WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: All Monsters Attack 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:06.519 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:07.240 Rewind. 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.680 This is Rob Lamb and Hey, we just had a 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:14.239 new Godzilla episode of Weird House Cinema, So why don't 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.000 we revisit one of our previous episodes of Weird House 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.960 Cinema about a Godzilla movie. This one concerns nineteen sixty 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.800 nine's All Monsters Attack It Originally published two seventeen, twenty 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.720 twenty three. Let's dive right in. 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:40.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.720 Hey you, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.880 And this is Joe McCormick. And today we are going 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.839 to be covering a film based on a listener recommendation. 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:54.800 So to all of you out there who would like 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.319 to write in with suggestions for us, this may give 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.920 you some hope. I wonder Rob, should we kick the 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.560 episode off by reading the message that suggested this movie? 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:04.880 Sure? Yeah, go for it. 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.880 Oh okay, I'll take it. This is from Jordan. Jordan 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.240 wrote in to say hello, Stuff to Blow Your Mind team. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.560 I don't always watch every Weird House Cinema movie before 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.160 listening to the episodes, but my partner and I certainly 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.880 had a blast watching Robot Monster. Our streaming service then 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.280 recommended us an equally short and hilarious movie with its 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.920 own unrelated dinosaur fights, the nineteen sixty nine film All 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.920 Monsters Attack. If you haven't had the chance to see it, 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.360 I'll give you a short pitch. This Japanese bank heist 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.880 meets Home alone sci fi action mystery movie is filled 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.560 with giant monster fights that show kids how to overcome 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.320 their school bullies. Certainly qualifies as a weird house film, 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:48.720 to say the least. Don't think it's been covered yet, 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.520 and if not, I know my partner and I would 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.279 love to hear your take on it. Love the show, Jordan, Well, Jordan, 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.480 I hope you were excited for today's episode. We are 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.160 indeed covering All Monsters Attack. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.279 Yeah, and listeners keep the recommendations coming, because sometimes listeners 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.440 let us know about a film that's not on our radar, 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.200 such as this one. Other times, like last week's episode, 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.400 I let Sleeping Corpses lie. That was a case where 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:14.880 a listener requested it and that kind of bumped it 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:16.679 back up on our list. It was on the list, 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.880 but it wasn't at the top. But yeah, so let 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.840 us know anytimes something catches your eye, if there's anything 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:24.680 near and dear to your heart that you think fits 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:26.520 the weird house cinema template. 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:31.240 So I think All Monsters Attack is a very interesting film, 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.760 especially for its place in the history of the Godzilla 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:40.840 franchise and for its varied reception history. And I think 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.480 it's also a little bit it's interesting in the very 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:45.880 different notes it hits. This is a movie that is 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.000 both quite funny for schlock reasons, as alluded to in 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.160 the email, but also I think strangely sweet and even 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:54.040 a little bit moving. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.920 Yeah, it has a good heart. It is a monster 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:02.160 film about children. This is not It's pretty common to 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.359 see these various Kaiju films where there is a child involved, 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:07.760 and we all know that Gamera is a friend to 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:11.440 all children and so forth. But this movie especially, is 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.640 a film where the child is not just a character 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.560 like the childhood view of the world. It is kind 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.400 of the centerpiece of the whole picture. Like the film 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.680 doesn't make sense unless you realize that it is from. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.240 The viewpoint of a child and not just from the 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.240 viewpoint of a child. Is in it has a child protagonist, 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.840 but literally the monster drama in it is a dream 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:34.120 in the mind of a child. 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:35.200 Yeah. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.040 Yeah, this is a film in which none of the 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:43.480 monsters are real, Like, none of the monsters that we see, 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:45.560 none of these fights are actually taking place. They're all 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.480 in the child's head. They're all in his dreams. But 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.600 at the same time, it's not like those battles, it's 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.080 not that they don't matter. Like it's ultimately well presented. 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.400 We talked in our Robot Monster episode about films that 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.160 have the it was all a dream trope in them, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.400 and this is certainly a film where a lot of 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.120 the action is taking place within the dream, but also 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.120 there is this it's not presented in kind of a 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.720 gut punchy, twisty way. We know from the get go 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.280 that this is a dream scape we're entering into, and 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.039 yet at the same time there's also there's also the 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.040 real world plot that is that is taking place as well, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.520 and there are steaks in it as well, So it's 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:24.320 not like all the stakes are in the dream world 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:25.800 and nothing's going on in the real world. 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:26.440 Right. 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.840 It is a movie about a child who has dreams 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.960 about monsters, and those dreams about monsters teach him how 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.080 to solve problems in real life. 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.200 Now, whether these are good lessons or not, yes, so 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.760 that's there may be some generational divide on that, and 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:45.640 this is all open for discussion. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.440 Yes, So I thought it might be useful here to 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.599 do a brief digression on the history of the Godzilla 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.080 franchise and the place all monsters attack has within it. 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:00.240 So the first Godzilla movie was released in nineteen fifty. 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.840 It was directed by Ishiro Honda, the same director as 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.960 today's movie, and it was about a giant, prehistoric reptilian 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:12.440 monster with radiation breath who appears from under the ocean 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.040 as a consequence of nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:21.200 Godzilla attacks Japan and is eventually defeated by the ingenuity 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.400 of human scientists. Now, I think it's really important to 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.040 note that if you have only seen later Godzilla movies, 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.960 you may be shocked if you go back and watch 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:36.520 the original, shocked to discover its much darker tone, the 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.440 heavy themes treated in a very solemn manner, and the 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.560 fact that there is no Kaiju meet Slam. The monsters 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.920 do not supplex each other. In fact, there's only one monster. 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.800 Godzilla is a pure antagonist. In the first movie. He 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:55.760 doesn't wrestle other monsters, and it is not light camp entertainment. 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.720 The original Godzilla is a bleak, doomy movie. 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.280 Yeah, it's kind of grimy. It's use of black and white, 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:05.159 it's very stark. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:06.320 It is. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.560 A serious film about dread and horror in the modern world. 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.919 However, in the film that would follow, which was called 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.640 Godzilla Raids Again in nineteen fifty five, Godzilla once again 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.359 emerges to threaten humankind, but this time there's another element. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.960 Godzilla is fighting another monster, so fighting this ancient fire 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.960 breathing dinosaur enemy. He's sort of based on the design 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.680 of an ankylosaurus, and this would set off a kind 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.280 of pattern of monster on monster violence that would continue 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.440 into the following films, including movies like King Kong versus 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.880 Godzilla that's in nineteen sixty two, mathra versus Godzilla in 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.240 sixty four, Various battles with monsters from outer space and 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.240 with three heads, other things coming up from the deep, 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.800 and rob I wonder if you would disagree with anything 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.440 here or have anything to add to this, but I 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.040 would argue a few general trends in the Godzilla movies 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.040 as they go on. One is the trend of the 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.320 moral valance of Godzilla, who I think goes initially from 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:15.040 hard heel to kind of anti hero to full face. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:16.520 Would you agree with that? 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.960 Oh yeah, yeah, he's definitely a babyface. And then in 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.120 most of the films people are really familiar. 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.760 With, Yeah, it's often like Godzilla has to show up 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.920 to fight a bad monster in order to protect humanity 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.320 from that monster, and he's kind of like a dangerous ally, 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:38.640 but ultimately it's he who is defending human civilization from 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:40.120 this really wicked creature. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:41.520 Yeah. 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.480 Yeah, I think that that trajectory tends to hold true 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.920 occasionally with you'll see some some new Godzilla pictures that 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.160 come about in which they kind of go back to 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.280 basics and go for like the solo monster threat sort 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.480 of plot. And I guess one of the main examples 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.280 of that is is shin Godzilla from twenty sixteen. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:07:59.760 Yeah. 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.000 A lot of times when they do a reboot, it's 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.120 like that shin Godzilla is like that Godzilla, that horrible 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.640 American Godzilla from the nineties is like that, yeah, or 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.360 wait is it now? I'm trying to remember. I think 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:11.600 it is. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:13.000 Yeah, Yeah, I believe so. 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.600 Though I think the more recent American Godzilla remake that 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.840 had some extra monsters in it, as I recall, so 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:19.440 it had. 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.840 Bad ones that Godzilla had to fight. Yeah, let them fight. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.560 Yeah, some sort of radiation eating diosaur creatures. 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:25.960 Yeah. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.080 Okay, so there's that trajectory. Another thing is the tone. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.520 The tone changes. It goes from the bleak, just doom 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:39.760 layden horror of the first movie to a much lighter, campier, 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.839 sillier kind of entertainment, even when it sometimes still has commentary. 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.520 A lot of times, these sillier, campier Godzilla movies will 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:56.000 be satirical about say pollution or politics or the entertainment industry, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.520 even like I think there's one where there's, like, you know, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.600 somebody's trying to boost TV ratings by capturing King Kong 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:03.480 and then he gets out and has to fight Godzilla 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:08.240 and so forth. So they often satirize real elements in 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.080 the world, but they're not as dark as the first one. 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.080 I would also say, as it goes on, you know, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.319 I think some people would be tempted to say that 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.280 the quality of production in the films goes down, but 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.199 I don't think that's exactly right. I would say the 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.680 quality of production becomes more variable. It's not like there's 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.880 a steady decline in the quality of Godzilla movies, but 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.520 instead we see a sort of all over the place 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:36.400 quality pattern. Would you agree with that? 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.000 I think so, and I do wonder how much And 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.920 this would maybe something that Godzilla scholars may have thoughts on. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.240 And indeed, it is worth pointing out that Godzilla movies 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.120 are definitely an area where there is a People have 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.600 written whole books on this, there have been academic papers 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.079 on this. This is this is a well explored region 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.440 of weird cinema. But I do wonder at times they 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.520 get into the sillier zone, kid friendly zone, and I 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:03.839 wonder what are the different forces involved. I mean, part 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.200 of it is clearly like the reception to Godzilla by 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.640 young viewers, But then also I wonder how much of 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.920 it is the filmmakers realizing like not only the limitations 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:19.000 of rubber suit monster effects, but also the potential for 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.959 humor with those suits. You know, like, if you're going 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:27.040 for just hard you know, sci fi or really serious 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.640 grim horror with it, it feels like you maybe you've 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.800 got to be a little a little more careful about 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:34.920 how you use the suit and how you show the 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.640 suit where if you open that up a little bit, 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.079 then there's all this potential for like the goofy er 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:41.040 stuff to take place. 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.880 Yes, I fully agree with that, though there are some 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.120 films that have managed to do both. Actually, and that's 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.240 one thing I love about shin Godzilla. I think it 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:54.080 succeeds fully in real grim horror and funny camp in 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:54.920 the same movie. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:55.440 Yeah. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.960 Yeah, it's a careful tight rope to walk though. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.000 But anyway, back to the film we're going to talk 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.120 about today. It arrives in nineteen sixty nine, and it 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.280 has long been regarded as one of the worst Godzilla films. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.640 It seems recently though, a lot of critics have kind 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.199 of softened on it. They've kind of started to come 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.760 around a little bit. And you can see the reasons 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.440 for both, both for the initial harsh reaction and the 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.680 softening and warming up to this movie. There are certainly 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.959 elements that are not as impressive as other films in 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.040 the franchise. The stakes are less all encompassing. I mean, 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.520 this is not a world world defining conflict to save 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.000 the planet from a three headed monster from outer space 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.080 or whatever. Instead, it is a child dealing with loneliness 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:45.040 and bullying, who has dreams about monsters that inspire him 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.360 to stand up for himself. It's hard for that to 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.160 feel as epic as the other Godzilla movies, either in 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.400 either an awe inspiring and scary way or in a 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.160 funny way. And I think one thing that has to 0:11:56.240 --> 0:12:00.000 be acknowledged is that the original special effects and production 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.600 values in this film are very limited compared to some 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.240 other films in the franchise, and a lot of the 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.320 special effects sequences that do appear are recycled from previous movies. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.640 We'll talk more about that as we go on. But 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.120 on the other hand, I think a lot of people 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.360 have kind of come around on this movie today as 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.640 simply a different kind of creature than most other films 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.360 in the Godzilla series. It is a sweeter, more modest, 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:30.120 more intimate meditation on what Godzilla had come to mean 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.680 for the children of Japan, end of the world. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.400 Having just watched this film this morning for the first time, 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.839 it's hard to imagine people hating it. I mean, it's 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.080 seventy minutes, it's sixty nine minutes long for crying out loud. 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.520 I mean, you don't spend too much time in this picture, 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.280 and it has a lot of monsters in it. I 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.760 have to come back to the sort of the Glenn 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.560 Danzig school of filmmaking. I believe he was asking an 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:57.679 interview what makes a great vampire film? And he said, well, 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.920 a lot of vampires, and so this film takes kind 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:04.800 of that part, like what makes a great monster film? 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.280 A lot of great kaiju film? Well, a lot of kaiju. 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.760 There are a lot of kaiju in this picture. I 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:11.840 don't know if all of them are present, as the 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.760 title would suggest, but a lot of them are present. 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.400 And Okay, once you've checked that box off, once you're 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.040 definitely giving the audience all the monsters, what else are 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:22.600 you going to give them? And what can you give 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.560 them this a little different? What can you do that 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.200 would maybe be a satisfying and different story while still 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.320 delivering all of the things that this picture has to 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.480 deliver for the audience that they're expecting. 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:38.840 I think that's a great point, and I think you 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:43.320 could also argue that given the general trends in the 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.600 Godzilla series up to this point, increasingly kind of sillier 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:52.280 and campier type movies and increasing use of Godzilla as 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.880 a face rather than a heal. I think you could 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.160 argue it was inevitable that these movies would end up 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.920 including movies that were explicitly meant for kids, not just 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:07.320 movies that kids happened to love. So just before All 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.360 Monster's Attack came out, a couple of years before, in 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.280 nineteen sixty seven, we get Son of Godzilla, which, true 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.600 to title, introduced a new character to the Kaiju pantheon, 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:21.440 that is Manila, who is yes, Godzilla's son, and the 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.400 movie deals with parenting themes, showing Godzilla teaching his child 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.800 how to roar and how to blast out his atomic breath. 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.040 In fact, we see some scenes from that movie of 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.480 this type taken whole cloth and shown again in All 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.120 Monsters Attack. And I have read that the introduction of 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.160 Manila in this movie was the result of a desire 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.560 at the studio at Toho to introduce acute character and 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.800 acute relationship to create a movie that would not just 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.000 appeal to kids, but also to the young parents who 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.120 would be taking kids to see movies. 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.320 It makes sense, yeah, I mean, if you want to 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:00.280 introduce your children to these monster movies that by this point, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.240 you know, you've you've you've grown up on it helps 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.000 if there's some sort of cute element. I mean I've 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.520 I've encountered that myself with my own son. You know, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.440 is there is there a baby Yoda in there, a 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.120 grogu that can you know get I mean Star Wars 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.040 has tons of stuff like that obviously, but you know, 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.480 is there some sort of like cute element that will 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.640 definitely catch their attention that they can latch onto, and 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.440 then perhaps they'll they'll latch onto the rest of a 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:27.200 even franchise as well. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.080 Oh yeah, I mean just watch the Turn like you know, 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.360 your your your harsh, cynical twenty somethings. Star Wars geeks 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.760 hate the e Walks until they have kids, and then 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.120 they watch Return with their kids and then they're like, oh, 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:40.320 they're actually kind of great. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:40.800 Yeah. 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.280 Yeah, And we'll describe Manila in a in a little 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:45.680 bit here. He is cute. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.960 He is, in fact, more than once we noticed Minila 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.320 in this movie doing specific sort of sounds and postures 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:53.640 reminiscent of our baby. 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:58.000 Uh so the donkey sound that he keeps making. 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.760 Oh yeah, of course, the donkey sound. But no, he 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:03.760 does at one point he does a kind of I 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:05.920 don't know, like a pose where he's like wiggling his 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.880 arms and legs and he just looks like a human baby. 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.520 But anyway, so a lot of footage from Son of 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.040 Godzilla would end up being reused in All Monsters Attack, 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.800 and in fact, not just footage from Sun but also 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.000 from recent Kaiju movies like Ebirah Horror of the Deep 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:25.920 that came out in nineteen sixty six. That's more of 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.440 your classic meat Slam that's where Godzilla battles a giant 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.360 shrimp crayfish type monster. But also it used footage from 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.840 King Kong Escapes from sixty seven and from Destroy All 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:39.360 Monsters from sixty eight. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.320 Yeah, Destroy All Monsters also has been a lot in it. 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:48.120 So why so much recycled footage from other Toho movies? Well, 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.840 the answer appears to be extreme constraints on time and budget. 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.640 I've read that this was in part due to cost 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.800 overruns from other movies Tohoe is making in nineteen sixty nine, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.920 as well as just general money problems at the studio. 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.879 These were hard times at Toho, but for whatever reason, 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:06.879 the edict came down that this movie had to be 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.680 made fast and cheap. And I think you can say 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.000 that when it comes to special effects sequences, it kind 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.880 of shows, especially to the original ones and how much 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.920 footage is reused. But at the same time, I don't 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.000 think this movie is hack work. All Monsters Attack was 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.239 directed by Ishiro Honda, the A list Toho director who 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.800 had made the original Godzilla as well as most of 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.320 the big movies in the series since then, and despite 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:38.080 all the limitations on the production, Honda apparently cited All 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.159 Monsters Attack as one of his personal favorites from the 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.439 entire series. I was wondering a bit why this was, 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.800 and so I was reading from Godzilla, The Official Guide 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.600 to the King of the Monsters. This was the official 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:55.600 Toho licensed book on the series, written by Graham Skipper 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.920 twenty twenty two, and Skipper writes quote All Monsters Attack 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.359 was truly a labor of love for Honda, a small 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.960 film that focused less on the big monster fights and 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.479 more on one young child learning how to stand up 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.680 for himself. While Honda loved the spectacle and undeniable artistry 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.600 of orchestrating giant monsters rampaging through cities, he also loved 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.159 the emotional core of the people at the heart of 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.119 these stories. Here he was mostly left to do as 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.760 he pleased within the constraints, and thus we get what 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.040 today feels like a small indie film rather than a 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.399 Kaiju blockbuster, and I think that's right on the money. 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.320 We're kind of left in the end with a cozy 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:40.640 little film about childhood struggles, bullying, courage and the inspiration 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.479 that we take from our myths. And it's also a 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.800 film in which all the monster slamming is relegated to 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.920 dream sequences. But there is something very charming about it. 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:51.120 Yeah. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.960 Again, it checks off the box of all the monsters, 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.959 lots of monster stuff happening on screen, but then it 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.760 figures out something very interesting to do with the rest 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.400 of them picture, and in that it has a lot 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:06.800 in common I think with a rather different Kaiju movie, 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.000 a rather different Godzilla movie that we previously covered on 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:14.600 Weird House. That's nineteen seventy one's Godzilla versus Hetera, which 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.520 I would say is not as memorable from a character standpoint. 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.479 I think this movie has a has more heart, but 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.400 that one definitely had a lot of style, a lot 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.920 of like in a hit message at the core of it, 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.480 while also giving us monsters. 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.439 Yes, Hetera is I think a better movie from the 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.360 point of view of just like weird imagery and having 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:42.000 lots of crazy visual flare and stuff that stands out 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.600 like that, but all monsters attack has it has a 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:50.400 soul and hetera. I don't know, maybe. 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:51.080 All right. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.560 Well, when we were thinking about elevator pitches for this one, 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.120 I instantly thought The never Ending. 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.920 Story but with Kaiju Oof. 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.159 Yeah, And it really does remind me quite a bit 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.600 of the nineteen eighty four film adaptation of Michael Inda's 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:07.959 nineteen seventy nine novel The never Ending Story. 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:09.880 I love both of these, by. 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.040 The way, I know Michael Inda did not like the 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.080 film adaptation, but I have rum in my heart for 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.080 both of them. But in the film adaptation of The 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.159 Neverending Story, we have a kind of lonely child in 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.400 the city with a disrupted home life who finds courage 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.479 in the realm of fantasy, and in the film, at 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.760 any rate, he eventually unleashes a luck dragon on his bullies. 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.320 In this film, we have a lonely latch key kid 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.000 in late sixties Japan living in a heavily industrialized area, 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.600 and he finds courage through his dream jaunts to Monster Island. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.680 Instead of actually summoning a kaiju to defeat his bullies 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:49.720 and bank robbers. He home alones them, as Lister Mail. 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.800 Suggested, Yeah, he lays traps essentially and gets them to 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:55.080 fall through holes in the floor. 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:57.720 Yeah, all right, Well, let's go ahead and listen to 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.560 the trailer audio on this one. This is the English 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.600 dub trailer, which I think works best for the podcast 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.800 format here, though this is not the cut of the 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:09.280 film I ended up watching. Usually, I'm all for the 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.760 English dub on a film like this lets me focus 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.240 more on the monsters, and you know, and the human 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.639 performances are generally less important in a picture like this. 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.359 But HBO Max only offered subtitles, so I watched it 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:41.320 as if I were viewing a Krosawa film. 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.760 Where is the Armor Computer Golong? Yes? 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:51.040 Yes, do you take a jet? Take a jet? 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:06.880 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:11.040 Welcome aboard Pan American Flight one Director Monster Island. We'll 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:13.160 be fine at thirty five thousand and eight and we'll 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:14.240 arrive on schedule. 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:21.240 We hope you up a pleasant flight. Thank you? 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:31.320 Are you Muster Island? 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:33.000 Overland? 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:35.240 We are ready to land? 0:22:38.560 --> 0:23:27.879 Oh godzilla, a comacara? 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:36.920 All right? Sounds like a party, huh. 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:38.920 I mean, if I hadn't already watched it, I would, 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:42.399 by the ways. Speaking of advertising for this film, I 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:46.320 haven't confirmed this, but the Internet alleges that the tagline 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:50.879 was see prehistoric monsters crawl out of the hidden depths 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.440 of the Earth and take revenge against the living. That's 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.920 not even close. Doesn't not even remotely describing this. 0:23:57.920 --> 0:23:59.679 Movie, not at all. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:11.080 All Right, if you're wondering where you can watch this picture, well, 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:13.679 as of this recording, you can watch it on HBO Max, 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.200 but all streaming is subject to change, especially HBO Max 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:20.640 as of late, so watch it while you can there, 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:23.480 I guess. But it's also available on Blu Ray from 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.720 the Criterion collection on there. Just absolutely worshipful Godzilla the 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:30.760 Shoa Era films nineteen fifty fourth through nineteen seventy five. 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:33.880 I've looked at the physical packaging for this at Atlanta's 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:36.639 own Video Drone. They have them for rent there, of course, 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:39.439 and the packaging is just splendid. It has all this 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:43.840 amazing new artwork in at these very flashy, colorful illustrations 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:46.400 of Godzilla and the monsters that he battles. 0:24:46.920 --> 0:24:48.400 I may have to pick that up one day. 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:52.240 Oh, it's it's great. It's a nice package. All right. 0:24:52.280 --> 0:24:55.520 Well let's get into the people here involved in this film. So, 0:24:55.840 --> 0:24:59.600 as we noted already, Ishirohanda is the director of nineteen 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:02.879 eleven through nineteen ninety three legendary Toho film director who, 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:05.159 of course helm fifty four's Godzilla in the movie that 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:08.200 started it all, and he directed forty four pictures in total, 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:12.119 eight of those Godzilla films, culminating in seventy five's Terror 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:16.480 of Mecca Godzilla. But he also directed rodin the Mysterians 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:20.720 the Human Vapor Matango, which, by the way, if you're 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:27.000 out there enjoying the current mushroom zombie horror series on television, 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:30.120 well you need to go back and watch Matango. I'm 0:25:30.119 --> 0:25:33.200 not sure if they were the first mushroom zombie type picture, 0:25:33.320 --> 0:25:35.320 but they have to be one of the first. 0:25:35.920 --> 0:25:38.480 Else maybe you should do Matango on the show. 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:41.119 We probably should. Yeah, okay, but oh. 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:45.040 Other films he did include Frankenstein Versus Beragon, The War 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:48.960 of the Garganshuas Space, Amiba, and Moore. He was a 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:52.720 friend of director Akira Corrasawa and served as director counselor 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:56.960 or chief assistant director on Carrisawa's nineteen eighty five epic Ryan. 0:25:57.760 --> 0:26:00.000 His name continues to appear in the credits on god 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:04.200 Zilla movies and in other homages. He also directed nineteen 0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:08.000 sixty three's Atragon, which we previously covered on Weird House, 0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:10.280 and of course, as we mentioned, we also covered seventy 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:13.800 one's Godzilla versus Hetera, which he did not direct, but 0:26:13.880 --> 0:26:15.200 still Godzilla picture. 0:26:15.560 --> 0:26:19.720 Hondo is a masterful director, and you can just feel 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:24.840 his storytelling confidence even when he's working with what appeared 0:26:24.880 --> 0:26:30.479 to be extremely limiting constraints on like his budget and 0:26:30.480 --> 0:26:32.520 what he could do with the movie. You just see 0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:35.639 him like kind of just accepting it and plowing straight 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:37.399 through and making the best movie he could. 0:26:37.640 --> 0:26:40.520 Absolutely. Now getting into some of the other connections, I 0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:42.960 guess it's one of the situations when you start looking 0:26:43.000 --> 0:26:47.879 at the people involved in certainly Toho pictures, you see 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:50.679 like this, the Japanese studio system of the day in place, 0:26:50.720 --> 0:26:54.360 So a lot of these, you know, were frequent Toho 0:26:55.119 --> 0:27:01.480 actors or frequent Honda collaborators. So the screenplay here was 0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:06.640 by Shinichi Sekazawa, who lived nineteen twenty through nineteen ninety two, 0:27:07.080 --> 0:27:10.600 a frequent collaborator with Honda inscribe of many Godzilla movies, 0:27:10.840 --> 0:27:14.400 beginning with nineteen sixty two's King Kong Versus Godzilla. And 0:27:14.440 --> 0:27:18.040 he also wrote Azragon, which we covered or he was 0:27:18.080 --> 0:27:19.560 one of the writers on it. I forget how that 0:27:19.720 --> 0:27:23.760 shook out. But anyway, getting into the actors here, of 0:27:23.800 --> 0:27:28.399 course we have to call out Haruo Nakajima, who plays Godzilla. 0:27:28.480 --> 0:27:30.320 He is the man in the suit. He lived nineteen 0:27:30.320 --> 0:27:33.359 twenty nine through twenty seventeen. He played Godzilla in twelve 0:27:33.400 --> 0:27:36.680 consecutive films. He was also in Mathra in the War 0:27:36.720 --> 0:27:39.600 of the garganshuas as well as a Kira kurosaw was 0:27:39.640 --> 0:27:42.439 seven Samurai in a bit role and not as a 0:27:42.480 --> 0:27:46.359 giant monster. He's generally considered a legend and the rubber 0:27:46.440 --> 0:27:48.920 monster suit actor par excellence. 0:27:49.240 --> 0:27:51.160 Was he ever a pro wrestler? 0:27:51.400 --> 0:27:51.480 Like? 0:27:51.520 --> 0:27:53.000 How did he get all those moves down? 0:27:53.640 --> 0:27:56.560 I don't think he had a wrestling background. He just, 0:27:57.040 --> 0:27:59.560 you know, I think like a lot of these, well, 0:28:01.000 --> 0:28:03.399 the way these different monster actors end up in the 0:28:03.440 --> 0:28:06.160 suits that often come in to find them, like sometimes 0:28:06.160 --> 0:28:08.680 it's a case where they're like, you know, a studied 0:28:08.680 --> 0:28:12.719 physical performer, other times they're like they're the willing person. 0:28:12.760 --> 0:28:14.720 They're the person that was around that was like, yes, 0:28:14.760 --> 0:28:17.040 I will do this, and it became their thing, and 0:28:17.119 --> 0:28:21.879 certainly Nakajima became like one of the most legendary rubber 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:24.320 suit I mean certainly the most legendary Kaiju actor of 0:28:24.359 --> 0:28:28.879 all time. Now when it comes to Manila, the Little 0:28:28.920 --> 0:28:36.160 Godzilla creature Godzilla's Son, this performance is by little Man Machin, 0:28:36.840 --> 0:28:41.440 whose real name was Masseo Fukuzawa, who the nineteen twenty 0:28:41.440 --> 0:28:46.440 one through two thousand he played Manila in three films 0:28:46.800 --> 0:28:49.440 Son of Godzilla Destroyed All Monsters and All Monsters Attack, 0:28:49.520 --> 0:28:51.840 which we previously noted, and he followed this up with 0:28:51.880 --> 0:28:55.360 a couple of Kaiju projects, Ultraman Story from eighty four 0:28:55.520 --> 0:28:58.440 ultra Q the Movie from nineteen ninety. He also played 0:28:58.440 --> 0:29:01.840 the juvenile version of the title Kaiju in the North 0:29:01.920 --> 0:29:07.480 Korean kaiju movie Pulgasari from nineteen eighty five WOW. His 0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:13.160 final film was the nineteen ninety one Tokasatsu film Micka 0:29:13.240 --> 0:29:18.240 Droid Robo Kill Beneath Disco Club Leila. I haven't seen it, 0:29:18.280 --> 0:29:20.880 but you may have seen the cover art He's got, 0:29:20.920 --> 0:29:23.400 you know, like some dark soldier with red eyes on it. 0:29:24.960 --> 0:29:27.000 This is not what I've seen, but it's I think 0:29:27.040 --> 0:29:30.560 some people really dig it. But anyway, this was a 0:29:30.600 --> 0:29:34.080 diminutive suit actor who according to Godzilla Wiki. 0:29:34.640 --> 0:29:35.840 I looked at Godzilla. 0:29:35.480 --> 0:29:37.840 Wiki in addition to the normal databases on this one, 0:29:37.840 --> 0:29:41.200 because they generally just have excellent information about Godzilla pictures. 0:29:41.480 --> 0:29:43.520 They say that he worked prior to this as a 0:29:43.560 --> 0:29:47.440 mini wrestler, but I couldn't find out really anything about that, 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:50.240 like where he wrestled, who he wrestled for, or what 0:29:50.360 --> 0:29:52.680 his name was. I'm guessing he was a little man 0:29:52.720 --> 0:29:56.880 when he wrestled, But I mean, there were some Japanese 0:29:56.880 --> 0:30:00.920 mini wrestlers, but I think even the that I'm aware of, 0:30:01.040 --> 0:30:03.880 they worked outside of Japan frequently, so I don't know 0:30:03.880 --> 0:30:05.440 how much of a scene there was for this in 0:30:05.520 --> 0:30:08.800 Japanese wrestling during this time period. He played a couple 0:30:08.840 --> 0:30:12.320 of dwarf roles in the early sixties, including the Toshira 0:30:12.400 --> 0:30:15.480 Mafuni Sinbad movie or well, I'm not sure if it's 0:30:15.480 --> 0:30:17.400 actually a Sinbad movie, but it was released in the 0:30:17.400 --> 0:30:19.720 West as The Lost World of Sinbad. 0:30:19.960 --> 0:30:21.200 Oh, I've never seen that one. 0:30:21.400 --> 0:30:25.480 Now. A note on Manila here. He's not to be 0:30:25.520 --> 0:30:28.680 confused with god Zuki, the juvenile flying kaiju from the 0:30:28.680 --> 0:30:32.240 Hanna Barbara cartoon The Godzilla Power Hour from seventy eight. 0:30:32.280 --> 0:30:34.960 I know a lot of you out there know exactly 0:30:35.040 --> 0:30:37.640 what I'm talking about. Also, he's not to be confused 0:30:37.640 --> 0:30:41.320 with Godzilla Junior, who debuted in Toho's nineteen ninety three 0:30:41.400 --> 0:30:45.000 film Godzilla Versus Mecha Godzilla two and appeared in two 0:30:45.040 --> 0:30:48.680 pictures after that. Both god Zuki and Godzilla Junior have 0:30:48.760 --> 0:30:54.360 baby dragon vibes, while Manila here he's more I don't know, 0:30:54.400 --> 0:30:56.480 how would you describe him. He's kind of like baby 0:30:56.520 --> 0:30:58.040 turtle without a shell, right. 0:30:58.000 --> 0:31:01.880 Yeah, baby turtle, baby fraud. Kind of like tadpole, a 0:31:02.000 --> 0:31:05.120 quadrupedal tadpole. I'm not sure. 0:31:05.400 --> 0:31:05.640 Yeah. 0:31:05.760 --> 0:31:10.200 Very reminiscent though, of a human toddler, not only in 0:31:10.240 --> 0:31:12.800 his appearance but also in the way he moves around. 0:31:13.160 --> 0:31:15.040 Yes, I mean, I think they were really trying to 0:31:15.080 --> 0:31:19.480 play up that baby angle to make Manila as cute 0:31:19.520 --> 0:31:21.240 as possible. That was the directive. 0:31:22.000 --> 0:31:25.479 Yes, Now, we mentioned that there's a human child at 0:31:25.480 --> 0:31:28.720 the center of this picture. The child is the character 0:31:29.600 --> 0:31:34.320 Ichiro Miki or just Ichiro. I don't even know this 0:31:34.360 --> 0:31:36.200 is a case where they really say his last name 0:31:36.240 --> 0:31:41.600 in the picture, but was played by TOMINOI Yazaki. Dates unknown. 0:31:41.920 --> 0:31:45.080 He was a Japanese child actor. This was his first film, 0:31:45.120 --> 0:31:49.120 followed by mostly TV roles, some ultraman, some common Rider 0:31:49.600 --> 0:31:53.000 through a Round seventy three or seventy four. His other 0:31:53.080 --> 0:31:58.040 film is the nineteen seventy two monster flick digorro Versus Goliath. 0:31:58.520 --> 0:32:00.760 I've read that there have been a to sort of 0:32:00.760 --> 0:32:04.000 find this actor as an adult and you know, get 0:32:04.040 --> 0:32:06.640 his his take on what filming this movie was like. 0:32:06.680 --> 0:32:09.880 But I don't think any of those those searches wherever fruitful. 0:32:09.920 --> 0:32:12.720 So I'm not sure you know what became of him. 0:32:12.720 --> 0:32:16.360 But I lived a private life after his child acting 0:32:16.440 --> 0:32:17.320 days were behind him. 0:32:17.640 --> 0:32:21.320 Leave Ichiro alone, let him live his life. 0:32:21.760 --> 0:32:25.200 Now there's another character of note in the picture. So again, 0:32:25.600 --> 0:32:28.960 Ichiro is a latch key kid, so his parents work 0:32:29.120 --> 0:32:31.960 a lot. He's left to go home and look after 0:32:32.040 --> 0:32:37.760 himself and his We meet this friend of his, this 0:32:37.760 --> 0:32:40.440 this man who lives in the same apartment complex that 0:32:40.640 --> 0:32:43.680 is a toy maker or a toy designer, an inventor 0:32:43.720 --> 0:32:44.160 of sorts. 0:32:44.240 --> 0:32:46.960 Right, yeah, he At one point, he's building something he 0:32:47.040 --> 0:32:50.680 calls a quote kiddy computer in the subtitles on the 0:32:50.760 --> 0:32:53.479 version I saw, But it's like a computer that shows 0:32:53.560 --> 0:32:55.280 live footage of a moon landing. 0:32:56.000 --> 0:32:59.720 Yeah, in great quality, was really in color. 0:33:00.080 --> 0:33:04.200 Yeah, but yeah, so I don't know what's going on there. 0:33:04.200 --> 0:33:06.640 But yeah, he's a toy maker and he is he's 0:33:06.760 --> 0:33:11.680 essentially Ichiro's friend, like he's a friend, and he looks 0:33:11.720 --> 0:33:15.560 after Ichiro sometimes when his parents are both working and 0:33:15.640 --> 0:33:16.400 can't come home. 0:33:16.720 --> 0:33:17.000 Yeah. 0:33:17.000 --> 0:33:21.400 This character's name is Shinpei Innami, played by the actor 0:33:21.680 --> 0:33:24.960 Hideo i'm Amoto who lived nineteen twenty six through two 0:33:24.960 --> 0:33:29.719 thousand and three. And this is a sometimes these various 0:33:29.720 --> 0:33:32.320 Toho actors are actors that you just kind of see 0:33:32.320 --> 0:33:34.520 another Toho films, and there's kind of like, you know, 0:33:34.600 --> 0:33:38.840 just an ensemble of Toho actors. But there's a very 0:33:38.840 --> 0:33:41.400 good chance folks out there have seen i'm Amoto before 0:33:41.440 --> 0:33:46.160 because he has very distinctive looks, tall, thin Japanese character 0:33:46.240 --> 0:33:48.880 actor with kind of gaunt features that are maybe not 0:33:49.000 --> 0:33:51.640 accentuated much in this picture because he's just playing a 0:33:51.720 --> 0:33:55.000 normal human and nothing. You know, he's not an assassin 0:33:55.120 --> 0:33:57.840 or anything, but he worked in a number of notable films. 0:33:58.120 --> 0:34:02.800 His work includes kuros was Yojimbo from sixty one, Quite 0:34:02.880 --> 0:34:06.440 On from sixty four, Sword of Doom, and The Tango 0:34:06.520 --> 0:34:09.520 from sixty six. He was also in Message for Space 0:34:09.640 --> 0:34:13.680 and Attragon, so two films that we previously covered, though 0:34:13.719 --> 0:34:17.360 I think those were smaller roles in those pictures. He 0:34:17.480 --> 0:34:21.000 was also in International Secret Police Key of Keys from 0:34:21.000 --> 0:34:24.439 sixty five, which is known to many Western moviegoers as 0:34:25.080 --> 0:34:28.279 the movie that What's Up Tiger Lily? The Woody Allen 0:34:28.320 --> 0:34:30.719 picture was a dub off. That was a picture where 0:34:30.719 --> 0:34:33.600 they took a Japanese film and dubbed over it with 0:34:33.800 --> 0:34:37.239 like new comedic dialogue. I've never seen it, but that's 0:34:37.360 --> 0:34:38.160 the basic pitch. 0:34:38.200 --> 0:34:40.680 I think I've never seen it either. 0:34:41.480 --> 0:34:41.840 Anyway. 0:34:41.840 --> 0:34:44.440 I'm Amoto was in a string of Godzilla and Kaiju movies, 0:34:44.640 --> 0:34:48.399 as well as nineteen ninety six's Echo Echo Azarak two, 0:34:48.560 --> 0:34:52.760 Birth of the Wizard and nineteen eighty seven's Mighty Jack. 0:34:53.400 --> 0:34:55.759 Was that featured on Mystery Science Theater? 0:34:56.040 --> 0:34:57.560 It was, Yes, Mighty Jack. 0:34:58.120 --> 0:35:00.880 Well, he's very good in this role on him to 0:35:01.000 --> 0:35:05.760 be the kindly, understanding adult in an uncaring world. 0:35:06.200 --> 0:35:08.319 Yes, let's see, I'm going to skip a bit in 0:35:08.360 --> 0:35:12.920 the cast. Here we do see Isiro's father a little bit. 0:35:12.920 --> 0:35:16.040 He's played by Kenji Sahara, who was born in nineteen 0:35:16.080 --> 0:35:19.280 thirty two and is presumably still alive. He's a Japanese 0:35:19.320 --> 0:35:21.560 actor who has the distinction of being in the most 0:35:21.560 --> 0:35:26.000 Godzilla films, or at least was at one point he 0:35:26.080 --> 0:35:28.000 was in thirteen of them, which I think puts him 0:35:28.239 --> 0:35:31.920 what won over the Man in the Suit, in addition 0:35:32.000 --> 0:35:34.919 to numerous other Toho pictures. He was in the first 0:35:34.960 --> 0:35:38.480 Godzilla movie as a newspaper reporter and a party guy 0:35:38.480 --> 0:35:41.680 in a boat, and his last Godzilla film was two 0:35:41.719 --> 0:35:44.400 thousand and four's Final Wars, and it looks like he 0:35:44.440 --> 0:35:47.960 was last active around twenty eleven and then finally. The 0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:51.879 music in this one is by Kunio mia Uchi, who 0:35:51.920 --> 0:35:54.840 lived nineteen thirty two through two thousand and six, Japanese 0:35:54.880 --> 0:35:57.960 Toho composer whose first big score was The Human Vapor 0:35:58.000 --> 0:36:00.680 in nineteen sixty. He followed this up with such films 0:36:00.680 --> 0:36:04.120 and TV shows as Mighty Jack, Ultraman, Godzilla Versus Geegan, 0:36:04.560 --> 0:36:08.080 and his stock music was used in twenty twenty two's 0:36:08.280 --> 0:36:12.800 Shin Ultraman, which I haven't seen yet, but apparently Joe 0:36:12.840 --> 0:36:18.120 it gives Ultraman the Shin Godzilla treatment. Oh well, that's 0:36:18.160 --> 0:36:20.800 what the title and the posters seem to imply. 0:36:21.239 --> 0:36:21.399 Oh. 0:36:21.440 --> 0:36:24.040 I've looked this up before, but I always forget what 0:36:24.160 --> 0:36:27.359 it is that the title Shin Godzilla means. And I 0:36:27.360 --> 0:36:29.480 think the deal is that Shin is a word that 0:36:29.560 --> 0:36:33.719 has multiple meanings, like it could be interpreted to mean 0:36:33.800 --> 0:36:36.560 the word god, or it could be interpreted to mean 0:36:36.640 --> 0:36:40.759 something like original or pure m. Is that right? 0:36:40.920 --> 0:36:43.839 I believe that that sounds familiar. I haven't looked into 0:36:43.880 --> 0:36:45.960 it recently, but I remember reading about it when Shin 0:36:46.040 --> 0:36:48.120 Godzilla first came out, and it's kind of like taken 0:36:48.200 --> 0:36:49.879 on its own meeting to me, like you put Shin 0:36:50.000 --> 0:36:52.440 on the beginning of something, and I'm expecting it to 0:36:52.520 --> 0:36:56.000 have like a lot of scenes of bureaucracy dealing with 0:36:58.160 --> 0:37:01.480 an outrageous event. So like, I think you could apply 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:04.960 it to anything, Shin Godzilla, Shen king Kong, I don't know, 0:37:05.160 --> 0:37:07.799 Shin Mettango. You could really go crazy. 0:37:07.520 --> 0:37:11.719 With it, Shin critters, Shien critters, Shen gremlins too. 0:37:12.000 --> 0:37:21.600 That's what we want to see, all right? 0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:24.480 You ready to look at some stuff about the plot. 0:37:25.040 --> 0:37:26.040 Let's do it well. 0:37:26.080 --> 0:37:29.360 Of course, we start with that beautiful Toho logo. I 0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:31.279 know I've said this on the show before, but it 0:37:31.320 --> 0:37:33.239 makes me feel so good every time I see the 0:37:33.280 --> 0:37:37.160 Toho logo, Really, something in my chest just relaxes. 0:37:37.400 --> 0:37:41.480 There's something about how it looks like there's light shining 0:37:41.520 --> 0:37:44.480 through glass on it that it feels like I am 0:37:44.640 --> 0:37:49.440 in the waiting room at an office for a professional 0:37:49.520 --> 0:37:51.200 that I trust, you know, like I don't know if 0:37:51.239 --> 0:37:54.279 I'm going to a doctor in this scenario or what 0:37:54.600 --> 0:37:57.799 I'm going to a Toho picture, and I trust that 0:37:57.840 --> 0:37:58.960 I'm going to be taken care of. 0:37:59.239 --> 0:38:03.239 You're in good hands. Yeah, Now, how to describe the 0:38:03.320 --> 0:38:06.760 score that plays with the opening credits. The music throughout 0:38:06.760 --> 0:38:10.120 this movie is generally rather strange in a way that 0:38:10.200 --> 0:38:13.239 I liked. It's got this opening jazz tune that makes 0:38:13.239 --> 0:38:15.160 me think a little bit of the Pink Panther. But 0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:19.560 after many cups of coffee and then once the singing starts, 0:38:19.560 --> 0:38:20.720 it gets really weird. 0:38:21.640 --> 0:38:21.879 Yeah. 0:38:21.880 --> 0:38:23.840 I guess the vibe is kind of hip and fun, 0:38:23.960 --> 0:38:27.200 at least until you start reading the subtitles. For me, 0:38:28.160 --> 0:38:29.880 for the opening theme song. 0:38:29.920 --> 0:38:31.799 Oh we'll get to that in a second. But also 0:38:32.040 --> 0:38:34.680 I love how the opening credits are full of monster 0:38:34.760 --> 0:38:38.320 fight clips, and there was one I genuinely laughed out loud. 0:38:38.360 --> 0:38:42.280 So it's showing Godzilla fighting with one of the spider monsters. 0:38:42.280 --> 0:38:44.640 I think that's the monster they fight originally in Son 0:38:44.680 --> 0:38:47.120 of Godzilla, and they show the fight again in this movie. 0:38:47.360 --> 0:38:49.440 And so it's showing this big spider and then there 0:38:49.480 --> 0:38:53.360 is just a freeze frame on the spider spraying spider 0:38:53.480 --> 0:38:54.720 juice out of its mouth. 0:38:55.520 --> 0:38:56.600 Yeah. 0:38:56.719 --> 0:38:58.920 Again, this is the movie that knows the kids out 0:38:58.920 --> 0:39:02.239 there want monsters. Know, people come to Godzola to sea monsters, 0:39:02.360 --> 0:39:04.080 and they're gonna start delivering right away. 0:39:04.280 --> 0:39:07.239 And I enjoy how the spider has a Sam Elliott mustache. 0:39:07.840 --> 0:39:11.200 Yeah, it's very furry. It's a disturbingly furry spider. 0:39:11.680 --> 0:39:14.440 It's a bristly spider. It's got like pink crystals for 0:39:14.520 --> 0:39:16.520 eyes and Sam Elliot upper lip. 0:39:16.880 --> 0:39:19.359 Just because they're using stock footage from old films though, 0:39:19.440 --> 0:39:21.960 doesn't mean they're not gonna go ahead and use footage 0:39:22.000 --> 0:39:25.480 from later on in the picture, which I always feel 0:39:25.520 --> 0:39:27.880 like is a little cheap in a movie. You know, 0:39:28.000 --> 0:39:30.720 I don't want to see the trailer is probably already 0:39:30.800 --> 0:39:33.600 ruined enough. I don't need the film itself ruining itself, 0:39:34.320 --> 0:39:37.160 because we do see like this really sick Judo throw 0:39:37.239 --> 0:39:39.879 from Godzilla where he drops a monster right on its head. 0:39:40.040 --> 0:39:41.840 And of course this is a scene from later on 0:39:41.920 --> 0:39:45.040 in the film. It's essentially like the finishing move Godzilla uses. 0:39:45.400 --> 0:39:48.040 That's so good. It's a triple dip. It's from another 0:39:48.120 --> 0:39:50.720 movie already, and then they show it to you twice 0:39:50.840 --> 0:39:53.719 in this movie, so you could see they were trying 0:39:53.719 --> 0:39:56.600 to pad out the run time. I think, well, then again, 0:39:56.640 --> 0:39:58.680 I don't know they would have had a credit sequence anyway. 0:39:58.719 --> 0:40:00.920 Maybe they just might as well, let's show that fight 0:40:00.960 --> 0:40:01.800 again in the credits. 0:40:01.800 --> 0:40:02.080 Why not. 0:40:02.520 --> 0:40:05.399 I totally accept your criticism of that as a move. 0:40:05.440 --> 0:40:07.759 But a lot of movies we have loved have done that. 0:40:07.800 --> 0:40:10.680 The Really Bloody Sword showed you the entire movie during 0:40:10.680 --> 0:40:11.640 the opening credits. 0:40:11.840 --> 0:40:14.920 They absolutely did. Yeah, sometimes you can you can pin 0:40:15.000 --> 0:40:20.520 it on like Western distributors of movies from Europe or Asia, 0:40:20.920 --> 0:40:23.600 and clearly it's just like, well, let's keep them interested 0:40:23.680 --> 0:40:25.759 so they don't leave the theater or drive away from 0:40:25.760 --> 0:40:29.399 the drive in. But yeah, this is the original vision 0:40:29.440 --> 0:40:31.279 for the pictures, So you can't blame it on anybody else. 0:40:31.719 --> 0:40:33.360 Oh, but let's come back to it. So it's singing 0:40:33.400 --> 0:40:35.400 the song through the opening credits and they play it 0:40:35.440 --> 0:40:38.960 again later on. What is the deal with the lyrics here? 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:40.960 They are intriguing. 0:40:40.960 --> 0:40:45.680 An energetic female vocalist that, according to the subtitles, is 0:40:45.680 --> 0:40:48.560 basically saying, don't be afraid of monsters, kids. Monsters are 0:40:48.600 --> 0:40:53.160 actually themselves shocked by the real threat industrial pollution, a. 0:40:53.200 --> 0:40:55.880 Theme that would become central to the later film Godzilla 0:40:55.920 --> 0:40:58.600 versus Hetero, which is the one we previously covered on 0:40:58.920 --> 0:41:03.720 Weird House before. Hetera is just a wicked pollution monster 0:41:03.800 --> 0:41:06.680 who like powers up by huffing smokestacks. 0:41:07.120 --> 0:41:09.440 Yeah, in that movie, it's like the central theme and 0:41:09.480 --> 0:41:11.560 the threat at the center of the film is the 0:41:11.560 --> 0:41:15.560 physical embodiment of that real world threat. In this movie, 0:41:16.160 --> 0:41:18.880 I was thinking about this. I guess it kind of 0:41:18.880 --> 0:41:21.680 helps to ground the film in a world where the 0:41:21.719 --> 0:41:25.520 monsters have lost their power. Later much later in the picture, 0:41:25.880 --> 0:41:29.080 the monsters the kaiju are compared to gods, and if 0:41:29.080 --> 0:41:31.440 we're to take that and run with it, back to 0:41:31.480 --> 0:41:33.839 the beginning of the picture. Here, this is like we're 0:41:33.880 --> 0:41:35.719 living in the Twilight of the Gods. This is a 0:41:36.000 --> 0:41:39.160 world that has lost its faith. The grown ups have 0:41:39.239 --> 0:41:42.520 lost their faith anyway, and the only people who really 0:41:42.560 --> 0:41:46.239 have faith in the gods aka big rubber monsters are 0:41:46.280 --> 0:41:46.840 the children. 0:41:47.280 --> 0:41:50.440 Yeah, I think that's exactly right. But a theme of 0:41:50.480 --> 0:41:53.120 this song, apart from the thing about the pollution, yeah, 0:41:53.200 --> 0:41:57.919 is explicitly about the monsters being weakened somehow. Like one 0:41:57.960 --> 0:42:02.360 part says says, the monsters are crying, why is earth 0:42:02.440 --> 0:42:03.919 such a hard place to live? 0:42:04.520 --> 0:42:05.600 Oh, that's the leering. 0:42:06.560 --> 0:42:10.080 And then another part is I'm paraphrasing for this part, 0:42:10.120 --> 0:42:13.600 but it's like wham bam, crash. You can smash everything, 0:42:13.680 --> 0:42:15.680 but still it's not easy being a monster. 0:42:16.239 --> 0:42:16.560 See. 0:42:16.600 --> 0:42:18.400 This is again why they probably had to have a 0:42:18.440 --> 0:42:21.080 whole bunch of monster footage at the beginning of the picture. 0:42:21.120 --> 0:42:23.160 You can't have this be the first thing kids watch. 0:42:23.200 --> 0:42:24.400 They're gonna lose all hope. 0:42:24.560 --> 0:42:28.160 But anyway, as the credits finish out, we see we 0:42:28.239 --> 0:42:31.680 see some setting. It's the industrial I think it's supposed 0:42:31.680 --> 0:42:34.600 to be Kawasaki, but it's an industrial area of Japan 0:42:34.719 --> 0:42:37.680 with a lot of I don't know, oil refineries and 0:42:38.239 --> 0:42:42.560 factories and just smokestacks pouring smog everywhere, a barren world 0:42:42.640 --> 0:42:48.000 populated only by smoke and factories and trucks. But amidst 0:42:48.040 --> 0:42:51.720 this unforgiving landscape, we see a couple of sweet kids. 0:42:51.840 --> 0:42:55.080 ITCHI row our main kid. He's walking along holding hands 0:42:55.120 --> 0:42:58.320 with his friends at Chico and they are there. I 0:42:58.320 --> 0:43:00.520 guess they're trying to make their way home after school 0:43:00.600 --> 0:43:04.480 through this infernal landscape of suet and asthma. 0:43:04.920 --> 0:43:07.399 It reminds me once again of last week's picture, Let's 0:43:07.400 --> 0:43:09.640 Sleeping corpses Lie, where we start off in a very 0:43:09.680 --> 0:43:13.279 industrial British city and we're supposed to be Manchester, I 0:43:13.320 --> 0:43:17.360 think is Manchester. And the only thing that really calls 0:43:17.400 --> 0:43:20.200 out like any kind of like spirit of fun or 0:43:20.360 --> 0:43:24.160 rebellion or anything like that is the streaker in this film, 0:43:24.200 --> 0:43:28.480 it's the children. Like everything is kind of gross and 0:43:28.520 --> 0:43:31.960 grimy and busy, but these children are just a basket 0:43:32.040 --> 0:43:37.279 of joy, you know, holding the hands against all the 0:43:37.320 --> 0:43:39.839 grime behind them. And I have to say, I really 0:43:39.880 --> 0:43:44.759 love these kids, especially each hero played by Yazaki here, 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:49.040 he's just so good. It's just a really solid kid's performance, 0:43:49.080 --> 0:43:51.440 Like there's a lot of energy and authenticity to it. 0:43:51.840 --> 0:43:55.880 That you don't always see in a child actor. 0:43:56.160 --> 0:43:58.600 Yeah, this is a cute kid. I was a little 0:43:58.600 --> 0:44:03.040 confused as to why some reviewers had in the past 0:44:03.280 --> 0:44:08.080 written stuff that they considered Ichiro annoying. But I think 0:44:08.200 --> 0:44:10.880 maybe I knew I was reading something that made me 0:44:11.000 --> 0:44:14.279 understand a little better. I think it's possible that part 0:44:14.320 --> 0:44:19.200 of the reaction to this character was that some people 0:44:19.239 --> 0:44:23.319 were hearing a particular dub of the film where his 0:44:23.480 --> 0:44:27.360 lines were dubbed by an adult who did this really nasal, 0:44:27.480 --> 0:44:30.719 whiny voice for all of his speaking parts. And I 0:44:30.800 --> 0:44:33.400 can't be sure, but I think that dub exists, and 0:44:33.480 --> 0:44:35.759 I think that is not the version I saw, So 0:44:36.160 --> 0:44:37.799 I don't know if that is the reason for sure, 0:44:37.840 --> 0:44:40.240 but that would partially explain it, because I thought eachio 0:44:40.400 --> 0:44:40.760 is great. 0:44:41.440 --> 0:44:44.400 That is a great, great point, and that's probably the reason. 0:44:44.440 --> 0:44:46.759 It reminds me of a film like say, House by 0:44:46.760 --> 0:44:50.319 the Cemetery. It's Bob is Bob the kid and then. 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:53.720 Bob, yes, Bob the demon child with an adult voice. 0:44:54.000 --> 0:44:54.120 Right. 0:44:54.200 --> 0:44:57.600 Yeah, he's clearly dubbed by a grown woman, and it 0:44:57.680 --> 0:45:00.880 creates a weird energy in the film. You kind of 0:45:00.920 --> 0:45:03.399 there's an uncanniness to him that, and there's a certain 0:45:03.400 --> 0:45:05.680 amount of uncanny is that's supposed to be there, and 0:45:05.680 --> 0:45:08.279 I mean there's this added layer of the uncanny and 0:45:08.280 --> 0:45:10.920 in a picture like this, Yeah, Eachiro is not supposed 0:45:10.920 --> 0:45:12.759 to be uncanny. He's not supposed to be weird. And 0:45:12.800 --> 0:45:14.319 you get the wrong dub on there, and it's going 0:45:14.360 --> 0:45:16.880 to totally change the feeling you get exactly. 0:45:16.920 --> 0:45:19.400 So I think that may very well be what's going on. 0:45:20.520 --> 0:45:23.279 But so we follow Eachiro around and a lot of 0:45:23.280 --> 0:45:24.920 the early parts of the movie are just sort of 0:45:25.080 --> 0:45:29.399 establishing his daily life and his struggles, and uh, maybe 0:45:29.440 --> 0:45:33.000 we could talk a little bit about elements from from 0:45:33.040 --> 0:45:36.680 each of these these things that are established. So one 0:45:36.800 --> 0:45:41.080 theme of the movie is bullying. Eachi Ro is consistently 0:45:41.160 --> 0:45:44.960 bullied by a gang of bigger kids who are led 0:45:45.080 --> 0:45:49.640 by this this sadist bully king named Gabara. So we 0:45:49.680 --> 0:45:52.560 see them knock eachi Ro over on purpose as they 0:45:52.640 --> 0:45:55.080 run by, and they taunt him and they call him 0:45:55.080 --> 0:45:57.799 weak and they make him feel helpless, and you really 0:45:57.840 --> 0:45:59.680 feel for eachi Row like there's a you know, these 0:45:59.680 --> 0:46:02.279 moments where the camera just lingers on his face as 0:46:02.320 --> 0:46:05.479 he looks frustrated and sad and knows that he can't 0:46:05.520 --> 0:46:06.359 really fight back. 0:46:07.160 --> 0:46:07.440 Yeah. 0:46:07.640 --> 0:46:10.120 Yeah, and you know, he's a good kick, and he 0:46:10.640 --> 0:46:12.640 just doesn't want to make anything worse. He doesn't want 0:46:12.640 --> 0:46:13.600 to escalate things. 0:46:14.080 --> 0:46:16.560 Then you've got another theme, So bullying is one. Another 0:46:16.600 --> 0:46:20.719 theme is Ichiro's love of the Kaiju. I wonder what 0:46:20.760 --> 0:46:23.400 you thought about this. Does the movie take place in 0:46:23.440 --> 0:46:28.280 a world basically in the real world where monsters don't exist, 0:46:28.480 --> 0:46:33.000 but the children are familiar with the existing Godzilla movies, 0:46:34.080 --> 0:46:36.879 or does it take place in a world where the 0:46:36.960 --> 0:46:40.960 events of the previous Godzilla movies are known of as 0:46:41.120 --> 0:46:44.520 real events that have previously happened in the world. I 0:46:44.520 --> 0:46:47.560 couldn't tell which, but I think maybe it's the former, 0:46:47.640 --> 0:46:49.440 Like he's literally seen the films. 0:46:49.800 --> 0:46:52.080 I think, so if I had to choose one, I 0:46:52.120 --> 0:46:57.040 would go in that direction, just because basically, I mean, 0:46:57.320 --> 0:47:00.319 no particular thing leads me to think that they'll There 0:47:00.360 --> 0:47:03.960 is a part where we see a Kaiju action figure 0:47:04.080 --> 0:47:07.520 or doll, but I think we saw one in Hetera 0:47:07.640 --> 0:47:11.040 as well, So that's that alone is not an indicator. 0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:13.520 But I think overall, I get the feeling that, yeah, 0:47:13.520 --> 0:47:16.479 this is a world in which the monsters are only 0:47:16.600 --> 0:47:18.680 on TV and in the minds of children. 0:47:19.200 --> 0:47:23.239 So Itchiro is having monster paradolia, Like a car goes 0:47:23.280 --> 0:47:26.279 by and he's like, Oh, that car, the screeching, it 0:47:26.360 --> 0:47:28.799 sounds just like Manila. It goes key ki key. 0:47:30.600 --> 0:47:32.680 I don't think I ever heard Manila make a kiki 0:47:32.719 --> 0:47:35.360 ki sound, unless that's supposed to be the donkey sound. 0:47:35.719 --> 0:47:38.000 Maybe we're getting into that whole situation where we're not 0:47:38.120 --> 0:47:42.279 sure what or not. It just it varies what sound 0:47:42.280 --> 0:47:45.160 an animal makes based on the language in which you're 0:47:45.200 --> 0:47:49.000 describing it. So maybe donkeys go kiki ki in Japanese. 0:47:49.280 --> 0:47:52.760 Yeah, maybe I couldn't say okay. So that's another theme. 0:47:53.239 --> 0:47:56.480 Ichiro he get is bullied. He loves the monsters. But 0:47:56.600 --> 0:48:00.440 also a theme of this movie is loneliness, and I 0:48:00.480 --> 0:48:02.839 think it tackles that in a pretty head on way. 0:48:02.920 --> 0:48:06.960 Ichiro's family here is working class, and both of his 0:48:07.080 --> 0:48:10.400 parents work long hours to make ends meet, and he 0:48:10.480 --> 0:48:13.840 is often home alone after school fending for himself. So 0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:16.240 we see a scene where he's walking by the train 0:48:16.320 --> 0:48:20.000 tracks in this old, busted industrial landscape and a train 0:48:20.080 --> 0:48:22.600 starts going by, and the conductor in the front of 0:48:22.600 --> 0:48:25.480 the train or the engineer, I guess whatever. The guy 0:48:25.480 --> 0:48:27.160 in the front of the train is his dad, and 0:48:27.200 --> 0:48:30.160 his dad calls out, oh, hey, Chio, I'm working tonight. 0:48:30.239 --> 0:48:32.800 Be good till your mom gets home. And then actually, 0:48:32.800 --> 0:48:35.160 after this, we stick with Echiro's father for a little bit. 0:48:35.200 --> 0:48:37.360 We see him take a smoke break with his coworker, 0:48:37.520 --> 0:48:40.880 and we learn that the father wants to save up 0:48:41.000 --> 0:48:43.600 enough money that they can move away from the smog, 0:48:43.800 --> 0:48:45.640 move out to the country or to a place where 0:48:45.640 --> 0:48:48.600 the air is clean. So you see that he's working 0:48:48.640 --> 0:48:51.720 long hours too, I guess, try to get his family 0:48:51.760 --> 0:48:54.680 to this better place. But then also in the scene, 0:48:54.719 --> 0:48:57.719 we learn from his coworker who's reading a newspaper that 0:48:57.760 --> 0:48:59.840 there are a couple of bank robbers on the loose, 0:49:00.120 --> 0:49:02.920 leeing police with a suitcase full of money, and these 0:49:02.960 --> 0:49:05.799 are Chekhov's bank robbers. They will show up later, but 0:49:05.840 --> 0:49:08.440 we learned that they took fifty million yen, and you 0:49:08.480 --> 0:49:10.960 can just see Itchio's father dreaming about what he could 0:49:10.960 --> 0:49:14.040 do with money like that. Now we come back to bullying. 0:49:14.120 --> 0:49:19.600 There's another bullying scene where Ichiro and Sachiko are walking 0:49:19.640 --> 0:49:23.400 around and Ichiro finds a vacuum tube in the grass. 0:49:23.440 --> 0:49:25.200 I guess because this is an area that used to 0:49:25.200 --> 0:49:29.360 be like an electronics factory, and he finds it, and 0:49:29.400 --> 0:49:32.879 then the bullies come up on him and they take 0:49:32.920 --> 0:49:36.040 away his vacuum tube and they call him a baby, 0:49:36.200 --> 0:49:39.200 and they like mock him to his face. And for 0:49:39.239 --> 0:49:42.040 some reason, I've found something very heart wrenching about the 0:49:42.040 --> 0:49:45.880 theft of Ichiro's vacuum tube. I think it's because he 0:49:46.560 --> 0:49:48.440 found it. And this kind of hit me in a 0:49:48.480 --> 0:49:52.279 strong way because I have memories of being a little 0:49:52.360 --> 0:49:56.240 kid and finding a treasure of some kind just lying 0:49:56.280 --> 0:50:00.279 out on the ground somewhere. That's a powerfully nostalgic kind 0:50:00.280 --> 0:50:03.600 of memory. And I have one specific memory of something 0:50:03.719 --> 0:50:05.920 like this happening to me. And I was out at 0:50:05.920 --> 0:50:10.000 some event, I think, and I found a loose spool 0:50:10.080 --> 0:50:12.680 of tape from an audio cassette and I was like 0:50:12.800 --> 0:50:15.000 holding it and letting it blow in the wind, and 0:50:15.040 --> 0:50:17.040 then an older kid took it away from me and 0:50:17.120 --> 0:50:21.399 threw it over the edge of a bridge, and that, yeah, 0:50:21.520 --> 0:50:22.360 that really. 0:50:22.120 --> 0:50:22.640 Stuck with me. 0:50:22.800 --> 0:50:25.720 So so anyway, I felt the vacuum tube scene very hard. 0:50:26.200 --> 0:50:29.520 Yeah, this felt like a very authentic moment in this picture, Like, 0:50:29.680 --> 0:50:31.640 because I think we can all we all have memories 0:50:31.640 --> 0:50:33.480 like that where we find some sort of weird bit 0:50:33.520 --> 0:50:39.680 of discarded technology or orgistrate garbage, but it's fascinating and 0:50:39.719 --> 0:50:42.160 we want to want to keep it. And and then 0:50:42.200 --> 0:50:45.120 also the childhood insult of him being a baby, Like 0:50:45.200 --> 0:50:50.040 I definitely I don't have memories of this myself, but 0:50:50.160 --> 0:50:53.400 I've seen that watching my son grow up, Like there 0:50:53.480 --> 0:50:56.000 was a period where to call someone a baby was 0:50:56.040 --> 0:50:59.719 the was the biggest insult, to the point where he 0:50:59.719 --> 0:51:01.400 would call the cat a baby, you. 0:51:01.440 --> 0:51:04.600 Know, if he was mad at the cat sick burn. 0:51:05.160 --> 0:51:08.800 Yeah, Like it's it's clearly you know, it's clearly hurting Ichiro. 0:51:09.040 --> 0:51:12.319 But to hear this, but then there's also this kind 0:51:12.320 --> 0:51:15.440 of innocence to it, like these kids are so young, 0:51:16.160 --> 0:51:20.239 even their their cruelty has a certain innocence to it. 0:51:20.640 --> 0:51:21.040 Yeah. 0:51:21.160 --> 0:51:24.480 Yeah. But then one more element of Itchiro's daily life 0:51:24.520 --> 0:51:28.400 we learn about is his friendship with Shinpey, the toymaker. 0:51:29.000 --> 0:51:31.440 And so when when he's coming home, I think, I 0:51:31.440 --> 0:51:34.080 guess Shinpey is like maybe his neighbor. And so he 0:51:34.120 --> 0:51:37.520 comes home and sees him working on this this electronic device, 0:51:37.560 --> 0:51:40.160 the kiddie computer that shows people landing on the moon, 0:51:41.040 --> 0:51:43.560 and it's clear that you know, he's welcome hanging out 0:51:43.600 --> 0:51:45.960 in this guy's shop and they're friendly, and Shinpey is 0:51:46.200 --> 0:51:49.120 a good, you know, nurturing influence on this kid. But 0:51:49.320 --> 0:51:51.880 it's also funny because he makes this computer. He expects 0:51:52.120 --> 0:51:55.080 Ichio to be all impressed. But what Ichiro says is, Ah, 0:51:55.120 --> 0:51:57.960 the Moon's okay, but there's somewhere else I'd rather go 0:51:58.520 --> 0:52:03.239 Monster Island. And then he just starts listing all the monsters, 0:52:03.280 --> 0:52:05.799 and I was like, oh, this also made me. This 0:52:05.840 --> 0:52:08.520 seems authentic. Don't don't kids love to list all the 0:52:08.560 --> 0:52:10.520 monsters or list all the whatevers? 0:52:11.760 --> 0:52:12.000 Oh? 0:52:12.000 --> 0:52:15.040 God, they do. And I'm not going to be a hypocrite. 0:52:15.080 --> 0:52:17.640 I'm also gonna admit I love to list the monsters 0:52:17.719 --> 0:52:19.759 and I've never grown out of that. But yeah, like, 0:52:20.200 --> 0:52:23.880 my son will definitely list all the Pokemon, all the 0:52:23.960 --> 0:52:28.080 dungeons and dragons, dragon varieties, and I think that's great. 0:52:28.120 --> 0:52:28.719 I love it too. 0:52:28.800 --> 0:52:30.400 I love a good monster list. 0:52:30.600 --> 0:52:32.759 But I think we see one of the reasons that 0:52:32.840 --> 0:52:36.640 Ichio is so infatuated with the monsters. He talks about 0:52:36.640 --> 0:52:41.239 how they're all stronger than Gabberra, his bully, and He's like, 0:52:41.320 --> 0:52:43.560 you know, they don't have to worry about bullies. They 0:52:43.640 --> 0:52:46.120 can do what we what they want. They're free because 0:52:46.120 --> 0:52:50.759 they're strong. And then eventually we see Ichiro go back 0:52:50.800 --> 0:52:54.879 home and there's kind of a lonely snack scene where he, 0:52:54.960 --> 0:52:56.759 you know, his mom left out a snack for him. 0:52:56.800 --> 0:52:59.320 He has that. He watches some TV and he watches 0:52:59.400 --> 0:53:02.800 like The New where he learns about the bank robbers 0:53:02.840 --> 0:53:05.840 stealing the fifty million yen. He switches, I think, to 0:53:05.880 --> 0:53:08.600 a soap opera where the people are like saying, oh, 0:53:08.640 --> 0:53:11.320 I love you, and then he there's a really funny 0:53:11.320 --> 0:53:14.359 moment where he I can't remember the phrase he says 0:53:14.360 --> 0:53:17.000 in Japanese, but the translation is he just goes yuck. 0:53:17.520 --> 0:53:17.719 Yeah. 0:53:19.080 --> 0:53:21.719 But then it segues to him playing around with this 0:53:21.800 --> 0:53:24.960 like toy radio he's put together that he dreams like 0:53:25.000 --> 0:53:29.239 of calling Monster Island, which segues into a dream of 0:53:29.360 --> 0:53:33.400 him visiting Monster Island. And this is going to be 0:53:33.480 --> 0:53:35.040 one of the major themes for the rest of the 0:53:35.040 --> 0:53:39.520 movie is these recurring visits in dreams to Monster Island 0:53:39.520 --> 0:53:41.919 where all the monsters live, where we're going to see 0:53:41.960 --> 0:53:45.319 a lot of fights between monsters. So much of this 0:53:45.400 --> 0:53:47.320 is going to be footage from other movies, but I 0:53:47.360 --> 0:53:51.720 think some original stuff too. And this is where Ichiro 0:53:51.920 --> 0:53:55.160 meets Manila, the son of Godzilla, and they become friends 0:53:55.280 --> 0:53:57.560 because they have a lot in common. It turns out 0:53:57.920 --> 0:54:02.240 Manila is also being bullied I a monster on Monster Island, 0:54:02.440 --> 0:54:05.520 and that monster has the same name as Echio's bully. 0:54:05.560 --> 0:54:06.720 They're both called Gabbara. 0:54:08.400 --> 0:54:08.560 Oh. 0:54:08.600 --> 0:54:11.800 By the way, he initially dream travels to Monster Island 0:54:12.960 --> 0:54:16.560 via direct flight, which I thought was a marvelous dream sequence. Yes, 0:54:17.040 --> 0:54:20.000 I love how in these scenes with Manila he's he's 0:54:20.040 --> 0:54:22.200 also as He's like, hey, I hear you know Godzilla. 0:54:22.280 --> 0:54:23.919 Do you think you could introduce me to him? Because 0:54:23.920 --> 0:54:27.839 I'd love to climb on his back, And Manila's like, well, 0:54:27.880 --> 0:54:29.840 you know, I see, I'll see what Manila talks in this. 0:54:29.920 --> 0:54:32.600 By the way, yes, Manila says, well, I'll see what 0:54:32.640 --> 0:54:34.600 I can do. But you know, Godzilla, he didn't like 0:54:34.640 --> 0:54:36.960 me around all the time because he gets onto me 0:54:37.120 --> 0:54:40.640 for not being strong enough, for not standing up for 0:54:40.719 --> 0:54:45.320 myself enough. And of course that again mirrors the situation 0:54:45.480 --> 0:54:46.680 with each hero. 0:54:46.920 --> 0:54:48.880 Oh yeah, that's right, because we actually do see a 0:54:48.920 --> 0:54:53.520 scene where Ichio's father says, you know, he he feels 0:54:53.520 --> 0:54:55.319 for his son, but he wishes he would stand up 0:54:55.320 --> 0:55:07.399 for himself. So we're gonna get some some slams, some 0:55:07.440 --> 0:55:10.520 smackdowns on the island. I think we see Godzilla fighting 0:55:11.520 --> 0:55:13.799 Ebi Rah. I think the Ebrah Horror of the Deep, 0:55:13.800 --> 0:55:18.200 the shrimp crayfish monster. We see various fights take place, 0:55:18.280 --> 0:55:21.200 and in a way, Ichio kind of like watches and 0:55:21.280 --> 0:55:24.719 learns from them. But he also learns from watching Son 0:55:24.760 --> 0:55:29.080 of Godzilla like like morph up and try to fight 0:55:29.280 --> 0:55:34.680 against Gabrah. He like he like grows and he and 0:55:34.719 --> 0:55:38.719 they fight and Gabra always wins at first, but you 0:55:38.800 --> 0:55:40.640 kind of like pick up some clues along the way 0:55:40.680 --> 0:55:42.319 about how he might beat him later on. 0:55:42.680 --> 0:55:45.680 Now, Gabra is pretty interesting. He's he's again our our 0:55:45.880 --> 0:55:49.280 main kaiju antagonist, and he is original of this picture. 0:55:49.480 --> 0:55:52.440 So many of the other Kaiju we encounter are ourtest 0:55:52.440 --> 0:55:56.400 clips from other scenes or maybe reused puppets even in 0:55:56.680 --> 0:55:59.880 the films that they that they originally appeared in. But 0:56:00.040 --> 0:56:04.480 Gabra exists for this picture. This is his first picture 0:56:04.480 --> 0:56:08.200 where we see this costume, and I think he's pretty great. 0:56:08.239 --> 0:56:11.160 I've read that he's supposed to resemble a mutated frog 0:56:11.280 --> 0:56:15.400 or toad, but he winds up with more feline features 0:56:15.440 --> 0:56:17.760 somehow kind of looks like a green panther. 0:56:18.680 --> 0:56:20.320 He's like a lizard cat. 0:56:21.080 --> 0:56:24.880 Yeah, and I think these feelings of like cat similarities 0:56:24.920 --> 0:56:28.520 are also accentuated by he's green and scaly, but he 0:56:28.560 --> 0:56:31.360 has this shock of orange hair on the top of 0:56:31.400 --> 0:56:35.719 his head amid these various horns like this, this row 0:56:35.760 --> 0:56:39.760 of horns down his head as well, and I feel 0:56:39.760 --> 0:56:42.239 like the orange hair, the green skin, it kind of 0:56:42.280 --> 0:56:45.080 gives him a cartoon leprechaun. Look, you know what I mean? 0:56:45.400 --> 0:56:46.000 Yep, yep. 0:56:46.080 --> 0:56:48.520 Though I've of course that's not what they were going 0:56:48.560 --> 0:56:51.600 for here. I've read that what they were originally aiming 0:56:51.640 --> 0:56:54.560 for with this design was more of a something that 0:56:54.600 --> 0:56:57.080 alluded to the Japanese only, you know, kind of an 0:56:57.080 --> 0:57:01.640 ogre figure. And if you go to the wiki Zilla 0:57:02.120 --> 0:57:04.360 page for this monster, you can actually see some of 0:57:04.400 --> 0:57:08.200 the preliminary sketches the way they envision this creature. And yeah, 0:57:08.200 --> 0:57:10.640 I can definitely see a sense of the one here 0:57:11.280 --> 0:57:12.960 before it's realized in the suit. 0:57:13.640 --> 0:57:16.720 Oh, that almost kind of makes sense with so Gabra 0:57:16.840 --> 0:57:22.000 being like this bully who just waylays each hero while 0:57:22.000 --> 0:57:24.120 he's on the way home from school, like sits by 0:57:24.160 --> 0:57:27.160 the roadside and attacks him as he goes past. He's 0:57:27.240 --> 0:57:30.120 kind of like a bandit in a way, and that 0:57:30.480 --> 0:57:34.160 I think there's classically a little bit of overlap between 0:57:34.160 --> 0:57:37.480 the concepts of some ony and like banditry ideas. 0:57:38.160 --> 0:57:40.480 Yeah, yeah, And I think also there are often ideas 0:57:40.480 --> 0:57:44.400 of lightning with the ony, and indeed Gabra here has 0:57:44.480 --> 0:57:48.280 an electricity attack that he uses, but he doesn't have 0:57:48.280 --> 0:57:49.959 a breath weapon. I thought that was interesting. He doesn't 0:57:49.960 --> 0:57:53.200 seem to have a projectile weapon, which I think is 0:57:53.240 --> 0:57:56.400 an interesting choice because a lot of times in these 0:57:56.440 --> 0:57:59.920 movies you see some sort of like a ranged specialist kaiju, 0:58:00.480 --> 0:58:04.320 and that's generally the that's a weak point for Godzilla 0:58:04.560 --> 0:58:07.080 or for Gamera, whoever's facing such a Kaiju, even though 0:58:07.080 --> 0:58:10.640 Godzilla of course has an amazing breath weapon that he 0:58:10.640 --> 0:58:11.680 can use a range. 0:58:12.000 --> 0:58:15.400 Now, for all of the kind of like sweet elements 0:58:15.440 --> 0:58:17.520 of this movie, there are also some things that ring 0:58:17.640 --> 0:58:20.320 kind of weird. One of them is when we're seeing 0:58:20.320 --> 0:58:24.400 Godzilla training son of Godzilla here training Manila how to 0:58:24.600 --> 0:58:28.120 use his radiation breath. He's he does it by like 0:58:28.160 --> 0:58:31.000 stomping on his tail. He's like, oh yeah, I step 0:58:31.000 --> 0:58:33.440 on your tail. That makes you really shoot the radiation. 0:58:34.160 --> 0:58:36.200 And until then he can only kind of like blow 0:58:36.280 --> 0:58:39.200 these like rings of radiation that don't really do anything. 0:58:40.000 --> 0:58:43.600 Yeah, so I get like Godzilla's lesson here is that 0:58:44.120 --> 0:58:48.400 you must feel pain and and give in to your anger, 0:58:48.600 --> 0:58:50.920 Like he's basically giving him the dark side of the 0:58:50.960 --> 0:58:52.600 force spiel. 0:58:53.640 --> 0:58:58.160 You strike me down with all of your journey towards 0:58:58.240 --> 0:59:00.200 Monster Island will be complete. 0:59:01.880 --> 0:59:05.240 So again, there may be a generational divide on the 0:59:05.400 --> 0:59:09.360 message here, the parenting message of Godzilla. But I mean 0:59:09.400 --> 0:59:10.520 it's a music. 0:59:10.240 --> 0:59:13.040 In the picture, yes, I mean there are several things. 0:59:13.040 --> 0:59:16.880 There's also a real world thing where you know, there's 0:59:16.920 --> 0:59:20.919 a very nice message about giving eachiero confidence to stand 0:59:21.000 --> 0:59:23.040 up to his bullies. But I don't know if the 0:59:23.160 --> 0:59:25.560 exact way that he does that in the end is 0:59:26.040 --> 0:59:30.600 the best. But I think he kind of like fights them, 0:59:30.600 --> 0:59:34.240 but then he also at their goating, like pulls a 0:59:34.320 --> 0:59:36.520 mean pryank on a guy who's just trying to paint 0:59:36.520 --> 0:59:39.280 a sign and gets him covered in paint. I don't know. 0:59:39.360 --> 0:59:41.200 Oh yeah, and this was what the bullies were trying 0:59:41.200 --> 0:59:43.080 to get him to do earlier in the picture. They're like, hey, 0:59:43.320 --> 0:59:45.000 see that guy painting the sign on the top of 0:59:45.000 --> 0:59:47.400 the ladder, you should go blow the horn on his motorcycle. 0:59:47.480 --> 0:59:50.080 So he falls off the ladder and he's like, of course, 0:59:50.080 --> 0:59:51.400 I'm not going to do that. I'm a good kid, 0:59:51.600 --> 0:59:53.720 and they make fun of him, and then later he's like, 0:59:54.440 --> 0:59:56.760 I'm a brave kid. Now watching me go make that 0:59:56.800 --> 0:59:58.680 man fall off the ladder, and he does so. 0:59:59.280 --> 1:00:02.320 I think that's a little confused there. But there's another 1:00:02.360 --> 1:00:05.200 major plot line I don't think I'm going to go 1:00:05.200 --> 1:00:07.280 into great detail on unless there's anything about it you 1:00:07.360 --> 1:00:09.240 wanted to hit rob But a major part of the 1:00:09.280 --> 1:00:12.640 real world plot, apart from what's happening in the Dreams 1:00:12.680 --> 1:00:16.400 of Monster Island, is the developing story about the bank 1:00:16.480 --> 1:00:19.439 robbers with the fifty million yen who are hiding out 1:00:19.480 --> 1:00:21.880 in a nearby factory. I think it's near the place 1:00:21.880 --> 1:00:26.680 where Ichiro found the vacuum tube, and ultimately he is 1:00:26.800 --> 1:00:29.600 kidnapped by these bank robbers because we know Itchiro loves 1:00:29.640 --> 1:00:31.720 to like find and pick up treasures, and one of 1:00:31.720 --> 1:00:34.560 the treasures he finds and picks up is a driver's 1:00:34.600 --> 1:00:39.120 license dropped by one of the robbers, and uh, now 1:00:39.160 --> 1:00:41.320 he knows who they are, so they have to kidnap him, 1:00:41.760 --> 1:00:44.920 and then ultimately he has to outsmart them with tricks 1:00:44.960 --> 1:00:48.360 and traps, and after the robbers are caught, there's this 1:00:48.560 --> 1:00:51.560 very interesting scene where it's almost like the movie is 1:00:51.560 --> 1:00:54.960 telling us the moral of the story and like the 1:00:55.040 --> 1:00:58.280 press hail little Ichiro is a hero, and Ichiro gives 1:00:58.280 --> 1:01:02.280 credit for his heroism too, Manila to the monster from 1:01:02.320 --> 1:01:06.240 the Godzilla movies and uh and there. So there's this 1:01:06.320 --> 1:01:10.000 exchange where the toy maker his friend Shinpey, is hanging 1:01:10.080 --> 1:01:14.240 out there near all of the reporters and he explains 1:01:14.240 --> 1:01:16.600 to them. He says, he means Manila the monster. I 1:01:16.680 --> 1:01:20.320 think I understand. He's like a higher power. And one 1:01:20.360 --> 1:01:23.560 of the reporters asks for clarification. He says a higher power, 1:01:23.920 --> 1:01:27.640 and Shinpey says, that's right. Adults believe in gods, so 1:01:27.680 --> 1:01:31.160 why can't children have their own gods too, like Manila? 1:01:32.040 --> 1:01:34.800 And it's kind of a funny line, but oh, something 1:01:34.840 --> 1:01:35.800 stirred in me there. 1:01:36.800 --> 1:01:39.560 I absolutely agree. Yeah, this is this is one of 1:01:39.600 --> 1:01:42.840 my favorite parts of the picture really because I think 1:01:42.880 --> 1:01:45.520 it's it's rather insightful and accurate, and I think it's 1:01:45.520 --> 1:01:48.160 a thing that we've maybe touched on to some degree 1:01:48.200 --> 1:01:51.280 in our discussion of Godzilla on Weird House before, but 1:01:51.320 --> 1:01:55.280 here it's directly brought up in the picture. This idea 1:01:55.440 --> 1:01:59.640 that toy monsters an ultimately monster media in general, that 1:01:59.720 --> 1:02:03.560 these are icons that connect children in the natural world 1:02:03.840 --> 1:02:06.840 to the powerful realm of super beings. In this film 1:02:06.880 --> 1:02:10.040 localized on Monster Island, which one can easily compare to 1:02:10.080 --> 1:02:13.400 the various sacred mountains of various cultures around the world. 1:02:13.480 --> 1:02:16.800 So the monsters are strength and courage, they are the 1:02:16.880 --> 1:02:21.880 absolute personification or expression of emotion, and they have considerable 1:02:21.920 --> 1:02:26.000 power over the grown up human world while not being 1:02:26.040 --> 1:02:28.040 a part of that world. And of course we see 1:02:28.040 --> 1:02:30.400 a sequence in this where the humans come in jet 1:02:30.400 --> 1:02:33.439 planes to conquer Monster Island and Godzilla has to fight 1:02:33.480 --> 1:02:36.360 them off and destroy some some jet fighters. That sort 1:02:36.400 --> 1:02:38.520 of thing. I think that was maybe a scene from 1:02:38.520 --> 1:02:40.840 a previous picture. I'm not sure. It could kind of 1:02:40.880 --> 1:02:43.600 feel like filler and again checking off the boxes of 1:02:43.600 --> 1:02:46.040 what a monster movie should give you, but it also 1:02:46.120 --> 1:02:48.120 I think works in this sort of vision of what 1:02:48.440 --> 1:02:52.320 is what is the energy of the kaiju, and why 1:02:52.760 --> 1:02:55.120 is it so attractive to children. It's like it is 1:02:55.200 --> 1:02:58.920 big body energy incarnate, you know, and it is the 1:02:58.920 --> 1:03:02.560 expression of these emotions that there may be only beginning 1:03:02.600 --> 1:03:04.320 to understand at certain ages. 1:03:04.880 --> 1:03:08.400 I think that's all correct. And there was another angle 1:03:08.400 --> 1:03:10.320 in which I was thinking about this. Maybe this is 1:03:10.320 --> 1:03:12.800 too much of a reach, but it made me think 1:03:12.840 --> 1:03:15.000 about this is almost kind of painting a picture of 1:03:15.040 --> 1:03:18.520 a world highlighting the difference between like the gods of 1:03:18.600 --> 1:03:22.720 children and the gods of adults, which is where many 1:03:22.760 --> 1:03:28.720 adults might literally believe that the gods exist but don't 1:03:29.200 --> 1:03:33.800 take their lessons and their meaning to heart. Meanwhile, you 1:03:33.800 --> 1:03:39.520 can have children who can treat known fictional entities like 1:03:39.600 --> 1:03:43.720 the monsters of Godzilla like gods, and even though they 1:03:43.720 --> 1:03:48.000 don't literally believe they exist, they do take their meaning 1:03:48.160 --> 1:03:51.600 to heart. And so it's almost like a question of 1:03:51.640 --> 1:03:55.600 like adults taking their gods literally but not seriously, and 1:03:55.680 --> 1:03:59.040 children taking their gods seriously but not literally. 1:04:00.080 --> 1:04:02.120 Yeah, I mean it brings me back to another thing 1:04:02.120 --> 1:04:04.560 I think we've discussed in the show before, like this 1:04:04.560 --> 1:04:09.600 this space for mythology in our modern viewpoint, Like I 1:04:09.640 --> 1:04:14.080 don't think the world needs to be just truth and fiction. 1:04:14.320 --> 1:04:17.760 That it needs to be just the real and the unreal, 1:04:18.400 --> 1:04:22.680 you know, the difference between skeptical and fundamentalist viewpoints, Like 1:04:23.200 --> 1:04:25.560 I feel like there needs to be a room for mythology, 1:04:25.920 --> 1:04:29.080 and under that like a very loose version of mythology 1:04:29.080 --> 1:04:31.280 in which you have room for actual myths that have 1:04:31.360 --> 1:04:37.120 cultural resonance, but also fictional things, things like Godzilla, things 1:04:37.240 --> 1:04:42.600 like Star Wars, or any bit of media or imagination 1:04:42.680 --> 1:04:44.960 that ends up becoming meaningful to somebody. 1:04:45.200 --> 1:04:47.840 Yes, I think we should take Eachiro's attitude to heart 1:04:48.000 --> 1:04:53.960 right because he can find absolutely a raw core meaningfulness 1:04:53.480 --> 1:04:57.480 in his in his mythology without it being in fact 1:04:57.640 --> 1:05:00.560 true that Manila is a physical monster that exists in 1:05:00.600 --> 1:05:03.760 the world. Yeah, though, coming back to my question from earlier, 1:05:03.760 --> 1:05:06.000 I still don't know for sure whether the film is 1:05:06.040 --> 1:05:08.480 saying that he's just a character in a movie in 1:05:08.520 --> 1:05:11.040 the world of the film, or whether he was real. 1:05:11.400 --> 1:05:14.560 Not quite clear, but assuming it's the former, that it's 1:05:14.560 --> 1:05:15.320 a character in a. 1:05:15.280 --> 1:05:18.760 Movie, Yeah, Yeah, I like the ambiguity though in a 1:05:18.760 --> 1:05:21.840 way it works well with this kind of children's viewpoint 1:05:22.200 --> 1:05:25.240 of the world, a world in which yeah, I mean, 1:05:25.280 --> 1:05:28.360 maybe they are real. Maybe they are, it doesn't matter 1:05:28.360 --> 1:05:30.120 at the end because they're real to him. So this 1:05:30.240 --> 1:05:32.240 was a really fun one. I'm glad we did this one. 1:05:32.320 --> 1:05:35.480 I always have a certain amount of hesitation with Kaiju movies, 1:05:35.560 --> 1:05:39.960 just because you don't want to spend a lot of 1:05:39.960 --> 1:05:43.320 time on one that is just a monster suit film, 1:05:43.400 --> 1:05:44.760 Like there's so many. There are a lot of great 1:05:44.760 --> 1:05:46.560 monster suit films, so they've got to have something else 1:05:46.680 --> 1:05:49.400 going on in them to really be to really be 1:05:49.440 --> 1:05:53.840 worth talking about. And this film definitely had other things 1:05:53.880 --> 1:05:57.080 going for it besides some awesome monster battles. Well, I 1:05:57.080 --> 1:05:58.640 take that back. I wouldn't say the monster battles are 1:05:58.680 --> 1:06:01.040 awesome in this picture. Don't want this one just for 1:06:01.120 --> 1:06:04.440 the monster battles, but it provides a nice balance of things. 1:06:05.960 --> 1:06:07.880 Well, I agree, But I don't know. I might feel different. 1:06:08.360 --> 1:06:11.760 Maybe I'm just more gung ho about any any great 1:06:11.760 --> 1:06:12.880 big monster beat down. 1:06:13.280 --> 1:06:15.880 I didn't feel like Godzilla was ever in real danger 1:06:15.880 --> 1:06:18.200 in this one. I always knew he had this one handled. 1:06:19.320 --> 1:06:22.200 But it wasn't just Godzilla's battle. It was also Godzilla's 1:06:22.240 --> 1:06:26.840 son's battle. So there's a different, different dynamic going on here. 1:06:28.160 --> 1:06:29.880 All right, Well, we're going to go ahead and close 1:06:29.920 --> 1:06:31.680 this one out, but we'd love to hear from everyone 1:06:31.680 --> 1:06:34.960 out there, if you have thoughts on all Monsters Attack, 1:06:35.400 --> 1:06:38.280 if you have other favorite Kaiju movies that you would 1:06:38.360 --> 1:06:41.200 like to suggest for the future on Weird House Cinema, 1:06:41.240 --> 1:06:44.960 or just discuss in general. You know, we read listener 1:06:45.000 --> 1:06:48.680 mail usually on our listener Mail episodes on Mondays in 1:06:48.720 --> 1:06:50.560 the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed, so we're 1:06:50.560 --> 1:06:53.400 happy to discuss all of that. There a reminder that 1:06:53.440 --> 1:06:56.520 we're primarily a science podcast with Core episodes on Tuesdays 1:06:56.560 --> 1:07:00.560 and Thursdays, Monster Factor Artifact episode on win and then 1:07:00.600 --> 1:07:02.880 on Friday, we set aside most serious concerns to just 1:07:02.880 --> 1:07:05.720 talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema. And 1:07:05.760 --> 1:07:06.960 if you want to see a list of all the 1:07:06.960 --> 1:07:08.919 films we've done before, we can go to a couple 1:07:08.880 --> 1:07:11.000 of places. I blog about all these movies. At s 1:07:11.000 --> 1:07:13.680 Immuta music dot com. It's just a personal blog that 1:07:13.720 --> 1:07:17.320 I maintain that is mostly weird house stuff these days. 1:07:17.680 --> 1:07:20.440 And then if you go to letterbox dot com, it's 1:07:20.560 --> 1:07:22.840 l E T T e r box d dot com. 1:07:23.400 --> 1:07:25.960 That's a cool website where you can chronicle your own 1:07:26.200 --> 1:07:30.600 cinematic explorations and make lists and so forth. At ad Reviews, 1:07:30.800 --> 1:07:33.200 we have an account there. Our account is weird House, 1:07:33.520 --> 1:07:35.200 and we have a list there that has all the 1:07:35.240 --> 1:07:38.680 movies that we've discussed in order, and occasionally you'll get 1:07:38.720 --> 1:07:41.360 a glimpse ahead at what is about to come up 1:07:41.400 --> 1:07:41.760 for us. 1:07:42.000 --> 1:07:45.520 Huge thanks to our audio producer Jjposway. If you would 1:07:45.520 --> 1:07:47.480 like to get in touch with us with feedback on 1:07:47.560 --> 1:07:49.960 this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for 1:07:50.080 --> 1:07:52.640 the future, or just to say hello, you can email 1:07:52.760 --> 1:08:02.600 us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 1:08:02.800 --> 1:08:05.760 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 1:08:05.840 --> 1:08:09.680 more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:08:09.760 --> 1:08:11.560 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.