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-- pcauthority.com.au
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Godzilla’s Second Tour of Duty
When the Godzilla film series was resurrected in 1984, Satsuma Kenpachirō was chosen to suit up as the creature. Nippon.com recently interviewed the actor to learn more about the second round of movies (from 1984 to 1995) and the challenges of playing Japan’s most iconic monster.
Moviegoers in Japan and elsewhere first encountered the monster Godzilla in the 1954 film of the same title, which also popularized the distinctive
tokusatsu genrestyle of “analog” special effects. In the years that followed, millions of fans eagerly awaited each new release to see how Godzilla—played by the actor-stuntman
Nakajima Haruo—and other terrifying monsters might imperil humanity.
But later, following a flood of sequels, the popularity of the series waned until the franchise shuddered to a halt in 1975, following the box office flop
Mekagojira no gyakushū (Terror of Mechagodzilla). Almost a decade elapsed before the series was rebooted with a 1984
Godzilla featuring Satsuma Kenpachirō in the monster suit.
Second Incarnation of Godzilla
Satsuma, dressed in a martial arts
gi and
hakama, meets us for an interview after his daily training regimen. The 67-year-old actor conveys a youthful vitality.
He got his start playing smaller roles in the first
Godzilla series, beginning with Hedorah, a creature born from the toxic mud created by human pollution. This helped him later capture the prize role as Godzilla when the epic monster returned to movie screens with the 1984 film
The Return of Godzilla—released in Japan under the title
Gojira, the same as the 1954 original.
The 1984 film has the same dark undertones as the original, but Godzilla is about twice as big as its previous incarnation. The larger size of the creature, and the corresponding modifications of the monster suit, required Satsuma to come up with a different pattern of movements for Godzilla, as he explains:
“Because the suit was taller and heavier, I could barely move. And with just a few holes in the monster’s neck to let in air, it was hard to get enough oxygen. Filming in water was particularly tough. I thought I was going to die about a dozen times. It was hard when I was underwater and couldn’t breathe, but somehow I managed to pull it off.”
One reason Satsuma was able to endure was thanks to his martial arts skills. Because he often had to wait around on the set, he developed a special form of training he named “Godzilla
kenpō”—a variation on the traditional art of swordsmanship. Satsuma shows us a few moves in the training area he has set up in a quiet open space in his neighborhood. Wood chips fly as he strikes a tree trunk with a precise movement of his wooden staff before proceeding to hit the trunk repeatedly with his bare hands.
Suiting Up as Godzilla
Another challenging aspect of playing Godzilla, apart from the physical burden, is the difficulty of expressing the creature’s emotions. “It’s hard for an actor when no one can see your face,” Satsuma observes. “You have to express everything through your body.”
In his early
Godzilla movies, Satsuma tried to inspire terror and focused on the monster’s fury. But he also did his best to lend the monster a personality in its interactions with friends and enemies.
In today’s age of computer graphics, actors no longer face that challenge of bringing a monster to life in subtle ways. Although Satsuma was impressed by the computer graphics used for the 2014 movie
Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards, he still pines for the days when a real live actor had to suit up for a film. “I would have loved to see
Watanabe Ken in the role of Godzilla,” he notes, “rather than a scientist. He’s smart and could have shown everyone the importance of having a skilled actor play the part.”
North Korea’s Take on Godzilla
Satsuma’s own exploits in the role of “analog” monsters landed him in North Korea, of all places, when he was chosen to play the creature Pulgasari in the 1985 film of the same title. This North Korean film was spawned by the enthusiasm of Godzilla fanatic Kim Jong-il and directed by South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok, who was kidnapped by the Pyongyang regime in 1978, along with his former wife, actress Choi Eun-hee. The Japanese studio Tōhō was hired to do the special effects for the film, and Satsuma Kenpachirō was handed the leading role as the monster.
Playing Pulgasari, an iron monster that walks upright, was easier for Satsuma than playing Godzilla. But there were other challenges he had to face, including the strict controls placed on him by the North Korean regime and the inexperience of the local film crew.
“The scenes of destruction were tough. North Korea had produced a lot of war films but they had no clue when it came to the monster genre. The sets they built were really solid, so you had to work hard to smash them.”
Eventually
Pulgasari was completed and is now considered a cult classic in the
tokusatsu genre, featuring special effects of surprising quality considering the rudimentary nature of North Korean filmmaking. The movie and the full story of its director’s abduction first came to the world’s attention when Shin and Choi escaped their North Korean handlers at a 1986 film festival in Vienna. The monster flick was eventually released in Japan on July 4, 1998—around the time of the Hollywood’s first
Godzilla adaptation, directed by Roland Emmerich.
Godzilla’s Future Is Up to Moviegoers
Japan has not produced a new film in the series since
Gojira: Fainaru uōzu (Godzilla: Final Wars) in 2004, marking the monster’s fiftieth anniversary. That film incorporated computer-generated imagery, but also respected Japan’s suit-acting tradition.
“CGI and traditional special effects are now being used together,” Satsuma explains. “Hollywood has mastered the computer effects, which are increasingly realistic. But in Japan suits are a must. We can’t compete with American filmmakers in CGI alone.”
As for his own favorite
Godzilla film, Satsuma says that it’s the original 1954 movie, without question: “It’s a film that had a global impact. But after the original, some of my favorite Godzilla movies are from the later period, particularly
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.”
In 1999, Tōhō began what is known as the Millennium series (1999–2004) with
Gojira 2000 mireniamu (Godzilla 2000: Millennium), but since 2004, there has been no hint that any new
Godzilla movie will be made in Japan.
“Maybe the new Hollywood movie will get people in Japan interested in Godzilla again,” Satsuma says with a glimmer of hope. “But in the end, it will be the moviegoers who’ll decide if Godzilla lives or dies.”
Satsuma Kenpachirō’s Seven Godzilla Films
Title Release date
1
The Return of Godzilla Dec. 15, 1984
2
Godzilla vs. Biollante Dec. 16, 1989
3
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah Dec. 14, 1991
4
Godzilla vs. Mothra Dec. 12, 1992
5
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II Dec. 11, 1993
6
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla Dec. 10, 1994
7
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah Dec. 9, 1995
(Banner photo: Satsuma Kenpachirō demonstrating his Godzilla training routine during our interview.)
-- nippon.com
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Godzilla’s Analog Mayhem and the Japanese Special Effects Tradition
The 1954 film Godzilla, with its brilliant combination of miniature sets and costumed actors, gave birth to a whole new genre, called tokusatsu (literally “special filming”). This distinctive style, pioneered by Tsuburaya Eiji, went on to become hugely influential in Japan and overseas, leading to many other memorable creations, including the TV show Ultraman. Hikawa Ryūsuke looks at the birth and development of this genre.
Tokusatsu’s Global Fans
The
tokusatsu genre of movies and TV series, which relies on tangible “analog” special effects, is one of the best-loved elements of Japanese pop culture. The genre involves creatively filming highly detailed real objects, such as miniature sets and actors dressed in monster suits, to convincingly portray scenes of gigantic monsters in actual cityscapes.
The term
tokusatsu is short for
tokushu satsuei, which literally means “special filming.” At present, the term basically designates two different things:
(1) A technique used to film images of things or objects that are normally difficult to film.
(2) The movie or TV-series genre that relies heavily on “special filming” techniques, as seen in such works as
Godzilla or
Ultraman.
Starting around the mid-1990s, creators made less use of the traditional techniques pertaining to
tokusatsu in that first sense, such as the use of miniature objects, as computer graphics and other types of digital technologies became cheaper and more sophisticated. The use of miniatures has also become limited for the second type of
tokusatsu, which now centers mostly on TV shows featuring life-size heroes like
Kamen Rider or
Super Sentai.
There have been 28 movies featuring the monster Godzilla produced in Japan, but no new film has been released since
Godzilla: Final Wars was on the big screen 10 years ago. And although there are still new works being made that feature the famous monsters and familiar heroes of the
Ultraman series, it has become rare to see scenes of city destruction filmed with the use of miniatures.
The quintessential
tokusatsu scenes, depicting epic battles between enormous-looking monsters and heroes, are becoming a rarity in Japan. Meanwhile, though, the respect overseas for the
tokusatsu genre is on the rise. In 2013, the US film
Pacific Rim featured giant robots clashing with monsters. And in May 2014, Hollywood released a new
Godzilla movie that has become a box-office hit worldwide. (The film will be released in Japan on July 25.) Both films spent lavishly on computer graphics to create scenes of monsters wreaking havoc on people’s lives, similar to the images that Japanese films used to be known for.
The 2014 Hollywood film
Godzilla will be released in Japan on July 25. (Photograph courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. & Legendary Pictures Productions LLC.)
As a way of bridging the gap between these latest films and what came before, I’d like to take a look here at the cultural aspects of Japan’s
tokusatsu tradition.
The Heyday of Tokusatsu and Anime
From around 1954 to 1970, which overlapped with Japan’s extended period of high economic growth, special-effects director Tsuburaya Eiji helped create a number of
tokusatsu films that were shown outside of Japan to global acclaim. These films also inspired children in various countries who would go on to become visual creators themselves as adults.
That era, stretching from the release of the first Godzilla movie in 1954 up to Tsuburaya’s death in 1970, could be called the first “golden age” of
tokusatsu. And up to the latter half of the 1970s,
tokusatsu was on equal footing with anime in the realm of visual creations geared to kids, with both genres progressing through a process of cross-pollination.
But today
tokusatsu, unlike anime, is not included as one of the categories for the Japan Media Arts Festival. This seems to reflect how the prestige of the
tokusatsu genre has faded while that of anime has been on the rise. Overseas, however, there are those who have appropriately grasped the close relationship between the two genres and their respective characteristics, and so I think it is necessary here for me to look at this as well.
Made-in-Japan animation has become familiar to viewers around the world, who refer to it using the Japanese term “anime.” The growth of anime can be traced back to 1963, when Tezuka Osamu, known as the “god of manga,” released a TV series through his Mushi Production company that adapted his own famous manga character, Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy). Unlike the full animation of Western Europe, the animation for this series used many freeze-frames, incorporating the concept of omission and exaggeration. By coming up with ways to limit the number of images used per second, Tezuka developed his own style of “limited animation,” making it possible to produce a 30-minute animated TV program every week.
Similarly, the term
tokusatsu, which basically means “visual effects,” has taken on its own new meaning. It is an example of how Japan, as an island country with limited resources, has given its own twist to techniques and cultural elements originating overseas and come up with innovative ways to make those things more compact and efficient—before then sending those readaptations back out into the world. That approach is at the basis of both anime and
tokusatsu.
Necessity Is the “Monster” of Invention
So what innovations did Japan bring to the realm of visual effects to forge the
tokusatsu style? The roots of its innovations can be traced back to the original 1954
Godzilla movie, the box-office smash produced by the Tōhō film company. The period from initial planning to the actual release of the film was only six months. Since Tsuburaya, who was in charge of special effects, had only this short period of time to film everything he could not rely on the time-consuming “stop-motion animation” technique that had been the standard technique overseas for producing the monster movies of the 1930s. Instead, he adopted the method of creating a miniature set of Tokyo and having an actor dressed up in a Godzilla costume play the role of the monster.
The 1954 movie
Godzilla, whose special effects were created by Tsuburaya Eiji, is winning new fans thanks to a digitally remastered version of the film released in 2014 to mark its 60th anniversary. (Photograph courtesy of Tōhō Co. Ltd.)
There were concerns that the film might look cheap because of this approach, but in fact using the 100-kilogram-plus Godzilla suit gave a weighty presence to the monster and the rough plastic skin of the monster was also rich in texture. The film also made use of hand-held puppet versions of Godzilla for scenes where the monster needed to open its mouth or use facial expressions, as well as another version of Godzilla whose lower-half only was filmed for scenes where the monster crushes city buildings. This way of “putting the right monster in the right scene” brought the image to life and created an unprecedented sort of realism that made viewers almost think they were viewing a living creature on the screen.
Another scene from the digitally remastered
Godzilla released in 2014. (Photograph courtesy of Tōhō Co. Ltd.)
A film-processing technique called “optical compositing” was used for the movie, integrating the images of Godzilla taken in the studio with those of people fleeing from the monster, thus transporting viewers into the fictional world. Scenes where Godzilla shoots a heat ray from its mouth were created using animation techniques to draw the monster’s glowing dorsal fin and the beam of light. This effectively accentuated the terrifying physical presence of the giant dinosaur-like creature.
Overseas, there has been a strong tendency toward the depiction of realistic creatures in movies, whether it is the return of the dinosaurs or wild animals that become mammoth in size. This contrasts significantly with the monsters in Japanese movies like Godzilla, which have paranormal powers such as the ability to shoot a laser beam or heat ray, resulting from scientific causes. The image of these monsters took shape through careful orchestration that involved tangibly bringing the fantasy world of the creatures to life through the use of monster suits and miniature sets, and piling up innovative techniques such as combining an array of
tokusatsu methods and compositions. The gap that arises from using realistic elements to depict imaginary creatures serves as a catalyst that stimulates the audience’s imagination and creates an unparalleled sense of awe and surprise. This gets to the heart of the conception of Japanese
tokusatsu and of its charms.
Tokusatsu Genre Spreads to Television
After
Godzilla became a hit in 1954, the following year the movie
Gojira no gyakushū (Godzilla Raids Again) was produced, with Tsuburaya given the title of the film’s “special effects director.” Tsuburaya, who became known as “the god of
tokusatsu,” was a hero for kids at the time. A new way of enjoying movies emerged, where people went to movie theaters expressly to see the
tokusatsu effects and to see that genre’s distinctive character, Godzilla.
The cast of monster characters expanded to include Rodan, a rapid-flying bird resembling a pteranodon; Mothra, a giant caterpillar from a deserted island in the South Sea that transformed itself into a moth in Tokyo after forming its cocoon in the ruins of the Tokyo Tower; and King Ghidorah, a three-headed flying gold dragon In addition to these sorts of monsters,
tokusatsu works feature an array of other characters, such as human beings who can transform themselves into a gas or a liquid, and address a variety of themes, such as the threat of all-out nuclear war. Other production companies began to get involved in
tokusatsu films, to the point where it developed into a major genre.
The
tokusatsu genre moved on from film to the realm of television, which became the main media form. In 1966, three years after
Astro Boy made its television debut, Tsuburuya Productions, a company created by that “divine”
tokusatsu master Tsuburaya Eiji, released the supernatural
tokusatsu TV series
Ultra Q. The show immediately became a huge hit. This success overturned the fixed idea people in the industry had previously had that full-on
tokusatsu effects were too expensive and time-consuming to be feasible for a TV series. This sparked a “monster boom” on TV, as each channel began producing its own
tokusatsu programs.
That huge breakthrough made by the
tokusatsu pioneer Tsuburaya led to major progress in the subsequent years. This trajectory was similar in many respects to how
Astro Boy opened the way for anime series on television. Moreover, both the character Astro Boy and Godzilla are intrinsically linked to atomic power and an age of scientific technology. As a result of developing in such close connection to Japan’s era of extended economic growth, the country’s anime and
tokusatsu genres could blossom as a visual culture that has exerted a significant influence worldwide.
Ultraman Pioneers a New Format
Following up on the success of
Ultra Q, Tsuburaya Productions released the new TV series
Ultraman six months later. Every week on the show a new monster appeared to threaten the planet. The hero of the show, who battle these villains, is a member of a special police force with the ability to transform himself into a giant humanoid from outer space.
The superhuman, justice-seeking Ultraman hero, designed in a way that combines elements of rockets and robots, became a symbol of the scientific know-how that sustained Japan’s economic growth of the time. It’s worth noting that, visually, the hero is a hybrid, with a silver body to suggest that scientific aspect, interspersed with bands of red to denote his human quality.
Ultraman’s new “monster of the week” format became a model for subsequent TV shows geared to kids. For instance, 1972 saw the debut of
Mazinger Z, a robot anime centered on an enormous super robot of the same name that is ridden in and operated by the show’s hero, who does battle with evil mechanical monsters. The 1970s saw a string of anime shows featuring giant robots, culminating in the huge hit
Mobile Suit Gundam, first broadcast in 1979.
Another similar sort of show that debuted more recently, in 1995, is the highly successful
Neon Genesis Evangelion, featuring enormous heroes like those in
Ultraman, dressed in armor similar to that used in
Mazinger Z. The show, with its combination of
tokusatsu-style heroes and giant robots, marked the culmination of the genre’s distinctive culture.
As the
tokusatsu culture created by the first Godzilla movie thus came to exert a huge influence on anime culture as well, there was a ripple effect that created many new characters, leading to great progress. Meanwhile, though, the technique of using miniatures and other objects to bring a fantasy world to life began to decline as computer graphics came to the fore.
But by reconsidering the relationship between anime and
tokusatsu, and the course of their historical development, new breakthroughs that only Japan can bring to the world will no doubt come into view in the future—much like the astounding and unparalleled images the country’s
tokusatsu genre has brought to the world up to now. There is still room for the genre to develop once younger creators learn from its imaginative power and draw on the many innovative techniques that once had a worldwide impact.
Now that the world is again paying respect to the original Godzilla film, that
tokusatsu masterpiece, it seems an ideal time to forge new progress in this distinctive realm of Japanese visual culture and to take a fresh look at the true value of the
tokusatsu genre.
(Originally written in Japanese on June 16, 2014.)
-- Hikawa Ryūsuke (nippon.com)
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Being Godzilla: An Interview with Nakajima Haruo, the Man Inside the Suit
What makes Godzilla tick? If anyone can answer that question it might be Nakajima Haruo. The former actor suited up to play the role of Godzilla in 12 films. We recently interviewed Nakajima to discover how he managed to bring the monster to life on the big screen.
Well-Suited to the Role
Hardcore fans of Godzilla movies know the monster from the inside out—quite literally. That is to say that serious fans are familiar with, and have the greatest respect for, Nakajima Haruo, the actor who wore the Godzilla suit.
Sixty years ago, for the original
Godzilla film, Nakajima was chosen to don the heavy rubber suit of the monster dreamed up by special-effects director Tsuburaya Eiji (1901–70). And his splendid performance in that role was precisely what helped to bring the monster alive on the screen, giving birth to rabid Godzilla fans around the globe.
Nakajima is often invited to overseas events for fans of the
tokusatsu (lit. “special filming”) special effects genre pioneered by the 1954 film
Godzilla, and he has traveled to the United States over 10 times. This photograph, taken at a June 2014 event in Florida, features Nakajima (right) along with the actor Takarada Akira from the original
Godzilla film and an American fan. (Photograph courtesy of Nakajima Haruo.)
Nakajima was born in 1929 and made his screen debut as a fighter pilot in the 1953 film
Taiheiyō no washi (Eagles of the Pacific), produced by the studio that contracted him as an actor, Tōhō Co., Ltd. In the film, he performs a stunt in which his plane catches on fire.
After his success in that daring role, the young actor and stuntman was shown a script for an upcoming film tentatively known as “Project G” (
G sakuhin). The film was treated like a top-secret plan; Nakajima couldn’t find out any more details about the project from the head of the acting department who handed him the script or from the director chosen for the film, Honda Ishirō. The director told Nakajima to direct his questions to Tsuburaya.
Top-Secret “Project G”
The hush-hush “Project G” became the legendary 1954 film
Godzilla, which earned its special-effects director Tsuburaya his moniker as the “god of
tokusatsu.” Nakajima recalls that when he met Tsuburaya to find out more about the secret project, the director spread out a couple of pictures, out of a dozen, from the storyboard for the film to give him a basic idea and then said:
“We’ve come up with the character, but I’m not really sure about how it’ll work out. I’ll only know once you get in the costume and walk around. We can iron out the rest of the game plan later.”
Nakajima reminisces about the creative duo behind
Godzilla: Honda Ishirō, who directed the film
Taiheiyō no washi (Eagles of the Pacific) that marked Nakajima’s screen debut, and the special-effects wizard Tsuburaya Eiji.
Tsuburaya showed Nakajima
King Kong to give him a better idea of what the upcoming film’s monster would be like, although the 50-meter-tall Godzilla towered over that cinematic ape, which was only a fifth of its height.
“You’re the actor, so just concentrate on giving your best performance,” Tsuburaya instructed Nakajima. “Leave the overall acting direction to me, as director. Just be ready for whatever directions I give. The costume weighs a ton, by the way. Will you be OK?”
Nakajima answered with an enthusiastic “Yes,” his pride as a professional not allowing him to answer otherwise. The director followed this up by urging the actor to “stick it out no matter how hard it gets”—eliciting another keen affirmation from Nakajima.
What makes Godzilla tick? If anyone can answer that question it might be Nakajima Haruo. The former actor suited up to play the role of Godzilla in 12 films. We recently interviewed Nakajima to discover how he managed to bring the monster to life on the big screen.
Shuffling Along in a 100-Kilo Suit
The special effects for the 1933 Hollywood movie
King Kong were created using stop-motion animation. But
Godzilla, with its short production schedule of just six months, did not have the luxury of using that time-consuming technique. Instead, Tsuburaya chose to build a miniature set and have an actor in a monster suit wreak havoc on it.
Even though the 1954
Godzilla was inspired by the nuclear fallout from H-bomb testing that contaminated the crew of the
Lucky Dragon No. 5 Japanese fishing vessel earlier that year, Nakajima recalls that special-effects director Tsuburaya never talked politics on the set.
Running around in that first Godzilla suit proved to be a far tougher assignment than Nakajima could ever have imagined, however. The costume was made out of hard rubber, like that of a car tire, and weighed about 100 kilograms. On top of this, he had to wear thick wooden sandals, or
geta, inside the costume. All of this contributed to making every movement a chore.
“It was a very solitary feeling inside that suit,” Nakajima recalls. “My thoughts were just focused on the next movement to make. It was pointless to think about anything else, since the whole job came down to playing the part without toppling over from the weight.”
But Nakajima still came up with clever ways to give the movements of Godzilla a distinctive quality. As many Godzilla fans know, he made a point of stopping by the Ueno Zoo almost every day to study the movements of the elephants and bears there. And since Tsuburaya was filming the action at 2.5 or 3 times the normal speed, Nakajima had to alter the pace of his own movements accordingly.
The key to getting the Godzilla walk right, according to Nakajima, is to shuffle your feet, as he explains: “No one should ever see the monster’s heels. Godzilla won’t look strong without that shuffle. The same is true of a sumō wrestler, you know.”
An Unforgettable, Riveted Reaction
Nakajima’s only blooper in performing the role of Godzilla was when he knocked over Ginza’s famous clock tower in a manner too laconic for Tsuburaya’s liking.
Nakajima assumed that his tour of duty as Godzilla would be a one-off job, but he ended up shuffling around in the iconic monster suit for a total of 12 films. He takes pride that he only had one mishap during all those performances. That blunder occurred in the scene in the original film where the monster crushes the famous clock tower on the Hattori Building in Ginza (now called the Wakō Building).
“I ended up smashing the building in a way that was a bit too casual for Tsuburaya’s liking, and he told me so. We had to reshoot the scene, which meant rebuilding parts of the miniature. And we had to wait about a month for the plaster to dry properly. In the scene we reshot, the clock on the building chimes and Godzilla looks at it, out of curiosity, and then smashes the clock to pieces. It was a relief that I got that scene right the second time around.”
The original
Godzilla film, released in November 1954, was a huge hit in Japan, drawing in around 9.6 million moviegoers. Two years later a re-edited English version with added scenes debuted in the United States under the title
Godzilla, King of the Monsters, marking the monster’s first (shuffling) step toward becoming a global sensation.
Today, 60 years after Godzilla’s Japanese debut, Nakajima still vividly recalls the reaction of audiences at the time.
“After the film was released, I bought a ticket to see it for myself. I sat in the front row so I could look back to see the reaction on the faces of people in the audience. What I saw was fascinating. The children in the audience were jabbering during an early scene when the scientist played by Shimura Takashi is talking. But then, suddenly, there is the thunderous sound that marks Godzilla’s arrival, and I saw the children’s eyes light up, every one of them. It was so marvelous for me to see that reaction that I broke out in tears.”
And just recalling that feeling is enough for Nakajima to get teary-eyed again, six decades later.
Over the course of his career at Tōhō, Nakajima played a whole range of monsters, most notably Rodan. He also appeared as other creatures on TV shows, such as
Ultra Q. When asked what monster made the most fearsome foe for Godzilla, he told us: “I would have to say that human beings are the scariest creatures for Godzilla. After all, we manage to come up with all sorts of crazy ideas.”
Special-effects master Tsuburaya Eiji (center) took on directing duties for scenes involving monsters.
Nakajima Haruo’s 12 Godzilla Films
Title Release date
1
Godzilla Nov. 3, 1954
2
Godzilla Raids Again Apr. 24, 1955
3
King Kong vs. Godzilla Aug. 11, 1962
4
Mothra vs. Godzilla Apr. 29, 1964
5
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster Dec. 20, 1964
6
Invasion of Astro-Monster Dec. 19, 1965
7
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster Dec. 17, 1966
8
Son of Godzilla Dec. 16, 1967
9
Destroy All Monsters Aug. 1, 1968
10
All Monsters Attack Dec. 20, 1969
11
Godzilla vs. Hedorah Jul. 24, 1971
12
Godzilla vs. Gigan Mar. 12, 1972
(Original Japanese article based on a June 12, 2014, interview. Banner photograph is an image of Nakajima Haruo taken during the filming of the 1966 film Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
.)
-- nippon.com
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Roar Power: Watanabe Ken Talks Godzilla
Japanese actor Watanabe Ken has become a Hollywood fixture in the past decade. His latest blockbuster role is in Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards. Nippon.com recently interviewed the global star, and he shared with us his views on the underlying message of the iconic character Godzilla today—60 years after its screen debut.
Watanabe KenBorn in Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture in 1959. He entered the Engeki-Shūdan En theatrical group in 1979. As well as establishing his presence on the stage, he began to distinguish himself on the big screen, appearing in the 1985 film Tampopo (directed by Itami Jūzō) and other films. His popularity in Japan was boosted further in 1987 when he starred in the 50-episode NHK drama Dokuganryū masamune (One-eyed Dragon, Masamune). Watanabe later embarked on a career in Hollywood, starting with a role alongside Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, released in December 2003, earning a nomination the following year for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, he has appeared in a number of other notable Hollywood movies, including Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and Inception (2010). Also has continued to star in various Japanese films, including his role as a man stricken by the early onset of Alzheimer’s in the 2006 film Ashita no kioku (Memories of Tomorrow) and his depiction of a labor union leader at a crisis-plagued airline in the 2009 film Shizumanu taiyō (The Unbroken). More recently, in 2013, he starred in a Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood’s film Unforgiven, directed by Lee Sang-il. Along with his film career, Watanabe has been actively involved in the recovery effort in northeast Japan following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, creating the K-port café in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture to serve as a community gathering place.
Since its US box-office release in May 2014, the Hollywood film
Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards, has gone on to be a major hit worldwide. Japan is to become the sixty-third—and final—country to screen the film when it opens there on July 25, and it is likely to be a hit among Japanese moviegoers as well.
Renowned Japanese actor Watanabe Ken plays the role of the scientist Dr. Serizawa Ishirō in the film—a homage to both Honda Ishirō, the director of the original 1954
Gojira (Godzilla), and the scientist character in that film, Dr. Serizawa Daisuke, played by Hirata Akihiko.
Godzilla, the Divine
Watanabe is a member of what might be called the “Godzilla generation,” born as he was in 1959, not long after the debut of the original
Godzilla film. The chance to star in the latest film featuring the iconic monster led the actor to ponder what Godzilla is all about.
“In approaching my role as a scientist in the film, I spent some time thinking about the way to view Godzilla, but it’s a bit hard to know what the creature is thinking since it never says a word.”
Watanabe views the monster as a sort of force of nature, as he explains: “Wherever Godzilla goes, a mountain of rubble is left in his wake. We’re not dealing with a creature governed by logic. The first time Godzilla fully appears on the screen the audience hears a roar, setting off an indescribable vibration. It’s not like the sound of a growling dog; more like a wailing sound, something deeply heartrending. And you get the sense of encountering a force beyond human control—something even akin to a natural disaster or some sort of a divine revelation. It’s as if we are being chastised by something.”
“As you know, human society is complex—and it gets more complex all the time, whether it concerns relations between countries or between people. And answers are not easily found. In that context, the vibrations triggered by Godzilla lead people to question their own ways of living—and vibrations, of course, can easily transcend national boundaries.”
When asked to share more of his insights on the appeal of Godzilla, Watanabe touches on the essence of the creature:
“I think it comes down to
fear and
awe—a bit like the feeling evoked by the wrathful Buddhist deity Fudō Myōō. Godzilla is a creature that seems to embody the view—perhaps distinctive to Asian religions—that an atmosphere of quiet calm and tranquility follows the outbreak of something destructive or fearful.
The Fears that Spawned a Monster
The 1954
Godzilla was very much a product of its time, reflecting the particular fears of that Cold War era. But the themes of the original film still resonate today, as we face surprisingly similar challenges.
“
Godzilla was created in the mid-1950s, a time when the scars of the nuclear attacks on Japan were still raw and hydrogen bomb development was progressing rapidly in the context of the Cold War. Its creators envisaged the film as a sort of warning bell. And now today, sixty years later, the menace of radiation is once again an acute reality, following the 2011 nuclear disaster, and we face the same fears. The questions raised by the original film—and evoked by the vibrations Godzilla sets off—are still as stark as ever. It comes down to whether we really can continue down the same path we have been traveling up to now.”
When Watanabe met Gareth Edwards for the first time he was impressed by the respect that the English director, born in 1975, paid to the underlying metaphors of Honda Ishirō’s original 1954 film, and by how well-versed he was in the subsequent 60-year history of Godzilla.
“During my first meeting with Gareth, I was struck by his deep understanding of the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the situation in Japan since the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011. He also is well aware of the factors that led to the creation of the character Godzilla. Perhaps because he was born in England, which shares a more nuanced view of nuclear weapons, his understanding of the implications of the Godzilla tale is even more acute than that of my character, Dr. Serizawa. For instance, he had the insight to know that a creature like Godzilla could not be destroyed by nuclear weapons. Moreover, in the film, Godzilla and the fearsome creatures known as MUTOs [Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms] are not portrayed as being evil in any way, biologically speaking. Rather, the threat they pose to humanity is much like the danger of a natural disaster. I think that this outlook of the director contributed to the great sense of balance that the movie has.”
The Dilemma for Scientists
The Dr. Serizawa character in the original 1954 film refuses to allow his Oxygen Destroyer technology to be turned into a military weapon, but in the end he intentionally sets off the device in the depths of Tokyo Bay to kill Godzilla, losing his own life, too, as a result. In the latest
Godzilla, Watanabe’s character of the same name is faced with a dilemma particular to scientists, as he explains:
“The background of the character I play is complex. His father was an A-bomb victim, so he became committed to efforts to find ways to use nuclear power and radiation to benefit human life. Then he discovers the MUTO creatures and carries out research on them in the hope of using them to eradicate radioactivity. But the MUTOs end up growing into fearsome monsters that threaten to wipe out humanity.”
In a sense, as Watanabe points out, scientists are always confronting similar risks to those faced by Dr. Serizawa when they carry out their research.
“You can see this predicament in the effort to develop drugs to eradicate cancer cells or combat AIDS, for example. There is always a possibility that the drugs or viruses developed in the hope of saving lives could be used for destructive purposes. Scientists are balanced on the knife edge of this dilemma. And the same case can be seen for radiation. None of them worked on nuclear power in order to harm the planet. Yet, if things go wrong, this technology can unleash terrible destruction.”
This is precisely the sort of quandary that Watanabe imagined his character to be grappling with in his own mind. “He comes to the realization that there is a force of nature that exceeds our own power as human beings, and that ultimately we have no choice but to bow down to it. This implies that, ultimately, nuclear technology would have to be abandoned. I have the sense that we now are facing a great turning point—and that is reflected in the nature of my character and in the film as a whole.”
Hope Amid the Rubble
The way Watanabe portrayed Dr. Serizawa in the film was influenced by his experience in the recovery effort following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. He has visited the disaster area several times and continues to be involved in activities to assist the recovery effort.
“A month after the earthquake and tsunami I visited disaster areas and saw towns that had been wiped out, leaving behind almost no trace. In filming the last scene of
Godzilla, featuring mountains of rubble, my mind flashed back to what I had seen in Japan three years earlier. But the final scene in the movie doesn’t evoke a feeling of despair. You get the sense, rather, that human beings have the vitality to recover from the disaster and begin to rebuild. In performing that scene I had this feeling of the hope that remained.
“Some Japanese viewers will probably find it hard to watch scenes of cities being destroyed in the film. But I think the ending, with its hope for recovery, conveys the notion that we all need to take a fresh look at the problems we confront. And I’m happy that the film ends on this note.”
The actor recognizes, at the same time, that the
Godzilla films are first and foremost entertainment, not a vehicle for delivering a didactic message to the audience. Gareth Edwards apparently reminded Watanabe that the moviegoers will probably be watching
Godzilla with popcorn and a soda. At the same time, the director wanted the audience to be gradually drawn unconsciously into the film’s more serious themes, until at some point they stop reaching for more popcorn.
When Watanabe watched
Godzilla movies as a boy he had a similar experience of enjoying the film as entertainment but also picking up, eventually, on the underlying theme.
“At the time I was watching the movies, I didn’t grasp the intentions of the screenwriters. I would simply walk out of the movie theater with a feeling that the applause was still resounding in my heart. But looking back on them a decade or so later, the message of the films began to dawn on me.”
Watanabe notes that audiences for the latest Godzilla film are likely to applaud the roaring monster’s first appearance on screen, despite the fearsome, indescribable vibrations that mark this debut.
“It’s quite similar to the way kabuki aficionados will shout out an appreciative cheer to greet the appearance of a favorite actor or scene on stage,” Watanabe explains. “In that case, too, the vibrations of the performance stir up the audience’s emotions. Our new film does a good job of putting on a great show by incorporating such entertaining elements, including the impressive battle scenes.”
Japanese Films Lack Ambition
Japanese culture may have given birth to the global icon Godzilla, but Japan’s film industry—with the exception of the anime genre—lags behind its overseas counterparts when it comes to the ability to communicate. We asked Watanabe for his thoughts on the current state of the industry.
“As someone involved in the industry, the situation is a bit embarrassing. My impression is that Japanese films have not been willing to confront challenges head-on in the way that Hollywood movies like
The Last Samurai or
Letters from Iwo Jima have done. Instead, films made in Japan tend to stick to depictions of an innocuous, everyday sort of world. “
“I’d like to act in Japanese films dealing with more universal themes and entanglements between people, as I did in
Ashita no kioku [Memories of Tomorrow; 2006] and
Shizumanu taiyō [The Unbroken; 2009]. Another good example is last year’s Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood’s 1992 film
Unforgiven, titled
Yurusarezaru mono in Japanese, which addresses the profound question of where to draw the line between good and evil. Unfortunately, Japanese films do not seem to be inclined in that direction. I’m disappointed that even in the case of the Godzilla tale, whose theme is more relevant than ever to Japan, the Japanese film industry let a golden opportunity pass into the hands of Hollywood.”
The Importance of Being Embarrassed
As an established Hollywood star, Watanabe has become well accustomed to performing roles in English—making him one of the few Japanese stars to do that on the global stage. When we asked him how he went about undertaking that challenge, it inspired him to deliver a short pep-talk to young people in Japan today.
“Acting in English is embarrassing for me. To this day I still feel nervous, not knowing how well I’ll be able to read my lines. It often feels quite awkward. Acting by its very nature is a job that involves such awkward moments. You are often placed in a situation where you have to act out scenes of love or life and death in front of other people. But even though that is the nature of the job, there seems to be a trend where actors want to avoid getting into such embarrassing situations.
“And the problem is not unique to actors. It’s similar to how many young Japanese are reluctant to visit overseas countries or study abroad. I think it is good for young people to encounter all sorts of embarrassing situations. Whether your English is good or bad, getting out of Japan is a way to gain valuable experience through your encounters. Whenever you step out of your comfort zone you’ll always be confronted with hassles and awkward situations.
“There is reluctance these days among Japanese to grapple with the unknown and take on the wider world. And this has resulted in a whole host of problems, including those facing the Japanese film industry today.”
(Original Japanese article based on a June 26, 2014, interview by Harano Jōji, representative director of the Nippon Communications Foundation. Photographs by Yamada Shinji.)
-- nippon.com
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Godzilla 8-Bit Video
Watch -> http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/09/08/godzilla-8-bit-video
-- ign.com