Kaiju film genre general thread.

With all the new giant monster movies that been coming out, and have been slated to come out over the next few years (what I affectionately call the Kaiju-Eiga film genre rebirth) I felt about making a thread about the genre in general.

So far, there will probably be a new Gamera in 2017, a new Japanese Godzilla Movie next year, a new Ultraman Classic movie next year, Kong Skull island in 2017, a Legendary Pictures Godzilla movie sequel in 2018, a delayed Pacific Rim 2, and the possibility of a crossover with Legendary's Godzilla sometime later, and the third Legendary Godzila movie being a new King Kong vs Godzilla.

Whew, that's a lot.

edited 11th Oct '15 7:17:28 PM by Demongodofchaos2

Couldn't the General Godzilla thread encompass all of this (with a slight renaming, if needed)?

Not really, as Gamera, Ultraman, Pacific Rim and King Kong are still their own properties.

Who knows, maybe someday, there will be an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny movie where all of them team up,to fight each other and a greater threat, but it would be a licensing nightmare, for sure.

edited 11th Oct '15 7:21:16 PM by Demongodofchaos2

I've seen the original Gojira. Intriguing for its subtext, and the devastation is well done, but the monster looks less convincing than King King, done years earlier.

How did the genre evolve after that? For how long did it remain serious, and did they take the subtext beyond atomic weapons?

It turned into more of a monster mashup type of franchise, then back relatively serious in the 80's while keeping so,e of the monster fighting style intact.

King Kong vs. Godzilla marked the point where the Godzilla films started to get a bit campy. Godzilla Raids Again wasn't as dark as the first film, but the situation was still very grim and ended on a somber note. King Kong vs. Godzilla had more over the top characters, less emphasis on civilian casualties, and more fun set-pieces. Godzilla was still a villain, but this film starts his trend towards more light-hearted monster antics.

Let's not forget that Godzilla was preceded by Gorgo and the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. So yeah, Kaiju were invented in the West, Japan just basically took over the genre.

Gorgo came later on. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, however, was a year before Gojira.

Also, while King Kong vs. Godzilla was goofy and over-the-top, Mothra vs. Godzilla (the subsequent film) was a bit more serious. Godzilla is once again a serious unstoppable threat, and the majority of the film is everyone failing to stop him. It's still plenty silly, though (for one, Nakajima tripped over part of the model and hit a tower, which was kept in the finished film...plus there's the whole thing about the Mothra larvae beating Godzilla), but it's more your typical B-movie full of cheesiness that the remaining Showa movies would copy.

I've never been a fan of any of the Godzilla films except for the original, mainly because I feel that they fail to really capture the depth and subtleties that made the original such a masterpiece. Going from such a well made and serious metaphor for the horrors of atomic weapons and war in general, along with the effects that war and nuclear weapons have on the general people of society, to a bunch of cheesy B-movies just doesn't sit right with me.

Alert! Alert! A ten-year kaiju community veteran approaches!

I love all of the Showa Era films honestly. From the dramatic and allegorical Gojira to the extremely cheesy and fightfest fun that is Godzilla vs Megalon and all the other things inbetween. They're especially fun to watch during streams and such, since everyone just gets crazy with riffing or so on so forth, and it's refreshing sometimes when the community gets a bit too serious and stuffy about things in the genre. The monsters also have tons of character I dearly miss. It might be hard to stomach junk food cheese and a layered gourmet on the same plate, but I'll eat both, if not at once!

The Heisei and Millennium Eras are a big mixed bag for me though, for a few different reasons, but there are some things I do like. The Edwards film blew me out of the water though, everyone including me is now hoping they don't fuck the other returnig kaiju up in the sequel - play up what you did with Goji, fellas. The 2016 film...I'm wary of the choice of director admittedly, though I'm still interested in seeing what he has to offer us.

The only thing that beats that though is my unabashed fondness for Gamera, from crazy-ass Showa to the much more profound and dramatic fare in the Heisei and such. I even picked up darn near all the films on disc lately! The teaser for the new film also has me hyped, aw yus, I'm so excited.

Gamera! Gamera is really neat! Gamera is filled with meat! We've been eating Gamera! Shell! Teeth! Eyes! Flames!

edited 21st Oct '15 11:36:37 PM by StarvingGecko

Hey, whadya know, I'm a ten year kaiju fan veteran too!

I used to be more in touch with the general kaiju community during my Junior High/High School days, but as my old friend was just telling me, sometimes the communities can be a bit overbearing if not just toxic at times. But hey, here I am now with all these kaiju movies coming out one after the other and my own ideas resurfacing after so many years of working on 'em earlier. What a time to be alive and a fan!

edited 21st Oct '15 11:10:22 PM by StarvingGecko

I should say that while I can admire how Gojira is allegorical without being ham-fisted, I can't be entirely comfortable with it due to what it represents. It plays rather too well into Japanese victimhood, and the idea that atomic power is a form of Western hubris oppressing Asians. Besides the two obvious bombings, the nuclear tests referred to had been afflicting fishermen with radiation poisoning, and the government suppressed the facts to avoid upsetting their ally in the face of China's growing power. Many saw this as the Americans not caring about non-whites, not realising that their own soldiers and sailors were subject to very bad radioactivity because it was so poorly understood. Nuclear bombs as foreign weapons was a plank of left-wing whitewashing of the war and the victim complex.

However, the film does acknowledge that it's governments and their control instincts that are the threat and not any one nation.

Shin gojira's international name is Godzilla Resurgence

I don't care for these movies in general, but I'd urge anyone who does to watch Pulgasari, a giant monster lizard movie from...North Korea.