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| The videotapes that lead to this review themselves. |
Dir. Jun Fukuda/Yoshimitsu Banno
Japan
Films #26 a) and b), for Friday 26th October, for Halloween 31
For 31
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| Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973) From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/godzilla-vs-megalon/w448/godzilla-vs-megalon.jpg?1313425025 |
It must be noted that these films
were viewed on videotape. I have to thank my grandmother on my mother’s side
for letting me use her VHS player while she was out shopping, and to the
unknown individual who donated these (and maybe the third I sadly didn’t pick
up) to the St. Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice
charity story in the nearby town. I also have to thank that St. Barnabas store for having this sort
of thing on their shelves. For me, charity stores, if you have the patience and
look frequently, can be a gold mine for obscure or good finds – the best for me
so far is the whole of Les Vampires
(1915), Louis Feuillade’s
legendary silent serial, on DVD for £4.99. Getting hold of videotapes of
difficult-to-find films (or what I presume is obscure until I notice them on
Amazon) has lead to me going back to my vague childhood memories; for 60p for
both tapes, that went to charity, I have gone back to before I was ten years
old. I have flickering, miniscule memories of seeing an all-day showing of
Godzilla films on a satellite station (TCM?), the only images I still remember
involving Mechagodzilla and a cockpit within his chest. Unavailable on British
DVD (excluding the original Godzilla
(1954), King Kong Vs Godzilla (1962)
and a rare out-of-print Destroy All
Monsters (1968)) these films have not been accessible despite the mainstream
and cult legacy of Godzilla in the West. Perversely though the videotapes I’ve
gotten are from 1998, the year Roland
Emmerich’s infamous botch of the character was released, suggesting the sad
possibility that Godzilla films only
got released that year in the UK because of the American film, or that Emmerich failed so miserably that British
kaiju fans dropped in numbers drastically afterwards. Regardless of this,
seeing these two, scooped up the day before and abruptly put together for a tantalising
double bill, was wonderful. I couldn’t write a review of one or the other, and
while their credentials as films for Halloween come into question, my pass for Guyver 2: Dark Hero (1994) (Review Here) allows
it to work; anime, manga and a vast deal of Japanese pop culture which deals
with monsters and science fiction can be linked to Godzilla, his radioactive
shadow casting a shade over everything from the Power Rangers to splatter films
like Meatball Machine (2005). Its
influence over Western culture, from American 70s rock to Leos Carax films, is
just as intimidating, the ‘God’ in its name evoked in an earlier review for
this project and instantaneously pictured just by thinking of the name. Godzilla
is literally a king of global pop culture even to those who never saw the
films.
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| Godzilla Vs. Hedoran (1971) From http://im.glogster.com/media/10/39/25/8/39250892.jpg |
In the first film I viewed, Godzilla Vs. Megalon, a robot Jet
Jaguar is taken by the populous of q underwater kingdom, Seatopians, to assist
their creature Megalon in their war against the surface world after a bomb test
provokes them. Naturally Godzilla becomes involved, while in Godzilla Vs. Hedoran, he must go
against a creature fed by pollution who will decimate Japan under clouds of sulphuric
acid gas that will burn away anything it covers. The first kaiju films I have
seen in years, I have some precedent for them from this year after acquiring a
few of Toho Studio’s other science fiction films from the decade or so before. Bright
in colour, the monsters depicted onscreen through men in rubber suits are
distinct from Western depictions of monsters through their presence and form. Combined
with extensive model work in full vivid colours and Toho’s monster films turn
completely artificial objects into living, breathing creations; the physical
objects, despite being fake, already have tangibility but are pushed into a
fuller interpretation of this through these two films. Regardless of his
slightly goofy eyes in Godzilla Vs.
Megalon, Godzilla feels fully alive, the actor in the costume jumping about
and making gestures despite the limitations of the dinosaur arms. The fact
that, in both films, the monsters gesticulate and make expressions to each
other, completely unexpected from ingesting b-movies all these years where the
monsters were mindless hordes, fleshes out the rubber immensely. Since fighting
is the predominant aspect of these films, it is surprising how vicious they are. The fact that the men
in the costumes in Guyver 2: Dark Hero
were martial artists may have softened up the visceral nature of that film’s
fights, even though there were incredibly painful looking stunts. That the men
dressed up as Godzilla and the other kaiju are not using martial arts makes the
fight sequences look brutal, causing one to image the bruises the actors must
have gotten bashing into each other on the sets. That the fight that takes place
in Godzilla Vs. Megalon at the end
reminded me of pro-wrestling and a two-on-one gang fight added to the
painfulness of it. But it’s not just that the fights looks suitably forceful
that is a testament to the actors, but that Godzilla comes off as a charismatic
vagabond who wanders Tokyo and Monster Island in content, only to get involved when
asked to, or in Godzilla Vs. Hedoran,
when a toxic being threatens to cover his homeland in poisonous material.
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| Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973) From http://monsterhunter.coldfusionvideo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/GodzillaVsMegalon3.jpg |
Godzilla Vs. Megalon is rudimentary in plot and structure, concentrating
more on Jet Jaguar, a creation from a nationwide competition won by an
elementary school child made into a character, with Godzilla brought in at the
end. It does however pass its short running time entertainingly. Godzilla Vs. Hedorah however is a far
more weirder film from a few years earlier. Blatant and unsubtle in its
environmental message, it still manages to be a strange and compelling film far
more connected to the pop art and culture from the Sixties then 1971. Animated sequences
intercut with the narrative jostle for your attention with scenes in a
nightclub with psychedelic backgrounds of lava lamp liquids and skeletons, and
in one unexplained scene, a male character viewing the patrons and staff with
fish heads, not taking into account how the concept of Hedoran the sludge
monster and its affect on the environment is unconventional to most monster
movies. This film is far more closer to the odd air of Toho’s The H-Man (1958) than a Dinoshark (2010). Even on videotape,
the picture quality slightly darkened and softer in image, these psychedelic
and bright images, played with brilliantly when the film briefly goes to sombre
black-and-white, adds to the film’s tone. The content is weird by itself as mentioned
however, with images of the sludge on the seas, flowers wilting and dying in
sped-up fast-forward, or the effects of the sulphuric acid clouds, when
skeletons are all that are left of people after Hedorah passes over them,
combining into a disturbing yet still playful movie, a melding of body horror,
the vaguely cosmic, environmental panic, experimental techniques, candy colours
and rubber monsters creating a flawed if heady brew. Viewing both films on dub
only videotapes, with English dubbing that fits the content, it makes the films
more uniquely artificial worlds of their own. I would watch the original language
visions of the films if possible, but I can understand why these dubs, out of
nostalgia and humour about them, are as much part of the Godzilla legacy in the
West too.
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| A stranger aspect of Godzilla Vs. Hedoran (1971) From 2.bp.blogspot.com/-ocp1r6oT5KM/ Tr78N8mj2kI/AAAAAAAAE4E/ULFwGSemmto/s1600/Godzilla_Vs_Hedorah_man_Like_Skeletons.jpg |
And it must be said that, as with
most Japanese culture, these films tackle universal and national issues. Godzilla Vs. Megalon does address the
issues of bomb testing subtextually, but it is Godzilla Vs. Hedorah which takes its environmental message as the
central plot point. Even then, seeing the destruction of buildings and the
hazards that take place reminds me that Japan has been a country plagued by
earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural or manmade disasters. The original Godzilla was a reminder of the nuclear
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and despite their lighter and cartoonish
tones, bearing in mind Godzilla Vs.
Hedorah’s gristly aspects, these films still address the fears of a country
digested through entertainment, allowing people to fear the effects shown
onscreen but feel relief from them through the magic of giant monsters
wandering around model cities.
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| Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973) From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/godzilla-vs-the-smog-monster/w448/godzilla-vs-the-smog-monster.jpg?1312569407 |
The experience of watching them on VHS
tape was interesting. I am grateful that the better quality format of DVD took
over, and I have no real nostalgia since, while I did grow up with videotapes,
my father got a DVD player very early in the technology’s existence and I spent
my teenage years watching film on it and going through post-2000 cult figures
such as Takashi Miike. I have to
admire the format though for what it provided and have utter dismay at how
ungracefully it was shoved to the side into obsoletion without recognition. If Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers (2009) wasn’t enough to prove to me the aura of VHS
could still be useable, as Hideo Nakata’s
Ringu (1998) also showed, then the
ability to get hold of these Godzilla
films and other such materials for a pittance on tape emphasises the
recognition the format needs. Yes, I could probably import these two films from
the States, which I am considering, but the complete unavailability of certain
films like this in Britain, let alone those unfortunate ones unavailable on DVD
anywhere in the globe, means that video still has an importance if you need to
get access to something difficult to find and is not on YouTube. As a film fan,
it feels clear that I may have to invest in a second hand video player at some
point, or hope these films get DVD releases, or otherwise all I have to get to
them is the rare chance of them being shown on TV as there are no eclectic cinemas
near me. Even the act of rewinding the tapes back to the beginning after
viewing the films wasn’t as laborious as I remembered it back in my childhood,
barely eating up time and allowing me a breather between watching both films
one after another. The sense of cinematic history, even if the films are not
the best, and they have been compressed onto videotape from fourteen years ago,
is a lot in hindsight, asking myself how many areas of cinema I can dig into if
I look as much as I am now. Second hand DVDs that were released in Britain by themselves
already include vast numbers of obscurities and gems you never thought were available,
taking into account battered disc cases and the lesser quality of the film in
some releases, but taking in VHS as well as imports and the internet you can
drown in this medium. Throughout this season, as it is near the end, I feel
like I want to concentrate more on films that fascinate me fully, rather than
look into mainstream and dramatic films I felt I had to look into as well, and
plough through as many as I can. Considering how eclectic my choices to review,
and with five days to go, it has emphasised how my passions go for the least
expected or varied of tastes not just in film, and while it would make me a
terrible connoisseur let alone a festival programmer because of my erratic
cherry pickings, it nonetheless varies my choices in a way that paradoxically
fit together perfectly like hands in gloves. With my double bill of radiated,
giant lizards, I’ve also finally gotten to a sub-genre I’ve taken years to get
to; yes, I did see a Gamera film
from the 1990s before now, but I may have blanked out in the middle of that
film so I’ll cheat and not count it.
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| And where else expect Godzilla Vs. Hedoran (1971) do you see a giant lizard propel himself in the air like this? From http://www.reviewbusters.org/images/movie/godzilla_vs_hedorah_001.jpg |
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