The Tokusatsu Eiga Times

State of the Blog 2012

2012-01-09T19:54:00.000-05:00

It is 2012, thus it is called for to type up a sort of "state of the union" address to you, the patrons of this blog. 2011 was not a very good year, and this is not on the basis that the news feed was bad for the year. The amount of news being miniscule and less than that of 2010 was to be expected. What is bad though is that I have learned that as you get older, real life crashes down and burdens come up, only to show that you not only have priorities, but such priorities are going to tire you out more often than what you are used to. I used to pump out material, but not anymore.

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Of the misfortunes which have plagued me the last year (and those who know where to look know of what I speak), the most important to talk about would be the fate of my laptop. My HP Pavilion laptop (which I have had since summer 2008) is finally breaking down. Basically, my computer is literally dieing of old age. Long hours of use year around has taken it’s toll and the future of it isn’t clear. What is clear is that to fix whatever problem I seem to be experiencing, it usually calls for long periods of waiting followed by longer periods of restarting the poor laptop over and over again. It seems to be a weekly cycle.

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If I am on the net, I will hopefully get stuff done. I told a person, who I was forwarded to on good terms, that I would help promote a certain documentary which will excite kaiju fans who can speak English while also rekindling friendships which I feel bad for abandoning. More writing will be done, and hopefully better writing, even if I have to start doing it in longhand and wait to type it up digitally. The DAM DVD review was meant to be edited but due to certain problems it hasn’t been possible. By the time this is posted, it will have been edited. Writing will continue again, though to tell the truth, doing writing on Japanese films is hard without a reliable computer source (just the way things are).

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If there is anything which anyone wants, feel free to post a comment at the bottom. Remember, I have to approve all comments thus if you do not see it appear immediately, do not panic, it’s all cool. I just want to leave on this note: hope that a piece of SPACE MONSTER GUILALA I have been working on for some time will eventually get completed (anyone who can translated Japanese and would like to team up on this please contact me).

Review: ONMYOJI (2001)

2011-12-05T20:27:00.005-05:00

"After much consideration, it has been decided upon to remove "submission" movie reviews from the site. This reasoning for this was several fold, although chief among them was that it became hard to edit them and still try to maintain the original sentiments of the author and also that the scale for "submission" reviews seemed to be different from the one that the staff used, as they primarily hanged at the 4/5 star level for the majority. So to get a better sense of the films, we have decided to abandon such reviews and will be moving to a all staff review system for films shortly. We do thank everyone who submitted reviews though through out the years. Miles Imhoff, who was hired due to his reviews meeting a certain criteria, found this idea particularly hard to get behind, but ultimately I felt it was for the best of the site. A few other things will change in the coming days as a result of this as well."

-Anthony Romero

Because of this, I am posting this review on this blog. This review was edited by Vega - who did so in a way in which there was no need to do a second pass. It was a most easy process. He got it right away.

Onmyoji is perhaps one of the more well known Toho films out there, appearing often on the ShoTime channels in America. Opinions on Onmyoji vary; however, it is one of the better films Toho has in their fantasy genre, more specifically the genre of New Jidai Geki (New Period Piece film). Along with Legend of the Eight Samurai, this is one of the genre's better films in the areas of acting, pacing, and plot. Though the special effects are passable, the musical score is great.

The story of Onmyoji spans over 150 years worth of history, with the meat taking place in the Heian era of Japan’s history. During this time, humans are depicted as living together with fantastical creatures. Some were Yokai, but the majority were oni, creatures often interpreted as demons. To rid human existence of oni were the Onmyoji, civil servants that worked for the central government. Not only were they tasked with exorcising the oni, but they also predicted future events using tools like the lo pan and the I, Ching (The Book of Changes). They predicted coming occurrences by observing the affairs of men and also observing changes in the cosmos.
In the year 794 AD, the Onmyoji claimed that the guardian of the city of Heian was about to appear, essentially portending ill fortune. One hundred and fifty years earlier, the authorities assassinated Prince Sawara under false accusations. His vengeful spirit could not be calmed until a mound was built, Shogun’s Mound. To make sure the mound was never destroyed, a certain woman, Lady Anoe, was made immortal and appointed guardian of the site.

Back in the "present", unrest builds within the central government. The instability caused by the result of the Mikado's romantic entanglements tips the balance of power, and the head of the Onmyoji, Doson, decides to help Fujiwara no Motokata, the Minister of the Right in the Mikado’s court, who was affected by the shift. His grand design is to create a sense of turmoil to further his brewing scheme of conquest, and resurrecting Prince Sawara is the key to his plan. The one in charge of bringing order out of all this chaos is Minamoto No Tadamasa, a samurai for the court. He teams up with an Onmyoji who, from an hierarchical standpoint, is under Doson. Nevertheless, this Onmyoji proves to be more skilled and powerful. His name is Abe No Seimei...
The direction of the film by Yujiro Takita pursues no other course than that of drama. Each scene is brought to life in a way that utilizes a dramatic cue in the right place at the right time. There is tension developed between the two protagonists Seimei and Hiromasa, and there is tension between the court officials; that is what a story of this nature thrives on, and Takita makes sure that we see the emotions that are racing through this intricately woven tale. There are also visual shots that are incorporated in such a way as to portray the traditionally perceived beauty of the of Heian era of Japan. This is not to say that Takita is one of the best directors around. Admittedly, none of these shots hold any metaphoric value. The tale is told with simplicity through and through. However, the cinematography is keen, with sets detailed to an exquisite degree.

The most interesting part of the film is how it interprets women (the underplayed sex of Japan’s culture from that era) as the movers and shakers of events. The film makes the point that women should not be purely used for political and/or personal gain. Lady Anoe was, and still is, in love with Prince Sawara. It is the presence of the Mikado’s new baby that causes turmoil within the court. His old mistress, Sukehime, is pressured for not being "good enough" or "beautiful" enough to keep the Mikado’s fancy, and yet she is still used... transformed into a Namanari in an attempt to kill the Mikado. There is no fury quite like a woman’s scorn, but it is even more dangerous when one is able to manipulate that age old chestnut for personal gain.

When it comes to acting, we are clearly treated with better-than-average fair. The two stars are Mansai Nomura, playing Seimei, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Doson. Nomura is one of Japan’s most formidable Kyogen actors who also was fortunate enough to work with the legendary Akira Kurosawa in Ran (1985). Sanada has seen said by some (most notably the director of The Last Samurai) to be the "Tom Cruise of Japan". Along with winning five Japanese Academy Awards, Hiroyuki has been part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, not to mention gaining early practice with a stage adaptation of Makai Tensho (based on the 1981 film in which he starred; both the film and the play were directed by Kinji Fukasaku). Two heavy weights giving their all in this film is a real treat.

Nomura plays Seimei excellently. It is mentioned that Seimei was rumored to have been born from a fox, and Mansai’s facial features definitely show off this side of Seimei’s personality. Seimei is a unique character, often a little alienating to the people around him, particularly towards Hiromasa. However, this is a character who does show laughter, worry, a sense of urgency, and deep contemplation. Mansai covers all the emotional bases very well. The viewer may be taken out of the film by his performance only when Mansai is directed to cry. It is a hit or miss for viewers, but for this reviewer at least, it was a miss. Other than that, he excels, especially when he has to do rituals that involve certain dances.

Sanada plays a classic villain. A manipulative villain who has a quiet class and reserve about him. Only during the last third of the film does he really show an "end of the ropes - anything goes" attitude. This is something to be expected from the actor, whose villainous characters have become more and more numerous since this movie (e.g. Rush Hour 3). There really aren't any idiosyncrasies in his performance that are strong enough to pull the viewer out of the experience.

The rest of the actors and actresses do their duty to one degree or another. Hideaki Ito, who plays Hiromasa, pulls off the comic relief, hamming it up with aplomb. Kyoko Koizumi is the shining star of the female troupe, playing Lady Anoe, a woman who is immortal and carries around the usual baggage. She helps to bring a solid layer of drama to the film. Yui Natsukawa, the Lady of the Full Moon, is the woman who suffers most of the torture that arises from the Seimei-Doson conflict. She doubles not only as a melancholy-laden mistress but also as the oni/vampire-esque Namanari. Playing Mitsumushi is Eriko Imai, whose character is somewhat superfluous, except to add dramatic force to a few scenes (which require her to go into her butterfly form).

The score for the film is masterfully composed by Shigeru Umebayashi. Although the orchestra isn’t as full as it would be in the sequel, it still proves to be more than functional and helps to cradle (and even magnify) the feeling and emotion in several scenes. The best thing about the music is that it has a distinctly Japanese flavor. Not only does the style reflect this aurally pleasing aspect of the film, but also the choices of instruments lend to the atmosphere. The best example is the theme that plays over the end credits. The use of Japanese woodwind, string, and percussive fair really accents everything nicely, not to mention the occasional (and welcome) vocals.

For kaiju fans put off by the mystical elements of films such as Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle (1999), Onmyoji is a nice place to start when gathering some cultural insight. While not a full history class on Japan, it does provide a solid starting ground on understanding Japanese mysticism and how it may have affected peoples' lives long ago in classical Japan. Careful directing, competent writing, shining performances, and a sound musical score (with a slightly addicting nature) make this film a winner. It may not be Kurosawa, but Onmyoji certainly stands tall on its own two legs.

DVD Review: Media Blaster's DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

2011-11-24T20:46:00.010-05:00

Special Thanks to Lee Merritt, proprietor of Monsterland Forums for making this review possible.
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This has been a great year for Godzilla fans. IDW doing three different lines of comic books, a good bit of DVD news, new board games, and a good bit of other stuff. The hottest topic would be the Media Blasters releases of DESTOROY ALL MONSTERS and GODZILLA VS. MEGALON. With DESTROY ALL MONSTERS being the less anticipated release, a good bit was still to be proven with it.
Video:

To set up a precedence, let’s go back to what James Ballard said when talking about the R2 DVD, which he gave 5/5 stars.

"As you would expect, Toho's domestic DVD release of "Destroy All Monsters" is once again a pinnacle in the line of kaiju releases. The video quite frankly looks like it could have been shot yesterday. As far as I could tell there was absolutely no print damage, bar some very tiny specks of dust in once scene, and no signs of digital artifacts. On occasion there is some light grain, but really only noticeable under close inspection. The film remains consistently sharp with lush and vivid colors. The film is presented in it's original widescreen ratio, and is enhanced for widescreen TV's."

With such a fine print used by Toho for their R2 DVD, and knowing that what Media Blasters has presented to us is the HD print which was a basic restoration of the film, should it be the perfect print? Considering that I own the DVD and now the blu-ray, I’d say this looks as great as it is going to look on DVD. Is there a general softness? Yes. Is the color platte not as vibrant as what one would assume? Yes. That is to be expected. Due to Toho's restoration being just a general clean up, colors are not going to be as vibrant as what it could have been back in '68 (it has been mentioend on the net that a better colored print of the film is out there somewhere). But this is the best this film is going to look on DVD unless Toho finds a full restoration neccessary, which is not the case.

In comparing with the ADV DVD, you can see a lot of what was wrong with the ADV print. The coloring of certain things is maybe better on the ADV DVD, such as the sky in the clip above but other than that, the ADV DVD has one of the worst problems with rainbows a film could have, with the moment something in the frame shows itself as white, rainbows appear. Another problem would be the lack of color correction, which you see the real colors here with the Media Blasters DVD.

Audio:
There are three audio tracks to the film, which the choices for the tracks are those which would be most relevant to American viewers. One Japanese track (2.0 and 4.1) and two English tracks (international and AIP).

Both Japanese and International tracks are on here and are flawless. They sound like any other audio tracks. Sure, it doesn’t stand out (though it may if you are watching this with a great set of earphones, which pretty much keep the sound waves up close to your ear drums therefore the dissipation of the sound waves isn’t a factor), but there isn’t problems really.

A big source of debate for this debate seems to be about the inclusion of the AIP dub, which should have been a great, great thing. For completists, the inclusion of both the international and AIP dubs makes the set feel more complete. Problem is that a cranking sound a long with some digital noise appears on the track (mostly in the beginning). You can tell that this is a problem that they tried to fix with the sections at the beginning being patched up via audio from another track, but the problems doesn’t last all that long. Still, a little imperfection could go a long way for some aficionados. Talk of an alternate source has been spread around, but that it couldn’t be used due to Toho granting permission to only use specific sources of materials for releases - one has to wonder what about other sources makes Toho not want to permit their participation (probably a matter of money).

Special Features:

In an interesting turn for the better, Media Blasters has chosen to do something a bit differently - the handling of special features. For past Toho titles, Media Blasters just copies what was on the R2 DVD releases. This time around, special features were brought onto the release which are not on the R2 DVD - a choice likely made because of the fact these are Godzilla films. Truth be told, Media Blasters is all too modest, for what is described on the back of their DVD cover for the film is truly an understatement.

The main attraction is the audio commentary by Steve Ryfle and Godziszewski. Plugging their book here and there, they do stay on topic of the film and having been doing research for their book, it helps a lot. A lot of details and trivia revolving around the film were made freshly known to me, such as the actor of a stage play being treated to seeing the kaiju and an actress from the film. The only downside would be that there are a couple of parts of the commentary where Ed and Steve’s voice could sound a bit more dynamic, making the commentary sound more enjoyable to the ears. Other than that, they do the same good word they did with the films they commented on for Classic Media.

Follow the yellow Japanese Characters

The DVD is filled to the brim with a bunch of trailers, with space being saved by compiling whole trailers into one video track. Least of which is the trailers for other Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters films including GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, DEATH KAPPA, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, and (the brutally awesome) RIKI OH: THE STORY OF RICKY. Instead of having a page in which you can choose to watch each trailer separately, they are strung together like a little movie, though you can press the skip button on your remote to go to a specific trailer. Same thing is the matter with the "Promo Reel", which is the American trailer (in worse condition than what you can find on youtube), the Japanese, and French trailers for the films followed by four American radio spots. Also saving space by making it an easter egg rather start a new page for listing special features is the 8mm reel clips which feature AIP stuff on them. Not bad. So, let’s count that down - 4 non-DAM trailers, 3 DAM trailers, 4 Radio Spots, and 8mm movies. That’s 12 things right there.

The other special features consist of photo galleries - one being of posters for the film and another being for concept art and such. Both are great, though there is a case or two of repetition with the poster gallery. Regardless, both are great and it would be interesting to see these things on the blu-ray. In the meanwhile, the poster gallery just doesn’t show posters, but also theatrical programs (2 from 1972, 1 from 1968). It is a rather thorough gallery which non-Japanese readers can enjoy. It is great. It is even interesting to see stuff like Gappa being on DAM posters (like how Yonggary was on some German photobistura for GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH and a VHS for KING KONG VS. GODZILLA). But, the DVD gallery bit I felt was a bit much. But it’s inclusion on here I hope will mean that such a thing will be included on the GODZILLA VS. MEGALON DVD for the number of bootleg VHS tapes that film has endured is nothing less than legendary and would make a great gallery for the historian in all of us.

If there was one thing missing from the film - one single thing - it is not the inclusion of the international and AIP credit sequences (Which the blu-ray has and those who already have the ADV DVD and a connection or two already have), but something simple - really simple seeing how the cover for the tape that this was on was on the DVD gallery bit - the alternate and extended takes from the 1980’s Toho SFX Tape. That would have been some of the easiest things to put on the DVD. There is about 10-15 minutes of material, not much. But, at least we got some stuff which defiantly trumps any Japanese release.

Conclusion:
If this is a sample of things to come, I cannot say that I am not happy for what Megalon will bring. Great audio and visual content with a great bit of special features - particularly the concept art and story board galleries and the trailers/tv spots which are most interesting if only to get a glimpse at what the generation before us could have felt when they would watch these films at the cinemas nationwide in lieu of chance exhibitions at art house theatres. A great release which everyone should own. For an American release of a foreign film which is not being released by a big company, this is a spectacular release.

4.5/5

Citizen Hyung Rae and the Death of Younggu-Art

2011-11-12T14:43:00.002-05:00

The 1,000 words photos tell would show that like most buisness transactions, there is more than meets the eye.

For some of us, we like bad movies. Bad movies can be entertaining. Thus, even though it would be a small one, there was an audience for films like 2001 YONGGARY and D-WAR: DRAGON WARS. For those who are American, you might even have a taste for THE LAST GODFATHER, the only English-language entry of Shim Hyung Rae’s Younggu series.

Sadly, we might have seen the death of his brand of Korean cinema, meaning the possibility of no D-WAR 2, which some wanted to see. If you check, the official website has been shut down (the main Younggu-Art side along with the official D-WAR and 2001 YONGGARY sites).

Late October, it was reported that 43 employees of Shim Hung Rae’s company - Younggu-Art - were suing him for $790,000 in non-paid wages. It was to be paid with money received from the auctioning of the 1,655 square meter building which housed the company. The building was sold by Hyundai Swiss Mutual Savings Bank, (Younggu-Arts’ collateral security holder) and was bought by a developer - the only bidder. 3 month’s wages and 3 years severance pays would be paid through the profit made from the auction, with the rest going towards Shim‘s debts. Turns out Shim had borrowed 1.1 billion won against his company, something confirmed by the Financial Supervisory Service. This could be one of many tales of company funds being used inappropriately. Stories of gambling addiction revealed by former employees aren’t making things better.

Turns out that this is not the actual death of Younggu-Art. That happened back in 2009.

Back on July 19, 2009, Shim said he was shutting the firm down - claiming to be $36 million dollars (41 billion Korean Kwon by today‘s exchange rate) in debt. That isn’t the worse of his troubles. In May of 2009, Hyundai Savings Bank filed complaints in regards to 4 billion won in loans/interest. Four months later, a high court made it that Shim had to pay 2.5 billion won. The case is pending at the supreme court. In separate auctions, Shim’s two homes (one being a Hyundai apartment in Apgujeong-dong and another being a Tower Palace apartment in Dogok-dong) are being sold. One of them is 244 square meters in land area.

Shim’s fate just might be sealed when it came up that Shim was being investigated for illegal firearm remodeling. Even darker, claims have been made of Shim’s trying to influence political and business colleges via prostitution including what the Korean Herald said, "high-profile figures and young women" and even going as far as to deny investors refunds of investments back in Oct. 2009 with an illegally customized gas spray gun.

As of October 30, Shim Hyung Rae has been banned from leaving the country of South Korea. All allegations against Shim are said to have taken place from 2008-2011, the years in which Shim made THE LAST GODFATHER (Which failed at the box office in Korea and America) and was still producing MEMORY OF BREAD. Be watching, for SciFiJapan’s Korean correspondent Kim Song-Ho is to be writing a more in-depth article on this.

This is a sad day.

Sources:
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111023000245

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Showbiz/Story/A1Story20111031-307891.html

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/11/01/2011110101160.html

Film Review: HOKUSAI MANGA (1981)

2011-10-24T00:25:00.000-04:00

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL. READER BEWARE. JOURNALISMG2KM, the KAIJU GALAXY COMMUNITY and ALL AFFILIATES ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING NEGATIVE WHICH COMES FROM THIS POST.

For those who have pre-knowledge of this film and are feeling something akin to outrage or pure curiosity, you can find my explanation/reasoning at the end (this whole work is going to be divided into sections, so you can find easily at the end of the article). That being established, HOKUSAI MANGA is not one of the best films you’ll see but it has one of the better performances you will see from a Japanese film and is an interesting film overall.

SUMMARY
HOKUSAI MANGA is the story of Hokusai - the famous Japanese woodblock artist. It is not a strict biography now, for it does tell a story with a central theme and a study upon said theme. But this film is much like the 1984 film, AMADEUS. The film begins with Hokusai (going by his real name at the time), enjoying a bath along with friends who would later become great artists in their own right (like the novelist Bakin). Hokusai shows that he has an ambition - to become a great artist (and not just a woodblock artist at that). His work initially seen as crummy. With the subject of many of his works being women - both clothed and nude - no one sees any value in them. It is called just pornographic abroad and his daughter sees them as too "logical", hence boring. This is a tough pill to swallow due to the fact that he dare get disowned by his father (who was a mirror-cleaning shogunate) just to learn to paint.

It is only when he meets his muse (a woman named Onao) does he start painting for real. Many events happen which are indirectly caused by the muse, and she eventually leaves. But once one of his paintings is sold to a publishing company, Hokusai becomes famous, doing paintings of cranes on rice, painting on large dining room-sized canvases, and even drawing Mt. Fuji from 30 plus angles at different times of day. We skip to the latter part of his life where he and his friend, Bakin, are old men. It is durring this time that Hokusai learns how to do tasteful nudes with substance.

This is one of the 36 VIEWS OF FUJI, this one specificaly shown in the film.

ANALYSIS
HOKUSAI MANGA has a point within it. It is all about women. Mostly because women are men’s muses. So, upon closer observation, this film has to do with the muse-artist relationship. A muse is an important thing to the artist (no matter what medium). It is the muse which literally makes a work "inspired". It is something they can rely on. Persistence. In that reliance, there’s something (their work) which can keep their memory going for years after they have gone. There is a scene in the film in which before the writer Bakin becomes a widower, his passing wife finally allows him to become a writer. That is who he is meant to be. As the writer Harlan Ellison said, " Posterity is the only reason to do this." (Harlan was talking about writing, but writing is an art form just as much as painting or directing).

But, there is something interesting in the muse/artist relationship. It is the sexual side of things. Most of the time, especially with male artists, their muse is a female figure of some sort. That, mixed in with a message of what a tasteful nude is, is what this film is all about. As the film shows, those who aspire to draw tasteful nudes have quite a way to go. The film shows that at the beginning of his career, Hokusai did paint nudes but they were disregarded as pornography. It is only later down on in life in which Hokusai gets the perspective in which he could do tasteful nudes such as THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE.

That is a battle of the human intellectual adaptation versus the natural animalistic instincts. When you are young, you lack insight and the animalistic side of you is king. This is shown to great detail as Hokusai’s father, who was strongly attracted to his son’s muse, ended up hanging himself just because he wouldn’t be with the woman. The sexual want is just too much. But with time, things get clear. It is because of this that most of Hokusai’s life from his late thirties to his late eighties were ignored. A good artist has perspective, and he gained it. That perspective is to illustrate the desires of a woman. Not to be pornographic but to shed light on a world untouched. To explore the world of womanly desires was a new idea back in Elden Japan. Japan was largely a male-centered country with a male-centered culture, thus to put such interest and care into what a woman’s interest is quite the perspective. Not to mention that the study of this kind of emotion is what Hokusai needed because while his early work was too logical, work like THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE is just the opposite because it deals with the most illogical thing around - human emotion.

Sad thing is that younger people may often confuse the two, art and pornography. Having done THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE later on in life with a new woman who looked like Onao, Hokusai was old but his new model quite young. She became admiring of Hokusai’s odd artistic choices but she showed that she didn’t understand his work. At her last appearance in the film, the new model starts having sex with a man. Just regular sex. Hokusai walks in on it and when she asks if he is excited and wanted to paint her in the act, he declined. She didn’t understand it and goes off.

For all of that above, this film cannot be called pornographic. There is a literal art to it. There is less than 20 minutes of nudity within the whole film (which is an hour 58 minutes long). To call this film pornographic would be like calling Stanley Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT pornographic.

Ken Ogata is, to Western audiences, best known for the 1980's Paul Schrader film based on another famous Japanese artist (one of the liturate field), MISHIMA.

As far as direction goes, the film’s direction by Kaneto Shindo (who also wrote the film) is nothing too spectacular for a Japanese film. It is notable though, particularly with this reviewer, that it was this film which finally made me realize why Japanese films linger with long takes of scenes with no camera movement. It makes it seem like you are watching a play. This is quite remarkable. Though the make up of the film isn’t anything that will make you think of Kabuki or Noh theatre (rather, the make up at the end is applied to the actors just to show a difference in age), it is an interesting perspective to put the audience in. It is stuff like this which helps makes scenes like a monologue by Ken Ogata (playing the elderly Hokusai) gain momentum by not only being potentially interpreted as a personal diary said aloud to himself, but also as a monologue he is saying to the audience directly. It is almost like a moment out of GOODFELLAS.

Now, this is an interesting piece to choose to review for a blog like this. Truth is, there is one shot that could be called tokusatsu. The particular scene which enacts the inspiration Hokusai gets to draw THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE is done via both a real life enactment and a showing of what is going on within Hokusai’s head. The two wire-clad Octopi props and such were done by a notable person who has worked within the realm of kaiju eiga before - and with this being a Shochiku film, it is only natural that the art direction and possible doing of special effects be done by Shigemori Shigeta - award winning art director for SPACE MONSTER GUILALA and THE LAST SAMURAI. It’s not the best scene (there is a wire visible in one shot) but it is an interesting look into the mind of the master artist. While the kaiju connection is being discussed, it is notable that one of Hokusai’s works was used at the end of a Godzilla movie, Banno’s GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH.

Bottom line, it is a well written film with pretty good directing with the strong point being Ken Ogata’s acting. For some, recognizing the renown actor may be easy, for me it was difficult being used to only seeing him play Miyamoto Musashi (which required a good bit of make-up) in MAKAI TENSHO. It is an interesting look at the life of an artist and a nice way to spend two hours. Just be prepared for laughable content (the octopus scene might look fake to some and due to Japan’s censorship laws in regards to nudity in film and art (which proclaims that genitalia is not allowed to go uncensored in any form of media) the strains in which the filmmakers try to cover up body parts might seem a little obvious if not desperate). This film is worthy of all the awards it won and was nominated for back in 1981.

Recognize this GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH fans?

For those interested in seeing the film IMDB has it avaliable legally via Hulu.

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1140824857

REASON
Those who wonder as to why I chose to review such a film on this site, you shall have your curiosity quenched. Going through youtube one night, I stumbled upon a clip of the octopus scene from the film posted. I was curious and once I saw the period piece setting and the fact there was a painter by the woman who had a octopus on her, I knew what it was right then and there (the things they teach you in 7th grade art class). Oddly enough, someone was going through my likes list and decided to flame bait myself. People assumed that I had liked the clip due to it being sexual in nature thus it was purely pornographic (though none of these individuals have seen the film), that I was not allowed to press the like button on such things (just because my channel’s content is that of which minors may look at), and that even if I liked the clip for it’s artistic merits, that was not the case for some claim they know me so well that it wasn’t the case.

Truth is, it wasn’t the case. I did like it for it’s artistic merits. It wasn’t pornographic, and in all reality just because the film is called EDO PORN in America doesn’t mean anything. It is a bad, inaccurate title for a Japanese film (and this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, anyone remember GODZILLA VS. THE THING or GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND) that isn’t about porn (and someone tried to use the inaccurate title as something against me, going as far as calling me a dumb f***).

I hope this clears stuff up. I was in the right and this is a film I would prefer. Watch and don’t judge. And I don’t care if Children watch.

JG2KM Reaction to Criterion GODZILLA DVD

2011-10-16T19:09:00.000-04:00

Criterion's DVD cover was met with critisism, but was generally approved of.

Recently, Criterion surprised all of us in the evening a couple of days ago when we found their official page for their release of the first Godzilla film, a film they leased out from Classic Media (who released their own 2 disc version of it). So, what do we make of this news? The news of what special features will be part of the set coupled with a release date which is very, very close by (January 2012)? Well, let’s see…

First, let’s go through the special features. Both versions of Godzilla are getting an audio commentary by author David Kalat. Kalat is one of the more known writers on the Godzilla film. His most notable work is that of A CRITICAL HISTORY AND FILMOGRAPHY OF TOHO’S GODZILLA SERIES (with the original version being the best, the updated version was not well received for it’s cutting back on information to make room for the Millennium series of Godzilla films). His work, while containing some factual information about the production of each film, the manifesto does try to center itself on the subtext, meanings, and interpretations of the films.

This isn’t the first time that Kalat has done a Godzilla commentary though. He was employed by Classic Media to do the audio commentary for GHIDORAH, THE THREE HEADED MONSTER. Reviews criticized him for going off topic (no matter how informational he may be) and making simple errors in the form of generalizations. But he did make an impression as being quite enthusiastic about his work, thus he is regarded by some as a favorite.

Luckily, we can see to an extent what he is going to talk about in the commentary by viewing his book. For those who do not own his book, refer to it here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=9QyaTVYvEPQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=a+critical+history+and+filmography+of+toho

However, particularly when it comes down to the commentary for GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, one cannot think that Kalat can out-do the Godziszewski/Ryfle commentary track. When the duo provided audio clips of interviews from people involved, there is next to no topping that unless he is allowed to borrow the audio clips for his own use.

Next, and this is easily the most important feature on the set, will be newly filmed interviews, particularly with effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai. This is most interesting, and one has to wonder about these individuals. When doing an IMDB search, we see that Eizo Kaimai was a person who had worked on Honda’s THE H-MAN while Yoshio Irie (unless there are two of them and IMDB doesn’t have a profile of an older Irie) is a fairly new guy, having worked on titles such as 2008’s ICHI... or so you would have thought! Thanks to Brett Homenick bringing this to my attention, turns out Irie is no stranger to interviews, including one which was done with some of the fore-fathers of the G-FAN/Kaiju Fan fanzines.

http://www.historyvortex.org/InterviewYoshioIrie.html

Next which caught my eye was the "New interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato". This is a new name, at least to me anyway. According to Wikipedia, Tadao "is a prominent Japanese film critic and film theorist. Satō has published more than 30 books on film, and is one of the foremost scholars and historians addressing Japanese film, though little of his work has been translated for publication abroad." This is something which I am really interested in because - most for - the fact that the cultural barrier between America and Japan is such that there is a good bit more American audiences who are going to buy this title can learn. An interesting bit of which is a Japanese view of Godzilla which some claim was only around when GMK (2001) was made that Godzilla was a representation of souls lost in the Pacific theatre of WWII. However, writers like Norio Akasaka wrote that Godzilla was a, "representation of the spirits of soldiers who died in the South Pacific durring the Second World War… after coming from the South Pacific to destroy of the Ginza and the Diet building, Godzilla stops suddenly in front of the Imperial Palace, then turns his head right and heads back out to sea with this look of painful sadness on his face", and Akasaka would go on to compare Godzilla to a story by the famous Yukio Mishima (who Paul Schrader made a film about) which critique’s Japan’s moral after the world. More of this kind of material would be nice to hear, hopefully adding freshness to the usual "Godzilla is an allegory for the bomb" which long time fans may be all too used to.

You got William Tsutsui who works at a university in Texas... then you got Gred Pflugfelder who works at the New York-based Columbia University. Now, giving the set something which the British Film Institute product had which the Classic Media release didn’t have was a feature on the Fukuryu Maru AKA the Lucky Dragon No. 5. However, instead of recycling the BFI feature, Criterion decided to have Greg Pflugfelder(Director of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University) do a feature titled THE UNLUCKIEST DRAGON (which sounds like a twisted version of a film children would watch) based on the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident which was one of the three main inspirations for GODZILLA. He's notable for having done a Godzila exhibit back in 2004 in New York. Here is a link to his page: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/faculty/pflugfelder.html

The last interesting thing is an essay done by J. Hoberman. A critic who works right now as a senior critic for THE VILLAGE VOICE, this BA and MFA-holding film critics might just be the most interesting person giving a kind of contribution as far as non-Asian contributors are concerned for Hoberman is 63 years old - he was eight years old when GKOTM was released into American theatres, 11 when GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER was released, so on, so forth. He might just have insight which is most interesting being older than Godzilla himself!

There are other special features on the set. Newly done subtitles which will hopefully give us the most accurate translation of the film since the legendary 1980’s bootleg tape, an interview with Akira Ifukube most likely ported from the R2 DVD set, and a mysterious featurette on the film’s photographic effects which I don’t know what to make of it right now (could be something newly produced or something which Criterion has loaned from Toho or maybe Classic Media?).

Can this be the definitive release of GODZILLA? When comparing it to the other releases, it might be film and special features wise. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Tomoo Hariguchi's Prop Collection

2011-10-13T05:36:00.000-04:00

Many of us may see a picture of Toho's prop storage facility only to feel saddened that they are not keeping up with props, which seems weird thus the props are rotting and withering away and since they don't do anything with them, it is kind of a waste of space. But enter the lucky fan like Ed Godziszewski or the late owner of Monster Zero Information Site who might have a claw or a dorsal fin of a suit. Good, but those are only parts. To the rescue is some of the the special effects artists of kaiju eiga. Koichi Kawakita has his collection of props and such, but today, we are going to see through the lense of a camera owned by Japanophile Patrick Macias the prop collection of Tomoo Hariguchi. Some stuff will surprise you. Take a look!

IDW G:KOM Issue 2 Review

2011-07-30T12:02:00.000-04:00

By Donny Winter

IDW Publishing’s next issue of GODZILLA: KINGDOM OF MONSTERS is definitely a step up from its first installment. While one of my main complaints during the first issue was the apparent instability in the characters not to mention some inconsistencies with art, Issue 2 definitely improves in both regards.

Immediately the second issue starts out with a Godzilla attack on Japan interweaved with various appearances in different settings--the main focus a man who is searching for his missing children. This man is actually one of the more interesting characters who’s appeared in the series up to date, and he’s seen all the way through the end of the issue. Secondly, not only do more fascinating human characters surface, but both Rodan and Anguirus appear in the story introduced by the death of animals and pestilence--providing a better sense of that apocalyptic feeling that really wasn’t evident in the first issue.

Issue 2 is not perfect, it does have its faults. At times the artistic impressions of the kaiju, most notably Anguirus seem a bit off. There are instances where he seems to look like he does in the movies, and there are other scenes where he seems to look more like a dog than a reptile. Other than that, both Rodan and Godzilla have very detailed representations.

Much like the previous issue, Issue 2 contains a significant amount of political nuance and we get to see frequent appearances from President Obama and the Governor of Texas. Naturally there is a bit of humor accompanied by these political figures, mainly the Texan Governor state wild radical notions toward the monster threat occurring in his state. Hopefully these political threads will continue to flow into future issues. Overall, while Issue 2 seemed a bit rushed when introducing the secondary kaiju characters and the inconsistent artistic impressions of Anguirus, it is quite superior to the introduction to this comic book series. The human characters are much more developed, and the build up toward the climatic monster appearances, while fast-paced, are pretty epic.

Definitely a worthy second installment to this series.

Japan's Celebration of MOTHRA's 50th Anniversary

2011-07-04T21:18:00.000-04:00

With Mothra’s 50th anniversary coming up soon (July 30th), the Queen of the Monsters (an official title used on the deluxe laserdisc set for 1996’s REBIRTH OF MOTHRA) is enjoying some recognition of the occasion. First to mention is that the Humax Cinema theatre in Japan is hosting a triple feature of Mothra films. The first is the original MOTHRA, which not only was one of the biggest hits Toho had for a monster film but would have the basic formula rehashed in Mothra’s 1964 (Mvs.G) and 1992 outings. Next would be GODZILLA, MOTHRA, EBIRAH: BIG DUEL IN THE SOUTH SEA, a film which focused more on the natives of Infant Island and their being enslaved. Then we have Mothra’s 1996 trilogy-starter REBIRTH OF MOTHRA, which took Mothra’s nature loving attitude to a new level and was one of Koichi Kawakita’s final feature length films in which he was the director of special effects. This triple feature shall be showing on July 30th. For more information, check out the links below.

http://www.humax-cinema.co.jp/cinema/special/meigaza/img/mothra.pdf
http://www.humax-cinema.co.jp/index.html

Coming to us sooner is a new book on Mothra entitled "Mothra Eiga Great Collection" (rough translation), which is most likely a look over the films Mothra has been in.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%88%A5%E5%86%8A%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E7%A7%98%E5%AE%9D-%E3%83%A2%E3%82%B9%E3%83%A9%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E5%A4%A7%E5%85%A8-%E6%B4%8B%E6%B3%89%E7%A4%BE%EF%BC%AD%EF%BC%AF%EF%BC%AF%EF%BC%AB/dp/4862487610/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1309828373&sr=8-2

We here at the KG community wish Mothra a happy 50th anniversary. Don’t forget that the Starz channels are showing the Mothra trilogy along with GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL OUT ATTACK.

Cozzilla

2011-06-24T18:15:00.000-04:00

Movie

Trailer:

Trip Down Memory Lane - tokyomonsters.com

2011-06-21T17:13:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, I took this screen cap today.

To many tokusatsu otaku out there, this was one of the best sites you could go to. For me, between Tohokingdom's DVD section, DigitalMonsterIsland, and this site, this was the best of them. This was a site which taught me and a lot of other fans bits and more about not only kaiju eiga but also the many DVDs that were out at the time of these films and shows that we love so much. This is James Ballard's Tokyo Monsters, the premeir site for DVD reviews of most regions.

This site was important for numerous reasons. First and foremost, informative reviews of the films' DVD releases were some of the most detailed, both in text and in pictures. Second, it helped teach me (and some other people for sure) about DVDs and the terminology that went along with them. Third, the site was most important in that for download were subtitles for most R2 kaiju DVDs as well as a good bit of the R1 DVDs. These subtitles are painstaking works by bilingual fans for films released in America with dubtitles (GMK anyone?).

The important thing is that the site is not at all gone. Though the site has been let go of and, under normal circumstances not accessible. However, it has been archived. Here is a link:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060225024914/http://www.tokyomonsters.com/dvdreview-R2-Toho-g84.php

It is not easy internet surfing, let me assure you. There is some times in which you would have to actually change stuff in the url address yourself to get to things like the Region 2 and region 1 DVD reviews, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. TokyoMonsters is still around thus I hope you will enjoy it.

Robert Osbourne presents SPACE MONSTER GUILALA! (The X From Outer Space)

2011-06-06T14:44:00.000-04:00

Kiyotaka Taguchi: A Retrospect REDUX

2011-06-04T03:15:00.000-04:00

What I have decided to do here with this one blog entry is post something I was going to submit to G-FAN about a year ago but didn’t since once after copying and pasting the text into an e-mail, the text got mixed up. What I tried to do here was resurrect the "film book", a feature early issues of G-FAN had which acted as a monetization for the film and had some history added on at the end. That is what I have done here.

ADDITION 6/4/11: Since learning about the print screen function, the article has had some additional editing along with added pictures (all making of pictures) - clear as possible from DVDs of GEHARHA and "G". What this article is trying to do is put Kiyotaka Taguchi's work into critical analytical context, such as what David Kalat did in his book, one which I look up to, A CRITICAL HISTORY AND FILMOGRAPHY OF TOHO'S GODZILLA SERIES. Enjoy.

FILMBOOK: "Geharha, The Long and Dark Haired Monster"
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It was dark and murky that early morning, on the Japan Sea. Must have been around four or five in the morning. Most people were asleep without a care. Only a single, small fishing boat with two men were on the suspicious waters, taking a chance at being alone in the dark. One man was chugging a bottle of wine, already drunk for the most part. The other man was at the controls, monitoring the boat’s safety. We wait for something to happen, until the man steering (who we will assume is the captain) met the console in front of him with widened eyes of dark curiosity.

"Hmmmm…. That’s weird" said the captain.
"What is it" said the drunkard, bottle still close to the lips.
The captain exclaimed, "The engines aren’t working!"
The drunkard had put down the bottle. Resting his arm and head against the side window of the boat, he sighed, "Something must have stuck onto it." Outside, the water began to get more ferocious. Out of the left side of the ship, a big pile of hair started to submerge. The drunkard got serious. "What is that? Hey, come take a look!" The captain got up.

"What?" The captain made it over to his friend and looked out into the dark. The whole body of the hairy gargantuan arose out of the water. The drunkard started screaming with the Captain exclaiming with his final words, "Oh my God, it’s…. it’s…. HAIR!!!!!" The boat exploded, sending smoke into the sky. Over the crackling fire sounded a the ferocious call of a hairy daikaiju.
Later that morning, a female reporter donned the TV screen of Hideo, a married journalist who is also sharing a house with his grandmother in law. This matter intrigues him unlike any other. He watched anxiously, as he laid down in the kitchen area, dining cloth covering him like a blanket. The female reporter talked on. "Early this morning, a fishing boat exploded…" No sooner did the female reporter speak that Hideo’s one and only came in.
"Come on Hideo! Don’t be lazy and help me out!" She was carrying breakfast. Stepping over Hideo, she made the table ready for the most important meal of the day. Hideo wasn’t too content about this latest complaint about him.
"Shut up. It is really important for us journalists to check out news programs like this." Hideo finished his sentence as more interesting information came through. "Fisherman Mr. Tasaki is currently missing. The Coastal Guard has been making a rescue effort since this morning…" That last piece of news made Hideo think. Observing the hair left on the boat’s salvaged remains, Hideo made the assumption, "It looks like it was sunken by a hairy kaiju!"
"God, another "kaiju" story?" said the wife. However, joining in on the conversation was Hideo’s mother in law, who was also brining in food for breakfast. She sat down and helped set blue and white porcelain bowl while the wife buttered bread.
"There isn’t anything like that in today’s world" the mother proclaimed.
Hideo protected his claim, saying "Well, we are in the age of science. We have to uncover the truth." With that being said, he grabbed a piece a toast and put it in his mouth. After that, he got up and put on his coat and hat as he rushed out the door, trying to get the newest scoop on this monumental information. Hideo knew the first place he had to go: the government moderated hospital.
At the hospital, many a photo journalist there was. In a small bed, the drunkyard remained. Over and over again, the drunkard repeat the same word, "Hair… Hair… Hair…" The doctor finally came in, a voice of truth.
"His hair has strangely fallen out. He must have experienced something very terrifying." The nurse stood behind the good doctor with the IV being kept an eye on. Hideo watched as another journalist bent down to ask a question. "Mr. Murakami, what in the world did you experience?" The journalist looked up to see Mr. Murakami being just three feet away from him, peering down onto the victim.
"A sea-man could have done this. Or, we can assume that a Keukegen might have caused it. Anyways, go ahead and go through all the materials we have and conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause…" Murakami was going to finish his sentence. But he never got to. All of a sudden, the drunkard came up and started ripping at Mr. Murakami’s hair, screaming, "Hair!"
Later that day, Hideo walked up the tiring mountain path. He took a break to catch his breath. Upon looking up, he noticed a stone tori gate in front of him. By the side, a giant stone was erect, with the Japanese words engraved on it saying "Shrine of Geharha". Hideo started walking again. Louder and louder Shinto prayers were being prayed. Something had happened. Once there, Hideo opened up the door with a bang. Slowly, everyone turned around and looked at him. The onmyodo master had a malcontent look on his face.
"Who is this?"
Hideo took off his hat. What he was doing wasn’t looking for news directly. He was going to become the harbinger of bad news. "I heard you know about the Keukegen "Gehara", and there is something which you need to know." No sooner that when he told the tribe the news that he found out about the location of Geharha. Camera in hand, he raced through the village. The villagers were chasing him, claiming, "You must not go! You will be cursed by the great Geharha!" But the case didn’t last long. Hideo stopped at a cliff. The tribal members stopped also. Below and in front of them, the forest had been devastated.
"Oh, no… The seal has been broken! Nobody can stop the Great Gehara now." The village members look on as they lay witness to what could be the beginning of an apocalypse.

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Meanwhile, the waves were crashing and the birds were chirping at the Yase Cliff, Noto Peninsula, where a young couple were trying to get their picture taken together. The boy friend asked the girl friend to get closer to the edge. However, the camera wouldn’t take pictures of the couple. Instead, something more monstrous would be having it’s photograph taken as it wiped the couple clean off of the face of the earth as the giant monster, the Keukegen Geharha came ashore.
In the days to come, reports of destroyed rail systems and national wild life reserves would come in, making countries such as India and the countries like Africa have to repeat the news of Geharha. Finally, the Japanese government made it official that it was a kaiju that was causing the melee. On the news, Mr. Murakami proclaimed, "We even thought it was done by the Gods, the old rulers of the earth. Considering all the evidence, it must be a monster. There is no question that this is all because of a kaiju.Japanese news stations then started making reports.

"According to the authorities, the monster - now named Gehara from ancient lore - has hit the shore of the Kanazawa region. The situation of the damage is still unknown, but it is confirmed that Gehara is now heading to an urban area. Local residents should stay calm."
The city of Kanazawa was now evacuating. In the large crowd of people, walking away from the city (with Geharha in the visible distance). Within the mass exodus was Hideo’s wife and her mother. The mother wasn’t all that pleased, especially with Hideo.
"Where is Hideo?" she said in the typical mother-in-law fashion.
The wife responded with a comment of peace, "I hope he’s safe."
At the same time, the Japanese Self Defence Force had set up base, dubbed the "MONSTER DISASTER HEADQUARTERS". In the main office lied a table with a with green lamps with politicians sitting at them. In the corner were three soldiers with equipment to monitor the situation. In the front were accouple of maps. Into the room walked Mr. Murakami and another soldier. It was quiet… to quiet. The soldier with Murakami whispered what he had to say…
"Will our weapons work on Gehara?"
"As long as he is a terrestrial being, his antibiotic must be the same as ours." Murakami said, keeping the same tone. Then the quiet was broken when a female soldier got off of the phone to report news.
"Gehara has reached Kanazawa!"
Back in Kanazawa, in front of a large dome/tori gate structure, foolish civilians who want a picture as well as a female news caster stood, waiting for the hairy leviathan’s appearance. The female reporter continued, "The Monster Gehara seems to be heading this way, demolishing building on the way. We can even hear his footsteps." Two teens ignorantly started dancing for the camera. All of a sudden, the great Keugen’s head reached above the building, roaring his roar of vengeance. People didn’t walk anymore, rather ran from the city. Geharha was on top of the dome now, peering directly onto the civilians. People started screaming, Geharha started stomping, making glass fly into the air.
The female reporter continued, "Gehara is now visible. It is extremely dangerous here!" Geharha was over the dome now. The male teen stopped dancing. "What, what? Going on? Oh, oh, oh hell, Damn it, run for your lives!" Geharha advanced, though due to his weight crushed the dome and turned over in a comedic manner. However, when he got up, he had part of a tower in his mouth. Geharha flung it into the air, ending the lives of the two teens and the news casters.
On the other side of things, tanks were being deployed. They were our last chance. Once in front of Geharha, they started firing. All the rounds had hit his abdomen, sending skin and hair flying. Back at the Monster Disaster Headquarters, Mr. Murakami looked on a television screen at the action.
"Yes, he’s gargantuan but his skin cannot be as hard as steel" he said.
More and more ammo was shot at Geharha. His hair flew and landed onto the ground. However, it wasn’t to last, the JSDF’s progress. The soldiers started to smell something… a fume given off my the severed follicles. The soldiers were in total disgust. "I cannot breath!" "He’s excreting gas!" "Retreat! Retreat!"
Mr. Murakami was in total bewilderment. The female soldier started giving more news. "Gehara is discharging gas from his fallen hair! Our personnel are incapacitated!" Another soldier butted in, "We can’t keep the defense line!"
"If we hit, he discharges gas. Plus, the long hair cushions the damage." said the soldier by Mr. Murakami. Mr. Murakami went to compare Geharha’s hair and the tank rounds to how… "A mud wall deads a cannon bullet." Everyone just shared at Murakami. Just in time though, came in an Americans scientist, terrible Japanese and all.
"I have a good idea! Why don’t we used the machine we developed?" Out on the table, the American scientist unrolled the blue prints to the new machine. In the meantime, Geharha continued to advance with a flock of birds fallowing him. All of the soldiers started evacuating.

However, Geharha turned his head. Down the street came another wave of planes and a strange weapon almost as tall as Geharha, the "Gas Vortical Device FUJIN". Over a radio, a female voice said, "Gas Vortical Device: Ready"
The American scientist back at the headquarters gave the orders. "Fujin, ignition!" The weapon, a giant fan, started blowing harder and harder, getting rid of the gas and moving the hair out of Geharha’s face. "Level Max!" said the American. Finally, the yellow patch of skin on Geharha’s forehead was exposed.
Mr. Murakami shouted out, "THERE IT IS!" The tanks started firing onto the spot. Everyone drew a sigh of relief, congratulating each other. Murakami broke the mood though.

"After all, humans are the scariest."

Explosives put on the Geharha Suit... damn that must sting.

Out of the debris came a pain-ridden Geharha, roaring with a steady stream of tears coming out of his eyes. Slowly, he made it out of the city and back towards the mountain area, through the vast forests. However, two F-15’s dropped bombs onto Geharha, making him fall to his death into a below lake where the tribe from earlier on was at. Everyone started getting a saddened feeling for the kaiju.
The soldier by Mr. Murakami broke the silence, "Is Gehara dead?"
Murakami responded, "More than likely, yes. Yet we have to remember that a second Gehara will appear soon unless we stop the environmental destruction."
Back at the village, the people lost something important to them. They lost what made their lives. They lost the magic and the mystery of their culture. The village onmyodo master cried out, "It’s not Gehara’s fault! It’s humans who are harmful!"
Hideo gave the final work, "Gehara is a victim as well." Dawn came, with the sun rising above the hills. Smoke was on the water and people just hoped that humanity had learned it’s lesson and that more pro-active activities would be ensued so that way they wouldn’t have to suffer another Geharha or another Geharha having to suffer the same painful, dreadful death as the one we just saw. This was the chance for humanity to be redeemed.

Shinji Higuchi is comming along for this ride ladies and gentlemen... and that's a good thing!

Introduction
In the absence of Godzilla, Gamera, and Mothra from the Japanese cinematic scene (due to lack of interest in tokusatsu eiga in it’s native country), it seems that a lot of independent kaiju films have been made to fan the fire which is the want for new kaiju eiga not comming from Tsuburaya. Recently, one man has made two kaiju shorts in which got DVD releases and have become quite popular with the hard core fan base. The man is Kiyotaka Taguchi. Since 2008, he has made two kaiju short films, "G" (2008) and "Geharha: The Long And Dark Haired Monster" (2009).

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Kiyotaka Taguchi is no stranger to working on Tokusatsu eiga. Kiyotaka became a Godzilla fan at the age of 4, first seeing "The Return of Godzilla" (1984, a film which involved a future partner in the business, Shinji Higuchi). His beginning on working in the genre was being an Assistant Special Effects director for the film "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" (2001). At this time, he was a young 28 year old right out of the Nikkatsu Visual Arts Academy (who which everyone except two people involved with this production was involved with). Joining the Toho art department, Taguchi went on to help create many of the models and set up the stages for the last three Godzilla films. Since the end of the Godzilla series, Taguchi has gone on to work on other SFX films, including Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003), The Grudge 2 (2006), Norman England’s "The iDol" (2007), Monkey Magic (2008), and Shutter (2009). His work also includes the 20th Century Boys films, which include homage’s to kaiju and manga works.

Genesis starting with "G"
The first of his independent films was "G" (2008). The film was made over the course of seven years. "G" really was made with the least of resources, including that "G" was filmed using consumer grade camera equipment, non professionals as actors (save the theatrical actress Beniko). However, the film did have one aspect kept in quality – the special effects. Thanks to his work with Toho, Kiyotaka and his crew were able to make detailed models and suits which could be filmed and latter matted in with CGI work, done at Kiyotaka’s company computers after hours. For the suitamation filming though, Taguchi and his crew were allowed to use the Toho Built soundstage. The suit for the main kaiju, Garemon, was made using all store bought materials such as futon materials and the Robo suit was made by a friend of Kiyotaka’s from the Godzilla scene – Kakusei Fujiwara.

Review: "G" (2008)
One of the reasons why people love the Showa series is because of the amount of "variety" the series had, mostly from the fact that over seven kaiju had their premiers in the Showa series with their own film or television series. Even Toei did one with Dragons and such. Make it eight if one wants to remember "Agon, The Atomic Dragon". There’s even more than that, if you count the other non-Goji kaiju films Honda directed and Tsuburaya did the SFX for. Now, that trend was abandoned in the Heisei series. The only kaiju which got their own films are Godzilla, Gamera, and Mothra with Yamato-No-Orochi appearing once in 1994. Now with the Millennium series going underway, we got the variety trend going on again.
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It’s mostly because of this digital age which makes making films a lot easier. With this, kaiju eiga is not filled with only Gamera/Godzilla/Ultraman films anymore. There is now a growing series of independent kaiju films being made. Not including "Gamera 4: Truth", "Negadon" was the first of this wave. Of recent times, films like "Gehara", "The Fog Horn", and "G" have continued the trend and the most successful of these is Shimpei Hayashida’s "Deep Sea Monster" series (which currently runs with "Deep Sea Monster Reigo" and it’s sequel, "Deep Sea Monster Raiga"). The plot reads like this:

The movie starts off with three military guys running around in a forest in a flash back. One of the soldiers is gunned down. Now in present times, one of the military guys is still beating himself up for letting one of his partners die. Meanwhile, a lab experiment goes wrong as a scientist injects himself with a special serum. It causes him to go out on a "Quarantine"-esque rampage on a fellow scientist before escaping. Accouple of minutes later, the ground opens up with the giant monster "G" running amok in his Iris-esque-ness. The military tires everything and though the weapons do have an effect on the monster, G just won’t quit and continues to attack. The aforementioned tormented army guy decides to redeem himself of the mistake years ago by saving Japan from G by piloting a giant robot. Together with a misfit female soldier, a business man, and a military general, the robot takes down G leaving the sky to be years latter filled with numerous giant robots.

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"G" is going to be quite a hit or miss for many kaiju fans. In fact, I bet some wouldn’t hesitate comparing the film to the likes of "Guilala’s Counterattack" in that not all of the comedy comes from lampooning the genre, rather toilet humor (more later). This movie first of all beats "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" (1974) as being the bloodiest kaiju film to date (which is something not every kaiju film can do, with the only one coming close in my mind is "Godzilla vs. Destroyah" and "Godzilla vs. Biollante"). G - the kaiju - is shot at so much that most of his body is skinless by the end of the film and we just have big, red blotches.

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The comedy content with the film is a lot something of a shock (in a positive or negative way is the viewer to decide, though I think of it as positive). First, when was the last time there was a kaiju nut shot (yes, nut shot)? Last time, it was Ghidorah blasting at Godzilla’s in 1964. Well, "G" takes that cake when a military guy takes a bazooka and gets under G and blasts his nuts. It even gets weirder when in an act of desperation decides to take two JR cards and connect them, using them as nunchaku. Very odd, but in a good way which will get some laughs. The SFX and directing style is a little off but it is ok none the less. Overall, the film is not for the faint of heart. Those looking for a wild ride of a kaiju film less than an hour long knows where to look.
Overall: 3/5

The Reign of "Geharha"

Being a kaiju suit actor is hard work, even if you have helpers (kakari)...

But when you have Godzilla (Kitagawa) to help you on set, it 's all good!

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The next film which Kiyotaka Taguchi would venture out to do would be "Geharha, The Long And Dark Haired Monster". The beginning of this project didn’t start with Kiyotaka. It started with Jun Miura, an entertainer and famous artist in Japan who has been said to be someone of cult status, being so recognized that he was given a bit part in "Guilala’s Countterattack" in 2007. Fast foreward to October 22, 2008. On a game show, the reknown artist had up on a board a lot of different kaiju/Yokai drawings/depictions. Out of this, it was revealed that the producers at NHK chose Geharha for a short film adaptation out of the over 325 drawings. Geharha was revealed to be a kaiju who’s name is a fusion of the Japanese word for beard (hige) and "Ra" from the ever so famous Gojira. Along with that, Geharha has been seen to have originated from many traditional Japanese folk stories, including the likes of "The Black Hair" (Kurogami, a tale which has been told on film time and time again in films like "Kwaidan" and "Exte"). Jun Miura wrote the original screenplay for the film. The original plot differs somewhat compared to the final product. According to August Ragone’s blog,

"The mysterious creature Gehara comes ashore during a monstrous typhoon, and begins to wreck havoc upon Tokyo. Eventually, the hairy beast is seemingly stopped by the Self Defense Forces’ Operation: Tokyo Drain. As a result, the beast is sucked into the city’s sewer system, but it begins to clog the works with its long hair, and ends up in a culvert. Left for dead, Gehara begins to revive, absorbing massive amounts of water beneath the streets of Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya Ward, and it's long hair begins to grow… In the film, the monster attacks the city of Kanezawa."

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The final plot would be rather different from that, with it taking more away from kaiju films of the past than what the draft synopsis above took.

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"Geharha" marked a first for Kiyotaka Taguchi. Though his second directorial attempt, this was his first decently budgeted and promoted effort. Jun was the one who hand picked Taguchi for the job after seeing the kind of material Kiyotaka was able to produce after seeing "G" (2008). The other main person in charge of the film was the one person people could call "the second Tsuburaya", Shinji Higuchi (who would come on as an executive producer, who would visit the sets every now and then). Also hand picked was stock music from kaiju eiga maestro extordinare, Akira Ifukube. All Ifukube material came from King Records’ "Artistry of Akira Ifukube" series. The rest of the film is filled with other major kaiju talent from all different areas of the genre.
Auditioning kaiju actors

In the crew was Kazuhiro Yoshida, the man who plays the titular role. Yoshida’s most notable works of siutmation would be acting as Hedorah and Gigan in "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004). In the end though, Yoshida had to audition against another man and a female for the role. It was not an easy task, getting the job to be the suit actor for Geharha. Yoshida was against two other people for the role: another man and a woman. Yoshida was the first to audition, using five boxes as buildings. Yoshida did a somber, lumbering portrayal, moving slowly but using his arms to knock down the boxes. The woman was second to audition, doing a lumbering but more emotive portrayal, using her feet to knock down the boxes. The third man did a "Final Wars" like approach with the boxes. Yoshida was the one to get the part. Among the judges were Kiyotaka Taguchi and stunt coordinator for the film, Tsutomu Kitagawa. Kitagawa is most probably known as the suit actor for everyone one of the Millennium series’ Godzillas except for the one in "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" (2001). Also among the crew is a cohort of Kiyotaka Taguchi’s from "G" (2008), Kakusei Fujiwara.
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The cast also consisted of some better than average talent, some of it also having had some part in kaiju eiga in the past. The two most notable names are Shiro Sano (who played supporting roles in "Godzilla 2000: Millennium" (1999) and "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" (2001) and would later have a cameo as a vigilante) who plays Mr. Murakami - the government official type of the film. The other role would go to Kanji Tsuda (the father from "Gamera: The Brave" (2006)), the sole survivor of the boat incident at the beginning of the film. Other noticeable names come in, such as the actor for the reporter Hideo Akihara - Ken Osawa ("Samurai Fiction" (1998)). Another noticeable name is that of the JSDF commander, Hiroyuki Watanabe ("Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" (2001)).

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"Geharha" (2009) would go on to take a little less than a year to make all together. With filming ending January 10th, 2009, the film would have it’s premier on the NKH channel and in an NKH theatre on February 24th, 2009 at 12:12 AM. The film would be subject to lots of acclaim from all sides of the kaiju fandom. The film would later make it’s way onto the internet unsettled for all to see on @nifty, a Japanese video hosting site (much like youtube)(http://roberthood.net/blog/index.php/2009/03/05/gehara-is-here/). The film’s response would be such that on September 30, 2009, "Geharha" would be released on DVD and Blu-Ray, being beaten by Toho just by twelve days as the first kaiju film to be released onto the Blu-Ray format.

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What’s most interesting in Geharha’s (2009) case is it’s place historically in the kaiju and/or tokusatsu genre of films. Since "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004) made the Godzilla series end, a lot of people who are fans of the genre have started branching out more to other properties such as "Ultra Q", "Ultraman" and other Tsuburaya Company productions as well as other henshin properties ("Kamen Rider", "Super Sentai", "Iron King", ect.).. This is a good thing. However, the more interesting thing about this time in kaiju eiga history is that since Godzilla and Gamera’s hiatus from power, lots of independent kaiju films can now be made without interference with the popularity and competition with a Godzilla or Gamera film.

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It’s thanks to this time that Kiyotaka Taguchi could make "G" (2008), that Shinpei Hayashida can make his "Reigo/Raiga" (2005/2009) films, that Tomoo Hariguchi could make "Death Kappa" (2010), and Jun Awazu can make "Negadon: Monster from Mars" (2005), among other films. This has actually given the Millennium series a kind of mirror effect with the Showa series. This mirror effect, some could say, did start with the latter Millennium era Godzilla films, with connections to the Showa series, along with other "tips of the hat" (such as Godzilla’s breath not only making a tank blow up with his heat beam but also melting it, much like in the Showa films). This mirror effect not only draws on the omages to the Showa series, but also revolves around the newfound amount of variety of kaiju films that are being made now.

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It is that connection which gives GEHARHA it’s biggest "identifier" (if you had to, without judging from the special effects or cinematography, guess during what period GEHARHA was made). Like "Negadon" (2005) or "G" (2008), GEHARHA serves as a big tribute or omage to tokusatsu eiga in general, which uses that as a source of humor. "Geharha" is most probably the one most littered with intentional omages to other kaiju eiga. However, among all of the omages to the old series which the film has, it does something which only "Negadon: Monster From Mars" (2005) had done in this new line of kaiju eiga – capture the feeling of a Showa film through way of similar occurrences with an underlying theme, but with being comedic like "Deep Sea Monster Reigo" (2005) and "Guilala’s Counterattack" (2008), putting it with the five main films of this new era of independent kaiju film making (though it should still be in the "Millennium" series, unless someone wants to claim that this series of independent ventures should be differentiated by using the long misused "Shinsei" moniker).

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In terms of special effects, it is interesting in the way which Geharha (2009) is pointing. A very interesting this has happened in this period of kaiju eiga history (2005-2010), it is the CG evolution. "Mega Monster Battles: Ultra Galaxy Legends" (2009), "Always 2: Sunset on 34th Street" (2008), and Jun Awazu’s "Negadon: Monster From Mars" and "Planzet" along with other kaiju/yokai cross breed films like "The Great Yokai War" (2005) and "Big Man Japan" (2007) and even Shinpei Hayashida’s own "Deep Sea Monster Reigo" (2005) seem to show that computer graphic imagery is taking over the suitamation and models (albeit, slowly) which is a staple of kaiju eiga. Geharha (2008), instead (thanks mostly to the guidance of Shinji Higuchi as executive producer) does most of the same thing that went on with "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" (1999): mixing CGI and suitamation while keeping a pretty even ratio of each SFX technique and theory evident in the film. Many of the shots which are CG in the film are actually just shots involving complex matting of the film, such as the aerial shot in the faux trailer for "Geharha: Monster Martial Law" with Geharha’s hair growing to the extent which it takes out whole city blocks.

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"Geharha" is a pretty interesting film. Though a short film, it does mean a good deal at this stage of the history of kaiju eiga. Not only is it a film which carries a lot of the traits of the 2005-2010 independent kaiju eiga boom, but it shows the quality which the future of kaiju eiga and what it could be. Shusuke Kaneko has long been seen as the only person who - with his creative team which is usually picked with him, was the only person to direct non-Tsuburaya Company kaiju film (the Gamera trilogy and GMK). However, thanks to Kiyotaka Taguchi starting to build a name for himself, he can easily be the Jun Fukuda to Kaneko’s Ishiro Honda. While the future of kaiju eiga is uncertain - specially in the King’s case - if Japanese studios continue to make kaiju films, they know who they need to hire - either Kaneko to Taguchi…

Production Timeline
10-22-08 - Geharha choosing announced on Japanese game show
12-14-09 - filming of crow evacuating from beginning of ground zero scene - Shinji Higuchi doing some camera work, filming of soldiers being effected by gas (Higuchi at camera),
12-15-09 - filming of chance scene with tribe; JSDF headquarters filming; filming of tribe at village set
12-16-08 - filming of beginning breakfast scene; filming of Mother and Wife scene in MONSTER MARTIAL LAW trailer, filming of Ultraman-esque scene from trailer
12-17-08 - Filmed beginning scene in the evening on a ship (while docked); filming of hospital scene;
12-21-08 - Geharha having hair blown away (two versions - blue screen and on set)
12-22-08 - filming of Operation Perm tank - Kitagawa present; filming of trailer scene of Geharha twirling with hair taking out whole city blocks,
12-23-08 - filming of SFX forest scenes showing post-Geharha destruction (at beginning, spliced in with international news reports; Geharha trembling shot six times), filming of Geharha on top of station and falling (rehearsed using a Styrofoam rendition). Some of the scene was filmed with model head (was a long shot in final film). Also shot was Geharha being blasted by tanks
12-25-08 - model ship is exploded in front of blue screen for beginning scene; fixing of Geharha suit; filming scene of Geharha’s head being shot at along with him falling backwards into the building behind him, also filming Geharha crying (model head)
12-26-08 - filming of soldiers at ground zero along with some model tanks up against a blue screen
12-27-08 - filmed Geharha in air moving his legs for the beginning scene with his first appearance; filming of station heading post-being thrown by Geharha (it kills the young couple and the female reporter), shot of Geharha with tanks in his hair; filming of Geharha going through forest in second half of film
12-28-08 - filming of Xilian-esque alien scenes
1-4-09 - filming of beginning scene by placing camera in water and having camera go under and above camera several times
1-5-09 - filming of soldiers hiding from Geharha (to be matted in with shot of Geharha’s tail with tanks in his hair
1-6-09 - filming of tribal scenes of dancing. Also filming of killing of young couple
1-9-09 - filming of real station (people and kaiju SFX to be matted in later)
1-10-09 - final day of production, consisting of re-shoots and filming of female reporter at ground zero (who gets killed at the beginning of main kaiju attack), filming of complex camera angle of first soldier who, while fireing, inhales the gas that Geharha’s hair gives off; filming of other soldiers being effected by gas via green screen

For those who watch the faux trailer at the end and want to see the anatomy of the cool city-wide attack Geharha uses, there is is above! All they do is matte it togeather.

Toho takes over FearNet On Demand!

2011-06-01T16:27:00.000-04:00

Awesome

June is Godzilla fan’s month with FearNet on demand! No less than 10 films Sony owns are on FearNet for one’s viewing pleasure. These films include:

Win for not using the DVD cover art as an image.

-Battle In Outer Space - widescreen; US version
-Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle For Earth - full screen with redone beginning card
-Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla - international print, not VHS print. Still has dub
-Godzilla vs. Destroyer - international print, with original ending credits
-Godzilla 2000 - VHS print
-Godzilla vs. Megaguirus - Sci-Fi Channel Print
-Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack - SciFi Channel Print
-Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla - widescreen with dub right off DVD
-Godzilla: Tokyo SOS - widescreen with dub right off DVD
-Godzilla: Final Wars - widescreen with dub right off DVD

Fail in more ways than one.

Battle In Outer Space will be available till 6/21 and the rest last till 6/30. With FearNet being a free On Demand system, there are periodical commercials through out the film, though they are less in quanitity than Crackle.com.

Dual Review: IDW's GODZILLA - KINGDOM OF MONSTERS issue 1

2011-05-28T02:12:00.000-04:00

Review by Evan Brehany

Adorning the first issue’s re-print with a rendition of the Mire-Goji by Alex Ross, GODZILLA: KINDOM OF MONSTERS is now reaching the hands of many who couldn’t get a copy in their local comic book store just because the first issue sold out the first day, which in and of itself is a spectacular occurrence after a historical publicity stunt regarding alternate covers (get your comic book store smashed by Godzilla, art by Matt Frank). IDW, best known for making comic versions of popular films like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and MACHETE, took the reigns of Godzilla - now in a line starting with Marvel and Dark Horse.

The first thing to realize about this comic book is just that it is a comic book. A lot have a problem with things like Godzilla eating kids and the elderly. Again, this is a comic book. Therefore, to take it as if it was a new film (like what Legendary Pictures is doing) is not a fair way to view the work. It is supposed to be fun. If Godzilla committing such acts are not your cup of tea, then this comic is not for you. Though the idea that it is something the comic book makers are doing to make Godzilla seem “dark” or “hard core” is faulty. The whole comic is just to be fun. Hence why Godzilla is within the first issue is already blasted with a nuclear bomb (which Japan wouldn’t do in the first place due to their policies) and both the Japanese Prime Minister and Barrack Obama are both quoted as saying “You have to be f****** kidding me”. Why take it seriously if things like this are in it?

The artwork is good. Not the best I have seen, kind of reminds me of Cartoon Network’s BEN 10. That is not totally a bad thing, since a good bit of it’s detail (particularly Godzilla first using is nuclear beam) is really great. The last page of the comic is what’s the bad ass thing about it though - Godzilla blasting Tokyo to Hell and back. It is also nice to see that Godzilla is not the biggest thing in the Japanese metropolis seeing how it just make’s Godzilla’s reign all the more ravenous. The Godzilla design for the comic is one which not everyone may like, though I personally like it. It is a good mix of two designs: the general Heisei design and the Finaro-Goji design - the main body is Finaro Goji - the leanness and the size of the dorsal fins show the influence of the Finaro-Goji design (an illustrated 100% accurate portrayal of . The head though is distinctly Heisei, though the pupils occasionally going pure white, conjuring memories of the Sokogeki-Goji suit from GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL OUT ATTACK.

Other than that, there isn’t that much to talk about. This first issue isn’t so much an issue which sets up the characters as much as an issue which is most likely going to set up the tone. Though I do not doubt the Japanese Prime Minister and Obama are going to be reoccurring characters, I doubt they will be the central human cast. Great job IDW!

Review by Donny Winter

Over a decade has passed since the Godzilla franchise was graced with a successful comic book series, the previous being the relatively well-known Darkhorse Godzilla comics. IDW Publishing, over the past few months, obtained the rights to produce illustrations and stories centered around our favorite Japanese giant monsters like Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah etc. The first installment of the series features amazing cover art boasting an upper-panned view of Godzilla breathing his atomic breath while smashing his claws through sky-scrapers, no doubt a bombastic way to introduce the character.

Unlike the previous comic book series, GODZILLA - KINGDOM OF MONSTERS seems to take more of a pseudo-satirical-political perspective when it comes to the portrayal of human characters. For those who are looking forward to a comic book series with believable humans, which we usually are deprived of in the movies, this comic does not boast that. The characters seem as two dimensional as the drawings depicting them since most of the comic focuses on the fear they experience in the wake of a monster attack. Children screaming, elderly people being trampled, sailors wondering what’s going on, militia reacting---typically the same things we see in some of the movies during destruction scenes occurs throughout the first issue. We are even graced with appearances from the Japanese Prime Minister, and a rather blunt rendition of President Barack Obama---both of which end up cussing at some point in the issue. Other than the comic making fun of famous political leaders, we also see a couple political nods to the economic recession and the infamous BP Oil Spill. This piece of work is chocked full of political statements and from time to time it’s quite entertaining.

The main character that shallows the human characters obviously is Godzilla, who I must say is portrayed wonderfully here. While he makes his appearance in the first four pages, it is surprising, spontaneous and attention getting. Much of the imagery depicting him closely correlates with Heisei Godzilla and the Godzilla from GMK. The more shadowed imagery gives him the intimidating feeling the darker personality of GMK Godzilla seemed to convey. Overall, Godzilla seemed scary, destructive and the lovable force-of-nature most of us enjoy seeing.

The art for this issue is okay, though I did notice some inconsistencies especially with the human characters. In the beginning it is difficult to tell how old the male and female are, it can be discerned that they are both young; however some scenes give them facial structures similar to that of late teenagers when they in fact are likely pre-teens judging by their dialogue. Other than that, all the other artwork is superb.

Overall, while the introduction to GODZILLA - KINGDOM OF MONSTERS lacks a significant human arc and has some artistic inconsistencies, the portrayal of Godzilla is well-done and much of the political satire is quite entertaining. Definitely a worthy start to a promising comic book series. Kudos to IDW Publishing!

A Little Something Special

2011-05-24T08:25:00.000-04:00

Recommendation: OTAKU VERSE ZERO

2011-05-22T16:49:00.000-04:00

It is amazing how little of a culture you actually know when you are fond of a culture that isn’t your native one. You can spend years watching films like DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, ONMYOJI, and IKIRU and that would be not even the tip of the iceberg - more like trying to shoot at it and barely grazing the tip. Then you could be part of your high school’s anime club and consume sushi, tea, and poppy sticks and it is barely any more. Japanese pop/sub culture is such a large field of interest. Sadly, only a fraction is available to us here in America.

In comes Patrick Macias. Editor of OtakuUSA and author of a lot of books on the subject, and even a presenter of some screenings of Nippon Eiga (along with August Ragone). An intellectual in the field, Macias has made this youtube series which helps give those who cannot truly go to Japan for whatever reasons get a taste of Japanese culture with a bi-lingual Macias going to different places in Japan and taking us through a tour and showing us a lot of eye candy, weather you are an anime otaku or a kaiju loving G-Fan.

I approve of the series. Macias gives us a great look at Japan. Additionally, his knowledge of everything Japanese helps makes sense for those who will experience something of a culture shock. Not to mention the occasional Japanese lesson. Macias is featured along side anime voice actress Yuu Asakawa (of FINAL FANTASY 12 fame) who at times goes with Macias to some of the events and such and sometimes just talks at the Otaku Verse Zero headquarters.

Bottom line, it is a great series - one which every Japanophile should watch. You will learn at least one thing with each episode. Thank you Patrick Macias.

A good episode to start off with for the kaiju crowd.

Comming Soon: Monster Attack Team Magazine's Issue 9

2011-04-08T16:51:00.001-04:00

3-11-11

2011-03-11T23:51:00.000-05:00

I hope the Japanese appears on the message for everyone. But this is for those who are going through Hell in Japan right now. I hope everyone is safe.

The below air port was remembered to have been where Gamera first fought the Mother Legion. Not anymore.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help

https://www.japansociety.org/japan_earthquake_relief_fund

ToyVault's "Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars" Images

2011-03-02T00:29:00.000-05:00

Most likely to be overlooked by the highly anticipated IDW comic book series, ToyVault has released some images of one of their products comming (as of now) May 2011.

Here is the official word on the set, described below:

"Toy Vault, Inc. is thrilled and excited to announce Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars; an officially licensed multi-player board game featuring the King of the Monsters – Godzilla!

It’s an all-out brawl of monstrous proportions and Earth is the battlefield! The Xiliens have pitted Godzilla, Rodan, Gigan and King Ghidorah against each other in a catastrophic battle and only one monster will emerge victorious!

In Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars, players pick a monster and a scenario, stomping over terrain and destroying buildings on their warpath - all while fending off aggressive military attacks, bombs, traps and, of course, other KAIJU! Special abilities are used to eliminate the competition or to tuck their tail between their legs and run away before they are taken out.

The game is jam-packed with pieces sure to please any gamer. Along with the four fully painted 2 3/8 inch plastic Kaiju figurines, the game also includes 90 stackable plastic tiles for building skyscrapers, four individual monster playmats, 86 terrain and power tokens, and much more. You’ve never had so much fun ravaging the world as you will when you play GODZILLA: KAIJU WORLD WARS!

Check out ToyVault.com in the coming weeks as we’ll be adding more product details, images, and ways you can submit your own custom game-play scenarios! "

Price as of now is in the $40-$70 price range depending on which site you go to for a pre-order of this game.

Here are some links of interest:

Pre-Order:
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=TYV09013

Official Page:

http://www.toyvault.com/Godzilla/Kaiju_Wars.html

Interview:

http://journalismg2km.blogspot.com/2010/09/toy-vault-claims-war-with-godzilla.html

March Madness Brings Forth the Gamera Trilogy!

2011-02-21T17:31:00.000-05:00

Even after almost 20 years after their conception, the Gamera trilogy is still alive and kicking ass!

The same theatre which recently hosted a Toho Showa SFX film festival (with outlier "Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack") is hosting a nother festival, starring no other than the Guardian of the Universe who's struggle is always incomplete - Gamera!

http://www.shin-bungeiza.com/allnight.html

Beginning with a 50 minute interview with Shinji Higuchi, the theatre will go on to show all three Gamera films, lasting from 22:30-4:50 (millitary time). Ticket price is approx. $30 and could be an adult's only affair judging from the web link above. So, if you are going to Japan, you may want to stop by to see this awesome show!

Comming Soon: Thai Zilla

2011-02-21T12:04:00.000-05:00

A brief history on the non-Ultraman kaiju eiga in the country of Thailand - in cinemas and on home video.

Forum Spotlight: Monsterland Forums

2011-01-22T19:26:00.000-05:00

This is a forum that is celebrating it's anniversary this month. Saddly though, it is a forum which is going to be under the radar for most who could be potentialy members at this forum. This is Monsterland Forum. A place you can visit right here:

http://s15.zetaboards.com/Monsterland_Forum/index/

The site is owned by Georgia-based Godzilla fan - Lee Merritt. Lee is one who has seen a good bit if it when it comes to Godzilla's activity in the Peach State. He did go to Sean Linkenback's Showcase Collectibles when it was open in Atlanta. He has been to the Plaza Theatre when they occasionaly show a kaiju film and in general cult films which are popular. Who better to make a forum?

Monsterland Forum - like mentioned - is a forum which isn't on many people's radars. It however, is a small forum which with regular visits and conversations with other members, can get to become not unlike a close-knit family. The point of the forum is to have a good time. It is not out there to be as Tohokingdom or as resourcefull as Clubtokyo/MonsterZero.

Monsterland Forum is also under the administration of yours truly. Come by and check out the place if you like - it is a fun experiance with not as much spam or as fighting members as you would normaly see on a kaiju forum (or any forum which is based on a cult fandom). Highly recommended.

We here at KG wish Monsterland Forums a very happy 5th anniversary. 2006-2011.

Mothra's 50 Anniversary

2011-01-17T20:29:00.000-05:00

By: Donny Winter
Godzilla’s 50th Anniversary back in 2004 was celebrated with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, numerous commercials advertising the movie Godzilla: Final Wars, and a considerable amount of excitement not to mention discussion across the entire giant monster fandom.
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This year marks Mothra’s 50th Anniversary, an insect deity who found her place in fame back in 1961. After Toho neglected to do anything for Rodan’s 50th Anniversary back in 2006, it is safe to say that they do not have anything planned for their Queen of the Monster‘s semi-centennial.
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Not all is hopeless though. The membership of Kaiju Galaxy is planning on celebrating Mothra’s big 5-0 with a year of discussion, creation and enjoyment in Mothra’s honor. If the King of the Monsters gets a 50th, well it is sensible for the Queen to get her respective 50th celebration as well.

On Creative Kaiju Writing...

2011-01-14T02:35:00.000-05:00

By Donny Winter

Regardless which kaiju site you visit, there’s usually a section dedicated to fan fiction or fan art displayed across the forums. For decades, avid fans of giant monsters like Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra and Ultraman have spent significant amounts of time writing or producing works of art and literature. Both myself, the staff and membership of Kaiju Galaxy welcome all those who find their muse in the kaiju world to join us and submit their work to the site.

After celebrating nearly two years, the Kaiju Galaxy website is looking for artists and writers so that we may enhance our collection of magnificent talent beyond the numbers we have. So far we have 15 site contributors gracing us with fiction, art, and fan poetry. We are in definite need of visual artists and poets since they are creative outlets that are not as renown across the fandom.

Kaiju Fan Poetry is a particularly new fandom creative genre and has recently come to fruition both on Kaijuphile and Kaiju Galaxy. We definitely encourage you to try it out, you may be surprised what you can write.

As most of you have known, Legendary Pictures is currently working on a Godzilla movie set to appear in 2012. Also “Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters”, an upcoming comic due to be released in March 2011 is another creative work on the fandom’s doorstep. Let us exercise our creative muscles and create works inspired by the spark of life coming back into our fandom..

My own experience with creating pieces of work inspired by Godzilla 2012 resulted in a music video of me performing a vocal cover of the song “Mothra Leo” from the 1996 Rebirth of Mothra movie. It shows that even one person can accomplish something that is relatively large, so we urge creativity, originality, and inventiveness. Feel free to join in our community and partake in the mysticism of expression.

Kaiju Galaxy’s Mission Statement:

Creativity extends beyond reality as our talents and passions allow us to concoct magnificent pieces of imagery and emotion. Kaiju Galaxy is a website dedicated to Kaiju (Japanese Giant Monster) fans' desire and aspiration to create wonderful pieces of work whether it be fan fiction or fan art aimed at both improving their writing and/or artistic skills as well as receiving a chance for others to review their accomplishments.

http://www.kaijugalaxy.webs.com/

February 2-8 2011 - Toho Tokusatsu Film Festival

2011-01-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

Can you read Japanese? Are you going to Japan any time soon? Yes to both? Don't miss out!

Source: http://www.shin-bungeiza.com/

Japan is having another film festival in reguards to tokusatsu eiga - Godzilla themed for the most part of course. The event is happening at the Shin-Bungeiza Theatre. The roster is as follows:

2nd:

Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan take on the King of Terror in "Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster". Later, Rodan tags in Baragon and the monsters set their sights to the Big G in "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah - Giant Monsters All Out Attack".

3rd:

Godzilla teams up with his kaiju armada to breat out of mind controll and take on the King of Terror once again in the film that defined an era in "Destroy All Monsters"! Later, Godzilla teams up with Jet Jaguar in the film which cemented his popularity in the US as a superhero in "Godzilla vs. Megalon"!

4th

It is the film which one SF historian claimed was an allegory of Japan's fear of the white man interbreeding with Japanese women and the bomb in the classic, "The Mysterians!". Afterward, the unofficial sequel to the Mysterians takes a turn to rock your boat with "Battle In Outer Space"!

5th

Frankenstein introduced Nick Adams to the true love of his life which never got through. "Horny Nick" stars in "Frankenstein vs. Subterranean Beast Baragon!" Afterwards, a film before it's time with the science proves that a creature that is made of sludge is a major threat in Yoshimitsu Banno's "Godzilla vs. Hedorah"!

6th

It is a Dream Team double feature with the comedic "King Kong vs. Godzilla" along with "Mothra vs. Godzilla"!

7th

Godzilla takes on his mechanical doppleganger 3 rounds on just to defeat Aliens who want to colonize Japan. It is the most awesome Battle one wants to watch featuring Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Titanosaurus, Anguirus, King Caesar, King Ghidorah, Manda, and Rodan in "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" and "Terror of Mechagodzilla"!

8th

Teruyoshi Nakano tries his hand at a straight War fare film with war ships, planes, and oceans of vast blue water in "The Imperial Navy"! Next, we kick it old school with the war film which combines the talents of Eiji Tsuburaya, Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, and Toshiro Mifune in the classic, "Wings of the Pacific!"

For more information:

http://www.shin-bungeiza.com/schedule.html

2010-12-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

Review: Guilala's Counterattack

2010-12-25T04:11:00.000-05:00

WARNING: Spoilers Present. Don't like it - don't read it.

Rating: 7/10

Special thanks to Lee Merrit for making this review possible

While most kaiju filmmakers right now are either making short films with good SFX progress or helping to add to the action sourced epicness of the Ultra Galaxy film series, there was one who brought it upon himself to make something in just the other way: make the film seem late Showa-esque while trying to do what the old Showa films and some other films (every now and then) since have done - comment on the times (as all good SF does). Minoru Kawasaki does this - to an extent - with "Guilala’s Counterattack: Attack on the G8 Summit". How does the proclaimed "Tim Burton/Ed Wood of Japan" fair with kaiju?

This is not the first time that Kawasaki has done kaiju. In addition to his cameo in the Toru-San films, Guilala was featured in "Zettai Yaseru Den Ace Uchu Dai Kaiju Girara Tojo! / Space Kaiju Shoshingeki", which is a Henshin spoof from Kawasaki (a straight to video release - released 2 days after the initial press release regarding the production of "Guilala’s Counterattack"). With the film, Kawasaki tried to make the film political in the same sense of "Gojira" (1954). However, the road used to achieve such a task is not through dialogue and use of metaphor in a serious tone. Instead, he presents us with a living caricature.

This is something which could cause a debate with viewers. Many cannot decide on the extent on which the caricatures go, on weather it was meant or too exaggerated with some of the ridiculousness just naturally coming from the gaijin. In my opinion, the script’s dialogue for the politicians is 100% intentional satirical intentionally. It comes off as such. As for the gaijin, whether they played it in the same way or if they tried to take some of it seriously (which may have been funnier in some cases) is unknown to me. The acting is so flat I cannot make the distinction. However, some of the comments seem to come off as blatant political incorrectness instead of satirical elements. Even after that, some of the dialogue also seems to have borrowed some traits from the anime, "Hetalia: Axis Powers" - having character represent whole countries and yet instead of talking professionally say things which pretty much come from the general feeling coming from the country based on what the people want and what the country has done in the past.

With the screenplay commenting on matters regarding politics at the time and troupes within the kaiju genre (Burdenous adolescents and people not really singing to the chants on the soundtrack at times), but in a scene in which a television news show interviews some people, puts kaiju films in real life and we see Kawasaki’s commentary about them. The long haired man with sun glasses at the beginning of this scene is particularly interesting, having mentioned Baragon and Varan. He doesn’t care really about the damage Guilala is doing, in fact he thinks it is a cool way to die - the latter being a sentiment a good number of American fans deal with. This shows that kaiju films (in this case, the Toho variety) would dull our sense of danger if a real life kaiju attack was to take place. After "Godzilla vs. Megalon", who can take kaiju too seriously? GMK and Cloverfield is not enough to help reinstate the sense of dread the films once possessed.

With the lack of care, we see a kaiju’s effect on a real life economy. A bakery is selling Guilala hot cakes and Guilala candy. Their response when asked about it is, "I feel bad for the victims, but business is business". Capitalism, no matter how gratifying (those in the US know that. Sure, recessions and depressions are sucky but when inflation comes about it is awesome), is a source of moral evil - one which includes over use of resources. Though this may be typical tree hugger stuff, this is coming from a Shinto nation which did draft the Kyoto treaty.

In fact, the second person interviewed after the long haired sunglasses-wearing dude is a man who thinks that it is for the better of the world in general that humanity be quashed (though many do not like this sentiment since we as humans value the life of our brethren. But there are those like Harlan Ellison who believe that the race should "go to the cockroaches). Guilala has become a metaphor for anti-capitalism, much like Mothra in 1961 and again in 1964. Only, this is done in a much more believable manner. Imagine someone making merchandise for 9/11 made just for profit and no financial benefit of victims? More relatable than the incubation of a gargantuan egg. Now, some have critisized that though this point is made in the film, it sadly doesn't encompass the whole film therefore is wasted. Think again. The film starts from the mentionings of the naughtiness of merchandising off of disaster and that Guilala may be best for the planet as a whole to going back to something which Gvs.KG91 had going with it's capitolism message - there is nothing spiritual about it so it is in vein. Think about it, apart from the fact that the plans are absurd, the world leaders are their for either money or sex. Especialy money. Alot of people would love to go to the country that defeated Guilala (and I belive a similar line was in GINO). However, it took something spiritual to defeat the problem.

As for the Japanese cast, the acting is mediocre at best. Not as bad as the gaijin, but it isn’t any GMK or such. We have the usual Showa formula here - reporters, a scientist who isn’t necessarily there all of the time, and army personnel. In a very Mothra/Geharha-esque move though, we have religion have a play here. Ritual song and dance, with emphasis on hand movements about the pelvis which seem to symbolize the human phallus. It is this religious angle of the film though that brings out the most originality to the film.

While Take-majin is nothing new (woo, we see Beat Takeshi as Susa-No-O and a samurai along with actually acting in the Take-majin suit… well that last is a first. A big action star going all siutmation on us as far as I am aware), what happens with the cast of Japanese and the cast of the forest village is a first. Unlike "Mothra vs. Godzilla" or "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle", when religion takes a part - it takes non-believers to convert to help bring upon positive change.

Further more, when dealing with a kaiju film which deals with a real deity and not something which could be debated to be a deity (Gamera), we actually have a God intervening with a natural event. The Christian god doesn’t intervene with natural stuff till the rapture but Take-Majin intervenes with natural stuff - including aliens. Guilala seems to be a demon, but nothing really ties him to such routes (though the threat of him possibly multiplying could signal Legion and Armageddon). That is where the greatest thing about this film lies - the kaiju.

The new Guilala suit is without a doubt the best kaiju suit made in a very, very long time. Even without CG enhancements, the only negative about the suit is the visibility of the vision wholes in the neck which the suit actor would be able to see through. The suit is better proportioned, a tad bulkier (which works), and the detailing is great. The best aspect of the suit though is it’s range of emotion without the use of CG or, as it seems, multiple suits or separate prop electric heads. It is the best kaiju suit since the Sokogeki-Goji suit. Guilala snores/sleeps, laughs, eats, catches a missile (great hand/eye coordination for a kaiju), burps, shows surprise, and even gets high (and dances to a classical harpsichord piece). And happy high, not heavy depressing drunk like the Bio-Goji was in "Godzilla vs. Biollante" which needed a cold shower AKA some time in a bay to wake up. A good bit of credit must also go to Guilala’s suit actor, the Godzilla series’ Hurricane Ryu!

The best aspect of the film though is the score. Practices in the styles of other countries’ music mixed with variations of the main theme makes for an OK soundtrack which emulates the late Maestro Ifukube’s work and gets away with most of it.

Overall, the film is not a tremendous success and can get quite boring at times with the satire, and even with great CG when used, the use of the same set over and over again could be annoying for some who watch the film multiple time. But "Guilala’s Counterattack" does offer some interesting things to think about. It has some fun elements, a little educational (the increase of carbon emissions by 8% by Japan is an interesting point), cinematography which looks good (and looks similar to Gamera: The Brave’s), and they even talk about something not really talked about - the disposing of the kaiju corpse. The film gets a 7/10 from JG2KM. Not the best, but not the worse. Defiantly the best since Masaaki Tezuka’s "Godzilla X Mechagodzilla".

Special scene to mention
-Before Germany’s plan is put under way, nuclear weapons are discussed since the taboo of chemical warfare on Guilala was discussed. Like the kaiju eiga from the past, nuclear weapons are still a taboo (Even has creepy synth music. Funny thing is after the solemnest is over, we get some comedy with US president saying, "what the hell is he thinking).

Silver Scream Spook Show July 2010 Burlesque Skit Footage

2010-12-04T01:18:00.001-05:00

Finaly uploaded!

GAMERA 3D - Continualy Updated

2010-10-29T19:07:00.000-04:00

"Eagle-eyed G-fan Evan Brehany scooped the world. Advanced Audiovisual Productions (Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster director Yoshimitsu Banno's production company) recently announced on its Web site that it is pursuing a Gamera IMAX 3-D movie. The announcement completely flew under the radar in the West until Evan spotted it and brought it to light."

-Brett Homenick

Links:

http://www.aap-inc.jp/plan01.html

http://www.killerfilm.com/articles/read/gamera-3d-in-the-works-51117

Here is some other informational links reguarding 3D films in Japan right now:

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/10/07/the-last-message-umizaru/

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/09/29/kamen-riders-conquer-the-3-d-box-office-in-japan/

And not to mention AVATAR did $180 million in Japan.

So, what do you think of this project? Comment below.

EDITS FOR UPDATES

10-31-10

http://sidelongglancesofapigeonkicker.blogspot.com/2010/10/gamera-3-d-banno-seeks-investors.html

Tetsuzo Osawa: Rest In Peace

2010-10-10T22:41:00.000-04:00

I was shocked to read late into the night on Hirshi Sagae's facebook that SFX Art Director Tetsuzo Osawa has passed away. The majority of his work was in the Art director and production designer end of the buisness. His first work (according to IMDb) was 1977's THE LAST DINOSAUR. Since then he has had a hand in the fallowing films:

-Messase from Space (Dir. Fukasaku)

-Makai Tensho (Dir. Fukasaku)

-Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis

-Gunhead

-All Heisei Godzilla films

-Yamato Takeru

-Rebirth of Mothra trilogy

-Makai Tensho 2003 remake

A full resume can be found here:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0651535/

One of the newer tokusatsu products which have been produced, "Ultraman Zero The Movie: Super Deciding Fight! The Belial Galactic Empire", will be counted as a post-humorous work. Be checking back to this page for more information in reguards to the great SFX contributor.

Mill Creek Entertainment's Gamera Blu-Ray Box Art

2010-09-26T12:44:00.000-04:00

Bare bones it seems.
http://cgi.ebay.com/PREORDER-OCT-12-GAMERA-GUARDIAN-LEGION-Blu-ray-/370435150759?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item563fa7d3a7

Toy Vault claims war with GODZILLA: KAIJU WORLD WARS

2010-09-17T17:05:00.000-04:00

The fallowing is an interview with Paul Blake, Toy Vault Game Developer.

1. How long has Toy Vault owned a merchandise license pertaining towards Godzilla?

We started making Godzilla plush items in 2002, and have released new products continuously since then. Our first such product was a medium-sized plush Mothra, which many toy enthusiasts now consider a collectors' item, but we've also made plush versions of most of the other Toho monsters, including Godzilla, Space Godzilla, Keizer Ghidorah, and Rodan.

2. With such licenses, what does Toy Vault want to provide for customers that may be "unique" in comparison to other companies also with a license (like Bandai America)?

Bandai America and other such companies tend to brand their Godzilla toys based around a strictly realistic interpretation of the character, which generally means rigid toys - Action figures, resin statues, plastic model kits, etc. However, as we had already learned with our Cthulhu line of plush toys, people want soft, huggable versions of giant creatures of destruction.Specifically regarding our Godzilla games, we wanted to provide customers with Godzilla games which would actually appeal to gamers as well as Godzilla fans, rather than being the kind of hastily-thrown-together roll-and-move type games normally associated with media licenses.

3. Who’s idea was it to make a kaiju board game?

It would be hard to nail down a single person as saying "We need to make a Godzilla board game," and that statement then causing us to move forward with it. Jon Huston (Senior Creative Designer and part owner of the company) is a lifelong avid gamer, and has long wished to move ToyVault into the gaming market. It wasn't until recently that this became economically feasible. Prior to my involvement with ToyVault, I was already friends with Jon, and we would frequently discuss what was going on with the company. As he had already produced several Godzilla-licensed products, it seemed a fairly obvious choice.

4. Where did the inspiration for such a product come from?

This somewhat depends on which product you're asking about: Currently, we have two Godzilla-themed tabletop games in development. The one you are aware of, Kaiju World Wars, was designed by Richard H. Berg, who has been designing tabletop games since the 1970s. Mr. Berg would probably be the best person to answer questions about his original inspiration for the game, but I recognize elements from other similar genre game, some modern, some dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.Of course, citing direct inspiration for a game mechanic or design element would be like citing creative inspiration for every character in a novel - similarities are likely to occur in similar genres.The other Godzilla product we're working on is a card game called "Godzilla: Stomp." It's a quick filler game for 2-5 players. When it was originally shown to us, it was graphically themed around herding sheep, of all things. Based on what was going on in the game, however, it quickly became obvious that the best fit for it in our product lineup would be as a Godzilla-themed game, and the graphic redesign was fairly obvious and straightforward. The basic gist is that the players are each trying to destroy the highest point values in buildings over the course of the game. In order to do that, they need to carefully time when to use each of their attacks, and when to try to go on a rampage for more points. It's somewhere between trick taking, bluffing, and set collecting.

5. Some have compared what the game looks like now to Monsterpocalypse. What will be the main differences between Monsterpocalypse and this "Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars"?

The biggest and most obvious difference is that Kaiju World Wars is intended as a standalone product. While we are open to the idea of doing expansions in the future, the Kaiju World Wars product line will never involve random distribution of components.

6. How tall will the figures of the kaiju be? Some are wondering if similar-sized products like Bandai Japan’s Hyper figures could be, with a little imagination, compatible with the game.

The individual figures vary in exact height, but they range from 2 inches to 2.5 inches.

7. What can we expect from this game? What can you tell me about it that hasn’t already been said on site pages such as this: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38694/godzilla

Our biggest goal with Kaiju World Wars was flexibility. We wanted this game to scale to several levels of complexity, from a simpler, introductory game, all the way up to a more complex game for seasoned gamers. The game is scenario based, which means players can try several different setups and victory conditions, or they can create their own scenario. The game can play very quickly, but if the players want, it can get quite epic.As an example, one of the included scenarios takes place after an already devastating three-way battle between Gigan, Rodan, and Godzilla. These three monsters have already taken significant damage, and the city around them is a wreck. Then King Ghidorah appears, fully powered up, ready to take on all three of them.

We also wanted players to be able to simulate a wide variety of cityscapes, so the game will include lots of stackable plastic building tiles, as well as tokens for parks and ponds, all of which can have various in-game effects.We've even included two basic game "modes" for combat: In Basic Combat, each Monster basically has two attacks - ranged and melee. In Advanced Combat, the Monsters have a much wider array of attacks available to them, and the various attacks can do a lot more than just directly injuring another monster.

8. What are the projected sales numbers for the game?

As much as possible. Pinpointing an exact figure would be a voodoo science, at best, but we're anticipating going through multiple production runs and supporting the product for years to come.

9. How will advertising be executed and will major stores like ToysRUs carry the game?

Our primary route for advertising the game will be online - for instance, through banner ads. As for major stores, we can't really speak for them. Our products have been carried in mass market stores in the past, but the vast majority of our product sales come from online stores like ThinkGeek or Troll & Toad, or brick-and-mortar comic and game stores.However, based on the nature of both Kaiju World Wars and Stomp, we would be a little surprised if they didn't show up in larger chain stores.

10. Any other words from you and other members of the creative team?

From Zac Pensol, our Project Director and In-House Artist:"Rawwwrrrrghhhhhh!"

M&G:FD Music Video

2010-09-06T02:17:00.000-04:00

Mothra & Godzilla: Future Destiny Book II - Memories from Donny W on Vimeo.

WYRD Film's MEN IN SUITS Documentry

2010-09-02T21:55:00.000-04:00

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1443196324/men-in-suits-the-godzilla-interview
This is of the utmost seriousness. For the past month I have known about a little project called "MEN IN SUITS", known about if you look at youtube enough for kaiju stuff. Currently, the project - which will include a good amount of tokusatsu material - is in need of funds. Those willing to make a pledge of atleast $1 would be appreciated. Look at the link above. A Nakajima interview will be one of the things which the money raised will cover. Along with that, August Ragone has been interviewed so this will be a fun thing to own. Please, pledge some $$$.

The Late Night Horror Hotel... Don't Miss It!

2010-08-31T12:14:00.000-04:00

The horror host tradition seems to be something quintessential to American television. Bob Wilkins of Creature Features, Evira, Ms. Monster, Broloff, and Mr. Lobo are some of the notable names of the business. What is this business? People who grew up with Hammer horror films and science fiction films especially of the daikaiju genre pretty much showed them on public access television, therefore only people who living within the approximate area could see these shows. The internet has helped bring more people to become aware of horror hosts across America. In Philly, there lies the "Late Night Horror Hotel", ran by Rob Dimension and John Cannon. The fallowing review of their show is based on my thus-far favorite episode of theirs - the "Gamera: The Invincible" episode.

Filmed in black and white, you can tell that the duo has a sweet side for kaiju. A US poster for "Godzilla, King Of the Monsters" is easily shown and for those who watch some of their videos on sites such as youtube, things such as a Bandai Creation 12" Kiryu is also shown. Kaiju otaku are in for a nice treat. Of course, each episode opens with a game show-esque opening for the show done with A Mr. Heisenburger. From then, we have (in the parts that are of the horror hotel’s) accouple of good bits of comedy. That’s normal for the horror host and though some of it may require a specific taste for it, the comedy is good from bomb jokes to bad jokes and such. However, there is also some more to it. Like a variety show. First, we get a film review of maybe my third favorite Gamera film, "Gamera: The Brave". Then, we see Rob playing with an X-Plus Gamera 1995 against a bunch of toy soldiers, and then even a feature on how to make Armadillo Eggs. Great fun. A good part of the shows though is that the film is included on the DVD. Nice to be able to see both versions of the original Gamera.

This, and three other episodes I have seen have proved to me that this is a great show. Why doesn’t Warner Robins not have a horror host show? Rob and John do other stuff in other episodes, such as mutilations of each other’s skin showing off their good SFX abilities and other crazy but fun things which make watching films like "Gamera The Invincible" more fun, even for those who are not too fond of the film to begin with. Other features include things like public service announcements (what do you do when a stranger comes and talks to you?). If you like in the Philly area, you would be sorry to miss the Late Night Horror Hotel. 5/5
http://latenighthorrorhotel.blogspot.com/

National Geographic to showcase "Death Kappa"!

2010-08-29T09:12:00.000-04:00

"Death Kappa" is the newest kaiju eiga to be made in Japan. Made by genre veteran Tomoo Hariguchi (who has worked on kaiju and yokai productions, from "Gamera 3" to "Kibakichi"), the film is centered around the legendary Japanese yokai - the Kappa - a terapin-looking water sprite which in the film grows to a gargantuan height to do battle with the antagonists. Released by Media Blasters, the film has been compared to the likes of "Guilala's Counterattack" but has developed somewhat of a cult fallowing like most kaiju eiga.

A special treat though is in store for fans of kaiju eiga ("Death Kappa" in general). National Geographic is producing a new television series called "Nat Geo Amazing!", showcasing things which they percieve that viewers would think is "amazing!". The first episode being showcased revolves aorund two things - ice climbing and the making of "Death Kappa"! For those who only saw the film at a screening and do not own a DVD or Blu-Ray copy of the film, this is a great chance to get a view of the making of the film which isn't the message from Tomoo Hariguchi which is on the official Media Blasters home page.

The fallowing link will take you to the official site which has some videos of the making of the film:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/nat-geo-amazing-episode-guide/4763/Photos#tab-Videos/08606_00

The first episode of "Nat Geo Amazing!" will be comming on the National Georgraphic Channel (Channel 109 for people in the Warner Robins, Georgia area) at 7PM Atlantic time. Don't miss it!

"Agon: The Atomic Dragon"

2010-08-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

By Logan Bombard

In 1964, Nippon Television produced a kaiju TV miniseries titled "GIANT PHANTOM MONSTER AGON" (or "AGON, THE ATOMIC DRAGON" outside of Japan). The series premiered on Fuji TV January 2nd, 1968 with part 1 of a 2-parter called Agon Appears. On January 8th of the same year, the 4th and final episode was aired.

Now, you may be wondering, why did it take four years for "AGON" to make it to the big screen? Well, multiple things got in the way of airing. First and foremost being Toho holding it back, due to the similarities between Agon and their own star kaiju, Godzilla. Funny thing is that the two don’t appear all that similar. Agon has much smaller spines than Goji, and they are very differently shaped. The Atomic Dragon’s head is longer, has a larger snout, much larger fangs, and bulging eyes, compared to The King of the Monsters. I’m also pretty sure that Godzilla’s stomach isn’t coated with plates, further dividing the two.

Alas, Toho still didn’t think that he deserved a shot on the small screen, that is, until they realized one of their own was working on it. Shinichi Sekizawa, the writer for such famous (and great) kaiju films as Mothra, Mothra vs. Godzilla, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla is also the writer for the first two episodes of AGON. Along with Sekizawa was Eiji Tsuburaya’s apprentice, Fuminori Ohashi, who did the special effects for the series, and even directed the final 2 episodes. Knowing this, Toho gave the series the go ahead, and it finally aired in 1968.

Ironically, the very same studio that kept the series off the air for 4 years condensed it into a single film, and released it in the 1990s, and if they didn’t Agon may not have even had the shred of fame it has in the genre, making Toho a mixed blessing to the series.

Nowadays, the series still has trouble being seen by the average Tokusatsu fan, for plenty of reasons; especially it’s rather minor release. A minor Japan-only VHS release in the 90’s doesn’t usually equal mass popularity on the Western Hemisphere. It also doesn’t help that the series was (rather uniquely) filmed in a sepia tone, making it less attractive to an average passerby.

Personally, I think the series deserves a lot more publicity than it gets. It does a lot of new things for the genre, especially the suit itself. The Agon suit has a built in breathing apparatus in the throat area, actually making it appear as though The Atomic Dragon is drawing breath. Also, you can clearly see that Agon influenced Gomess, a creature from the sci-fi TV show Ultra Q made out of an old Godzilla suit, with the plates running down the front of his torso. It is by no means a perfect suit, but it’s main drawback is that the limbs are a little too form-fitting for my taste. Another aspect of the suit that could be considered negative would be the eyes, which bulge out pretty far, and are obviously painted on (although, so were Mosu Goji’s, proving that it doesn’t have to be considered a bad thing).

Agon has a relatively small array of powers, but he uses them to great effect during the series. First and most apparent is his fire breath. Usually considered a dreadfully generic feature, it found its place in the series. There is no visible pipe here, and it is fairly destructive, nothing revolutionary, but more than serviceable. Another attribute that could easily fly over one’s head is Agon’s immense strength (yes, even for a daikaiju). In fact, with one stop of his foot, Agon made a small ravine in the ground in the first episode of the series. Finally, Agon can breathe underwater, therefore making him amphibious, even though he subsists in a cave before being awoken. All around, he’s no Heisei Mechagodzilla, but he has an arsenal adequate to terrorize Tokyo.

The miniatures themselves aren’t too impressive, but they look good enough, and the power plant is definitely the highlight of the set. Agon’s underwater lair is a good set, along with most of the normal-scaled sets. One problem the series suffers from is the use of stock footage from earlier episodes, for instance, in episode 3, we see a crowd running away from Agon, and the very same group sprinting in episode 4.

One thing to be appreciated about the series is its rather unique camera work. Usually refraining from wide shots, and the use of the camera when Agon is carrying a child in a boat inside his maw gives the daikaiju a great impression of size.

The series itself is pretty well written, and has a decent cast with our hero, a news reporter named Goro, being the standout. He delivers his lines with pronounced body language, and a powerful presence. Everybody else carries the show along, with varying degrees of talent. There is a Kenny, named Monta (played by Yoshihiro Kobayashi) to be seen here (that is, a young child who is familiar with the monster.), although he isn’t very annoying, doesn’t know too much, and serves as a major plot point without being too distracting.

Basically, Agon is yet another creature created by the atomic bomb, which comes to destroy Tokyo, after being awakened from is deep slumber in a cave. He makes landfall, wreaks some havoc, then goes back to sea, while the main characters, even including two rather strange bandits. Finally, Agon breaks surface again, and takes a boat containing a child (the plot point the Kenny presents.). Eventually Agon puts the Kenny down, and swats the two robbers out of a helicopter, leading to their death. After a rather impressive destruction scene where Agon annihilates a power plant, he finally returns to sea, and the end kanji appears on screen.

Now, it sounds like your plain old kaiju movie, but it’s pretty great, brings a lot to the table, and keeps you entertained for 96 minutes. The suit is unique, the actors do their job, and all around, everything does what it’s supposed to. My only true problem is with the score. A rather strange string instrument that I can not pinpoint makes a very "bouncy" sound during many scenes, and just doesn’t let up. It can get very irritating, but aside from that, the score is fine and dramatic when it needs to be.

Overall, I like the series very much, and recommend it, if you can track it down. Once you can get past the sepia tone film stock, and awkward score, you can appreciate the series for what it is, a low budget installment that really delivers in the kaiju department. If you hunt long enough, you’ll find it, and its well worth your time. I give it a 4/5.

S.S.S.S. Special

2010-08-05T19:02:00.000-04:00

Time of my Life - S.S.S.S.'s Showing of Godzilla vs. Gigan

2010-08-01T18:15:00.000-04:00

"Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them."
-Bud Fox, "Wall Street" (1987)

Where should this begin? Ok, let’s start with what’s happened in between this film and GMK. The Plaza Theatre has shown two kaiju films since GMK in January of 2009. These include DAM and the original Rodan. While my failure to attend these events have lead people to say rather negative things about moi, I always kept positive when a new kaiju film was being shown. Thankfully, I attended this Spook Show. Albeit, it is ironically the last Spook Show till October due to the Silver Scream Spook Show cast being subject to a new TV series with Adult Swim helping (defiantly going to be better than "Children’s Hospital" - which I saw one of the wall paintings which AS ads ask you to "find this", Atlanta kicks ass). I would also like to mention that we also went by "The Vortex", a burger joint I once saw on "Man vs. Food". I wanted to go there, but once I left the theater only one thing was on my mind: Godzilla. Anyway, let’s go into the event.

I got there about 30 minutes before the show started. With there being the lack of a dealer, the first place of interest I went to was (aside from the box office) the Silver Scream Spook Show table. Not as elaborate as it previously was. However, it was still cool. Evidently thanks to some tricky stuff, in the end I got a Fang Club card, a button, an XL shirt, the Plaza Atlanta Godzilla vs. Gigan poster, and a bunch of the programs. While waiting, I talked a little to Daniel Wickwire of Kaiju Movie Review before having to take more photos and such for this very report.

The Scream Show itself rocked. As normal, it began with the birthday serenade. After wards, the actual program. I lucky caught all of it on camera and captured it better then what I did with the GMK Spook Show (especially considering I was sitting closer to the back of this showing). Alas, after a 10 minute wait to see the film on behalf of people who were parked in a Publix parking lot needing to get their cars moved to a different location, the film began (thank god for the 10 minute wait, I got some stuff done). It was cool to the old Cinema Shares print of "Godzilla vs. Gigan", only entitled "Godzilla on Monster Island".

However, I did not sit through out the whole film to watch. My mother, god bless her soul and her slick talking ways, got a deal in which allowed me to go inside for a short time the Godzilla suit used for the Spook Show. I like the dang thing. The head reminds me of the Banpresto 12" figure that was sculpted by Yuji Sakai. So, while not being allowed to put my whole body in (they have to put boxes in the suit so it will stand while no one is in/around the suit), I did get to feel from the waste up what it feels like - to an extent - to be Nakajima or Satsuma, or Kitagawa. It’s stuff like that which helps you gain appreciation for the art. I felt this feeling once before - in engineering class making wooden bridges. Gives you a deeper appreciation. Now, from what I heard, the only reserve the guy who owned the suit had about me even feeling the inside is the fact that a lot of people get nicked because of the metal skeleton that is inside of the suit, which is basically just memory foam (like in beds).

I got back into the film when we see the corncob scene. The film was just very fun and even though sitting farther back then I did at the GMK screening, the print was still something to be amazed about, especially that though the print had a lot of damage, the increased definition compared to my Anchor Bay VHS copy of the film is pretty awesome. Looking at each little detail in the models and suits and such. Very cool, despite a layer of purple coloring on the print (which in the end isn’t that bad and actually makes the viewing more interesting).

Afterwards, I talked to some people, my mother took some more photos of me, and Dan started filming material for his coverage of this film (which I forgot to do out of the sheer excitement of my attendance). One thing I need to thank Dan for though is giving me his Gamera 3 poster. He offered it to me some time ago and I accepted it. He knows it is in good hands. The poster is actually a limited piece which went along the Sega Gamera 3 figures. To add on to it’s value, it was autographed by Tiffany Grant - who played Nagamine in the US dubs of "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" and "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle".

In the end, it was a fun time and really, this report doesn’t do justice to what happened. It was awesome. In the meantime, be watching KMR for an interview of me done by good friend Dan Wickwire!

MOTHRA and GAMERA VS. GUIRON to be shown!

2010-07-24T20:22:00.000-04:00

Source: http://www.zandavisitor.com/newsarticle-3763-DinoQuest_Monster_Movie_Night_at_Missouri_Botanical_Garden
Thanks To Avery Guerra!
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End the summer with a bang for on July 30, the Missouri Botanical Gardens' DinoQuest Monster Movie Night is showing at 8:30 pm the 1961 classic "Mothra" and right afterwards "Gamera vs. Gurion". This is from the site:
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"Both films will be shown on a giant screen at the Cohen Amphitheater, located west of the Climatron dome on the Garden grounds. Lawn seating only; guests are welcome to bring lawn chairs or blankets and to picnic at this special event. Snacks and beverages will also be available for purchase.

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The Missouri Botanical Garden is located at 4344 Shaw Blvd. in south St. Louis, accessible from Interstate 44 at the Vandeventer exit and from Interstate 64 at the Kingshighway North & South exit. Free parking is available on-site and two blocks west at the corner of Shaw and Vandeventer.
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For more information about the DinoQuest Monster Movie Night, visit www.mobot.org/dinoquest/monster_movie.asp. To learn more about the DinoQuest exhibition, visit www.mobot.org/dinoquest. For general Garden information, visit http://www.mobot.org/ or call (314) 577-5100 (toll-free, 1-800-642-8842)."

Support kaiju Missouri fans!

Kaiju Book News for the Masses!

2010-07-20T21:17:00.000-04:00

NOTE: ROUGH TRANSLATIONS AHEAD!

Gamera and Godzilla has come back for the attack this latter half of the year when it comes to books! First up is the book "Daiei Tokusatsu Film Encyclopedia: Daikaiju Fantasy Battle - Gamera vs. Daimajin". The book is 121 pages long, and with a price tag of 1890 Yen, with these stats:

ISBN-10: 4048545116
ISBN-13: 978-4048545112
Release Date: 2010/7/16
Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches

Link for order:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%A4%A7%E6%98%A0%E7%89%B9%E6%92%AE%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E5%A4%A7%E5%85%A8-%E5%A4%A7%E6%80%AA%E7%8D%A3%E7%A9%BA%E6%83%B3%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A6-%E3%82%AC%E3%83%A1%E3%83%A9%E5%AF%BE%E5%A4%A7%E9%AD%94%E7%A5%9E-%E8%A7%92%E5%B7%9D%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB/dp/4048545116/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2

The second with a nice pic of a Bandai vinyl is roughly translated to "Goodbye Godzilla who - far from war". At a much longer 280 pages, the book is a fair 1995 Yen in cost. Here are it’s stats:

ISBN-10: 4000230352
ISBN-13: 978-4000230353
Release Date: 2010/7/29
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Link for pre-order:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%95%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%80%81%E3%82%B4%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A9%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E2%80%95%E2%80%95%E6%88%A6%E5%BE%8C%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E9%81%A0%E3%81%8F%E9%9B%A2%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A6-%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4-%E5%85%B8%E6%B4%8B/dp/4000230352/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

The third is THE MUSIC OF GODZILLA: THE ECHOES & THE ERA OF AKIRA IFUKUBE, MASARU SATO, KUNIO MIYAUCHI AND RIICHIRO MANABE" ("Gojira-no Ongaku - Ifukube Akira, Satou Masaru, Miyauchi Kunio, Manabe Riichirou-no Hibiki-to Sono Jidai")(thanks to James Ballard). Acording to August Ragone, "The author is Atsushi Kobayashi, who had written two previous books on Akira Ifukube (as well as other film composers, such as Masaru Sato), and the publisher is Sakuinsha. This particular book will only cover the Godzilla scores from 1954-1975." Gonna be released on 8/10/2010 containing a whooping 480 pages. Here is the book’s stats:

ISBN-10: 4861822998
ISBN-13: 978-4861822995

Here is a link for those who want to pre-order:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B4%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A9%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3%E6%A5%BD%E2%80%95%E2%80%95%E4%BC%8A%E7%A6%8F%E9%83%A8%E6%98%AD%E3%80%81%E4%BD%90%E8%97%A4%E5%8B%9D%E3%80%81%E5%AE%AE%E5%86%85%E5%9C%8B%E9%83%8E%E3%80%81%E7%9C%9E%E9%8D%8B%E7%90%86%E4%B8%80%E9%83%8E%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%BF%E3%81%8D%E3%81%A8%E3%81%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3-%E5%B0%8F%E6%9E%97-%E6%B7%B3/dp/4861822998/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3

Happy Buying!

New Book: "Kaiju Life - The Original Godzilla Actor Haruo Nakajima" by Haruo Nakajima

2010-07-10T10:04:00.000-04:00

Title via Japanese: "怪獣人生　~元祖ゴジラ俳優・中島春雄"

Publisher: "洋泉社"
Language: Japanese
ISBN-10: 4862485898
ISBN-13: 978-4862485892
Release Date: 2010/7/16

There will be pictures. For more information, someone more versed in Japanese can go to links below:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language/product/4862485898/ref=dp_change_lang?ie=UTF8&language=en_JP

http://www.yosensha.co.jp/book/b67130.html

Could this be part of the "The Ghost of Godzilla: The Man Who Was Godzilla: On The Shoulders of Monsters: In the Shadow of the Monster: Unzipping the Mystery" documentry that Haruo Nakajima is supposedly working on with "Team WereWolf" (so says wikipedia)? More details tom come.

KMR Review: G2: Gamera vs. Legion

2010-07-09T13:41:00.001-04:00

100 Years of Monster Movies to present a double feature, "Gappa" and "Yongary"!

2010-07-07T07:23:00.000-04:00

100 Years of Monster Movies Commercial Spot from Matthew Burd on Vimeo.

KMR Announcement

2010-07-06T09:59:00.000-04:00

http://journalismg2km.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-july-31-plaza-atlanta-theatre-in.html

First TV Spot for "MM9"

2010-07-04T09:21:00.001-04:00

Thanks to the Nippon Cinema site, we can now see the official monster-less TV spot for Shinji Higuchi's "MM9":

http://www.nipponcinema.com/blog/tv-spot-for-shinji-higuchis-mm9/

And it is interesting to note that the trailer shows a new website adress for coverage of the series:

www.mmmmmmmmm.jp

Very cool indeed.

Plaza Atlanta Theatre's Silver Scream Spook Show GODZILLA VS. GIGAN details

2010-07-01T23:36:00.000-04:00

This July 31, the Plaza Atlanta Theatre in association with the Silver Scream Spook Show will be giving a special presentation of GODZILLA VS. GIGAN, under the name GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND.

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The theatre is Atlanta’s oldest cinematic venue. A uniscreened theatre, it was once a grindhouse theatre which is now run for non profit and has film showing everything from THE ROOM to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW to even film festivals hosted by Robert Osborne (who does things for the TCM Channel - including one time giving an into on TCM to "Space Monster Guilala"). The Plaza Atlanta theatre has a good history with kaiju fans, including having previously screened "Rodan" (1956), "Mothra" (1961), "Ebirah, Horror from the Deep" (1966), "Destroy All Monsters" (1968), and "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" (2001).

The Silver Scream Spook show is like Mr. Lobo or "Ms. Monster’s Hell On Ice" meets Vaudeville. Shane Morton and his group put on the "Silver Scream Spook How", a 30 minute show put on before each of their screenings with some Horror Host elements which helps integrate the show into the film to be shown (to some extent). The sketch they put on has something in relation to the film they will be hosting. It is great fun for whoever comes.

KIDS UNDER 12 FREE AT 1:00 MATINEE! EVERYONE ELSE ONLY $7. ALL TICKETS ARE $10 FOR THE 10:00 SHOW!
Do not forget to bring in some extra cash for pop corn, drinks, and any possible dealers at the event. It is sure to be great fun. And for those staying in the south eastern United States would be glad to know that from the theatre it is just another 10 hour drive to the Morikami Museum, who is having a kaiju vinyl exhibit all this summer (http://godzilla2012.blogspot.com/2010/06/over-100-vintage-kaiju-toys-invade.html). Hope to see you there!

GSPBS6 Review: Godzilla Tokyo SOS

2010-07-01T09:55:00.000-04:00

By: Matti Keskiivari

Movie: Godzilla: Tokyo SOS
Music by: Michiru Oshima
Record label: Toho Music
Running time: 77:19/74:19
Discs: 2
Year of release: 2010
Review: ***1/2/*****

Right after the Godzilla: Final Wars set, this two-disc set is probably the most "interesting" in the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box. The first disc features the score of Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003) and the second disc has the rest of the GFW bonus tracks.

First, let’s talk about Tokyo SOS. This movie is a sequel to the previous one, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, so naturally the music is once again composed by Michiru Oshima. The score is not quite as fantastic as GXMG since a smaller orchestra is utilized again, but it is a bit more stellar than Godzilla vs. Megaguirus in my opinion. Oshima brings back many of the themes heard in GXMG while also delivering some new ones. Godzilla’s theme is still as great as ever, as well as the theme of Kiryu (Mechagodzilla), but of course they lack some of the power they had in GXMG. The Kiryu Squadron march is used a couple of times too. Moving on to the new themes: There’s a main battle theme that’s heard for the first time in "Toho Logo~Mothra in Flight~Main Title", one of the highlights of this score. There’s also a secondary battle theme for the fight between Godzilla and Mothra, which is heard in all three "Adult Mothra X Godzilla" tracks for example. Yoshito Chujo, the film’s hero, is given his own impressive theme, very much like Akane Yashiro in GXMG. Also, like with Akane, the theme has both an action-oriented version (heard in tracks 32, 33 and 35) and a more soothing one (heard in tracks 7, 13 and 19). Mothra has a new theme of her own, heard n tracks like "The Shobijin Visit", "Adult Mothra Comes Flying" and "The Mothra Larvae Cross the Sea" (one of the cues that weren’t used in the movie). Not too surprisingly, the always-memorable "Mothra’s Song", originally composed by Yuji Koseki, makes a return, this time performed by Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka who play the Shobijin (the little fairies). Another track that has to be mentioned is the "End Credits" cue. It’s simply one of the best pieces of music Michiru Oshima has composed for the Godzilla series. It sounds really distinct from the rest of the score, as it’s very calm and soothing, and it features some great choral work. Tracks like this show how versatile Oshima is as a composer.

Tokyo SOS has only got four bonus tracks. The first one, "Send-Off Party BGM", is a real gem. Like the name says, it’s the background music heard during the party scene early in the movie. However, unlike some of the other BGM-style tracks from other Godzilla/kaiju movies, it’s very memorable and enjoyable to listen to as it’s got a fitting classical sound. The next two extra tracks are certain cues mixed together like they’re heard in the movie. These tracks are supposedly taken from a 5.1 channel film source, as sometimes the volume level changes according to the events in the movie. The final track is the "pop song" version of "Mothra’s Song", which is a welcome addition.

The second disc, as I mentioned earlier, has the remaining bonus tracks of Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), most of which are composed by Keith Emerson. The disc starts off with all the edited cues that were included on the original album, although for some reason the edited "Gotengo vs. Manda" cue (track 4 on the original album) is left out. Speaking of which, there are two more Emerson tracks that aren’t included here: a longer version of the Infant Island track and an arrangement of the Earth Defense Force theme. These tracks can be found on the third disc of Emerson’s At the Movies set, which has music from all of Emerson’s other scores too. Getting back on topic, next up on this disc there are several outtakes, including Emerson’s unused music for the battle between Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus and King Caesar, which is actually his medley of a couple of Ifukube themes: the Great Monster War March and the Maser march from War of the Gargantuas. He also composed a piece for Godzilla’s short fight with Hedorah and Ebirah, which sounds much better than the Nobuhiko Morino cue that was ultimately used for the scene. On the other hand, his "Xilien Ship" and "Parody Spy Music into Serious" tracks are quite awful, so fortunately they weren’t used in the movie.

The last 15 tracks are Emerson’s original demos, some of which are interesting and others are not. Many of them sound fairly identical to tracks that were either heard in the movie or not. For example, track 23 is an early version of the "Highway Battle" cue, track 30 is an early version of "Rodan Attacks New York" and tracks 22, 24 and 32 are early versions of the Earth Defense Force theme. Interestingly enough, track 32 is recorded in mono, while all the other tracks are in stereo. A couple of the demo tracks (tracks 25-26) feature music that hasn’t been heard before (not even in the outtake cues). The first one is totally bad and forgettable, while the second one sounds intriguingly more like Emerson’s score from Nighthawks (1981). Some of the demos with familiar music sound expectedly worse than the final cues, while others actually sound more interesting than the versions used in the movie, like the "Highway Battle" demo and thefirst of the two demos featuring the "Ending" theme (track 27). The second "Ending" demo is the last track on this disc, and it starts out interestingly, utilizing Godzilla’s footsteps from the original 1954 movie and Ifukube’s main theme as well, but then it takes a turn for the worse as Emerson, for some odd reason, decides to add annoying beeping synthesizer sounds over the Ifukube theme.

The booklet has got a nice picture of Godzilla from Tokyo SOS on the front cover and images of Miho Yoshioka and Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka on the back. Included in the booklet is an interview with Shusuke Kaneko, the director of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001).

In the end, this two-disc set is definitely the weakest link of the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box. The score of Godzilla: Tokyo SOS is great, but the content of the third GFW disc is mostly a disappointment. There are some worthwhile tracks, but the rest fails to keep the listener’s interest up. But still, if you’d like to get both the Tokyo SOS soundtrack and the GFW material, get the sixth box.

GSPBS6 Review: GODZILLA: FINAL WARS

2010-06-29T08:30:00.000-04:00

Review by Matti Keskiivari
Movie: Godzilla: Final Wars
Music by: Keith Emerson, Daisuke Yano, Nobuhiko Morino
Record label: Toho Music
Running time: 73:01/73:38
Discs: 2
Year of release: 2010

Review: ****/*****
The sixth and seventh discs in the final Godzilla soundtrack box are the first two dedicated to Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), the last Godzilla movie made in Japan (for now). Of course there’s no need to say, despite what some people might think about the movie or the soundtrack itself, this soundtrack gets the most anticipated re-release in the last box set.

First and foremost, the complete original score of GFW is finally released on CD. For those who have seen the movie and/or listened to the earlier soundtrack CD will definitely know that a lot of the score was left out. Fortunately, this has been fixed by Toho Music. Apart from the two stock Masaru Sato cues from Son of Godzilla (1967) and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) and the Sum 41 song “We’re All to Blame”, every single cue that was used in the movie is included here. You can spot the improvements over the original soundtrack album right from the first two tracks on disc 1, which are the classic Ifukube Godzilla theme (a stock cue from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)) and the new theme for the king of the monsters composed by Daisuke Yano. On the original CD they were included simply as separate cues. However, on this CD the cues are bridged together with a “synth voice” transition, just like they’re heard in the movie. Some other notable cues that weren’t included on the first CD are “Ebirah vs. the Mutant Forces”, “Gigan Awakens”, “The Xiliens’ Intent”, “Keizer Ghidorah Appears” and “The Battle Is Over”. Also, all the cues that were presented in shorter edits on the original album can finally be heard in their complete unedited form, like “The Xiliens Arrive”, “Xilien Conspiracy (II)” and “The King of the Monsters Returns”. On the worse side, though, “Message from Infant Island” now starts rather abruptly unlike on the earlier CD.

As for the actual music, it is certainly different from the works of Akira Ifukube, Masaru Sato and others that we’re used to hear. It has its fans and haters. Some people feel that it’s great and refreshing because it has a more modern sound and fits the overall tone of the movie, whereas others just hate it for the aforementioned reason(s) and prefer the traditional orchestral sound. It feels as if the score can be separated to three parts: Keith Emerson dominates the beginning, the middle part is Nobuhiko Morino’s field, and the last part focuses on Daisuke Yano’s music. If you ask me, the soundtrack is a mixed bag, like the movie. It has got some quite bad tracks and some enjoyable ones, but none that are so outstanding that they could be worth a five-star rating. Furthermore, a lot of the tracks tend to work better as a stand-alone listening experience, like “Xilien Conspiracy II” and “The Xiliens’ Intent”. On the other hand, some of the tracks that are on the worse side of the score work better when they’re heard in the movie, like “Commander Namikawa’s Abnormality”. Many people have complained about the theme heard during in the end credits. Personally, I don’t hate it, as I think it sounds quite like Keith Emerson’s work from his days in ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). However, I do think that it shouldn’t have been used during the end credits but instead something else, like more Ifukube-related material. The worst track would have to be “Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Ebirah”. The cue just doesn’t fit the scene at all. It would suit something like a comedy/agent movie a lot better than a kaiju movie.

Now, let’s talk about some of the highlights of the GFW soundtrack. The new Godzilla theme by Daisuke Yano is quite nice, as is the “Main Title” cue by Nobuhiko Morino, which is a clever “remix” of the “Main Title” from the original 1954 movie by Ifukube. For me, many of the tracks that steal the show are the unedited cues that I mentioned earlier. “Xilien Conspiracy II” especially has become one of my favorite tracks from this score. You can perfectly picture the scenes from the movie in your head as you’re listening to the ten-and-half-minute-long cue. “The King of the Monsters Returns” is another excellent track. “Keizer Ghidorah Appears” has a very dark and desperate sound to it, fitting the monster king’s final foe perfectly. “The Battle Is Over” is a more soothing track with a nice melody. My personal favorite theme, however, would have to be Keith Emerson’s theme for the Earth Defense Force, which is more commonly known as “Kazama’s Sacrifice” as it was called on the original album. While this score isn’t Emerson’s best movie work (the title of which arguably goes to the Italian horror film Inferno (1980) directed by Dario Argento), his Earth Defense Force theme is definitely one of the best tracks he has composed. Yes, I’m one of those people who absolutely adore it. It is a very memorable and catchy piece of music. I particularly like the guitar-heavy version heard in “Ebirah vs. the Mutant Forces”. It’s really enjoyable; as is the movie scene it’s used in.

Let’s move on to the bonus content. GFW has got a lot of extra tracks. So many, in fact, that there’s a third disc completely dedicated to bonus tracks. This disc serves as the second disc on the Godzilla: Tokyo SOS set of the box (which I’ll review soon). The entire disc 1 and the first half of disc 2 cover the actual score, so the remaining tracks on disc 2 are bonus material. First we have the unedited versions of certain cues like “Gigan Awakens”. Then we have three edited tracks that are presented in the way they’re heard in the movie. As the booklet tells us, these were taken from a 5.1 channel source, so they sound noticeably louder than the rest of the tracks, and fortunately better than the edited cues on the GMK soundtrack. One minor complaint: it would’ve been interesting to hear the final film version of “Xilien Conspiracy” since it was a mix of the two M14 cues found on disc 1. Next there are two Emerson tracks that were included on the original album. In the early version of the M2 cue Emerson uses an adaptation of Ifukube’s Godzilla theme. The last two tracks are alternate takes of the “Ending” cue. The first one is fairly interesting as it has its own twist to the theme, but the second one is pretty awful and too long. It seems like Emerson tries to “stretch” the cue as long he can until it reaches an abrupt end.

The booklet has a very cool picture of Godzilla’s face on the front cover and pictures of Rei Kikukawa and Kumi Mizuno on the back. Besides the usual track notes (which are surprisingly short compared to all the earlier soundtracks) there’s a profile of Keith Emerson (unfortunately there’s no photo of him) and an interview with Shogo Tomiyama, the producer.

All in all, the soundtrack of the 50th Anniversary Godzilla movie will always receive mixed opinions, but one can’t deny that Toho Music have done a fantastic job in finally releasing the (almost) entire score. If you’re interested in this soundtrack, you really shouldn’t hesitate in getting the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box. Like I’ve said before, it is worth the money.

Silver Scream Spook Show to show GODZILLA VS. GIGAN

2010-06-28T01:50:00.000-04:00

Photo by Tohokingdom member "Godz"

Atlanta, Georgia's own "Plaza Atlanta Theatre", which has been a safe heaven for people who fallow cult, grindhouse, and festival films, has shown that for July's "Silver Scream Spook Show" session (happening on the 31st), GODZILLA VS. GIGAN is being shown. Speculation has it that the legendary GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND Cinema Shares print is going to be shown considering the past two screenings which included a showing of an AIP varriation of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. More images including the official flyer to come soon!

Review: "Great Space Monster Darkmatton"

2010-06-21T07:50:00.000-04:00

In his interview with the PodCast, "Japan on Fire", film historian August Ragone stated that back in the time period between "Terror Of Mechagodzilla" (1975) and "The Return of Godzilla" (1984), there was a want of many a Japanese film maker to make their own kaiju films. While it is a testament of how influential the Showa kaiju days were, back in that time frame the resources were just not there to make independently make kaiju films. A new generation is making their dreams come true now thanks to the digital revolution. Recently, we have had a good slew of kaiju films, most notably "Geharha: The Dark and Long Haired Monster" (2009), "Reigo" (2009), and "Negadon: Monster from Mars" (2005). With a new American Godzilla film just beyond the horizon now, this fairly young age of Neo-Millennium series independent films are coming to an end. One of these films is the newly animated "Dai Supeesu Kaiju Darkmatton" (Great Space Monster Darkmatton) (2010).

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"Darkmatton" is directed by Yohei Miyawaki. A 23-year-old student at Tokyo’s Tama Art University, Miyawaki made the film just like those before him like Shinpei Hayashida or Shusuke Kaneko - he has a love for the genre. The film is a piece of total animation. Though low budget, it gets the job done and the way it is filmed is quite extraordinary, especially with the third act of the film being in black and white, therefore making a possible reference to the original "Gojira" (1954).

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Here is a synopsis according to "Undead Backbrain":
"An orbiting international space station is mysteriously destroyed. The army asks Dr Kawanaka, an expert in astronomy, to undertake an investigation to ascertain the cause. The doctor tries to find the cause, under the scrutiny of the army. Suddenly a black globe appears in the sky over Tokyo and Dr Kawanaka recognizes it as the cause of the ISS’s destruction. "That is Great Space Monster Darkmatton!" he declares. Military action proves futile. The doctor develops the ultimate weapon — the end result of his previous own research — uses it to confront the monster. The future of humanity hangs in the balance!"

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Almost sounds like Negadon. And it kind of is. As you can see, this film was not meant to be a project like "G" or "Geharha". However, it is still a nicely animated film with humor. And it is nice to see the director voice act the elder professor with the white beard. Fans can see some of the influences. Such as the aforementioned "Gojira"-like ending, the use of a newly created Toho Co. Ltd, and a fairly Markelite-like weapon (though we find out it is an electricity conducting orb, the 2D animation makes it look like a miniature Markelite). Emblem at the front of each third of the film, and many more. For a total of 13 minutes, the film does have a sort of message. The kaiju Darkmatton could be an allegory for the darkness within the hearts of men. Then the act of him evolving as weapons are used on him could be a metaphor for war - the more you shoot, the more the problem gets bigger - something of a scare back in the ole Cold War days of old.

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The Backbrain reports that the director has no current plans for a home video release, though an international variation with English subtitles is in the works. Stand by. The film itself though, I suggest that fans watch it. If you aren’t that big of a fan, then I do not think it will appeal to you. Interested fans though who have a well rooted love for tokusatsu eiga would like to see this. I give it a 3.5/5. It’s a nice little film.

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To watch the film and look at pictures and story boards on the production, fallow the link below:
http://roberthood.net/blog/index.php/2010/04/14/great-space-monster-darkmatton/

Review: GSB Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla Sountrack Review

2010-06-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

Review By: Matti K.

Movie: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Music by: Michiru Oshima

Record label: Toho Music

Running time: 76:49

Discs: 1

Year of release: 2010

Review: ****1/2/*****

Michiru Oshima returns for her second score in the Godzilla series, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (or GXMG), which is contained on the third disc of the sixth Godzilla Perfect Collection box. The end result is a brilliant piece of work from the composer.

There’s just no doubt about it. GXMG is Oshima’s best score in the series by far. A lot of the credit for that goes to the fact that the score was actually recorded outside Japan with a bigger orchestra in Moscow. As a result, the music sounds richer and more powerful than any of the other scores in the Godzilla series, with probably one exception being The Return of Godzilla, which also had a symphonic sound. Just about every track on this soundtrack is excellent and very memorable. Oshima’s Godzilla theme from Godzilla vs. Megaguirus is back and sounds better than ever. Of course, there are many new themes here. The biggest highlight of the score is arguably the theme of Kiryu (Mechagodzilla). It sounds really majestic and stands as a good contender for the best theme composed for the character. The Kiryu Squadron has its own excellent march, which is heard in tracks like “Intensive Training” and “Mobilization”. Akane Yashiro, thefilm’s main human character played by Yumiko Shaku, is given a very heroic theme in “Akane’s Great Effort” and “Akane’s Resilience”, as well as a more soothing theme, heard for example in “Sara’s Shorea Plant”, which is one of the best tracks of this score. There’s also a nice battle theme in the two “Intense Fighting” tracks. Another cue worth mentioning is “Leaving School”, which sounds quite reminiscent of John Williams’ work in the Harry Potter series.

As for the extra content, there’s nothing overly exciting. The first bonus track is an edited version of “Akane’s Great Effort~Kiryu’s Construction” with a slightly different beginning as heard in the movie. The rest of the bonus tracks are outtakes of selected cues that don’t yet have the grand symphonic sound as the finished score. Still, they’re interesting to listen to just to compare them with the versions utilized in the movie. Of course, this disc doesn’t contain the sound effects that were included on the previous CD, but they can be found elsewhere, so it’s not a huge loss.

The booklet has a really nice picture of Godzilla on the front cover and images of Yumiko Shaku and Kumi Mizuno on the back. Aside from the usual track notes and other stuff, there’s a profile of Michiru Oshima, as well as an interview with the composer.

All in all, the soundtrack of GXMG is just fantastic from start to finish, and it’s given a great presentation on this CD release. Anyone who doesn’t have this soundtrack yet should definitely consider getting the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box set.

Shunsuke Ikeda: Nov. 11, 1941 - June 11, 2010

2010-06-15T16:25:00.001-04:00

A fairly recent photo of Ikeda, taken by inerviewer Aaron Yamasato.

August Ragone asked for people to spread the word, so I am going to post this onto my blog. Actor Shunsuke Ikeda passed away June 11, 2010. The cause of death was related to his long struggle with diabetes. Saddly, he left behind a wife and daughter. Ikeda was best known for playing roles in KIKAIDA 01 (circa 1973) and THE RETURN OF ULTRAMAN (circa 1971). Shunsuke was 68 years old. Here is a short biography written by tokusatsu historian and project trailblazer August Ragone.

http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2010/06/rest-in-peace-actor-shunsuke-ikeda.html

http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2010/06/farewell-to-actor-shunsuke-ikeda-call.html

The actor's memorial serive is taking place today, June 16 (this is Japan time, they are a day ahead of us) in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. That's 10pm today. Take a moment of silence and even say a prayer. Tokusatsu eiga lost one of it's heroes.

Gamera 3 - The Full And Uncut Story

2010-06-10T23:48:00.000-04:00

Want more Gamera 3? Here is the full, uncut, unedited version of my article that appeared in G-FAN issue 91!

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Introduction:
It has been a full decade since Shusuke Kaneko’s masterful film, "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" was made. "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" is often called one of the more complex films in all of kaiju/tokusatsu eiga. In fact, some people - including me - think that "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" even beats out the original "Gojira" in terms of film quality. That is debatable, but you cannot doubt the artistic value of the film. So, without further to do this is my valuation and look into "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle".

Synopsis:
In 1999, Japan’s scientific authority on the Gyaos - Miss Nagamine - finds out that near the equator a Gyaos carcass is laying in a village. Though strangely, even though it was able to consume the son of an old woman, it seemed small but different in an evolutionary sense. Meanwhile, off the southern most part of Japan, a deep sea exploration party discovers the sea bed littered with Gamera carcasses. This brings up many questions, mostly about Gamera - who most haven’t seen since the Legion attack (and if you also include the "Gamera vs. Barugon" manga, not since Gamera defeated Barugon).

In the Nara prefecture resides Ayana Miyasaka. She wakes up one morning crying. Within her, she harbors a grudge against Gamera. Four year ago durring the final battle between a Super Gyaos and Gamera, Gamera accidentally crushed the apartment complex which Ayana’s family was in minus Ayana herself and her little brother. Now - against the fact that Gamera saved one Gyaos invasion and stopped the Legion from colonizing Earth, she hates Gamera.

One day, Ayana meets up with some school girls at a cave. In exchange for leaving her brother alone, she would have to carry a rock out. Little does Ayana know that according to ancient Shino folk lore, what is in the cave is the Ryuseicho - the guardian of the south - a beast of destructive powers. It is said that a sumo wrestler tried removing the stone but failed. Ayana finds the stone with a turtle-shell like design on it. Once it started glowing, a lot of mysterious events are put into play - including Ayana being able to pick up the rock, a strange egg coming from the ground, and the passing of tradition to the oldest male of the family that is supposed to guard the Ryuseicho - Tatsunari Moribe.

Soon later, a person at one of Japan’s oceanic institutes is called as two people involved with Japan’s government - Ms. Asakura Mito and Kurata Shinya - seem to want to find out what is of the multiple medallions that were found on Gamera four years ago which seemed to have fractured durring Gamera’s resurrection in 1996. Turns out that they are two both part of a cult which fallows "The Book of Changes". Government business is brought up more when Miss Nagamine and other people in Japan’s government are coming together to have a meeting about further information regarding kaiju, especially on the point of why is it Japan that is always attacked.

Enter Mr. Osako. Since 1995, he has been lowering in rank and even did some farming before finally becoming homeless since being physiologically tormented by the appearance of the Gyaos and Legion - both which he was the first to see and live to tell the tale. While drinking in the park one night, he notices a huge fireball erupt in the sky. As it came crashing down, it turned out to be a severely burned Gyaos. Fallowing it was a not-so-cautious Gamera. Gamera massacres this Gyaos and two more, leaving the whole of Shibuya in a fiery inferno while throwing all caution for human life out the window, something which goes against what he has shown in the past.

Back in Nara, the egg in the cave hatches. Ayana finds it and calls the tentacle kaiju that spawned from it Iris, after her pet cat that was killed back in 1995. Turns out that both Ayana and Iris have something in common: Gamera has killed or is killing off both of their families. Moribe finds out about this and keeps caution. One day, Ayana goes missing. Moribe - with the ten-inch dagger with him (the weapon which was said to be of use against the Ryuseicho) goes into the cave only to find that Iris is now in the form of a bulb and inside the bulb is Ayana with some of Iris’ gene-absorbing tentacles attached to her body. He cuts the orb and gets her out. Only the next day, Ayana is taken to a hospital and one of Moribe’s friends starts to think that there is something funny going on, possibly rape.

With this news out, the government decides to intervene. Miss Nagamine and a rejuvenated Mr. Osako with some newly regained law enforcement rights, goes to Nara - only to find everyone except for Moribe dead and looking like all of their bodily fluids was sucked out of them. In a forest near by, Iris had absorbed enough of Ayana’s genes to grow to a whooping 120 meters in height. The military just surrounds him for now.

In the mean time, Nagamine catches up with Asagi Kusanagi. We find out that Asagi has been studying abroad and along with a video Nagamine saw (which was created by Kurata Shinya), Asagi concurs that the reason why Japan is always attacked by kaiju is because mana - the Earth’s natural energy - is depleted the most in Japan with it’s main consumer being Gamera. Without it, Gamera is not able to fight. When it is used up, animals are more likely to go to the spot on Earth with the lowest concentration - as shown with the Gyaos. Next we now find out that Ayana has been moved out of the hospital she was in and moved to Kyoto. There, she is in a room with medical facilities but strange engravings are on the wall and Ms. Asakura Mito does prayers and mantras. Turns out that Asakura Mito is of a lineage with ancestors who "have meditated with monsters". Ayana and Nagamine go to the Kyoto JR Station to sort things out.

Tired of the forestry and tired of the JSDF advances on him, Iris decides to also go to Kyoto, flying above a strong hurricane. Though being engaged by two fighter jets, Gamera comes out of the hurricane to take place in the fight. Iris gains the upper hand though, being faster, more equipped, and with the military deciding to attack Gamera as a priority since after the Shibuya incident, not many people hold Gamera in good faiths. They both battle until they reach Kyoto, which at that point Kyoto is in the eye of the storm. The fight leads to the death of Kurata Shinya and Asakura Mito as the duo starts to fight within the Kyoto Train Station. Though suffering an impalement and having to sacrifice his own arm while retrieving Ayana out of Iris’ body, Gamera ultimately wins the fight. Unfortunate for the Guardian of the Universe, his use of mana from G2 also had one more side effect - an incensement in global warming. With that, thousands of newly born Gyaos are flying to Kyoto right now. Though injured, Gamera ventures out into the now burning Kyoto with only arm and plans on taking on the Gyaos, even if it means he has to die or kill humanity in the process.

Script Evaluation:
Something which people like to bash G3 for when people comparing it to the original "Gojira" is the lack of an overall theme such as the stopping of nuclear usage in war. While "Gamera 3" doesn’t have as powerful of a message that gives social commentary, it does have one none the less. The film’s message is actually something more timeless than the usual anti-pollution or the aforementioned anti-nuclear themes. "Gamera 3" deals with the wanting of redemption from people who are close to us, getting involved with an egocentric incentive, along with causing estrange among family and friends. This message in "Gamera 3", no matter how miniscule, is a more common message which would do people good. A lot more timeless than the risk of the abuse of nuclear energy.

The next thing to talk about is the usage of actual Japanese mythology in the plot. While kaiju eiga has always had a religious tone to them, G3 takes it to the next level and breaks the mold in that instead of just calling kaiju after a mythical entity, they actually are the entity. The first thing to notice is in Ms. Asakura Mito’s dialogue: "When Heaven and Earth are opposed, the result is destruction. All appears calm, but danger lies before."

The character Ms. Asakura Mito claims she got the quote from "The Book of Changes". Because of this, and other pieces of dialogue she says, it led some critics to believe that she, along with her cohort Kurata Shinya, to be part of an cult, with some people thinking that the cult is Atlantean (due to the Gyaos and Gamera’s origins). All of that is wrong (though it is easy to make that mistake since at turn of the millennium Japan, cults were becoming numerous in Japan), since the "Book of Changes" is an actual book. You most probably already know that Japan’s ways are heavily influenced by the Chinese. But how exactly does Chinese mythos filter through to fit the Japanese? Well, the "beta" version of the Shinto system was not perfect and to help it along was the "Book of Changes" to help place a definitive doctrine. But how was, "The Book of Changes" changed to it’s final version of the Shinto religion? Well, not at all, since Buddhist who fallowed Confucianism were already in agreement that Shinto came from China through a "way of the sages". It’s more common name is the "I Ching", and is one of the oldest Chinese texts to date. This helps build the mystical foundation for the film. This helps explain a lot which would seem strange to a lot of western viewers, such as the symbols on the room where Ayana was put in when she was transferred to Kyoto. All of this sets up the mythological foundation of the film.

But how does this make sense with a line from the final battle in the film, "I join with the god Naobi to battle this evil spirit"? Those familiar with Japanese Shinto mythology will know that a deity being called "Naobi" are gods who restore peace and light to darkness. But the Ryuseicho - who is dreaded because of it’s destructive mannerisms - conflicts with the image of the Naobi, making it seem as if Miss Asakura Mito thought that the Naobi and the Ryuseicho are alike or has become mentally sick enough to start twisting Shinto religion for her own cause. And though based on actual constellation-based mysticism like what is in the "Book of Changes", the Ryuseicho is part fiction. It is based on the vermillion bird, or otherwise known in Japan as "suzaku". And in real life, Suzaku and Naobi are separate entities. And actually, unlike the Ryuseicho in the film, the phoenix is not opposed to Gembu (the turtle guardian of the north), but rather Gembu is opposed to the dragon. So Miss Mito starts twisting Shinto religion by the end of the film.
There is more to do with Iris’s development that meets the eye. While this may be common knowledge, it is worthy to mention that the monster-in-the-cave scenario is a classic set up for Japanese folk-lore. With this film showing, for the most part in the first half of the film, more traditional Japanese villages with superstitions, this is to be expected. Another observation to take into consideration would be one from Stomp Tokyo’s review of the film (written by Chris Holland and Scott Hamilton): Iris’s development is similar to that of a Pokemon. And many people have realized that Iris’s infant form is actually resembles the usual Pokemon pattern - kaiju which is tiny and looks cute. Really Pokemon like.

Though something dealing with Iris’ development actually ends up being the most complex piece in this whole film: the pendant Ayana finds in close proximity to Iris’ egg. The most commonly accepted theory about the pendant is that it is the Iris’ counterpart of Gamera’s pendant. Obviously it connects Iris to Ayana. Plus it helps reinforce that Iris is also from Atlantis, like Gamera. That would back up Iris’ stance as being a Gyaos mutation. But there is an interesting quote regarding Iris and Ayana durring the climax of the film:

Nagamine: "Asagi, are you still connected to Gamera?"
Asagi: "No, she is. She is fighting Gamera!"

While some people like myself may interpret this as a telling that Ayana may be using Iris like a Gundam from "Gundam SEED", it is in fact that through the amulet that Ayana is wearing that Gamera is trying to gain access to Ayana like what he did to Asagi four years before. Therefore, this makes the amulet a sort of permanent fail safe if the ones found on Gamera in 1995 failed - which they did in 1996. But a fail-safe for what? It could be said that the reason why Gamera needs to be connected to humans would be to help him control the amount of mana he uses when he fights an antagonistic force. But as we see, when the amulets were destroyed, Gamera was able to use mana as he saw fit, therefore we see him use his mana blast attack. But that seems to have been too much since it led to a multitude of Gyaos eggs to hatch due to a large advancement in global warming. This helps flesh out Gamera’s resurrection in G2 and why he does not use any real mana-based attacks in G3 - that is including the banishing fist. Last and not least, it is a plot device which helps explain something that we usually assumed was because of low budget: why kaiju almost always attacks Japan.

In the end, all of this forms the question "what is Iris? A deity or a Gyaos mutation?" You could say both. You could compare Iris to Christianity’s Jesus. Jesus is deity (technically a third of God) embodied in a physical form by being a human child. Why not have a deity which takes physical form by being the child of genetically engineered creatures? With that, you can easily say that Iris is both. A similar thing was done in Kaneko’s masterful 2001 film, "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack". As we see, three kaiju - Ghidorah, Mothra, and Baragon - are beasts worshiped by the Yamato. So place Iris in place of the guardian monsters. So they saw Iris at one time (like the ancients saw Gamera and Gyaos) and then not seen any more. That establishes the beginning of the Ryuseicho being a god. And the imperial family descends from the gods, and who is a god? Ryuseicho. This is explained really well by Hriomi Nakano in his essay, "Signs Taken For Monsters: What Made Godzilla So Angry Then", in which the writer says, "GMK seeks to locate monsters in the foundational mythology of Japan. It claims that three legendary guardian deities rose from the earth to defend the country from Godzilla’s rampages. Lang time ago, an ancient dynasty got rid of various monsters in the course of its conquest, then worshipped them as deities. The custom and practice were taken over by the Yamato State.

The subject material of this anecdote comes from Motohiko Izawa’s novel, "The Paradoxical History of Japan". Given the Imperial Family succeeds distantly to the throne of the Yamato State, the anecdote turns out a politically bold statement about the root of the emperor system of Japan. Actually, G3 tried to take up this argument and brought out one question, "What makes monsters attack Japan?" Its answer was so much cornered with Japanese Traditional Culture that the main stage of the movie was set in Kyoto, the ancient capitol.

In the original plot for G3 by Kazunori Ito, who scripted the animated classic "Ghost if the Shell", the Moribe family has long inherited a peculiar system of scapegoats, in which the children in this family have been sacrificed to the Ryuseicho, a deity of the family. The custom has kept the Moribe family prosperous until now. This anecdote was eventually cut from the plot for fear that it should lead to a problem about the original of the emperor system."

You could say the same thing about Gamera. Gamera in the first two films is seen as a mystical guardian of sorts since he protects humans and the world’s well being in general. This is also furthered since at ThrillVille 2003, Shusuke Kaneko said that in the Gamera trilogy turtles do not exist. With this information Gamera can be seen as a totally new creature bearing no real resemblance to anything else except for other reptiles. Plus, Gamera is based on Gembu, the guardian of the North and a minogame, and we know those mythologies exist in the Gamera series. So Gamera is a mythological beast come to life. And according to Japanese and Chinese traditions, a tortoise can speak in human tongues after 1,000 years of existance. No wonder why Gamera acts like he can understand humans even after all of the medallions were destroyed in 1996 (this goes for Asagi and Nagamine).

But there is another theory. For those who cannot accept Gamera and Iris being deities, some could say that Japan’s deities are in fact remnants of the memories of what happened back in the time of Atlantis. Just that people forgot Gamera was a biological engineer and with him being a great destructive force, humans naturally placed him in the role of a God. Same thing with Iris.

Something noteworthy to mention is how the kaiju/human interaction plays out. Never has the kaiju interacted with the humans in this way. In a press conference, producer Tsutomu Tsuchikawa, "What is special about this movie is, to put it concisely, the drama of the exchange of feelings between humans and monsters. The screenwriter - Mr. Kazunori Ito, mentions in the press sheet that this is a romance. This film will depict the heart to heart exchange and discord among humans and between humans and monsters. We are confident that this will be a new, never before seen kind of kaiju film." Weather it goes with raising a kaiju as an infant or being able to read his thoughts to a kaiju showing that they do remember specific humans, the humans and kaiju are presented well together. Though the presentation also brings up a twist to a style of story telling for a tokusatsu film. We are seemingly made to try to go into the mood that Gamera is bad. Though she doesn’t flesh out her emotions as well as one might hope, we can feel for Ayana when the topic of her and Gamera comes up - from a simple television news report to a nightmare more epic than anything Freddy Krueger could conjure. Does it work? I do not know. This is something which the individual audience member has to make judgment on. Did it work for me? No. The film was ruined for me mostly because I wanted to see it so earnestly that for a couple of years I read tons of synopsis for the film. Plus we know Gamera is the good guy. Which speaking about the humans, kudos for the awesome dialogue the character "Kurata Shinya" says through out the film. Really unique writing there. On another note, Shusuke Kaneko said at the film’s New York premier, "Gamera 3 concerns itself with the psychological effect such monsters could have on people involved in their conflict." This is especially evident when one scene shows the characters watching a TV report that goes to accouple of people and asks their opinion on Gamera and we see how the characters - specifically the four main female characters - Asagi, Miss Nagamine, Asakura Mito, and Ayana - how really changed they are from the first film or what a person would normally act like.

Though there are more Japanese cultural references to speak of - other than a nice appearance of a Sega console. When we see Gamera fire his first plasma ball while standing on the ground, we see a statue of a dog engulfed in burning inferno from the explosion. It is a quite beautiful shot, but a shot that has some interesting trivia associated with it. The dog’s name was "Hachiko". He was famous for always accompanying his master to the local JR station in Shibuya every day and meet him back there every evening. One day, the dog’s master died of a heart attack in 1925. The dog came to the station and waited every day for his master till March 7, 1935 when he was found dead of old age at the station. In honor of the valiant dog, the festival "Chuken Hachiko Matsuri" takes place at the train station. Now, it is a popular meeting place in Tokyo. The station has been now been given the pseudonym "Hachiko" by citizens. It is a really heartbreaking tale which makes me want to cry.

An interesting point to bring up is the setting for the final 30 minutes of the film - in Kyoto. Kyoto is one of the most preserved cities in all of Japan. It was lucky to not be damaged as much as some other Japanese cities durring WWII and holds many great cultural relics. One of the most recognizable showed in the film when Iris was descending. It is the beautiful Kiyomizu-dera temple. Another point to talk about is maybe that the location was chosen since Kyoto used to be Japan’s capitol, hence using this location to keep up with the mystical feel of the film. Though most probably the biggest reason as to why the production team would choose the city would be the Kyoto JR Station. The station had just opened up in 1997 - on Kyoto’s 1,200th birthday. The building could also have been chosen for the unique opportunity to have kaiju fight within a building instead of outside like normal.

Overall, I feel the screenplay by both Shusuke Kaneko and Kazunori Ito is a good one. Mentions of Japanese pop culture and interesting interpretations of Japanese mythos is refreshing. Not to mention things I have not gone into detail with, such as the military’s involvement with the kaiju this time around. Heck, I didn’t even mention that the news program shown in the film "The Wide" is an actual news program in Japan! With this screenplay, it makes you wonder why "Gamera 3" got mixed reviews in Japan. It is absolutely brilliant. I would even dare compare it to "The Godfather" (I am acting on personal and critical rating impulses here).

Production History
Even though the critical reaction was mixed instead of mostly positive like with the first film of the series, "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion" made enough money that it was called for to make Daiei’s last kaiju film before they would be eventually be bought by Kadokawa. However, unlike "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion", it would take longer to make this installment of the Heisei Gamera Trilogy. Most of that is from the screenplay, which would take close to two years to write (which is one explanation for the three year period between "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion" and "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle", though Shusuke Kaneko has said in an interview with Ed Godziszewski that one of the reasons as to why it took so long to make the film is because Daiei had to reserve the Toho-owned theatres for the roadshow two years before hand). The script for "Gamera 3" would go through four drafts before being finalized. The first draft was turned in on February 10, 1998. The second draft was released on April 27. The third draft, also known as the story board manuscript, was released May 25. The final draft would be turned in on June 14, 1998.

In the very same interview aforementioned, Shusuke mentioned some about the making of "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" while on the topic of why Daiei is better with movie directors due to timing. "Mr. Ito was writing the script for part of the time, so I had nothing much to do. Of course I was checking with him and we were changing things. With Gamera 3, Mr. Ito was struggling with the story...he just couldn’t make it work. Why? Because it was the third one, he wanted to create something new. It was the most difficult one." After writing the script analysis, it is not hard to see why. Though it seems as if some of the special effects elements of the screenplay may have been deleted concepts from the earlier two films. In an interview with Shinji Higuchi on the Gamera DVDs, "There were a lot to begin with in Mr. Ito’s screenplay, but I said, I’m sorry, we can only do about the same things we did the last time and if we can’t do any better, hold off on it for now." One of those "hold off on it for now" concepts were some aerial combat between Gamera and Legion in "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion", but that would be saved for "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" once Higuchi’s want of the third Gamera film to have aquatic duels diminished due to the water-based battles of "Mothra 2: Undersea Battle". Though they are only rumors, some concepts for "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" included two ideas: a Gamera vs. Gamera scenario with Iris or Gamera vs. humanity. It has also been rumored that there was a screenplay only scene in which after the credits there is some footage of Gamera still battling the Gyaos in a world where humans are extinct. None of this has been proven true.

Pre-production of "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" would official begin in 1997, though out of the whole year (specifically March through December) only thirteen days would be spent on the film. At the beginning, it was mainly just talks in board rooms, drawings on dry-erase boards by Higuchi, and a little camera filming everything for the two hours production diaries for "Gamera 3", aptly titled "GAMERA 1999". Major production work started ten days after the fourth and final draft of the screenplay was cleared. This pre-production period was best summarized by producer of the trilogy Tsutomu Tsuchikawa, "…in production of the third film, the creators - Shusuke Kaneko, Shinji Higuchi, and Kazunori Ito - they have been meeting over and over again for about a year now are finally brining us to where we are today. To be honest, it has been one of the more difficult deliveries in my experience with film. I believe this is because these three creators output their very best each time and then try to do something even better for the next one."

When asked about how he chooses cast members in an interview, Shusuke Kaneko said, "I chose actors and actresses who can really make you believe that kaiju exist in this world. The cast acted very seriously, they really seemed to believe that kaiju exist - and that makes the audience believe that kaiju exist." Keeping with that, he brings back most of the principle characters from the last few films. Most returning actors/actresses are from "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe", including Shinobu Nakayama and Ayako Fujitani. Though there are some noticeable appearances of characters from "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion", including an unnamed scientist. But there are some new comers to the film, with the most noteworthy of the bunch being Ai Maeda (Ayana) and Tooru Tezuka (Kurata Shinya). Ai Maeda was the youngest member in the main cast. Only 15 for most of the shoot (her birthday is October 4th), Maeda gives a great performance as the dynamic character of Ayana Miyasaka. Ai made her first imprint as an extra in a Japanese McDonalds commercial. Afterwards - along with some film appearances - she did modeling with her sister Aki Maeda. But her breakout role was "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle", with currently her most famous being the character Shiori Kitano in "Battle Royale II: Requiem". Ai Maeda would make a cameo in Shusuke Kaneko’s contribution to the Godzilla series, "GMK". Kaneko’s filming with the actors would take a duration from the middle of June to the middle of August.

Special Effects
Shusuke Kaneko put it best when he said in an interview after the premier, "This movie is the best in special effects." And at the time, if not still now, it is the best film Japan has when it comes to using SFX weather CGI to some more aged techniques like suit animation and electronics with models. Fallowing the retrospect is a day-by-day breakdown of the shoot as the GAMERA 1999 production diaries have shown. When it comes to the interaction of the special effects director Shinji Higuchi and contractors such as Tomoo Hariguchi, it is "Not at all. We just gave the Gamera, Iris, and Gyaos marquette to the CGI staff to create their effects. For Iris, Mr. Shinada made the marquette, but it was finished here. On ‘G3’, there was a lot of money for CGI effects, although my own budget became smaller because of this! (laughter)." It should be noted that "Gamera 3"’s budget was $7,000,000. Special effects shooting - while said at the official press conference to have taken from early June to early September, shooting was extended to the middle of October.

"Gamera is how I envisioned it." said Tomoo Hariguchi in an interview. Many have taken notice to Gamera’s more "take no prisoners" appearance for the film. Like stated in the script analysis and by what Hariguchi would say in an interview, it was to have the audience associate with the character Ayana more. Playing Gamera this time around is suit actor Hirofumi Fukuzawa. Like the last installment, Gamera’s landings were again filled with melee on the city streets like his sliding landing in "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion" due to Special Effects Director Higuchi thinking a regular landing would look odd. This is brought back again when Gamera lands in Shibuya and especially in Kyoto. Plus we see what makes Gamera’s flying saucer position when flying a strategic move in combat - the new edges on his shell help. Two upper body puppets, a flying model, and a suit was made for the film. The Gamera suit (as well as the Gyaos models) were made by Tomoo Hariguchi.

Gamera’s challenge in this film is the monster Iris. After over 11 different design changes and 7 different color changes, Iris was finally designed. It is clear to see that Iris was built for one of the original concepts for the film - Gamera having an " aerial battle like thing underwater… behaving pretty similarly as in the air." [quote from Shinji Higuchi]. Though this actually proved to be an asset to Higuchi and his crew, especially on the question on how to make Iris’ flight seem original compared to other kaiju. "When it comes to flying, if you want it to look convincing, you either have to flap your wings or have fire coming out your ass. And we were trying to come up with another idea on how to fly. …we were looking for something that wasn’t either." Irys’s movements were based on those of a squid. Something else which stick’s out about Iris’ movement is when he lands. He does not give the impression that he is slowing down. Plus, what scenes there are of Iris which exposes his tentacles, Shinji Higuchi said it is partially thanks to those who write the CGI programs for the fluent movement.

The Iris suit and puppets/models were made by V-Shop, headed by Fuyuki Shinasa and Takuya Yamabe. The suit’s looks when being put on gives a ‘stuffed’ impression. Sometimes times durring the shoot suit actor Akira Ohashi was allowed to not wear the Iris feet, as it is understandable that the Iris feet would be hard to act in for a long expanse of time. Though, when it came to matching the suit/puppet Iris with the CGI model/shots which would be used in the film, not everyone was happy, including Tomoo Hariguchi. "Iris, I feel that some of the suit and CGI effects didn’t match together very well." When it came to letting out the news about Iris, it was kept secret until October 1998 that the monster’s name was "Iris" since Iris’s name is spelled like "demon".

According to a spokesperson at a G3 press conference, "The subtitle has been determined, so I will announce that now. "Gamera 3: The Demon Awakens". That is to say, it will be written as "demon", but it will be read as "Iris". This is very important folks. The use of the enemy monster’s name, also in the title "Iris", we request that you disclose this only after October." Along with this, all photos and other materials that revealed Iris were kept closed till October.

The biggest threat in the film is easily the Gyaos, now in the form of the new third generation - Hyper Gyaos. The inclusion of the character - while coming out as something which helps add an apocalyptic feel to the film, was more of a business decision on Daiei’s behalf to screenplay writer Kazunori Ito. "Gyaos toys sold much better than Legion toys… this was based on Daiei’s market research to produce new merchandise." Most Hyper Gyaos in the film are CGI, though some close ups and explosions are done using models. These models would be constructed out of fiber glass over a metal skeleton. The body usually had a length of 3 feet with a wing span of 5 feet, making the model approximately 1:114 scale. Currently, the model is in the possession of Dan Reed, who is most remembered being the publisher of the short lived fanzine "Kaiju Review" but became for a time a contributor to Uchusen Quarterly. Overall, no one could complain much, especially considering "G3’s Gyaos is much closer to Mr. Maeda’s original design than what was ultimately used in G1."

The stand out point of "Gamera 3" is easily the extensive use of CGI. About 75% of the special effects shots in the film has had some touching up with CGI. Tomoo Hariguchi claimed, "For G3, long shots of the monsters could be created using CGI, but we still had to use puppets for close ups, like the damaged Gyaos, for example." Not many know about what specific equipment was used for the film, but many have guessed. At the time (1999), the most popular CGI programs were Softimage 3D, LightWave 3D, 3D Studio MAX, AfterEffects, DV-Rex, Trinity, Mirai, Electriclmage, and Shade. While not confirmed, someone has mentioned that in a making of picture from "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle", the crew were making use of an AliasWavefront piece of hardware/software. Nine different companies like Imagica, Digital Frontier, and Digital Engine Laboratory were used to help with the CGI effects. But even this is not perfect, as confessed by Mr. Higuchi. "I’m still not as good as cell animation . I hate to admit that as someone who makes a living off the art." Though this seems to be a rather modest comment, since people like "Casshern" director Kazuaki Kiriya say "I think he’s a… genius."

A notable scene which involves heavy use of CGI would be the aerial battle. Though some shots are done with models (most of these are easily noticeable, thought it is hard to tell but Gamera’s entry in the battle is actually model footage enhanced with CGI), heavy use of CGI is present due to the lack of restriction (no piano wires to be navigated around). On the topic of aerial scenes though, Shinji Higuchi has often wanted to make scenes reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki’s work. "I intent to depict awesome aerial battles that surpass Miyazaki anime." As for one shot when Gamera is hit with the missiles, an amazing shot is filmed with Iris descending with a flaming Gamera. The camera pans past Gamera to look at Iris only to get behind Gamera and we see his exhaust outlets going full blast in pursuit of Iris. This was actually thought by Higuchi to be copied from "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", only to find out that he actually got inspired by Miyazaki and made a more complex shot than what he based it off of.

Publicity
When it comes down to it, "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" more or less had the same range of distribution as it’s predecessor, "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion". Other than the usual posters and other memorabilia, "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" really did sport a lot to buy. First was a laserdisc re-release of G1 and G2 in one pack called the "Gamera Perfect Box". Like it’s predecessors, "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" had a VHS release-only production diary file released. However, unlike "Gamera 2", only one variation of "GAMERA 1999" was released.

The film, also like "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion", had accouple of exhibits fallow through with it’s publicity. At the 1999 Winter Wonder Festival, the Gamera and Iris suits were on display along with a television monitor with a continuous feed of "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" commercials. However, this is nothing compared to what would be ultimately done at the final battle ground in the film - the Kyoto JR Train Station.

The Gamera 3 Kyoto JR Exhibit, funded by Daiei and the Kyoto Train Station itself, was an event held on February 26 and 27 in the Kyoto Train Station which was a filming location and location for the main kaiju fight in the film "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle". When you walked into the station, giant posters of a blue variation of the theatrical poster are hung outside. When walking in, a lit bill board with a theatrical and blue variation (each poster having the same dimensions, adding good contrast) is standing. Green Gamera footprints about 4 feet in area lead you to the exhibit. One of the most noticeable parts of the station, it’s lengthy amount of steps, were painted with the Gamera symbol and underneath, the two Gamera 3 symbols (Japanese print of "Gamera 3" in red, and "GIII" in the usual gray). You fallow your way - with help of the Gamera steps and green footprints to a doorway decorated with the likes of the blue Gamera 3 poster for the event.
When going in, you are greeted with walls covered with animated SD stickers of Super Gyaos and Gamera. At the front desk, posters for "Gamera 1999" (VHS), Gamera 3 Tower II (a PC game), and flyers for Japanese pop singer Juliana’s single from the film "Tell Me Again". Going through the exhibit, a black wall was split into three parts - for each Gamera film. For the first two film, there was props and paperwork from the film on display. Specifically for Gamera 2, the suit’s head, Flying Gamera miniature, two military jeeps, and of course story boards and script pages. For Gamera 3 - only story boards and pages of the script were on display for on the other side of the exhibit, props from Gamera 3 were on display, including the Gamera and Irys suits inside a Kyoto Train Station miniature, the head of the dead Gyaos found in the equator at the beginning of the film, and a full Symbiotic Legion.
Guests included Shusuke Kaneko, Ai Maeda, and Shinobu Nakayama. The first night saw attendees treated to a generous buffet of food and drink, a talk show with the guests, a prize raffle, and finally a preview screening of Gamera 3 at the station's recently completed movie theater. The activities concluded the following morning with the three guests christening the opening of the GAMERA SFX STUDIO. The fallowing products were available at the prize raffle: a puzzle version of the blue poster (28 pieces), a sticker, 4 key chains by Kaiyodo (SD versions of Gamera and Irys, painted and unpainted varieties; unpainted versions being Gamera green and Irys orange), and a chirashi for the event.
The Gamera SFX Studio was an exhibit which was set up in the Station after the two day Kyoto Train Station Event. There was a 20 page program given out. With the main background being blue, pics from the making of all three Gamera Heisei films were present. Chirashi were handed out, with the front showing a side profile of Gamera and he rises to kill the almost dead Hyper Gyaos (one with eyeball hanging out) and a map of the exhibit on the other side. Along with the chirashi, two stickers were given out, one with a fiery side profile of Gamera from G3 and the back of a flying Gamera from G2. Each one had this description around the sticker: "1999 The Japan tour even on Tokyo, Sendai, Shizuoka, Okayama, Kobe, Oeta to the next." A give away item was a set of pins. Three pins: a Gamera 1999, Iris, and Hyper Gyaos on a blue card that says Gamer SFX Studio. A list of the props used at the event would be:

-1:1 Scale Symbiotic Legion-Miniature Helicopter-Miniature Military Jeep-Part of the set used for Irys’s landing sequence-Book that Nagamine published on the Gyaos as shown in G2-Gamera 1995 suit head (replica)-Gamera 1996 suit head (replica)-Gamera 1999 suit Marquette -Gamera 1999 suit from landing sequence at beginning -Miniature Mother Legion causing hell in urban Tokyo-Hanging Flying Gyaos (I am pretty sure that it is the same one Dan Reed now owns)-Irys costume against blue screen from forest scene-Baby Irys prop with some rocks-Model of Super Gyaos atop of Tokyo Tower
Everything from the Kyoto Exhibit was taken down except for where the Gamera symbol (Gamera in front of the sun). The Gamera suit and the Irys suit were actually moved from their original place in the station, in which was in a replica set of the Kyoto Train station. The exhibit was closed down April '99.

The most stand out feature of all the promotional items/events which Daiei had set up for G3 is that some of the merchandise actually helps re-establish "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle"’s (and the Gamera trilogy’s) standing as the trilogy/film series that pioneered Japanese CGI effects. This is so in that a lot more merchandise this time around is of programs which one could download onto their computer as graphics - granted that the consumer of the product had a computer with a version of Windows on it. Three smaller downloadable programs were icons of Gamera, Gyaos, and Iris (each sold separately) which could accompany you while you were using your computer. Though the biggest product was an extension of the popular "Tower II". In the G3 extension of "Tower II", you could format your own version of the Kyoto train station with all sorts of malls and such. After you’re done, you could take pride in seeing Gamera and Iris duke it out in your newest creation. "Gamera 3" ended up earning the award for "Best Film" from the Japanese Internet Movie Award.

"Since G1999"
"Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" would have it’s widespread release start in March 6, 1999, starting it‘s roadshow duration at the Toho Yogakuin theatre. Like "Gamera 2", "Gamera 3" came with mixed reactions from film critics. The film, while doing moderate success at the Japanese box office, did earn $5,500,000 in distribution earnings. While I am sure that this isn’t the only award the film won, "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" won an award at the Mainichi Film Concours for best sound recording (credited to Yasuo Hashimoto). The film would later on be released in Canada in September 18, 1999 at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2000, the film was showcased at the Seoul International Film Festival on Feb. 4 (which is interesting, especially since G1’s theatrical release in Korea was canceled due to the failure of the 1999 version of "Yonggary") and then later on at the German München Fantasy Filmfest on August 2. Though in a rare feat, Thailand did give "Gamera 3" a normal theatrical release. This is to say that they released the film on a wide enough scale to actually produced theatrical posters and lobby cards for the film.

In Japan, the now complete Gamera trilogy became something like "The Godfather" or original "Star Wars" trilogies. "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" would be a staple in what profits Daiei made before they were bought by Kadokawa. Three different VHS tapes were released over a three year period , with rental starting on Aug. 6 and then tapes for sale starting Sep. 1. The last VHS release - being a beautiful black and white picture with red in Gamera’s eyes was released on Feb. 4, 2000. Later on, the DVD/LD formats will be released on Aug. 23, 2000 (the box set version of the LD would not be released until Nov. 21.) Though when the DVD version was released, the trilogy showed signs of being top notch, from the DVD releases having holographic covers and the booklets that accompanied the DVDs (I am talking about the days which Japan used to use Jewel Cases for DVDs) were formatted similarly like a trilogy should be. With this amount of popularity, the films would be released on 8/28/09 as a 5 disc box set with newly filmed features. With the newly filmed features, therefore the trilogy is always receiving top notch quality.

The film was further respected in the United States. ADV first reported that it bought the rights to "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" on January 10, 2000. It’s run in art houses and independent theatres all across the nation recieved overwhelming praise since it‘s US premier at G-FEST 1999. Due to the success, serious thought of a wide spread theatrical release of a dubbed version of "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" was revealed by an ADV representative to a friend of Kyle Yount (owner of the site "The Shrine of Gamera") durring the 2001 AnimeExpo. However, it never came to pass, though it would have been a nice happening after the advent of "Godzilla 2000" here in America and the great critical acclaim from American critics the first Gamera film got back in 1995. Talk of an ADV DVD release started back in 2000. Originally for "Gamera 2" and "Gamera 3" were to have - like "Gamera 1" - the original poster art was to be used (I translate this to be the advanced poster artwork, which in "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle"’s case would have been the black Gamera silhouette with red background and a picture of Ayana in a white covering at the bottom). Along with that, the films were to be called by their versus title, which in this film’s case it would have been "Gamera 3: Gamera vs. Iris". The original advertisement summary went like this: "In the Philippines, Dr. Nagamine makes a horrifying discovery. The Gyaos are back, and in even greater numbers than ever. As Gamera returns to battle his ancient foes, mankind finds itself caught in the crossfire. Human casualties reach astronomical levels as Shibuya is completely leveled in a single battle, and there are literally hundreds of Gyaos! Even as the military ponders what step to take next, a new and even more deadly menace arises in the form of Irys, a multi-tentacle beast that lives by draining the energy produced by all living creatures. The action is fiercer and the special effects more spectacular than ever before as Gamera and Irys face off in the stunning conclusion to what is already being hailed by fans and critics alike as the greatest giant monster film ever made." Along with ditching that, ADV would also ditch the chance to have more extras than what was presented on the "Gamera The Box: 1995 - 1999" DVD set via extras done in English presented by Shusuke Kaneko and company. In June 17, 2003, the DVD was released with all of the extras that was in the Japanese box set and had a lack luster case covering to boot.

More signs of the film being iconic is that when kaiju stamps were made in 2006, an iconic image from G3 was used for the stamp. On the side of Kadokawa’s main office building is a giant blue Gamera from "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle", and occasionally there are still fan gatherings for fans of the trilogy. Books would also be written on Gamera, including "Tokusatsu Revelation 1995-2001" by Risaku Kiridoshi, which chronicles all four of Shusuke Kaneko's kaiju films (G-Trilogy and GMK).

Closing
Though I am not a big fan, I like to read some of Gore Vidal’s work. My favorite quote from him is, "...that is what criticism is meant to do - show us what we missed or just plain didn't get." I can tell you with no ego that I have tried my best to provide you, the reader, with my criticism and my recording of the film’s production and history. "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" is a great film. I am surprised that not much has been said about the film since this year marks it’s 10th anniversary. I think no one can sum it up as well as what Shinobu Nakayama said at the public premier of "Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle" in Shibuya, "This has been a very memorable project… I hope you will also cherish this movie as I do."

GIII Production Timeline - 1998
March 31 - Test footage for Shibuya and the Kyoto JR station locations
May 31 - Assembling of one of the three main Shibuya sets - indoors
June 2 - Filming of Gamera foot prop making impact for landing scene in Shibuya confrontation
Shot done three times before final cut was made with added liquid nitrogen for debris effect
June 6 - filming of shot where whole suit falls to the ground in first landing sequence
Materials for Gamera grave yard scene come in from M1 (some Gamera skulls home made)
Press come to pester.
June 8 - shot of debris destroying train
Crane shot of falling, burning Gyaos
Added impact effect for including via matte for Gyaos’ impact with liquid nitrogen
June 14 - Gamera exposition
June 15 - filming of Hachiko scene - filmed sideways on outside set
June 20 - assembling and exploding of Shibuya JR building
June 21 - shooting of shots of melee that happen inside the buildings in Gamera’s landing in Shibuya
June 22 - shooting of Miss Nagamine and Asagi Kusanagi’s dialogue in museum
June 23 - shooting of bar scene with Mr. Osako and Miss Nagamine
June 24 - final shot of Gamera film in first half of Shibuya sequence (before shot of Iris’ egg)
June 25 - making and shooting of black painted foil figures for Shibuya explosion shot
June 26 - shooting of shot of Gamera stomping (Kid’s POV in second part of Shibuya attack)
Shinji Higuchi drawing pictures of Hyper Gyaos used in newspapers in film
Shooting of Gamera’s mouth about to release plasma ball in second part of Shibuya sequence
Shooting of scene with Kurata Shinya at shrine with Asagi and Nagamine
Cast and Crew photo taken
Shooting of Iris side profile with rain falling off him
June 27 - Shooting form top of Kyoto trail station.
Scenes in lobby filmed around 3 in the morning
Some scenes with Ayana going up the escalator and other dialogue filmed 4:30 in the morning
June 28 - Shooting of Asakura Mito’s death; shots of people running shot (Normand Englund an extra)
More shots of Ayana running up escalator
June 30 - Cast and crew viewing of human scenes. Inspires crew to mimic Kurata Shinya’s arm gestures
Begin filming of aerial battle
July 6 - Gamera and Iris suit tests; more aerial battle shooting
July 7 - Shooting of breaking glass - to be matted into shot of Gamera firing fire ball into restaurant
Shooting of the throwing of the 10 inch dagger scene (full)
July 8 - Shooting of Gamera firing fire balls at Iris before landing in Kyoto - filmed upside down
July 9 - Shooting of SFX scene in a post-debris Kyoto JR Station - including CPR scene
Shooting of Iris’s tentacles in Aerial battle
July 10 - Shooting of aerial battle with Gamera and Iris hand puppets
July 11 - more testing of Iris suit
July 12 - Press photos taken
July 14 - Shooting of Gamera landing in Kyoto scene
Shooting of people being thrown around in 1:1 set with debris
July 15 - shooting of Iris in forest
July 16 - rainy day for production; filming of cloud CGI patterns for aerial battle
July 17 - Misc. Iris shots filmed
July 18 - filming of tentacle going across Iris before Gamera shoots fireballs before he lands
Shooting of in set shot of people having debris falling onto them
July 19 - filming of Iris/Gamera reflecting in puddle and other battle footage
July 20 - shooting of Ayana and Baby Iris in the forest
July 22 - shooting of Iris in forest
July 23 - Shooting of Gamera falling out of Kyoto JR
July 24 - Shooting of more battle footage
July 25 - shooting of Iris in forest
Filming of Gamera being impaled
July 26 - checking pyrotechnics and building another Kyoto JR Set
July 27 - shooting of Iris in forest
July 30 - filming of opening shot cancelled due to rain
July 31 - explosions/Burning Gyaos drop/ect. Debris shots
Aug. 2 - filming outside shots of exploding Gyaos
Aug. 4 - Finishing building of Kyoto JR Set for explosion
Aug. 5 - shooting of Iris in forest
Aug. 6 - shot of guy being thrown around in phone booth
Aug. 8 - Other Kyoto JR Set finished, shot of Gamera falling down
Aug. 9 - Shot of Gamera brining gut-covered Ayana to where Asagi and Kusanagi stand (monster part of
matte shot; ect. Debris shots
Aug. 10 - Checking shot of Shibuya explosions
Filming scene of Ayana and Asakura Mito in room at Kyoto JR Station
Aug. 11 - shooting of pop star’s death scene
Aug. 12 - more shooting of battle in JR station
Aug. 13 - shooting of people being thrown around (to be latter matted in with black foil figures)
Production discussion in offices
Aug. 18 - prelude to plasma fist shot
Aug. 19 - shooting of military personnel scenes
Aug. 20 - Green Screen/Ayana being absorbed by Iris’ gene snatcher ability
Aug. 24 - more shots before Plasma Fist
Aug. 29 - Shot of Iris’ guts in Gamera’s hand (giant hand prop) and shooting of plasma fist;
Akira Ohashi finishes
Aug. 31 - Shooting of scene where Ayana wakes up in green-lit room in Kyoto
Oct. 3 - filming of Gamera exposition scenes; start of filming Nightmare Gamera scenes
Oct. 9 - outside set - filming of giant explosion at Kyoto Train station
Oct. 10 - more filming of Nightmare Gamera scene
Oct. 11 - Final shots of Gamera
Oct. 12 - explosions shot for CGI crew
Oct. 16 - Nightmare Gamera Scene Wrap-Up

Clash of the Titans (2010) DVD Release

2010-06-09T00:10:00.000-04:00

Front

Back

With a street date of July 27, 2010, you can now own the 2010 blockbuster remake of "Clash of the Titans". With a SRP of $28.98 for the DVD and $35 for the two disc blu-ray, you can now watch the film in your own home. Extra feature for the DVD includes additional scenes. Extra features for the two disc blu-ray release includes: "Sam Worthington: An Action Hero For The Ages: A Dedicated Actor Morphs Into A Lean Fighting Machine For A Mythic Movie", "Harnessing the Gods: Maximum Movie Mode", and "Alternate Ending: Perseus Confronts Zeus On Mount Olympus". Really makes you (for those who are fans) wish you recorded the special features that came on Cinemax, TV Guide, and G4, doesn't it? The discs come complete with English, French, and Spainish subtitles. However, keep alive since the blu-ray will have a sneak preview of The GREEN LANTERN film. No word of Best Buy/Wal Mart exlcusives yet.

In Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth.

You can pre-order both at dvdempire.com

Peter H. Brothers Interview for "Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda"

2010-06-08T17:38:00.000-04:00

"Dear Friends,

I need your help...Here's the situation: my friend Gordon helped me with my YouTube video on my "Mushroom Clouds" book, and we kinda made a deal where every 100 views I'd take him out to breakfast at Coco's. Trouble is, we've been holding in the 270s for weeks now, so I thought that out of the kindness of your hearts, some ...of you might take a look at it (just Part I, you don't need to watch Part II unless you can't sleep) and thus take it over the 300 mark. What can I say, it'll make him happy.

Many thanks!
-Peter H. Brothers"
*quote taken from PHB's Facebook message

Youtube Mania!

2010-06-03T16:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to site such as Twitter or Facebook, fans can often times find some people they are fans of and conversate with their idols. Thanks to sites such as youtube though, we can see more of our idols than what we thought. This post is going to surround itself with two people who are quite known with on the kaiju otaku front: Mark Nagata - vinyl culture figure and kaiju toy maker and Shelley Sweeney, actress who is most notable as one of the Mechagodzilla pilots in the 1993 film, GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA.
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First, let’s take a look at Mark Nagata’s youtube page, Max Toy Co., named after the toy company he founded which creates toys of kaiju not from the films but from the creative minds of Max Toy Co.’s employees. Heading the company is Mark Nagata, who is a major collector of kaiju vinyl, particularly Ultraman. The videos this youtube channel exhibits include videos which offers insights on the kaiju toy making process, from pouring vinyl into a cast to the lengthy process of painting the figure. It should truly give you a deeper appreciation for the art.

Next is the youtube channel of Shelley Sweeney. Sweeney, while most notably in GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1993), she has been in accouple of other Godzilla films. However, out of the kaiju scene, Shelley still lives in Japan and can be seen as a reporter on CNNJ (Japanese version of CNN, go check out the photo of her on Facebook), doing promotion for the "Bourn" films, and appearing in ads at the Narita International Airport. On youtube, Shelly is joined by Jack, which together they go from talking about Sakura Hanami and wine in a bag to have a meal in a Mayan restaurant. Very interesting stuff. Sure to make a good watch!

Enjoy the videos!

Morikami Museum New Kaiju Exhibit

2010-05-28T17:54:00.000-04:00

Monsters invade the Morikami Museum this summer as vintage toys from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, inspired by Japanese tokusatsu films and TV shows go on display in the exhibition, Kaiju! Monster Invasion! Classic Japanese tokusatsu eiga, or special effects films, typically utilized an fx technique called sutsumeishon (suitmation) in which monsters of colossal size, termed Kaiju, were portrayed by stuntmen in rubber suits moving about on sets of miniatures. Beginning with the release of the film Gojira (Godzilla) in 1954, kaiju of all types have captured the imagination of legions of fans worldwide and have spawned a lucrative toy industry that endures to this day. The Morikami’s exhibition displays over 100 figures from an extensive private collection. Some kaiju are dinosaurian in appearance; others are based vaguely on insects, sea creatures, or plants; still others combine characteristics of all of these and more. All are included in the exhibition, seeming to give form to humankind’s deepest anxieties in an age dominated by nuclear, biological, and environmental peril.

The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $12 for adults (18 – 64), $11 for seniors (65+), $7 for children and college students with identification. The Morikami is located at 4000 Morikami Park Road in Delray Beach, Florida. For more information about the Morikami, its exhibitions, programs and events, visit http://www.morikami.org/ or call 561-495-0233.

Above paragraph is from "wonderingeducators.com". It opens June 1st.

More information here:

http://www.morikami.org/index.php?submenu=visit&src=gendocs&ref=General%20Information&category=General%20Information

Special thanks to "KaijuNoMura" for bringing this to my attention.

HEAVEN AND EARTH (1990) (Ten To Chi To)

2010-05-28T03:24:00.000-04:00

Last time I decided to write about a samurai film, it was Kinji Fukasaku’s SATOMI HAKKEN DEN. Now, I come to you with a much more forgotten film, a film which though forgotten has yet to loose it’s beauty and such. That film is TEN TO CHI TO, better known by it’s international title, HEAVEN AND EARTH (1990). This is another film which I love very much, both for the visuals and the feeling you get while watching the film.
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HEAVEN AND EARTH is a film which is about something that is very popular subject matter in Japan (popular enough that it is also the subject matter of Akira Kurosawa’s 1980 venture, KAGEMUSHA), the Sengoku period of Japanese history with the battles of it’s two most popular rivals - Kagetora and Takeda. However, unlike KAGEMUSHA, the central plot isn’t about Takeda’s need for a double. It is rather Kagetora’s corruption and love life.

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Distributed by Kadokawa, the film was written and directed by Haruki Kadokawa. With his direction, it is obvious that he is well versed in the Shinto ways (Haruki was known to have his own Shinto shrine where he would conduct his own ceremonies). With this, the art direction and look of the film is very beautiful. Many scenes seem to associate the feeling of the scene with the element most shown in the scene. Rain, fog, cherry blossom petals, and waterfalls are all keys to this. Even parts showing the seasons changing (for the purpose of acknowledging the change) help this. Not to mention photography of the actors against mountains. Great cinematography.

However, the film’s main plot revolves around Kagetora. Particularly his corruption and love life. The character would come to be of great use with this film, from the use of the device known as the moustache that grows over the course of the film to his acts of cruelty - some which get to the viewer. Such an act is when he kills Takeda’s wife and son. Though it should be noted that a revelation of the difference between American and Japanese cinematic techniques comes out. Durring the scene, Kagetora shows restraint on his face with his college asking him why he hesitates. While an American director would close in on the respective character’s faces, Kadokawa decides to do things the Kurosawa way and keep the shot so that not only is the camera still, but we have both Kagetora and his college in the same frame. Really takes a keen eye to notice not only the difference in the filming techniques, but to also notice the respective actor’s performances in scenes shot such as this.

Like some of the Kadokawa company’s other films, Haruki decided to push the limits of his productions anymore. So, at the time, HEAVEN AND EARTH became the most expensive Japanese film, budgeted at five billion yen ($50,000,000 in today’s US dollars). The film would be shot in two places: Japan for the drama scenes (filming in Hokkaido, Nara, and Tokyo) and Canada for the large action battle scenes. Originally, award winning actor Ken Watanabe (to later gain popularity with another landmark samurai film - THE LAST SAMURAI) was to play Kagetora, who would be ultimately played by Takaaki Enoki. The reason for this was because of Watanabe’s last minute acute myelocytic leukemia.
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In Canada (more specifically, in and around Alberta), the full crew included 80 wranglers, 95 Assistant Directors, seven full camera crews (two Japanese; five American), 40 tons of wardrobe, 3000 extras, and 800 horses with riders. This was not without it’s setbacks. Canada’s Ministry of Transportation had rules regarding the use of the Trans Canada Highways. So, the total of 115 busses that would transport the cast and crew would time the buss’ departure from Calgary, Canada for every 90 seconds at different points to help avoid a crowing problem on the highway. The only real accident which would happen on set would be the loss of a thumb belonging to a Japanese wrangler who loss it due to rope attached to a horse. The thumb was saved though.
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Once on the plains, it took on average 25-30 minutes to get the 3000 extras into their costume for the film. The costume for the film would be cause for many a complaint for historical accuracy enthusiasts. Such is the use of Mempo Masks - used to hide the faces of the large amount of Caucasian Canadian extras playing samurai and the use of armored sleeves on only the right arm which was done to help with the use of the Japanese long bow, which was asymmetrical. The horses that the riders would ride though were not professionally trained horses. Instead, they bought regular horses to train, which helped save money after the feed budget for the horses started going over the $1,000,000 mark. Rather, they were trained for four months. Afterwards, the horses were auctioned off, making back more money than what the horses were bought for originally.
When it came to the distribution of the film, Kadokawa had again returned to one of the most common (at the time) methods for assured profit for a film: the use of advanced tickets. Due to a previous film that Kadokawa had part in, THE INUGAMI FAIMLY, he was by contract obligated to Toho to sell the large amount of 50,000 advanced tickets. Some people have noted their shock at the audacity at this move. This is because some of what Kadokawa was doing came fairly close from breaking fair trade laws. A member of Kadokawa published has gone on record mentioning, "workers were simply given books of tickets and the cost deducted from their pay - all without their consent." The film would go on to be (as of 2009) Japan’s 31st highest grossing film of all time, grossing 9.1 billion yen. The film was even more popular once future Japanese pop music legend Tetsuya Komuro did a song for the film (aptly titled "Heaven and Earth", some of the music from the single would be used in Takeda and Kagetora’s final battle, minus the lyrics or main chorus section). Since then, it has been released on DVD in two forms: theatrical and a director’s cut which restores 20 minutes of footage.
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In America, the film was released in the usual art house circuit. The American version would have subtitles printed into the film itself with a little intro. To give the film an English speaking voice, character actor Stuart Whitman narrated the film. The film would go on to make $307,775 at the box office. A VHS would be released by Live Video, who would also retain the television rights and show the film on the Shotime channels on a regular basis. It would be host to some high quality boot leg variations that could be found over ebay.

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HEAVEN AND EARTH has become one of the legends of Nippon Eiga history. Being somewhat of a success story when it comes to the film as a product, the film as a film is though simplistic is beautifully shot with a nice love story sub-plot and the exhibiting of Kagetora’s downfall into darkness to achieve his goal to unite Japan durring the warring states period. A beautiful film indeed. Recommended, and it is also recommended to watch the version that occasionally comes on Shotime rather than buy the VHS tape for sake of picture quality.
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COMPARISON TO KAGEMUSHA
There is a need to compare this film with Akira Kurosawa’s KAGEMUSHA - just for the study of the activity in which both films are based on. The biggest difference when approaching the films as large scale recreations of the event, we notice that unlike Kadokawa - who kept his armies color coded to blacks and reds - Kurosawa decidedly used more color variety with his soldiers, to make what one author referred to as, "oil paints running together". However, the battles themselves in their content are also different. Kurosawa does allow bloodshed in his film making some to claim that his film is more honest when it comes to depicting war, Kadokawa’s film is almost gore-less.

LYRICS TO TETSYA KOMURO'S MV

"Sound of water flowing into the river flows forever
echoing across a thousand days in the ear
you are far away fog closed spring
it is my dream from this River ritai
you belive in love, beloved
surely meet daily over past
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every man is a repeat of today's date color color

look inside yourself if you stay with
the evening even belive in love
vanishes life over to meet someday
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Chorus (sung in english)

there will be always
heaven and earth forever
there will be always
heaven and earth forever
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Black hair swaying in the wind in your memories float
until then surely meet reborn
you belive in love, beloved
surely meet daily over past

Repeat this 3 times.

Review: GMK Soundtrack from Perfect Box

2010-05-27T11:33:00.000-04:00

Movie: GMK
Composer: Ko Otani
Record Label: Toho Music
Running time: 75:48Discs: 1
Released: 2010
Reviewed By: Matti K.

Review: ****/*****
The second disc in the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box contains the soundtrack of GMK, composed by Ko Otani, who previously worked with Shusuke Kaneko on the Heisei Gamera trilogy. This score is not quite as good as his work on the aforementioned trilogy, but it is really entertaining nonetheless.
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The fact that Otani utilizes a lot of synthesizer effects in his music may turn some people off. However, a lot of fans have shown appreciation for this score. Otani has created a number of memorable themes for the movie, and that does lead to some repetition, although not to an irritating amount of it. The new theme for Godzilla is really foreboding. The tracks "Main Title", "The God of Destruction Appear", and "A Desperate Crisis" are among the ones where the theme gets the most effective use. The second primary theme is the one of King Ghidorah, which is usually accompanied by an eerie male chorus, especially in "The Sleeping Three Headed Dragon". Mothra also gets her own short theme motif, which is actually a new variation of her original song, as you often hear, "Mosura ya, Mosura ya" being sung. Otani has composed a new military march too, which seems to be a tradition for him as he created a different military march for each of the Heisei Gamera movies. The final new theme is usually referred to as the track it’s used the most in: "Determined to Protect the Future". This theme is really beautiful, and the track itself is one of the highlights of the score. Other brilliant cues are "Confrontation of the Two Giant Monsters", "God of Sky: King Ghidorah" and "Godzilla’s Rage", which are among my favorites. Akira Ifukube’s classic Godzilla theme and "Great Monster War March" are used in the "End Roll".
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Now, the disc is quite a big improvement over the previous release of this soundtrack. The entire score is finally available for the first time on CD. All the cues that weren’t previously included are here. The bonus tracks are also brand new. Most of them are edits of certain cues as they’re usually heard in the final movie. The first edited version of "God of Sky" King Ghidorah" (track 46) is perhaps the most significant of these, as the middle section uses the Godzilla theme instead of the Ghidorah theme, like the original version does. Unfortunately, the quality of these tracks isn’t the best, as the volume level goes up and down constantly in most of them, when is most likely because the tracks were pulled from a 5.1 channel film source according to the booklet. The last three bonus tracks are demos from Otani. They’re all interesting to listen to. Two of them contain early versions of Otani’s themes for Godzilla and Ghidorah, and he even uses a bit of Ifukube’s Godzilla march in the third demo.
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The booklet as a pretty "frightening" picture of Godzilla’s face on the front cover, if I may say so myself, and pictures of Chiharyu Niyama, Kaho Minami, and Ai and Aki Maeda. Aside from the usual track notes and other stuff, there’s also a profile of Ko Otani and an interview with him.
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In the end, the GMK disc is one of the primary reasons to get the sixth box. It doesn’t contain the separate Ifukube tracks and the sound effects that were included on the previous CD release, those can be found on other discs. The complete score and new bonus tracks really make this one a winner.
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Further pictures of the GMK CD can be viewed by:
http://journalismg2km.blogspot.com/2010/05/gpscbs6-photos.html

MM9 (2010)

2010-05-27T01:41:00.000-04:00

Shinji Higuchi - after a year of a hiatus (unless you count him being the executive producer and part camera man on GEHARHA) from making his Kurosawa remake THE LAST PRINCESS - is coming back to the science fiction genre in a big way with a new television series entitled MM9 (Monster Magnitude 9). This will mark the man marked "The Second Tsuburaya" and the "Heisei special effects king"’s first divulgence into television drama.

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The basis for the television series would be the MM9 stories by science fiction writer Hiroshi Yamamoto. The stories were originally published like manga in separate issues of Tokyo Sogensha’s magazine "Mysteries!", published in a circuit of 2005-2006. A year later, the stories were compiled into one complete book. The story that the book series tells is one of Ultraman-like style - kaiju are part of everyday Japanese life, usually shrugged off as a usual natural disaster. To combat the kaiju are the Science Patrol-like Kitokutai section of the Japan Meteorological Agency use their smarts to do battle with the daikaiju threat.

Clues of this television series’ production were hinted at back on April first when a picture which was said to be part of a production called XX9, which was later said to be a joke. However, it was a hint at this series. Now, the series has been officially said to be premiering on July 7, 2010 on MBS and will start releasing episodes on a weekly basis.

Writing for the show is Kazunori Ito, who at 56 is not only a veteran science fiction writer himself, but also was one of Higuchi’s colleges on the Heisei Gamera series. Doing directorial duties is Kiyotaka Taguchi, another past college of Higuchi on GEHARHA and also directed the popular independent film G. Another director will be Tomoyuki Furumaya, a 3 time award winning director who’s most current work was writing and directing the 2010 film BUSHIDO 16. Another director mentioned was Ataru Oikawa, known for works such as "Tomie" which was given a nod to in the two recent Ju-On films, showing his status in Japanese cinematic culture.

The cast will consist of 17 year old award winning actress Anna Ishibashi and 28 year old Machiko Ono, playing the characters Sakura Fujisawa (the rookie) and Mochizuki (person responsible for Sakura’s training) respectively. Also in with the cast is Issei Takahashi (KILL BILL VOL. 1, ULTRA Q: DARK FANTASY, DETROIT METAL CITY), Yasuhi Nakamura (JU-ON 2, ONE MISSED CALL), Satoru Matsuo, Sarutoki Minagawa (KAMEN RIDER 555, OTAKUS IN LOVE), Takako Kato, and Yutaka Matsushige (GODZILLA 2000: MILLENIUM, RINGU, RASEN, PRINCESS BLADE, ONE MISSED CALL, K20: FIEND WITH 20 FACES).

Seems to be a good production with some good talent. Can’t wait!

Review: Akira Ifukube Recording Archives

2010-05-24T23:42:00.001-04:00

Title: Akira Ifukube Recording Archives
Length: 62 Minutes
Company: Toho Music
Region: 2
Release: 2010
Video: Full Screen 1.33:1
Audio: Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: None
Review:***/*****

By: G-Matt
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This is the bonus DVD that was given as a free extra with the sixth and final 50th Anniversary Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect Collection box to all the lucky ones who had bought all five boxes before. The DVD contains four features, each a different recording of Akira Ifukube’s music.
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The first feature, which runs approximately 19 minutes, is a recording of the very first performance of Ifukube’s Symphonic Fantasia, which consists of three suites made from his kaiju/tokusatsu music. The feature starts out quite interestingly. We see the late Akihito Hirata, who acts like the host of the show, reenacting some of his famous lines as Dr. Serizawa from the original GODZILLA. He even wears a lab coat and an eye patch. After taking them off, Hirata basically introduced the event. Then Tomoyuki Tanaka, who produced all the Godzilla films till GODZILLA VS. DESTROYAH, shows up and gives a speech, apparently talking about his experiences of working with Ifukube. Then Ifukube himself comes up to the stage briefly to get flowers from Tanaka. Next, Ishiro Honda, the director of many of the classic Toho kaiju and tokusatsu films, appears and gives a speech about Ifukube as well. After that we finally get the orchestra playing. Unfortunately, since the speeches already fun for over half of the feature’s runtime, we only get to hear the beginning of the first suite (Godzilla’s theme and the Faro Island prayer). Since this recording is the oldest of the bunch, dating back to 1983, the video and audio quality are, not too surprisingly, poor. The transfer looks very soft and the audio sounds quite muffled, so this recording was probably taken from an old generation VHS or something.

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The second feature is the recording of the Ostinato album, and it runs for about 25 minutes. Durring this feature we get to seer (or hear) the performances of many of the tracks from the album, including the "Main Title" from the original GODZILLA, the "Get Rodan" theme from RODAN, "Earth Defense Conference" from THE MYSTERIANS, the military march from DOGORA, the "Main Title" from LATITUDE ZERO, and the battle march from BATTLE IF OUTER SPACE. For the most if the time we are shown the studio with the conductor and the orchestra, but sometimes we get to see the recording booth where Ifukube oversees the process. Now about the condition of this feature: it’s actually the sharpest looking and sounding of the bunch, even though it’s the second oldest (1986).
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Next we have a 16-minute recording of the score of GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (1992). During this one we see the orchestra playing the cues while the movie scenes are played on a screen for the conductor to see. A couple of the cues we get to hear weren’t actually used in the final movie, especially the organ heavy track composed for the discussion between Mothra and Battra. The movie scenes are obviously not in their final editing stage, as things like Godzilla’s heat ray haven’t been added in yet. At the end of the feature, Ifukube is shown briefly. While the audio in this feature isn’t bad, the video keeps going out of focus, becoming blurry quite often.
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Finally, we have a two and a half minute recording of the score for GODZILLA VS. DESTROYAH (1995). Unfortunately though, we only get to see one cue being performed, which is a slow tempo version of the Godzilla march. This time Ifukube is actually conducting (at least I think so). Again, the video and audio quality are a big shabby. The audio is especially is in a bad condition, as it sounds incredibly scratchy.
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All in all, while this DVD is a nice bonus to get with the sixth soundtrack box set, I’m still a bit disappointed with it. Like I said, the quality on some of the recordings is a bit lacking. But the biggest problem is the lack of footage on some occasions. It would’ve been nice to se more footage from the Symphonic Fantasia performance and the GODZILLA VS. DESTROYAH score recording. Also, I know that footage from the recording of the GODZILLA VS. MEMCHAGODZILLA (1993) does exist, because it was included as an extra on the old German DVD of the movie. So I wonder why it wasn’t included here. Apart from these issues, most fans of Godzilla and Akira Ifukube should be pleased enough with this DVD.

GINO - Box Set

2010-05-23T12:02:00.001-04:00

Please, no hate comments.

GXMG Box Set Set Pics

2010-05-22T11:33:00.000-04:00

YMSF Gives Us Another Blessing

2010-05-21T16:58:00.000-04:00

Words cannot describe this...

No set release date yet...

Mothra & Godzilla: Future Destiny Book II - The Human Perspective

2010-05-21T11:08:00.000-04:00

Above is a video showing the human side of things in KG founder Donny Winter's fan fiction epic, "Mothra and Godzilla: Future Destiny Part 2", the second installment of a trilogy. This video, containing no Toho-related material as for cause of deletion, shows a very, very emotional side of a human story in a kaiju adventure. Staring in the video is Donny Winter (doubling as director), Sahra Rau (as the girl in the sepia tone scenes), and Cyndi as the long haired girl that we see looking out the window near the end. The story of the video is all about the loss of a loved one, and with parallels (such as Donny's character and Sahra's character smelling the same flowers), it has a deeper meaning to some. Enjoy!
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Do not forget that the first installment, "Mothra and Godzilla: Future Destiny" is up and published on Kaiju Galaxy forums. Join and read the epic!

GFW OST from Box Set

2010-05-20T10:20:00.000-04:00

Review: GAMERA - THE GIANT MONSTER

2010-05-19T20:53:00.000-04:00

As I listen to August Ragone’s audio commentary for the DVD, I am writing this review for the first legal, legit DVD release of DAIKAIJU GAMERA in the US. I was lucky enough to have the DVD come out right when my family’s pay check arrived, therefore I was most lucky to be treated to a day of going to different stores and while almost getting the first volume of the manga AKIRA (which I should have been a bastard to get), I did go to Best Buy to get this DVD (conveniently taken out of the scifi section and put into horror). Of all the good decisions I have made, waiting to see the first Gamera film as such is one of the best.
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Watching Gamera for the first time, I got to give the film more credit than what I originally considered. The direction by Yuasa is pretty impressive. With a nice black and white format, he really brings some fresh (for the time anyway, and some more me personally) photography choices to the genre. Such as the beginning credits with close ups on Gamera and his body. These are some very good shots, and a good third of the special effects shots are pretty good, maybe enough to say that it is maybe a notch or two below Tsuburaya. The most impressive special effects sequence in the film though is Gamera’s attack at the geothermal plant and everything else leading up to our first experience seeing the process which Gamera goes through to get that flying saucer flying ability he is so well known for.
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However, something which I have to give the film credit for is that it is obvious that this film has had more of an influence in kaiju eiga other than just turning Godzilla for a time into his pop-culture securing role as a hero. DAIKAIJU GAMERA seems to share many parallels with Godzilla’s 1984 film, "The Return of Godzilla". Such is the coming together of the Americans and Soviets in Japan (though the two films have the endings of this triumvirate show very different outcomes - with GAMERA showing Russia and America successfully come together to defeat a common menace while the 1984 Godzilla film shows the two super powers unwilling to work together due to nuclear weapons use disagreements and the Soviet’s mess up with the nuclear weapon which they had prepared before the popular cabinet meeting scene in the 1984 film, as if they were assuming the Japanese would accept the weapon). Also, it is interesting that both films end or almost end with the monster’s being (temporarily) rid of on/in Oshima Island with both films exhibiting a volcanic explosion. More parallels are apparent (such as parallels with "GAMERA: THE BRAVE", but I will go into them later in time.
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The DVD itself is quite a piece of work. Starting with the cover, it is pretty good looking, maybe better looking than the digital image which I have seen on the forums. When opening up the DVD case, it gave me a feeling of no longer disliking translucent DVD cases, with the anatomical pic of Gamera being something as interesting as the booklet given. The booklet, containing an essay also present on the Toshiba/Daiei Video DVD release of the film in 2002, gives in Yuasa’s own words some of his thoughts regarding Gamera. They are good notes, and while I would like to go into detail in one of the things mentioned, I am going to restrain. It is a good booklet and has a smaller, more tangible version of the anatomical pic of Gamera. And we also have a credits list, and it is nice to see Brett mentioned (who is also working on a DVD release of DESTROY ALL PLANETS, the AIP version of GAMERA VS. VIRAS).
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An image of the "GAMERA PRESERVATION LD BOX SET".

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The DVD, once popped in is pretty good. Watching the special features first, the documentary, which is from the rare GAMERA PRESERVATION LASERDISC BOX SET from 1991, is some what of an interesting choice for the sole video special feature. It is a good feature to have, since it clearly makes notice of the other Showa Gamera films (to remind non fans who may buy this disc) and has a lot of good making of anecdotes from a lot of people involved with the production. The best thing about this thirty minute documentary is the "GAMERA VS. GARASHARP" feature, something which I have sparingly watched from SHRINE OF GAMERA and Youtube, is now on DVD in a great looking form which really gets your imagination going (got mine going anyway). I do not know how many special features are on the PRESERVATION yet, but if there is more I hope that they will be spread out through the release. Note, this special feature is not anamorphic, therefore some may want to adjust your TV with the aspect button on your remote to watch it in it’s original format.
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The picture galleries are pretty good, with the press book and international sales brochures getting their own galleries with film stills and some making of stills. All of these are good, and gives a nice behind the scenes look with the film. Same thing happens when you listen to August Ragone’s audio commentary. It's a very informative audio commentary. And August does have some fun with the commentary it seems, such as what he says when the assumed Commie plane crashes, thus releasing Gamera or the mentioning of a Col. Sanders beard, making August claim he is hungry for chicken. While it may stick out at first, these comments keep the audio commentary fun. A big part of the commentary though is the continuous mini-biographies and resumes for the numerous cast and crew of the film. Not a negative, but I can see some of the more casual viewers thinking "Wow… that’s a lot". But defiantly cool, showing August’s amount of research (August went on to tell me that there was one main helper, "there weren't five people assisting me with translation/research for the commentary script, there was only one: Jason Varney. He and I split the work to reduce production time. The other people, whom I listed in the booklet, contributed to other aspects of this release (some of it major, some of it, minor), including locating materials and information.").
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In the end, DAIKAIJU GAMERA is a DVD which deserves to be recognized. It towers over the Sony DVDs and is in the league of the Classic Media and Media Blasters DVDs (more on the side of Media Blasters). This DVD though represents many things. First, it carries on the tradition it seems that all legal Gamera DVD releases usually get better releases the first time around compared to the Godzilla films. Second, it marks the DVD release of probably the last major kaiju eiga benchmark. Last, it finaly gives August the DVD he deserves. While working on some of the more Henshin-oriented tokusatsu DVD releases, August has been awaited by fans to do a commentary for the Classic Media DVDs - with did not come to pass - and to have a part with the ICONS OF SCI-FI set (none of the affairs I will go into on this review). August seems to have outdone himself with the "Friend of Children" (though he will always be for me the "Guardian of the Universe" personally) and I hope that the future releases will be just as good, if not, better.
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Overall:
9/10

"Monster's Territory"

2010-05-17T22:03:00.000-04:00

Now, for all interested, is a link which has scans of the unedited and untranslated version of a popular original Godzilla manga, "Monster's Territory".

http://gaou1954.hp.infoseek.co.jp/1/1.html

Preview: Geharha

2010-05-16T23:39:00.000-04:00

Un-edited pics which didn't make the cut for my (hopefully) up and comming article in G-FAN reguarding Geharha. Photos will hopefully be in B&W.

GXM Box Set Version

2010-05-16T10:12:00.000-04:00

Reflections on GMK

2010-05-15T15:23:00.001-04:00

As many people know, I am a big fan of the 2001 film, "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack". The film has – out of all the kaiju films to have been released in the past twenty years, as reasonably gotten the biggest response from people – become apraised by both fan and non fan alike on both sides of the Pacific. Some have reported that at the American Film Market (AFM), that one of the female viewers of the film cried while watching the film. The Japanese magazine Hyper Hobby released a special issue once it’s editors decided that the film was awesome enough to warrant a separate issue devoted to GMK. A similar thing happened to the rarely published JAPANESE GIANTS fanzine, which after over ten years of lack of an issue published, came back with an all GMK issue filled to the brim with internationally unseen material. The film also was subject to a large amount of accolades, including winning the Silver Award in Japan for "Best Grossing Film" and nominated for the Chlotrudis Award for "Best Cast". Yet, after all of this – especially in America – the film is said to be just the best film since "Godzilla vs. Biollante" or the latter Showa films. Why is this? I will try to confront these issues that people have had for GMK and try to make logic of how at least to me, they are not flaws, rather, positives which just adds to GMK’s inventiveness.

The first thing that comes to mind which has ruffled many a fan’s feathers is Godzilla’s stance in the film. He is in GMK, an embodiment of the souls of all of the soldiers who died in the Pacific Conflict Theatre of WWII. This is a topic which has ruffled many American fan’s feathers. The biggest contributor to American fans not taking this quality of Godzilla to their liking is that many people think that it takes away from Godzilla’s original nuclear allegory. Fact is that the allegory Godzilla had in 1954 is still prevalent, from a newly filmed flashback to the events of the 1954 film, to the mentioning of radio activity (like Tachibana claiming that he may have become radioactive once being inside Godzilla at the end or that the nuclear sub off Guam’s energy was totally absorbed).

Even after that, some fans still do not like the idea. This is because most people think that Godzilla needs to stay in the realm of science fiction. This is an opinion which I do not share. I share Kaneko’s thoughts when it comes to Godzilla and kaiju eiga in this century. Kaiju were science fiction in the 1950’s when there was talk in culture about nuclear energy and the possibility of there being giant monsters. Now that it is well known that something like that isn’t ever going to happen, it is no longer science fiction since science cannot vouch for the likely hood of such a happening as a kaiju. Therefore, Godzilla’s films needs to be fantasy.

However, there was an interesting comment made on a review on Stomp Tokyo. To quote, "Godzilla's true nature… is never really resolved." The reason for this is also a reason why Godzilla become the embodiment of the souls that were lost. Let’s look back at Godzilla from 1954. While an allegory for the nuclear bomb, he was a "warning" of the consequences. However, man kind can only be warned so many times before punishment needs to be laid down. So, Godzilla is the embodiment for more than one reason - both because Japan wants to forget about the past and because mankind hasn’t learned. And it is because of this that Godzilla’s immortal. His problem is never resolved because mankind will never truly resolve it’s problems. So Godzilla will keep coming back, and though it may not be the same Godzilla, it does keep Godzilla in a sense, "immortal".

However, some people seem to think of that as a bad thing. Some people ask as to "how shall the audience sympathise with Godzilla now that he isn’t a victim anymore". Godzilla is still a victim of the modern nuclear age. If he wasn’t the first time, then Godzilla wouldn’t even be the vessel that the souls would have chosen since he wouldn’t have even existed.

Now, we go to the Guadian Monsters. This is a harder one to debate since there are more things to think about when trying to stand up for the kaiju. Originally, it was not Baragon, Mothra, and Ghidorah. It was Baragon, Angruirus, and Varan. However, since Toho didn’t think that the kaiju were profitable enough, they chose the kaiju out of the big "4" while keeping Baragon for good taste. Many people seem to take primary offense with the mismatched qualities that the kaiju have. Such as Mothra’s larvae living in the water and Ghidorah burrowing.

The first thing people need to think about is things in past films which could help validate these actions by the kaiju. For example, GMK isn’t the first example in which Mothra has lived under water. Mothra actually showed this trait back in the 1961 debut film "Mothra". After the fire bombings put on her while she was swimming to the Japanese main land, Mothra actually swam underwater till she made it to the dam on the mainland. The same ability is attributed to GMK’s Mothra. Ghidorah also has a problem with people say that it makes no sense of him burrowing. Sure, it makes no sense. But then we get to the fact which excuses in my mind all of those "flaws": these kaiju are deities.

The fact that these kaiju are deities brings a lot in mind. Such as that "God works in mysterious ways". That has been a saying which usually has been associated with happenings in which people do not know the divine creator’s intentions (for those who believe in such an entity such as myself). However, this could also be used for explaining the hidden abilities and powers of the kaiju that have these seemingly illogical powers. So it doesn’t make any common sense that Ghidorah can burrow. Does it make any sense that a man named Jesus can call himself the son of God and bring people back to life? Plus, Ghidorah as a god makes more sense than Varan, since Ghidorah is basically not just a god, but a tribute to a creature in Japanese mythology, Yamato-No-Orochi, with the film revealing that Ghidorah, when fully grown, is to have eight heads, just as the mythic Orochi.

But some people still have a hard time seeing through the little details, like where in Japanese mythology does a giant moth fits in (I think Stomp Tokyo said it better when it said, "GMK must gloss over a few details to explain how Mothra could have anything to do with Japanese mythology.") Except for the fact that in Japanese lore there is the belief that butterflies and moths can act like omens for people and their love life or the creature SUKUNA-BIKO, known to have feathers. This is really a stretch and can seem to be a flaw to some people.

Onto the human characters. We seem to have a good variety of emotion and qualities with these characters, melancholy, comedic, ect. But some people think that the human characters aren’t that intertwined with the kaiju action. That beside explaining the ties to Japanese mythology, they simply watch, and that Yuri just simply maturing into the role of journalist from being part of a fictional documentary production company. However, it is more intertwined than what some viewers think. Mike Russo’s review of GMK gives this justice, saying, "Among these scenes, the interaction between the characters is one of the key driving forces. Yuri and Taizo's separate stories, one of maturity and the other of duty, begin to cross... and in this regard, the two characters start to gain mutual understanding of the nature and purpose which they each possess. The distance that existed between the two characters early on begins to close, and respect begins to flourish. Unlike previous Godzilla movies, where it appears as though the human story runs strictly parallel to the monster drama, this one instead finds a way to meld these aspects together. For example, Yuri's artifact revives Ghidorah, and her spirit encourages Taizo to keep fighting. Taizo uses his intellect and resources to utilize the wound Ghidorah inflicted on Godzilla to ultimately defeat him. It all comes together, and while some may cry foul, due to the fact that it wasn't the monster's who in fact defeated Godzilla, it must be remembered that the whole story of Godzilla is strictly a human story... a story of recklessness, consequence, maturity, and redemption. We created him; it is up to us to destroy him. Also remember that King Ghidorah opens the initial wound, which really is half of the fatal blow. When you see how all of the pieces to the puzzle are introduced in the first half of the film, and then how they all interweave as the plot progresses into the latter half, it is clear that this story is among the best-planned works in recent Godzilla history."

Now, some people think I am unable to talk about the flaws of this film. I do admit it is not perfect. So, here are the problems I see with the film: 1. The CG when KG is rising and when we get a shot of two Satsumas dive down to Ghidorah and Godzilla (the artifacting of the CG, eh). Then we get to the Baragon battle scene. While it looks cool to me, some may consider it a flaw seeing model RC helicopters in the wide shot of Godzilla whipping his tail against a climbing Baragon.

So, there. If I find any other critisism, I will evaluate it and see if I need to talk about it or add it to the paragraph above as a genuine complaint. But to end this two page piece of work, I would like to say that this essay of sorts is just my critical opinion. Is GMK perfect? No. But it is my favorite Godzilla film. That being said, let readers acknowledge that flaw is not fact and that anyone’s assessment of any film is not fact, just opinion, weather critical or personal. Keep that in mind. GMK rules.

Second Batch of Pics - GMMG

2010-05-14T20:43:00.001-04:00

These are photos of the GMMG soundtrack, the most interesting of the releases. It houses stuff not only for GMMG, but also GMK and GFW. Well, be it as cluttered as it is, it seems to be a solid release all the same.

GPSCBS6 Photos

2010-05-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

On a daily basis, for as long as it will last, JournalismG2KM is going to post a set of picks of one of the CDs of the newest CD Box Set from Toho for the Godzilla series with photos comming from KG member Matti. First photos will be of the CD for 2001's "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack". Do not forget to actualy click on the photos themselves for larger, higher quality varriations! Who know, you who know Japanese can do some translation service!

Help Take Part In An Academic Study!

2010-05-11T20:31:00.000-04:00

A most interesting happening has gone on in the fandom, more specifically on an academic level. Currently, a pair of college professors are in Japan and doing a study in the field of tokusatsu eiga. To be more specific, kaiju eiga. To be even more precise, Godzilla. The main point of their study is actually the locations in which Godzilla has leveled through out his film career. One of the two professors are Dr Craig Norris. Their activities have not been untold, just not as heard as what it could and should be. Craig has been going under the pseudonym "Craigzilla" on Tohokingdom forums. He has create two of the most interesting topics on Tohokingdom as of late, one regarding what Godzilla films would be most effective in pointing out Japan’s infrastructure and the newest one: a topic with a link to a survey in which will help with a further academic study of Godzilla and how tourism is effected by the King of the Monsters.
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Helping with this task is the newest published book on Godzilla, "The Monster Movie Fan’s Guide To Godzilla", written by Armand Vaquer. The book has been acclaimed left and right as of yet, with such quotes ranging from "It’s brilliant" from Dr. Craig himself to the book being, "Kaiju Awesome" by David Nunez, along with other accolades. Armand has seem to have created a masterful manifesto when it comes to creating a guide to Japan with each site being documented of it’s cinematic importance to tokusatsu eiga.

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I would like for all interested to check out the links below to get a full idea of what’s going on and to hopefully take part in this activity. Remembr, you are helping an academic study. This might as well be a once in a life time deal for some.

Armand Vaquer’s blog:
http://armandsrancho.blogspot.com/search?q=monster+movie+fan%27s+guide+to+japan
http://armandsrancho.blogspot.com/2010/04/monster-movie-fans-guide-to-japan-in.html
http://armandsrancho.blogspot.com/2010/04/godzilla-locations-interview.html
http://armandsrancho.blogspot.com/2010/04/monster-movie-fans-guide-to-japan-made.html

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Tohokingdom Forum Links:
http://www.tohokingdom.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24741
http://www.tohokingdom.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24518&start=0

Review: SPCBS Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

2010-05-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

Movie: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
Music By: Miciru Oshima
Record Label: Toho Music
Runing Time: 66:37
Discs: 1
Year of release: 2010
Review: ****/*****
The fist disc in the sixth 50th anniversary Godzilla Soundtrack Perfect Collection box set contains the score of GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS, composed by Michiro Oshima, the first and (so far) only female composer in the series. While this isn’t her best work, it is still a very well done and enjoyable soundtrack.
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As the movie begins, we are soon introduced to Oshima’s new Godzilla theme, which is, without a doubt, one of the best themes of the monster outside Ifukube’s work. It starts out foreboding before finally moving to the action-oriented part. Among other repeated themes in the score are the G-Grasper march, the best rendition of which is heard in "The Griffon Mobilizes" (according to the booklet, director Masaaki Tezuka thinks it sounds reminiscent of the theme from the classic 60’s TV series "Thunderbirds", and I kind of agree), the Meganula egg theme (heard in tracks 13, 14, and 25 for example), the Dimension Tide theme, and the exotic-sounding battle music that’s heard throughout the final fight between Godzilla and Megaguirus. There’s also a theme for the Meganula swarm, which fit’s the insect kaiju really well. Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla theme is also used in the movie twice (tracks 2 and 37).
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As for the disc itself, it is by far the best way to experience this soundtrack. There’s not so much new content, since one of the previous CD release that was included as part of the now OOP DVD set of the movie already contained (nearly) the full score. However, there are two thing that make this CD triumph over that one. First, and most importantly, the "Nichiei News (m1)" cue finally gets its release on CD, and there are a couple of alternate versions of it in the bonus tracks too. Second, the two aforementioned Ifukube tracks are put back in after being omitted from the previous disc from Toho Music. The bonus tracks also include an alternate take of the M3 cue and all the unused cues, which are quite short.
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As always, the booklet features a picture of Godzilla’s face on the front cover and pictures of Misato Tanaka and Yuriko Hoshi on the back. The booklet contains all the usual stuff: information about the movie and the music, track notes, ect. There’s also an interview with director Masaaki Tezuka.
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All in all, Michiru Oshima’s first soundtrack in the Godzilla series is a very good one, and it’s given an excellent presentation on this disc. If you don’t have this soundtrack yet, this box set offers you the chance to get it.
-Matti

Further pictures of this Soundtrack release can be found here:

http://journalismg2km.blogspot.com/2010/05/gxm-box-set-version.html

G-FAN Website Upgrades

2010-05-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

Fans of G-FAN are going to be happy at the announcement that G-FAN.com has been overhauled in it's design. Now it is Gv3.0, and it is quite good looking. Go take a look n' see!

www.g-fan.com

Detailed Videos of the PSBS6

2010-05-01T09:53:00.000-04:00

Thanks Matti!

Pics of the GPSCB6

2010-04-30T17:23:00.000-04:00

While Tohokingdom did beat us with the reviews, we got photos!

More to come soon! All thanks to KG member Matti...