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Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
I am loving ON BOARD for a fascist propaganda Godzilla movie. You couldn't sell me harder on the movie if you tried.

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Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Rat Flavoured Rats posted:

I could do with a recommendation. I watched a whole bunch of Godzilla films I rented on VHS from my local library as a kid, but all the memories of them have blurred into one enjoyable mess and I don't really remember which ones I specifically saw anymore (besides Mothra vs. Godzilla, which was my favourite.)

Anyway, I have a regular movie night with some friends where we tend to watch films that trend towards the funnier-goofier side of things and get drunk. Good times. I was wondering if someone could recommend a Godzilla film with some silly moments that would be good to watch with friends and drinks please?

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (the Smog Monster)

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

gfanikf posted:

Eh Hedorah is weirdly a mix of goofy and pure loving nightmare fuel. There is a lot of terrifying imagery in that movie.

Yeah it owns

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Wizchine posted:

Who the gently caress watches Godzilla movies for anything other than Godzilla and the other monsters? All the other poo poo is filler because the budget couldn't handle 90 minutes of painstakingly-built miniatures getting destroyed by men wrestling in latex.

This is real dumb.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Wizchine posted:

I watch movies about monsters fighting, but they're highbrow, you see, because they have plots and characters and everything...

You know what movies often have better plots and characters than Godzilla movies? Movies with no giant monsters in them at all. Giant monsters are clumsy metaphors - often literally clumsy because they fall on top of buildings.

This is real dumb.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Crash74 posted:

new godzilla looking p good







SMB really did have awesome production design.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

RBX posted:

Imagine a modern hedorah design

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
The eyes are awesome. When they're jamming hoses into his mouth and it looks like they're performing dentistry on a crocodile tweaking on PCP are some amazing shots.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
A lot of the shots in this movie look wonderful because they're framed in deliberate ways, which would be ruined with more dynamic camera movement. Especially the ones of meetings between bureaucrats.

I swear, JJ Abrams is ruining the taste of an entire generation of movie watchers.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Nothing wrong with using resonant religious imagery for no reason, especially if you have a good artistic sensibility. Jodorowsky made an entire career out of doing this.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Invoking Ozu makes more sense here.

Never seen one of his films. Where should I start?

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Schwarzwald posted:

There's a time and a place for both, and which Shin Godzilla seems to understand.

There are several found footage shots. The film is absolutely willing to wave the camera around when appropriate to do so.

There are a lot of really cool shots with cameras mounted on rotating tank turrets, which creates a unique effect when the vehicle starts moving in a different direction.

Speaking of static shots though, the final one on the balcony with frozen Godzilla way off in the background next to the protagonist is aces.

Mechafunkzilla fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Oct 17, 2016

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Another excellent use of a static shot: when the Prime Minister's telling everyone there's no chance of Godzilla coming on land, and then the aide runs in from off-frame to whisper in his ear. The framing completely makes the joke.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Well, the prime minister is incinerated essentially as punishment for being concerned about collateral damage (literally, for not making to order to blow away an old man carrying his disabled wife) and for allowing foreign powers to infringe on Japan's sovereignty. That's quite some subtext, and I understand how people might view the film as having right-wing ideology.

Mechafunkzilla fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Oct 17, 2016

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
What the film is really about is Japan reprocessing its national trauma from having brought tremendous ruin upon themselves during WWII. Godzilla is an avatar of that unresolved shame from historical transgressions; however, this shameful past is contextualized only in terms of how the Japanese suffered and were failed by their government. He's not the spirit of Nanjing or Pearl Harbor come to seek revenge for unacknowledged crimes. There's absolutely a nationalist bent to the movie in that sense.

The bureaucracy's obsession with formality and legality is demonstrative of an unhealthy fear of self-determination borne from the hubris of 1941, and is is rectified by an honest reckoning with the past that necessarily destroys the entire current power structure. The protagonist thinks it's ambition and self-interest that guides his predecessors' actions, but he's wrong; he's just too young to remember why they're afraid of wielding power with confidence. "Bring me people with balls", he says.

An interesting read is that Anno is basically saying that post-WWII Japan is like the Weimar Republic, and Godzilla represents an ascendant fascist backlash. When Godzilla first appears, the masses rally outside of government buildings, chanting his name loudly enough they can hear it inside even as they scramble to manage the crisis at hand. Creating a sense of self-worth through industrial innovation, affirming sovereignty, and devotion to collectivism is enough to keep the beast at bay -- temporarily.

Mechafunkzilla fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Oct 17, 2016

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

K. Waste posted:

The movie ends with the two love interests sarcastically conspiring to create a globalist, neoliberal equivalent of the Clinton dynasty. There are definitely fascist undertones to Shin Gojira, but these are juxtaposed with a "monument" made of immolated citizens. It's no Pacific Rim, that's for sure.

They aren't just "immolated citizens" or casualties of war -- they've become twisted, nightmarish things, bursting forth among a host of fanged maws. Atonement means being devoured.

If the sins of the past were to truly catch up to us, that reckoning would destroy the world. The only option is to try and keep it frozen in the past -- but it isn't going away, we can only try and outpace it.

Mechafunkzilla fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Oct 17, 2016

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Choco1980 posted:

Actually, that's not at all what they were. They were Godzilla. There is that bit where the clump of Shin drops to the ground followed by the researchers reacting with amazement that it must be how it reproduces, and that it can "evolve" smaller forms. Also, their heads and hands are still very monstrous. I'm sure you can come up with an interesting new theory about Godzilla's "new form" looking humanoid.

I wasn't talking about a diegetic explanation for why his tail looks like that.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Eco Fucker is def one of my least favorite kaiju

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
She's also got like ten lines in the entire film.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Lord Krangdar posted:

I hope the sequel starts with Godzilla still in the middle of the city a decade later, but now inexplicably crucified.

Everyone on earth has mutated into tiny godzillas and Godzilla has turned into a giant, frozen naked man.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
If you want to stick to official canon, the explanation for Godzilla's tail is that it means whatever you want it to mean and you have to decide for yourself by watching the movie

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Schwarzwald posted:

Ghidorah wrecking the world is only act 1.

In act 2, a pair of shady space men announce that they have some friendly kaiju that can chase Ghidorah off, and would be willing to part with them for the right price.

But it's Anguirius and Baragon and they lose badly

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) owns owns owns. It's the last Godzilla movie with Ishiro Honda at the helm.

Also make sure you watch Rodan (1956) and Mothra (1961) even though they're technically not Godzilla movies.

Mechafunkzilla fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Aug 20, 2017

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Burkion posted:

It cannot be stated enough, if you're a fan of Shin and the original, check out Return of Godzilla.

I'm still not sure if Shin or Return is better, and I think it might be impossible for one to be better than the other.

They're equal but opposite movies.

EVERY direction one zigs, the other zags, while still remaining extremely good, extremely similar films.

Shin has only a leg up on it being more topical, and just give it a few years for that to fade away.


Otherwise they're both politically charged revival films where Godzilla is the sole threat, and it is about how the modern world responds to such an impossible threat.

I have a huge soft spot for Godzilla '84, but it's definitely a flawed film. Though there's something about Godzilla and 80's Japanese skyscraper architecture that just works really well aesthetically. And I love how the whole film feels like it takes place at midnight.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Waffleman_ posted:

The movie's artbook has details of what the fifth through eighth forms of Godzilla would be and they're chilling af.

Actually, in his 5th form his eyes get bigger and he becomes a protagonist. In his 6th form he's starting to look kind of ratty and you can see his zipper.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
lol why would JVR watch a stupid cinemasins video, is he a masochist or something

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

PriorMarcus posted:

JVR is part of a new generation of Directors who will build on brand on stuff like that. He's ability to reach out to fans and his transparency will make his career. In that way he's very much at the ahead of older but still fresh directors like Edwards, Trank and Trevorrow. Imagine is Snyder had this level of communication with fans and the critical world. He's brand might not be poison.

You can't say Snyder's brand is poison when he's captured the hearts of the critical CineD demo.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Inescapable Duck posted:

I think kaiju movies tend to prove that the natives of any country love seeing their national monuments and cities spectacularly destroyed.

9/11 was the greatest day of my life

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Fun fact: James Hong worked on the American dub of the original Godzilla in 1955.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Does Kong gently caress?

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E284IfUyssc

it owned

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

SimonCat posted:

It's fun watching how many actors were in both the original Gojira as well as the Seven Samurai.

It's too bad that Kurosawa never directed a Godzilla film

Ishiro Honda was Kurosawa's assistant director on a bunch of movies so that's pretty close.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Waffleman_ posted:

By the third movie, Godzilla will BE the Planet of the Monsters.

Please don't fat-shame Godzilla.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Tezcatlipoca posted:

You say this after explaining away the meaning of words. Mothra absolutely means big moth because shes a giant loving moth. It can be a character name too and your false dichotomy is really dumb.

I agree with him though, that they are inspired names. For instance, Giant Robo is a cool-rear end name, even though it's obviously just "Giant Robot" with the T cut off.

"Monster X" is a very different name than "The Mystery Monster" in terms of dramatic effect, even though they communicate the same information.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
Kaijus having proper names also emphasizes the fact that they're singular entities -- it lines up with the idea that they are closer to gods than animals.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Waffleman_ posted:

But is King Ghidorah actually a king?

Inasmuch as King Kong is a king.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

K. Waste posted:

Except it's not, because go does not mean "gorilla," and jira does not mean "whale."

For another example from Mothra: the name of the fictional country "Rolisika," does not mean "Russia-America." It means Rolisika. That's the name of the place. The word "Rolisika" is a portmanteau, referring to both Russia and America, but does not embody either of these real places. It refers to them at a symbolic level, not literal. When the writers thought of "Rolisika," this can not be translated to them thinking of "Russia-America." There is no translation necessary. The name is unique unto itself.

With Mothra/Mosura, we merely have a case where Tezca has literally imagined that it more or less means "Big Moth," even though "big" appears nowhere in the name. The etymological route to "Mothra" is not "Moth + big," it is "Moth + ra." "Moth"/"Mosl" is a foreign word, implying the exotic and alien; whereas "ra" is wholly generic, existing specifically to distinguish the name "Mothra" in the mind from the actual, literal "moth." "Mothra" does not mean "Big Moth." Mothra is big, but the word "big" is nowhere in the character, it has nothing to do with how the name was formulated.

Again, words have meaning. Tezca's trouble is that he is trying to insist that these monster names are just as uninspired as their Western equivalent, and thus inevitably falls into false equivalency. He assumes that the implication of "big" is buried somewhere in the name "Mothra," not because of the word, but because the subject. Mothra is big, therefore Mothra means "big moth."


Capitalism.

It would be cool of Mothra's mom was named Big Mothra though.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Inescapable Duck posted:

You have surpassed even the Mothra. You have earned the title of 'Big Mothra'.

!

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

SuperMechagodzilla posted:

Gojira is explicitly the name of a (fictional) minor kami specific to Odo Island. The Shinto ceremony shown in the film is fairly legit - it features offerings of food and sake to Gojira, and a satokagura performed by dancers in tengu masks to chase away the 'impurities' thought to have provoked the attack.

Even the stuff about human sacrifice as part of a Shinto ritual is plausible, although based more on popular imagination and noh plays. See, for example, Ikeniye (which can be translated as either The Pool Sacrifice or The Living Sacrifice), a short play from the 1500s about a village that makes annual sacrifices to its local dragon-god by placing a randomly-selected person on a boat and setting it adrift.

The point of the film is not that Gojira actually is this kami, however, but that the scientists took the name from the villagers, who took it from nebulous 'earlier' traditions. (And the Americans 'mistranslate' it even further.) The name in-and-of itself apparently just means "the spirit that's eating all our fish". That spirit wasn't this physical dinosaur; Godzilla was asleep at the time.

In other words, Magma Turtle's real name is Bowser

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Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

sponges posted:

What is the worst Godzilla movie?

Megalon probably, it's barely even a film.

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