In 1998, Hollywood made a 「ゴジラ」 (“Godzilla“) movie.
Or, I should say, they tried to make a Godzilla movie. It wasn’t very good. Most people, especially die-hard Godzilla fans disliked that movie.
So, it was a bit of a surprise when another Hollywood studio announced that they will release another big-budget “Hollywood”Godzillamovie.
But, they assure us, this one will be a “true” Godzillafilm. It’s going to more like the Japanese Godzilla movies. In fact, it isn’t going to be entirely made by an American studio…the Hollywood studio “Warner Bros.” and the Japanese studio “Toho” (who made the original Godzillamovies) have collaborated to make the upcoming Godzillamovie that is scheduled for release in 2014.
The movie flyer even has the name 「ゴジラ」 written in Japanese
The Japanese baseball player Hideki Matsui used to play for the New York Yankees major league team until he began playing for the Los Angeles Angels last December.
(Click here to read the post I wrote last December about him moving from the Yankees to the Angels.)
His nickname is “Godzilla“.
He is currently the spokesman in Japan for the Kirin “Fire” canned coffee and in 新宿 (Shinjuku, Tokyo) there is a huge balloon in his likeness wearing a baseball uniform similar to his L.A. Angels uniform that has “Fire” emblazoned on the front.
The balloon statue is leaning on a giant can of “Fire” coffee.
The campaign is called 「ビッグマツイ」 (“Big Matsui“).
My daughter had to go to Shinjuku today, so she took a couple photos of this giant display with her cell-phone camera when she passed by it.
Here are her photos of the giant Hideki Matsui balloon in Shinjuku (you can see how big it is in proportion to the people standing near it):
"Godzilla" has hit Tokyo again!
Speaking of Godzilla…this time the iconic Japanese monster called 「ゴジラ」 (“Gojira“) in Japan and “Godzilla” in other countries that continually destroys Tokyo in his countless movies from Japan’s Toho Studios.
I wrote a post last summer (click here to read it) about the numerous Hollywood remakes of Japanese movies…including a 1998 remake of Godzilla that was poorly received by both critics and fans.
Hollywood's "Godzilla", circa 1998
I also wrote a post last April (click here to read this one) about both America’s “King Kong” and Japan’s “Godzilla“…and the classic film in which they battled each other.
Well, America’s “Legendary Pictures” has just announced their intention to film another “Godzilla” movie.
The movie is scheduled to be released sometime in 2012.
A major complaint that many people had about the 1998 American remake of “Godzilla” was that both the storyline as well as the appearance of the monster were too different from the Japanese movies.
Legendary Studios has implied that their version of Godzilla will stay true to the Japanese original.
According to their press release:
“…Legendary intends to approach the (Godzilla) film and its characters in the most authentic manner possible….”
That would probably be a good strategy if they want their movie to be successful…especially here in Japan.
Because in Japan many of the characters from Japanese classic movies, such as Ultraman and Godzilla, are still very popular.
Their movies are still made nowadays.
In 1933, the American movie King Kong was released. It’s about a movie director in Depression-era America who takes a crew to a place called “Skull Island” to film a movie.
They quickly realize that “Skull Island” is no ordinary island. It’s full of giant pre-historic predators.
One night, the native people kidnap the American actress and offer her as a sacrifice to “Kong“, the giant ape.
The rest of the American film crew rescue the actress and the director decides to take Kong back to New York City because a huge ape will make him more money than his movie could.
The movie’s most famous scene is when the misunderstood King Kong is forced to climb the Empire State Building and fight for his life.
The original King Kong
King Kong was remade twice. The first remake was in 1976. In this version, it’s an oil company that discover Kong, and instead of climbing the Empire State Building, King Kong climbs to the top of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Then in 2005, a remake of the original 1933 King Kong story was done.
King Kong is an American pop-culture legend.
The Japanese equivalent is ゴジラ (Godzilla).
The first ゴジラ (Godzilla) movie was released in 1954. ゴジラ (Godzilla) was supposed to be the result of radioactive nuclear testing. The creature was originally a threat to society…but to expand the audience to include families and children, some ゴジラ (Godzilla) films portray him as the hero.
Promo poster from the first 「ゴジラ」 (Godzilla) movie, 1954.
ゴジラ (Godzilla)’s name should technically be spelled as “Gojira” in English because that’s the correct pronunciation of his name.
The name ゴジラ (Gojira (Godzilla)) is a mix of the words 「ゴリラ」 (gorilla) and 「クジラ」 (Kujira (whale)).
There have been many ゴジラ (Godzilla) movies released in Japan. The most recent was on the 50th anniversary of the first ゴジラ (Godzilla) movie…in 2004, 「ゴジラ ファイナル・ウォーズ」 (Godzilla: Final Wars) was released. (It won’t be the “final” ゴジラ (Godzilla) movie though…there is a plan to make a new ゴジラ (Godzilla) movie on the 60th anniversary of the original—in 2014).
「ゴジラ ファイナル・ウォーズ」 (Godzilla: Final Wars) movie poster, 2004.
ゴジラ (Godzilla) is a pop-culture icon even in America. I used to enjoy watching ゴジラ (Godzilla) movies dubbed in English when I was a kid.
In fact, a survey was done in the 1980’s of the general American public to name “famous Japanese people”…ゴジラ (Godzilla) was one of the most common answers! (Another common one was “Bruce Lee”…whose not even Japanese)!
So, it was inevitable that America would release a Hollywood version of ゴジラ (Godzilla).
The trailers for the 1998 U.S. movie looked exciting! But the trailers are all you need to watch…the movie was generally a disappointment.
Poster for the US version of "Godzilla", 1998.
Here’s the trailer from the 1998 US movie “Godzilla” from YouTube:
So, it makes sense that these two iconic monsters met in battle.
In 1962, Japan released 「キングコング対ゴジラ」 (“King Kong vs Godzilla“).
Poster for 「キングコング対ゴジラ」 ("King Kong vs Godzilla"), 1962
There’s an urban legend that in the Japanese version of this movie Godzilla beats King Kong, and in the English-dubbed version King Kong wins. But it’s not true…the ending is the same in both versions: King Kong is the only monster to emerge from their underwater battle.
Here’s a trailer from the 1962 movie 「キングコング対ゴジラ」 (“King Kong vs Godzilla“):
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