Unfortunately, part of the answer to that is that Japanese fx houses are severely underpaid. Even moreso than in Hollywood.
Godzilla, Kong, Gamera & Co.: The Kaiju Mega-Thread
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Unfortunately, part of the answer to that is that Japanese fx houses are severely underpaid. Even moreso than in Hollywood.
A similar thing can be said about the bittersweet ending of Rent.
Mimi is found dead but comes back to live. It seems happy, untill you remember she has HIV and in that time period that would almost certainly mean it would turn into AIDS and she still most likely died at a young age. The same would go for Roger and Collins.
It's not a certainty, but very likely.
It's not a certainty, but very likely.
'While attending Osaka's Godzilla Fest, Yamazaki informed the crowd that these markings were indeed regenerative cells belonging to the atomic creature, confirming a fan theory"
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Would you say it would be better to watch in Black and White or color?
I missed an opportunity to see it in the theater. Arguably, I was "robbed" of the chance because "upcoming" listings stated it would reach local movie house, but then it never did. But, Netflix saved the day. A friend (we met as co-workers 32 years ago) informed me of the streaming listing. I jokingly said if he saw it, don't slip any spoilers as I didn't have the service and was waiting for a physical media release (likely near the end of the year). That got the gears in his head turning and insisted I visit for supper and a viewing. So that's what happened. Last Saturday evening I arrived at his place where he grilled "thicc" burgers. He, his wife and I dined and after clearing the table and vainly trying to assist with cleanup (they circumvented my help), we retired to their entertainment room to watch the movie on what I believed to be a 72+ inch screen.
I suggested (but not demanded) we watch it in the original Japanese (since it presented that option) with subtitles, my logic being a dubbed version might inflect certain lines differently from the native language. He accepted the recommendation. (I did not "push" it so far as to request the greyscale cut, though I would have personally preferred that.)
He was gobsmacked! While he grew up watching kaiju flicks on TV (we're both 61), his exposure was the more lighthearted entries of the color Showa era. I discovered he had never seen the original "Gojira", not even the '56 "King of the Monsters" edit with the Raymond Burr inserts. He did not realize a Godzilla film could be poignant or so serious. We plan to rectify that (hopefully soon) as I have a DVD copy of both films, the '54 original and the '56 edit.
I suggested (but not demanded) we watch it in the original Japanese (since it presented that option) with subtitles, my logic being a dubbed version might inflect certain lines differently from the native language. He accepted the recommendation. (I did not "push" it so far as to request the greyscale cut, though I would have personally preferred that.)
He was gobsmacked! While he grew up watching kaiju flicks on TV (we're both 61), his exposure was the more lighthearted entries of the color Showa era. I discovered he had never seen the original "Gojira", not even the '56 "King of the Monsters" edit with the Raymond Burr inserts. He did not realize a Godzilla film could be poignant or so serious. We plan to rectify that (hopefully soon) as I have a DVD copy of both films, the '54 original and the '56 edit.
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What I find fascinating about the Raymond Burr version is that it almost works as a parallel accounting of the same events from a different perspective, since so much of it is Martin and his translator just observing the movie's scenes from the sidelines, and much of the original dialogue isn't even dubbed. I think the only significant story inconsistency is Martin convincing Emiko to make the crucial choice she makes on her own in the original.
Just finished watching Godzilla Minus One and people have not been exaggerating when they've talked about how good it is, it was great. Definitely one of the most realistic feeling and serious takes on Godzilla in a long time, at least from the Japanese. It had definitely had the best human story we've gotten from the franchise in a long time. The whole cast was fantastic, with Ryunosuke Kamiki gave an especially great performance as Koichi.
That's a very strange qualifier to add there, since there's never been an American Godzilla movie that was remotely close to the seriousness or depth of the best Japanese ones. Unless you're talking about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which was more serious and nuanced than the Legendary movies. Although that was an American-Japanese co-production and a lot of it was performed in Japanese, so it's a borderline case.
Compared to the later Legendary Godzilla films? Yeah. Compared to something like Godzilla '54, The Return of Godzilla, Shin Godzilla, or Minus One? Not even close. The Legendary films shy away from using kaiju as metaphors for political or social commentary, or from any moral nuance. Their Godzilla is a more unambiguous good guy than any other live-action version of Godzilla since 1975. And of course, the Legendary movies paint the United States in a generally good light, unlike some of the Japanese films that critique the superpowers and explore Japan's fraught relationship with them (though there are some that are even more critical of Japan's government, like Shin or Minus One).
But that's not what you said. You said "one of the most realistic feeling and serious takes on Godzilla in a long time, at least from the Japanese," as if serious Godzilla movies were less common in Japan than in the US. It's the other way around. Most of the Japanese Godzilla movies made in the past 40 years have been more or less serious and dark, sometimes extremely so; indeed, it's been 20 years since the last one that went for big crazy action and spectacle. As for realism, that wasn't really a feature in most of the Heisei and Millennium eras, but certainly 2016's Shin Godzilla, the last live-action Japanese Godzilla movie before Minus One, went for a very grounded and documentary-like feel.
Sorry, the most recent Japanese movie Godzilla production I've seen before I watched G-1 was Final Wars and the other Millenium movies, so that was what I was thinking of when I referred to recent Japanese productions. I've also been working my way through the Showa movies, but I am aware those are obviously very not recent.
Damn, I didn't realize it had been that long since Final Wars.
Damn, I didn't realize it had been that long since Final Wars.
The recent Japanese Godzilla productions, the ones within the past 20 years (though actually all within the past 8), have included Shin, the excessively grim and nihilistic Netflix anime film trilogy, the conceptually complex Singular Point anime series, and Minus One. All pretty serious, though SP had a good deal of character humor. And they've all been deeper and more thoughful than any of the American films.