Marvin Feltcher]

Sorry!