Godzilla News

[Squishy]

http://www.assignmentx.com/godzilla/

The latest from "Monster Zero" sez the Japanese video release of "Godzilla X Megaguiras" is in about a week; subtitled editions should start popping up shortly thereafter. Check with Video Daikaiju--and tell 'em they should get a website! (At last word, Sony was NOT planning to release "GXM" theatrically OR on video in the US.)

As for the upcoming "Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah," they have a buttload of pics at Monster Zero, but brace yourself. I'm already down on the idea of (a) King Ghidorah fighting on the behalf of Mankind, and (b) Mothra sans tiny girls--"Destroy All Monsters" be damned--and some of the stuff you will see in the pics will be...controversial, to say the least. Still, hoping for the best. Baragon looks pretty slick in most shots, much better than in early ones I saw; Mothra has a fresh design with new legs, and King G looks pretty good from the knees up...

[StatCat]

I would definitely like to see those two. I have been reading about godzilla x megaguiras but haven't heard much about the other film because its in the working stages.

[Flangepart]

Hey, Squishy, the latest G-FAN says the film is going to leave Science Fiction and go into the Supernatural. The idea is that Godzilla represents the Japanese war dead of WWII ! Huh? Puts my mind on hold. And Mothra, Baragon and ol' Three heard represent the spirits of Air, Earth and i think water. And i repeat...Huh? What have you heard?

[Chadzilla]

Mothra, Baragon, and Ghidrah playing members of Earth, Wind, and Fire??????

But Godzilla as a supernatural force?  It could work.  But this whole thing could also collapse into an accursed LABOR OF LOVE debacle.  I cross my fingers, eyes, and toes in the hopes that it won't.

[Squishy]

Just check out earlier articles at Monster Zero (http://www.assignmentx.com/godzilla/) and the Official Toho Godzilla site (http://www.godzilla.co.jp/g2002/index.html--Japanese only).

Kaneko (director of the modern "Gamera" trilogy--http://www.shusuke-kaneko.com/ with English version) indeed describes Godzilla as not a mutant dinosaur anti-hero, but the irredeemably violent rage of the lost spirits of WWII Japan. Heavy!

Not only do Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah represent Earth, Air, and Water, respectively, but they are called the Holy Beasts of Yamato (ancient Japan), and Ghiddy is a stand-in for the Yamato-no-Orochi, the Great Eight-Headed Serpent (as seen in "Yamato Takeru," AKA "Orochi" in the US version). Ghiddy will appear in TWO stages--I hope the pics are only showing Stage One; lose them chicken feet, KG--and hopefully Stage Two will turn out to be an even greater threat to mankind and his fellow monsters, the Ghidorah we know and love/hate.

A note in one article at Monster Zero states that Angilas and Varan were considered for the movie but were determined to not be "marketable" enough. Bah. Personally, I think Angilas (Earth), Varan (Air), and Manda (Water) would have been better choices, though I got no beef with Baragon. Then, if you wanted to remake "Ghidrah The Three-Headed Monster" with the hero-roles reversed--which is what "GMK" is, really--you could do that seperately, with Rodan where he/she belongs.

There's also a description of the "human" story in the Monster Zero articles.

[Flangepart]

Hummmmm.........I donno. Interesting. Still, i have to wonder. Who, for example, are the Spirits of the Dead angry AT. The politicions and militrist who started the Japanese involvment in the war? All mankind?(That would see demonic to me, not human). The Americans who broke the warmongers pride? Conceptuily, this take would seem to open up a whole can of giant bad tempered worms. Are the guys actualy running Toho studios some of the Nationalist that we some times hear about causeing contriversy in Japan? I guess after the Pearl Harbor contriversy, i'm kind of sensitive to this stuff. Oh well. Yeah, too bad we can't get access to a proper Toho copy of the next two films.  I've seen Yamato Takeru. Good flick! Varan has potential, but only to those of us who have see Daikaiju Baran That was a decent flick! Baran and Angilas are to of my favorites, and i wish those flicks  would be remade! It could work...its all the storytelling!

[Squishy]

Well, there will be controversy, regardless: according to the MZ articles, Godzilla will trash a US nuclear sub near Guam. This is bound to set off the same people who declared Kazuki Omori to be an anti-American  ultranationalist / racist / facist / whateverist / mounteverest because of the Godzillasaurus scene in "Godzilla vs King Ghidorah," when it was simply the setup to the morality play in which the Japanese character is at fault. (Likewise the Futurian plot: it's an evil plot by foreigners, but it never would have come to be if the future Japan didn't become a greedy superpower. "Hero" and "villain" roles in GvKG switch back and forth among the human characters just like they do among the kaiju.)

In Japanese ghost stories, the spirits of the dead don't necessarily have to be evil to be violent--just disturbed and not "at peace." Kind of like "Poltergeist," before the idiot sequels added a villain. WWII was the last major war Japan was involved in, and Godzilla was, after all, originally a representation of the nuclear devestation of Japan. Beyond that, any political issues attached to the movie will more than likely come from the audience, not the filmmakers.

[Andrew]

The only film that I can remember painting the U.S. government as bad was "Mothra."  (Leaning on the Japanese government to get their way.)  Oh sure, they call the country that the evil guys are from "Rolithica," but come on.

Andrew

[Squishy]

Yeah, that's pretty obviously Manhattan getting trashed at the end. NewKirk City? Sh'yeah.

(I'm also tickled by the fictional "Saladia"--"Saudi Arabia," duh--in "Godzilla vs Biollante.")

[Steve.]

I wonder what those dastardly Japs would come up with to disguise other countries? Island=Ireland.  Island=Iceland. Killorlovya=The Rest Of The World.