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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb

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Speaker 2: and this is Joe McCormick.

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Speaker 3: And today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to

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Speaker 3: be talking about the nineteen sixty four giant monster movie

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Speaker 3: Mathra Versus Godzilla, directed by Ishiro Honda.

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Speaker 2: This is our third Godzilla movie, following nineteen seventy one's

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Speaker 2: Godzilla Versus Hetera and nineteen sixty nine's All Monsters Attack.

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Speaker 2: That's films eleven and ten, respectively. This is also our

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Speaker 2: third Ishuro Honda film. He directed this All Monsters Attack

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Speaker 2: and a nineteen sixty nine film titled Atragon we've talked

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Speaker 2: about on the show before that has a flying submarine

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Speaker 2: and another Kaiju creature.

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Speaker 4: He is.

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Speaker 2: He is one of only a handful of directors that

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Speaker 2: we have featured on three or more Weird House Cinema selections.

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Speaker 3: You know, we are really doing the Godzilla films in

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Speaker 3: a strange order, and by that I mean we're working

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Speaker 3: first of all, backwards through time, but also we started

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Speaker 3: with what are widely seen as some of the weirdest,

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Speaker 3: most divergent films in the Showa era Godzilla catalog. So

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Speaker 3: the first one we did, like you said, was Godzilla

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Speaker 3: versus Hetera. That's from nineteen seventy one. That was indeed

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Speaker 3: the eleventh film in the Godzilla canon, and that one

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Speaker 3: was a psychedelic ecological doom trip in which Godzilla is

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Speaker 3: summoned to defend Japan from a toxic sludge monster that

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Speaker 3: powers up by huffing pollution out of factory smokestacks. A

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Speaker 3: lot of Godzilla fans regard Hetera as one of the

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Speaker 3: worst films in the series. I do not share that opinion.

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Speaker 3: I like it a lot more than some of the

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Speaker 3: more mainstream monster slams in the middle of the original run.

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Speaker 3: I think it's weirdness actually kind of makes it more unique,

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Speaker 3: really makes it stand out. But I will agree, yes,

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Speaker 3: it is one of the most unusual Godzilla films.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, if

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Speaker 2: you're watching a Godzilla movie or any Kaiji movie, it's

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Speaker 2: like you're in a good place. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So we did that one, and then the next

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Speaker 3: one we covered was based on a listener suggestion, that

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Speaker 3: was All Monsters Attack from sixty nine. This was the

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Speaker 3: tenth Godzilla film, as you said, And once again, this

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Speaker 3: one was a departure from the established format at this

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Speaker 3: time because while the main series, starting from pretty early,

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Speaker 3: had been especially popular with kids, I think All Monsters

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Speaker 3: Attack was the first Godzilla movie that you could really

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Speaker 3: say was explicitly just made for children. It was just

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Speaker 3: a kid's movie. The main character is a lonely little

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Speaker 3: boy whose parents are always busy working, and so he

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Speaker 3: sort of has Godzilla in the previously introduced ab Zilla

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Speaker 3: creature known as Manila, like Mini Godzilla as imaginary friends.

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Speaker 3: All Monsters Attack was also a very budget conscious film,

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Speaker 3: making extensive use of archival footage from previous Godzilla movies,

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Speaker 3: recycling fights and inserting them in creative ways into this

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Speaker 3: framing narrative about the little boy who imagines the adventures

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Speaker 3: of Godzilla and Manila. This one was also unusual for

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Speaker 3: the series because within this frame narrative, it was understood

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Speaker 3: that Godzilla and the other monsters are basically fictional beings,

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Speaker 3: so they're not being portrayed as acting within the real

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Speaker 3: universe of the movie, but they are being dreamed about

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Speaker 3: or imagined about by the main character. So in All

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Speaker 3: Monsters Attack, they are creatures of the imagination, and the

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Speaker 3: main point of the story was about what they mean

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Speaker 3: to the children who love them. There's actually a monologue.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember this, Rob there's like

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Speaker 3: a monologue at the end of the movie that exploit

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Speaker 3: makes the case that the Kaiju are for children what

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Speaker 3: the gods are for adults.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that one was very interesting in that in many

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Speaker 2: ways you could see it as a lesser Godzilla film

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Speaker 2: because it is clearly, you know, aimed at children, and

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Speaker 2: it has a has a mini Godzilla and so forth.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, it does like chew a little bit on

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Speaker 2: the meaning of a of a Kaiju film. So I

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Speaker 2: really did appreciate that one as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so those were number eleven and then number ten,

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Speaker 3: and now we're doing a big hopscotch down the chronology

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Speaker 3: ladder to number four. Mathra Versus Godzilla was the fourth

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Speaker 3: film in the Godzilla franchise, and it represents the third

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Speaker 3: time that Godzilla would face off against another giant monster

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Speaker 3: in battle, the first time a Godzilla movie would include

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Speaker 3: a monster that I think you should regard as explicitly

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Speaker 3: good or as a protector of humans against a greater threat.

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Speaker 3: This is a role god' Zilla would himself usually take

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Speaker 3: in later films, but here the protector is not Godzilla

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Speaker 3: but rather his antagonist Mathra.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the title is Mathra versus Godzilla, which kind of

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Speaker 2: does imply that Mathra has top billing. We'll get into

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Speaker 2: that a little bit. But also it is like Mathra

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Speaker 2: against Godzilla. Mathra is a force in opposition to Godzilla.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, Mathra is absolutely good. Mathra is a protector.

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Speaker 2: It's not one of these like though the enemy of

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Speaker 2: my enemy monster is my friend monster. No, like Mathra

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Speaker 2: is a divine being. The Mathra is the creature of

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Speaker 2: the gods.

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Speaker 3: But also Mathra is not cute and friendly and cuddly

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Speaker 3: the way that say Manila is right, Mathra is a

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Speaker 3: somewhat frightening being, but frightening to protect us, to you know,

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Speaker 3: frightening on the side of good.

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Speaker 2: But she also looks very soft, like you know, she's

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Speaker 2: kind of free. So I mean there is a a

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Speaker 2: very nice touch the fur vibe with Mathra as well.

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Speaker 3: I didn't think about the furriness. You are right there,

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Speaker 3: more texturally pleasing than most of the monsters in the

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Speaker 3: Godzilla series, which are often quite spiny and scaly. Looking,

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Speaker 3: but also mathra Versus Godzilla is the last film of

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Speaker 3: the original Toho run to make Godzilla a bad guy.

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Speaker 3: You could argue that Godzilla is more or less the villain, or,

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Speaker 3: if not a morally culpable villain, at least a threatening

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Speaker 3: and destructive force to humans in the first four movies,

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Speaker 3: So I think maybe we should run through those really

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Speaker 3: quick to figure out how we get to mathra Versus Godzilla.

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Speaker 3: So you've got the original Godzilla in nineteen fifty four. This,

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Speaker 3: as we've talked about in the past, is a dark, haunting,

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Speaker 3: somber tale about a monster created by nuclear weapons testing,

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Speaker 3: which rises up out of the sea and attacks Japan.

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Speaker 3: The first movie here was inspired in part by some

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Speaker 3: events in the real world. You can obviously think about

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Speaker 3: the events of World War two and the atomic bombing

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Speaker 3: of Japan, but then also there were more recent events

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Speaker 3: that I've read were a major influence on the original Godzilla.

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Speaker 3: One of these was the so called Lucky Dragon five incident,

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Speaker 3: which happened earlier the year Godzilla was released. This was

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Speaker 3: when the crew of a Japanese tuna fishing boat called

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Speaker 3: the Lucky Dragon five were exposed to high levels of

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Speaker 3: radiation as a result of the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb

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Speaker 3: test at Bikini Atole, And you can see the influence

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Speaker 3: of the anxiety caused by this event in the way

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Speaker 3: the movie articulates anti nuclear and anti militarist themes. A

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Speaker 3: lot of Godzilla fans trained on the silly, sometimes themeless

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Speaker 3: monster suit wrastle in matches that you would get in

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Speaker 3: later movies, I think will be quite shocked by the

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Speaker 3: dark and serious time of the first movie.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the original Godzilla black and white, Godzilla is an

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Speaker 2: absolute destroyer and a thing that arises out of humanity's

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Speaker 2: atomic age sins. Really.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And now this first movie was directed by Ishiro Honda,

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Speaker 3: the same as the director of mathra Versus Godzilla. So

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Speaker 3: it's not a question of like totally different creative inputs.

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Speaker 3: We have the same main creative force behind these two movies,

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Speaker 3: but we can talk about reasons they might be different

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Speaker 3: across time. But the first movie was by Honda and

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Speaker 3: it was a huge hit for Toho. So in this movie,

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Speaker 3: Godzilla is not a protector. I don't know if it

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Speaker 3: makes sense to call him a villain, but he certainly

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Speaker 3: has I think he's pretty close to a villain in

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Speaker 3: the first movie certainly a destructive force of nature or

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Speaker 3: a destructive force of nature having been twisted by human

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Speaker 3: sins and technology.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the way to look at it. Like, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's not like he has of a persona beyond that.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he is like some sort of dark anti

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Speaker 2: god that has been summoned by human technology and human advancement.

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Speaker 3: Not here to help.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, then after that, so that's fifty four. Then after

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Speaker 3: that you've got Godzilla raids again in nineteen fifty five.

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Speaker 3: This was a fast follow up movie to capitalize on

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Speaker 3: the success of the original Godzilla. This one not directed

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Speaker 3: by Ishi ro Honda but by Modeyoshi Oda. Mostly gone

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Speaker 3: in this one are the anti war, anti nuclear themes.

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Speaker 3: I haven't actually seen this movie, but from what I've

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Speaker 3: read it, it's described as kind of a fast paced

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Speaker 3: adventure where Godzilla ends up fighting another giant monster. I

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Speaker 3: believe based on an ankylosaur model. It's like a quadrupedal

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Speaker 3: dinosaur covered in spines called anguirras. Worth noting here that

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Speaker 3: the Godzilla of this movie was not supposed to be

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Speaker 3: the same individual as the original Godzilla, who died at

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Speaker 3: the end of the first movie is just another giant

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Speaker 3: radioactive reptile.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the first movie, Godzilla

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Speaker 2: is destroyed, and there's just kind of there's this warning.

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Speaker 2: It's like, if we don't change our ways, there could

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Speaker 2: be more Godzillas. Yeah, and yeah it came to pass.

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Speaker 3: Here they come. Yeah, and then after this there actually

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Speaker 3: would not be another Godzilla movie for eight years. But

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Speaker 3: Toho did not abandon the Kaiju the giant monster format. Instead,

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Speaker 3: they introduced new monsters in their own films, such as

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Speaker 3: Rodin in nineteen fifty six. This is a movie about

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Speaker 3: a giant flying taranadon basically. This one is also directed

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Speaker 3: by Ishiro Honda, and then Mathra in nineteen sixty one,

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Speaker 3: again by Honda, about a giant moth worshiped as a

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Speaker 3: god by the people of a remote island. And I

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Speaker 3: think you could argue that Mathra was the second most

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Speaker 3: popular original Toho Kaiju after Godzilla.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems to be the case. I was reading

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Speaker 2: a bit about this in Godzilla. The show What Era

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Speaker 2: Films nineteen fifty four through nineteen seventy five, which is

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Speaker 2: the book Slash Blu Ray collection that the Criterion collection

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Speaker 2: put out with the textual part written by Steve Rifle,

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Speaker 2: who is, as far as I can tell, like the

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Speaker 2: main English language authority on Godzilla films. I've heard him

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Speaker 2: on Fresh Air with Harry Gross before talking about Godzilla films.

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Speaker 3: We were just talking about this off Mike, but we

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Speaker 3: both just ordered this Criterion collection disc set and it's

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Speaker 3: a magnificent collection. Yeah, the book that comes with it

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Speaker 3: is excellent.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a testimony to just how beautiful physical

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Speaker 2: media can be for films. But one of the points

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Speaker 2: I'll keep coming back to some of the things that

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Speaker 2: Rifle has to say about these about these movies, the

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Speaker 2: Rifle points out that during this period, this is like

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Speaker 2: a golden age of Japanese cinema. Japanese film studios were

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Speaker 2: really cooking. A lot of great serious films were coming out,

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Speaker 2: but also in these other buckets of content, there was

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Speaker 2: like a lot of innovation. People were trying new things,

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Speaker 2: and I think that's part of what we're seeing here

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Speaker 2: is like Godzilla was a success, but they were trying.

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Speaker 2: They were expanding what Kaiju could be as well. So

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Speaker 2: it's like they weren't going to rest on their laurels

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Speaker 2: necessarily and just put out Godzilla films, though they will

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Speaker 2: eventually kind of return to form with this, Like let's

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Speaker 2: come back to Godzilla, and maybe we'll bring in some

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Speaker 2: things that we learned and some creatures we created from

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Speaker 2: these other pictures.

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Speaker 3: That's right, And so here we finally get to that.

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Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty three with King Kong versus Godzilla. They

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Speaker 3: got the rights yep, Gong, or at least got some

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Speaker 3: kind of rights to King Kong. So this was a

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Speaker 3: sort of appointment meet slam between as the poster said,

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Speaker 3: the two mightiest monsters of all time. From what I've read,

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Speaker 3: By the way, I think King Kong was one of

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Speaker 3: the inspirations for the original Godzilla, Like there was a

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Speaker 3: producer at Toho who had been thinking about King Kong,

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Speaker 3: which had just had been made in the nineteen thirties,

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Speaker 3: but I think it had just been recently re released internationally.

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Speaker 3: And then I think there were also some other creative inspirations,

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Speaker 3: maybe the Beast from twenty thousand Fathoms. But anyway, so

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Speaker 3: here we've kind we finally get to mash the flavors

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Speaker 3: together King Kong Versus Godzilla. It continued the giant monster

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Speaker 3: conflict theme I believe it is in this movie that

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Speaker 3: we really start to see the first signs of silly

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Speaker 3: moves taken from professional wrestling, and the monsters start to

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Speaker 3: act a bit less scary and more funny and anthropomorphic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and Rifle says that Honda was not a big

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Speaker 2: fan of this sort of treatment of Godzilla, and certainly

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Speaker 2: some of the stuff we see in some subsequent films

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Speaker 2: where Godzilla is essentially dancing and doing pratfalls. Yeah. I

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Speaker 2: think he makes a strong point that when Honda is

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Speaker 2: on board for a picture, there is to you're going

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Speaker 2: to see more of a move towards capturing something serious

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Speaker 2: about Godzilla and maybe leaning a little bit more into

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Speaker 2: social commentary than some of the other pictures. Are those

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Speaker 2: Some of the non Honda pictures, like the Hetero picture,

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Speaker 2: are actually quite serious in their own right as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I mean, I don't take it to be

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Speaker 3: that Ishiro Honda was against having a silly fun time.

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Speaker 3: I think it's more like that, you know, he made

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Speaker 3: the original movie, and he made it with serious themes

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Speaker 3: in mind. This was inn like anti nuclear weapons, anti

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Speaker 3: war film, and now this same creature is just out here,

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Speaker 3: you know, doing touchdown dances and stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like he did. He seemed to be opposed to

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Speaker 2: ignoring the legacy of Godzilla and what Godzilla originally meant.

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Speaker 2: You can certainly drift and evolve the brand, but you

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Speaker 2: don't want to abandon some of the key principles of

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Speaker 2: the thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. But anyway, so you have King Kong versus Godzilla,

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Speaker 3: and then finally you get to the movie we're talking

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Speaker 3: about today, Mathra versus Godzilla in nineteen sixty four, where

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Speaker 3: contrary to our expectations trained on the later movies, there

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Speaker 3: is a protector monster, but it is Mathra, not Godzilla.

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Speaker 3: Godzilla is on the loose again, smashing things up after

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Speaker 3: being awoken from the dirt, and in the story, the

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Speaker 3: people of Japan must It's interesting what they have to

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Speaker 3: do to defend themselves. It is essentially to humble themselves

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Speaker 3: before nature and before the gods. To they have to

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Speaker 3: humble themselves in like go to an island and ask

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Speaker 3: the people there to allow them to petition their great

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Speaker 3: godlike moth deity to come to their aid, and the

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Speaker 3: moth does come to their aid, but not before making

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Speaker 3: them feel bad about their greed and arrogance.

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Speaker 2: And they should feel bad. Yeah, I will discuss.

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Speaker 3: But remember I started talking about these four movies in order,

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Speaker 3: because this is the last time in this original run,

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Speaker 3: at least, that we really see Godzilla as the antagonist,

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Speaker 3: the villain as opposed to the protector. After this movie,

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Speaker 3: Godzilla starts his Long Face turn, repeatedly being called upon

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Speaker 3: to battle more evil and more destructive monsters, essentially to

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Speaker 3: himself do what Mathra does in this movie. I believe

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Speaker 3: Godzilla would wouldn't really get to be the villain again

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Speaker 3: until some films later in the seventies and eighties.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, when they essentially a relaunching Godzilla and going back

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Speaker 2: to its roots to some extent.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, since we've been going backwards through time through

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Speaker 3: the series, I wonder, are we eventually going to work

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Speaker 3: our way back to the fifty four original.

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think we should. It's interesting to think about

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Speaker 2: all this in comparison to the way I think most

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Speaker 2: of us have consumed Godzilla media, like, most of us

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Speaker 2: have probably not seen them. First of all, most of

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Speaker 2: us have not seen all of them, and most of

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Speaker 2: us have certainly not seen them in order. I know

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Speaker 2: growing up it's like I would catch Godzilla movies on

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Speaker 2: television exclusively. I don't know that I had ever rented

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Speaker 2: a Godzilla movie growing up. Maybe one of the later

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Speaker 2: and one or two of the later you know, films

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Speaker 2: from the nineties or something, But for the most part,

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Speaker 2: it's just Godzilla movies came on. You might not catch

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Speaker 2: all of them, you might just catch parts of them

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Speaker 2: even you don't didn't know where in the in the

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Speaker 2: order they fell. And then you're just continually making new

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Speaker 2: discoveries about what a Godzilla movie can be.

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Speaker 3: Wait, do you remember what the first one you saw was?

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Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a tough one, because you know, there were

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Speaker 2: some There was a there was a there was one

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Speaker 2: Godzilla movie in particular I remember seeing on Mystery Sens

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Speaker 2: Theater three thousand as a kid. But then there were

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Speaker 2: some others that they would just play on various Turner

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Speaker 2: broadcast stations. I want to say that it was Godzilla

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Speaker 2: versus the Sea Monster. I think that was the one,

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Speaker 2: one of the big crab Monster. I think that might

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Speaker 2: have been the first one I saw a bia. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it was also released as Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster.

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Speaker 3: I'm not sure this is the earliest one I saw,

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Speaker 3: but my earliest memory of seeing one was a TV

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Speaker 3: broadcast of the one that's now usually called Godzilla Versus.

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Speaker 3: Actually not Godzilla Verses, just called the Invasion of the

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Speaker 3: Astro Monster. It's the one where Godzilla fights an alien

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Speaker 3: kaiju called Monster Zero. I remember the scene on the

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Speaker 3: other planet where like there's like a big I don't know,

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Speaker 3: in my memory, it was like a football field on

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Speaker 3: the surface of another planet.

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Speaker 2: I don't think i've seen that one. Yeah, but yeah,

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Speaker 2: obviously I'd love to hear listeners tell us what their

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Speaker 2: experience was with the Godzilla franchise. What was the first

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Speaker 2: Godzilla film you saw, and then what was your what

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Speaker 2: subsequently did you get into, Like where did you go

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Speaker 2: from there? Did you move forward in time or backwards

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Speaker 2: in time. I'm sure there's some listeners who haven't even

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Speaker 2: seen any of the show era Godzilla films. You might

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Speaker 2: be more familiar with some of the current big Hollywood

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Speaker 2: blockbusters that feature Godzilla.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I don't know if where's the best

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Speaker 3: place to talk about this in the episode, so maybe

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Speaker 3: I'll just say it here. One thing I was thinking

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Speaker 3: about was how it feels like you can really detect

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Speaker 3: a zeitgeist shift from the post war fifties to the

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Speaker 3: mid sixties in Godzilla nineteen fifty four compared to Mathra

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Speaker 3: versus Godzilla in nineteen sixty four, Like I was thinking

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Speaker 3: about how in the original Godzilla, the main human hero

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Speaker 3: the main human heroes are scientists, and especially one scientist

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Speaker 3: who bravely sacrifices his own life to carry out a

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Speaker 3: scientific plan to defeat the rampaging monster while also not

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Speaker 3: bringing into being a weapon that would you know, potentially

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Speaker 3: be abused by all humanity. In Mathra, the main human

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Speaker 3: heroes are, by contrast, journalists. There is a scientist to

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Speaker 3: there's like a professor who tags along with them, but

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Speaker 3: the main tour journalists and their real struggle is resisting

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Speaker 3: capitalistic excess and greed, not by performing heroic acts themselves, really,

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Speaker 3: but by acting as representatives of humanity or at least

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Speaker 3: of the nation of Japan, and humbling themselves before nature

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Speaker 3: and traditional religion to ask the embodiment of these forces

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Speaker 3: to have mercy on them. And the difference is also

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Speaker 3: there so much in the environment, like the kind of haunted, diminished,

356
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Speaker 3: destroyed kind of environment of the original movie is so

357
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Speaker 3: different in math reverses where the environment feels like it's

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Speaker 3: just bustling and full of public works and things being

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Speaker 3: built in industry and moneymaking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, the world of mathra Versus Godzilla was a

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Speaker 2: world on the move, a world on the grow. Everyone

362
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Speaker 2: is very distracted with the the capitalist exercise here, and

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Speaker 2: that's kind of the whole point of it is that

364
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Speaker 2: Godzilla is going to happen again. But if we're just

365
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Speaker 2: too greedy and too bound up in our and chasing

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Speaker 2: riches and growing everything, we're not going to be in

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Speaker 2: a place where we can resist him again when he attacks.

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Speaker 2: In fact, as we'll discuss, it's like all this greed

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Speaker 2: is getting in the way of various preparations that could

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Speaker 2: have been made to prevent this sort of thing from occurring.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but the great human sin lying behind the original

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Speaker 3: Godzilla is actually a horrible, deadly destructive collective project of humanity,

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Speaker 3: whereas the sin in the human sin in mathra Versus

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Speaker 3: is individual acts of greed and selfishness.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point. But the solution again is

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Speaker 2: getting out of that and getting into more of a

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Speaker 2: collective approach towards problems.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's go ahead and listen to just

381
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Speaker 2: a little splash of the trailer here. This is, I

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Speaker 2: believe from the original Japanese.

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Speaker 4: Trailer, mh.

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Speaker 2: Nots in my ivan Tony card in what's it.

385
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Speaker 4: Say? You know that? What's what's a short.

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Speaker 2: Crack Joel's pool making out of Joelku?

387
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Speaker 3: Then tonight.

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Speaker 4: You all right?

389
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Speaker 2: If you would like to watch Matha versus Godzilla, you

390
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 2: should be able to get a hold of it. To

391
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 2: be clear, though, this is Mathra versus Godzilla, not Godzilla

392
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Speaker 2: versus Mathra, because Godzilla versus Matha is the name of

393
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Speaker 2: a later Godzilla film that features both of these kaiju.

394
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Speaker 2: It's it's a mistake that you would be forgiven for making.

395
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Speaker 2: And if you make this mistake, you're still going to

396
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Speaker 2: get to watch a Godzilla movie. So uh, you know,

397
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Speaker 2: it's no big deal. But this is Mathra versus Godzilla.

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Speaker 3: Put the year in there, nineteen sixty four. That'll do

399
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:51,439
Speaker 3: it for you.

400
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you can get it in a number of

401
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 2: places again. The Criterion Collection Godzilla the Showa era Films

402
00:23:57,240 --> 00:23:59,879
Speaker 2: fifty four through seventy five blue ray set is a

403
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 2: amazing hard back, beautifully illustrated book has no fewer than

404
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,120
Speaker 2: fifteen Godzilla films on Blu Ray in there if you're

405
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 2: looking to stream. Criterion Channel currently offers this among many

406
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,879
Speaker 2: other Godzilla films, and there may be other places you

407
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 2: can get it as well.

408
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 3: I streamed it on the Criterion Channel before my discs

409
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 3: came in, and it looks great on their transfer as well,

410
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 3: so the streaming option there is really good. But yeah,

411
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Speaker 3: apart from this Criterion release, I noticed that this movie

412
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 3: is hard to get on a good Blu Ray. I

413
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 3: think there's like there's one that's out of print or

414
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 3: maybe some at least in the US region.

415
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it's a Japanese Blu Ray that was

416
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 2: being sold as well. Yeah, I watched it on Blue Ray,

417
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Speaker 2: but I also had the pleasure of seeing it on

418
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 2: the big screen at Atlanta's Historic Plaza Theater a week

419
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Speaker 2: or so ago as part of the Silver Scream spook

420
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Speaker 2: Show series. It was pretty great. It was a packed crowd,

421
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Speaker 2: like the entire theater was packed out at very enthusiastic bunch.

422
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Speaker 2: There were people in their Godzilla and Mathra jackets that

423
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:01,280
Speaker 2: people were we were in Mathra merks. There were some

424
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 2: big Mathra fans there. They had a big Mathra puppet

425
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Speaker 2: that they paraded around before. We watched it. A whole

426
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 2: lot of fun. I got to see it with my kid.

427
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 2: And if you're interested in the Silver Screams Spook Show series,

428
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,359
Speaker 2: they're going to be showing nineteen seventy seven Sinbad and

429
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Speaker 2: the Eye of the Tiger in July.

430
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Speaker 3: Oh man, I grew up with the vhs to that one.

431
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 2: Oh wow, So we might come back to that one

432
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Speaker 2: on Weird House. We'll see.

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Speaker 3: From what I recall it, it's a hoot in terms

434
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 3: of story and acting, and it has some really really

435
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 3: great stop motion monsters in it, a particularly a minotaur

436
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 3: robot that's like a bronze or gold minotaur robot called

437
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 3: the Mino Ton.

438
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 2: All right, let's roll through the folks involved in this picture.

439
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,159
Speaker 2: I'm not going to hit everybody. There are going to

440
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 2: be some that we may come back to later to

441
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:01,879
Speaker 2: credit with the actor was, but I want to hit

442
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,880
Speaker 2: the major points. So starting with the director again, it's

443
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 2: Ishie Ohanda, who lived nineteen eleven through nineteen ninety three,

444
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 2: legendary Toho film director who helmed nineteen fifty four of Godzilla,

445
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 2: the movie that started at All. He directed forty four

446
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 2: pictures in total eight of those Godzilla films, culminating in

447
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 2: the nineteen seventy five film Terror of Mecca Godzilla, which,

448
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 2: according to Steve Rifle, kind of comes back and serves

449
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 2: as a proper cap to a lot of the silliness,

450
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 2: you know, coming back and making maybe a little more

451
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 2: serious and a little darker look at the Godzilla world.

452
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 2: He also directed Rodin the Mysterians, The Human Vapor Metango,

453
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 2: Frankenstein Versus Beragon, The War of the Gargantuan Space Amiba,

454
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 2: and more. He was a friend of director Akira Kurosawa

455
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,800
Speaker 2: and served as director counselor or chief assistant director on

456
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 2: Kurrosawa's nineteen eighty five epic Ron, and his name continues

457
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 2: to appear in the credits on Godzilla movies and other

458
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 2: homages to the Godzilla franchise. According to Steve Rifle, Honda

459
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 2: started out directing more like sort of like lower budget,

460
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 2: thoughtful films about youthful characters and sort of you know

461
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 2: the challenges of growing up. But then you know, ends

462
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,919
Speaker 2: up getting thrown into this world of Godzilla, and this,

463
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 2: you know, comes to define him as a filmmaker, and

464
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,919
Speaker 2: you know, he kind of stuck to his guns as

465
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 2: much as possible about the seriousness of the original Godzilla picture,

466
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,160
Speaker 2: and so when his name is attached to it, yeah,

467
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,200
Speaker 2: there does seem to be this this pivot back towards

468
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,160
Speaker 2: the darker roots of the being. All right, so that's

469
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:47,400
Speaker 2: the director. A writer once more is Shinichi Sakazawa, who

470
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 2: of nineteen twenty through nineteen ninety two frequent collaborator with

471
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 2: Honda and describe of many Godzilla movies, beginning with sixty

472
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 2: two's King cong Versus Godzilla. There Godzilla credits stretch from

473
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 2: here all the way up to nineteen eighty nine's Godzilla

474
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 2: versus Bio Lanta. It's just a story credit, but still

475
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 2: that's kind of like the full saga of their credits

476
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 2: with the Godzilla franchise.

477
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,199
Speaker 3: Speaking of tone and seriousness, I think another one of

478
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 3: the things Rifle mentions in that book is that there

479
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 3: were a number of writers who contributed to this early

480
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:26,199
Speaker 3: run of Godzilla films, and Sekizawa, i think, is the

481
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 3: one more often associated with a somewhat lighter tone and

482
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 3: more openness to comedy, which is there in Mathra to

483
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 3: be clear, like this one is it's not as silly

484
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 3: as some of the later movies, but it does have

485
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 3: a lot of comedy, Like the villains are very clownish

486
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 3: in it.

487
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 2: Yes, the human villains, Yeah, yeah, it has some great

488
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 2: human comedy. The monsters are mostly treated with abjects seriousness,

489
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 2: but there's some very silly human antics in there as well.

490
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 3: Yeah. And also the guy who just is always eating.

491
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 2: A Yes, we'll get to him in a second. But yeah,

492
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 2: So we'll start with talking about the humans here and

493
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 2: the monsters. I want to start with the forces of

494
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 2: liberty progression and also eggs. We mentioned that the leads

495
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 2: the main characters here are journalists, and our main hero

496
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 2: journalist is the character Ichiro Sakai played by Akira Takarata,

497
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 2: who lived nineteen thirty four through twenty twenty two. Cocky

498
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 2: but honorable journalist, a little tough to love at first.

499
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 2: He comes off a little rough around the edges, but

500
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 2: you grow to realize that he really cares about the

501
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 2: truth and about doing what's right in the world through

502
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 2: his journalism.

503
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, he from the beginning has integrity. He's not as

504
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 3: likable in the beginning, just because he's kind of he's

505
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 3: sort of bossy, and he's like demanding of respect from

506
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,920
Speaker 3: people around him, and I don't know, maybe maybe they're

507
00:29:55,960 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 3: not giving him enough respect. I don't know, but yeah,

508
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 3: you come around to him throughout the movie.

509
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 2: So Takarata has the top billing here, but he actually

510
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 2: appeared in different roles in numerous Godzilla films, including fifty

511
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 2: four's Godzilla Invasion of the Astro Monster in nineteen sixty five,

512
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 2: Godzilla versus the Sea Monster from sixty six, as well

513
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 2: as nineteen ninety two's Godzilla versus Mathra and Godzilla Final

514
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 2: a Wars from two thousand and four. He's also in

515
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 2: King Kong Escapes from sixty seven. That's one I haven't

516
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 2: seen yet, but it's always been on my list because

517
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,240
Speaker 2: it features not only King Kong in Kaiju form, but

518
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 2: also a mecha Kong called Macanni Kong. So he's in that.

519
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 2: And then Tagarata is also in the nineteen fifty five

520
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 2: I Believe Yeti horror film Half Humano all right, so

521
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 2: he's our lead journalist, but then his photographer is the

522
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 2: character Djunko Nakanishi played by Yuriko Hoshi, who lived nineteen

523
00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:00,880
Speaker 2: forty three through twenty eighteen. She also appears in Gidora,

524
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 2: the three headed monster from sixty four in a different role,

525
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 2: as well as in Godzilla versus Mega Gurius in two thousand.

526
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 2: Her other credits include nineteen sixty eight's Kill and nineteen

527
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 2: ninety six's Night Trains to the Stars. This was a

528
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 2: supporting role that earned her a Japanese Academy Award.

529
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 3: In this movie, she plays a character who is sometimes

530
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 3: kind of impractical or overly concerned with the artistic side

531
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 3: of life. For certainly for her boss at the paper here,

532
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 3: who's like, you're not doing art, just snap the pictures

533
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 3: and move on.

534
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have to focus your camera, just take

535
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: a picture of it.

536
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 3: But she's also really kind of the conscience of the movie,

537
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 3: Like she gives a speech on the island of Ewa

538
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,840
Speaker 3: that our ticket that is sort of like what motivates

539
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 3: the people to say, okay, Mathra can come to your aid,

540
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,880
Speaker 3: and she and multiple points along the film, is kind

541
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 3: of the voice of reason and conscience when other people

542
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 3: are doing wrong.

543
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, yeah, she's no mere sidekick here.

544
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 3: But she's also amusingly pushy. Like there's one part where Ichi,

545
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 3: the other reporter, is like trying to get a question

546
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 3: with this professor, and the professor is like, I don't

547
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 3: have time for this, and then she butts in and

548
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 3: she is like, wait, one question, and then he's like okay,

549
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 3: what is it? And then she just steps aside and

550
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 3: it's like okay, yeah, ask.

551
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 2: Him, all right. So those are our journalists. But we

552
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 2: do have a scientist in the Mixed Professor Mura, played

553
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 2: by Hiroshi Kozumi, who lived nineteen twenty six through twenty fifteen.

554
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 2: He'd also played a scientist character in Mathra, the previous

555
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:40,280
Speaker 2: film to feature this monster, and return playing the same

556
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 2: professor character in Godora the Three Headed Monster. His other

557
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 2: films include Atragon, nineteen sixty three's Matango, Godzilla Versus Mega, Godzilla,

558
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 2: Godzilla Raids Again, and Akiu from nineteen fifty two.

559
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 3: Oh the course Alba movie.

560
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of a when you start looking at

561
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 2: the actors in Godzilla film, it's pretty typical to see that. Okay,

562
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 2: they've been in various other Godzilla and Kaiju films from Toho,

563
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 2: and they also have bit or supporting roles in various

564
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 2: Kusawa films. Okay, so that's a trend that will continue

565
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 2: to sit here.

566
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 3: One thing I didn't realize is that this character also

567
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 3: appeared in the standalone Mathra film which came earlier.

568
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,720
Speaker 2: Well, the actor did not the character, Yeah, I see, okay,

569
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,480
Speaker 2: but he does. The confusing part is he does return,

570
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 2: apparently playing the same character in a later Godzilla movie.

571
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,600
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, Well, because there's a point where these like

572
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 3: the fairy twins in this movie show up and start

573
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 3: talking about Mathra and it's kind of like, oh, Mathra.

574
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know they've made probably made headlines, right, Yeah, Okay,

575
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:50,240
Speaker 2: we mentioned the comic relief character. This is Yiro Nakamura,

576
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,520
Speaker 2: played by you Fujuki, who of nineteen thirty one through

577
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 2: two thousand and five. He's pretty great here again, he

578
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 2: is a comic relief character. My favorite thing about him

579
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 2: is that, as you mentioned, he's always eating eggs and

580
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 2: he has an egg cooker on his desk at work,

581
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 2: which I love.

582
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 4: Good.

583
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love egg cookers. I think it's it and

584
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 2: the rice cooker are two of the most fabulous un

585
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 2: tasker devices that have been developed for the kitchen. But

586
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 2: the idea of having one on your desk at work

587
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:24,319
Speaker 2: and making the whole office smell like boiled eggs is

588
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 2: just in and of itself comedic.

589
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 3: Huh. So, I'm a big fan of the rice cooker.

590
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,319
Speaker 3: I love my rice cooker. I use it all the time.

591
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 3: I've never used a dedicated egg cooker. I don't even

592
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 3: know how does it work? Is it hard boil.

593
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,879
Speaker 2: Or well, you can do hard boiled and to some

594
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:44,320
Speaker 2: degree of softer boils. They're like different levels that you

595
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 2: fill the water up to, but then there's still kind

596
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 2: of you still have to catch them at the right

597
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 2: moment and then ice them down before they finish cooking.

598
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:57,440
Speaker 2: So we've had one for ages and I'm still refining

599
00:34:57,480 --> 00:34:59,359
Speaker 2: exactly how to use it. The best way to try

600
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,799
Speaker 2: and get those of those precious runny eggs for you know,

601
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,280
Speaker 2: for you know, to go in ramen and so forth.

602
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I do love a soft boiled egg. But

603
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,279
Speaker 3: this guy eats so many of them in the movie.

604
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 3: He's always just munching on a soft boiled while they're

605
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,359
Speaker 3: talking about a big like alien egg or monster.

606
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:18,399
Speaker 2: Egg, right, and sometimes like the solution is right there.

607
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 2: He's the first one to realize that the solution to

608
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:21,760
Speaker 2: a problem might be egg based.

609
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 3: Yes, by the way, just unpaid product endorsement. The Zoji

610
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 3: Rushi rice cooker. It's like, that's gotta be one of

611
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 3: my top brand loyalties. I love that thing, makes me

612
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:32,600
Speaker 3: happy every time I use it.

613
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:35,320
Speaker 2: Well, maybe one day we'll come back and discuss nineteen

614
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 2: sixty seven's Branded to Kill. That's another Japanese movie, and

615
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 2: that one prominently features rice cookers. Oh nice, all right, see,

616
00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:43,880
Speaker 2: I'm gonna skip over the newspaper editor. We may come

617
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 2: back to him. I will say point out that the

618
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:50,480
Speaker 2: actor that is generally credited with playing Mathra in one

619
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 2: form or the other here is Katsumi Tazuka born in

620
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:58,840
Speaker 2: nineteen twelve. His death date is not comparently known. Played

621
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 2: various monsters and different Toho films alongside Nakajima, our main

622
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,320
Speaker 2: Godzilla actor. He apparently served as an assistant to Nakajima.

623
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 2: And then we have the twin fairies, the Shobajen, and

624
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,279
Speaker 2: they are played by the Peanuts. The Peanuts were a

625
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,720
Speaker 2: singing duo, a twin singing duo, Emmy and Yumi Eto.

626
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:25,440
Speaker 2: Here they are reprising their roles from the earlier Mathra film.

627
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 2: If even if you haven't seen one of these movies,

628
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 2: you've probably seen clips or stills. They are two tiny

629
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 2: identical Japanese women who sing to Mathra. Sing for Mathra.

630
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:41,799
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a form of worship. Really, that's

631
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,240
Speaker 2: the way I interpret it. The Mathra is a divine being,

632
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 2: and Mathra must be awoken and appealed to through some

633
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 2: sort of worshipful song.

634
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 3: But also they are kind of divine beings, which is interesting.

635
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 3: They're like the intercessors on behalf of regular humans. Are

636
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 3: these two tiny humans, all sized humans who like pray

637
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,320
Speaker 3: to Mathra for us?

638
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're kind of intermediaries between us and the gods,

639
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 2: between us and Mathra, and maybe in a sense too,

640
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:15,839
Speaker 2: they are Mathra. There's lots to chew on here. So

641
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 2: Emmy lived nineteen forty one through twenty twelve and Umi

642
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 2: lived nineteen forty one through twenty sixteen. Both were born

643
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,640
Speaker 2: in Nagoya, which will be important because that's the main

644
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,319
Speaker 2: city where everything happens in this picture. They have a

645
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 2: string of credits before nineteen sixty one's Mathra, and apparently

646
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 2: we're already a sensation in Japan, in America as well

647
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 2: as parts of Europe I believe, especially like Germany and Austria.

648
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 2: And their subsequent credits include not only this nineteen sixty

649
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,840
Speaker 2: four film, but also Gudor, the three headed monster Mathra

650
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 2: shows up, so the twins need to show up. A

651
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 2: handful of musical comedies followed, and they performed on The

652
00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 2: Ed Sullivan Show in nineteen sixty six. They retired from

653
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,759
Speaker 2: performing in nineteen seventy five, but their music goes seem

654
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,240
Speaker 2: to be have been again quite a hit. It ranged

655
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 2: from folk songs like Japanese folk songs, to covers of

656
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 2: various Western hits. They toured quite a bit, and if

657
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 2: you look them up on discogs, you can find all

658
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:17,399
Speaker 2: sorts of amusing album covers, both from Japan and also

659
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 2: various international releases.

660
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 3: Did we mention that they not only sing songs to Mathra,

661
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 3: but they also speak all of their lines together in unison. Yes,

662
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 3: it's a striking effect.

663
00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was reading that. That's apparently. That was one

664
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 2: of the appeals of their act too, is that their

665
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 2: voices were essentially identical, and so it made for some

666
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:42,320
Speaker 2: great vocalizations.

667
00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 3: It's by turns funny and creepy in the movie. Yes,

668
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:47,279
Speaker 3: so it works out well.

669
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:49,799
Speaker 2: All right, let's get into the forces of corruption and

670
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,760
Speaker 2: destruction here. First of all, we have the character Kuma Yama.

671
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 2: He's the greedy guy with the mustache played by Yoshifumi Tajima,

672
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 2: who lived nineteen eighteen through two thousand and nine. Another

673
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 2: regular Toh performer with credits that include various monster films,

674
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:10,960
Speaker 2: with also some bit parts in Krosawa movie sprinkled in

675
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:11,480
Speaker 2: as well.

676
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 3: He is a comical villain in this who shows up

677
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 3: to just beam with greed, like if greed was embodied.

678
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 3: It's like in the way this guy plays the role

679
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:27,120
Speaker 3: that he has not a Hitler mustache, but it's in

680
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 3: the ballpark. It's like a shrunken What I would say

681
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 3: is it's like if you imagine a handlebar mustache, but

682
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,839
Speaker 3: then you shrink it down so that it only takes

683
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 3: up about a third of the width of his upper lip.

684
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels I'm not sure if this is this

685
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 2: is something that would have resonated at the time within

686
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 2: the intended audience, but it feels like a very carny mustache,

687
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 2: you know.

688
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 3: Yes, Yeah, So he's just always behaving crudely and greedily.

689
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:58,600
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, the director told him in every scene,

690
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,359
Speaker 3: just think about I want to get money. Yeah, that's

691
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 3: what he's doing now.

692
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 2: His financial backer is the character Euro Torajada, played by

693
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 2: Kenji Sahara born nineteen thirty two, and as of this recording,

694
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 2: I believe still out there. He actually played the dad

695
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,680
Speaker 2: in All Monsters Attack and was also in Atragon. So

696
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:22,799
Speaker 2: he's a Japanese actor who has the distinction of being

697
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,280
Speaker 2: I think in the most Godzilla films thirteen of them,

698
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 2: in addition to numerous other Toho pictures. He was in

699
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 2: the first Godzilla movie Pops Up as a newspaper reporter,

700
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:34,799
Speaker 2: and then I think a party guy in a boat

701
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:37,240
Speaker 2: as well, so you know, he's all over the place.

702
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 2: His last Godzilla film was two thousand and four's Final Wars,

703
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 2: and it looks like he was last active around twenty eleven. Also,

704
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 2: I believe he was the star of Mighty Jack, the

705
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 2: Japanese television series that MST three K fans should know about.

706
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 3: Now, there were some things about this character I didn't

707
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:58,920
Speaker 3: fully understand. He is like the secret partner of Kumuyama.

708
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 3: Was it applied that he's involved in crime or something.

709
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:04,799
Speaker 3: He's got like a big cabinet full of.

710
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:09,319
Speaker 5: Money and uh, and he's you know, he's being like

711
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 5: sort of kept secret, like Kumayama is the public facing

712
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:15,800
Speaker 5: owner of the egg, and this guy is like his

713
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 5: his secret backer, but is also scamming Kumayama.

714
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:19,800
Speaker 4: Yeah.

715
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:22,400
Speaker 2: I I didn't get as much a sense of organized

716
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 2: crime here. I feel like if that had been the case,

717
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 2: there would have been more obvious tells to that effect.

718
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 2: But it did feel like they're sort of two sides

719
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 2: of the core the the capitalist problem has received at

720
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,240
Speaker 2: the time in Japan. You know, it's like one guy

721
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 2: is the more obvious, greedy, uh you know, cash fisted

722
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 2: individual and the more you know, overt corruptive force, and

723
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 2: the other side is like standing back and saying like, oh,

724
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 2: I'm you know, I'm not the idea man here. I'm

725
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 2: just the guy with the big locker full of cash,

726
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 2: you know, like they're.

727
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:57,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, he's he need a loan.

728
00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I agree his his role in everything is

729
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:03,880
Speaker 2: maybe a little more cryptic to figure out it, you know,

730
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 2: at least you know from our standpoint as viewers.

731
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:06,759
Speaker 4: Yeah.

732
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh, and then we got to come back to

733
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:23,320
Speaker 2: Haro Nakajima playing Godzilla again. We've mentioned him on the

734
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:26,239
Speaker 2: show before. He lived nineteen twenty nine through twenty seventeen,

735
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 2: played Godzilla in twelve consecutive films. He was also in

736
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:33,400
Speaker 2: Mathra in War of the gargantuas as well as a

737
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:35,759
Speaker 2: character I saw with seven Samurai and a bit roll

738
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 2: not as a giant monster, and he's yet generally considered

739
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 2: an absolute legend when it comes to monster suit performers,

740
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:46,720
Speaker 2: and I have to say his physicality in the monster

741
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 2: suit in this movie is especially good. There's kind of

742
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 2: a wild abandon to the way Godzilla moves as he stumbles, tumbles,

743
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:58,000
Speaker 2: sprints and lurches through the landscape.

744
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 3: Godzilla really feels angry and full of rage in some

745
00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,319
Speaker 3: of his scenes. Yeah, I'm thinking of the scenes later

746
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:09,480
Speaker 3: on when he's getting silked up by the grubs and

747
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 3: he's he just looks furious at what's happening.

748
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, or like when he destroys Nagoia Castle uh, which

749
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 2: which which I've seen in real life. I've been to

750
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 2: Nagoya Uh. But when he destroys it, we'll get to

751
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,359
Speaker 2: it's kind of kind of like trips and falls into

752
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 2: it and then is mad at It's kind of like

753
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:27,800
Speaker 2: when you stub your toe on a coffee table and

754
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 2: you're like, what is this coffee table doing here? You

755
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,799
Speaker 2: dumb coffee table. Yeah, there's a there's a lot to

756
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,239
Speaker 2: unravel there about Godzilla the menace in this picture and

757
00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 2: how I believe others have commented on this. Maybe it

758
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 2: was Steve Rifle that was writing about this that while

759
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:48,120
Speaker 2: Godzilla is definitely the threat and the villain and the

760
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,359
Speaker 2: the you know, the monstrous antagonist of this picture, there's

761
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 2: also a sense that maybe he's like a little less

762
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 2: of a vehicle of vengeance compared to the original Godzilla,

763
00:43:57,160 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 2: you know, like he's maybe more akin to a natural

764
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:00,959
Speaker 2: force here.

765
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 3: Yes, that he's He's not nice, but it does feel

766
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 3: a little bit more like he's doing these things kind

767
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 3: of accidentally or at least recklessly. Yeah, though he does

768
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 3: I think get mad at Mathra.

769
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 2: He does. There is some heat between these two.

770
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:17,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

771
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:19,440
Speaker 2: And then finally getting to the music, we have legendary

772
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 2: Japanese composer Akira Ifukube, who lived nineteen fourteen through two

773
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 2: thousand and six. Not only did he give us the

774
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,240
Speaker 2: incredible Godzilla theme music, which is just at its best

775
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,640
Speaker 2: in this picture, but he also created that signature roar.

776
00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't know that.

777
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:38,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was apparently achieved by rubbing a resin covered

778
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:42,439
Speaker 2: leather glove across the loosened strings of a double bass.

779
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,759
Speaker 2: Oh okay, it's hard for me to picture how that

780
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,440
Speaker 2: all comes together because I'm so used to hearing Godzilla's roar.

781
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:51,319
Speaker 2: It just it feels organic. It feels like that's just

782
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 2: the sound Godzilla makes.

783
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,759
Speaker 3: Yeah. The sound Mathra makes in this movie is great too.

784
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:59,239
Speaker 3: That high pitched metallic chirp, that's great.

785
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's sing yeah, and that again, his music is

786
00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:06,600
Speaker 2: just an inseparable part of the true Godzilla franchise. His

787
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 2: other films include Atragon Space Amba from seventy nineteen fifty

788
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,840
Speaker 2: six is the Burmese Harp that's a non Kaiju film.

789
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 2: But his theme music here for Godzilla, especially Godzilla's key theme,

790
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 2: is just incredible. And if we didn't didn't have this theme,

791
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:27,400
Speaker 2: we wouldn't have that really awesome Pharaoh manch track, Simon says,

792
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:30,719
Speaker 2: which heavily samples not only the Godzilla music, but the

793
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: specific Godzilla music from this movie. So if you're a

794
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:36,360
Speaker 2: hip hop fan, old school hip hop fan, you know

795
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 2: this track.

796
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 3: It's conspicuously used.

797
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 2: YEA, yes, in an amazing way. I think, dare I

798
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:43,839
Speaker 2: say a loving way?

799
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,840
Speaker 3: But yes, in general, if Akube's music for the Godzilla

800
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:52,080
Speaker 3: films is wonderful, I'd loved I think we've talked about

801
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 3: this before, but one thing that really got my blood

802
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:58,200
Speaker 3: going for shin Godzilla when it was coming out is

803
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 3: the way that it used the like the old sounding

804
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 3: theme from the original film, but with the new movie footage.

805
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 3: You know, that minor key theme bu da dun duh

806
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 3: duh dun. Oh. Man, it's so good. But also his

807
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 3: original music for Mathra itself or for Mauth re Versus

808
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 3: Godzilla is a whole new ballgame, and it's wonderful.

809
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Godzilla theme music, I kept thinking about this.

810
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,320
Speaker 2: It has a lumbering feel to it, like it feels

811
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:28,440
Speaker 2: like the great footsteps of a Titanic monster, but then

812
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 2: there's also this sense of rising and it just works

813
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,320
Speaker 2: so exceptionally well with the visuals of pretty much anything

814
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:37,720
Speaker 2: Godzilla is doing on the screen.

815
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:39,839
Speaker 3: All right, you ready to talk about the plot, Let's

816
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:43,200
Speaker 3: get into it. So we begin with, as expected, that gorgeous,

817
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 3: familiar mid century tohoscope logo, which I love. Every time

818
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 3: I've said this before, every time I see it makes

819
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 3: me happy. It makes me think of precious gems. You know,

820
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 3: when it comes on screen, it's like I've been kind

821
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,600
Speaker 3: of scratching through a bunch of gravel and I come

822
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:00,279
Speaker 3: upon a cache of emerald.

823
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:03,240
Speaker 2: I have to admit I loved it watching this live.

824
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:06,799
Speaker 2: There was thunderous applause for the Toho logo alone, so

825
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:09,160
Speaker 2: I love the enthusiasm of that.

826
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 3: So during the credit and title sequence, you've got lead,

827
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 3: heavy doom horns, that great score. We were just talking

828
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:19,879
Speaker 3: about playing over a dark shot of the open sea

829
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 3: in a typhoon and rain is hammering down, the waves

830
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 3: are huge lightning flashes, and the clouds in the sky,

831
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 3: and as the credits wrap, we cut from the black

832
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:34,000
Speaker 3: mid ocean to somewhere along the shore where waves are

833
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:37,160
Speaker 3: crashing against a sea wall, and then we get a

834
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 3: close up on a sign that says in Japanese, congratulations

835
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:45,239
Speaker 3: karatea coast reclamation project complete. I think there's supposed to

836
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 3: be some humor here, contrasted with the weather and the

837
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 3: fact that the music is still in Death of the

838
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:54,840
Speaker 3: Universe mode. And we pan over to appear beside the sea.

839
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 3: There's a bunch of stuff set up for a party.

840
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:00,600
Speaker 3: There's like a tent pavilion, and streamers and pick tables,

841
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 3: and we watch all this stuff just get buffeted by

842
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 3: winds and eventually swept away, and the waves surge over

843
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:09,240
Speaker 3: the sea wall and tear down a bunch of power lines.

844
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:12,720
Speaker 3: We see a boat washed ashore and it crashes into everything.

845
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:16,440
Speaker 3: It's a monster storm. The next day there are blue

846
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,880
Speaker 3: skies overhead as hundreds of people gather at the coast

847
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,920
Speaker 3: we just saw, and the beach is now piled with

848
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 3: rubble washed ashore by the typhoon, and we get an

849
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:29,759
Speaker 3: interesting effects shot I think done in miniature of the

850
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:33,520
Speaker 3: sea wall with a long row of giant yellow pump

851
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:37,880
Speaker 3: stations in operation. I assume draining water out from behind

852
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:40,239
Speaker 3: the wall and blasting it back into the ocean of

853
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 3: these pipes that look like cannons. So a visual metaphor

854
00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 3: for civilization and technology, re establishing dominance over the forces

855
00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:54,360
Speaker 3: of the natural world, with a kind of violence implied

856
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:59,640
Speaker 3: because the pumps look like gun barrels, as I mentioned earlier.

857
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:04,400
Speaker 3: Great in contrast to the haunted, diminished Japan of the

858
00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:07,120
Speaker 3: original Godzilla, this movie takes place in the middle of

859
00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:11,120
Speaker 3: what feels like an economic and industrial boom. There's just

860
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 3: capitalistic exuberance. Everything's under construction, everybody's making money. Businessmen feel

861
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:22,160
Speaker 3: like gods, and they just they cannot be resisted. And

862
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:24,040
Speaker 3: here in the crowd at the coast, we meet a

863
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:28,360
Speaker 3: couple of our major characters. We meet Ichiro Sakai Ichi,

864
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 3: a reporter for the Micho Times, and when we first

865
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 3: meet him, he's very impatient, focused strictly business. And also

866
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:42,799
Speaker 3: Junko Nakanishi, his photographer assistant, again more flighty and kind

867
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:46,719
Speaker 3: of contemplative. As she's observing the scene, she says she's

868
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:49,040
Speaker 3: trying to come up with a theme for her photo spread,

869
00:49:49,239 --> 00:49:54,160
Speaker 3: and Ichiro tells her, your theme is typhoon. Come on. Now,

870
00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:58,000
Speaker 3: we see Ichi confronted by a clownish local politician who

871
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,480
Speaker 3: is angry at the fact that he wrote an article

872
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:04,319
Speaker 3: about the destruction caused by the typhoon. The assemblyman here

873
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:07,480
Speaker 3: does not like that Ichi has been reporting on the destruction.

874
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,000
Speaker 3: He insists that their coastal reclamation project will be the

875
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:14,439
Speaker 3: best ever. It's you know, it's gonna happen on time?

876
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:18,319
Speaker 3: How dare you write about this? And nearby, Junko is

877
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:21,479
Speaker 3: setting up for a photograph of all the garbage washed

878
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,319
Speaker 3: up on the shore, and she realizes one thing in

879
00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:28,440
Speaker 3: the frame is a weird shimmering blue green object, kind

880
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:31,600
Speaker 3: of like a giant scale. I wonder what that is.

881
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 3: But here's one of the scenes where Ichi is telling her, like,

882
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,240
Speaker 3: don't waste time with light meters, just start clicking that shutter.

883
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:42,799
Speaker 3: This is not high art, But I think Junko just

884
00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 3: feels differently. She has more of an artistic sensibility. She's like,

885
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:46,920
Speaker 3: we should do.

886
00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 2: This, right, yeah, yeah, And I think I think he

887
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:50,879
Speaker 2: takes her craft for granted here.

888
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,479
Speaker 3: Yeah. So back at the newsroom, we meet a few

889
00:50:54,480 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 3: more characters. We meet Ichi and Junko's boss, the news editor,

890
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:03,360
Speaker 3: who is, oh, I don't know. I figure like he

891
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 3: comes off as kind of brusque, but then later maybe

892
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 3: it reveals a kind of practical wisdom, would you say.

893
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:12,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Like he's he's a very busy man, and

894
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:16,480
Speaker 2: he has no time for silliness. He's got to get

895
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:18,319
Speaker 2: that paper out, you know, very much a cliche in

896
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:22,360
Speaker 2: many ways, but ultimately does care about the truth and

897
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:26,960
Speaker 2: and is really behind journalism's you know, key principles in

898
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:27,400
Speaker 2: the world.

899
00:51:27,719 --> 00:51:30,319
Speaker 3: Right. And then there's also this comic relief character the

900
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:34,319
Speaker 3: reporter who's eating soft boiled eggs. Yeah, such a and

901
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:36,640
Speaker 3: he's always doing it in a scene where they're talking

902
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:40,319
Speaker 3: about giant monster eggs. For example, this scene because the

903
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,400
Speaker 3: editor gets a call on the phone and it is

904
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:46,440
Speaker 3: revealed that the next big news event is a giant

905
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 3: egg has been spotted off the coast of Japan at

906
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:51,040
Speaker 3: a place called Niche Beach.

907
00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:52,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is a big one.

908
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 3: It's big. It's like a blimp. There's a big blue, green, blue, green,

909
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:01,799
Speaker 3: white oblate spheroid floating in the water. And we go

910
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:05,400
Speaker 3: to the local fishing village, which is portrayed as full

911
00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:11,160
Speaker 3: of somewhat sympathetic but also easily frightened bumpkins who are

912
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 3: first possessed by terror and then gradually by greed. They

913
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:19,120
Speaker 3: decide that since fishing has been bad lately, it's been

914
00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 3: a bad catch, they're going to go out and claim

915
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:25,200
Speaker 3: the egg as the prize of their waters. By right.

916
00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:28,080
Speaker 3: They have a whole discussion about it. They're like, wait,

917
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:31,480
Speaker 3: whatever comes out of that water, fish or egg, belongs

918
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:33,800
Speaker 3: to us. So this is an egg, it's in the water,

919
00:52:33,920 --> 00:52:34,520
Speaker 3: it's ours.

920
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:37,360
Speaker 2: Yeah. There's actually a lot here that you could unravel.

921
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 2: You could do a whole shin Mathra movie based on

922
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 2: this conflict.

923
00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:44,480
Speaker 3: Oh, just the court cases about who the egg.

924
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:48,040
Speaker 2: Belongs to belong to, you know, the parties here or

925
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 2: some of the parties that are going to be revealed

926
00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 2: here in a bit.

927
00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 3: Let's have a meeting about it and maybe a few depositions. Yeah,

928
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:57,479
Speaker 3: So the villagers take their boats out and they bring

929
00:52:57,520 --> 00:52:59,880
Speaker 3: the egg ashore, where it is transported to the beach,

930
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:04,040
Speaker 3: and we see shots of astonished crowds forming this cautious

931
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:09,000
Speaker 3: circle around it. Afterwards, Ichi and Junko arrive on the

932
00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:13,160
Speaker 3: scene and they meet a new character, the scientist Professor Mura,

933
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:17,080
Speaker 3: who is taking example, taking samples to better understand the

934
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:21,839
Speaker 3: giant egg. And this is the scene where at first

935
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 3: the professor doesn't really have time for them, but Junko

936
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:26,800
Speaker 3: is pushy enough to get a question on the record.

937
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:31,560
Speaker 3: And the question that Ichi asks is is this egg dangerous?

938
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:35,920
Speaker 3: The quote is could it explode or release toxins? And

939
00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:37,960
Speaker 3: the professor is like, well, that's what I'm trying to

940
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:40,919
Speaker 3: find out. But they don't get a chance to find out.

941
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:43,279
Speaker 3: They are interrupted in the middle of that research by

942
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:45,960
Speaker 3: the arrival of the new big head guy in charge

943
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 3: This is mister Kubayama, a vain, greedy businessman, the proprietor

944
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:56,120
Speaker 3: of Happy Enterprises. I love the choice the name of

945
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:59,919
Speaker 3: the business. There, it feels apt. There's something sinister about

946
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:01,080
Speaker 3: banality of it.

947
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:02,080
Speaker 4: Yeah.

948
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:03,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like, you know, don't you want to be happy?

949
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:04,480
Speaker 4: Yeah?

950
00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:06,279
Speaker 2: How can you be opposed to happiness?

951
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 3: So it turns out Kumayama has bought the egg from

952
00:54:09,719 --> 00:54:13,319
Speaker 3: the local fisherman. It is now rightfully his, and there's

953
00:54:13,360 --> 00:54:16,799
Speaker 3: a funny scene here where he explains how much he

954
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 3: paid for it, like how he arrived at the price,

955
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:21,440
Speaker 3: and it was by multiplying the cost of a chicken

956
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:25,040
Speaker 3: egg by the size difference between a chicken egg and

957
00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:25,759
Speaker 3: the giant egg.

958
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:27,680
Speaker 2: Well that's just logical. Yeah, yes.

959
00:54:28,080 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 3: Now the reporters protest, They're like, wait a minute, should

960
00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:34,360
Speaker 3: this egg maybe not be thought of as private property?

961
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,000
Speaker 3: Isn't this kind of a wonder of nature? Maybe it

962
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:40,480
Speaker 3: belongs to all of humanity or none of us? And

963
00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:43,400
Speaker 3: Kumayama is like, well, that's why we're gonna let everybody

964
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 3: come look at it. We're going to watch it incubate

965
00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 3: and hatch, and everybody can come see for a small

966
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:52,000
Speaker 3: fee of course, so's he's trying to go for the

967
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:54,480
Speaker 3: King Kong thing, right, He's going to take this wonder

968
00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:57,239
Speaker 3: of nature and he's going to put walls around it

969
00:54:57,280 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 3: in sell tickets.

970
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's like a hole. They have a whole map,

971
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:03,879
Speaker 2: have everything planned out how it's gonna work. Everyone's gonna

972
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 2: come and see the egg and maybe it'll be some

973
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:09,799
Speaker 2: some some additional rides. Who knows this is This is

974
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:11,760
Speaker 2: going to really remake the whole area.

975
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:13,960
Speaker 3: Also the plot of Gorgo remember.

976
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:16,400
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, that's right, and I guess kind of the

977
00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:17,760
Speaker 2: plot of King Kong, right.

978
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:19,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's what I was just saying. Yeah, King

979
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:23,360
Speaker 3: Kong and then sort of Jurassic Park too, though Jurassic

980
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:25,440
Speaker 3: Park has the cloning element that's so different.

981
00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,040
Speaker 2: But yeah, this is a spectacle. People will pay to

982
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:28,400
Speaker 2: see this.

983
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:33,879
Speaker 3: But Kubayama taunts the reporters and the scientists for their ideals.

984
00:55:33,960 --> 00:55:36,239
Speaker 3: He offers to pose for a picture for Junko and

985
00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:38,719
Speaker 3: then he just blows cigar smoke in her face when

986
00:55:38,719 --> 00:55:41,280
Speaker 3: she uses the camera. What a jerk?

987
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:42,880
Speaker 2: Uh?

988
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:47,280
Speaker 3: And then later at the nearby hotel, Kumayama is revealed

989
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,480
Speaker 3: to have this secret business partner. This creepy guy named

990
00:55:50,520 --> 00:55:53,400
Speaker 3: tora Hata who lent him the money for the deal.

991
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:57,800
Speaker 3: Uh tora Hata has this giant file cabinet full of cash,

992
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:01,400
Speaker 3: just cash money, and it's I don't know why he

993
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 3: has that. But the idea is they're going to build

994
00:56:04,040 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 3: this amusement park based around the egg, which they are

995
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:10,480
Speaker 3: now going to be keeping in this steel enclosure, I

996
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:14,560
Speaker 3: think presumably, so if it hatches whatever hatches, can't get away.

997
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:17,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, or to some degree, they might be incubating it

998
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,360
Speaker 2: a little bit. Yeah, they're doing that too, the appropriate

999
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:21,640
Speaker 2: temperature and so forth.

1000
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:25,879
Speaker 3: But the two businessmen are interrupted in their scheming by

1001
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:31,160
Speaker 3: something quite strange. Two tiny women the size of dolls,

1002
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,280
Speaker 3: who appear in their hotel room as if by magic,

1003
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:37,840
Speaker 3: and start chanting in unison about how they must return

1004
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:40,919
Speaker 3: the egg and how it doesn't belong to them. These

1005
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:43,520
Speaker 3: are the Fairy Twins again, these are the musical act

1006
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:46,520
Speaker 3: the Peanuts. Is that what they were calling peanuts? Yes?

1007
00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:50,200
Speaker 3: How are they dressed here? At the beginning they look

1008
00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:54,240
Speaker 3: kind of like cupcakes. They've got like a white fur

1009
00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 3: and then a white hat with pink things on top,

1010
00:56:56,680 --> 00:56:59,239
Speaker 3: so there's kind of an icing effect. And then they're

1011
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:01,560
Speaker 3: wearing a yello in pink dresses below that.

1012
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're wearing something to be interpreted as like, yeah,

1013
00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:09,880
Speaker 2: traditional garb. They are, you know, in a way, they

1014
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:12,880
Speaker 2: are their voices and representatives of the old world and

1015
00:57:12,920 --> 00:57:17,120
Speaker 2: not this new world of hyper activity and progress. It's

1016
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:20,840
Speaker 2: like literally building things around an egg, which in and

1017
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:24,080
Speaker 2: of itself is an interesting scenario. You're building permanent structures

1018
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:27,600
Speaker 2: around this thing that is, by its very nature impermanent

1019
00:57:27,840 --> 00:57:30,640
Speaker 2: and is going to lead to like some other different

1020
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:33,400
Speaker 2: form that needs to be free. But they're like, nope,

1021
00:57:33,440 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 2: let's build it. It's all about right now.

1022
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:38,200
Speaker 3: Yes, an egg is made to be broken out of

1023
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:39,640
Speaker 3: and you build a cage around it.

1024
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:40,000
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1025
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:44,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, So obviously the business guys do not heed the message.

1026
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:46,440
Speaker 3: Are they going to be like, oh, okay, we'll give

1027
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:48,800
Speaker 3: you the egg bag now. Instead, they try to capture

1028
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:51,360
Speaker 3: the fairy twins. They're like running around the hotel room

1029
00:57:51,440 --> 00:57:52,640
Speaker 3: trying to get them under a coat.

1030
00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 2: There's some fun hijinks here. I think it's always important

1031
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,160
Speaker 2: to drive home with a good kaiju movie. That. Yeah,

1032
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:02,680
Speaker 2: kaiju movie have great scenes where monsters battle each other,

1033
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:06,160
Speaker 2: but the best Kaiju movies are also very enjoyable when

1034
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:08,800
Speaker 2: the monsters are not on screen, and it takes a

1035
00:58:08,840 --> 00:58:11,400
Speaker 2: long time before we get to the monster battles here.

1036
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:15,240
Speaker 2: But for my own money, I was never like missing

1037
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:18,600
Speaker 2: the monster battles when we hadn't gotten there yet, because

1038
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:20,880
Speaker 2: there was just plenty of fun high jinks with you know,

1039
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:25,280
Speaker 2: these miniature these maximize sets for these miniature characters, and

1040
00:58:25,800 --> 00:58:28,560
Speaker 2: the comedy with the egg Man, and the social commentary

1041
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:32,160
Speaker 2: that was going on regarding like greed and corruption plenty

1042
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:32,880
Speaker 2: to show on here.

1043
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:44,920
Speaker 3: So after they fail in appealing to the businessmen, the

1044
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:49,040
Speaker 3: fairy Twins appeal instead to our heroes, to junko Ichi

1045
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:51,920
Speaker 3: and the Professor. I think this happens in the woods

1046
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:54,320
Speaker 3: outside the hotel. I forget how they get out there.

1047
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:59,360
Speaker 3: But they let the heroes know that the egg actually

1048
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 3: belongs to the giant godlike being of Ewa Island, a Mathra,

1049
00:59:03,720 --> 00:59:06,680
Speaker 3: and it was brought here by the storm. They say

1050
00:59:06,720 --> 00:59:09,680
Speaker 3: there's great potential for disaster when the egg hatches, so

1051
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 3: they must help the Twins return the egg to Ewa

1052
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 3: Island where it belongs.

1053
00:59:14,560 --> 00:59:14,800
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1054
00:59:14,880 --> 00:59:15,080
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1055
00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:17,840
Speaker 2: One of the interesting things about the Twins is when

1056
00:59:17,880 --> 00:59:21,600
Speaker 2: they make themselves known. At first, you just hear them

1057
00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:27,040
Speaker 2: like a voice of one's own conscious, you know, urging

1058
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,120
Speaker 2: you to make the right choices in life instead of

1059
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:30,440
Speaker 2: the greedy path you're following.

1060
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:32,560
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, there are a lot of scenes of

1061
00:59:32,560 --> 00:59:35,280
Speaker 3: them talking in unison, and the characters are like looking

1062
00:59:35,320 --> 00:59:40,680
Speaker 3: around and yeah, where's that coming from? Now? At this point,

1063
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:43,040
Speaker 3: I think maybe I'm going to skip more lightly over

1064
00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:45,160
Speaker 3: some of the machinations in the middle of the movie,

1065
00:59:45,200 --> 00:59:48,880
Speaker 3: but I'll summarize what happened. So the two evil, greedy

1066
00:59:48,920 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 3: businessmen keep scheming. We see them counting money and trying

1067
00:59:53,520 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 3: to scam everybody, including each other, and being possessive over

1068
00:59:56,800 --> 01:00:02,080
Speaker 3: the mathra egg Ichi, Junko and the try to expose

1069
01:00:02,160 --> 01:00:04,680
Speaker 3: the corruption of happy enterprises, but they don't seem to

1070
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:08,920
Speaker 3: be able to stop them. Suddenly, there is a shift

1071
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:11,880
Speaker 3: in the middle of the movie. Remember that blue green

1072
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 3: scale found in the rubble after the typhoon. Well turns

1073
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:19,360
Speaker 3: out the professor has some news about it. It's radioactive

1074
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,680
Speaker 3: and Junko and Ichi touched it. There's a cool scene

1075
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 3: where we see them getting like date, I don't know,

1076
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:29,560
Speaker 3: they're getting decontaminated. They're standing in these purple pink kind

1077
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:33,680
Speaker 3: of chambers, and that's not a good sign because what

1078
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:39,800
Speaker 3: else is radioactive? It's Godzilla baby. So nearby suddenly Godzilla

1079
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:42,800
Speaker 3: starts to rise up out of the earth from out

1080
01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:45,920
Speaker 3: of this desolate field of mud. Do you remember what

1081
01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:49,920
Speaker 3: the field was? Was it a construction site or something else.

1082
01:00:51,040 --> 01:00:54,880
Speaker 2: You get the sense that it's like reclaimed maybe a

1083
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 2: mix of reclaimed c and also the like damaged area

1084
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:01,880
Speaker 2: from the tie because you see, like you know, there's

1085
01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:04,640
Speaker 2: like a boat wreck in there and so forth. And

1086
01:01:04,680 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 2: also that's the idea that like Godzilla has been returned

1087
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:11,640
Speaker 2: to Japan via the storms. But this scene where he

1088
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:14,160
Speaker 2: rises up is pretty amazing. We get that great theme

1089
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 2: song and people are like, oh, oh.

1090
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:20,640
Speaker 3: Goodness, it's happening again, happening again, It's happening again. And

1091
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:24,240
Speaker 3: here he is. He attacks Japan once again, wandering into cities,

1092
01:01:24,360 --> 01:01:28,400
Speaker 3: smashing up buildings and infrastructure. So we see him, I think,

1093
01:01:28,480 --> 01:01:32,840
Speaker 3: knock over like a TV tower and attacks attack of castle,

1094
01:01:32,920 --> 01:01:36,240
Speaker 3: roa castle. Any highlights from this rampage here?

1095
01:01:36,760 --> 01:01:41,680
Speaker 2: Oh well, this is there's some great physical movement of

1096
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:44,960
Speaker 2: Godzilla here. I love that he's at times lumbering, other

1097
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:48,080
Speaker 2: times kind of scrambling again that sense of rage you

1098
01:01:48,200 --> 01:01:52,080
Speaker 2: referenced when he destroys Nagoya Castle. Well, even when he

1099
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:56,760
Speaker 2: destroys that antenna tower, he kind of it's almost like

1100
01:01:56,800 --> 01:01:59,320
Speaker 2: he does so accidentally and it falls on him and

1101
01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:02,480
Speaker 2: it makes him even more angry. And then he kind

1102
01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:04,840
Speaker 2: of like trips and falls in Indigoya Castle, like he

1103
01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:06,919
Speaker 2: didn't really mean to destroy it, but then he's mad

1104
01:02:06,960 --> 01:02:08,880
Speaker 2: at it because he fell on it, and then he

1105
01:02:09,080 --> 01:02:12,400
Speaker 2: just bashes it the rest of the way. I was

1106
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:15,680
Speaker 2: watching rewatching this particular scene with my wife and she

1107
01:02:15,840 --> 01:02:18,440
Speaker 2: was like, well, why is Godzilla so dumb in this movie?

1108
01:02:18,440 --> 01:02:21,160
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, he's not dumb. That god don't

1109
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 2: insult Godzilla's intelligence. But there is the sense it's almost

1110
01:02:25,680 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 2: like he's been thrown out into He wasn't prepared for this.

1111
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:31,040
Speaker 2: He didn't want to go on a rampage today. He

1112
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:34,280
Speaker 2: was slumbering. Now you've woken him up. He's cranky and

1113
01:02:34,360 --> 01:02:37,400
Speaker 2: he's going to destroy stuff. It's not necessarily what he

1114
01:02:37,480 --> 01:02:39,160
Speaker 2: wanted to do with this day, but it's.

1115
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:43,760
Speaker 3: Happening exactly right. We're here now. Yeah, So the Japanese

1116
01:02:43,800 --> 01:02:46,960
Speaker 3: Self Defense Forces they try to fight Godzilla. But since

1117
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:47,760
Speaker 3: when has that done.

1118
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 2: I should note that in the US version of this picture,

1119
01:02:52,720 --> 01:02:55,000
Speaker 2: which is I think what titled Godzilla Versus the Thing,

1120
01:02:56,520 --> 01:03:00,000
Speaker 2: they actually, instead of it being just the Japanese Self

1121
01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 2: Defense Forces, they actually call in the US military, and

1122
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:05,720
Speaker 2: so the scene instead of having the scene where it's

1123
01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:08,040
Speaker 2: the Japanese Self Defense Forces having a meeting about how

1124
01:03:08,080 --> 01:03:11,400
Speaker 2: to attack Godzilla, it's a meeting between the Japanese Self

1125
01:03:11,440 --> 01:03:14,600
Speaker 2: Defense Forces and the US military, and the US military

1126
01:03:14,640 --> 01:03:16,880
Speaker 2: does like a missile strike on Godzilla, which of course

1127
01:03:16,920 --> 01:03:17,479
Speaker 2: doesn't work.

1128
01:03:18,760 --> 01:03:22,240
Speaker 3: So finally, our heroes come up with an idea. I

1129
01:03:22,280 --> 01:03:25,560
Speaker 3: think they're in the newsroom, I believe when they come

1130
01:03:25,640 --> 01:03:27,280
Speaker 3: up with this, right, so they're like talking to the

1131
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:30,680
Speaker 3: editor and stuff. The idea is what if they request

1132
01:03:30,840 --> 01:03:34,040
Speaker 3: help from Mathra Rob Do you remember how they arrive

1133
01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:35,600
Speaker 3: at this idea is.

1134
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:38,160
Speaker 2: I believe the Eggman is the one who look at

1135
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:39,880
Speaker 2: he's like eating an egg back there, and he's like, hey,

1136
01:03:40,240 --> 01:03:42,520
Speaker 2: I've got an egg related idea, and I think this

1137
01:03:42,600 --> 01:03:44,600
Speaker 2: is our solution, And they're like, well, you know, actually

1138
01:03:44,640 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 2: that's it. We should roll with that.

1139
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:49,280
Speaker 3: So the reporters and the professor make the journey to

1140
01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:52,360
Speaker 3: Ewa Island to speak with the people there for the

1141
01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:56,000
Speaker 3: ideas they're going to beg Mathra to help defend them

1142
01:03:56,040 --> 01:04:00,040
Speaker 3: from Godzilla. But when they arrive at Ewa Island and

1143
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:05,960
Speaker 3: they discover devastation. The island has been used for nuclear

1144
01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:06,840
Speaker 3: weapons tests.

1145
01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:11,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is ravaged. It does not look good.

1146
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:14,720
Speaker 2: It is You might be forgiven for expecting it to

1147
01:04:14,720 --> 01:04:17,600
Speaker 2: be like a tropical paradise that they're traveling to, and

1148
01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:22,240
Speaker 2: it probably was, but now it is just devastation.

1149
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:24,160
Speaker 3: Should we mention skeleturtle?

1150
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:27,360
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this was Skeleturtle's deal because at first I

1151
01:04:27,360 --> 01:04:29,560
Speaker 2: thought it was just the skeleton of a turtle. But

1152
01:04:29,640 --> 01:04:30,480
Speaker 2: it moves a little.

1153
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:34,280
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, this is a thing that Godzilla fans have

1154
01:04:34,400 --> 01:04:37,240
Speaker 3: talked about for years. Actually that so we see all

1155
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:40,840
Speaker 3: these bones on this desolate beach where the nuclear tests

1156
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:44,000
Speaker 3: have happened. It's supposed to be scoured of all life.

1157
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:46,680
Speaker 3: And we see like the giant rib cage of some

1158
01:04:46,880 --> 01:04:50,560
Speaker 3: huge animal don't know what it is, but also a

1159
01:04:50,600 --> 01:04:53,880
Speaker 3: turtle and it's bones. It's like a skull and a

1160
01:04:53,920 --> 01:04:58,680
Speaker 3: shell and vertebrae. But it's moving around and there's no

1161
01:04:59,240 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 3: attempt to a this, no explanation. I don't know why

1162
01:05:02,880 --> 01:05:04,800
Speaker 3: it's moving around. I don't know if it's moving around

1163
01:05:04,800 --> 01:05:07,840
Speaker 3: by accident, if it is supposed to be a skeleton

1164
01:05:07,920 --> 01:05:11,400
Speaker 3: that is somehow still alive. The characters don't comment on it,

1165
01:05:11,480 --> 01:05:13,800
Speaker 3: even though it's right there in front of them, so

1166
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:15,960
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's one of the most mysterious things

1167
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:18,520
Speaker 3: about this movie. What is meant by the skeleturtle. It's

1168
01:05:18,520 --> 01:05:21,240
Speaker 3: a haunting image, actually, I mean it kind of suggests

1169
01:05:21,320 --> 01:05:22,400
Speaker 3: a living death.

1170
01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:24,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really does.

1171
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:28,240
Speaker 3: Yeah that like the nuclear testing has been so evil

1172
01:05:28,320 --> 01:05:31,240
Speaker 3: in fact, that it has doomed these these animals to

1173
01:05:31,320 --> 01:05:34,480
Speaker 3: a kind of to a kind of hell existence where

1174
01:05:34,480 --> 01:05:37,200
Speaker 3: they're like dead but they're still there somehow.

1175
01:05:37,520 --> 01:05:39,960
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't seem to be played for comedic effect,

1176
01:05:40,640 --> 01:05:42,040
Speaker 2: and it's not elaborated a buon.

1177
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:45,760
Speaker 3: So anyway, so they go to the people of Ewa Island,

1178
01:05:45,800 --> 01:05:49,440
Speaker 3: who worship Mathra as their god. The local chief is

1179
01:05:49,480 --> 01:05:53,160
Speaker 3: initially not sympathetic to their pleas for help. They're like, wait,

1180
01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:57,200
Speaker 3: you're from the outside world that stole Mathra's egg and

1181
01:05:57,240 --> 01:06:00,800
Speaker 3: wouldn't give it back and does nuclear testing on our

1182
01:06:00,800 --> 01:06:04,120
Speaker 3: island and made skelet turtles here. Why should we help

1183
01:06:04,120 --> 01:06:04,480
Speaker 3: you now?

1184
01:06:04,640 --> 01:06:06,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like, yeah, that's that's true. We would love

1185
01:06:06,600 --> 01:06:10,600
Speaker 2: your unconditional support now in our battle against Godzilla, creature

1186
01:06:10,600 --> 01:06:13,040
Speaker 2: that we are also responsible for. Yeah.

1187
01:06:13,120 --> 01:06:17,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, But Junko makes a plea. Basically, she's like, yeah,

1188
01:06:17,640 --> 01:06:20,160
Speaker 3: there are bad people out there. They're bad people everywhere,

1189
01:06:20,200 --> 01:06:23,360
Speaker 3: bad people in Japan who took the egg. But they're

1190
01:06:23,360 --> 01:06:26,400
Speaker 3: innocent people there too, they didn't do anything to hurt you.

1191
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:29,480
Speaker 3: They're worth defending. And then she makes the point, you know,

1192
01:06:29,600 --> 01:06:32,920
Speaker 3: even bad people don't deserve to be killed by Godzilla,

1193
01:06:33,520 --> 01:06:36,840
Speaker 3: so please help us. And this lands somewhat.

1194
01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:41,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it lands with the local people who

1195
01:06:41,400 --> 01:06:43,400
Speaker 2: are hearing the message, and also I think lands of

1196
01:06:43,440 --> 01:06:46,320
Speaker 2: the audience. I mean it's as potent a message today

1197
01:06:46,360 --> 01:06:47,080
Speaker 2: as it ever was.

1198
01:06:47,560 --> 01:06:49,720
Speaker 3: So the Fairy Twins appear and they get a whole

1199
01:06:49,800 --> 01:06:52,240
Speaker 3: musical number here, like they sing for a long time,

1200
01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:56,320
Speaker 3: and the singing they're singing a song to Mathra to

1201
01:06:56,760 --> 01:07:00,080
Speaker 3: enlist her. Aid, So I think we're getting Mathra on

1202
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:00,520
Speaker 3: on the team.

1203
01:07:00,760 --> 01:07:03,480
Speaker 2: Mathra is gonna happen, But again, Mathra has to be

1204
01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:07,080
Speaker 2: appealed to through song and worship, and then once that

1205
01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:10,200
Speaker 2: message is received, action can take place.

1206
01:07:10,560 --> 01:07:12,560
Speaker 3: Now back on the mainland. We got to check in

1207
01:07:12,600 --> 01:07:15,600
Speaker 3: with our two greedy businessmen. They keep double crossing each

1208
01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:18,200
Speaker 3: other until one finally kills the other one and tries

1209
01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:20,440
Speaker 3: to take all the money for himself. But then I

1210
01:07:20,480 --> 01:07:24,120
Speaker 3: think he dies pretty much immediately because Godzilla crushes the

1211
01:07:24,120 --> 01:07:24,880
Speaker 3: building he's in.

1212
01:07:25,040 --> 01:07:28,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're scrambling over a pile of money and shooting

1213
01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:32,360
Speaker 2: at each other while Godzilla is approaching visibly in the distance,

1214
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:36,760
Speaker 2: looming like a great siege tower, moving in on their headquarters.

1215
01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:39,880
Speaker 2: And yeah, so they both face a fitting destruction here

1216
01:07:40,640 --> 01:07:42,600
Speaker 2: under the heels of Godzilla.

1217
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:48,040
Speaker 3: But eventually, uh oh, Godzilla's rampage sends him in the

1218
01:07:48,080 --> 01:07:49,920
Speaker 3: direction of the egg enclosure.

1219
01:07:51,000 --> 01:07:53,000
Speaker 2: That's right, And this is where you get a sense that,

1220
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:59,880
Speaker 2: you know, Godzilla's violence towards the infrastructure of Nagoya maybe

1221
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:03,000
Speaker 2: more or less accidental, like he's just he's here, he's

1222
01:08:03,000 --> 01:08:05,520
Speaker 2: gonna rambage. He didn't ask to be here. But when

1223
01:08:05,560 --> 01:08:07,800
Speaker 2: he sees that egg, I don't know, there's a sense

1224
01:08:07,840 --> 01:08:11,280
Speaker 2: that like he knows this is Kaiju business, maybe he

1225
01:08:11,320 --> 01:08:14,880
Speaker 2: even knows that what Mathra is or to some extent,

1226
01:08:15,120 --> 01:08:17,320
Speaker 2: but he sees this as an enemy. And there's this

1227
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:21,720
Speaker 2: sequence where where Godzilla stares down the enclosure, and this

1228
01:08:21,800 --> 01:08:24,719
Speaker 2: is about the same time that Mathra is physically arriving.

1229
01:08:25,320 --> 01:08:28,360
Speaker 2: And oh my goodness, the look that Godzilla put pulls

1230
01:08:28,360 --> 01:08:31,760
Speaker 2: here just absolute daggers for eyes. Yes, they just gave

1231
01:08:31,800 --> 01:08:35,280
Speaker 2: me the chills. As he decides as he starts destroying

1232
01:08:35,320 --> 01:08:37,559
Speaker 2: the egg facility, I mean, why would why would you

1233
01:08:37,600 --> 01:08:40,559
Speaker 2: mess with Godzilla here? I mean this look. I included

1234
01:08:40,600 --> 01:08:42,960
Speaker 2: a still for you here, Joe, it's just, oh my goodness,

1235
01:08:43,000 --> 01:08:45,400
Speaker 2: the most intimidating Godzilla stare I've ever seen.

1236
01:08:45,600 --> 01:08:48,479
Speaker 3: Like we're seeing mostly the whites on the underside of

1237
01:08:48,479 --> 01:08:51,080
Speaker 3: his eyes or his pupils are kind of rolled up,

1238
01:08:51,439 --> 01:08:54,800
Speaker 3: and he's got his head hanging down, just like utter

1239
01:08:54,960 --> 01:09:00,320
Speaker 3: contempt and destruction. Yeah. So Godzilla starts smashing the Egging

1240
01:09:00,479 --> 01:09:04,320
Speaker 3: incubation building by side, whipping it with his tail. We

1241
01:09:04,400 --> 01:09:09,400
Speaker 3: see metal crunching, steel beams are falling. But then, oh, intervention,

1242
01:09:09,800 --> 01:09:12,920
Speaker 3: here comes Mathra. Though the mom is the mom is here.

1243
01:09:13,479 --> 01:09:16,160
Speaker 3: So at this point, somehow Ichy Junko in the gang

1244
01:09:16,200 --> 01:09:18,720
Speaker 3: are back. They're on a they like run to a

1245
01:09:18,800 --> 01:09:20,840
Speaker 3: hilltop nearby to watch the battle. I think I may

1246
01:09:20,880 --> 01:09:22,400
Speaker 3: have skipped over. However, they got back.

1247
01:09:22,880 --> 01:09:24,559
Speaker 2: You know, I want to throw in this about the

1248
01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:29,160
Speaker 2: battles that take place between especially between Godzilla and adult

1249
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:32,599
Speaker 2: for Mathra here. Yeah, I think one of the reasons

1250
01:09:32,640 --> 01:09:36,639
Speaker 2: that I long avoided Godzilla versus Mathra is that I

1251
01:09:36,680 --> 01:09:41,519
Speaker 2: didn't in my youth see the potential of the physical battle.

1252
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:44,200
Speaker 2: Like I was more about like the goofy fun of

1253
01:09:44,400 --> 01:09:47,920
Speaker 2: one Kaiju battling another of two dudes in rubber suits

1254
01:09:48,600 --> 01:09:51,120
Speaker 2: wrastling on a minute on a set with a bunch

1255
01:09:51,160 --> 01:09:51,840
Speaker 2: of miniatures.

1256
01:09:51,920 --> 01:09:53,400
Speaker 3: Can you suplex them off?

1257
01:09:53,760 --> 01:09:54,000
Speaker 4: Yeah?

1258
01:09:54,080 --> 01:09:55,280
Speaker 2: I think that was part of it. I was like,

1259
01:09:55,360 --> 01:09:58,600
Speaker 2: I just kind of imagined like the hokiest version of

1260
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:01,120
Speaker 2: this battle where it'd be a puppet a stick versus

1261
01:10:01,120 --> 01:10:03,880
Speaker 2: a guy in a costume. But they do such a

1262
01:10:03,920 --> 01:10:07,960
Speaker 2: great job. It never feels like that here. Mathra never

1263
01:10:08,160 --> 01:10:12,280
Speaker 2: feels like a like a rough puppet. I mean, obviously

1264
01:10:12,439 --> 01:10:15,479
Speaker 2: Matha is created in large part through puppetry, but it's

1265
01:10:15,600 --> 01:10:19,559
Speaker 2: it's it's done superbly, and I just completely bought into

1266
01:10:19,600 --> 01:10:21,599
Speaker 2: the combat between these two entities.

1267
01:10:21,840 --> 01:10:24,719
Speaker 3: Absolutely agree this is one of the best monster battles

1268
01:10:24,720 --> 01:10:25,360
Speaker 3: in the series.

1269
01:10:25,760 --> 01:10:27,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it doesn't. I think I've seen other folks

1270
01:10:28,080 --> 01:10:30,120
Speaker 2: maybe it was Michael Weldon pointing out that like this

1271
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:33,839
Speaker 2: one doesn't get rastly and therefore doesn't have as much silliness.

1272
01:10:33,920 --> 01:10:36,240
Speaker 2: It's it's you know, it's it's out there. It has

1273
01:10:36,280 --> 01:10:39,720
Speaker 2: a lot of like crazy Kaiju weaponry, for sure, but

1274
01:10:39,720 --> 01:10:40,519
Speaker 2: it's a lot of fun.

1275
01:10:41,000 --> 01:10:43,280
Speaker 3: So I think I said this earlier, but one thing

1276
01:10:43,320 --> 01:10:46,599
Speaker 3: I really love here is the sharp metallic ping of

1277
01:10:46,720 --> 01:10:49,840
Speaker 3: Mathra's call. It's like a I don't know, it sounds

1278
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:53,760
Speaker 3: like a like a dagger piercing the air somehow. Yeah,

1279
01:10:53,800 --> 01:10:56,759
Speaker 3: And so we hear that, and Godzilla is still busy

1280
01:10:56,840 --> 01:10:59,240
Speaker 3: like smashing up the buildings trying to get to the egg,

1281
01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:04,120
Speaker 3: but begins furiously flapping her wings and that generates this

1282
01:11:04,280 --> 01:11:09,040
Speaker 3: humongous gale which pushes Godzilla to and fro and it

1283
01:11:09,120 --> 01:11:11,599
Speaker 3: also though knocks over the rest of the building. And

1284
01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:15,280
Speaker 3: now the egg is exposed and Godzilla attacks and ooh,

1285
01:11:15,320 --> 01:11:17,759
Speaker 3: the attack on the egg is actually kind of scary.

1286
01:11:17,800 --> 01:11:20,920
Speaker 3: He's like striking and clawing at it, blasting it with

1287
01:11:20,960 --> 01:11:24,040
Speaker 3: the radioactive breath, and was just thinking like, oh, no,

1288
01:11:24,160 --> 01:11:24,759
Speaker 3: poor egg.

1289
01:11:25,320 --> 01:11:29,400
Speaker 2: Yeah again, Godzilla is betrayed. Is very very much the

1290
01:11:29,520 --> 01:11:34,240
Speaker 2: aggressive beast here, so there's a real frenzy to his

1291
01:11:34,360 --> 01:11:35,760
Speaker 2: movements that I really liked.

1292
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:39,920
Speaker 3: But Mathra intervenes. She grabs Godzilla by the tail and

1293
01:11:40,080 --> 01:11:43,120
Speaker 3: drags him away from the egg. I know, we said

1294
01:11:43,240 --> 01:11:45,120
Speaker 3: it's not too rasseliny, but.

1295
01:11:45,120 --> 01:11:47,000
Speaker 2: This seems kind of like a little rastling.

1296
01:11:47,120 --> 01:11:49,599
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is like when a wrestler like drags another

1297
01:11:49,600 --> 01:11:53,680
Speaker 3: wrestler out of the ring by his leg. Observing from

1298
01:11:53,720 --> 01:11:57,360
Speaker 3: afar by the way, the professor asks what's that yellow powder?

1299
01:11:57,400 --> 01:11:59,320
Speaker 3: And the Fairy Twins are there and they're like, it

1300
01:11:59,400 --> 01:12:02,280
Speaker 3: is Mathra's final weapon, and they explain that it's a

1301
01:12:02,360 --> 01:12:05,880
Speaker 3: kind of poisonous pollen. So she's like coating Godzilla in

1302
01:12:05,960 --> 01:12:07,879
Speaker 3: this like yellow pollen powder.

1303
01:12:08,120 --> 01:12:10,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, like an aerial bombardment of the stuff.

1304
01:12:10,840 --> 01:12:13,640
Speaker 3: So they fight some more, and at one point Godzilla

1305
01:12:13,680 --> 01:12:16,960
Speaker 3: gets the upper hand. He blasts a Mathra with his breath,

1306
01:12:17,360 --> 01:12:20,400
Speaker 3: and Mathra starts to look more and more ragged as

1307
01:12:20,439 --> 01:12:23,439
Speaker 3: she's beaten up in this battle. Oh, I didn't mention this,

1308
01:12:23,520 --> 01:12:25,280
Speaker 3: but we were told earlier by the twins on the

1309
01:12:25,320 --> 01:12:28,600
Speaker 3: island that Mathra is she's sort of like near the

1310
01:12:28,680 --> 01:12:32,800
Speaker 3: end of her life cycle, that she's dying, And so

1311
01:12:32,880 --> 01:12:35,479
Speaker 3: she flies away from battle back to the beach toward

1312
01:12:35,520 --> 01:12:39,160
Speaker 3: the egg, and the Fairy Twins remind us that Mathra

1313
01:12:39,280 --> 01:12:41,599
Speaker 3: is near the end of her life, so she glides

1314
01:12:41,680 --> 01:12:44,320
Speaker 3: down to lot to land beside her egg, and then

1315
01:12:44,360 --> 01:12:47,719
Speaker 3: she dies and Godzilla does here kind of do a wicked,

1316
01:12:47,760 --> 01:12:50,719
Speaker 3: gloating victory dance of swords, but not a silly dance.

1317
01:12:51,080 --> 01:12:55,519
Speaker 3: Right right now here, the military resumes fighting Godzilla. Is

1318
01:12:55,520 --> 01:12:57,519
Speaker 3: this going to do much? Of course not. They shoot

1319
01:12:57,560 --> 01:13:00,040
Speaker 3: some rockets and bombs, we see planes flying around, and

1320
01:13:00,400 --> 01:13:03,320
Speaker 3: there is one part here that I will also say

1321
01:13:03,360 --> 01:13:07,920
Speaker 3: that this is better than the average military bombardment of

1322
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:11,759
Speaker 3: Godzilla scene because there are some effects that are actually

1323
01:13:11,840 --> 01:13:14,559
Speaker 3: kind of visceral. Like there's one part where Godzilla's head

1324
01:13:14,680 --> 01:13:18,520
Speaker 3: catches on fire and oh yeah, looks awesome, but Godzilla

1325
01:13:18,600 --> 01:13:21,040
Speaker 3: just kind of shakes it off. He also gets into

1326
01:13:21,080 --> 01:13:24,360
Speaker 3: a tussle with some high voltage power lines. They also

1327
01:13:24,439 --> 01:13:27,800
Speaker 3: try a big net dropped from a formation of helicopter.

1328
01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:30,479
Speaker 2: They drop like three nets on him, and it looks

1329
01:13:30,520 --> 01:13:31,800
Speaker 2: like it might work, but of.

1330
01:13:31,680 --> 01:13:35,320
Speaker 3: Course Godzilla he hates this, and he proceeds to breathe

1331
01:13:35,360 --> 01:13:38,960
Speaker 3: on and melt a bunch of tanks. Meanwhile, down at

1332
01:13:39,000 --> 01:13:41,759
Speaker 3: the beach, the Fairy Twins are doing a musical number.

1333
01:13:41,800 --> 01:13:44,880
Speaker 3: They have gone down to Mathra's egg and they are

1334
01:13:44,960 --> 01:13:48,120
Speaker 3: singing a song to it, I believe, imploring it to hatch.

1335
01:13:48,520 --> 01:13:51,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and to bring Mathra back into the world again.

1336
01:13:51,439 --> 01:13:56,720
Speaker 2: Mathra is apparently a divine entity of continual death and rebirth.

1337
01:13:57,000 --> 01:13:59,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, And this is intercut with shots of the people

1338
01:13:59,800 --> 01:14:02,679
Speaker 3: on Ewa Island also doing a dance for the egg.

1339
01:14:03,439 --> 01:14:06,439
Speaker 3: And then suddenly at the climax of the song, lightning

1340
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:09,920
Speaker 3: flashes and the egg hatches, and you know what, it's

1341
01:14:10,000 --> 01:14:13,640
Speaker 3: not just one baby Mathra, but two. It's twins, just

1342
01:14:13,800 --> 01:14:15,120
Speaker 3: like the fairy twins.

1343
01:14:15,320 --> 01:14:19,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, two larval Mathras emerge, and so now they have

1344
01:14:19,800 --> 01:14:23,240
Speaker 2: the numbers advantage over a Godzilla. I'm not sure if

1345
01:14:23,240 --> 01:14:25,920
Speaker 2: Godzilla realizes this, but like this is really the point

1346
01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:26,719
Speaker 2: at which he's cooked.

1347
01:14:26,960 --> 01:14:30,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, But so to emphasize, it's not like two little

1348
01:14:31,000 --> 01:14:36,440
Speaker 3: moths with wings. It's grubs. It's like two caterpillars larval mathras.

1349
01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:39,679
Speaker 3: And there are hilarious shots of these two like giant

1350
01:14:39,800 --> 01:14:44,400
Speaker 3: red brown grubs humping through the ocean towards the after.

1351
01:14:43,800 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 2: Like it's like, yeah, it's kind of like the their

1352
01:14:47,479 --> 01:14:50,200
Speaker 2: sea serpents or something. You know, or but also kind

1353
01:14:50,200 --> 01:14:51,200
Speaker 2: of like water buffaloes.

1354
01:14:51,479 --> 01:14:51,639
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1355
01:14:51,720 --> 01:14:54,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're going through the water because we learned there's

1356
01:14:54,560 --> 01:14:58,160
Speaker 3: this whole subplot about like there are some school children

1357
01:14:58,280 --> 01:15:01,800
Speaker 3: on Ewa Island and they're still there, and then Godzilla

1358
01:15:01,840 --> 01:15:04,280
Speaker 3: starts going towards Ewa Island and they're like, oh no,

1359
01:15:04,360 --> 01:15:06,920
Speaker 3: the school children and they're in danger, and almost as

1360
01:15:06,960 --> 01:15:10,480
Speaker 3: if to protect them, the grubs like chase after Godzilla

1361
01:15:10,520 --> 01:15:13,800
Speaker 3: through the water and they go to the island. The

1362
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:16,360
Speaker 3: three human protagonists go there as well, and they sort

1363
01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:19,879
Speaker 3: of get busy rescuing the school children while Godzilla fights

1364
01:15:19,960 --> 01:15:23,280
Speaker 3: these two little moth grubs. And this fight is funny

1365
01:15:23,320 --> 01:15:25,240
Speaker 3: and I think it is meant to be, Like one

1366
01:15:25,360 --> 01:15:28,040
Speaker 3: bites Godzilla on the tail and he starts whipping it

1367
01:15:28,080 --> 01:15:31,280
Speaker 3: all around to get it off. But in this battle

1368
01:15:31,280 --> 01:15:34,760
Speaker 3: between Zilla and two grubs, who's gonna win? And how

1369
01:15:35,600 --> 01:15:38,760
Speaker 3: well I love the final way they defeat him. The

1370
01:15:39,240 --> 01:15:43,799
Speaker 3: moth larvae start blasting Godzilla with their silk. They shoot

1371
01:15:43,840 --> 01:15:46,240
Speaker 3: like spider silk, but they're, of course, you know, these

1372
01:15:46,240 --> 01:15:51,000
Speaker 3: little grubs, and they essentially cocoon him alive. They're spinning

1373
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:54,000
Speaker 3: more and more silk, throwing it over him. He's furious.

1374
01:15:54,040 --> 01:15:57,880
Speaker 3: He's breathing radioactive breath. He's whipping all around. But he

1375
01:15:57,920 --> 01:16:02,400
Speaker 3: eventually gets wrapped up and incapacitated and just breathing all

1376
01:16:02,439 --> 01:16:05,880
Speaker 3: over in random directions, furious, and he finally falls to

1377
01:16:05,920 --> 01:16:08,559
Speaker 3: the ground, rolls down over the edge of a cliff

1378
01:16:08,640 --> 01:16:11,320
Speaker 3: and into the ocean, sinking out of sight. It's a

1379
01:16:11,360 --> 01:16:13,360
Speaker 3: glorious way to defeat Godzilla.

1380
01:16:13,960 --> 01:16:16,240
Speaker 2: I think it's clear that Godzilla is not killed, you know,

1381
01:16:16,360 --> 01:16:19,439
Speaker 2: It's like he is just defeated for now. He will

1382
01:16:19,439 --> 01:16:22,960
Speaker 2: probably be back, and hopefully humanity can get it together,

1383
01:16:24,320 --> 01:16:27,840
Speaker 2: maybe avoid some of their greed and self interest in

1384
01:16:27,920 --> 01:16:30,559
Speaker 2: order to better prepare for his eventual return.

1385
01:16:30,880 --> 01:16:33,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we see the grubs swimming away. We can

1386
01:16:33,240 --> 01:16:35,960
Speaker 3: hear the fairy twins yelling goodbye in unison. I guess

1387
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:38,080
Speaker 3: they're going with them. I don't think we see them.

1388
01:16:38,840 --> 01:16:42,760
Speaker 3: And then the humans watch the baby Mathras leaving and

1389
01:16:42,920 --> 01:16:45,760
Speaker 3: one of them says, shouldn't we thank them? But then

1390
01:16:45,840 --> 01:16:48,120
Speaker 3: Iachi says the only way to thank them is to

1391
01:16:48,160 --> 01:16:51,120
Speaker 3: build a better world, and the Professor says, that's right,

1392
01:16:51,360 --> 01:16:56,800
Speaker 3: a world based on mutual trust. There's a little direct there.

1393
01:16:56,880 --> 01:17:00,320
Speaker 3: It's not super subtle, But you know, I appreciate the sentiment. Right,

1394
01:17:00,360 --> 01:17:03,160
Speaker 3: that is, you have plainly stated the moral of the film.

1395
01:17:03,640 --> 01:17:07,800
Speaker 2: Well, you know I like it, Yeah, firmly stated. It

1396
01:17:07,880 --> 01:17:11,439
Speaker 2: serves for us to be reminded because we'll inevitably forget

1397
01:17:11,520 --> 01:17:14,559
Speaker 2: and build a world that is highly susceptible to Godzilla's attack.

1398
01:17:15,080 --> 01:17:17,800
Speaker 3: Yes, it will happen again in Godora the Three Headed Monster.

1399
01:17:17,880 --> 01:17:20,840
Speaker 3: I forget what the precipitating event is in that one,

1400
01:17:20,880 --> 01:17:24,960
Speaker 3: but you know they're gonna do. Something's gonna happen, all right,

1401
01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:27,960
Speaker 3: Any other business about Mathra versus Godzilla before we wrap

1402
01:17:27,960 --> 01:17:28,240
Speaker 3: it up?

1403
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:30,799
Speaker 2: Oh, just to say that I think it's absolutely solid.

1404
01:17:30,880 --> 01:17:34,640
Speaker 2: It has a great message. Again, the monster battles are amazing,

1405
01:17:34,760 --> 01:17:38,200
Speaker 2: but everything else is also richly entertaining and at times

1406
01:17:38,240 --> 01:17:44,800
Speaker 2: intentionally hilarious. Looks great, sounds great. Would I would be

1407
01:17:44,840 --> 01:17:47,280
Speaker 2: inclined to say, again, I can't pretend to be a

1408
01:17:47,320 --> 01:17:50,400
Speaker 2: Godzilla completest. I haven't seen I haven't even seen all

1409
01:17:50,439 --> 01:17:52,439
Speaker 2: of the show era films. I certainly haven't seen all

1410
01:17:52,479 --> 01:17:54,800
Speaker 2: of the Godzilla films period, and I haven't seen the

1411
01:17:54,880 --> 01:17:58,360
Speaker 2: recent ones, which I'm to understand also feature Mathra. But

1412
01:17:58,880 --> 01:18:01,439
Speaker 2: I would say if you've never seen a Godzilla film before,

1413
01:18:01,520 --> 01:18:06,799
Speaker 2: and you're open to watching films from previous decades, Mathera

1414
01:18:06,880 --> 01:18:10,160
Speaker 2: versus Godzilla is a pretty good place to start. I mean,

1415
01:18:10,160 --> 01:18:12,800
Speaker 2: if you're not gonna start with the original one. In

1416
01:18:12,840 --> 01:18:16,240
Speaker 2: the original Godzilla film, this is this is really good.

1417
01:18:16,280 --> 01:18:20,280
Speaker 2: You get, you get heal Godzilla, you get beautiful Mathra get,

1418
01:18:20,840 --> 01:18:23,640
Speaker 2: you get amusing performances and a nice message. What more

1419
01:18:23,680 --> 01:18:24,360
Speaker 2: can you ask for?

1420
01:18:24,640 --> 01:18:27,840
Speaker 3: I would say this is the most Godzilla film of

1421
01:18:27,920 --> 01:18:30,960
Speaker 3: all the Godzilla films I've seen it. It has all

1422
01:18:31,040 --> 01:18:34,240
Speaker 3: of the core elements in their most perfect form.

1423
01:18:34,520 --> 01:18:37,400
Speaker 2: Right right. And you might enter into this film being

1424
01:18:37,640 --> 01:18:39,960
Speaker 2: a Mathra skeptic like I think I used to be,

1425
01:18:40,360 --> 01:18:42,280
Speaker 2: but you will be won over by Mathra and you

1426
01:18:42,280 --> 01:18:45,200
Speaker 2: will realize that she is indeed the Queen of monsters.

1427
01:18:45,240 --> 01:18:47,840
Speaker 2: All hail, All right, We're gonna gohe and close out

1428
01:18:47,880 --> 01:18:50,840
Speaker 2: this episode of Weird House Cinema, but we'd love to

1429
01:18:50,840 --> 01:18:52,679
Speaker 2: hear from all of you. We know you have thoughts

1430
01:18:52,720 --> 01:18:55,920
Speaker 2: on this Godzilla film and many other Godzilla films will

1431
01:18:55,920 --> 01:18:57,799
Speaker 2: remind you that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily

1432
01:18:57,880 --> 01:19:00,599
Speaker 2: a science and culture podcast with core episode on Tuesdays

1433
01:19:00,600 --> 01:19:02,920
Speaker 2: and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside most serious

1434
01:19:02,920 --> 01:19:04,640
Speaker 2: concerns to just talk about a weird film here on

1435
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:07,320
Speaker 2: Weirdhouse Cinema. If you would like to see a list

1436
01:19:07,320 --> 01:19:09,160
Speaker 2: of all the movies we've covered over the years, go

1437
01:19:09,240 --> 01:19:12,000
Speaker 2: to letterbox dot com. Our username there is weird House

1438
01:19:12,400 --> 01:19:14,840
Speaker 2: and we're experimenting with something new. If you want to

1439
01:19:15,000 --> 01:19:18,639
Speaker 2: follow Weird House Cinema exclusively wherever you get your podcast,

1440
01:19:18,720 --> 01:19:21,879
Speaker 2: it now has its own playlist. So Weird House Cinema

1441
01:19:21,920 --> 01:19:24,280
Speaker 2: is still very much publishing to the Stuff to Blow

1442
01:19:24,320 --> 01:19:26,960
Speaker 2: Your Mind podcast feed. That is its home, that is

1443
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:29,639
Speaker 2: the core place to subscribe for all of our content,

1444
01:19:29,840 --> 01:19:33,320
Speaker 2: but we're experimenting with having this additional way to seek

1445
01:19:33,360 --> 01:19:35,439
Speaker 2: out the episodes in their own environment.

1446
01:19:35,720 --> 01:19:39,400
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.

1447
01:19:39,680 --> 01:19:41,160
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1448
01:19:41,160 --> 01:19:43,639
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1449
01:19:43,680 --> 01:19:45,719
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1450
01:19:45,880 --> 01:19:48,519
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow

1451
01:19:48,560 --> 01:19:56,040
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

1452
01:19:56,200 --> 01:19:59,120
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1453
01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:03,160
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