Go Go Godzilla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6v0XnpK1pk

There are a lotta things about Japanese pop culture I could have talked about in response to this part of the class. Anime, the war, which I know not exactly pop culture but god damn there are a lotta WW2 games, the music, idols, karaoke, theater, to keep it on track with the story, puppets or Kabuki. The mythology, surrounding creatures, gods, samurai, the Yakuza, fuck could write three papers on the Yakuza. I like the culture, it’s always fascinated me, ever since I saw my first Japanese movie as a young lad. That’s when it hit me, looking back at what started my fascination, what to talk about for this project. Gojira. This isn’t even the first Godzilla type essay I have written for a class in Plymouth, I had a whole powerpoint for a film class I did. Maybe I´ĺl link it for shits and giggles. Anyway I watched Godzilla, and man it stuck with me. I couldn´t tell you why, maybe because I was a young kid and the idea of a giant lizard monster was appealing to me. Of course, as a dumb little kid all the subtext and meaning of the film went over my head. As it did a lotta American´s heads in the 50s because of the American version. They filmed whole scenes with Raymond Burr and cut a lot of the nuclear horror out. American´s feeling guilt of any kind, out of the question of course, look at the giant lizard don´t ask where it came from. I watched a lot of those kaiju movies, like Rodan and the Mothra movies. Gamera, fuck I was all over that. The Original Kong Vs Godzilla, which was the third movie by the way, I loved it all. It is actually sort of uplifting, in an ironic sense, that a symbol of nuclear tyranny can become a national icon of Japan beloved all other the world. They have Godzilla theme park rides over there, a freaking Godzilla HOTEL. I think part of the reason it got so popular, in America at least, was because of the english dubs just being laughable bad, and the Mystery Science Theater episode on Godzilla. That and people just really love atomic monster movies, the genre pretty much came and went in the 50s, but Godzilla stayed. That alone proves how much of a cultural icon and phenomenon the series is. I mean the MST3K episode helped, for sure. Those late 60 movies, from the Showa era as it’s called, were played on public access a lot. Then you get the video games, the toys, the merch in general, it becomes a big deal. Godzilla was pretty much how the Avengers are treated now, if that makes any sense. Actually I take it back, it’s actually BIGGER than the Avengers, because when Godzilla died in what was supposed to be the final movie, Godzilla Vs DESTROYAH, heh, love that, they announced his death on the news, like public news. Iron man didn’t get that shit. Godzilla makes camoes all over Japanese media, comics, movies, anime, he’s the unofficial mascot of the country. I love the American Godzilla movies, but they can not compare to the OG. That said, the first American Godzilla, the 98 movie, was god awful. It was so awful that Toho brought Godzilla back and released it in America just to flex on us. Only about, three out of 28 zilla films were released in America so that’s how much they wanted to rub it in our faces. They bought the rights to that thing Roland Emmerich called Godzilla, renamed it Zilla just to have Godzilla brutally kill it while a Sum41 song played in the background in the movie Final War. It was glorious. So, that is why the best thing to talk about in an open discussion video is Godzilla.

Go Go Godzilla

Published by nrhelms

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