The King and the Pauper
The clash of Godzilla's cultural importance with American blockbuster standards
(Note: Article originally published in Kaiju Ramen Magazine, February, 2023.)
“One thing American audiences often misunderstand about Japanese fantasy films is that Western notions of realism are a cultural value not necessarily held by other peoples. Japanese art does not value 'realism' as single-mindedly as Western art does. Japanese filmmakers recognize other values as well: beauty, interesting images, and spectacle. To criticize Japanese fantasy films for not being 'realistic' is both to miss the point and miss the fun.” - David Kalat [1]
Six years ago I had the pleasure of seeing The Lion King stage musical. The adaptation of Disney's 1994 feature retained the same Hamlet-inspired storyline, but executed with an entirely different look and feel. African American actors took the stage in elaborate costumes evocative of their culture. A close friend who grew up in Kenya noted the nuanced design choices. (Despite the scarcity of actual lions in the region.) Of course, the actors didn't look like real lions. Instead, the costumes embraced an appeal of thespians in makeshift, tribal masks and elaborate puppetry. The characters existed in a culturally specific presentation of the stage's reality, not a representation of what lions actually look like, nor the world they inhabit.
The show's appeal was similar to my introduction to Godzilla. There was something more alien about Jun Fukuda's Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) than the invaders in its story. It took less than 10 seconds for my fascination to kick in. The enchantment followed with questions, “Why does it look like this? What led to a production like this? Why the Japanese?” Sure, giant monsters were a draw, but how they were entangled with the movie's visual-narrative inspired my career in film. To that end was a revelation.
Not unlike The Lion King stage show, the style of Godzilla's visuals and the stories he inhabited tied deeply into the roots of Japanese culture. Though special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya had initially bucked for Western effects in Godzilla (1954), time and budget forced him to look at a game-changing alternative. Bonsai trees and kabuki (theater) make up an ancestral lineage to “tokusatsu,” the Japanese special effects style adopted and popularized by the original Godzilla. As the techniques expanded, the same ethos observed in The Lion King musical became true of Godzilla, Ultraman, and the like. “Realism is not the point,” said Shiro Sano, star of Godzilla 2000 (1999) and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), “It's about style, it's about mood. There's integrity in the way Tsuburaya and his people worked.” [2] This was Japanese cinema's visual vernacular and its uniquity helped define their science fiction/fantasy films for decades.
Tokusatsu was a resourceful answer to the nation's post-war poverty. As such, it tied directly into culturally relevant narratives. Godzilla himself is well documented for representing Japan's “atomophobia.” (A term coined by critic Parker Tyler to summarize Japan's nuclear anxieties. [3]) The monster was carved out of a culture's pain and fear of another country's inflicted devastation. When said country capitalized on Godzilla's success with its own flair there were inevitable contradictions.
Though America is responsible for Godzilla's existence, both in fiction and reality, Hollywood can't bring itself to take responsibility. Godzilla was the son of the bomb in Roland Emmerich's 1998 misfire, but the United States wasn't the father. (Conveniently, France was to blame.) Furthermore, the fear, terror, and indestructibility of the beast were absent from this iteration; waived away by American military might. “They [Americans] seem to be unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms,” the director of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, Shusuke Kaneko mused. [4]
Legendary Pictures improved on the character's surface-level tenets, but whenever that pesky ‘ole bomb entered the conversation there were problems. Gareth Edward's 2014 film painted Pacific nuclear tests as a cover-up for America valiantly protecting the world from a potential threat. The U.S. is off the hook again, but this time with heroics. The 2019 follow-up tripped over the topic even harder when a Japanese character (Ken Watanabe), whose father was supposedly lost to Hiroshima's bombing, intentionally set off a nuclear weapon for a world-saving Hail Mary. The operation is launched from an advanced base called “Castle Bravo” without a blink from the cast. Granted, productions financially backed by three branches of the American military probably shouldn't knock their golden gun unless they want fewer scenes of “unique," CG carnage obviously found nowhere else in Hollywood productions. [5]
“The new Godzilla is just the latest effort to negate the monster’s politics for American consumption,” said Steve Ryfle, co-author of ‘Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa.’ “It manages to turn Honda’s antiwar symbol into a spokes-monster for the nuclear status quo.” [6] If Godzilla is Japan's post-war scar tissue, it makes me wonder if it should be poked and prodded by the country that caused it. Mercifully, by Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) Legendary Pictures didn't even bother with the topic of nuclear proliferation. Or any relevant topic for that matter.
Spotlighting the problematic nature of American Godzilla films is usually met with rebuttals over the ever-changing franchise from stem to stern. Rooms echo with, “Godzilla's been a hero before! Not all of his movies are about the bomb!” Matt Frank, artist of ‘Godzilla: Rulers of Earth,’ answered it best.
“This isn’t just about 'the bomb' - the specifics of Godzilla’s creation and narrative relevance have been honed and modified and pushed by over half a century’s worth of cultural evolution, modification, and revolution unique to Japan.” [7]
Indeed, if the movies aren't about the bomb, they're topical escapism covering the sociopolitical fallout the atomic weapon caused over the last 65+ years. Godzilla has been adapted to represent the post-war transition of Japan to modern capitalism – the westernization of their culture - the deconstruction of nuclear families - their perspective of the Cold War - nationalism - and Japan's pollution issue of the 1970s--All subjects and themes that were directly affected by events, of events, of events following Japan's bombing. Hollywood Godzilla films miss that kind of context and feel as manufactured as the computer graphics that inhabit them.
“Post-war extends forever.” - Rando Yaguchi, Shin Godzilla (2016)
And while Japanese filmmakers do well to continue injecting decades of post-war development into Godzilla, it is in fact Toho that can't help but fawn over international appeal. They continuously grant Hollywood the power to rewrite history and underline Shin Godzilla's CGI as their ticket to expansion. (Though, it would be a disservice to not recognize the impressive miniature work that encompasses the latter.) And while Godzilla anime projects have been desired for decades, the style feels inherited rather than owned. Luckily, not all have forgotten Godzilla's technical legacy.
In 2019 BOSS Coffee partnered with Toho to use Godzilla as a mascot. The union sounds crass, but the implementation honored the Monster King's history with greater respect than most recent projects. By May, 2021 BOSS dropped an emotionally charged ad highlighting the grandeur of tokusatsu via Godzilla's success.
The Impact of a Blue Day opens in a movie theater of awestruck attendees. A line of dominos fall behind a projection screen where the narrator rattles off special techniques throughout foreign cinema history – rear projection – stop motion – The dominos zip by a Japanese crew building miniatures. The excitement of reaching Japan's special effects staple crescendos when the last piece hits a film can. Labeled “Gojira”, in katakana, it rolls into a tokusatsu paradise complete with pyrotechnics, miniature helicopters, and a replica of the original Godzilla in full assault.
The irony is farcical. For all the distilling done to culturally appropriate Japanese IP, deluding it for big budget, Hollywood blockbuster-going masses, a one-minute ad peddling coffee blew the doors open to Godzilla's proud kingdom.
Of the commercial, Oricon Entertainment stated,
“Japanese film crews, who were inspired by the video revolution in 1930s foreign films, when various new expression methods appeared, searched for their own new expression methods. As a result, 'tokusatsu' was born, which led to the birth of 'Godzilla'”. [8]
The ad wasn't merely a celebration of Godzilla, but the world he rules. In Japan Godzilla was king of an entire industry's effects style—a style that inspired Gamera, Ultraman, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and many more while marrying it with the ever changing landscape of post-war themes. Westward, the character is a pauper of techniques familiarized by James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. What is left feels hollow--a soulless, digital creature siphoned of its cultural meaning.
But boy howdy, it sure can slap a monkey.
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Citation:
(1) Kalat, D. (2017). In A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series (2nd ed., p. 62). McFarland & Co.
(2) Ragone, A. (2014). In Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of monsters: Defending the Earth with Ultraman, Godzilla, and friends in the Golden Age of Japanese Science Fiction Film (p. 183). essay, Chronicle Books.
(3) Hoberman, J. (2012, January 24). Godzilla: Poetry After the Bomb.
(4) Suzuki, M. (1998, July 11). The Us Version. India Express Newspapers. Retrieved December 31, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20131015195729/http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/news/ie/daily/19980711/19250874.html
(5) DOD Production Agreement for Godzilla (2014). Spy Culture. (2019, November 19). Retrieved December 31, 2021, from https://www.spyculture.com/dod-production-agreement-for-godzilla-2014/
(6) Whitewashing Godzilla. In These Times. (n.d.). Retrieved December 31, 2021, from https://inthesetimes.com/article/whitewashing-godzilla
(7) Matt Frank - Facebook Profile. Facebook. (n.d.). Retrieved December 31, 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/Mattzilla1985/posts/10117315616572460
(8) YouTube - Oricon Official Youtube Channel. (2021). YouTube - Impressive true story depicting the back side of Godzilla's birth The trajectory until the birth of the video technology 'special effects' from Japan Suntory special effects WEB video "Godzilla, the impact of the blue day". Retrieved December 31, 2021, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8KbVgenn0Y