G.H.I.D.R.A.H. W.U.R.F. V: "For We Are Many"

Since the practice came about last fall, I've found that I tend to arrange roughly two and a half kinds of movie nights. Roughly. One is the impromptu, "Ho! I have the house to myself tonight!" movie night where I call up a couple friends and we hang out and watch whatever sounds good at the time. It's nothing fancy and we all get to bed early enough to make it to our respective schools and workplaces early the next morning.*

* This is the official story but God knows we're still up into the wee hours of the morning.

The "half-breed," as it were, is sort of a mix between the preceding and proceding examples - we invite a bunch of people (whether they come or not) and make an event of it but the film selection isn't limited to the antics of irate, city-destroying monsters. These include the screenings of North by Northwest, Rear Window, and Wait Until Dark that you may have read about here on LET'S WATCH MOVIES! UNTIL WE CAN'T FEEL FEELINGS ANYMORE! and if you haven't then you ought to go do that now.

And then there is is the all-powerful, ultra-absorbant dorkfest that is the Wholesale Urban Renewal Festival or W.U.R.F. for short. The tricky thing about W.U.R.F.s is that we insist that all four primary G.H.I.D.R.A.H. members be involved in their planning, plotting, and implementation and even though we're all very flexible it can get to be very confusing sometimes. This particular W.U.R.F. has been pre-planned, planned, re-planned, cancelled, reinstated, re-cancelled, had its philisophical merits debated, reinstated again, totally made-over, totally un-made-over, re-scheduled, re-re-sceduled, boiled...

...and at some point we wound up with this. I'm not sure how much it resembles its original form at this point but whatever, here we are.

But that's not actually important at this particular moment. The point is that for better or for worse it's come to be that time of the month again - that time of the month where we all gather together and watch giant monsters smash the crap out of each other while copious amounts of dazzling pyrotechnics explode around them. Oh yes.

And without further ado, here is this month's line-up, complete with a slam-bang, awesome addition that none of us saw coming! Read on to find out more!

Atragon
Kaitei Gunkan (1963)

Not everyone is a huge fan of Atragon, stating that it is full of wasted potential or Manda just isn't in it enough or something. I respectfully disagree - I love Atragon. The ship itself is one of the coolest Toho vehicles ever, this side of the Maser Cannon. I mean, it's a super-submarine that not only drills underground but it freaking flies!! It's pretty damned tough to top that.

The plot concerns the forgotten undersea empire of Mu and the one man who may be the only person able to stop them from destroying all civilization on the surface. The problem is that as far as anyone knows, he's dead.

Yeah, maybe a few more sequences of wanton destruction on the Muan's part or a longer battle with Manda could have added some neat things to the film but to me it is primarily about the transformation of Captain Jinguji - played by Jun Tazaki, turning in what is possible the best performance of his career (though I still can't help but wonder what Toshiro Mifune would be like in the role). In this respect the film is about perfect and the drama plays out excellently, particularly between Jinguji and his estranged daughter.

The effects work - especially the signature destruction of Tokyo at night - is of Eiji Tsuburaya's typically high standards and the film is very well put together for having had such a short production time (only six months!). If you've never seen a classic Toho film, you could do a lot worse than to start with this one.

Starring:
Tadao Takashima
Yoko Fujiyama
Yu Fujiki
Ken Uehara
Jun Tazaki

Written by: Shinichi Sekizawa

Music by: Akira Ifukube

Special Effects Directed by: Eiji Tsuburaya

Directed by: Ishiro Honda

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion
Gamera 2 Region Shuurai (1996)

Now let's turn the clock all the way back to G.H.I.D.R.A.H. W.U.R.F. II. As Dante had never seen Shusuke Kaneko's acclaimed 90's Gamera Trilogy we kicked off the night with Gamera Guardian of the Universe (1995), an excellent film that completely trounces Godzilla's offering for the same year, the famous Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah (1995). Now after going several months constantly postponing the second film in lieu of other selections, we're finally going to be showing the stunningly epic sequel, Gamera 2: Advent of Legion. Maybe.

No, we really are! I for one cannot wait.

Advent of Legion picks up a year after the events of the first film when a freak meteor shower brings with it a mysterious swarm of insect-like alien invaders. In a fairly unprecedented move, director Kaneko has Gamera and the military form an uneasy alliance to defend the Earth from annihilation. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think an alliance quite like the one presented in this film had ever been shown in a kaiju movie up to this point. The story is one of the most epic in the genre and Shinji Higuchi's effects work is top-notch, putting Toho to shame once again.

Amazingly enough, Gamera 3 still managed to top it but that's another story...

Starring:
Akiji Kobayashi
Toshiyuki Nagashima
Miki Mizuno
Ayako Fujitani

Written by: Kazunori Ito

Music by: Ko Otani

Special Effects Directed by: Shinji Higuchi

Directed by: Shusuke Kaneko

BUT WAIT! There's more!

(No!)

Yes! The wonderful folks over at Sci-Fi Japan tipped us off a couple of weeks ago that as part of their monthly "Silver Scream Spook Show," Atlanta's very own Plaza Theater will be showing...

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters' All-Out Attack!
Gojira Mosura Kingu Gidora DaiKaijuu Soukougeki (2001)

Friggin' GMK!

No, not this GMK. I don't even know what that is.

This is the GMK that takes place in an alternate reality from the rest of the Godzilla series - where Godzilla was apparently killed by the military some fifty years before. Now there are strange occurances beginning to occur all over Japan - an earthquake with a moving epicenter, a giant cocoon appearing on the surface of a lake - and a mysterious old man says that Godzilla's return is imminent.

I cannot express how excited we are for this one. Also directed by Shusuke Kaneko, it's easy to see why he's considered one of the best directors in the genre today. Giant Monsters All-Out Attack is not without its flaws but is is a fairly solid film and easily the best Godzilla movie made in the past twenty years. Much like Gamera 2, it is an excellent blend of fun, fantasy, and serious drama, hearkening back to the best Toho films of the 1960s. Contrary to what many a fanboy might tell you, this is not the dark, end-all, be-all Godzilla film for the ages - it ranges from giddy fun to a serious commentary on Japan's ignorance of their war crimes in WWII but it never ceases to be good entertainment that practically anyone can enjoy. Effects-wise the picture scores another win and Kaneko continues to excel at combining monster action with human drama.

And guys, Baragon is adorab-b-ble.

Starring:
Chiharu Niiyama
Ryudo Uzaki
Hideo Amamoto
Masahiro Kobayashi

Written by:
Kei'ichi Hasegawa
Shusuke Kaneko
Masahiro Yokotani

Music by: Ko Otani

Special Effects Directed by: Makoto Kamiya

Directed by: Shusuke Kaneko

And hell, if that's still not enough for you a few of us are planning on watching a bunch of Ultraman episodes the next morning.

***

G.H.I.D.R.A.H. W.U.R.F. V: "For We Are Many" will be held Saturday, January 31st, with the first film starting at around 2:30 PM. Be there around 2:00 for bests results.

The main showing at my house is a private affair so I'm not going to be announcing the location of it here. However, if you are interested (and we hope you are!), live in Georgia, and can somehow get in contact with the parties involved, please feel free to drop one of us a line by instant message, private message, e-mail, comment, Facebook, MySpace, phone call, etc. because we'd love to have more people join us. Keep in mind though that space at the house is limited - even with the makeshift balcony seating we've implemented.

The Plaza Theater is not nearly so limited so you should definitely join us at the GMK showing even if you can't make it for Atragon or Gamera 2. If you're joining us for the other films, we're planning on carpooling to the theater from my place afterwards. The show starts at 10:00 PM and I think we're going to try and stop somewhere for food beforehand.

Here's their page for the event and here's Sci-Fi Japan's article on it.

Hope to see you there!

- DaiKamonohashi

G.H.I.D.R.A.H. W.U.R.F. IV: "Drop Your Cynical Brainwaves into the Dimensional Gap"

It's time again for the monthly G.H.I.D.R.A.H. Wholesale Urban Renewal Festival!

So a bit of background for the confused: G.H.I.D.R.A.H. (Georgia's High-Interest Daikaiju Radical Appreciation Homies) is a group of four giant monster fans from Georgia (including myself and fellow Let's Watch Movies! contributor DanteCWB) who like to get together and geek out about our favorite past-time: watching giant monsters smash shit. To further support this we created the Wholesale Urban Renewal Festivals, W.U.R.F.s for short.* Basically they are movie nights where we get together and watch a bunch of giant monsters. Smashing shit. Oh yes.

* Because our second favorite past-time seems to be creating silly acronyms.

Anyway, this weekend (Saturday, the 13th of December) we will be holding our fourth monster movie night! Let's take a look at what we'll be watching this month, shall we?

Godzilla
Gojira (1954)

Opening the night is the Toho classic that started the Godzilla series: the original, Japanese Godzilla. This film is markedly different from the twenty-seven films that would follow in its wake. While they exhibit a variety of tones ranging from serious and straightforward to silly to downright bizarre, Godzilla is a somber, tragic story that speaks out against the horrors of war and the dangers of atomic weapons. It is inspired both by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as by the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident where a fishing boat caught in the fallout of an American Hydrogen bomb test in 1954 resulted in several cases of radiation poisoning and the release of irradiated tuna onto the Japanese fish market, causing a nationwide panic.

If you only ever see one Godzilla film in your life, make it this one. If you have any interest in the genre, Japan's first-hand experience with the atomic age, or Japan in general, see this film. We mean it.

You can read an even more in-depth article about my thoughts and feelings on this film here.

Starring:
Akira Takarada
Momoko Kochi
Akihiko Hirata
Takashi Skimura

Written by:
Ishiro Honda
Shigeru Kayama
Takeo Murata

Music by: Akira Ifukube

Special Effects Directed by: Eiji Tsuburaya

Directed by: Ishiro Honda

Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster
San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen (1964)

Following Godzilla we're showing the classic 1960s-era film that first introduced Godzilla's famous arch-enemy (and our namesake), the golden-scaled, three-headed King Ghidorah*! While this installment features a Godzilla far removed from the nuclear destroyer of the previous selection and the gloom and doom of the original film is nowhere to be found, the creators have instead ramped up the sheer fun and creativity that make us love these movies so much. Here you will see science fiction, political intrigue, aliens, assassins, shoot-outs, and a beautiful musical number performed by the Peanuts in their last appearance as Mothra's Shobijin (tiny beauties). To top it all off, the climactic final battle features not one, not two, but three giant monsters duking it out against King Ghidorah in defense of the Earth.

* called Ghidrah in the American dub.

It's my personal favorite of the loose "trilogy" formed by Mothra Vs. Godzilla, this movie, and Monster Zero so you know I recommend it and it comes with hearty approval from the rest of the G.H.I.D.R.A.H. members as well.

Starring:
Yosuke Natsuki
Yuriko Hoshi
Hiroshi Koizumi
Akiko Wakabayashi
The Peanuts (Emi & Yumi Ito)
Akihiko Hirata
Hisaya Ito

Written by: Shinichi Sekizawa

Music by: Akira Ifukube

Special Effects Directed by: Eiji Tsuburaya

Directed by: Ishiro Honda

The War in Space
Wakusei Daisensou (1977)

War in Space is a bit of a wild card here in our lineup as none of us have ever actually seen this one. It was made in 1977 to capitalize on the impending Japanese release of Star Wars. Since George Lucas' space opera wasn't slated to open in Japan until the following year but was already extremely well-known through magazines and word-of-mouth, Toho thought to rush their own version into production. I want to say that the main production for this film lasted for all of two months but I could be wrong. In any case, it made a killing at the box-office.

Reviews for this one are generally unflattering but then so are the reviews for G.H.I.D.R.A.H.'s personal favorite Godzilla movie, Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972), so we're not really sure what to expect on this one. Our best guess is that it will probably be ridiculous fun, if nothing else.

Starring:
Kensaku Morita
Yuko Asano
Ryo Ikebe
Masaya Oki
Hiroshi Miyauchi
Goro Mutsumi

Written by:
Shuichi Nagahara
Ryuzo Nakanishi

Music by: Toshiaki Tsushima

Special Effects Directed by: Teruyoshi Nakano

Directed by: Jun Fukuda

* * *

G.H.I.D.R.A.H. W.U.R.F. IV: "Drop Your Cynical Brainwaves into the Dimensional Gap" will be held Saturday, December 13th, with the first film starting at around 7 or 8 PM. We're flexible.

It is a private affair so I'm not going to be announcing the location of it here. However, if you are interested (and we hope you are!), live in Georgia, and can somehow get in contact with the parties involved, please feel free to drop one of us a line by instant message, private message, e-mail, comment, Facebook, MySpace, phone call, etc. because we'd love to have more people join us. Keep in mind though that space is limited - even with the makeshift balcony seating we've implemented.

Well I think that about covers everything that needs to be said. Here's to a successful W.U.R.F.!

- DaiKamonohashi

Godzilla is 2,000,054 Years Old This Month

On November 3rd, 1954, Godzilla rampaged across Japanese movie screens for the very first time. Though critics lambasted the film, it was a hit with the public and this product of Japan's experience with the atomic age went on to become one of their biggest cultural exports ever. Not only did it prompt Toho to make more effects films but it single-handedly began the tradition of Japanese tokusatsu (special effects).

Today, 54 years later, it is still revered as one of the best films created in Japan, often considered to be second only to Akira Kurosawa's untouchable masterpiece, Seven Samurai. Though his popularity is waning along with the popularity of the kaiju genre in general, Godzilla still remains a huge icon of pop culture.

Now I'm not going to delve too much into the minutiae of the production or symbolism of this film very much here because not only have those subjects been beaten to death many times already, there are many people far more qualified to talk about it than I am. They have, actually -- I'd recommend picking up issue #10 of Japanese Giants if you're even the least bit interested as it is a fantastic read and probably the most comprehensive English-language material on the production of this film.

Allow me, instead, to reminisce a bit.

When I was three I was huge into dinosaurs. I mean really huge. I lived and breathed them, played with them, slept with them, ate with them. My dream for several years of my early childhood was to become a paleontologist, actually - something that's probably pretty standard for childhood fans of giant monsters. I remember one day in particular when I'd accompanied my mother to the video store and I recall insisting for her to let me check out - ah, some cartoon. Anyway, she decided instead that Godzilla King of the Monsters would make the better weekend entertainment. I, uh, kind of pitched a fit.

. . . Until we sat down to watch it and I was totally transfixed, mesmerized by this strange new beast I was being exposed to. Given how obsessed with Godzilla I would become. . . I think my mom has regretted that decision ever since.

Later I would get my first chance to see the original Japanese Godzilla in 2004, the year of its 50th anniversary of release - on my birthday, no less! Needless to say, I was blown away. It was possibly the best birthday present I've ever gotten.

Re-watching this film again a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by the raw, emotional power it has. I often get incredulous looks from people when I admit that Godzilla makes me cry and while I understand the uneducated response (Godzilla makes you cry?!), the film is filled with moments that really tear you up inside. This is doubly true for me now that I have visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum. While the movie may ostensibly be about a giant monster on the loose in Japan, take the monster away and you're left with an eerie recreation of a firebombed Tokyo or ground zero after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts. The scenes depicting the dead and dying in makeshift hospitals look less like they were staged and more like they were lifted directly out of photographs of the ruined cities. The effect of all this is both tragic and frightening.

Toho never made another film quite like this one. Don't get me wrong, Rodan (1956), The Mysterians (1957), and Mothra (1961) are excellent, excellent flights of fantasy with strong themes all their own but Godzilla is something else entirely. None of their other films have the same raw emotion or the same gravity that Honda's pleas for peace instill in Godzilla. This is further augmented by the stark, black and white cinematography, as well as Akira Ifukube's bleak, driving, lo-fi score - in my opinion a scored he never topped. Yes, he wrote better stand-alone tracks for future films but as a single, unified score, none of his others come close. Godzilla's theme is thunderous and frantic, the military's brassy and proud, and the "Prayer for Peace" that plays over the sequences depicting the smoldering wreckage of Tokyo is nothing short of heart-wrenching.

Later, of course, our radioactive friend would slowly morph from this terrifying destroyer into a hero, defending the planet from a plethora of colorful adversaries. Some may find these later films silly and a large part of them are - but so much fun! Still, they certainly don't appeal to everyone. That said, I do feel that everyone ought to at least give the original Godzilla a watch, regardless of how they may feel about the rest of the series. It is a fantastic film that deserves more recognition.

Happy birthday, Godzilla.

- DaiKamonohashi

* * *

By the way, you can pop over to my personal blog, An Empire Generic, and check out the art I drew in celebration of my favorite movie star's birthday. And that one was actually finished on the right day too.

Author's note: A thousand apologies for this being so late.