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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob

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Speaker 1: Lamb and ooh. Today we're going to revisit nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: four's mathra Versus Godzilla. This episode originally published five twenty three,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. It is a whole lot of fun.

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Speaker 1: Let's have it.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob

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Speaker 1: Lamb 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 1: This is our third Godzilla movie, following nineteen seventy one's

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Speaker 1: Godzilla versus Hetera and nineteen sixty nine's All Monsters Attack.

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Speaker 1: That's films eleven and ten, respectively. This is also our

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Speaker 1: third issue a Honda film. He directed this All Monsters

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Speaker 1: Attack and a nineteen sixty nine film titled Atragon we've

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Speaker 1: talked about on the show before. That is a flying

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Speaker 1: submarine and another Kaiju creature. He is. He is one

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Speaker 1: of only a handful of directors that we have featured

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Speaker 1: 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 cannon, 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 mone monster

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: that opinion. I like it a lot more than some

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Speaker 3: of the more mainstream monster slams in the middle of

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Speaker 3: the original run. I think it's weirdness actually kind of

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Speaker 3: makes it more unique, really makes it stand out. But

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Speaker 3: I will agree, yes, it is one of the most

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Speaker 3: unusual Godzilla films.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, if

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Speaker 1: you're watching a Godzilla movie or any Kaiji movie, it's

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Speaker 1: 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 a specially popular with kids, I think All

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

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Speaker 3: really say was explicitly just made for children, and it

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Speaker 3: was just a kid's movie. The main character is a

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Speaker 3: lonely little boy whose parents are always busy working, and

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Speaker 3: so he sort of has Godzilla and the previously introduced

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Speaker 3: baby Zilla creature known as Manila. Like Mini Godzilla as

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Speaker 3: imaginary friends. All Monsters Attack was also a very budget

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Speaker 3: conscious film, making extensive use of archival footage from previous

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Speaker 3: Godzilla movies, recycling fights and inserting them in creative ways

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Speaker 3: into this framing narrative about the little boy who imagines

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Speaker 3: the adventures of Godzilla and Manila. This one was also

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Speaker 3: unusual for the series because within this frame narrative, it

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Speaker 3: was understood that Godzilla and the other monsters are basically

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Speaker 3: fictional beings. So they're not being portrayed as acting within

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

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

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Speaker 3: in Almoster's Attack, they are creatures of the imagination, and

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

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Speaker 3: mean 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 explicitly

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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 1: Yeah. Yeah, that one was very interesting in that in

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Speaker 1: many ways, you could see it as a lesser Godzilla

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Speaker 1: film because it is clearly, you know, aimed at children,

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Speaker 1: and it has a has a mini Godzilla and so forth.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it does like chew a little bit on

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Speaker 1: the meaning of a Kaiju film. So I really did

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Speaker 1: 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 Godzilla would himself usually take in

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

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Speaker 3: rather his antagonist Mathra.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the title is Mathra versus Godzilla, which kind of

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Speaker 1: does imply that Mathra has top billing. We'll get into

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Speaker 1: that a little bit. But also it is like Mathra

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Speaker 1: against Godzilla. Mathra is a force in opposition to Godzilla,

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Speaker 1: And yeah, Mathra is absolutely good. Mathra is a protector.

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Speaker 1: It's not one of these like though the enemy of

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Speaker 1: my enemy monster is my friend monster. No, like Mathra

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Speaker 1: is a divine being. The Mathra is the creature of

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Speaker 1: 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 1: But she also looks very soft, like, yeah, she's kind

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Speaker 1: of furree. So I mean there is a very nice

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Speaker 1: 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: you know, more texturally pleasing than most of the monsters

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Speaker 3: in the Godzilla series, which are often quite spiny and

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Speaker 3: scaly looking. But also Mathra Versus Godzilla is the last

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Speaker 3: film of the original Toho run to make Godzilla a

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Speaker 3: bad guy. You could argue that Godzilla is more or

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Speaker 3: less the villain, or, if not a morally culpable villain,

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Speaker 3: at least a threatening and destructive force to humans in

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Speaker 3: the first four movies, So I think maybe we should

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Speaker 3: run through those really quick to figure out how we

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Speaker 3: get to Mathra Versus Godzilla. So you've got the original

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Speaker 3: Godzilla in nineteen fifty four. This, as we've talked about

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Speaker 3: in the past, is a dark, haunting, somber tale about

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Speaker 3: a monster created by nuclear weapons testing, which rises up

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Speaker 3: out of the sea and attacks Japan. The first movie

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Speaker 3: here was inspired in part by some events in the

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

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Speaker 3: World War two and the atomic bombing of Japan, but

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Speaker 3: then also there were more recent events that I've read

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Speaker 3: were a major influence on the original Godzilla. One of

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: at Bikini Atole. And you can see the influence of

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: suit wrestling matches that you would get in later movies,

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Speaker 3: I think will be quite shocked by the dark and

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Speaker 3: serious tone of the first movie.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the original Godzilla black and white. Godzilla is an

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Speaker 1: absolute destroyer and a thing that arises out of humanity's

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Speaker 1: atomic age sins.

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Speaker 3: Really Yeah. 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 at I don't know if it makes

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

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

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Speaker 3: first movie. Certainly a destructive force of nature or a

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

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Speaker 3: and technology.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's the way to look at it. Like, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not like he has much of a persona beyond that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he is like some sort of dark anti

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Speaker 1: god that has been summoned by human technology and human advancement.

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Speaker 3: Not here to help yea. Yeah. Then after that, so

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Speaker 3: that's fifty four. Then after that you've got Godzilla raids

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Speaker 3: again in nineteen fifty five. This was a fast follow

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Speaker 3: up movie to capitalize on the success of the original Godzilla.

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Speaker 3: This one not directed by Ishi ro Honda but by

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Speaker 3: Modeyoshi Oda. Mostly gone in this one are the anti war,

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Speaker 3: anti nuclear themes. I haven't actually seen this movie, but

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Speaker 3: from what I've read it, it's described as kind of

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Speaker 3: a fast paced adventure where Godzilla ends up fighting another

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Speaker 3: giant monster. I believe based on an ankylosaur model. It's

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Speaker 3: like a quadrupedal dinosaur covered in spines called anguiras. Worth

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Speaker 3: noting here that the Godzilla of this movie was not

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Speaker 3: supposed to be the same individual as the original Godzilla,

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Speaker 3: who died at the end of the first movie. Is

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Speaker 3: just another giant radioactive reptile.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the first movie, Godzilla

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Speaker 1: is destroyed, and there's just kind of there's this warning.

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Speaker 1: It's like, if we don't change our ways, there could

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Speaker 1: be more Godzillas. Yeah, and yeah, it came to pass.

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Speaker 1: Here they come.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and then after this there actually would not be

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Speaker 3: another Godzilla movie for eight years, but Toho did not

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Speaker 3: abandon the Kaiju the giant monster format. Instead, they introduced

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

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

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Speaker 3: flying teran don basically this one is also directed by

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: original Toho Kaiju after Godzilla.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that seems to be the case. I was reading

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Speaker 1: a bit about this in Godzilla The show What Era

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Speaker 1: Films nineteen fifty four through nineteen seventy five, which is

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Speaker 1: the book Slash Blu Ray Collection that the Criterion Collection

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Speaker 1: put out, with the textual part written by Steve Rifele,

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Speaker 1: who is, as far as I can tell, like the

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Speaker 1: main English language authority on Godzilla films. I've heard him

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Speaker 1: 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 1: It is a testimony to just how beautiful physical media

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Speaker 1: can be for films. But one of the points I'll

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Speaker 1: keep coming back to some of the things that Rifle

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Speaker 1: has to say about these about these movies, the Rifle

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Speaker 1: points out that during this period this is like a

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Speaker 1: golden age of Japanese cinema. Japanese film studios were really cooking.

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Speaker 1: A lot of great serious films were coming out. But

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Speaker 1: also in these other buckets of content. There was like

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Speaker 1: a lot of innovation. People were trying new things, and

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Speaker 1: I think that's part of what we're seeing here is

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Speaker 1: like Godzilla was a success, but they were trying. They

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Speaker 1: were expanding what Kaiju could be as well. So it's

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Speaker 1: like they weren't going to rest on their laurels necessarily

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Speaker 1: and just put out Godzilla films, though they will eventually

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Speaker 1: kind of return to form with this, like let's come

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Speaker 1: back to Godzilla and maybe we'll bring in some things

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Speaker 1: that we learned and some creatures we created from these

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Speaker 1: 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 right at least got

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

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Speaker 3: a 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 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 1: Yeah, and Rifle says that the that Honda was not

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Speaker 1: a big fan of this, this sort of treatment of

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Speaker 1: Godzilla and certainly some of the stuff we see in

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Speaker 1: some subsequent films where Godzilla is essentially dancing and doing pratfalls. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think he makes a strong point that when Honda

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Speaker 1: is on board for a picture, there is going to

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Speaker 1: You're going to see more of a move towards capturing

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Speaker 1: something serious about Godzilla and maybe leaning a little bit

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Speaker 1: more into social commentary than some of the other pictures.

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Speaker 1: Are those Some of the non Honda pictures, like the

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Speaker 1: Hetero Picture, are actually quite serious in their own right

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Speaker 1: 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: and I think it's more like that. You know, he

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like he did. He's seem to be opposed to

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Speaker 1: ignoring the legacy of Godzilla and what Godzilla originally meant.

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Speaker 1: You can certainly drift and evolve the brand, but you

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Speaker 1: don't want to abandon some of the key principles of

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Speaker 1: 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 their

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Speaker 3: great godlike moth dear to come to their aid. And

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

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

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Speaker 1: And they should feel bad. Yeah, we'll discussed.

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

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Speaker 3: order because this is the last time in this original

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Speaker 3: run 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 1: Yeah, when they essentially are relaunching Godzilla and going back

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Speaker 1: 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 1: Yeah? I think we should. It's interesting to think about

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Speaker 1: about all of this in comparison to the way I

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Speaker 1: think most of us have consumed Godzilla media, like, most

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Speaker 1: of us have probably not seen them. First of all,

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Speaker 1: most of us have not seen all of them, and

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Speaker 1: most of us have certainly not seen them in order.

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Speaker 1: I know, growing up, it's like I would catch Godzilla

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Speaker 1: movies on television exclusively. I don't know that I had

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Speaker 1: ever rented a Godzilla movie growing up. Maybe one of

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Speaker 1: the later and one or two of the later, you know,

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Speaker 1: films from the nineties or something, But for the most part,

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Speaker 1: it's just Godzilla movies came on. You might not catch

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Speaker 1: all of them, you might just catch parts of them

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Speaker 1: even you don't didn't know where in the in the

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Speaker 1: order they fell. And then you're just continually making new

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Speaker 1: discoveries about what a Godzilla movie can be.

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

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Speaker 1: Ooh, that's a tough one, because you know there were

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Speaker 1: some there was a there was a there was one

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Speaker 1: Godzilla movie in particular, I remember seeing on Mystery Sens

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Speaker 1: they three thousand as a kid. But then there were

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Speaker 1: some others that they would just play on various Turner

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Speaker 1: broadcast stations. I want to say that it was Godzilla

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Speaker 1: versus the Sea Monster. I think that was the one,

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Speaker 1: one of the big crab monster. I think that might

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Speaker 1: have been the first one I saw a Bira. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: 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 Versus, 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 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 1: I don't think i've seen that one. Yeah, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: obviously I'd love to hear listeners tell us what their

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Speaker 1: experience was with the Godzilla franchise. What was the first

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Speaker 1: Godzilla film you saw, and then what was your what

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Speaker 1: subsequently did you get into, Like where did you go

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Speaker 1: from there? Did you move forward in time or backwards

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Speaker 1: in time. I'm sure there's some listeners who haven't even

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Speaker 1: seen any of the show era Godzilla films, you might

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Speaker 1: be more familiar with some of the current big Hollywood

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Speaker 1: 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 too,

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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 two are journalists, and their real struggle is

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Speaker 3: resisting 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 like ask the embodiment of these

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

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Speaker 3: also there so much in the environment, Like the kind

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Speaker 3: of haunted, diminished, destroyed kind of environment of the original

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Speaker 3: Moved is so different in math Reverses, where the environment

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Speaker 3: feels like it's just bustling and full of public works

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Speaker 3: and things being built in industry and money making.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, the world of mathra versus Godzilla was a

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Speaker 1: world on the move, a world on the grow. Everyone

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Speaker 1: is very distracted with the capitalist exercise here, and that's

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Speaker 1: kind of the whole point of it is that Godzilla

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Speaker 1: is going to happen again. But if we're just too

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Speaker 1: greedy and too bound up in our and chasing riches

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Speaker 1: and growing everything, we're not going to be in a

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Speaker 1: place where we can resist him again when he attacks.

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Speaker 1: In fact, as we'll discuss, it's like all this greed

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Speaker 1: is getting in the way of various preparations that could

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Speaker 1: 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 1: Yeah, that's a great point. But the solution again is

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Speaker 1: getting out of that and getting into more of a

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Speaker 1: collective approach towards problems. Yeah, all right, Well, let's go

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Speaker 1: ahead and listen to just a little splash of the

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Speaker 1: trailer here. This is, I believe, from the original Japanese.

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Speaker 4: Trade, not what's say you know, what's.

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Speaker 5: What's making Joe Cunt three and your respect.

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Speaker 1: All right, if you would like to watch mathra versus Godzilla,

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Speaker 1: you should be able to get a hold of it.

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Speaker 1: To be clear, though, this is Manthra versus Godzilla, not

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Speaker 1: Godzilla versus Mathra, because Godzilla versus Matha is the name

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Speaker 1: of a later Godzilla film that features both of these kaiju.

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Speaker 1: It's it's a mistake that you would be forgiven for making.

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Speaker 1: And if you make this mistake, you're still going to

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Speaker 1: get to watch a Godzilla movie, so you know, it's

395
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Speaker 1: 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

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Speaker 3: it for you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you can get it a number of places. Again,

399
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Speaker 1: the Criterion Collection Godzilla the Showa era Films fifty four

400
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Speaker 1: through seventy five Blu ray set is amazing, hard back,

401
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Speaker 1: beautifully illustrated book has no fewer than fifteen Godzilla films

402
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Speaker 1: on Blu ray in there. If you're looking to stream,

403
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Speaker 1: Criterion Channel currently offers this among many other Godzilla films,

404
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Speaker 1: and there may be other places you can get it

405
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Speaker 1: as well.

406
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Speaker 3: I streamed it on the Criterion Channel before my discs

407
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Speaker 3: came in, and it looks great on their transfer as well,

408
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Speaker 3: So the streaming option there is really good. But yeah,

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

410
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Speaker 3: is hard to get on a good Blu Ray. I

411
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Speaker 3: think there's like there's one that's out of print or

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Speaker 3: maybe some at least in the US region.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know it's a Japanese Blu ray that was

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Speaker 1: being sold as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I watched it on Blu Ray, but I also had

417
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Speaker 1: the pleasure of seeing it on the big screen at

418
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Speaker 1: Atlanta's Historic Plaza Theater a week or so ago as

419
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Speaker 1: part of the Silver Screams spook show series. It was

420
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Speaker 1: pretty great. It was a packed crowd, like the entire

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Speaker 1: theater was packed out at very enthusiastic bunch. There were

422
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Speaker 1: people in their Godzilla and Mathra jackets that people were

423
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Speaker 1: we in Mathra merks. There were some big Mathra fans there.

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Speaker 1: They had a big Mathra puppet that they paraded around

425
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Speaker 1: before we watched it. A whole lot of fun. I

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Speaker 1: got to see it with my kid. And if you're

427
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Speaker 1: interested in the Silver Screams spook Show series, they're going

428
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Speaker 1: to be showing nineteen seventy seven Sinbad and the Eye

429
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Speaker 1: of the Tiger in July.

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

431
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Speaker 1: Oh wow, So we might come back to that one

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Speaker 1: on Weird House.

433
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 3: We'll see. From what I recall, it's a hoot in

434
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:52,360
Speaker 3: terms of story and acting, and it has some really

435
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:56,200
Speaker 3: really great stop motion monsters in it, a particularly a

436
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 3: minotaur robot that's like a bronze or gold minotaur robot

437
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 3: called the Mino Ton.

438
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,879
Speaker 1: All right, let's roll through the folks involved in this picture.

439
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hit everybody. There are going to

440
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: be some that we may come back to later to

441
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,359
Speaker 1: credit who the actor was, but I want to hit

442
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:25,360
Speaker 1: the major points. So starting with the director again. It's

443
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 1: issue Rohanda, who lived nineteen eleven through nineteen ninety three,

444
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: legendary Toho film director who filmed nineteen fifty four of Godzilla,

445
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 1: the Movie that started at all. He directed forty four

446
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: pictures in total, eight of those Godzilla films, culminating in

447
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy five film Terror of Mecca Godzilla, which,

448
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 1: according to Steve Rifle, kind of comes back and serves

449
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: as a proper cap to a lot of the silliness,

450
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: you know, coming back and making maybe a little more

451
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: serious and a little darker look at the Godzilla world.

452
00:26:55,800 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: He also directed Rodin the Mysterians, The Human Vapor Tango,

453
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:05,120
Speaker 1: Frankenstein Versus Beragon, The War of the Gargantuan Space Amba,

454
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: and more. He was a friend of director Akira Kurosawa

455
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:13,200
Speaker 1: and served as director counselor or or chief assistant director

456
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: on Kurasawa's nineteen eighty five epic Run, and his name

457
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: continues to appear in the credits on Godzilla movies and

458
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:25,679
Speaker 1: in other homages to the Godzilla franchise. According to Steve Rifle,

459
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 1: Honda started out directing more like sort of like lower budget,

460
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: thoughtful films about youthful characters and sort of you know

461
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: the challenges of growing up. But then you know, ends

462
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: up getting thrown into this world of Godzilla, and this,

463
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 1: you know, comes to defind him as a filmmaker. And

464
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 1: you know, he kind of stuck to his guns as

465
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: much as possible about the seriousness of the original Godzilla picture,

466
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:56,640
Speaker 1: and so when his name is attached to it, yeah,

467
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 1: there does seem to be this this pivot back to

468
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: awards the darker roots of the being. All right, So

469
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,640
Speaker 1: that's the director. A writer once more is Shinichi Sakazawa,

470
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: who of nineteen twenty through nineteen ninety two frequent collaborator

471
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,919
Speaker 1: with Honda and scribe of many Godzilla movies, beginning with

472
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 1: sixty two's King Kong Versus Godzilla. Their Godzilla credits stretch

473
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: from here all the way up to nineteen eighty nine's

474
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:26,679
Speaker 1: Godzilla Versus Bio Lanta. That's just a story credit, but

475
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: still that's kind of like the full saga of their

476
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:32,879
Speaker 1: credits with the Godzilla franchise.

477
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,679
Speaker 3: Speaking of tone and seriousness, I think another one of

478
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 3: the things Rifle mentions in that book is that there

479
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 3: were a number of writers who contributed to this early

480
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 3: run of Godzilla films and Sekizawa, I think is the

481
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 3: one more often associated with a somewhat lighter tone and

482
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 3: more openness to comedy, which is there in Mathra. To

483
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 3: be clear, like this one is. It's not as silly

484
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 3: as some of the later movies, but it does have

485
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 3: a lot of comedy. Like the villains are very clownish in.

486
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: It, yes, the human villains. Yeah, yet it has some

487
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: great human comedy. The monsters are mostly treated with abjects seriousness,

488
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 1: but there's some very silly human antics in there as well.

489
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,719
Speaker 3: Yeah. And also the guy who just is always eating eggs.

490
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: Yes, we'll get to him in a second, but yeah,

491
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: so we'll start with talking about the humans here and

492
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: the monsters. I want to start with the forces of liberty,

493
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 1: progression and also eggs. We mentioned that the leads the

494
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 1: main characters here are journalists, and our main hero journalist

495
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: is the character Ichiro Sakai played by Akira Takarata, who

496
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 1: lived nineteen thirty four through twenty twenty two. Cocky but

497
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: honorable journalist, a little tough to love at first. He

498
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: comes off a little rough around the edges, but you

499
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 1: grow to realize that he really cares about the truth

500
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: and about doing what's right in the world world through

501
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 1: his journalism.

502
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, he from the beginning has integrity. He's not as

503
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 3: likable in the beginning just because he's kind of he's

504
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 3: sort of bossy and he's like demanding of respect from

505
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 3: people around him, and I don't know, maybe maybe they're

506
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 3: not giving him enough respect. I don't know, but yeah,

507
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 3: you come around to him throughout the movie.

508
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: So Takarata has the top billing here, but he actually

509
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 1: appeared in different roles in numerous Godzilla films, including fifty

510
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: four's Godzilla Invasion of the Astro Monster, in nineteen sixty five,

511
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: Godzilla versus the Sea Monster from sixty six, as well

512
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: as nineteen ninety two's Godzilla versus Mathra and Godzilla Final

513
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: Wars from two thousand and four. He's also in King

514
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 1: Kong Escapes from sixty seven. That's one I haven't seen yet,

515
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 1: but it's always been on my list because it features

516
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 1: not only King Kong in Kaiju form, but also a

517
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: mecha Kong called Macanny Kong, and so he's in that.

518
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 1: And then Takarada is also in the nineteen fifty five

519
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 1: I believe Yeti horror film Half Humano. All right, so

520
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: he's our lead journalist, but then his photographer is the

521
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:16,600
Speaker 1: character Junko Nakanishi, played by Yuriko Hoshi, who lived nineteen

522
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: forty three through twenty eighteen. She also appears in Gdora

523
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 1: the Three Headed Monster from sixty four in a different role,

524
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: as well as in Godzilla versus Mega Gurius in two thousand.

525
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 1: Her other credits include nineteen sixty eight's Kill and nineteen

526
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 1: ninety six's Night Trains to the Stars. This was a

527
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: supporting role that earned her a Japanese Academy Award.

528
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 3: In this movie, she plays a character who is sometimes

529
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 3: kind of impractical or overly concerned with the artistic side

530
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 3: of life. For certainly for her boss at the paper here,

531
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 3: who's like, you're not doing art, just snap the pictures

532
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 3: and move on.

533
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:58,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't have to focus your camera, just take

534
00:31:58,600 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: a picture of it.

535
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 3: But she's also really kind of the conscience of the movie,

536
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,760
Speaker 3: Like she gives a speech on the island of Ewa

537
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 3: that our ticket that is sort of like what motivates

538
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 3: the people to say, okay, Mathra can come dear Aid

539
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 3: and she and multiple points along the film is kind

540
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 3: of the voice of reason and conscience when other people

541
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 3: are doing wrong.

542
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, Yeah, she's no mere sidekick here.

543
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:28,160
Speaker 3: But she's also amusingly pushy. Like there's one part where Ichi,

544
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 3: the other reporter, is like trying to get a question

545
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 3: with this professor, and the professor is like, I don't

546
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 3: have time for this, and then she butts in and

547
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 3: she is like, wait, one question, and then he's like, okay,

548
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 3: what is it? And then she just steps aside and

549
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:42,480
Speaker 3: it's like okay, yeah, ask.

550
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: Him, all right. So those are our journalists. But we

551
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: do have a scientist in the mixed Professor Mura, played

552
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: by Hiroshi Kozumi, who lived nineteen twenty six through twenty fifteen.

553
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: He'd also played a scientist character in Mathra, the previous

554
00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: film to feature this monster, and return playing the same

555
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,800
Speaker 1: professor character in Godora the Three Headed Monster. His other

556
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: films include Atragn nineteen sixty three's Matango, Godzilla Versus Mega, Godzilla,

557
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 1: Godzilla Raids Again, and Ikiu from nineteen.

558
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 3: Fifty two, Oh, the Corsawa movie.

559
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of as when you start looking at

560
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,560
Speaker 1: the actors in Godzilla film, it's pretty typical to see that. Okay.

561
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 1: They've been in various other Godzilla and Kaiju films from Toho,

562
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: and they also have bit or supporting roles in various

563
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: Krosawa films. Okay, so that's a trend that will continue

564
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 1: to sit here.

565
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 3: One thing I didn't realize is that this character also

566
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 3: appeared in the standalone Mathra film which came earlier.

567
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: Well, the actor did not the character, yeah, I see, okay,

568
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: but he does. The confusing part is he does return,

569
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: apparently playing the same character in a later Godzilla movie.

570
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, Well, because there's a point where these like

571
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 3: the fairy twins in this movie show up and start

572
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 3: talking about Mathra, and it's kind of like, oh Mathra.

573
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you know they've made probably made headlines, right, Yeah, Okay.

574
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 1: We mentioned the comic relief character. This is a euro

575
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,839
Speaker 1: Nakamura played by you Fujuki, who have nineteen thirty one

576
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,799
Speaker 1: through two thousand and five. He's pretty great here again,

577
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,239
Speaker 1: he is a comic relief character. My favorite thing about

578
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 1: him is that, as you mentioned, he's always eating eggs

579
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 1: and he has an egg cooker on his desk at work,

580
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:27,919
Speaker 1: which I love.

581
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:28,280
Speaker 5: Good.

582
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love egg cookers. I think it's It and

583
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 1: the rice cooker are two of the most fabulous unitasker

584
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: devices that have been developed for the kitchen. But the

585
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 1: idea of having one on your desk at work and

586
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,799
Speaker 1: making that the whole office smell like boiled eggs is

587
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:46,440
Speaker 1: just in and of itself comedic.

588
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 3: Huh. So I'm a big fan of the rice cooker.

589
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 3: I love my rice cooker. I use it all the time.

590
00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 3: I've never used a dedicated egg cooker. I don't even

591
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 3: know how does it work. Is it hard boil.

592
00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: Or well, you can do hard boiled and to some

593
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: degree of softer boils. They're like different levels that you

594
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 1: fill the water up to, but then there's still kind

595
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: of you still have to catch them at the right

596
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 1: moment and then ice them down before they finish cooking.

597
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 1: So we've had one for ages and I'm still refining

598
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 1: exactly how to use it. The best way to try

599
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 1: and get those, you know, those precious runny eggs, you know,

600
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:25,760
Speaker 1: for you know, to go in ramen and so forth.

601
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I do love a soft boiled egg. But

602
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:30,759
Speaker 3: this guy eats so many of them in the movie.

603
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 3: He's always just munching on a soft boiled while they're

604
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:37,080
Speaker 3: talking about a big like alien egg or monster egg.

605
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: Right, and sometimes like the solution is right there. He's

606
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 1: the first one to realize that the solution to a

607
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:42,280
Speaker 1: problem might be egg based.

608
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 3: Yes, by the way, just unpaid product endorsement, the Zoji

609
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,719
Speaker 3: Rushi rice cooker. It's like, that's got to be one

610
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:51,759
Speaker 3: of my top brand loyalties. I love that thing, makes

611
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:53,080
Speaker 3: me happy every time I use it.

612
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:55,800
Speaker 1: Well, maybe one day we'll come back and discuss nineteen

613
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: sixty seven's Branded to Kill. That's another Japanese movie, and

614
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,719
Speaker 1: that one prominently features rice cook Oh nice, all right,

615
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,040
Speaker 1: we'll see. I'm gonna skip over the newspaper editor. We

616
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 1: may come back to him. I will point out that

617
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 1: the actor that is generally credited with playing Mathra in

618
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: one former or the other here is Katsumi Tazuka. Born

619
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve. His death date is not comparently known.

620
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:24,359
Speaker 1: Played various monsters in different Toho films alongside Nakajima, our

621
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,800
Speaker 1: main Godzilla actor. He apparently served as an assistant to Nakajima.

622
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,759
Speaker 1: And then we have the twin fairies, the Shobajen, and

623
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: they are played by the Peanuts. The Peanuts were a

624
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:40,240
Speaker 1: singing duo, a twin singing duo, Emmy and Yumi Ito.

625
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: Here they are reprising their roles from the earlier Mathra

626
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: film if even if you haven't seen one of these movies,

627
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 1: you've probably seen clips or stills. They are two tiny

628
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: identical Japanese women who sing to Mathra. Sing for Mathra.

629
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a form of worship. Really, that's

630
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:04,720
Speaker 1: the way I interpret it. The Mathra is a divine being,

631
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 1: and Mathra must be awoken and appealed to through some

632
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:11,319
Speaker 1: sort of worshipful song.

633
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 3: But also they are kind of divine beings, which is interesting.

634
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 3: They're like the intercessors on behalf of regular humans. Are

635
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 3: these two tiny humans, dull sized humans who like pray

636
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:24,800
Speaker 3: to Mathra for us?

637
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're kind of intermediaries between us and the gods,

638
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 1: between us and Mathra, and maybe in a sense too,

639
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 1: they are Mathra. There's a lot to chew on here.

640
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 1: So Emmy lived nineteen forty one through twenty twelve and

641
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:43,319
Speaker 1: you may lived nineteen forty one through twenty sixteen. Both

642
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,759
Speaker 1: were born in Nagoya, which will be important because that's

643
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 1: the main city where everything happens in this picture. They

644
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,400
Speaker 1: have a string of credits before nineteen sixty one's Mathra

645
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 1: and apparently we're already a sensation in Japan, in America

646
00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,920
Speaker 1: as well as parts of Europe I believe, especially like

647
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:04,320
Speaker 1: Germany and Austria. And their subsequent credits include not only

648
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 1: this nineteen sixty four film, but also godor the Three

649
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: headed Monster. Mathra shows up, so the twins need to

650
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,359
Speaker 1: show up. A handful of musical comedies followed, and they

651
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:16,919
Speaker 1: performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in nineteen sixty six.

652
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: They retired from performing in nineteen seventy five, but their

653
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:23,839
Speaker 1: music goes seem to be have been again quite a hit.

654
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: It ranged from folk songs like Japanese folk songs, to

655
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:31,799
Speaker 1: covers of various Western hits. They toured quite a bit,

656
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: and if you look them up on discogs you can

657
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 1: find all sorts of amusing album covers, both from Japan

658
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 1: and also various international releases.

659
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 3: Did we mention that they not only sing songs to Mathra,

660
00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:48,400
Speaker 3: but they also speak all of their lines together in unison. Yes,

661
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 3: it's a striking effect.

662
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was reading that. That's apparently. That was one

663
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 1: of the appeals of their act too, is that their

664
00:38:55,160 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 1: voices were essentially identical, and so it made for some

665
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: great vocalizations.

666
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 3: It's by turns funny and creepy in the movie. Yes,

667
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:07,799
Speaker 3: so it works out well.

668
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into the forces of corruption and

669
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 1: destruction here. First of all, we have the character Kumayama.

670
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:18,879
Speaker 1: He is the greedy guy with the mustache, played by

671
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:22,719
Speaker 1: Yoshifumi Tajima, who lived nineteen eighteen through two thousand and nine,

672
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:27,320
Speaker 1: another regular Toho performer with credits that include various monster films,

673
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:31,440
Speaker 1: with also some bit parts in Kusawa movie sprinkled In

674
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:31,960
Speaker 1: as well.

675
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 3: He is a comical villain in this who shows up

676
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 3: to just beam with greed. If greed was embodied, it's

677
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,239
Speaker 3: like in the way this guy plays the role that

678
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:48,400
Speaker 3: he has not a Hitler mustache, but it's in the ballpark.

679
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 3: It's like a shrunken What I would say is it's

680
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 3: like if you imagine a handlebar mustache, but then you

681
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:57,800
Speaker 3: shrink it down so that it only takes up about

682
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:00,040
Speaker 3: a third of the width of his upper.

683
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:02,960
Speaker 1: Li Yeah, it feels I'm not sure if this is

684
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 1: this is something that would have resonated at the time

685
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 1: within the intended audience, but it feels like a very

686
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:10,719
Speaker 1: carny mustache, you know.

687
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:15,040
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, So he's just always behaving crudely and greedily.

688
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, the director told him in every scene,

689
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,640
Speaker 3: just think about I want to get money, and yeah,

690
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 3: that's what he's doing now.

691
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 1: His financial backer is the character Euro Torajada, played by

692
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,880
Speaker 1: Kenji Sahara born nineteen thirty two, and as of this recording,

693
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: I believe still out there. He actually played the dad

694
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: in All Monsters Attack and was also in Atragon. So

695
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 1: he's a Japanese actor who has the distinction of being

696
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 1: I think in the most Godzilla films thirteen of them,

697
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: in addition to numerous other Toho pictures. He was in

698
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,360
Speaker 1: the first Godzilla movie, Pops Up as a newspaper reporter,

699
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:55,320
Speaker 1: and then I think a party guy in a boat

700
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:57,720
Speaker 1: as well, so you know, he's all over the place.

701
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 1: His last Godzilla film was two thousand and four Final Wars,

702
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 1: and it looks like he was last active around twenty eleven. Also,

703
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:07,480
Speaker 1: I believe he was the star of Mighty Jack, the

704
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: Japanese television series that MST three K fans should know about.

705
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 3: Now, there were some things about this character I didn't

706
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:19,279
Speaker 3: fully understand he is like the secret partner of Kumiyama.

707
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 3: Was it implied that he's involved in crime or something.

708
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 3: He's got like a big cabinet full of money, and

709
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 3: he's you know, he's being like sort of kept secret,

710
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,880
Speaker 3: Like Kumayama is the public facing owner of the egg

711
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 3: and this guy is like his his secret backer, but

712
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:39,480
Speaker 3: is also scamming Kumayama.

713
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. I didn't get as much a sense of organized

714
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 1: crime here. I feel like if that had been the case,

715
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: there would have been more obvious tells to that effect.

716
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 1: But it did feel like there are sort of two

717
00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:56,239
Speaker 1: sides of the capitalist problem has received at the time

718
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 1: in Japan. You know, It's like one guy is the

719
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 1: more obvious, greedy, you know, cash fisted individual and the

720
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: more you know, overt corruptive force, and the other side

721
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: is like standing back and saying like, oh, I'm you know,

722
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 1: I'm not the idea man here, I'm just the guy

723
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 1: with the big locker full of cash, you know, like

724
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:16,760
Speaker 1: they're yeah, you know, he's.

725
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 3: He needed all their loan.

726
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I agree his his role and everything is

727
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,360
Speaker 1: maybe a little more cryptic to figure out it, you know,

728
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 1: at least you know from our standpoint as viewers. Yeah, yeah, Oh,

729
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:39,880
Speaker 1: and then we got to come back to Haro Nakajima

730
00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:44,320
Speaker 1: playing Godzilla again. We've mentioned him on the show before.

731
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,920
Speaker 1: He lived nineteen twenty nine through twenty seventeen, played Godzilla

732
00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:51,319
Speaker 1: in twelve consecutive films. He was also in Mathra in

733
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,400
Speaker 1: War of the garganshuas as well as a character I

734
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 1: saw was seven samurai and a bit roll, not as

735
00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:00,160
Speaker 1: a giant monster, and he's yet generally considered an an

736
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: absolute legend when it comes to monster suit performers, and

737
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:07,560
Speaker 1: I have to say his physicality in the monster suit

738
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: in this movie is especially good. There's kind of a

739
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 1: wild abandon to the way Godzilla moves as he stumbles, tumbles,

740
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,359
Speaker 1: sprints and lurches through the landscape.

741
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 3: Godzilla really feels angry and full of rage in some

742
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 3: of his scenes. I'm thinking of the scenes later on

743
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,279
Speaker 3: when he's getting silked up by the grubs and he

744
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 3: just looks furious at what's happening.

745
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:37,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, like when he destroys Nagoia Castle, uh, which which

746
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: I've seen in real life. I've been to Nagoya, Uh.

747
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:43,239
Speaker 1: But when he destroys it, we'll get to it's kind

748
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:45,239
Speaker 1: of kind of like trips and falls into it and

749
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 1: then is mad at It's kind of like when you

750
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:48,560
Speaker 1: stub your toe on a coffee table and you're like,

751
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:53,439
Speaker 1: what is this coffee table doing here? You dumb coffee table. Yeah,

752
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: there's a there's a lot to unravel there about Godzilla,

753
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: the menace in this picture and how I believe other

754
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:01,840
Speaker 1: have commented on this. Maybe it was Steve Rifle that

755
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:06,520
Speaker 1: was writing about this that while Godzilla is definitely the

756
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,800
Speaker 1: threat in the villain and you know, the monstrous and

757
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 1: antagonist of this picture, there's also a sense that maybe

758
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 1: he's like a little less of a vehicle of vengeance

759
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: compared to the original Godzilla, you know, like he's maybe

760
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:21,439
Speaker 1: more akin to a natural force here.

761
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 3: Yes, that he's he's not nice, but it does feel

762
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 3: a little bit more like he's doing these things kind

763
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 3: of accidentally or at least recklessly. Yeah, though he does

764
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,279
Speaker 3: I think get mad at Mathro, he does. There is

765
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 3: some heat between these two.

766
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then finally getting to the music, we have

767
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:43,960
Speaker 1: legendary Japanese composer Akira Ifukube, who lived nineteen fourteen through

768
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Not only did he give us

769
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:50,399
Speaker 1: the incredible Godzilla theme music, which is just at its

770
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: best in this picture. But he also created that signature roar.

771
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't know that.

772
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:59,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was apparently achieved by rubbing a resin covered

773
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:02,839
Speaker 1: leather glove across the loosened strings of a double bass.

774
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,239
Speaker 1: Oh okay, It's hard for me to picture how that

775
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:08,920
Speaker 1: all comes together because I'm so used to hearing Godzilla's roar.

776
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,799
Speaker 1: It just it feels organic. It feels like that's just

777
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: the sound Godzilla makes.

778
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, the sound Mathra makes in this movie is great too.

779
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:20,760
Speaker 3: That high pitched metallic chirp, that's great. Yeah, it's piercing.

780
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:23,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that again, his music is just an inseparable

781
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:28,360
Speaker 1: part of the true Godzilla franchise. His other films include

782
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 1: Atragon Space Amba from seventy nineteen fifty six is the

783
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,399
Speaker 1: Burmese Harp. That's a non Kaiju film. But his theme

784
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 1: music here for Godzilla, especially Godzilla's key theme, is just incredible.

785
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 1: And if we didn't didn't have this theme, we wouldn't

786
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 1: have that really awesome Pharaoh manch track, Simon says, which

787
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,880
Speaker 1: heavily samples not only the Godzilla music but the specific

788
00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:54,680
Speaker 1: Godzilla music from this movie. So if you're a hip

789
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:57,400
Speaker 1: hop fan, old school hip hop fan, you know this track.

790
00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:02,359
Speaker 1: It's conspicuously used. Yeah, in an amazing way, I think.

791
00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 1: Dare I say a loving way.

792
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,320
Speaker 3: But yes, in general, if Akube's music for the Godzilla

793
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 3: films is wonderful, I'd loved I think we've talked about

794
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:15,640
Speaker 3: this before, but one thing that really got my blood

795
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 3: going for shin Godzilla when it was coming out is

796
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 3: the way that it used like the old sounding theme

797
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 3: from the original film, but with the new movie footage.

798
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:28,880
Speaker 3: You know that minor key theme b da dun da

799
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:32,120
Speaker 3: da dun. Oh man, it's so good. But also his

800
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:36,360
Speaker 3: original music for Mathra itself or for Mauth versus Godzilla

801
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 3: is a whole new ballgame, and it's wonderful.

802
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Godzilla theme music. I kept thinking about this.

803
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:45,840
Speaker 1: It has a lumbering feel to it, like it feels

804
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 1: like the great footsteps of a Titanic monster, but then

805
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 1: there's also this sense of rising and it just works

806
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,840
Speaker 1: so exceptionally well with the visuals of pretty much anything

807
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: Godzilla is doing on the screen.

808
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:00,319
Speaker 3: All right, you ready to talk about the plot, Let's

809
00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:03,680
Speaker 3: get into it. So we begin with as expected that gorgeous,

810
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 3: familiar mid century Tohoscope logo, which I love. Every time

811
00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 3: I've said this before, every time I see it makes

812
00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 3: me happy. It makes me think of precious gems.

813
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: You know.

814
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 3: When it comes on screen, it's like I've been kind

815
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 3: of scratching through a bunch of gravel and I come

816
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:20,839
Speaker 3: upon a cache of emeralds.

817
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:23,720
Speaker 1: I have to admit I loved it. Watching this live,

818
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 1: there is thunderous applause for the Toho logo alone, so

819
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: I love the enthusiasm of that.

820
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 3: So during the credit and title sequence, you've got lead,

821
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:37,440
Speaker 3: heavy doom horns, that great score. We were just talking

822
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:40,359
Speaker 3: about playing over a dark shot of the open sea

823
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 3: in a typhoon and rain is hammering down, the waves

824
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 3: are huge lightning flashes, and the clouds in the sky,

825
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 3: and as the credits wrap, we cut from the black

826
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,520
Speaker 3: mid ocean to somewhere along the shore where waves are

827
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 3: crashing against a sea wall, and then we get a

828
00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:01,160
Speaker 3: close up on a sign that says in Japanese, congratulations

829
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:05,719
Speaker 3: karatea coast reclamation project complete. I think there's supposed to

830
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 3: be some humor here, contrasted with the weather and the

831
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 3: fact that the music is still in like Death of

832
00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:14,840
Speaker 3: the Universe mode, and we pan over to appear beside

833
00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:17,480
Speaker 3: the sea. There's a bunch of stuff set up for

834
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:20,200
Speaker 3: a party. There's like a tent pavilion and streamers and

835
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 3: picnic tables, and we watch all this stuff just get

836
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 3: buffeted by winds and eventually swept away, and the waves

837
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 3: surge over the sea wall and tear down a bunch

838
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:31,840
Speaker 3: of power lines. We see a boat washed ashore and

839
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:35,479
Speaker 3: it crashes into everything. It's a monster storm. The next

840
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 3: day there are blue skies overhead as hundreds of people

841
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,280
Speaker 3: gather at the coast we just saw, and the beach

842
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,680
Speaker 3: is now piled with rubble washed ashore by the typhoon,

843
00:48:46,280 --> 00:48:49,040
Speaker 3: and we get an interesting effects shot I think done

844
00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:52,319
Speaker 3: in miniature of the sea wall with a long row

845
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 3: of giant yellow pump stations in operation. I assume draining

846
00:48:57,239 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 3: water out from behind the wall and blasting it back

847
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 3: in the ocean of these pipes that look like cannons.

848
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 3: So a visual metaphor for civilization and technology re establishing

849
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 3: dominance over the forces of the natural world, with a

850
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:18,239
Speaker 3: kind of violence implied because the pumps look like gun barrels.

851
00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:22,840
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, earlier. Greatly in contrast to the haunted,

852
00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 3: diminished Japan of the original Godzilla, this movie takes place

853
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,480
Speaker 3: in the middle of what feels like an economic and

854
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 3: industrial boom. There's just capitalistic exuberance. Everything's under construction, everybody's

855
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 3: making money. Businessmen feel like gods, and they just they

856
00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 3: cannot be resisted. And here in the crowd at the coast,

857
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 3: we meet a couple of our major characters. We meet

858
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 3: Ichiro Sakai Ichi, a reporter for the Micho Times, and

859
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:56,360
Speaker 3: when we first meet him, he's very impatient, focused strictly business.

860
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:02,359
Speaker 3: And also Junko Nakanishi, his photograph photographer assistant, again more

861
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:06,600
Speaker 3: flighty and kind of contemplative. As she's observing the scene,

862
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:08,360
Speaker 3: she says she's trying to come up with a theme

863
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 3: for her photo spread, and Echiro tells her, your theme

864
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 3: is typhoon. Come on. Now, we see Echi confronted by

865
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 3: a clownish local politician who is angry at the fact

866
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 3: that he wrote an article about the destruction caused by

867
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:26,240
Speaker 3: the typhoon. The assemblyman here does not like that Ichi

868
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:30,399
Speaker 3: has been reporting on the destruction. He insists that their

869
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 3: coastal reclamation project will be the best ever. It's you know,

870
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 3: it's going to happen on time. How dare you write

871
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:39,799
Speaker 3: about this? And nearby, Junco is setting up for a

872
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,800
Speaker 3: photograph of all the garbage washed up on the shore,

873
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:45,960
Speaker 3: and she realizes one thing in the frame is a

874
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:50,280
Speaker 3: weird shimmering blue green object, kind of like a giant scale.

875
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 3: I wonder what that is. But here's one of the

876
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 3: scenes where Ichi is telling her like, don't waste time

877
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,839
Speaker 3: with light meters, just start clicking that shutters. Not high art,

878
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:04,719
Speaker 3: but I think Junko just feels differently. She has more

879
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 3: of an artistic sensibility.

880
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,080
Speaker 1: She's like, we should do this right, yeah, yeah, And

881
00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:11,319
Speaker 1: I think I think he takes her craft for granted here.

882
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:14,959
Speaker 3: Yeah. So back at the newsroom, we meet a few

883
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:20,800
Speaker 3: more characters. We meet Ichi and Junko's boss, the news editor,

884
00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,840
Speaker 3: who is Oh, I don't know. I figure like he

885
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:26,560
Speaker 3: comes off as kind of brusque, but then later maybe

886
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:29,480
Speaker 3: it reveals a kind of practical wisdom, would you say.

887
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Like he's he's a very busy man and

888
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 1: he has no time for silliness. He's got to get

889
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:38,799
Speaker 1: that paper out, you know, very much a cliche in

890
00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:41,880
Speaker 1: many ways, but but ultimately does care about the truth

891
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:47,360
Speaker 1: and and is really behind journalism's you know, key principles

892
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:47,880
Speaker 1: in the world.

893
00:51:48,200 --> 00:51:50,840
Speaker 3: Right. And then there's also this comic relief character the

894
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,839
Speaker 3: reporter who's eating soft boiled eggs. Yea such a and

895
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:57,120
Speaker 3: he's always doing it in a scene where they're talking

896
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 3: about giant monster eggs. For example, this scene because the

897
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:03,880
Speaker 3: editor gets a call on the phone and it is

898
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 3: revealed that the next big news event is a giant

899
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,239
Speaker 3: egg has been spotted off the coast of Japan at

900
00:52:10,239 --> 00:52:11,520
Speaker 3: a place called Niche Beach.

901
00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:13,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is a big one.

902
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:18,240
Speaker 3: It's big. It's like a blimp. There's a big blue, green, blue, green,

903
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:22,279
Speaker 3: white oblate spheroid floating in the water. And we go

904
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:25,880
Speaker 3: to the local fishing village, which is portrayed as full

905
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:31,640
Speaker 3: of somewhat sympathetic but also easily frightened bumpkins who are

906
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:36,439
Speaker 3: first possessed by terror and then gradually by greed. They

907
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:39,600
Speaker 3: decide that since fishing has been bad lately, it's been

908
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:42,480
Speaker 3: a bad catch, they're going to go out and claim

909
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:45,680
Speaker 3: the egg as the prize of their waters. By right.

910
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 3: They have a whole discussion about it, They're like, wait,

911
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:51,960
Speaker 3: whatever comes out of that water, fish or egg belongs

912
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,280
Speaker 3: to us. So this is an egg, it's in the water,

913
00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:55,000
Speaker 3: it's ours.

914
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's actually a lot here that you could unravel.

915
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:00,560
Speaker 1: You could do a whole shin Mathra movie based on

916
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 1: this conflict.

917
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:04,920
Speaker 3: Oh, just the court cases about who the egg.

918
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:08,520
Speaker 1: Belongs to belong to, you know, the parties here or

919
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:10,520
Speaker 1: some of the parties that are going to be revealed

920
00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:11,080
Speaker 1: here in a bit.

921
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:15,440
Speaker 3: Let's have a meeting about it, and maybe a few depositions. Yeah,

922
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:17,959
Speaker 3: So the villagers take their boats out and they bring

923
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 3: the egg ashore, where it is transported to the beach,

924
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:24,520
Speaker 3: and we see shots of astonished crowds forming this cautious

925
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:29,480
Speaker 3: circle around it. Afterwards, Ichi and Junko arrive on the

926
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:33,560
Speaker 3: scene and they meet a new character, the scientist Professor Mura,

927
00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:37,560
Speaker 3: who is taking example, taking samples to better understand the

928
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:42,359
Speaker 3: giant egg. And this is the scene where at first

929
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 3: the professor doesn't really have time for them, but Junko

930
00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:47,280
Speaker 3: is pushy enough to get a question on the record.

931
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:52,040
Speaker 3: And the question that Ichi asks is is this egg dangerous?

932
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:56,400
Speaker 3: The quote is could it explode or release toxins? And

933
00:53:56,520 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 3: the professor is like, well, that's what I'm trying to

934
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:01,399
Speaker 3: find out. But they don't get a chance to find out.

935
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:03,799
Speaker 3: They are interrupted in the middle of that research by

936
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:06,480
Speaker 3: the arrival of the new big head guy in charge.

937
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:11,680
Speaker 3: This is mister Kubayama, a vain, greedy businessman, the proprietor

938
00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:16,479
Speaker 3: of Happy Enterprises. Yep, I love the choice the name

939
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:20,040
Speaker 3: of the business. There, it feels apt. There's something sinister

940
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:21,560
Speaker 3: about the banality of it.

941
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:23,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's like, you know, don't you want to

942
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:26,759
Speaker 1: be happy? Yeah? How can you be opposed to happiness?

943
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,160
Speaker 3: So it turns out Kumayama has bought the egg from

944
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:33,799
Speaker 3: the local fisherman. It is now rightfully his, and there's

945
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:37,319
Speaker 3: a funny scene here where he explains how much he

946
00:54:37,400 --> 00:54:39,440
Speaker 3: paid for it, like how he arrived at the price,

947
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:41,920
Speaker 3: and it was by multiplying the cost of a chicken

948
00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:45,520
Speaker 3: egg by the size difference between a chicken egg and

949
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:46,239
Speaker 3: the giant egg.

950
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:48,160
Speaker 1: Well that's just logical. Yeah, yes.

951
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:52,320
Speaker 3: Now the reporters protest, They're like, wait a minute, should

952
00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:54,840
Speaker 3: this egg maybe not be thought of as private property?

953
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:57,520
Speaker 3: Isn't this kind of a wonder of nature? Maybe it

954
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,719
Speaker 3: belongs to all of humanity? Or none of us. Uh,

955
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:03,440
Speaker 3: And Kumayama is like, well, that's why we're gonna let

956
00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:06,680
Speaker 3: everybody come look at it. We're gonna watch it incubate

957
00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:09,439
Speaker 3: and hatch, and everybody can come see for a small fee.

958
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:12,520
Speaker 3: Of course. So he's he's trying to go for the

959
00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:14,960
Speaker 3: King Kong thing, right, He's going to take this wonder

960
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:17,759
Speaker 3: of nature and he's going to put walls around it

961
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:18,640
Speaker 3: and sell tickets.

962
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's like a whole They have a whole map,

963
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:23,399
Speaker 1: They have everything planned out how it's going to work.

964
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:25,520
Speaker 1: Everyone's going to come and see the egg and maybe

965
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 1: it'll be some some additional rides. Who knows this is

966
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,600
Speaker 1: This is going to really remake the whole area. Also

967
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:35,680
Speaker 1: the plot of Gorgo remember Oh yeah, that's right, and

968
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,240
Speaker 1: I guess kind of the plot of King Kong, right.

969
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:40,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's what I was just saying. Yeah, King

970
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:43,360
Speaker 3: Kong and then sort of Jurassic Park too, though the

971
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:45,920
Speaker 3: Jurassic Park has the cloning element that's so different.

972
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:48,520
Speaker 1: But yeah, this is a spectacle. People will pay to

973
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:48,880
Speaker 1: see this.

974
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:54,359
Speaker 3: But Kumayama taunts the reporters and the scientists for their ideals.

975
00:55:54,440 --> 00:55:56,719
Speaker 3: He offers to pose for a picture for junko and

976
00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:59,200
Speaker 3: then he just blows cigar smoke in her face when

977
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:04,080
Speaker 3: she uses the king. What a jerk. And then later

978
00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:08,319
Speaker 3: at the nearby hotel, Kumayama is revealed to have this

979
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:12,319
Speaker 3: secret business partner, this creepy guy named tora Hata, who

980
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,719
Speaker 3: lent him the money for the deal. Tora Hata has

981
00:56:15,760 --> 00:56:19,360
Speaker 3: this giant file cabinet full of cash, just cash money,

982
00:56:19,480 --> 00:56:22,520
Speaker 3: and it's I don't know why he has that. But

983
00:56:23,080 --> 00:56:25,479
Speaker 3: the idea is they're going to build this amusement park

984
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,840
Speaker 3: based around the egg, which they are now going to

985
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:32,160
Speaker 3: be keeping in this steal enclosure, I think presumably, so

986
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:35,320
Speaker 3: if it hatches whatever hatches, can't get away.

987
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:37,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, or to some degree, they might be incubating it

988
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:41,400
Speaker 1: a little bit, Yeah, doing that too, the appropriate temperature

989
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: and so forth.

990
00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:46,399
Speaker 3: But the two businessmen are interrupted in their scheming by

991
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:51,640
Speaker 3: something quite strange. Two tiny women the size of dolls,

992
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:54,760
Speaker 3: who appear in their hotel room as if by magic,

993
00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:58,320
Speaker 3: and start chanting in unison about how they must return

994
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:01,399
Speaker 3: the egg and how it doesn't belong to them. These

995
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,000
Speaker 3: are the Fairy Twins. Again, these are the musical act

996
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:06,919
Speaker 3: the Peanuts. Is that what they were called the peanuts. Peanuts, Yes,

997
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 3: how are they dressed here? At the beginning, they they

998
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:13,440
Speaker 3: look kind of like cupcakes. They've got like a like

999
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:16,440
Speaker 3: a white fur and then a white hat with pink

1000
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,760
Speaker 3: things on top, so there's kind of an icing effect.

1001
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 3: And then they're wearing yellow and pink dresses below that.

1002
00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:28,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're wearing something to be interpreted as like traditional garb.

1003
00:57:29,040 --> 00:57:30,760
Speaker 1: They are, you know, in a way, they are their

1004
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:33,760
Speaker 1: voices and representatives of the old world and not this

1005
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:38,440
Speaker 1: new world of hyper activity and progress. It's like literally

1006
00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 1: building things around an egg, which in and of itself

1007
00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:45,320
Speaker 1: is an interesting scenario. You're building permanent structures around this

1008
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:48,720
Speaker 1: thing that is by its very nature impermanent and is

1009
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:51,680
Speaker 1: going to lead to like some other different form that

1010
00:57:51,760 --> 00:57:55,000
Speaker 1: needs to be free. But they're like, nope, let's build it.

1011
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:56,280
Speaker 1: It's all about right now.

1012
00:57:56,560 --> 00:57:58,680
Speaker 3: Yes, an egg is made to be broken out of

1013
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:02,760
Speaker 3: and you build a cage around. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously

1014
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:05,320
Speaker 3: the business guys do not heed the message. Are they

1015
00:58:05,360 --> 00:58:07,160
Speaker 3: going to be like, oh, okay, we'll give you the

1016
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,200
Speaker 3: egg bag now. Instead, they try to capture the fairy twins.

1017
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:12,320
Speaker 3: They're like running around the hotel room trying to get

1018
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 3: them under a coat.

1019
00:58:13,600 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 1: There's some fun hijinks here. I think it's always important

1020
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:19,680
Speaker 1: to drive home with a good kaiju movie. That yeah,

1021
00:58:19,840 --> 00:58:23,160
Speaker 1: kaiju movies have great scenes where monsters battle each other,

1022
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 1: but the best kaiju movies are also very enjoyable when

1023
00:58:26,680 --> 00:58:29,280
Speaker 1: the monsters are not on screen. And it takes a

1024
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,880
Speaker 1: long time before we get to the monster battles here.

1025
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:35,720
Speaker 1: But for my own money, I was never like missing

1026
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:39,120
Speaker 1: the monster battles when we hadn't gotten there yet, because

1027
00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:41,360
Speaker 1: there was just plenty of fun high jinks with you know,

1028
00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:45,760
Speaker 1: these miniature these maximize sets for these miniature characters, and

1029
00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:49,320
Speaker 1: the comedy with the eggman, and the social commentary that

1030
00:58:49,480 --> 00:58:52,720
Speaker 1: was going on regarding like greed and corruption, plenty to

1031
00:58:52,720 --> 00:58:53,400
Speaker 1: shoot on here.

1032
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:05,400
Speaker 3: So after they fail in appealing to the businessmen, the

1033
00:59:05,440 --> 00:59:09,520
Speaker 3: fairy twins appeal instead to our heroes, to djunko Ichi

1034
00:59:09,640 --> 00:59:12,400
Speaker 3: and the professor. I think this happens in the woods

1035
00:59:12,440 --> 00:59:14,760
Speaker 3: outside the hotel. I forget how they get out there,

1036
00:59:16,120 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 3: but they let the heroes know that the egg actually

1037
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:23,720
Speaker 3: belongs to the giant godlike being of Ewa Island, Mathra,

1038
00:59:24,200 --> 00:59:27,200
Speaker 3: and it was brought here by the storm. They say,

1039
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:30,160
Speaker 3: there's great potential for disaster when the egg hatches, so

1040
00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:32,840
Speaker 3: they must help the twins return the egg to Ewa

1041
00:59:32,880 --> 00:59:34,280
Speaker 3: Island where it belongs.

1042
00:59:35,040 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. One of the interesting things about the twins

1043
00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:41,560
Speaker 1: is when they make themselves known. At first, you just

1044
00:59:41,640 --> 00:59:46,520
Speaker 1: hear them like a voice of one's own conscious, you know,

1045
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:49,560
Speaker 1: urging you to make the right choices in life instead

1046
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:50,920
Speaker 1: of the greedy path you're following.

1047
00:59:51,440 --> 00:59:51,880
Speaker 3: That's right.

1048
00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1049
00:59:52,120 --> 00:59:54,400
Speaker 3: There are a lot of scenes of them talking in unison,

1050
00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:57,840
Speaker 3: and the characters are like looking around and yeah, where's

1051
00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:01,720
Speaker 3: that coming from? Now? At this point, I think maybe

1052
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:03,920
Speaker 3: I'm going to skip more lightly over some of the

1053
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:06,840
Speaker 3: machinations in the middle of the movie, but I'll summarize

1054
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:11,880
Speaker 3: what happened. So the two evil, greedy businessmen keep scheming.

1055
01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:14,920
Speaker 3: We see them counting money and trying to scam everybody,

1056
01:00:14,960 --> 01:00:18,040
Speaker 3: including each other, and being possessive over the mathra egg

1057
01:00:18,960 --> 01:00:23,200
Speaker 3: Ichi Junko and the Professor try to expose the corruption

1058
01:00:23,320 --> 01:00:25,560
Speaker 3: of happy enterprises, but they don't seem to be able

1059
01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:29,880
Speaker 3: to stop them. Suddenly, there is a shift in the

1060
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:33,360
Speaker 3: middle of the movie. Remember that blue green scale found

1061
01:00:33,440 --> 01:00:37,040
Speaker 3: in the rubble after the typhoon. Well turns out the

1062
01:00:37,280 --> 01:00:41,080
Speaker 3: professor has some news about it. It's radioactive, and Junko

1063
01:00:41,160 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 3: and Ichi touched it. There's a cool scene where we

1064
01:00:43,600 --> 01:00:47,280
Speaker 3: see them getting like date, I don't know, they're getting decontaminated.

1065
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:51,720
Speaker 3: They're sending in these purple pink kind of chambers. And

1066
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:55,440
Speaker 3: that's not a good sign because what else is radioactive?

1067
01:00:55,680 --> 01:01:00,920
Speaker 3: It's Godzilla baby, So nearby suddenly God's Zilla starts to

1068
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:03,600
Speaker 3: rise up out of the earth from out of this

1069
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:07,919
Speaker 3: desolate field of mud. Do you remember what the field was?

1070
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:10,440
Speaker 3: Was it a construction site or something else.

1071
01:01:11,520 --> 01:01:15,360
Speaker 1: You get the sense that it's like reclaimed maybe a

1072
01:01:15,400 --> 01:01:20,000
Speaker 1: mix of reclaimed c and also the like damaged area

1073
01:01:20,040 --> 01:01:22,360
Speaker 1: from the typhoon, because you see, like you know, there's

1074
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:25,120
Speaker 1: like a boat wreck in there and so forth. And

1075
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:27,760
Speaker 1: also that's the idea that like Godzilla has been returned

1076
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:32,120
Speaker 1: to Japan via the storms. But this scene where he

1077
01:01:32,200 --> 01:01:34,640
Speaker 1: rises up is pretty amazing. We get that great theme

1078
01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:38,680
Speaker 1: song and people are like, oh, oh goodness, it's happening again,

1079
01:01:38,880 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 1: happening again, It's.

1080
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:43,240
Speaker 3: Happening again, And here he is. He attacks Japan once again,

1081
01:01:43,560 --> 01:01:47,840
Speaker 3: wandering into cities, smashing up buildings and infrastructure. So we

1082
01:01:47,880 --> 01:01:50,800
Speaker 3: see him I think knock over like a TV tower

1083
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:57,040
Speaker 3: and attacks attack of castle Castle. Any highlights from this rampage.

1084
01:01:56,520 --> 01:02:01,720
Speaker 1: Here, Oh, well, this is there's some great physical movement

1085
01:02:02,080 --> 01:02:05,080
Speaker 1: of Godzilla here. I love that he's at times lumbering,

1086
01:02:05,240 --> 01:02:08,480
Speaker 1: other times kind of scrambling. Again that sense of rage

1087
01:02:08,520 --> 01:02:12,480
Speaker 1: you referenced when he destroys Nagoya Castle, Well, even when

1088
01:02:12,480 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 1: he destroys the antenna tower, he kind of it's almost

1089
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:19,720
Speaker 1: like he does so accidentally and it falls on him

1090
01:02:19,720 --> 01:02:22,680
Speaker 1: and it makes him even more angry. And then he

1091
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:25,120
Speaker 1: kind of like trips and falls into an Agoya Castle,

1092
01:02:25,160 --> 01:02:26,920
Speaker 1: like he didn't really mean to destroy it, but then

1093
01:02:26,960 --> 01:02:29,120
Speaker 1: he's mad at it because he fell on it, and

1094
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:31,400
Speaker 1: then he just bashes it the rest of the way.

1095
01:02:32,280 --> 01:02:35,640
Speaker 1: I was watching rewatching this particular scene with my wife

1096
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 1: and she was like, well, why is Godzilla so dumb

1097
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:40,120
Speaker 1: in this movie? And I'm like, no, he's not dumb.

1098
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:44,840
Speaker 1: That god don't insult Godzilla's intelligence. But there is the

1099
01:02:44,880 --> 01:02:48,600
Speaker 1: sense it's almost like he's been thrown out into He

1100
01:02:48,640 --> 01:02:50,400
Speaker 1: wasn't prepared for this. He didn't want to go on

1101
01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:53,800
Speaker 1: a rampage today. He was slumbering. Now you've woken him up.

1102
01:02:53,840 --> 01:02:56,920
Speaker 1: He's cranky and he's going to destroy stuff. It's not

1103
01:02:57,000 --> 01:02:59,640
Speaker 1: necessarily what he wanted to do with this day, but it's.

1104
01:02:59,520 --> 01:03:04,240
Speaker 3: Happening exactly right. We're here now. Yeah, So the Japanese

1105
01:03:04,280 --> 01:03:07,439
Speaker 3: Self Defense Forces they try to fight Godzilla, but since

1106
01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:08,240
Speaker 3: when has that done?

1107
01:03:08,560 --> 01:03:13,200
Speaker 1: I should note that in the US version of this picture,

1108
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:15,480
Speaker 1: which is I think what titled Godzilla versus the Thing,

1109
01:03:17,000 --> 01:03:20,480
Speaker 1: they actually, instead of it being just the Japanese Self

1110
01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:23,880
Speaker 1: Defense Forces, they actually call in the US military, and

1111
01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:26,200
Speaker 1: so the scene instead of having the scene where it's

1112
01:03:26,240 --> 01:03:28,560
Speaker 1: the Japanese Self Defense Forces having a meeting about how

1113
01:03:28,560 --> 01:03:31,919
Speaker 1: to attack Godzilla, it's a meeting between the Japanese Self

1114
01:03:31,920 --> 01:03:35,080
Speaker 1: Defense Forces and the US military, and the US military

1115
01:03:35,120 --> 01:03:37,360
Speaker 1: does like a missile strike on Godzilla, which of course

1116
01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:37,959
Speaker 1: doesn't work.

1117
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:42,760
Speaker 3: So finally our heroes come up with an idea. I

1118
01:03:42,760 --> 01:03:46,040
Speaker 3: think they're in the newsroom, I believe when they come

1119
01:03:46,120 --> 01:03:47,760
Speaker 3: up with this, right, so they're like talking to the

1120
01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:51,160
Speaker 3: editor and stuff. The idea is what if they request

1121
01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:54,520
Speaker 3: help from Mathra Rob Do you remember how they arrive

1122
01:03:54,640 --> 01:03:55,960
Speaker 3: at this idea? Is?

1123
01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:58,640
Speaker 1: I believe the eggman is the one who look at

1124
01:03:58,720 --> 01:04:00,919
Speaker 1: he's like eating an egg back there, and hey, I've

1125
01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:03,120
Speaker 1: got an egg related idea, and I think this is

1126
01:04:03,160 --> 01:04:05,480
Speaker 1: our solution, and they're like, well, you know, actually that's it.

1127
01:04:05,520 --> 01:04:06,320
Speaker 1: We should roll with that.

1128
01:04:06,800 --> 01:04:09,760
Speaker 3: So the reporters and the professor make the journey to

1129
01:04:09,840 --> 01:04:13,280
Speaker 3: Ewa Island to speak with the people there for the idea.

1130
01:04:13,440 --> 01:04:15,880
Speaker 3: The idea is they're going to beg Mathra to help

1131
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:20,560
Speaker 3: defend them from Godzilla. But when they arrive at Ewa Island,

1132
01:04:21,040 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 3: they discover devastation. The island has been used for nuclear

1133
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:27,920
Speaker 3: weapons tests.

1134
01:04:28,960 --> 01:04:32,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is ravaged. It does not look good.

1135
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:35,200
Speaker 1: It is You might be forgiven for expecting it to

1136
01:04:35,200 --> 01:04:38,120
Speaker 1: be like a tropical paradise that they're traveling to, and

1137
01:04:38,720 --> 01:04:42,720
Speaker 1: it probably was, but now it is just devastation.

1138
01:04:43,120 --> 01:04:44,640
Speaker 3: Should we mentioned Skeleturtle.

1139
01:04:45,120 --> 01:04:47,840
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this was Skeleturtle's deal because at first I

1140
01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:50,080
Speaker 1: thought it was just the skeleton of a turtle. But

1141
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:50,960
Speaker 1: it moves a little.

1142
01:04:51,240 --> 01:04:54,760
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, this is a thing that Godzilla fans have

1143
01:04:54,880 --> 01:04:57,680
Speaker 3: talked about for years. Actually that so we see all

1144
01:04:57,720 --> 01:05:01,320
Speaker 3: these bones on this desolate beach where the nuclear tests

1145
01:05:01,360 --> 01:05:04,520
Speaker 3: have happened. It's supposed to be scoured of all life,

1146
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:07,200
Speaker 3: and we see like the giant rib cage of some

1147
01:05:07,360 --> 01:05:11,040
Speaker 3: huge animal don't know what it is, but also a

1148
01:05:11,080 --> 01:05:14,360
Speaker 3: turtle and it's bones it's like a skull and a

1149
01:05:14,400 --> 01:05:19,160
Speaker 3: shell and vertebrae. But it's moving around, and there's no

1150
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:23,280
Speaker 3: attempt to address this, no explanation. I don't know why

1151
01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:25,280
Speaker 3: it's moving around. I don't know if it's moving around

1152
01:05:25,320 --> 01:05:28,320
Speaker 3: by accident, if it is supposed to be a skeleton

1153
01:05:28,400 --> 01:05:31,880
Speaker 3: that is somehow still alive. The characters don't comment on it,

1154
01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:34,280
Speaker 3: even though it's right there in front of them, So

1155
01:05:34,480 --> 01:05:36,479
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's one of the most mysterious things

1156
01:05:36,480 --> 01:05:39,000
Speaker 3: about this movie. What is meant by the skeleturtle. It's

1157
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:41,720
Speaker 3: a haunting image, actually, I mean it kind of suggests

1158
01:05:41,800 --> 01:05:42,920
Speaker 3: a living death.

1159
01:05:44,080 --> 01:05:44,800
Speaker 1: It really does.

1160
01:05:44,960 --> 01:05:48,760
Speaker 3: Yeah that like the nuclear testing has been so evil

1161
01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:51,760
Speaker 3: in fact, that it has doomed these these animals to

1162
01:05:51,800 --> 01:05:54,960
Speaker 3: a kind of to a kind of hell existence where

1163
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:57,720
Speaker 3: they're like dead but they're still there somehow.

1164
01:05:58,000 --> 01:06:00,520
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't seem to be played for comedic effect,

1165
01:06:01,120 --> 01:06:02,959
Speaker 1: and it's not elaborated upon so.

1166
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:06,280
Speaker 3: Anyway, So they go to the people of Ewa Island,

1167
01:06:06,280 --> 01:06:09,920
Speaker 3: who worship Mathra as their god. The local chief is

1168
01:06:09,960 --> 01:06:13,640
Speaker 3: initially not sympathetic to their pleas for help. They're like, wait,

1169
01:06:13,800 --> 01:06:17,680
Speaker 3: you're from the outside world that stole Mathra's egg and

1170
01:06:17,720 --> 01:06:21,280
Speaker 3: wouldn't give it back and does nuclear testing on our

1171
01:06:21,320 --> 01:06:24,960
Speaker 3: island and made skeleturtles here. Why should we help you now?

1172
01:06:25,120 --> 01:06:27,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're like, yeah, that's that's true. We would love

1173
01:06:27,080 --> 01:06:31,080
Speaker 1: your unconditional support now in our battle against Godzilla, creature

1174
01:06:31,120 --> 01:06:33,479
Speaker 1: that we are also responsible for. Yeah.

1175
01:06:33,640 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, But Junko makes a plea. Basically, she's like, yeah,

1176
01:06:38,120 --> 01:06:40,640
Speaker 3: there are bad people out there. They're bad people everywhere,

1177
01:06:40,680 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 3: bad people in Japan who took the egg. But they're

1178
01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:46,880
Speaker 3: innocent people there too, they didn't do anything to hurt you.

1179
01:06:47,440 --> 01:06:49,960
Speaker 3: They're worth defending. And then she makes the point, you know,

1180
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:53,440
Speaker 3: even bad people don't deserve to be killed by Godzilla,

1181
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:57,320
Speaker 3: so please help us. And this lands somewhat.

1182
01:06:57,680 --> 01:07:01,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it lands with the local people who

1183
01:07:01,880 --> 01:07:03,880
Speaker 1: are hearing the message, and outside, I think lands of

1184
01:07:03,920 --> 01:07:06,800
Speaker 1: the audience. I mean, it's as potent a message today

1185
01:07:06,840 --> 01:07:07,560
Speaker 1: as it ever was.

1186
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:10,200
Speaker 3: So the Fairy Twins appear and they get a whole

1187
01:07:10,280 --> 01:07:12,720
Speaker 3: musical number here, like they sing for a long time,

1188
01:07:13,600 --> 01:07:17,120
Speaker 3: and the singing they're singing a song to Mathra to

1189
01:07:17,240 --> 01:07:20,200
Speaker 3: enlist her aid so I think we're getting Mathra on

1190
01:07:20,640 --> 01:07:21,000
Speaker 3: the team.

1191
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:24,000
Speaker 1: Mathra is gonna happen, but again, Mathra has to be

1192
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:27,560
Speaker 1: appealed to through song and worship, and then once that

1193
01:07:27,640 --> 01:07:30,720
Speaker 1: message is received, action can take place.

1194
01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:33,040
Speaker 3: Now back on the mainland, we got to check in

1195
01:07:33,080 --> 01:07:36,080
Speaker 3: with our two greedy businessmen. They keep double crossing each

1196
01:07:36,080 --> 01:07:38,680
Speaker 3: other until one finally kills the other one and tries

1197
01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:40,960
Speaker 3: to take all the money for himself. But then I

1198
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:44,600
Speaker 3: think he dies pretty much immediately because Godzilla crushes the

1199
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:45,400
Speaker 3: building he's in.

1200
01:07:45,520 --> 01:07:49,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're scrambling over a pile of money and shooting

1201
01:07:49,320 --> 01:07:52,880
Speaker 1: at each other while Godzilla is approaching visibly in the distance,

1202
01:07:52,960 --> 01:07:57,240
Speaker 1: looming like a great siege tower, moving in on their headquarters.

1203
01:07:57,240 --> 01:08:00,360
Speaker 1: And yeah, so they both face a fitting destruction here

1204
01:08:01,120 --> 01:08:03,280
Speaker 1: under the heels of Godzilla.

1205
01:08:03,480 --> 01:08:08,520
Speaker 3: But eventually, uh oh, Godzilla's rampage sends him in the

1206
01:08:08,560 --> 01:08:10,400
Speaker 3: direction of the egg enclosure.

1207
01:08:11,520 --> 01:08:13,520
Speaker 1: That's right, And this is where you get a sense that,

1208
01:08:13,600 --> 01:08:20,120
Speaker 1: you know, Godzilla's violence towards the infrastructure of Magoya may

1209
01:08:20,160 --> 01:08:23,280
Speaker 1: be more or less accidental, Like he's just he's here,

1210
01:08:23,320 --> 01:08:25,559
Speaker 1: he's going to rambage. He didn't ask to be here.

1211
01:08:25,760 --> 01:08:27,880
Speaker 1: But when he sees that egg. I don't know, there's

1212
01:08:27,920 --> 01:08:31,040
Speaker 1: a sense that like he knows this is Kaiju business,

1213
01:08:31,439 --> 01:08:34,720
Speaker 1: maybe he even knows that what Mathra is, or to

1214
01:08:34,760 --> 01:08:37,719
Speaker 1: some extent he sees this as an enemy. And there's

1215
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:42,120
Speaker 1: this sequence where where Godzilla stares down the enclosure and

1216
01:08:42,160 --> 01:08:45,240
Speaker 1: this is about the same time that Mathra is physically arriving.

1217
01:08:45,840 --> 01:08:48,840
Speaker 1: And oh my goodness, the look that Godzilla put pulls

1218
01:08:48,840 --> 01:08:52,240
Speaker 1: here just absolute daggers for eyes. Yes, they just gave

1219
01:08:52,280 --> 01:08:55,760
Speaker 1: me the chills. As he decides as he starts destroying

1220
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:57,960
Speaker 1: the egg facility, I mean, why would you why would

1221
01:08:57,960 --> 01:09:00,640
Speaker 1: you mess with Godzilla here? I mean this look. I

1222
01:09:00,640 --> 01:09:03,000
Speaker 1: included a still for you here, Joe, it's just, oh

1223
01:09:03,040 --> 01:09:05,880
Speaker 1: my goodness, the most intimidating Godzilla stare I've ever seen.

1224
01:09:06,080 --> 01:09:08,960
Speaker 3: Like we're seeing mostly the whites on the underside of

1225
01:09:08,960 --> 01:09:11,559
Speaker 3: his eyes or his pupils are kind of rolled up,

1226
01:09:11,920 --> 01:09:15,280
Speaker 3: and he's got his head hanging down, just like utter

1227
01:09:15,439 --> 01:09:20,679
Speaker 3: contempt and destruction. Yeah. So Godzilla starts smashing the Egg

1228
01:09:20,960 --> 01:09:24,800
Speaker 3: incubation building by side whipping it with his tail. We

1229
01:09:24,880 --> 01:09:29,880
Speaker 3: see metal crunching, steel beams are falling. But then, oh, intervention,

1230
01:09:30,320 --> 01:09:33,400
Speaker 3: here comes Mathra. The mom is the mom is here.

1231
01:09:34,000 --> 01:09:36,639
Speaker 3: So at this point, somehow Ichy Junco and the gang

1232
01:09:36,680 --> 01:09:39,200
Speaker 3: are back. They're on a they like run to a

1233
01:09:39,280 --> 01:09:41,320
Speaker 3: hilltop nearby to watch the battle. I think I may

1234
01:09:41,360 --> 01:09:42,880
Speaker 3: have skipped over, however they got back.

1235
01:09:43,360 --> 01:09:45,040
Speaker 1: You know. I want to throw in this about the

1236
01:09:45,080 --> 01:09:49,639
Speaker 1: battles that take place between especially between Godzilla and adult

1237
01:09:49,680 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 1: for Mathra here. Yeah. I think one of the reasons

1238
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:57,120
Speaker 1: that I long avoided Godzilla versus Mathra is that I

1239
01:09:57,160 --> 01:10:02,000
Speaker 1: didn't in my youth see the potential of the physical battle.

1240
01:10:02,040 --> 01:10:04,720
Speaker 1: Like I was more about like the goofy fun of

1241
01:10:04,920 --> 01:10:08,400
Speaker 1: one Kaiju battling another of two dudes in rubber suits

1242
01:10:09,080 --> 01:10:11,599
Speaker 1: wrestling on a minute on a set with a bunch

1243
01:10:11,640 --> 01:10:12,360
Speaker 1: of miniatures.

1244
01:10:12,400 --> 01:10:13,880
Speaker 3: Can you suplex them off?

1245
01:10:14,240 --> 01:10:15,760
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think that was part of it. I was like,

1246
01:10:15,840 --> 01:10:19,080
Speaker 1: I just kind of imagined, like the hokiest version of

1247
01:10:19,120 --> 01:10:21,000
Speaker 1: this battle where it'd be a puppet on a stick

1248
01:10:21,280 --> 01:10:24,280
Speaker 1: versus a guy in a costume. But they do such

1249
01:10:24,280 --> 01:10:27,559
Speaker 1: a great job. It never feels like that here. Mathra

1250
01:10:28,200 --> 01:10:32,200
Speaker 1: never feels like a like a rough puppet. I mean,

1251
01:10:32,240 --> 01:10:35,599
Speaker 1: obviously Mathra is created in large part through puppetry, but

1252
01:10:35,680 --> 01:10:39,759
Speaker 1: it's it's it's done superbly and I just completely bought

1253
01:10:39,800 --> 01:10:42,080
Speaker 1: into the combat between these two entities.

1254
01:10:42,320 --> 01:10:45,200
Speaker 3: Absolutely agree this is one of the best monster battles

1255
01:10:45,240 --> 01:10:45,839
Speaker 3: in the series.

1256
01:10:46,240 --> 01:10:48,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't I think I've seen other folks.

1257
01:10:48,560 --> 01:10:50,600
Speaker 1: Maybe it was Michael Weldon pointing out that like this

1258
01:10:50,640 --> 01:10:54,320
Speaker 1: one doesn't get rastley and therefore doesn't have as much silliness.

1259
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:56,720
Speaker 1: It's it's you know, it's it's out there. It has

1260
01:10:56,760 --> 01:11:00,200
Speaker 1: a lot of like crazy Kaiju weaponry, for sure, but

1261
01:11:00,240 --> 01:11:00,960
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun.

1262
01:11:01,479 --> 01:11:03,800
Speaker 3: So I think I said this earlier. But one thing

1263
01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:07,080
Speaker 3: I really love here is the sharp metallic ping of

1264
01:11:07,200 --> 01:11:10,320
Speaker 3: Mathra's call. It's like a I don't know, it sounds

1265
01:11:10,320 --> 01:11:14,479
Speaker 3: like like a dagger piercing the air somehow. Yeah, and

1266
01:11:14,680 --> 01:11:17,439
Speaker 3: so we hear that, and Godzilla is still busy, like

1267
01:11:17,520 --> 01:11:19,759
Speaker 3: smashing up the buildings trying to get to the egg,

1268
01:11:20,120 --> 01:11:24,520
Speaker 3: but Mathra begins furiously flapping her wings and that generates

1269
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:29,040
Speaker 3: this humongous gale which pushes Godzilla to and fro and

1270
01:11:29,439 --> 01:11:31,879
Speaker 3: it also though, knocks over the rest of the building.

1271
01:11:31,960 --> 01:11:35,800
Speaker 3: And now the egg is exposed and Godzilla attacks and ooh,

1272
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:38,240
Speaker 3: the attack on the egg is actually kind of scary.

1273
01:11:38,280 --> 01:11:41,400
Speaker 3: He's like striking and clawing at it, blasting it with

1274
01:11:41,439 --> 01:11:44,519
Speaker 3: the radioactive breath, and was just thinking like, oh no,

1275
01:11:44,640 --> 01:11:45,240
Speaker 3: poor egg.

1276
01:11:45,800 --> 01:11:49,960
Speaker 1: Yeah again, Godzilla is betrayed. Is very very much the

1277
01:11:50,000 --> 01:11:54,720
Speaker 1: aggressive beast here, so there's a real frenzy to his

1278
01:11:54,840 --> 01:11:56,240
Speaker 1: movements that I really liked.

1279
01:11:56,400 --> 01:12:00,439
Speaker 3: But Mathra intervenes. She grabs Godzilla by the tail and

1280
01:12:00,560 --> 01:12:03,599
Speaker 3: drags him away from the egg. I know we said

1281
01:12:03,720 --> 01:12:05,599
Speaker 3: it's not too rassal any, but.

1282
01:12:05,640 --> 01:12:08,439
Speaker 1: This seems kind of like a little Yeah, this is.

1283
01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:10,920
Speaker 3: Like when a wrestler like drags another wrestler out of

1284
01:12:10,960 --> 01:12:15,040
Speaker 3: the ring by his leg. Observing from Afar by the way,

1285
01:12:15,320 --> 01:12:18,400
Speaker 3: the professor asks what's that yellow powder? And the Fairy

1286
01:12:18,439 --> 01:12:21,280
Speaker 3: Twins are there and they're like, it is Mathra's final weapon,

1287
01:12:21,680 --> 01:12:24,160
Speaker 3: and they explained that it's a kind of poisonous pollen.

1288
01:12:24,320 --> 01:12:28,360
Speaker 3: So she's like coating Godzilla in this like yellow pollen powder.

1289
01:12:28,600 --> 01:12:31,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, like an aerial bombardment of the stuff.

1290
01:12:31,320 --> 01:12:34,120
Speaker 3: So they fight some more, and at one point Godzilla

1291
01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:36,920
Speaker 3: gets the upper hand. He blasts a Mathra with his

1292
01:12:37,040 --> 01:12:40,639
Speaker 3: breath and Mathra starts to look more and more ragged

1293
01:12:40,720 --> 01:12:43,559
Speaker 3: as she's beaten up in this battle. Oh I didn't

1294
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:45,519
Speaker 3: mention this, but we were told earlier by the twins

1295
01:12:45,560 --> 01:12:48,559
Speaker 3: on the island that Mathra is she's sort of like

1296
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:51,120
Speaker 3: near the end of her life cycle, that she's dying,

1297
01:12:52,600 --> 01:12:55,160
Speaker 3: and so she flies away from battle back to the

1298
01:12:55,200 --> 01:12:59,040
Speaker 3: beach toward the egg, and the fairy twins remind us

1299
01:12:59,080 --> 01:13:01,519
Speaker 3: that Mathras and the end of her life. So she

1300
01:13:01,640 --> 01:13:04,599
Speaker 3: glides down to lot to land beside her egg, and

1301
01:13:04,640 --> 01:13:07,640
Speaker 3: then she dies. And Godzilla does here kind of do

1302
01:13:07,720 --> 01:13:10,519
Speaker 3: a wicked, gloating victory dance of sorts, but not a

1303
01:13:10,520 --> 01:13:11,240
Speaker 3: silly dance.

1304
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:12,799
Speaker 1: Right right now.

1305
01:13:12,680 --> 01:13:16,840
Speaker 3: Here, the military resumes fighting Godzilla. Is this gonna do much?

1306
01:13:16,880 --> 01:13:19,160
Speaker 3: Of course not. They shoot some rockets and bombs, we

1307
01:13:19,160 --> 01:13:22,040
Speaker 3: see planes flying around. There is one part here that

1308
01:13:22,880 --> 01:13:26,240
Speaker 3: I will also say that this is better than the

1309
01:13:26,360 --> 01:13:31,200
Speaker 3: average military bombardment of Godzilla scene because there are some

1310
01:13:31,280 --> 01:13:33,680
Speaker 3: effects that are actually kind of visceral. Like there's one

1311
01:13:33,680 --> 01:13:37,120
Speaker 3: part where Godzilla's head catches on fire and oh yeah,

1312
01:13:37,240 --> 01:13:40,200
Speaker 3: looks awesome, but Godzilla just kind of shakes it off.

1313
01:13:40,479 --> 01:13:43,160
Speaker 3: He also gets into a tussle with some high voltage

1314
01:13:43,160 --> 01:13:46,800
Speaker 3: power lines. They also try a big net dropped from

1315
01:13:46,880 --> 01:13:48,320
Speaker 3: a formation of helicopter.

1316
01:13:48,400 --> 01:13:50,960
Speaker 1: They drop like three nets on him and it looks

1317
01:13:51,000 --> 01:13:52,280
Speaker 1: like it might work, but of.

1318
01:13:52,160 --> 01:13:55,759
Speaker 3: Course Godzilla he hates this, and he proceeds to breathe

1319
01:13:55,840 --> 01:13:59,439
Speaker 3: on and melt a bunch of tanks. Meanwhile, down at

1320
01:13:59,479 --> 01:14:02,240
Speaker 3: the beach, the Fairy Twins are doing a musical number.

1321
01:14:02,280 --> 01:14:05,360
Speaker 3: They have gone down to Mathra's egg, and they are

1322
01:14:05,439 --> 01:14:08,599
Speaker 3: singing a song to it, I believe, imploring it to hatch.

1323
01:14:09,040 --> 01:14:11,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and to bring Mathra back into the world again.

1324
01:14:11,920 --> 01:14:17,200
Speaker 1: Mathra is apparently a divine entity of continual death and rebirth.

1325
01:14:17,479 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 3: Yeah. And this is intercut with shots of the people

1326
01:14:20,320 --> 01:14:23,160
Speaker 3: on Ewa Island also doing a dance for the egg.

1327
01:14:23,920 --> 01:14:26,960
Speaker 3: And then suddenly, at the climax of the song, lightning

1328
01:14:27,000 --> 01:14:30,400
Speaker 3: flashes and the egg hatches, and you know what, it's

1329
01:14:30,479 --> 01:14:34,120
Speaker 3: not just one baby Mathra, but two, it's twins, just

1330
01:14:34,280 --> 01:14:35,599
Speaker 3: like the Fairy Twins.

1331
01:14:35,840 --> 01:14:40,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, two larval Mathras emerge, and so now they have

1332
01:14:40,600 --> 01:14:44,200
Speaker 1: the numbers advantage over Godzilla. I'm not sure if Godzilla

1333
01:14:44,280 --> 01:14:46,479
Speaker 1: realizes this, but like, this is really the point at

1334
01:14:46,479 --> 01:14:47,200
Speaker 1: which he's cooked.

1335
01:14:47,439 --> 01:14:50,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, But so to emphasize, it's not like two little

1336
01:14:51,479 --> 01:14:55,519
Speaker 3: moths with wings, it's grubs. It's like two caterpillars, larval

1337
01:14:56,360 --> 01:14:59,600
Speaker 3: mathras and there are hilarious shots of these two like

1338
01:14:59,680 --> 01:15:03,280
Speaker 3: gi red brown grubs humping through the ocean towards the

1339
01:15:03,439 --> 01:15:04,400
Speaker 3: island after.

1340
01:15:04,280 --> 01:15:08,120
Speaker 1: Like it's like, yeah, it's kind of like their sea

1341
01:15:08,200 --> 01:15:10,840
Speaker 1: serpents or something, you know, but also kind of like

1342
01:15:10,880 --> 01:15:11,680
Speaker 1: water buffaloes.

1343
01:15:11,960 --> 01:15:14,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they're going through the water because we learned

1344
01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:18,160
Speaker 3: there's this whole subplot about like there are some school

1345
01:15:18,240 --> 01:15:21,760
Speaker 3: children on Ewa Island and they're still there, and then

1346
01:15:21,800 --> 01:15:24,479
Speaker 3: Godzilla starts going towards the Ewa Island and they're like,

1347
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:27,240
Speaker 3: oh no, the school children, they're in danger, and almost

1348
01:15:27,320 --> 01:15:30,360
Speaker 3: as if to protect them, the grubs like chase after

1349
01:15:30,439 --> 01:15:33,920
Speaker 3: Godzilla through the water and they go to the island.

1350
01:15:34,240 --> 01:15:36,640
Speaker 3: The three human protagonists go there as well, and they

1351
01:15:36,680 --> 01:15:39,840
Speaker 3: sort of get busy rescuing the school children while Godzilla

1352
01:15:39,960 --> 01:15:43,200
Speaker 3: fights these two little moth grubs. And this fight is

1353
01:15:43,400 --> 01:15:45,400
Speaker 3: funny and I think it is meant to be. Like

1354
01:15:45,479 --> 01:15:48,439
Speaker 3: one bites Godzilla on the tail and he starts whipping

1355
01:15:48,439 --> 01:15:51,360
Speaker 3: it all around to get it off. But in this

1356
01:15:51,400 --> 01:15:54,960
Speaker 3: battle between Zilla and two grubs, who's gonna win? And

1357
01:15:55,000 --> 01:15:59,440
Speaker 3: how well I love the final way they defeat him.

1358
01:15:59,200 --> 01:16:03,880
Speaker 3: The moth larvae start blasting Godzilla with their silk. They

1359
01:16:03,960 --> 01:16:06,519
Speaker 3: shoot like spider silk, but they're, of course, you know,

1360
01:16:06,560 --> 01:16:11,040
Speaker 3: these little grubs, and they essentially cocoon him alive. They're

1361
01:16:11,080 --> 01:16:14,480
Speaker 3: spinning more and more silk, throwing it over him. He's furious.

1362
01:16:14,520 --> 01:16:18,360
Speaker 3: He's breathing radioactive breath. He's whipping all around. But he

1363
01:16:18,400 --> 01:16:22,880
Speaker 3: eventually gets wrapped up and incapacitated and just breathing all

1364
01:16:22,920 --> 01:16:26,360
Speaker 3: over in random directions, furious, and he finally falls to

1365
01:16:26,400 --> 01:16:29,040
Speaker 3: the ground, rolls down over the edge of a cliff

1366
01:16:29,120 --> 01:16:31,840
Speaker 3: and into the ocean, sinking out of sight. It's a

1367
01:16:31,840 --> 01:16:33,840
Speaker 3: glorious way to defeat Godzilla.

1368
01:16:34,439 --> 01:16:36,720
Speaker 1: I think it's clear that Godzilla is not killed, you know,

1369
01:16:36,840 --> 01:16:39,920
Speaker 1: it's like he is just defeated for now. He will

1370
01:16:39,920 --> 01:16:43,439
Speaker 1: probably be back, and hopefully humanity can get it together,

1371
01:16:44,840 --> 01:16:48,320
Speaker 1: maybe avoid some of their greed and self interest in

1372
01:16:48,400 --> 01:16:51,040
Speaker 1: order to better prepare for his eventual return.

1373
01:16:51,360 --> 01:16:53,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we see the grubs swimming away. We can

1374
01:16:53,720 --> 01:16:56,479
Speaker 3: hear the fairy twins yelling goodbye in unison. I guess

1375
01:16:56,479 --> 01:16:58,560
Speaker 3: they're going with them. I don't think we see them.

1376
01:16:59,320 --> 01:17:03,280
Speaker 3: And then the humans watch the baby mathras leaving and

1377
01:17:03,400 --> 01:17:06,280
Speaker 3: one of them says, shouldn't we thank them? But then

1378
01:17:06,320 --> 01:17:08,600
Speaker 3: Ichi says the only way to thank them is to

1379
01:17:08,640 --> 01:17:11,599
Speaker 3: build a better world, and the Professor says, that's right,

1380
01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:16,080
Speaker 3: a world based on mutual trust. There's a little a

1381
01:17:16,080 --> 01:17:18,880
Speaker 3: little direct there. It's not super subtle, but you know,

1382
01:17:19,080 --> 01:17:21,720
Speaker 3: I appreciate the sentiment. They're right. That is, you have

1383
01:17:21,760 --> 01:17:23,639
Speaker 3: plainly stated the moral of the film.

1384
01:17:24,120 --> 01:17:28,280
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I like it, Yeah, firmly stated. It

1385
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,920
Speaker 1: serves for us to be reminded because we'll inevitably forget

1386
01:17:32,000 --> 01:17:35,080
Speaker 1: and build a world that is highly susceptible to Godzilla's attack.

1387
01:17:35,560 --> 01:17:38,280
Speaker 3: Yes, it will happen again in Gdora the Three Headed Monster.

1388
01:17:38,360 --> 01:17:41,320
Speaker 3: I forget what the precipitating event is in that one,

1389
01:17:41,360 --> 01:17:45,439
Speaker 3: but you know they're gonna Something's gonna happen, all right,

1390
01:17:45,520 --> 01:17:48,439
Speaker 3: any other business about mathra versus Godzilla before we wrap

1391
01:17:48,439 --> 01:17:48,720
Speaker 3: it up?

1392
01:17:48,880 --> 01:17:51,320
Speaker 1: Oh, just to say that I think it's absolutely solid.

1393
01:17:51,400 --> 01:17:55,120
Speaker 1: It has a great message. Again, the monster battles are amazing,

1394
01:17:55,240 --> 01:17:58,719
Speaker 1: but everything else is also richly entertaining and at times

1395
01:17:58,760 --> 01:18:05,200
Speaker 1: intentionally hilarious. Looks great, sounds great. I would I would

1396
01:18:05,240 --> 01:18:07,640
Speaker 1: be inclined to say, again, I can't pretend to be

1397
01:18:07,720 --> 01:18:10,760
Speaker 1: a Godzilla completest. I haven't seen I haven't even seen

1398
01:18:10,800 --> 01:18:12,800
Speaker 1: all of the show era films. I certainly haven't seen

1399
01:18:12,840 --> 01:18:15,240
Speaker 1: all of the Godzilla films period, and I haven't seen

1400
01:18:15,280 --> 01:18:18,280
Speaker 1: the recent ones, which I'm to understand also feature Mathra.

1401
01:18:18,760 --> 01:18:21,360
Speaker 1: But I would say, if you've never seen a Godzilla

1402
01:18:21,400 --> 01:18:26,120
Speaker 1: film before, and you're open to watching films from previous decades,

1403
01:18:26,960 --> 01:18:30,320
Speaker 1: Matha versus Godzilla is a pretty good place to start.

1404
01:18:30,439 --> 01:18:31,680
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're not going to start with the

1405
01:18:31,720 --> 01:18:36,000
Speaker 1: original one. In the original Godzilla film, this is this

1406
01:18:36,080 --> 01:18:38,920
Speaker 1: is really good. You get, you get heal Godzilla, you

1407
01:18:39,040 --> 01:18:42,960
Speaker 1: get beautiful Mathra, you get you get amusing performances and

1408
01:18:43,000 --> 01:18:44,840
Speaker 1: a nice message. What more can you ask for?

1409
01:18:45,120 --> 01:18:48,320
Speaker 3: I would say this is the most Godzilla film of

1410
01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:51,120
Speaker 3: all the Godzilla films I've seen. It has It has

1411
01:18:51,160 --> 01:18:54,400
Speaker 3: all of the core elements in their most perfect form

1412
01:18:55,000 --> 01:18:55,599
Speaker 3: right right.

1413
01:18:56,000 --> 01:18:58,679
Speaker 1: And you might enter into this film being a Mathra

1414
01:18:58,800 --> 01:19:01,120
Speaker 1: skeptic like I think I used to be, but you

1415
01:19:01,120 --> 01:19:03,559
Speaker 1: will be won over by Mathra and you'll realize that

1416
01:19:03,600 --> 01:19:07,240
Speaker 1: she is indeed the Queen of monsters. All hell, All right,

1417
01:19:07,280 --> 01:19:10,720
Speaker 1: We're gonna gohead close out this episode of Weird House Cinema,

1418
01:19:10,760 --> 01:19:12,280
Speaker 1: but we'd love to hear from all of you. We

1419
01:19:12,360 --> 01:19:14,880
Speaker 1: know you have thoughts on this Godzilla film and many

1420
01:19:14,920 --> 01:19:17,439
Speaker 1: other Godzilla films will remind you that Stuff to Blow

1421
01:19:17,479 --> 01:19:19,960
Speaker 1: Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast with

1422
01:19:20,000 --> 01:19:22,360
Speaker 1: core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we

1423
01:19:22,400 --> 01:19:24,400
Speaker 1: set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a

1424
01:19:24,439 --> 01:19:27,200
Speaker 1: weird film here on Weird House Cinema. If you would

1425
01:19:27,240 --> 01:19:28,479
Speaker 1: like to see a list of all the movies we've

1426
01:19:28,520 --> 01:19:31,040
Speaker 1: covered over the years, go to letterbox dot com. Our

1427
01:19:31,120 --> 01:19:34,040
Speaker 1: user name there is weird House, and we're experimenting with

1428
01:19:34,080 --> 01:19:37,000
Speaker 1: something new. If you want to follow Weird House Cinema

1429
01:19:37,040 --> 01:19:39,840
Speaker 1: exclusively wherever you get your podcast, it now has its

1430
01:19:39,840 --> 01:19:43,519
Speaker 1: own playlist. So Weird House Cinema is still very much

1431
01:19:43,560 --> 01:19:46,320
Speaker 1: publishing to the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed

1432
01:19:46,479 --> 01:19:48,720
Speaker 1: that is its home, that is the core place to

1433
01:19:48,760 --> 01:19:51,400
Speaker 1: subscribe for all of our content, but we're experimenting with

1434
01:19:51,479 --> 01:19:54,920
Speaker 1: having this additional way to seek out the episodes in

1435
01:19:55,000 --> 01:19:55,959
Speaker 1: their own environments.

1436
01:19:56,240 --> 01:19:59,880
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1437
01:20:00,200 --> 01:20:01,600
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1438
01:20:01,680 --> 01:20:04,080
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1439
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:06,160
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say Hello.

1440
01:20:06,360 --> 01:20:09,000
Speaker 3: You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1441
01:20:09,080 --> 01:20:16,520
Speaker 3: Your Mind dot com.

1442
01:20:16,680 --> 01:20:19,640
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1443
01:20:19,720 --> 01:20:22,519
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1444
01:20:22,640 --> 01:20:25,400
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