Toho is making their own Godzilla movies again!
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
- Start date
Funimation has officially announced the dates for the limited run of Shin Godzilla: October 11-18. This map shows the theaters currently booked to show it, but that list will probably expand. Thankfully, the movie will be subtitled, not dubbed.
As a heads-up, tickets for Shin Godzilla go on sale tomorrow (Sept. 9). The map of theaters has grown, but as of now the closest one to me is over 200 miles away. The full list will be announced tomorrow. From what I've seen, it looks like most theaters are only going to have one showing a day.
Okay, now there's a showing less than 20 miles away. A bit inconvenient, but reachable. (In fact, it's right next to the place that fixed my odometer last year.)
Well, it turned out that the local theater in town decided to show Shin Godzilla after all, although they did no promotion for the movie, not even a poster in the lobby. Only about a dozen people showed up for the single showing last night. I'm not great at writing detailed reviews, so I'll leave that for others. But here are a few points I found notable about the film (light spoilers ahead):
First of all, the movie is in Japanese with English subtitles, which is what I usually prefer. However, the dialogue in Shin Godzilla is so rapid-fire and non-stop that it was hard to keep up, at least in the beginning (the talking slows down a bit later on). All of the dialogue is between politicians and scientists debating on how to stop the monster; there are no quiet personal moments to speak of. We learn about the characters as they deal with the crisis. As for the cast, everyone is more than acceptable, except perhaps for Satomi Ishihara, who plays an American envoy who is of Japanese descent. She clearly had problems with the scenes in which she speaks English, and it might have been better to have cast an actress who has more fluent, although her acting does not ruin the movie by any means. She's also stunningly beautiful.
The special effects are for the most part very well done. There is no man-in-suit this time; Godzilla is mostly CGI, with some puppetry and miniatures being used. Godzilla has multiple forms in the movie, with his first appearance being more comical than was probably intended (bulging eyes, no arms, underdeveloped legs). This sequence also has the weakest CGI in the film, although it was still effectively done. Godzilla's final form is the one we see in the trailers. At one time it was rumored that this Godzilla would be a regeneration of the 1954 Gojira. That is not the case, and in fact there is no reference to a previous version of the monster. We are told of an incident "60 years ago" in which radioactive waste was dumped into the ocean, an act that led to Godzilla being created, but that's as close as we come to a connection to the '54 Gojira. (By the way, the movie calls him both Godzilla and Gojira, the former being an American name coined for his supposed god-like abilities.)
Overall, I enjoyed Shin Godzilla very much. The musical score by Shiro Sagisu is excellent, with classic Akira Ifukube themes used at the appropriate times. The movie, although loaded down with talking scenes, moves along at a good pace. I never found it to be boring, although I did wish for more Godzilla (a familiar complaint among G-fans) . The ending leaves room for a possible sequel. It's unlike any previous Godzilla movie, and one that has a lot to take in. I look forward to seeing it again in a theater (if possible), and owning it someday on DVD. Funimation, who handled the distribution of the US showings, will also be releasing the movie on DVD and blu-ray, probably sometime in 2017.
First of all, the movie is in Japanese with English subtitles, which is what I usually prefer. However, the dialogue in Shin Godzilla is so rapid-fire and non-stop that it was hard to keep up, at least in the beginning (the talking slows down a bit later on). All of the dialogue is between politicians and scientists debating on how to stop the monster; there are no quiet personal moments to speak of. We learn about the characters as they deal with the crisis. As for the cast, everyone is more than acceptable, except perhaps for Satomi Ishihara, who plays an American envoy who is of Japanese descent. She clearly had problems with the scenes in which she speaks English, and it might have been better to have cast an actress who has more fluent, although her acting does not ruin the movie by any means. She's also stunningly beautiful.
The special effects are for the most part very well done. There is no man-in-suit this time; Godzilla is mostly CGI, with some puppetry and miniatures being used. Godzilla has multiple forms in the movie, with his first appearance being more comical than was probably intended (bulging eyes, no arms, underdeveloped legs). This sequence also has the weakest CGI in the film, although it was still effectively done. Godzilla's final form is the one we see in the trailers. At one time it was rumored that this Godzilla would be a regeneration of the 1954 Gojira. That is not the case, and in fact there is no reference to a previous version of the monster. We are told of an incident "60 years ago" in which radioactive waste was dumped into the ocean, an act that led to Godzilla being created, but that's as close as we come to a connection to the '54 Gojira. (By the way, the movie calls him both Godzilla and Gojira, the former being an American name coined for his supposed god-like abilities.)
Overall, I enjoyed Shin Godzilla very much. The musical score by Shiro Sagisu is excellent, with classic Akira Ifukube themes used at the appropriate times. The movie, although loaded down with talking scenes, moves along at a good pace. I never found it to be boring, although I did wish for more Godzilla (a familiar complaint among G-fans) . The ending leaves room for a possible sequel. It's unlike any previous Godzilla movie, and one that has a lot to take in. I look forward to seeing it again in a theater (if possible), and owning it someday on DVD. Funimation, who handled the distribution of the US showings, will also be releasing the movie on DVD and blu-ray, probably sometime in 2017.
Hmm... I was tempted to go see this in the theater, but the only theater showing it is some distance away and its only showings are in the evening today and tomorrow. So I don't think I'll be able to make it. I guess I'll have to wait for the DVD.
That's pretty common in Japanese movies where characters speak English -- generally it's either Japanese actors who pronounce it poorly or Americans living in Japan who give lame performances. The original Gamera had plenty of the latter in a few scenes, so much so that they actually reshot those scenes with new actors for the US release.
Not the same origin, though, since the original Godzilla was made radioactive and driven from its feeding grounds by the American nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. (The movie was an allegorical protest for the harm those tests had done to Japan, irradiating the crew of a Japanese fishing boat and killing one of its members, and spreading fallout on Japanese soil and water.) And the Heisei-era version was mutated into a giant by, presumably, the same nuclear tests.
Really? That's odd. The "Godzilla" spelling was originally just a variant on the romanization that would've been preferred in the '50s -- the same phonemes we'd render as go-ji-ra under the current preferred scheme would've been go-zi-la or go-dzi-la back then, with no difference in pronunciation, and a second "L" was added for aesthetics or clarity, and perhaps because the name was partly based on "gorilla." In some of the Heisei and Millennium movies, the spelling "Godzilla" is used on English-language signage and graphics, and English-speaking characters pronounce it "Godzilla" alongside their Japanese-speaking counterparts saying "Gojira."
Aww, I hate having to wait that long. But I just don't think the theater thing is practical for me.
Home Media releases around the globe will most likely have to wait until Toho has released their own DVD/BluRay in Japan, since they'd want to avoid Japanese fans buying an international copy because it was available sooner than the Japanese one.
Guess you missed the word "usually" in his post.
Those are theatrical releases. Really hard to get international shipping for those.
For those who are interested, toys are already available that show Shin Godzilla's various forms. The first two look just as goofy on screen, but I think that might be intentional. After all, there's something particularly scary about a creature that looks lovable but actually wants to trample you.
I saw it last night, it was more of a satire on Japanese bureaucracy and it's response to a natural disaster, which I'm assuming is a commentary on the governments actions (or lack thereof) during the tsunami and nuclear power plant accident of 2011, with a little bit of how the Japanese are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with US involvement in their affairs tossed in at the end. With that in mind, I can see how Shin might be disappointing to folks looking forward to a more straightforward monster movie, most of the movie takes place in conference rooms and offices, and while he's the impetus for everything happening in the movie, Godzilla is maybe in it for 15-20 minutes tops. I liked these aspects, but I used to work for a Japanese multinational, so I appreciated the humor in scenes of endless meetings where nothing much is actually resolved. Godzilla himself is freaky and cool. (Also, since naming conventions were mentioned up thread, in this movie, Godzilla is the starting name provided by the USA, which gets transliterated into Gojira for the Japanese.)
Okay, that's even more bizarre. I can't see Americans coming up with that name on their own without having "Gojira" as a starting point. It was said above that the "God" part came from its godlike powers, but there's no English-language basis for "-zilla" except as a back-formation from "Godzilla" itself. Unless the idea is that it's some kind of corruption of "God lizard."
In the original, of course, Gojira/Godzilla was the name given to the creature by the Otoshima natives who had worshipped it as an ocean deity for centuries. So it was already the name of a god.
Since I missed some details of the origin of the name while watching the movie (lots of subtitles), I did a little research. Below is the synopsis from the Wikizilla site (spoilers, of course):
When the Japanese coast guard investigated a small yacht floating in Tokyo Bay, it discovered that the craft was completely abandoned with no sign of a struggle or the owner's whereabouts... The [American] representative, Kayoko Ann Patterson, revealed that the abandoned yacht actually belonged to a zoologist named Goro Maki, who was researching a huge living creature moving on the sea floor. The zoologist named the creature "Gojira" after a legend in his hometown on Odo Island. The American Department of Energy learned of the man's research and dubbed the monster "Godzilla." Based on this information, the researchers concluded that Godzilla was feeding on nuclear waste on the sea floor, and sustained himself through nuclear fission in his body. The fission caused Godzilla to leave a trail of radiation in his wake, but also made him overheat and forced him to return to the ocean to cool off.
By the way, Goro Maki is also the name of two other characters in Godzilla history, both reporters. The first appeared in Son of Godzilla, the other in Return of Godzilla.
When the Japanese coast guard investigated a small yacht floating in Tokyo Bay, it discovered that the craft was completely abandoned with no sign of a struggle or the owner's whereabouts... The [American] representative, Kayoko Ann Patterson, revealed that the abandoned yacht actually belonged to a zoologist named Goro Maki, who was researching a huge living creature moving on the sea floor. The zoologist named the creature "Gojira" after a legend in his hometown on Odo Island. The American Department of Energy learned of the man's research and dubbed the monster "Godzilla." Based on this information, the researchers concluded that Godzilla was feeding on nuclear waste on the sea floor, and sustained himself through nuclear fission in his body. The fission caused Godzilla to leave a trail of radiation in his wake, but also made him overheat and forced him to return to the ocean to cool off.
By the way, Goro Maki is also the name of two other characters in Godzilla history, both reporters. The first appeared in Son of Godzilla, the other in Return of Godzilla.
^Okay, that makes more sense (should be Oto Island, aka Otoshima, though). It's drawing on elements from past continuities, including a variant of the foundational mythology from the '54 film.
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