Harry here... On Absinthe, I seem even more giddy than normal to read this review which about halfway through began swirling in the most interesting way! The colors are pretty! And MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!! MAN IN SUIT!!!
Hey Harry and co. A very Japanese cult film crazy BUNTA here. Here being Tokyo right now where people are actually kind of nice to each other and they give out coupons for prostitutes in the street.
You`ll have to forgive the slight incoherence factor at work here as I am fliling the following scoop from a slightly unpredictable korean computer bought second hand in the Blade Runner part of town and I`ve had a few Asahi beers and one very big chu-hi (ask for it by name). And oh yeah it is almost 2 in the morning. Gomen nasai as they say ...
The reason I`m having a bit of a celebration is ... well, you seeÃ…@I`m a pretty big Godzilla fan and I was just given a private screening of the new Godzilla movie, GODZILLA VS MECHA GODZILLA. This being a few days before it is sceduled to debut at the Tokyo International Film Festival (it opens, for reals, on December 12 across Japan)
But way better than just getting a sneak peak, the screening was held at Toho studios headquarters a few blocks away from the Emperor`s palace in Ginza. For me, a green blooded Godzilla fan, this is roughly simliar to being invited to EMI to listen to a new Beatles record or going down to Marvel comics to watch Jack Kirby draw Avengers number 4. In other words, Im not worthy and I never thought it would happen to me and pratically the whol e time I was in the building I thought I was going to wake up back in my hammock ala Gillian. But happen it did.
So any way, Japanese move studio fetishizing aside, yeah, I saw GODZILLA VS MECHA GODZILLA and want to share some thoughs, spoliers, and bad spelling with all of you.
The first point is ... while I was delighted to take the elevator up to the 8th floor screening room, I was still a little unsettled. What if the new Godzilla movie was ass sashimi? This would be roughly akin to going down to EMI to listen to the Beatles record only to find it was some George Harrison indian raga rock, or to go down to Marvel Comics only to find Jack Kirby drawing Machine Man. I mean, it would still be cool as all cool, but it wouldn`t be optimal primo cool.
See, last years Godzilla GMK was the best giant monster movie since, oh, 1968 or thereabouts (although Gamera 3, also by GMK director Shunsuke Kaneko comes awful close) and the advance stills for MECHA looked like it would be a return to the crap and very crap zilla no thrillas of GODZILLA 2000 and GODZILLA VS MEGAGUIRAS.
Ok, so while GODZILLA VS MECHA GODZILLA isn`t as heart stoppingly good as GMK, it was pretty dang good. About a 6+ or a 7 on the zilla scale. There`s absolutely nothing original or new here (This is the 3rd time Toho has made a film with the same title!) but there were numerous times when I was grinning broadly with movie-induced, rather than movie-studio, induced happiness.
The opening sequence is set during a typhoon. Godzilla shows up and he`s promptly attacked by a Mazer cannon. You do remember the Mazer cannon, right? The ultimate Toho anti monster weapon seen in WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, GODZILLA VS GIGAN and other fine films of that nature. This movie puts us inside the Mazer and shows us what it is like zapping monsters behind the controls. Totally awesome. Our protagonist, cute little Yumiko Shaku is inside. But theres an accident, she accidently crashes into a car driven by some of her comrades in tthe JSDF and Godzilla gets his revenge on the annoying Mazer by stepping on the survivors trapped inside the wreck. Godzilla howls into the storm. Cue title. So far, so great.
Then it becomes the Yumiko Show as she copes with her guilt over her friends deaths by going through a silly GI JANE styled work out montage. Not my cup of ocha. The pre release suspicions in Japan, that this is an idol movie first and a giant monster movie second, seemed to be playing out. Then Kumi Mizuno, Miss Namikawa (ha cha!) from 1965s Monster Zero shows up as Japans first female prime minister. She`s a bit advanced in age since she romped around in a fur bikini in GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER, but she completely commands the screen effortlessly. In that unmistakeable voice, she talks a bit about the history of monster attacks in Japan and some brief clips from the original MOTHRA and GARGANTUAS fill the screen (I almost cried, having the total Toho orgasm). Then we get to see the original Godzillas death via oxygen destroyer though some black and white computer animation. The rendering wasnt so hot, but it is a very cool dynamic moment nonetheless. One min, old school zilla is thrashing around inside what looks like a big glass of Alka Seltzer, the next second hes a pile of bones at the bottom of Tokyo Bay.
The reason we get this remedial history lesson is that, at one point, the principal cast and some unsavory scientists get inside a elevator. A wall slides up and there is the Big Gs skeleton surrounded by suba divers. Totally awesome to quote Sean Penn. Seems the DNA has been extracted from dem old bones to program Japan`s latest weapon in the never ending battle against giant monsters ... MECHA GODZILLA!
Brief interjection - MG himself isnt all that impressive looking. Of the 4 MGs that have graced the screen thus far, hes probably the least appealing visually. Surf around and tell me if Im wrong. Also, the look of Godzilla himself has reverted back to the bulky, small headed, decidedly unorganic (read: very man in a rubber suit) look of GODZILLA 2000 and GODZILLA VS MEGAGUIRAS. The monster in GMK could eat these guys for breakfast. What saves them both G and MG here is the impressive staging of the action scenes and the flair that director Masaki Tezuka`s gift for always pulling off something cool and unexpected, that Mazer-centric opening for instance. The first time we meet Mecha Godzilla, the government holds a press conference for him! Here MG shows off his freezing chest ray by zapping a building, which turns blue and crystalized. Then MG womps his tail into the ground, causing the building to shatter without even touching it. Argh! So cool! So you see what I mean, Monsters = not impressive. But What the Movie Does with Them = superb.
Oh yeah, plus MG is carted around by three sleek ships called AC-3s. They operate as transportation for the big dude, make good targets for the real Godzilla, and with a name like AC-3, can presumeably make your home theater sound hella tight. Cute little Yumiko (almost forgot about her? me too) gets to zip around in one, hoping for the big grudge match with Godzilla that will redeem her cute little troubled tormented soul. Ok, as it should be obvious the human side of the flick isnt much to chew on. I suppose the guys who got off on Miki the psychic chick from the 90s Godzilla flicks might dig her, but she spends a lot of time trying to be Demi Moore and hangs out with a percocious little kid who loves her pet hamster (a nod to the films co feature, a frikkin hamtaro cartoon, think ill skip the preview for that one ... thanks all the same Toho!) and carts a potted plant around here whever she goes. Smartly, the director keeps the pace zipping around so much that real GODZILLA 2000 style boredom never gets a foothold and when those monster scenes hit ... pow! Like wow.
The first time Godzilla meets his mechanical counterpart, its a very one sided battle. Mecha unloads a ton of lasers and missles and the Great One skips out back into the drink. All is good, until Mecha Godzilla`s DNA computer goes berserk causing the iron giant to blast away at the nearby buildings and office blocks until his batteries run out. Another fantastic moment in a movie filled with them. Turns out that using Godzillas DNA wasnt such a hot idea after all, sorta like putting a deranged mind into that body made out of spare parts youve got tucked away in your castle.
Of course, this puts MG controller Yumiko deep into an act 2 crisis as she blames herself for even more carnage, her fellow soldiers start to stay away from her (maybe a good idea), and the little kid starts mouthing little kid platitudes. Meanwhile, Godzilla is hardly resting on his laurels. Hes about to zap a crowded hospital (forgot to mention that G does the radioactive breath thing A LOT in the flick, adding greatly to the fun) when the new reprogrammed Mecha Godzilla comes out of nowhere to shoulder butt him. MG moves damn fast in this film,very different from the walking tanks of his previous incarnation. Blows and fisticuffs are exchanged. MGs operators in those little AC-3s are waiting for the opportunity to use the freezing ray, but Yumiko`s losing streak continues unabated. Just as the ray is about to shoot, Zilla tosses MG into the air. The ray destroys 3 high rises. Hahahaha! Now the batteries are gone and Godzilla is really ready to rock. Soon MG is a big tin can lying in the middle of a massive junkyard that once was a pretty nice place to live and work in Japan. Of course, this being act 3, Yumiko has to climb inside and operate the big robot manually. And she does. Big surprise. No prizes for guessing who wins in this one.
Ok so thats about it. I know I`ve left out the parts in the movie with the robot trilobyte, the cameo from the baseball player nicknamed Godzilla, the cool scene where they black out Tokyo to provide emergency power to Mecha Godzilla, and the bit where the hamster eats his sunflower seeds in a close up shot. But I dont wanna spoil everything. Besides, the hour is ungodly late, my head is spinning, and Japan is like a non stop LSD trip regardless of how much, or how little, you imbibe. I went to Toho. Used the urinal even and wondered if the ghosts of Eiji Tsuburaya and Ishiro Honda were peeking. I saw the new Godzilla movie and it was pretty tight, at least as good as any of the G films from the 90s if not a little better in terms of dynamic action and continual surprise.
Color me impressed and satisfied. The sleep of reason gives to monsters. Giant ones in Japan. Bunta out ... like a light.
