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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 2: Rewind.

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Speaker 1: This is Rob Lamb and Hey, we just had a

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Speaker 1: new Godzilla episode of Weird House Cinema, So why don't

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Speaker 1: we revisit one of our previous episodes of Weird House

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Speaker 1: Cinema about a Godzilla movie. This one concerns nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: nine's All Monsters Attack It Originally published two seventeen, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three. Let's dive right in.

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Speaker 3: 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 Lamb.

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Speaker 4: And this is Joe McCormick. And today we are going

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Speaker 4: to be covering a film based on a listener recommendation.

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Speaker 4: So to all of you out there who would like

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Speaker 4: to write in with suggestions for us, this may give

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Speaker 4: you some hope. I wonder Rob, should we kick the

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Speaker 4: episode off by reading the message that suggested this movie?

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Speaker 2: Sure? Yeah, go for it.

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Speaker 4: Oh okay, I'll take it. This is from Jordan. Jordan

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Speaker 4: wrote in to say hello, Stuff to Blow Your Mind team.

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Speaker 4: I don't always watch every Weird House Cinema movie before

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Speaker 4: listening to the episodes, but my partner and I certainly

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Speaker 4: had a blast watching Robot Monster. Our streaming service then

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Speaker 4: recommended us an equally short and hilarious movie with its

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Speaker 4: own unrelated dinosaur fights, the nineteen sixty nine film All

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Speaker 4: Monsters Attack. If you haven't had the chance to see it,

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Speaker 4: I'll give you a short pitch. This Japanese bank heist

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Speaker 4: meets Home alone sci fi action mystery movie is filled

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Speaker 4: with giant monster fights that show kids how to overcome

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Speaker 4: their school bullies. Certainly qualifies as a weird house film,

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Speaker 4: to say the least. Don't think it's been covered yet,

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Speaker 4: and if not, I know my partner and I would

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Speaker 4: love to hear your take on it. Love the show, Jordan, Well, Jordan,

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Speaker 4: I hope you were excited for today's episode. We are

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Speaker 4: indeed covering All Monsters Attack.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and listeners keep the recommendations coming, because sometimes listeners

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Speaker 1: let us know about a film that's not on our radar,

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Speaker 1: such as this one. Other times, like last week's episode,

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Speaker 1: I let Sleeping Corpses lie. That was a case where

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Speaker 1: a listener requested it and that kind of bumped it

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Speaker 1: back up on our list. It was on the list,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't at the top. But yeah, so let

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Speaker 1: us know anytimes something catches your eye, if there's anything

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Speaker 1: near and dear to your heart that you think fits

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Speaker 1: the weird house cinema template.

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Speaker 4: So I think All Monsters Attack is a very interesting film,

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Speaker 4: especially for its place in the history of the Godzilla

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Speaker 4: franchise and for its varied reception history. And I think

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Speaker 4: it's also a little bit it's interesting in the very

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Speaker 4: different notes it hits. This is a movie that is

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Speaker 4: both quite funny for schlock reasons, as alluded to in

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Speaker 4: the email, but also I think strangely sweet and even

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Speaker 4: a little bit moving.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it has a good heart. It is a monster

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Speaker 1: film about children. This is not It's pretty common to

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Speaker 1: see these various Kaiju films where there is a child involved,

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Speaker 1: and we all know that Gamera is a friend to

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Speaker 1: all children and so forth. But this movie especially, is

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Speaker 1: a film where the child is not just a character

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Speaker 1: like the childhood view of the world. It is kind

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Speaker 1: of the centerpiece of the whole picture. Like the film

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Speaker 1: doesn't make sense unless you realize that it is from.

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Speaker 4: The viewpoint of a child and not just from the

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Speaker 4: viewpoint of a child. Is in it has a child protagonist,

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Speaker 4: but literally the monster drama in it is a dream

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Speaker 4: in the mind of a child.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a film in which none of the

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Speaker 1: monsters are real, Like, none of the monsters that we see,

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Speaker 1: none of these fights are actually taking place. They're all

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Speaker 1: in the child's head. They're all in his dreams. But

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Speaker 1: at the same time, it's not like those battles, it's

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Speaker 1: not that they don't matter. Like it's ultimately well presented.

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Speaker 1: We talked in our Robot Monster episode about films that

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Speaker 1: have the it was all a dream trope in them,

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Speaker 1: and this is certainly a film where a lot of

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Speaker 1: the action is taking place within the dream, but also

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Speaker 1: there is this it's not presented in kind of a

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Speaker 1: gut punchy, twisty way. We know from the get go

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Speaker 1: that this is a dream scape we're entering into, and

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Speaker 1: yet at the same time there's also there's also the

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Speaker 1: real world plot that is that is taking place as well,

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Speaker 1: and there are steaks in it as well, So it's

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Speaker 1: not like all the stakes are in the dream world

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Speaker 1: and nothing's going on in the real world.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 4: It is a movie about a child who has dreams

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Speaker 4: about monsters, and those dreams about monsters teach him how

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Speaker 4: to solve problems in real life.

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Speaker 1: Now, whether these are good lessons or not, yes, so

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Speaker 1: that's there may be some generational divide on that, and

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Speaker 1: this is all open for discussion.

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Speaker 4: Yes, So I thought it might be useful here to

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Speaker 4: do a brief digression on the history of the Godzilla

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Speaker 4: franchise and the place all monsters attack has within it.

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Speaker 4: So the first Godzilla movie was released in nineteen fifty.

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Speaker 4: It was directed by Ishiro Honda, the same director as

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Speaker 4: today's movie, and it was about a giant, prehistoric reptilian

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Speaker 4: monster with radiation breath who appears from under the ocean

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Speaker 4: as a consequence of nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific.

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Speaker 4: Godzilla attacks Japan and is eventually defeated by the ingenuity

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Speaker 4: of human scientists. Now, I think it's really important to

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Speaker 4: note that if you have only seen later Godzilla movies,

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Speaker 4: you may be shocked if you go back and watch

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Speaker 4: the original, shocked to discover its much darker tone, the

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Speaker 4: heavy themes treated in a very solemn manner, and the

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Speaker 4: fact that there is no Kaiju meet Slam. The monsters

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Speaker 4: do not supplex each other. In fact, there's only one monster.

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Speaker 4: Godzilla is a pure antagonist. In the first movie. He

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Speaker 4: doesn't wrestle other monsters, and it is not light camp entertainment.

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Speaker 4: The original Godzilla is a bleak, doomy movie.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of grimy. It's use of black and white,

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Speaker 1: it's very stark.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 1: A serious film about dread and horror in the modern world.

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Speaker 4: However, in the film that would follow, which was called

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Speaker 4: Godzilla Raids Again in nineteen fifty five, Godzilla once again

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Speaker 4: emerges to threaten humankind, but this time there's another element.

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Speaker 4: Godzilla is fighting another monster, so fighting this ancient fire

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Speaker 4: breathing dinosaur enemy. He's sort of based on the design

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Speaker 4: of an ankylosaurus, and this would set off a kind

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Speaker 4: of pattern of monster on monster violence that would continue

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Speaker 4: into the following films, including movies like King Kong versus

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Speaker 4: Godzilla that's in nineteen sixty two, mathra versus Godzilla in

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Speaker 4: sixty four, Various battles with monsters from outer space and

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Speaker 4: with three heads, other things coming up from the deep,

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Speaker 4: and rob I wonder if you would disagree with anything

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Speaker 4: here or have anything to add to this, but I

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Speaker 4: would argue a few general trends in the Godzilla movies

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Speaker 4: as they go on. One is the trend of the

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Speaker 4: moral valance of Godzilla, who I think goes initially from

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Speaker 4: hard heel to kind of anti hero to full face.

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Speaker 4: Would you agree with that?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, he's definitely a babyface. And then in

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Speaker 1: most of the films people are really familiar.

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Speaker 4: With, Yeah, it's often like Godzilla has to show up

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Speaker 4: to fight a bad monster in order to protect humanity

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Speaker 4: from that monster, and he's kind of like a dangerous ally,

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Speaker 4: but ultimately it's he who is defending human civilization from

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Speaker 4: this really wicked creature.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that that trajectory tends to hold true

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Speaker 1: occasionally with you'll see some some new Godzilla pictures that

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Speaker 1: come about in which they kind of go back to

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Speaker 1: basics and go for like the solo monster threat sort

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Speaker 1: of plot. And I guess one of the main examples

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Speaker 1: of that is is shin Godzilla from twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: A lot of times when they do a reboot, it's

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Speaker 4: like that shin Godzilla is like that Godzilla, that horrible

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Speaker 4: American Godzilla from the nineties is like that, yeah, or

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Speaker 4: wait is it now? I'm trying to remember. I think

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Speaker 4: it is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I believe so.

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Speaker 1: Though I think the more recent American Godzilla remake that

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Speaker 1: had some extra monsters in it, as I recall, so

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Speaker 1: it had.

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Speaker 4: Bad ones that Godzilla had to fight. Yeah, let them fight.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, some sort of radiation eating diosaur creatures.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Okay, so there's that trajectory. Another thing is the tone.

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Speaker 4: The tone changes. It goes from the bleak, just doom

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Speaker 4: layden horror of the first movie to a much lighter, campier,

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Speaker 4: sillier kind of entertainment, even when it sometimes still has commentary.

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Speaker 4: A lot of times, these sillier, campier Godzilla movies will

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Speaker 4: be satirical about say pollution or politics or the entertainment industry,

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Speaker 4: even like I think there's one where there's, like, you know,

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Speaker 4: somebody's trying to boost TV ratings by capturing King Kong

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Speaker 4: and then he gets out and has to fight Godzilla

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Speaker 4: and so forth. So they often satirize real elements in

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Speaker 4: the world, but they're not as dark as the first one.

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Speaker 4: I would also say, as it goes on, you know,

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Speaker 4: I think some people would be tempted to say that

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Speaker 4: the quality of production in the films goes down, but

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Speaker 4: I don't think that's exactly right. I would say the

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Speaker 4: quality of production becomes more variable. It's not like there's

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Speaker 4: a steady decline in the quality of Godzilla movies, but

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Speaker 4: instead we see a sort of all over the place

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Speaker 4: quality pattern. Would you agree with that?

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Speaker 1: I think so, and I do wonder how much And

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Speaker 1: this would maybe something that Godzilla scholars may have thoughts on.

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Speaker 1: And indeed, it is worth pointing out that Godzilla movies

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Speaker 1: are definitely an area where there is a People have

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Speaker 1: written whole books on this, there have been academic papers

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Speaker 1: on this. This is this is a well explored region

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Speaker 1: of weird cinema. But I do wonder at times they

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Speaker 1: get into the sillier zone, kid friendly zone, and I

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Speaker 1: wonder what are the different forces involved. I mean, part

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Speaker 1: of it is clearly like the reception to Godzilla by

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Speaker 1: young viewers, But then also I wonder how much of

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Speaker 1: it is the filmmakers realizing like not only the limitations

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Speaker 1: of rubber suit monster effects, but also the potential for

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Speaker 1: humor with those suits. You know, like, if you're going

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Speaker 1: for just hard you know, sci fi or really serious

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Speaker 1: grim horror with it, it feels like you maybe you've

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Speaker 1: got to be a little a little more careful about

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Speaker 1: how you use the suit and how you show the

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Speaker 1: suit where if you open that up a little bit,

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Speaker 1: then there's all this potential for like the goofy er

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Speaker 1: stuff to take place.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I fully agree with that, though there are some

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Speaker 4: films that have managed to do both. Actually, and that's

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Speaker 4: one thing I love about shin Godzilla. I think it

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Speaker 4: succeeds fully in real grim horror and funny camp in

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Speaker 4: the same movie.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a careful tight rope to walk though.

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Speaker 4: But anyway, back to the film we're going to talk

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Speaker 4: about today. It arrives in nineteen sixty nine, and it

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Speaker 4: has long been regarded as one of the worst Godzilla films.

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Speaker 4: It seems recently though, a lot of critics have kind

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Speaker 4: of softened on it. They've kind of started to come

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Speaker 4: around a little bit. And you can see the reasons

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Speaker 4: for both, both for the initial harsh reaction and the

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Speaker 4: softening and warming up to this movie. There are certainly

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Speaker 4: elements that are not as impressive as other films in

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Speaker 4: the franchise. The stakes are less all encompassing. I mean,

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Speaker 4: this is not a world world defining conflict to save

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Speaker 4: the planet from a three headed monster from outer space

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Speaker 4: or whatever. Instead, it is a child dealing with loneliness

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Speaker 4: and bullying, who has dreams about monsters that inspire him

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Speaker 4: to stand up for himself. It's hard for that to

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Speaker 4: feel as epic as the other Godzilla movies, either in

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Speaker 4: either an awe inspiring and scary way or in a

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Speaker 4: funny way. And I think one thing that has to

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Speaker 4: be acknowledged is that the original special effects and production

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Speaker 4: values in this film are very limited compared to some

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Speaker 4: other films in the franchise, and a lot of the

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Speaker 4: special effects sequences that do appear are recycled from previous movies.

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Speaker 4: We'll talk more about that as we go on. But

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Speaker 4: on the other hand, I think a lot of people

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Speaker 4: have kind of come around on this movie today as

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Speaker 4: simply a different kind of creature than most other films

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Speaker 4: in the Godzilla series. It is a sweeter, more modest,

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Speaker 4: more intimate meditation on what Godzilla had come to mean

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Speaker 4: for the children of Japan, end of the world.

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Speaker 1: Having just watched this film this morning for the first time,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine people hating it. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: seventy minutes, it's sixty nine minutes long for crying out loud.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you don't spend too much time in this picture,

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Speaker 1: and it has a lot of monsters in it. I

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Speaker 1: have to come back to the sort of the Glenn

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Speaker 1: Danzig school of filmmaking. I believe he was asking an

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Speaker 1: interview what makes a great vampire film? And he said, well,

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Speaker 1: a lot of vampires, and so this film takes kind

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Speaker 1: of that part, like what makes a great monster film?

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Speaker 1: A lot of great kaiju film? Well, a lot of kaiju.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of kaiju in this picture. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if all of them are present, as the

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Speaker 1: title would suggest, but a lot of them are present.

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Speaker 1: And Okay, once you've checked that box off, once you're

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Speaker 1: definitely giving the audience all the monsters, what else are

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Speaker 1: you going to give them? And what can you give

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Speaker 1: them this a little different? What can you do that

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Speaker 1: would maybe be a satisfying and different story while still

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Speaker 1: delivering all of the things that this picture has to

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Speaker 1: deliver for the audience that they're expecting.

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Speaker 4: I think that's a great point, and I think you

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Speaker 4: could also argue that given the general trends in the

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Speaker 4: Godzilla series up to this point, increasingly kind of sillier

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Speaker 4: and campier type movies and increasing use of Godzilla as

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Speaker 4: a face rather than a heal. I think you could

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Speaker 4: argue it was inevitable that these movies would end up

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Speaker 4: including movies that were explicitly meant for kids, not just

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Speaker 4: movies that kids happened to love. So just before All

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Speaker 4: Monster's Attack came out, a couple of years before, in

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Speaker 4: nineteen sixty seven, we get Son of Godzilla, which, true

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Speaker 4: to title, introduced a new character to the Kaiju pantheon,

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Speaker 4: that is Manila, who is yes, Godzilla's son, and the

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Speaker 4: movie deals with parenting themes, showing Godzilla teaching his child

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Speaker 4: how to roar and how to blast out his atomic breath.

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Speaker 4: In fact, we see some scenes from that movie of

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Speaker 4: this type taken whole cloth and shown again in All

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Speaker 4: Monsters Attack. And I have read that the introduction of

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Speaker 4: Manila in this movie was the result of a desire

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Speaker 4: at the studio at Toho to introduce acute character and

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Speaker 4: acute relationship to create a movie that would not just

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Speaker 4: appeal to kids, but also to the young parents who

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Speaker 4: would be taking kids to see movies.

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Speaker 1: It makes sense, yeah, I mean, if you want to

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Speaker 1: introduce your children to these monster movies that by this point,

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Speaker 1: you know, you've you've you've grown up on it helps

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Speaker 1: if there's some sort of cute element. I mean I've

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Speaker 1: I've encountered that myself with my own son. You know,

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Speaker 1: is there is there a baby Yoda in there, a

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Speaker 1: grogu that can you know get I mean Star Wars

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Speaker 1: has tons of stuff like that obviously, but you know,

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Speaker 1: is there some sort of like cute element that will

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Speaker 1: definitely catch their attention that they can latch onto, and

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Speaker 1: then perhaps they'll they'll latch onto the rest of a

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Speaker 1: even franchise as well.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean just watch the Turn like you know,

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Speaker 4: your your your harsh, cynical twenty somethings. Star Wars geeks

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Speaker 4: hate the e Walks until they have kids, and then

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Speaker 4: they watch Return with their kids and then they're like, oh,

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Speaker 4: they're actually kind of great.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And we'll describe Manila in a in a little

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Speaker 1: bit here. He is cute.

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Speaker 4: He is, in fact, more than once we noticed Minila

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Speaker 4: in this movie doing specific sort of sounds and postures

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Speaker 4: reminiscent of our baby.

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Speaker 1: Uh so the donkey sound that he keeps making.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, of course, the donkey sound. But no, he

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Speaker 4: does at one point he does a kind of I

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Speaker 4: don't know, like a pose where he's like wiggling his

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Speaker 4: arms and legs and he just looks like a human baby.

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Speaker 4: But anyway, so a lot of footage from Son of

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Speaker 4: Godzilla would end up being reused in All Monsters Attack,

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Speaker 4: and in fact, not just footage from Sun but also

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Speaker 4: from recent Kaiju movies like Ebirah Horror of the Deep

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Speaker 4: that came out in nineteen sixty six. That's more of

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Speaker 4: your classic meat Slam that's where Godzilla battles a giant

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Speaker 4: shrimp crayfish type monster. But also it used footage from

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Speaker 4: King Kong Escapes from sixty seven and from Destroy All

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Speaker 4: Monsters from sixty eight.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Destroy All Monsters also has been a lot in it.

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Speaker 4: So why so much recycled footage from other Toho movies? Well,

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Speaker 4: the answer appears to be extreme constraints on time and budget.

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Speaker 4: I've read that this was in part due to cost

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Speaker 4: overruns from other movies Tohoe is making in nineteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 4: as well as just general money problems at the studio.

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Speaker 4: These were hard times at Toho, but for whatever reason,

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Speaker 4: the edict came down that this movie had to be

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Speaker 4: made fast and cheap. And I think you can say

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Speaker 4: that when it comes to special effects sequences, it kind

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Speaker 4: of shows, especially to the original ones and how much

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Speaker 4: footage is reused. But at the same time, I don't

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Speaker 4: think this movie is hack work. All Monsters Attack was

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Speaker 4: directed by Ishiro Honda, the A list Toho director who

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Speaker 4: had made the original Godzilla as well as most of

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Speaker 4: the big movies in the series since then, and despite

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Speaker 4: all the limitations on the production, Honda apparently cited All

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Speaker 4: Monsters Attack as one of his personal favorites from the

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Speaker 4: entire series. I was wondering a bit why this was,

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Speaker 4: and so I was reading from Godzilla, The Official Guide

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Speaker 4: to the King of the Monsters. This was the official

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Speaker 4: Toho licensed book on the series, written by Graham Skipper

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, and Skipper writes quote All Monsters Attack

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Speaker 4: was truly a labor of love for Honda, a small

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Speaker 4: film that focused less on the big monster fights and

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Speaker 4: more on one young child learning how to stand up

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Speaker 4: for himself. While Honda loved the spectacle and undeniable artistry

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Speaker 4: of orchestrating giant monsters rampaging through cities, he also loved

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Speaker 4: the emotional core of the people at the heart of

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Speaker 4: these stories. Here he was mostly left to do as

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Speaker 4: he pleased within the constraints, and thus we get what

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Speaker 4: today feels like a small indie film rather than a

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Speaker 4: Kaiju blockbuster, and I think that's right on the money.

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Speaker 4: We're kind of left in the end with a cozy

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Speaker 4: little film about childhood struggles, bullying, courage and the inspiration

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Speaker 4: that we take from our myths. And it's also a

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Speaker 4: film in which all the monster slamming is relegated to

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Speaker 4: dream sequences. But there is something very charming about it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Again, it checks off the box of all the monsters,

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Speaker 1: lots of monster stuff happening on screen, but then it

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Speaker 1: figures out something very interesting to do with the rest

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Speaker 1: of them picture, and in that it has a lot

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Speaker 1: in common I think with a rather different Kaiju movie,

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Speaker 1: a rather different Godzilla movie that we previously covered on

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Speaker 1: Weird House. That's nineteen seventy one's Godzilla versus Hetera, which

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Speaker 1: I would say is not as memorable from a character standpoint.

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Speaker 1: I think this movie has a has more heart, but

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Speaker 1: that one definitely had a lot of style, a lot

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Speaker 1: of like in a hit message at the core of it,

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Speaker 1: while also giving us monsters.

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Speaker 4: Yes, Hetera is I think a better movie from the

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Speaker 4: point of view of just like weird imagery and having

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Speaker 4: lots of crazy visual flare and stuff that stands out

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Speaker 4: like that, but all monsters attack has it has a

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Speaker 4: soul and hetera. I don't know, maybe.

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 1: Well, when we were thinking about elevator pitches for this one,

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Speaker 1: I instantly thought The never Ending.

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Speaker 2: Story but with Kaiju Oof.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And it really does remind me quite a bit

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Speaker 1: of the nineteen eighty four film adaptation of Michael Inda's

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine novel The never Ending Story.

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Speaker 2: I love both of these, by.

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Speaker 1: The way, I know Michael Inda did not like the

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Speaker 1: film adaptation, but I have rum in my heart for

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Speaker 1: both of them. But in the film adaptation of The

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Speaker 1: Neverending Story, we have a kind of lonely child in

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Speaker 1: the city with a disrupted home life who finds courage

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Speaker 1: in the realm of fantasy, and in the film, at

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Speaker 1: any rate, he eventually unleashes a luck dragon on his bullies.

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Speaker 1: In this film, we have a lonely latch key kid

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Speaker 1: in late sixties Japan living in a heavily industrialized area,

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Speaker 1: and he finds courage through his dream jaunts to Monster Island.

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Speaker 1: Instead of actually summoning a kaiju to defeat his bullies

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Speaker 1: and bank robbers. He home alones them, as Lister Mail.

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Speaker 4: Suggested, Yeah, he lays traps essentially and gets them to

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Speaker 4: fall through holes in the floor.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well, let's go ahead and listen to

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Speaker 1: the trailer audio on this one. This is the English

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Speaker 1: dub trailer, which I think works best for the podcast

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Speaker 1: format here, though this is not the cut of the

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Speaker 1: film I ended up watching. Usually, I'm all for the

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Speaker 1: English dub on a film like this lets me focus

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Speaker 1: more on the monsters, and you know, and the human

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Speaker 1: performances are generally less important in a picture like this.

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Speaker 1: But HBO Max only offered subtitles, so I watched it

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Speaker 1: as if I were viewing a Krosawa film.

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Speaker 2: Where is the Armor Computer Golong? Yes?

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Speaker 1: Yes, do you take a jet? Take a jet?

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

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Speaker 5: Welcome aboard Pan American Flight one Director Monster Island. We'll

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Speaker 5: be fine at thirty five thousand and eight and we'll

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Speaker 5: arrive on schedule.

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Speaker 4: We hope you up a pleasant flight. Thank you?

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Speaker 2: Are you Muster Island?

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Speaker 1: Overland?

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Speaker 2: We are ready to land?

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Speaker 5: Oh godzilla, a comacara?

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Speaker 2: All right? Sounds like a party, huh.

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Speaker 4: I mean, if I hadn't already watched it, I would,

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Speaker 4: by the ways. Speaking of advertising for this film, I

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Speaker 4: haven't confirmed this, but the Internet alleges that the tagline

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Speaker 4: was see prehistoric monsters crawl out of the hidden depths

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Speaker 4: of the Earth and take revenge against the living. That's

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Speaker 4: not even close. Doesn't not even remotely describing this.

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Speaker 2: Movie, not at all.

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Speaker 1: All Right, if you're wondering where you can watch this picture, well,

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Speaker 1: as of this recording, you can watch it on HBO Max,

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Speaker 1: but all streaming is subject to change, especially HBO Max

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Speaker 1: as of late, so watch it while you can there,

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00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,480
Speaker 1: I guess. But it's also available on Blu Ray from

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Speaker 1: the Criterion collection on there. Just absolutely worshipful Godzilla the

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Speaker 1: Shoa Era films nineteen fifty fourth through nineteen seventy five.

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Speaker 1: I've looked at the physical packaging for this at Atlanta's

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Speaker 1: own Video Drone. They have them for rent there, of course,

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Speaker 1: and the packaging is just splendid. It has all this

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Speaker 1: amazing new artwork in at these very flashy, colorful illustrations

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Speaker 1: of Godzilla and the monsters that he battles.

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Speaker 4: I may have to pick that up one day.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's it's great. It's a nice package. All right.

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Speaker 1: Well let's get into the people here involved in this film. So,

438
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: as we noted already, Ishirohanda is the director of nineteen

439
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,879
Speaker 1: eleven through nineteen ninety three legendary Toho film director who,

440
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: of course helm fifty four's Godzilla in the movie that

441
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 1: started it all, and he directed forty four pictures in total,

442
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,119
Speaker 1: eight of those Godzilla films, culminating in seventy five's Terror

443
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 1: of Mecca Godzilla. But he also directed rodin the Mysterians

444
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: the Human Vapor Matango, which, by the way, if you're

445
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: out there enjoying the current mushroom zombie horror series on television,

446
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,120
Speaker 1: well you need to go back and watch Matango. I'm

447
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,200
Speaker 1: not sure if they were the first mushroom zombie type picture,

448
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 1: but they have to be one of the first.

449
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,480
Speaker 4: Else maybe you should do Matango on the show.

450
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,119
Speaker 2: We probably should. Yeah, okay, but oh.

451
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: Other films he did include Frankenstein Versus Beragon, The War

452
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: of the Garganshuas Space, Amiba, and Moore. He was a

453
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,720
Speaker 1: friend of director Akira Corrasawa and served as director counselor

454
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 1: or chief assistant director on Carrisawa's nineteen eighty five epic Ryan.

455
00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: His name continues to appear in the credits on god

456
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 1: Zilla movies and in other homages. He also directed nineteen

457
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 1: sixty three's Atragon, which we previously covered on Weird House,

458
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: and of course, as we mentioned, we also covered seventy

459
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: one's Godzilla versus Hetera, which he did not direct, but

460
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:15,200
Speaker 1: still Godzilla picture.

461
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 4: Hondo is a masterful director, and you can just feel

462
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 4: his storytelling confidence even when he's working with what appeared

463
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:30,479
Speaker 4: to be extremely limiting constraints on like his budget and

464
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 4: what he could do with the movie. You just see

465
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 4: him like kind of just accepting it and plowing straight

466
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 4: through and making the best movie he could.

467
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now getting into some of the other connections, I

468
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: guess it's one of the situations when you start looking

469
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: at the people involved in certainly Toho pictures, you see

470
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 1: like this, the Japanese studio system of the day in place,

471
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,360
Speaker 1: So a lot of these, you know, were frequent Toho

472
00:26:55,119 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: actors or frequent Honda collaborators. So the screenplay here was

473
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 1: by Shinichi Sekazawa, who lived nineteen twenty through nineteen ninety two,

474
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: a frequent collaborator with Honda inscribe of many Godzilla movies,

475
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:14,400
Speaker 1: beginning with nineteen sixty two's King Kong Versus Godzilla. And

476
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: he also wrote Azragon, which we covered or he was

477
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: one of the writers on it. I forget how that

478
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: shook out. But anyway, getting into the actors here, of

479
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 1: course we have to call out Haruo Nakajima, who plays Godzilla.

480
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: He is the man in the suit. He lived nineteen

481
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: twenty nine through twenty seventeen. He played Godzilla in twelve

482
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 1: consecutive films. He was also in Mathra in the War

483
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 1: of the garganshuas as well as a Kira kurosaw was

484
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 1: seven Samurai in a bit role and not as a

485
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,359
Speaker 1: giant monster. He's generally considered a legend and the rubber

486
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: monster suit actor par excellence.

487
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 4: Was he ever a pro wrestler?

488
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 2: Like?

489
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 4: How did he get all those moves down?

490
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: I don't think he had a wrestling background. He just,

491
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: you know, I think like a lot of these, well,

492
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,399
Speaker 1: the way these different monster actors end up in the

493
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,160
Speaker 1: suits that often come in to find them, like sometimes

494
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:08,680
Speaker 1: it's a case where they're like, you know, a studied

495
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:12,719
Speaker 1: physical performer, other times they're like they're the willing person.

496
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 1: They're the person that was around that was like, yes,

497
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: I will do this, and it became their thing, and

498
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:21,879
Speaker 1: certainly Nakajima became like one of the most legendary rubber

499
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 1: suit I mean certainly the most legendary Kaiju actor of

500
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:28,879
Speaker 1: all time. Now when it comes to Manila, the Little

501
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:36,160
Speaker 1: Godzilla creature Godzilla's Son, this performance is by little Man Machin,

502
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: whose real name was Masseo Fukuzawa, who the nineteen twenty

503
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 1: one through two thousand he played Manila in three films

504
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 1: Son of Godzilla Destroyed All Monsters and All Monsters Attack,

505
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: which we previously noted, and he followed this up with

506
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: a couple of Kaiju projects, Ultraman Story from eighty four

507
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 1: ultra Q the Movie from nineteen ninety. He also played

508
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: the juvenile version of the title Kaiju in the North

509
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: Korean kaiju movie Pulgasari from nineteen eighty five WOW. His

510
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 1: final film was the nineteen ninety one Tokasatsu film Micka

511
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: Droid Robo Kill Beneath Disco Club Leila. I haven't seen it,

512
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:20,880
Speaker 1: but you may have seen the cover art He's got,

513
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: you know, like some dark soldier with red eyes on it.

514
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 1: This is not what I've seen, but it's I think

515
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: some people really dig it. But anyway, this was a

516
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: diminutive suit actor who according to Godzilla Wiki.

517
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 2: I looked at Godzilla.

518
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: Wiki in addition to the normal databases on this one,

519
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 1: because they generally just have excellent information about Godzilla pictures.

520
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: They say that he worked prior to this as a

521
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: mini wrestler, but I couldn't find out really anything about that,

522
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: like where he wrestled, who he wrestled for, or what

523
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 1: his name was. I'm guessing he was a little man

524
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 1: when he wrestled, But I mean, there were some Japanese

525
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: mini wrestlers, but I think even the that I'm aware of,

526
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: they worked outside of Japan frequently, so I don't know

527
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: how much of a scene there was for this in

528
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 1: Japanese wrestling during this time period. He played a couple

529
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: of dwarf roles in the early sixties, including the Toshira

530
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 1: Mafuni Sinbad movie or well, I'm not sure if it's

531
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: actually a Sinbad movie, but it was released in the

532
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 1: West as The Lost World of Sinbad.

533
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 4: Oh, I've never seen that one.

534
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: Now. A note on Manila here. He's not to be

535
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: confused with god Zuki, the juvenile flying kaiju from the

536
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:32,240
Speaker 1: Hanna Barbara cartoon The Godzilla Power Hour from seventy eight.

537
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:34,960
Speaker 1: I know a lot of you out there know exactly

538
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Also, he's not to be confused

539
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 1: with Godzilla Junior, who debuted in Toho's nineteen ninety three

540
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: film Godzilla Versus Mecha Godzilla two and appeared in two

541
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 1: pictures after that. Both god Zuki and Godzilla Junior have

542
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: baby dragon vibes, while Manila here he's more I don't know,

543
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 1: how would you describe him. He's kind of like baby

544
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 1: turtle without a shell, right.

545
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, baby turtle, baby fraud. Kind of like tadpole, a

546
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 4: quadrupedal tadpole. I'm not sure.

547
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:05,640
Speaker 2: Yeah.

548
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 1: Very reminiscent though, of a human toddler, not only in

549
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 1: his appearance but also in the way he moves around.

550
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 4: Yes, I mean, I think they were really trying to

551
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 4: play up that baby angle to make Manila as cute

552
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 4: as possible. That was the directive.

553
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,479
Speaker 1: Yes, Now, we mentioned that there's a human child at

554
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: the center of this picture. The child is the character

555
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 1: Ichiro Miki or just Ichiro. I don't even know this

556
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: is a case where they really say his last name

557
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 1: in the picture, but was played by TOMINOI Yazaki. Dates unknown.

558
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 1: He was a Japanese child actor. This was his first film,

559
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: followed by mostly TV roles, some ultraman, some common Rider

560
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: through a Round seventy three or seventy four. His other

561
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 1: film is the nineteen seventy two monster flick digorro Versus Goliath.

562
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,760
Speaker 1: I've read that there have been a to sort of

563
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 1: find this actor as an adult and you know, get

564
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: his his take on what filming this movie was like.

565
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: But I don't think any of those those searches wherever fruitful.

566
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure you know what became of him.

567
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: But I lived a private life after his child acting

568
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: days were behind him.

569
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 4: Leave Ichiro alone, let him live his life.

570
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: Now there's another character of note in the picture. So again,

571
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: Ichiro is a latch key kid, so his parents work

572
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 1: a lot. He's left to go home and look after

573
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: himself and his We meet this friend of his, this

574
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 1: this man who lives in the same apartment complex that

575
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 1: is a toy maker or a toy designer, an inventor

576
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: of sorts.

577
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, he At one point, he's building something he

578
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,680
Speaker 4: calls a quote kiddy computer in the subtitles on the

579
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:53,479
Speaker 4: version I saw, But it's like a computer that shows

580
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 4: live footage of a moon landing.

581
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, in great quality, was really in color.

582
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, so I don't know what's going on there.

583
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 4: But yeah, he's a toy maker and he is he's

584
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 4: essentially Ichiro's friend, like he's a friend, and he looks

585
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 4: after Ichiro sometimes when his parents are both working and

586
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 4: can't come home.

587
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 2: Yeah.

588
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 1: This character's name is Shinpei Innami, played by the actor

589
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,960
Speaker 1: Hideo i'm Amoto who lived nineteen twenty six through two

590
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:29,719
Speaker 1: thousand and three. And this is a sometimes these various

591
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: Toho actors are actors that you just kind of see

592
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: another Toho films, and there's kind of like, you know,

593
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 1: just an ensemble of Toho actors. But there's a very

594
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 1: good chance folks out there have seen i'm Amoto before

595
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 1: because he has very distinctive looks, tall, thin Japanese character

596
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: actor with kind of gaunt features that are maybe not

597
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: accentuated much in this picture because he's just playing a

598
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: normal human and nothing. You know, he's not an assassin

599
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,840
Speaker 1: or anything, but he worked in a number of notable films.

600
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 1: His work includes kuros was Yojimbo from sixty one, Quite

601
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 1: On from sixty four, Sword of Doom, and The Tango

602
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: from sixty six. He was also in Message for Space

603
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 1: and Attragon, so two films that we previously covered, though

604
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 1: I think those were smaller roles in those pictures. He

605
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: was also in International Secret Police Key of Keys from

606
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,439
Speaker 1: sixty five, which is known to many Western moviegoers as

607
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: the movie that What's Up Tiger Lily? The Woody Allen

608
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: picture was a dub off. That was a picture where

609
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 1: they took a Japanese film and dubbed over it with

610
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 1: like new comedic dialogue. I've never seen it, but that's

611
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: the basic pitch.

612
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 4: I think I've never seen it either.

613
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 2: Anyway.

614
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 1: I'm Amoto was in a string of Godzilla and Kaiju movies,

615
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:48,399
Speaker 1: as well as nineteen ninety six's Echo Echo Azarak two,

616
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,760
Speaker 1: Birth of the Wizard and nineteen eighty seven's Mighty Jack.

617
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,759
Speaker 4: Was that featured on Mystery Science Theater?

618
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 2: It was, Yes, Mighty Jack.

619
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,880
Speaker 4: Well, he's very good in this role on him to

620
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,760
Speaker 4: be the kindly, understanding adult in an uncaring world.

621
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:08,319
Speaker 1: Yes, let's see, I'm going to skip a bit in

622
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: the cast. Here we do see Isiro's father a little bit.

623
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: He's played by Kenji Sahara, who was born in nineteen

624
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,280
Speaker 1: thirty two and is presumably still alive. He's a Japanese

625
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: actor who has the distinction of being in the most

626
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: Godzilla films, or at least was at one point he

627
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 1: was in thirteen of them, which I think puts him

628
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 1: what won over the Man in the Suit, in addition

629
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,919
Speaker 1: to numerous other Toho pictures. He was in the first

630
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 1: Godzilla movie as a newspaper reporter and a party guy

631
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 1: in a boat, and his last Godzilla film was two

632
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 1: thousand and four's Final Wars, and it looks like he

633
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 1: was last active around twenty eleven and then finally. The

634
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:51,879
Speaker 1: music in this one is by Kunio mia Uchi, who

635
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 1: lived nineteen thirty two through two thousand and six, Japanese

636
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 1: Toho composer whose first big score was The Human Vapor

637
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty. He followed this up with such films

638
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: and TV shows as Mighty Jack, Ultraman, Godzilla Versus Geegan,

639
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: and his stock music was used in twenty twenty two's

640
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:12,800
Speaker 1: Shin Ultraman, which I haven't seen yet, but apparently Joe

641
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 1: it gives Ultraman the Shin Godzilla treatment. Oh well, that's

642
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,800
Speaker 1: what the title and the posters seem to imply.

643
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:21,399
Speaker 2: Oh.

644
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 4: I've looked this up before, but I always forget what

645
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,359
Speaker 4: it is that the title Shin Godzilla means. And I

646
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 4: think the deal is that Shin is a word that

647
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:33,719
Speaker 4: has multiple meanings, like it could be interpreted to mean

648
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 4: the word god, or it could be interpreted to mean

649
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,759
Speaker 4: something like original or pure m. Is that right?

650
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,839
Speaker 1: I believe that that sounds familiar. I haven't looked into

651
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 1: it recently, but I remember reading about it when Shin

652
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 1: Godzilla first came out, and it's kind of like taken

653
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:49,879
Speaker 1: on its own meeting to me, like you put Shin

654
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 1: on the beginning of something, and I'm expecting it to

655
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 1: have like a lot of scenes of bureaucracy dealing with

656
00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: an outrageous event. So like, I think you could apply

657
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,960
Speaker 1: it to anything, Shin Godzilla, Shen king Kong, I don't know,

658
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:07,799
Speaker 1: Shin Mettango. You could really go crazy.

659
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 4: With it, Shin critters, Shien critters, Shen gremlins too.

660
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 2: That's what we want to see, all right?

661
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 4: You ready to look at some stuff about the plot.

662
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:26,040
Speaker 2: Let's do it well.

663
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,360
Speaker 4: Of course, we start with that beautiful Toho logo. I

664
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:31,279
Speaker 4: know I've said this on the show before, but it

665
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:33,239
Speaker 4: makes me feel so good every time I see the

666
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 4: Toho logo, Really, something in my chest just relaxes.

667
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:41,480
Speaker 1: There's something about how it looks like there's light shining

668
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: through glass on it that it feels like I am

669
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 1: in the waiting room at an office for a professional

670
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,200
Speaker 1: that I trust, you know, like I don't know if

671
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 1: I'm going to a doctor in this scenario or what

672
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,799
Speaker 1: I'm going to a Toho picture, and I trust that

673
00:37:57,840 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to be taken care of.

674
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 4: You're in good hands. Yeah, Now, how to describe the

675
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,760
Speaker 4: score that plays with the opening credits. The music throughout

676
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 4: this movie is generally rather strange in a way that

677
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 4: I liked. It's got this opening jazz tune that makes

678
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 4: me think a little bit of the Pink Panther. But

679
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:19,560
Speaker 4: after many cups of coffee and then once the singing starts,

680
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:20,720
Speaker 4: it gets really weird.

681
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:21,879
Speaker 2: Yeah.

682
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:23,840
Speaker 1: I guess the vibe is kind of hip and fun,

683
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 1: at least until you start reading the subtitles. For me,

684
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:29,880
Speaker 1: for the opening theme song.

685
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,799
Speaker 4: Oh we'll get to that in a second. But also

686
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 4: I love how the opening credits are full of monster

687
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:38,320
Speaker 4: fight clips, and there was one I genuinely laughed out loud.

688
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,280
Speaker 4: So it's showing Godzilla fighting with one of the spider monsters.

689
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:44,640
Speaker 4: I think that's the monster they fight originally in Son

690
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,120
Speaker 4: of Godzilla, and they show the fight again in this movie.

691
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:49,440
Speaker 4: And so it's showing this big spider and then there

692
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 4: is just a freeze frame on the spider spraying spider

693
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:54,720
Speaker 4: juice out of its mouth.

694
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 2: Yeah.

695
00:38:56,719 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: Again, this is the movie that knows the kids out

696
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:02,239
Speaker 1: there want monsters. Know, people come to Godzola to sea monsters,

697
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 1: and they're gonna start delivering right away.

698
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,239
Speaker 4: And I enjoy how the spider has a Sam Elliott mustache.

699
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very furry. It's a disturbingly furry spider.

700
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,440
Speaker 4: It's a bristly spider. It's got like pink crystals for

701
00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 4: eyes and Sam Elliot upper lip.

702
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:19,359
Speaker 1: Just because they're using stock footage from old films though,

703
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 1: doesn't mean they're not gonna go ahead and use footage

704
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,480
Speaker 1: from later on in the picture, which I always feel

705
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:27,880
Speaker 1: like is a little cheap in a movie. You know,

706
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,720
Speaker 1: I don't want to see the trailer is probably already

707
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 1: ruined enough. I don't need the film itself ruining itself,

708
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 1: because we do see like this really sick Judo throw

709
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,879
Speaker 1: from Godzilla where he drops a monster right on its head.

710
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:41,840
Speaker 1: And of course this is a scene from later on

711
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 1: in the film. It's essentially like the finishing move Godzilla uses.

712
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 4: That's so good. It's a triple dip. It's from another

713
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,720
Speaker 4: movie already, and then they show it to you twice

714
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 4: in this movie, so you could see they were trying

715
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 4: to pad out the run time. I think, well, then again,

716
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 4: I don't know they would have had a credit sequence anyway.

717
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 4: Maybe they just might as well, let's show that fight

718
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 4: again in the credits.

719
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 2: Why not.

720
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:05,399
Speaker 4: I totally accept your criticism of that as a move.

721
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:07,759
Speaker 4: But a lot of movies we have loved have done that.

722
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,680
Speaker 4: The Really Bloody Sword showed you the entire movie during

723
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 4: the opening credits.

724
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 1: They absolutely did. Yeah, sometimes you can you can pin

725
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: it on like Western distributors of movies from Europe or Asia,

726
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 1: and clearly it's just like, well, let's keep them interested

727
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 1: so they don't leave the theater or drive away from

728
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,399
Speaker 1: the drive in. But yeah, this is the original vision

729
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:31,279
Speaker 1: for the pictures, So you can't blame it on anybody else.

730
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:33,360
Speaker 4: Oh, but let's come back to it. So it's singing

731
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 4: the song through the opening credits and they play it

732
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 4: again later on. What is the deal with the lyrics here?

733
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 4: They are intriguing.

734
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 1: An energetic female vocalist that, according to the subtitles, is

735
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 1: basically saying, don't be afraid of monsters, kids. Monsters are

736
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:53,160
Speaker 1: actually themselves shocked by the real threat industrial pollution, a.

737
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:55,880
Speaker 4: Theme that would become central to the later film Godzilla

738
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 4: versus Hetero, which is the one we previously covered on

739
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:03,720
Speaker 4: Weird House before. Hetera is just a wicked pollution monster

740
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 4: who like powers up by huffing smokestacks.

741
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, in that movie, it's like the central theme and

742
00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:11,560
Speaker 1: the threat at the center of the film is the

743
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 1: physical embodiment of that real world threat. In this movie,

744
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:18,880
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this. I guess it kind of

745
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 1: helps to ground the film in a world where the

746
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: monsters have lost their power. Later much later in the picture,

747
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 1: the monsters the kaiju are compared to gods, and if

748
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,440
Speaker 1: we're to take that and run with it, back to

749
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 1: the beginning of the picture. Here, this is like we're

750
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 1: living in the Twilight of the Gods. This is a

751
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 1: world that has lost its faith. The grown ups have

752
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 1: lost their faith anyway, and the only people who really

753
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:46,239
Speaker 1: have faith in the gods aka big rubber monsters are

754
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:46,840
Speaker 1: the children.

755
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. But a theme of

756
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 4: this song, apart from the thing about the pollution, yeah,

757
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:57,919
Speaker 4: is explicitly about the monsters being weakened somehow. Like one

758
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 4: part says says, the monsters are crying, why is earth

759
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:03,919
Speaker 4: such a hard place to live?

760
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 2: Oh, that's the leering.

761
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,080
Speaker 4: And then another part is I'm paraphrasing for this part,

762
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,600
Speaker 4: but it's like wham bam, crash. You can smash everything,

763
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 4: but still it's not easy being a monster.

764
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 2: See.

765
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 1: This is again why they probably had to have a

766
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,080
Speaker 1: whole bunch of monster footage at the beginning of the picture.

767
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 1: You can't have this be the first thing kids watch.

768
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:24,400
Speaker 1: They're gonna lose all hope.

769
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:28,160
Speaker 4: But anyway, as the credits finish out, we see we

770
00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 4: see some setting. It's the industrial I think it's supposed

771
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,600
Speaker 4: to be Kawasaki, but it's an industrial area of Japan

772
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 4: with a lot of I don't know, oil refineries and

773
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:42,560
Speaker 4: factories and just smokestacks pouring smog everywhere, a barren world

774
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 4: populated only by smoke and factories and trucks. But amidst

775
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 4: this unforgiving landscape, we see a couple of sweet kids.

776
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,080
Speaker 4: ITCHI row our main kid. He's walking along holding hands

777
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,320
Speaker 4: with his friends at Chico and they are there. I

778
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 4: guess they're trying to make their way home after school

779
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 4: through this infernal landscape of suet and asthma.

780
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:07,399
Speaker 1: It reminds me once again of last week's picture, Let's

781
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:09,640
Speaker 1: Sleeping corpses Lie, where we start off in a very

782
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:13,279
Speaker 1: industrial British city and we're supposed to be Manchester, I

783
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,360
Speaker 1: think is Manchester. And the only thing that really calls

784
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 1: out like any kind of like spirit of fun or

785
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: rebellion or anything like that is the streaker in this film,

786
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 1: it's the children. Like everything is kind of gross and

787
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:31,960
Speaker 1: grimy and busy, but these children are just a basket

788
00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 1: of joy, you know, holding the hands against all the

789
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:39,839
Speaker 1: grime behind them. And I have to say, I really

790
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 1: love these kids, especially each hero played by Yazaki here,

791
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:49,040
Speaker 1: he's just so good. It's just a really solid kid's performance,

792
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of energy and authenticity to it.

793
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:55,880
Speaker 1: That you don't always see in a child actor.

794
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a cute kid. I was a little

795
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:03,040
Speaker 4: confused as to why some reviewers had in the past

796
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 4: written stuff that they considered Ichiro annoying. But I think

797
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 4: maybe I knew I was reading something that made me

798
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:14,279
Speaker 4: understand a little better. I think it's possible that part

799
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 4: of the reaction to this character was that some people

800
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:23,319
Speaker 4: were hearing a particular dub of the film where his

801
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 4: lines were dubbed by an adult who did this really nasal,

802
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 4: whiny voice for all of his speaking parts. And I

803
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:33,400
Speaker 4: can't be sure, but I think that dub exists, and

804
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 4: I think that is not the version I saw, So

805
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:37,799
Speaker 4: I don't know if that is the reason for sure,

806
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:40,240
Speaker 4: but that would partially explain it, because I thought eachio

807
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:40,760
Speaker 4: is great.

808
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,400
Speaker 1: That is a great, great point, and that's probably the reason.

809
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:46,759
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a film like say, House by

810
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: the Cemetery. It's Bob is Bob the kid and then.

811
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,720
Speaker 4: Bob, yes, Bob the demon child with an adult voice.

812
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 2: Right.

813
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's clearly dubbed by a grown woman, and it

814
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 1: creates a weird energy in the film. You kind of

815
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,399
Speaker 1: there's an uncanniness to him that, and there's a certain

816
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:05,680
Speaker 1: amount of uncanny is that's supposed to be there, and

817
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 1: I mean there's this added layer of the uncanny and

818
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 1: in a picture like this, Yeah, Eachiro is not supposed

819
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:12,759
Speaker 1: to be uncanny. He's not supposed to be weird. And

820
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: you get the wrong dub on there, and it's going

821
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:16,880
Speaker 1: to totally change the feeling you get exactly.

822
00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:19,400
Speaker 4: So I think that may very well be what's going on.

823
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 4: But so we follow Eachiro around and a lot of

824
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:24,920
Speaker 4: the early parts of the movie are just sort of

825
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:29,399
Speaker 4: establishing his daily life and his struggles, and uh, maybe

826
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:33,000
Speaker 4: we could talk a little bit about elements from from

827
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:36,680
Speaker 4: each of these these things that are established. So one

828
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:41,080
Speaker 4: theme of the movie is bullying. Eachi Ro is consistently

829
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 4: bullied by a gang of bigger kids who are led

830
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 4: by this this sadist bully king named Gabara. So we

831
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 4: see them knock eachi Ro over on purpose as they

832
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 4: run by, and they taunt him and they call him

833
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 4: weak and they make him feel helpless, and you really

834
00:45:57,840 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 4: feel for eachi Row like there's a you know, these

835
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:02,279
Speaker 4: moments where the camera just lingers on his face as

836
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:05,479
Speaker 4: he looks frustrated and sad and knows that he can't

837
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:06,359
Speaker 4: really fight back.

838
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:07,440
Speaker 2: Yeah.

839
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, he's a good kick, and he

840
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: just doesn't want to make anything worse. He doesn't want

841
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 1: to escalate things.

842
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 4: Then you've got another theme, So bullying is one. Another

843
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:20,719
Speaker 4: theme is Ichiro's love of the Kaiju. I wonder what

844
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:23,400
Speaker 4: you thought about this. Does the movie take place in

845
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:28,280
Speaker 4: a world basically in the real world where monsters don't exist,

846
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 4: but the children are familiar with the existing Godzilla movies,

847
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 4: or does it take place in a world where the

848
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:40,960
Speaker 4: events of the previous Godzilla movies are known of as

849
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 4: real events that have previously happened in the world. I

850
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,560
Speaker 4: couldn't tell which, but I think maybe it's the former,

851
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 4: Like he's literally seen the films.

852
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: I think, so if I had to choose one, I

853
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 1: would go in that direction, just because basically, I mean,

854
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,319
Speaker 1: no particular thing leads me to think that they'll There

855
00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:03,960
Speaker 1: is a part where we see a Kaiju action figure

856
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 1: or doll, but I think we saw one in Hetera

857
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:11,040
Speaker 1: as well, So that's that alone is not an indicator.

858
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:13,520
Speaker 1: But I think overall, I get the feeling that, yeah,

859
00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:16,479
Speaker 1: this is a world in which the monsters are only

860
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 1: on TV and in the minds of children.

861
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:23,239
Speaker 4: So Itchiro is having monster paradolia, Like a car goes

862
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,279
Speaker 4: by and he's like, Oh, that car, the screeching, it

863
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,799
Speaker 4: sounds just like Manila. It goes key ki key.

864
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever heard Manila make a kiki

865
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:35,360
Speaker 1: ki sound, unless that's supposed to be the donkey sound.

866
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,000
Speaker 1: Maybe we're getting into that whole situation where we're not

867
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:42,279
Speaker 1: sure what or not. It just it varies what sound

868
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 1: an animal makes based on the language in which you're

869
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:49,000
Speaker 1: describing it. So maybe donkeys go kiki ki in Japanese.

870
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe I couldn't say okay. So that's another theme.

871
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,480
Speaker 4: Ichiro he get is bullied. He loves the monsters. But

872
00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 4: also a theme of this movie is loneliness, and I

873
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:02,839
Speaker 4: think it tackles that in a pretty head on way.

874
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,960
Speaker 4: Ichiro's family here is working class, and both of his

875
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:10,400
Speaker 4: parents work long hours to make ends meet, and he

876
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:13,840
Speaker 4: is often home alone after school fending for himself. So

877
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,240
Speaker 4: we see a scene where he's walking by the train

878
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:20,000
Speaker 4: tracks in this old, busted industrial landscape and a train

879
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 4: starts going by, and the conductor in the front of

880
00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 4: the train or the engineer, I guess whatever. The guy

881
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:27,160
Speaker 4: in the front of the train is his dad, and

882
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,160
Speaker 4: his dad calls out, oh, hey, Chio, I'm working tonight.

883
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:32,800
Speaker 4: Be good till your mom gets home. And then actually,

884
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,160
Speaker 4: after this, we stick with Echiro's father for a little bit.

885
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:37,360
Speaker 4: We see him take a smoke break with his coworker,

886
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 4: and we learn that the father wants to save up

887
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 4: enough money that they can move away from the smog,

888
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 4: move out to the country or to a place where

889
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:48,600
Speaker 4: the air is clean. So you see that he's working

890
00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:51,720
Speaker 4: long hours too, I guess, try to get his family

891
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 4: to this better place. But then also in the scene,

892
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:57,719
Speaker 4: we learn from his coworker who's reading a newspaper that

893
00:48:57,760 --> 00:48:59,840
Speaker 4: there are a couple of bank robbers on the loose,

894
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:02,920
Speaker 4: leeing police with a suitcase full of money, and these

895
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,799
Speaker 4: are Chekhov's bank robbers. They will show up later, but

896
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:08,440
Speaker 4: we learned that they took fifty million yen, and you

897
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 4: can just see Itchio's father dreaming about what he could

898
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 4: do with money like that. Now we come back to bullying.

899
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 4: There's another bullying scene where Ichiro and Sachiko are walking

900
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:23,400
Speaker 4: around and Ichiro finds a vacuum tube in the grass.

901
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 4: I guess because this is an area that used to

902
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:29,360
Speaker 4: be like an electronics factory, and he finds it, and

903
00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:32,879
Speaker 4: then the bullies come up on him and they take

904
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 4: away his vacuum tube and they call him a baby,

905
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:39,200
Speaker 4: and they like mock him to his face. And for

906
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 4: some reason, I've found something very heart wrenching about the

907
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,880
Speaker 4: theft of Ichiro's vacuum tube. I think it's because he

908
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:48,440
Speaker 4: found it. And this kind of hit me in a

909
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:52,279
Speaker 4: strong way because I have memories of being a little

910
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:56,240
Speaker 4: kid and finding a treasure of some kind just lying

911
00:49:56,280 --> 00:50:00,279
Speaker 4: out on the ground somewhere. That's a powerfully nostalgic kind

912
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 4: of memory. And I have one specific memory of something

913
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:05,920
Speaker 4: like this happening to me. And I was out at

914
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 4: some event, I think, and I found a loose spool

915
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:12,680
Speaker 4: of tape from an audio cassette and I was like

916
00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 4: holding it and letting it blow in the wind, and

917
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 4: then an older kid took it away from me and

918
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:21,399
Speaker 4: threw it over the edge of a bridge, and that, yeah,

919
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:22,360
Speaker 4: that really.

920
00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:22,640
Speaker 2: Stuck with me.

921
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:25,720
Speaker 4: So so anyway, I felt the vacuum tube scene very hard.

922
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, this felt like a very authentic moment in this picture, Like,

923
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 1: because I think we can all we all have memories

924
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 1: like that where we find some sort of weird bit

925
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:39,680
Speaker 1: of discarded technology or orgistrate garbage, but it's fascinating and

926
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 1: we want to want to keep it. And and then

927
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:45,120
Speaker 1: also the childhood insult of him being a baby, Like

928
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 1: I definitely I don't have memories of this myself, but

929
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:53,400
Speaker 1: I've seen that watching my son grow up, Like there

930
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 1: was a period where to call someone a baby was

931
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:59,719
Speaker 1: the was the biggest insult, to the point where he

932
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:01,400
Speaker 1: would call the cat a baby, you.

933
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:04,600
Speaker 4: Know, if he was mad at the cat sick burn.

934
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:08,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like it's it's clearly you know, it's clearly hurting Ichiro.

935
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:12,319
Speaker 1: But to hear this, but then there's also this kind

936
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,440
Speaker 1: of innocence to it, like these kids are so young,

937
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:20,239
Speaker 1: even their their cruelty has a certain innocence to it.

938
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

939
00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 4: Yeah. But then one more element of Itchiro's daily life

940
00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:28,400
Speaker 4: we learn about is his friendship with Shinpey, the toymaker.

941
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:31,440
Speaker 4: And so when when he's coming home, I think, I

942
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 4: guess Shinpey is like maybe his neighbor. And so he

943
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 4: comes home and sees him working on this this electronic device,

944
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:40,160
Speaker 4: the kiddie computer that shows people landing on the moon,

945
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:43,560
Speaker 4: and it's clear that you know, he's welcome hanging out

946
00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:45,960
Speaker 4: in this guy's shop and they're friendly, and Shinpey is

947
00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:49,120
Speaker 4: a good, you know, nurturing influence on this kid. But

948
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:51,880
Speaker 4: it's also funny because he makes this computer. He expects

949
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:55,080
Speaker 4: Ichio to be all impressed. But what Ichiro says is, Ah,

950
00:51:55,120 --> 00:51:57,960
Speaker 4: the Moon's okay, but there's somewhere else I'd rather go

951
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:03,239
Speaker 4: Monster Island. And then he just starts listing all the monsters,

952
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:05,799
Speaker 4: and I was like, oh, this also made me. This

953
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 4: seems authentic. Don't don't kids love to list all the

954
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 4: monsters or list all the whatevers?

955
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:12,000
Speaker 2: Oh?

956
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:15,040
Speaker 1: God, they do. And I'm not going to be a hypocrite.

957
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:17,640
Speaker 1: I'm also gonna admit I love to list the monsters

958
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:19,759
Speaker 1: and I've never grown out of that. But yeah, like,

959
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:23,880
Speaker 1: my son will definitely list all the Pokemon, all the

960
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:28,080
Speaker 1: dungeons and dragons, dragon varieties, and I think that's great.

961
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:28,719
Speaker 1: I love it too.

962
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:30,400
Speaker 2: I love a good monster list.

963
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:32,759
Speaker 4: But I think we see one of the reasons that

964
00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:36,640
Speaker 4: Ichio is so infatuated with the monsters. He talks about

965
00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 4: how they're all stronger than Gabberra, his bully, and He's like,

966
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 4: you know, they don't have to worry about bullies. They

967
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 4: can do what we what they want. They're free because

968
00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:50,759
Speaker 4: they're strong. And then eventually we see Ichiro go back

969
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:54,879
Speaker 4: home and there's kind of a lonely snack scene where he,

970
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:56,759
Speaker 4: you know, his mom left out a snack for him.

971
00:52:56,800 --> 00:52:59,320
Speaker 4: He has that. He watches some TV and he watches

972
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:02,800
Speaker 4: like The New where he learns about the bank robbers

973
00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:05,840
Speaker 4: stealing the fifty million yen. He switches, I think, to

974
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 4: a soap opera where the people are like saying, oh,

975
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:11,320
Speaker 4: I love you, and then he there's a really funny

976
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:14,359
Speaker 4: moment where he I can't remember the phrase he says

977
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 4: in Japanese, but the translation is he just goes yuck.

978
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:17,719
Speaker 2: Yeah.

979
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:21,719
Speaker 4: But then it segues to him playing around with this

980
00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:24,960
Speaker 4: like toy radio he's put together that he dreams like

981
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 4: of calling Monster Island, which segues into a dream of

982
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:33,400
Speaker 4: him visiting Monster Island. And this is going to be

983
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 4: one of the major themes for the rest of the

984
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 4: movie is these recurring visits in dreams to Monster Island

985
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:41,919
Speaker 4: where all the monsters live, where we're going to see

986
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:45,319
Speaker 4: a lot of fights between monsters. So much of this

987
00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:47,320
Speaker 4: is going to be footage from other movies, but I

988
00:53:47,360 --> 00:53:51,720
Speaker 4: think some original stuff too. And this is where Ichiro

989
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 4: meets Manila, the son of Godzilla, and they become friends

990
00:53:55,280 --> 00:53:57,560
Speaker 4: because they have a lot in common. It turns out

991
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:02,240
Speaker 4: Manila is also being bullied I a monster on Monster Island,

992
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:05,520
Speaker 4: and that monster has the same name as Echio's bully.

993
00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:06,720
Speaker 4: They're both called Gabbara.

994
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:08,560
Speaker 2: Oh.

995
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:11,800
Speaker 1: By the way, he initially dream travels to Monster Island

996
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: via direct flight, which I thought was a marvelous dream sequence. Yes,

997
00:54:17,040 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 1: I love how in these scenes with Manila he's he's

998
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 1: also as He's like, hey, I hear you know Godzilla.

999
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:23,919
Speaker 1: Do you think you could introduce me to him? Because

1000
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:27,839
Speaker 1: I'd love to climb on his back, And Manila's like, well,

1001
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:29,840
Speaker 1: you know, I see, I'll see what Manila talks in this.

1002
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: By the way, yes, Manila says, well, I'll see what

1003
00:54:32,640 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 1: I can do. But you know, Godzilla, he didn't like

1004
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:36,960
Speaker 1: me around all the time because he gets onto me

1005
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:40,640
Speaker 1: for not being strong enough, for not standing up for

1006
00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:45,320
Speaker 1: myself enough. And of course that again mirrors the situation

1007
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:46,680
Speaker 1: with each hero.

1008
00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:48,880
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's right, because we actually do see a

1009
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:53,520
Speaker 4: scene where Ichio's father says, you know, he he feels

1010
00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:55,319
Speaker 4: for his son, but he wishes he would stand up

1011
00:54:55,320 --> 00:55:07,399
Speaker 4: for himself. So we're gonna get some some slams, some

1012
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 4: smackdowns on the island. I think we see Godzilla fighting

1013
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:13,799
Speaker 4: Ebi Rah. I think the Ebrah Horror of the Deep,

1014
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:18,200
Speaker 4: the shrimp crayfish monster. We see various fights take place,

1015
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:21,200
Speaker 4: and in a way, Ichio kind of like watches and

1016
00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:24,719
Speaker 4: learns from them. But he also learns from watching Son

1017
00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 4: of Godzilla like like morph up and try to fight

1018
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:34,680
Speaker 4: against Gabrah. He like he like grows and he and

1019
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:38,719
Speaker 4: they fight and Gabra always wins at first, but you

1020
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:40,640
Speaker 4: kind of like pick up some clues along the way

1021
00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:42,319
Speaker 4: about how he might beat him later on.

1022
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 1: Now, Gabra is pretty interesting. He's he's again our our

1023
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:49,280
Speaker 1: main kaiju antagonist, and he is original of this picture.

1024
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 1: So many of the other Kaiju we encounter are ourtest

1025
00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:56,400
Speaker 1: clips from other scenes or maybe reused puppets even in

1026
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:59,880
Speaker 1: the films that they that they originally appeared in. But

1027
00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:04,480
Speaker 1: Gabra exists for this picture. This is his first picture

1028
00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:08,200
Speaker 1: where we see this costume, and I think he's pretty great.

1029
00:56:08,239 --> 00:56:11,160
Speaker 1: I've read that he's supposed to resemble a mutated frog

1030
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:15,400
Speaker 1: or toad, but he winds up with more feline features

1031
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:17,760
Speaker 1: somehow kind of looks like a green panther.

1032
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:20,320
Speaker 4: He's like a lizard cat.

1033
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:24,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think these feelings of like cat similarities

1034
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 1: are also accentuated by he's green and scaly, but he

1035
00:56:28,560 --> 00:56:31,360
Speaker 1: has this shock of orange hair on the top of

1036
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:35,719
Speaker 1: his head amid these various horns like this, this row

1037
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:39,760
Speaker 1: of horns down his head as well, and I feel

1038
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:42,239
Speaker 1: like the orange hair, the green skin, it kind of

1039
00:56:42,280 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 1: gives him a cartoon leprechaun. Look, you know what I mean?

1040
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:46,000
Speaker 4: Yep, yep.

1041
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 1: Though I've of course that's not what they were going

1042
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 1: for here. I've read that what they were originally aiming

1043
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:54,560
Speaker 1: for with this design was more of a something that

1044
00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 1: alluded to the Japanese only, you know, kind of an

1045
00:56:57,080 --> 00:57:01,640
Speaker 1: ogre figure. And if you go to the wiki Zilla

1046
00:57:02,120 --> 00:57:04,360
Speaker 1: page for this monster, you can actually see some of

1047
00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:08,200
Speaker 1: the preliminary sketches the way they envision this creature. And yeah,

1048
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: I can definitely see a sense of the one here

1049
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 1: before it's realized in the suit.

1050
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 4: Oh, that almost kind of makes sense with so Gabra

1051
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:22,000
Speaker 4: being like this bully who just waylays each hero while

1052
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:24,120
Speaker 4: he's on the way home from school, like sits by

1053
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:27,160
Speaker 4: the roadside and attacks him as he goes past. He's

1054
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:30,120
Speaker 4: kind of like a bandit in a way, and that

1055
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 4: I think there's classically a little bit of overlap between

1056
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:37,480
Speaker 4: the concepts of some ony and like banditry ideas.

1057
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And I think also there are often ideas

1058
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:44,400
Speaker 1: of lightning with the ony, and indeed Gabra here has

1059
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:48,280
Speaker 1: an electricity attack that he uses, but he doesn't have

1060
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:49,959
Speaker 1: a breath weapon. I thought that was interesting. He doesn't

1061
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 1: seem to have a projectile weapon, which I think is

1062
00:57:53,240 --> 00:57:56,400
Speaker 1: an interesting choice because a lot of times in these

1063
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:59,920
Speaker 1: movies you see some sort of like a ranged specialist kaiju,

1064
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,320
Speaker 1: and that's generally the that's a weak point for Godzilla

1065
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:07,080
Speaker 1: or for Gamera, whoever's facing such a Kaiju, even though

1066
00:58:07,080 --> 00:58:10,640
Speaker 1: Godzilla of course has an amazing breath weapon that he

1067
00:58:10,640 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 1: can use a range.

1068
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:15,400
Speaker 4: Now, for all of the kind of like sweet elements

1069
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:17,520
Speaker 4: of this movie, there are also some things that ring

1070
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:20,320
Speaker 4: kind of weird. One of them is when we're seeing

1071
00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:24,400
Speaker 4: Godzilla training son of Godzilla here training Manila how to

1072
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:28,120
Speaker 4: use his radiation breath. He's he does it by like

1073
00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:31,000
Speaker 4: stomping on his tail. He's like, oh yeah, I step

1074
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:33,440
Speaker 4: on your tail. That makes you really shoot the radiation.

1075
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 4: And until then he can only kind of like blow

1076
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:39,200
Speaker 4: these like rings of radiation that don't really do anything.

1077
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:43,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I get like Godzilla's lesson here is that

1078
00:58:44,120 --> 00:58:48,400
Speaker 1: you must feel pain and and give in to your anger,

1079
00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:50,920
Speaker 1: Like he's basically giving him the dark side of the

1080
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:52,600
Speaker 1: force spiel.

1081
00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:58,160
Speaker 4: You strike me down with all of your journey towards

1082
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:00,200
Speaker 4: Monster Island will be complete.

1083
00:59:01,880 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 1: So again, there may be a generational divide on the

1084
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:09,360
Speaker 1: message here, the parenting message of Godzilla. But I mean

1085
00:59:09,400 --> 00:59:10,520
Speaker 1: it's a music.

1086
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:13,040
Speaker 4: In the picture, yes, I mean there are several things.

1087
00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:16,880
Speaker 4: There's also a real world thing where you know, there's

1088
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:20,919
Speaker 4: a very nice message about giving eachiero confidence to stand

1089
00:59:21,000 --> 00:59:23,040
Speaker 4: up to his bullies. But I don't know if the

1090
00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:25,560
Speaker 4: exact way that he does that in the end is

1091
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 4: the best. But I think he kind of like fights them,

1092
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 4: but then he also at their goating, like pulls a

1093
00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:36,520
Speaker 4: mean pryank on a guy who's just trying to paint

1094
00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:39,280
Speaker 4: a sign and gets him covered in paint. I don't know.

1095
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:41,200
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and this was what the bullies were trying

1096
00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:43,080
Speaker 1: to get him to do earlier in the picture. They're like, hey,

1097
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:45,000
Speaker 1: see that guy painting the sign on the top of

1098
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:47,400
Speaker 1: the ladder, you should go blow the horn on his motorcycle.

1099
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:50,080
Speaker 1: So he falls off the ladder and he's like, of course,

1100
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that. I'm a good kid,

1101
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:53,720
Speaker 1: and they make fun of him, and then later he's like,

1102
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 1: I'm a brave kid. Now watching me go make that

1103
00:59:56,800 --> 00:59:58,680
Speaker 1: man fall off the ladder, and he does so.

1104
00:59:59,280 --> 01:00:02,320
Speaker 4: I think that's a little confused there. But there's another

1105
01:00:02,360 --> 01:00:05,200
Speaker 4: major plot line I don't think I'm going to go

1106
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:07,280
Speaker 4: into great detail on unless there's anything about it you

1107
01:00:07,360 --> 01:00:09,240
Speaker 4: wanted to hit rob But a major part of the

1108
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:12,640
Speaker 4: real world plot, apart from what's happening in the Dreams

1109
01:00:12,680 --> 01:00:16,400
Speaker 4: of Monster Island, is the developing story about the bank

1110
01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:19,439
Speaker 4: robbers with the fifty million yen who are hiding out

1111
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:21,880
Speaker 4: in a nearby factory. I think it's near the place

1112
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:26,680
Speaker 4: where Ichiro found the vacuum tube, and ultimately he is

1113
01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:29,600
Speaker 4: kidnapped by these bank robbers because we know Itchiro loves

1114
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:31,720
Speaker 4: to like find and pick up treasures, and one of

1115
01:00:31,720 --> 01:00:34,560
Speaker 4: the treasures he finds and picks up is a driver's

1116
01:00:34,600 --> 01:00:39,120
Speaker 4: license dropped by one of the robbers, and uh, now

1117
01:00:39,160 --> 01:00:41,320
Speaker 4: he knows who they are, so they have to kidnap him,

1118
01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:44,920
Speaker 4: and then ultimately he has to outsmart them with tricks

1119
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:48,360
Speaker 4: and traps, and after the robbers are caught, there's this

1120
01:00:48,560 --> 01:00:51,560
Speaker 4: very interesting scene where it's almost like the movie is

1121
01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:54,960
Speaker 4: telling us the moral of the story and like the

1122
01:00:55,040 --> 01:00:58,280
Speaker 4: press hail little Ichiro is a hero, and Ichiro gives

1123
01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:02,280
Speaker 4: credit for his heroism too, Manila to the monster from

1124
01:01:02,320 --> 01:01:06,240
Speaker 4: the Godzilla movies and uh and there. So there's this

1125
01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:10,000
Speaker 4: exchange where the toy maker his friend Shinpey, is hanging

1126
01:01:10,080 --> 01:01:14,240
Speaker 4: out there near all of the reporters and he explains

1127
01:01:14,240 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 4: to them. He says, he means Manila the monster. I

1128
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:20,320
Speaker 4: think I understand. He's like a higher power. And one

1129
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:23,560
Speaker 4: of the reporters asks for clarification. He says a higher power,

1130
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:27,640
Speaker 4: and Shinpey says, that's right. Adults believe in gods, so

1131
01:01:27,680 --> 01:01:31,160
Speaker 4: why can't children have their own gods too, like Manila?

1132
01:01:32,040 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 4: And it's kind of a funny line, but oh, something

1133
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:35,800
Speaker 4: stirred in me there.

1134
01:01:36,800 --> 01:01:39,560
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. Yeah, this is this is one of

1135
01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:42,840
Speaker 1: my favorite parts of the picture really because I think

1136
01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 1: it's it's rather insightful and accurate, and I think it's

1137
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:48,160
Speaker 1: a thing that we've maybe touched on to some degree

1138
01:01:48,200 --> 01:01:51,280
Speaker 1: in our discussion of Godzilla on Weird House before, but

1139
01:01:51,320 --> 01:01:55,280
Speaker 1: here it's directly brought up in the picture. This idea

1140
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:59,640
Speaker 1: that toy monsters an ultimately monster media in general, that

1141
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:03,560
Speaker 1: these are icons that connect children in the natural world

1142
01:02:03,840 --> 01:02:06,840
Speaker 1: to the powerful realm of super beings. In this film

1143
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:10,040
Speaker 1: localized on Monster Island, which one can easily compare to

1144
01:02:10,080 --> 01:02:13,400
Speaker 1: the various sacred mountains of various cultures around the world.

1145
01:02:13,480 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 1: So the monsters are strength and courage, they are the

1146
01:02:16,880 --> 01:02:21,880
Speaker 1: absolute personification or expression of emotion, and they have considerable

1147
01:02:21,920 --> 01:02:26,000
Speaker 1: power over the grown up human world while not being

1148
01:02:26,040 --> 01:02:28,040
Speaker 1: a part of that world. And of course we see

1149
01:02:28,040 --> 01:02:30,400
Speaker 1: a sequence in this where the humans come in jet

1150
01:02:30,400 --> 01:02:33,439
Speaker 1: planes to conquer Monster Island and Godzilla has to fight

1151
01:02:33,480 --> 01:02:36,360
Speaker 1: them off and destroy some some jet fighters. That sort

1152
01:02:36,400 --> 01:02:38,520
Speaker 1: of thing. I think that was maybe a scene from

1153
01:02:38,520 --> 01:02:40,840
Speaker 1: a previous picture. I'm not sure. It could kind of

1154
01:02:40,880 --> 01:02:43,600
Speaker 1: feel like filler and again checking off the boxes of

1155
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: what a monster movie should give you, but it also

1156
01:02:46,120 --> 01:02:48,120
Speaker 1: I think works in this sort of vision of what

1157
01:02:48,440 --> 01:02:52,320
Speaker 1: is what is the energy of the kaiju, and why

1158
01:02:52,760 --> 01:02:55,120
Speaker 1: is it so attractive to children. It's like it is

1159
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:58,920
Speaker 1: big body energy incarnate, you know, and it is the

1160
01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:02,560
Speaker 1: expression of these emotions that there may be only beginning

1161
01:03:02,600 --> 01:03:04,320
Speaker 1: to understand at certain ages.

1162
01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:08,400
Speaker 4: I think that's all correct. And there was another angle

1163
01:03:08,400 --> 01:03:10,320
Speaker 4: in which I was thinking about this. Maybe this is

1164
01:03:10,320 --> 01:03:12,800
Speaker 4: too much of a reach, but it made me think

1165
01:03:12,840 --> 01:03:15,000
Speaker 4: about this is almost kind of painting a picture of

1166
01:03:15,040 --> 01:03:18,520
Speaker 4: a world highlighting the difference between like the gods of

1167
01:03:18,600 --> 01:03:22,720
Speaker 4: children and the gods of adults, which is where many

1168
01:03:22,760 --> 01:03:28,720
Speaker 4: adults might literally believe that the gods exist but don't

1169
01:03:29,200 --> 01:03:33,800
Speaker 4: take their lessons and their meaning to heart. Meanwhile, you

1170
01:03:33,800 --> 01:03:39,520
Speaker 4: can have children who can treat known fictional entities like

1171
01:03:39,600 --> 01:03:43,720
Speaker 4: the monsters of Godzilla like gods, and even though they

1172
01:03:43,720 --> 01:03:48,000
Speaker 4: don't literally believe they exist, they do take their meaning

1173
01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:51,600
Speaker 4: to heart. And so it's almost like a question of

1174
01:03:51,640 --> 01:03:55,600
Speaker 4: like adults taking their gods literally but not seriously, and

1175
01:03:55,680 --> 01:03:59,040
Speaker 4: children taking their gods seriously but not literally.

1176
01:04:00,080 --> 01:04:02,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it brings me back to another thing

1177
01:04:02,120 --> 01:04:04,560
Speaker 1: I think we've discussed in the show before, like this

1178
01:04:04,560 --> 01:04:09,600
Speaker 1: this space for mythology in our modern viewpoint, Like I

1179
01:04:09,640 --> 01:04:14,080
Speaker 1: don't think the world needs to be just truth and fiction.

1180
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:17,760
Speaker 1: That it needs to be just the real and the unreal,

1181
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:22,680
Speaker 1: you know, the difference between skeptical and fundamentalist viewpoints, Like

1182
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:25,560
Speaker 1: I feel like there needs to be a room for mythology,

1183
01:04:25,920 --> 01:04:29,080
Speaker 1: and under that like a very loose version of mythology

1184
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:31,280
Speaker 1: in which you have room for actual myths that have

1185
01:04:31,360 --> 01:04:37,120
Speaker 1: cultural resonance, but also fictional things, things like Godzilla, things

1186
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:42,600
Speaker 1: like Star Wars, or any bit of media or imagination

1187
01:04:42,680 --> 01:04:44,960
Speaker 1: that ends up becoming meaningful to somebody.

1188
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:47,840
Speaker 4: Yes, I think we should take Eachiro's attitude to heart

1189
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:53,960
Speaker 4: right because he can find absolutely a raw core meaningfulness

1190
01:04:53,480 --> 01:04:57,480
Speaker 4: in his in his mythology without it being in fact

1191
01:04:57,640 --> 01:05:00,560
Speaker 4: true that Manila is a physical monster that exists in

1192
01:05:00,600 --> 01:05:03,760
Speaker 4: the world. Yeah, though, coming back to my question from earlier,

1193
01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:06,000
Speaker 4: I still don't know for sure whether the film is

1194
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:08,480
Speaker 4: saying that he's just a character in a movie in

1195
01:05:08,520 --> 01:05:11,040
Speaker 4: the world of the film, or whether he was real.

1196
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:14,560
Speaker 4: Not quite clear, but assuming it's the former, that it's

1197
01:05:14,560 --> 01:05:15,320
Speaker 4: a character in a.

1198
01:05:15,280 --> 01:05:18,760
Speaker 1: Movie, Yeah, Yeah, I like the ambiguity though in a

1199
01:05:18,760 --> 01:05:21,840
Speaker 1: way it works well with this kind of children's viewpoint

1200
01:05:22,200 --> 01:05:25,240
Speaker 1: of the world, a world in which yeah, I mean,

1201
01:05:25,280 --> 01:05:28,360
Speaker 1: maybe they are real. Maybe they are, it doesn't matter

1202
01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:30,120
Speaker 1: at the end because they're real to him. So this

1203
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:32,240
Speaker 1: was a really fun one. I'm glad we did this one.

1204
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:35,480
Speaker 1: I always have a certain amount of hesitation with Kaiju movies,

1205
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:39,960
Speaker 1: just because you don't want to spend a lot of

1206
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:43,320
Speaker 1: time on one that is just a monster suit film,

1207
01:05:43,400 --> 01:05:44,760
Speaker 1: Like there's so many. There are a lot of great

1208
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:46,560
Speaker 1: monster suit films, so they've got to have something else

1209
01:05:46,680 --> 01:05:49,400
Speaker 1: going on in them to really be to really be

1210
01:05:49,440 --> 01:05:53,840
Speaker 1: worth talking about. And this film definitely had other things

1211
01:05:53,880 --> 01:05:57,080
Speaker 1: going for it besides some awesome monster battles. Well, I

1212
01:05:57,080 --> 01:05:58,640
Speaker 1: take that back. I wouldn't say the monster battles are

1213
01:05:58,680 --> 01:06:01,040
Speaker 1: awesome in this picture. Don't want this one just for

1214
01:06:01,120 --> 01:06:04,440
Speaker 1: the monster battles, but it provides a nice balance of things.

1215
01:06:05,960 --> 01:06:07,880
Speaker 4: Well, I agree, But I don't know. I might feel different.

1216
01:06:08,360 --> 01:06:11,760
Speaker 4: Maybe I'm just more gung ho about any any great

1217
01:06:11,760 --> 01:06:12,880
Speaker 4: big monster beat down.

1218
01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:15,880
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like Godzilla was ever in real danger

1219
01:06:15,880 --> 01:06:18,200
Speaker 1: in this one. I always knew he had this one handled.

1220
01:06:19,320 --> 01:06:22,200
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just Godzilla's battle. It was also Godzilla's

1221
01:06:22,240 --> 01:06:26,840
Speaker 1: son's battle. So there's a different, different dynamic going on here.

1222
01:06:28,160 --> 01:06:29,880
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're going to go ahead and close

1223
01:06:29,920 --> 01:06:31,680
Speaker 1: this one out, but we'd love to hear from everyone

1224
01:06:31,680 --> 01:06:34,960
Speaker 1: out there, if you have thoughts on all Monsters Attack,

1225
01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:38,280
Speaker 1: if you have other favorite Kaiju movies that you would

1226
01:06:38,360 --> 01:06:41,200
Speaker 1: like to suggest for the future on Weird House Cinema,

1227
01:06:41,240 --> 01:06:44,960
Speaker 1: or just discuss in general. You know, we read listener

1228
01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:48,680
Speaker 1: mail usually on our listener Mail episodes on Mondays in

1229
01:06:48,720 --> 01:06:50,560
Speaker 1: the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed, so we're

1230
01:06:50,560 --> 01:06:53,400
Speaker 1: happy to discuss all of that. There a reminder that

1231
01:06:53,440 --> 01:06:56,520
Speaker 1: we're primarily a science podcast with Core episodes on Tuesdays

1232
01:06:56,560 --> 01:07:00,560
Speaker 1: and Thursdays, Monster Factor Artifact episode on win and then

1233
01:07:00,600 --> 01:07:02,880
Speaker 1: on Friday, we set aside most serious concerns to just

1234
01:07:02,880 --> 01:07:05,720
Speaker 1: talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema. And

1235
01:07:05,760 --> 01:07:06,960
Speaker 1: if you want to see a list of all the

1236
01:07:06,960 --> 01:07:08,919
Speaker 1: films we've done before, we can go to a couple

1237
01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:11,000
Speaker 1: of places. I blog about all these movies. At s

1238
01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:13,680
Speaker 1: Immuta music dot com. It's just a personal blog that

1239
01:07:13,720 --> 01:07:17,320
Speaker 1: I maintain that is mostly weird house stuff these days.

1240
01:07:17,680 --> 01:07:20,440
Speaker 1: And then if you go to letterbox dot com, it's

1241
01:07:20,560 --> 01:07:22,840
Speaker 1: l E T T e r box d dot com.

1242
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: That's a cool website where you can chronicle your own

1243
01:07:26,200 --> 01:07:30,600
Speaker 1: cinematic explorations and make lists and so forth. At ad Reviews,

1244
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:33,200
Speaker 1: we have an account there. Our account is weird House,

1245
01:07:33,520 --> 01:07:35,200
Speaker 1: and we have a list there that has all the

1246
01:07:35,240 --> 01:07:38,680
Speaker 1: movies that we've discussed in order, and occasionally you'll get

1247
01:07:38,720 --> 01:07:41,360
Speaker 1: a glimpse ahead at what is about to come up

1248
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:41,760
Speaker 1: for us.

1249
01:07:42,000 --> 01:07:45,520
Speaker 4: Huge thanks to our audio producer Jjposway. If you would

1250
01:07:45,520 --> 01:07:47,480
Speaker 4: like to get in touch with us with feedback on

1251
01:07:47,560 --> 01:07:49,960
Speaker 4: this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for

1252
01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:52,640
Speaker 4: the future, or just to say hello, you can email

1253
01:07:52,760 --> 01:08:02,600
Speaker 4: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

1254
01:08:02,800 --> 01:08:05,760
Speaker 3: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1255
01:08:05,840 --> 01:08:09,680
Speaker 3: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1256
01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:11,560
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.