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#media in general is filled with this - books too but i can always successfully skip ten pages if i need to
lordeasriel · 3 years
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another day of my expectations of watching a particular show being crushed by explicit s*xual ass*ult stuff. bless unconsenting media but im sad
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kingoji · 7 years
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Shin Godzilla initial thoughts
I have finally gotten around to watching Shin Godzilla this week, via less than legal means. Shut up. I'd have paid for it several times over by now were it an option for me, and will undoubtedly be paying for it when a western release is announced to own. I support this shit right up the jacksie. Anyway, this is a film that I had been dying to see, and as such am filled with thoughts now that I have done so. These thoughts I now spill like bodily fluids from my pulsating gills all over the tarmac. gonna try and keep all the major spoilers out of this one, but be warned I'm not exactly a professional media journalist. If you want to avoid spoilers then either skip the synopsis or just don't bother reading this. And to be fair, this is already FUCK long. If I were to discuss the spoilers I'd need to write a book or some shit. ONWARDS!
SYNOPSIS Tokyo Bay security are investigating an abandoned sailboat when the water beneath them begins to boil, followed by an underwater detonation of unknown origin which sends water high into the sky and also damages an underwater traffic tunnel. The Prime Minister's cabinet quickly convene and begin an investigation, but before they can reach any conclusions an enormous creature comes ashore and decimates the local area before returning to the sea. As part of their ongoing investigations and preparations should the creature return, the cabinet forms an unorthodox thinktank composed of low-rankers and radicals to consider the seemingly impossible biology of the creature from outside of the box, and the US offer some results of their own as well as potential military aid. As this think tank hits upon a possible method of combating the creature, it returns to land and cuts a swath through the city impervious to all attempts from the Japanese Self-Defence Forces to halt it. Eventually reaching the heart of the city, the military bombardment upon the creature finally causes it to retaliate with devastating radioactive attacks before entering a state of dormancy to re-energize. Eyes opened to the potential for global disaster the monster represents, it is reluctantly agreed that the US be allowed to vapourise the creature with a nuclear attack. The Japanese government step up their earlier devised plan to combat the creature as a final Hail Mary before the nuclear strike can occur, and successfully manage to chemically halt the nuclear fission within the monster, effectively freezing it solid.
***
As is becoming traditional when Toho reboots the character, a big part of the hype machine comes from the radical redesign of the monster. When the Heisei era began in 1985, the last time Godzilla had been seen he was a slimmed down, big-eyed, children's hero; Here he was back to his dark, bulky persona with many design elements reinstated from the original 1955 design that were gradually shed through out the series (such as ears, fangs, and additional, more savage looking dorsal fins), and he just looked shockingly mean. When the Millenium era began people had gotten used to a very standardised (but also iconic) look that was maintained throughout the Heisei; With Godzilla 2000 we were introduced to a more reptilian monster with a jagged aesthetic, irregular teeth and fins (which were now a silvery purple) and, for the first time ever, a green hide. Unlike the Showa and Heisei eras, the game plan for the Millenium was to make films largely free of continuity, each a new and unique take on the mythos, with the idea being that the most successful would be the themes and tone carried forward in future installments. As such, Godzilla's design varied from film to film, each intended to be quickly distinguishable from the others at a glance (the two exceptions being the design from Godzilla X Megaguirus, which simply carried over a more streamlined version of the Godzilla 2000 look as it had proven immediately popular, and Tokyo S.O.S was a direct sequel to Godzilla X MechaGodzilla so the design remained the same, only with scarring from the previous film's climatic battle). Such it was with Shin Godzilla. Toho remained secretive about the new look for the monster, allowing the tidbits of news released about production to build viewer anticipation. For one, there was the involvement of Hideaki Anno, who had developed a reputation for unique and disturbing visuals thanks to his work on Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is not only full of giants and monsters itself but is also a deeply psychological work.  Then there was effects director Shinji Higuchi, who is probably most famous in the west for the live-action adaptions of Attack On Titan but who is more notable amongst Kaiju fans for his work on the Heisei Gamera films which are considered to be among the best Kaiju films ever filmed and were even at the time leaving the Godzilla movies in the dust visually. There were the reports that Godzilla would be portrayed entirely with puppetry and animatronics with minor CGI enhancement, which had gotten mixed reviews when implemented on the Attack On Titan films. There were the rumours that Godzilla would undergo various mutations during the course of the movie. And so on. When we finally got to see the design for the movie, reactions were again drastically mixed. This new Godzilla was almost skeletal with tiny beady eyes and a jaw full of needle-like teeth that burst erratically from his lipless maw, and a tail long enough to swat the sun out of the horizon. I, personally, was simply fascinated. I didn't love the design, but I certainly didn't feel the need to take to the internet with hateful rhetoric. I chose instead to more analytical. I had faith in the creators, in Anno in particular, to have done something so drastic for a reason. There had been early interviews with Anno and Higuchi where they talked about wanting to take the monster back to his horrific roots, about making the monster a walking nightmare. They are said to have looked at old production materials for the original 1954 movie, sketches and maquettes from the time, and to have worked from that. Ideas true to the original concept that never fully made it on film or faded out over time, such as the idea that Godzilla's hide was so rough and rigid because he was supposed to have been deeply scarred by the atomic testing he was exposed to was re-examined and thus, the Godzilla of this film has a body that is a black as burn scars, with crimson seams lining him like a cracked scab over an unhealed wound; he has no lips or eyelids or ears because they were all burned away; his musculature is sunken and sickly like someone who had radiation poisoning. His new design evokes all of this despite not sharing the same origin as the 1950's inspiration. And yet, it all works perfectly for the new story behind him. There are other changes that I won't go into here, and which stem from Anno's talent for twisted physiology and visuals that are repellent on a primal level, but which are no less perfectly suited to the story being told of this new Godzilla. Godzilla's powers are also looked at through a new lense for this film. He has always been shown to possess great healing abilities, although his amazing cellular regeneration has rarely been touched on beyond the typical sci-fi tropes of weaponising or attempting to harness it, with disasterous results. Throughout his movie history Godzilla has developed new abilities sporadically (although most are forgotten by the next entry). He has been shown to be able to utilise his nuclear energy in varied ways, from different strength oral rays to emitting the energy bodily as a destructive burst to even, yes, jet propulsion. This new movie essentially combines all of this into a single genetic thread which becomes the backbone of the movie, put poses it all in such a new and refreshing way that you don't really realise during viewing that this, all of this, has been touched on before, albeit in a very casual and throw away manner. What makes all of this so wonderous for me as a lifelong fan, is that it signifies a change in the way Toho operate. Traditionally the studio have been so rigid as to what can and cannot be done with the the character that they had become notorious and almost self-defeating. They dearly want for their flagship character to be respected and successful that they have in the past stifled creativity.  How many stories can you do about this same unchanging being? To be fair to them, they inched in this direction a little with Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (generally considered the best of the Millenium movies, coincidentally, though not by me), although that was really a departure in terms of the 'why' only rather than the 'what' and 'how' of Godzilla's existence. The Toho of ten years ago wouldn't have even allowed the look of this monster, let alone the recreation of history, biology, and very nature of it. Godzilla has always been a creature of intelligence, but Shin Godzilla is a being of pure instinct. It has no motive or goal, it simply acts. In the past, you've always been able to pin a fairly succinct label on the various incarnations. Originally he was a nuclear alegory. He was a territorial animal. A superhero. A force of nature. Shin Godzilla doesn't feel like any of those things to me. The only word I can think of that fits is simpy "Entity", with all the mystique and ominous connotations that word may imply. The tone of the movie is quite an odd one to explain. It is, at first glance, played straight. Reactions to the monster and the events that occurr around it are logical and fairly realistic, the seriousness of the situation is never downplayed, and yet it manages to avoid heading into too heavy a territory. More astute viewers may pick up the first time of the dry humour throughout the film, though I admit I was on my second viewing before I let the humour come to me. I think the first time I was just too focused on 'new Godzilla film, must absorb it all'. Examples that come straight to mind are in a cabinet meeting early on in the film, one member issues a bunch of orders for things to be done in a manner which might usually initiate a scene change but here is met with confused glances from other cabinet ministers before one asks "whom exactly are you addressing?" and THEN the scene changes, or when the think tank are exchanging what they've learned so far one asks for analysis on behavior to which another responds "He just walks." The film is political satire, but very subtley done, often poking at the state of current buerocracy. for example, the PM's cabinet meet in his office to discuss this mystery in the bay, and after deciding that they need to actually make some plans they move down the hall to a conference room, only for them to witness new developments on TV which means they need to go back to the PM's office to discuss it there. Similarly, when the JSDF's forces are preparing to engage Godzilla they request permission to open fire, and we follow that request down a chain of command as one person asks his superior for permission after another until we reach the Prime Minister who says yes, and then, inevitably (though we are graciously spared it), the answer has to go back down the line from person to person. I've also seen online a number of people who complain that the film is anti-US (typically from Americans) propoganda. Utter nonsense. This film portrays the USA as a people who can and have made mistakes, and some of those mistakes may have consequences for Japan, but they are never villified. They are actually often portrayed as sympathetic. The fact of the matter is that America has always had a hand in Godzilla, fictionally. It was their atomic testing which awoke the monster in the original film, and it was their actual atomic deployment in real life which inspired it. To be insulted by a film because it reminds them of that is beyond hypocritic, considering the hundreds of films Hollywood must have put out by now where the 'foreigner' is the enemy. But that's enough of the serious stuff. It cannot be denied that the attachment of Hideaki Anno as writer/co-director of Shin Godzilla brought with it a lot of expectation. Neon Genesis Evangelion, an anime he created in the mid-nineties in the midst of clinical depression and under a studio going slowly bankrupt, revolutionised a genre and inspired a generation of creatives. It viewed typical Super-Robot series tropes through cynical eyes and turned the cast stereotypes on their heads. It got darker as it went along, riddled with psychological themes and visuals that varied from blatent to so-subtle-it-took-scholars-to-find-them, and a use of religion and christianity in particular that left anyone with any kind of religious leanings feeling a little uncomfortable. Despite all this, it is possibly one of the biggest success stories in anime, with a legacy as strong today as it was twenty years ago. It is possibly also the biggest 'love it or hate it' situation outside of Marmite. So you can imagine that his mere involvement with a new Godzilla stirred the pot significantly. I would like to take this opportunity to state right here and now to anyone who hates Evangelion; Do NOT use that as an excuse to avoid this film. Tonally and thematically, this could not be any further removed. Sure, there are directorial choices made here that are pure Anno, but there is none of the angst, depression, or misery that you may associate with Evangelion. This story is very stripped back and to the point, even for a Godzilla movie. The monster IS the story, and everything else in the film is a reaction to him. The only sub-plot, such as it is, is also part of the direct investigation of the monster. There are certainly things that are "Pure Anno" in this movie, but as I say this is pretty much entirely on the visual side of things, and I'm pretty sure that even "haters" would appreciate what he brings over. For one, this is an incredibly 'talky' film. But the way it's shot is still fast paced and even the slowest scenes are structured in a way that will make them interesting to watch. From scene changes signified by the putting down of a phone, for example, to close-ups of the speaker from an unusual angle (a little too high, from just off the side, etc), to mid-sentence cuts from one shot of the speaker to another to add emphasis. There are a lot of directorial choices which have plainly come from someone whose background is in animation, and the relative freedom that affords in creating a shot. The way he goes about portraying Godzilla himself is also refreshing. He brings with him some tricks he developed with his giants in Evangelion that will be familiar to fans but still feel new and exciting when applied to Godzilla. From his first scene of the monster making landfall echoing his slow reveals of the destructive 'Angels' of Eva (quick cuts of a mostly obscured form, a screen-filling eyeball, and eventually, a full reveal that is still not what you were expecting to see), to his use of shooting the environment to portray scale (to a footstep each, we are treated to shots of a beached boat bouncing in the air, the tiles of  a rooftop bouncing up and sliding forward, and the branches of a tree shaking and startling birds into flight). Yet for every trick he brings to the table, there is a throwback to the older style of making monster movies. For example, he often gives us a shot with Godzilla so far in the background you almost miss him, which is something which always made the Showa era films feel like they were more than rubber suits on a sound stage. In fact, his love of the Showa era is ever present, as the entire library of sound effects for this movie comes straight from that period (with the exception of a couple or roars from the Heisei era). Again, as a fan who grew up with them, these are a delight. Imagine if you can hearing a sound of an explosion as distinctive to you as the sound of Star Trek's torpedoes, a Lightsaber turning on, or a Transformer changing shape.  Yes, I'm a nerd, but that's what it's like for almost every sound in the film. And while we're on the subject of audio, I would be remiss to not speak about composer Shiro Sagisu. Shiro is a long-time collaborator of Anno's, having composed the scores for everything Evangelion (from the entire TV series to the five and counting animated movies) as well as Anno's teen-romance deconstruction anime His And Her Circumstances. In fact, if anything about this film can be accused of being "too Eva" it would be because Sagisu has a fast-paced, drum-heavy "Preparation" theme that he seems to use for everything he works on.  There are several variations of this one theme in Shin Godzilla alone, and they will always invoke Evangelion to me, as I'm sure they will to many others. But before I come accross as being too negative here, let me clarify that I adore his music and own every once of his scores I could get my hands on on CD, including this one.   One particular motif which feels fairly unique to his works is his inclusion of English-language vocal choirs for his more atmospheric pieces. It adds a sobriety to proceedings, and can also make something feel truly apocalyptic. His two major cues for Shin Godzilla that were heavily featured in promotional materials are Persecution Of The Masses and Who Will Know?, both are slow and melancholic, and during the film were used in places one might not expect to hear music of their tones typically. Unless you are a fan of Anno and Sagisu's previous collaborations, as you will no doubt have learned how they defy expectations even in sound design. As with the sound effects though, the score is also riddled with throwbacks to the Showa era and, in particular, legendary composer Akira Ifukube (who composed Godzilla's tradtional theme as well as most of the more famous themes of the series). The choices of music to reinstate are more evidence to Anno's love of the genre, as, aside from the music which plays during Godzilla making landfall for the second time, all the selections are obscure or odd variations of particular cues. Some aren't even from Godzilla films originally. From what I've seen online, the reactions to this movie are typically favourable. There are a few people that can't seem to get beyond the changes made to Godzilla himself, but that may be attached to a typically western mindset that I'll get to in a moment, because it's a mindset that even those who enjoyed it have displayed; That anything that happens in this movie is somehow permanent, that because these changes were made here, that is how things will be for the character from now on. Shin Godzilla was one of the most financially successful movies in Japan in 2016, which all but guarantees that a new Godzilla film will comer sooner rather than later. But will it be a direct sequel, which is what most folks I'm seeing online are assuming it's a given that it would have to be. No, it really doesn't, and in my opinion the biggest reason that Shin Godzilla works is that it's standalone. It has in traditional Anno fashion ended in a way which leaves more questions than answers, but that doesn't mean those questions are intended to be answered.  What Hideaki Anno like to do is riddle his works with clues, seed them with potential, and leave his audience to try and figure things out. The state of things in the world of this movie at the end are such that any direct sequel would have to leap through some logistic and continuity loopholes just to get off the ground, but I'll say no more about that. As much as I love this film, I don't want another like it. I wouldn't particularly like the changes made to Godzilla to become the standard. What I do want is for the next film to take the lessons learned here, technical, artistic, logistic, and creative, and run with it and give me something as impressive as this, but just as different. And if that were to involve a step back to a more traditional state for the monster, and the world he inhabits, so be it. I'm one of those wierdos that thinks Godzilla can carry a film with no other monsters in it and should do so more often, so what do you care what I think?
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