WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Gunhed 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:10.039 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:14.840 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.279 This is Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.360 Mech Day on Weird House Cinema. Rob. Is this our first? 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:21.919 No? 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.000 Wait what am I asking? I was gonna say? Is 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.000 this our first full on mech movie? But we did 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.360 Robot Jocks that's like an all time fave. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.040 Yeah, yeah, this is coming. This would be our second 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:39.200 mech film. It's gonna be what our second Japanese film? 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.800 And in a very broad sense, I guess it's like 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:45.919 what our second cyberpunk film. 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.120 I guess it depends on what you count as cyberpunk. 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.519 So today we're going to be looking at the nineteen 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:56.400 eighty nine Japanese cyberpunk movie gun Head aka gun Hato 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.280 and gun Head. I know what you're thinking. Is that 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.400 spelled No, it is spelled with an hed instead of 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.280 an hcha D like that. Isn't there a band that's 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.559 called like head P or something. I don't know anything 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:11.200 about that band. I remember them from when I was 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:16.000 in high school and they also spell it CHD. No comment, 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.399 there nothing interesting about I. 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.280 Have nothing to add on that I don't know anything 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.360 about p head, though a gunhead with the AGD spelling 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:25.760 would be a great name for a band. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.240 It would be, Actually, I was just thinking that. Not 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.280 only that, the logo for the movie, where the title 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.319 is rendered in the full on screen font, looks like 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.120 a band logo, looks like the van Halen logo or something. 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.760 Yeah, now some of you might be wondering, especially if 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.560 you're going to this episode's sight unseen, Is this about 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.880 a Is this a Japanese cyberpunk film about a guy 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.000 with a gun for a head? No, even though that 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.800 would be a perfect perfect plot device for a Japanese 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:54.760 cyberpunk film. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.920 Sure, Like a guy who gets some kind of virus 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.320 inside him that causes his head to fu is with 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.680 a gun and it's all about like his identity changing 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.040 as his mind is taken over by the gun mind. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.320 Yeah, that would be totally an expected plot device. In fact, 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.680 it may exist. But no, gunhead stands for something. 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.320 That's right, it's your classic acronym. This stands for rob. 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:19.160 You dug this up, so I have to trust you 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.560 on this one, But I think you're correct. It stands 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.399 for gun unit of heavy eliminate device. 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.760 Yeah, it's one of those kind of cheap acronyms where 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.360 they get two letters from the second word. So if 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.200 we were being really strict about it, it would be 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.959 goo head instead of gunhead. But you know, gunhead sounds cooler. 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.320 Yeah. Well, it's like those government bills that are called 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.040 like the Opportunity Act or something. An opportunity is an acronym, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.560 and they're grabbing three letters from here and one letter 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:50.640 from there in the middle of a word. It's just 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.839 all over the place. They're back engineering the actual name 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:55.800 from the acronym. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.040 So again, this is a nineteen eighty nine film. And 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.080 for those of you out there who you know follow 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.240 like Japanese media, maybe a little bit enough to just 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.600 know to have picked up on the title at times, 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.520 you may have noticed that there is a manga. There 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.519 are two different video games, nineteen eighty nine's gun Head 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.160 for PC and Gunhead The New Battle for NES. It 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.400 might make you wonder, like what came first? Is this 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.360 a movie based on a video game? Is it a 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.840 movie based on a manga, which is certainly something you 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.600 see a lot of these days, But no, this film 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.799 is original IP and these are all things that were 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:31.720 adapted from it. 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.640 God, I love a sci fi movie that's original. IP, 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:36.640 it's a beautiful Unicorn. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.120 Yeah, I mean this, yes, especially today, but yeah, this 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.920 was a this was this was an original IP and Joe. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.160 You even found us some screenshots from these games. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:50.880 Oh, that's right. So I found that. I don't know 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.040 if it was ever released for the Nees in the 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.880 United States or internationally, but it was released for the 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.280 Famicom in Japan, I think, which was the Leave, the 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:01.960 Japanese equivalent of the Nes. 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.680 Yeah, that's my rough understanding. I'm not really an expert 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:06.000 on that kind of stuff, but. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.120 At least the version I found as a Famicom game 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.320 called Gunhead. I guess this was Gunhead the New Battle 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.240 or something, but it looks like it is a combination 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.920 of like a real time or turn based strategy game 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.280 where you would be like managing Gunhead units, which are 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.320 these big battle robots as they move around into positions 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.960 on an island. So you know, it'd be like Warcraft 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.960 or StarCraft or something. There's a map and you're managing units, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.599 and then I think when the units meet, it goes 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.760 into a different type of gameplay where it's like a 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.640 side view real time battle where you're shooting at each 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:41.400 other and stuff. 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.239 Yeah, with some kind of amusing looking sprites. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.400 I like these now, based on what I saw within 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.479 the game, this would not be based within the same 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.599 timeline as the movie itself. It looks like this would 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.400 be the prequel to the movie. I think this would 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.479 take place during the Robot War that is the background 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.680 we're told about in the opening text crawl of the movie. Though. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.000 I also read on the internet that the Gunhead I 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.039 don't know that this is true because I really don't 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.400 see much resemblance here, but I at least read the 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:13.800 claim that there is a Turbographics sixteen game called Blazing 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.440 Lasers that was also inspired by Gunhead. I looked it up. 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.479 It's one of these vertical scrolling space shoot them up 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.839 games I guess, kind of like Space Invaders, but where 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.880 you're like moving quickly down across the background. 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:26.320 Yeah. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.200 I'm glancing at footage from it now, and yeah, I 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.479 don't see a lot of shared DNA, but maybe that's 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:33.760 just me. 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:36.680 I never had this game, but I did have a 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.040 Turbographics sixteen. I had one of those weird off brand 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.120 consoles that I remember playing games like Bonk's Adventure, which 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.279 was a game where you play a think a baby 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.119 caveman with a giant head and you would hit people 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:50.760 with your head. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.560 So this is a system that didn't have Mario, didn't 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.320 have Sonic, but it had Bonk the baby Caveman. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.560 It had Bonk and perhaps dubious gunhead rip off ip okay. 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.360 I was trying to write the one line elevator pitch 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.000 for this movie, and I was just failing. So that 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.120 must be reflected in my actual pitch, which is, in 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.640 the future, armored mechs will be so advanced that humans 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.560 do not have the slightest chance to understand what they're doing. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.440 Yeah, yeah, this, I have to add the caveat here. 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.920 So first of all, I'm not the initial intended audience 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.000 for this. You know, this was released largely in Japan 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:33.000 in nineteen eighty nine, and the version I watched, obviously 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.960 I'm watching it for the first time, you know, sometime later, 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.120 decades later, I'm watching it dubbed. And of course anytime 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.200 something has been dubbed, you know, there are some great 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.119 dubs out there, there are some not so great dubs 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.640 out there. So it's possible that that contributed to me 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.080 maybe not understanding what was going on in the film 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.719 most of the time. So I found myself watching the 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.200 film while also checking regularly checking in on the Wikipedia 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.239 plot summary for the film, which didn't really This didn't 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:06.000 make the film like a poor movie VI going experience. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.880 It just kind of made it more. It's like reading 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.880 a historical text where you need to keep checking in 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:13.840 to see what's being discussed, like, all right, what are 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:15.920 they talking about here? What's supposed to be going on here? 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.960 Because if I just had to go on the movie itself, 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.440 I would have been lost very quickly. 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.760 I would argue that this was only really a problem 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.800 for us because we're having to record a podcast about it. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.280 I think if I had just been watching this movie, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.480 I would not have looked up anything. I would not 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.040 have understood a lot of what was happening on screen, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.240 and I would have loved the experience. 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.200 Nevertheless, this is a goot. 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.120 Like in terms of just recommending this movie, I highly 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.760 recommend this movie to play in the background with other 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.560 music on top of it. As we'll get into, the 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.200 visuals in this are wonderful. The visual world of this 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.560 movie is very rich. But yeah, if you're watching it 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.920 for a podcast intending to speak coherently about what happened 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.000 in it. That's where our cross referencing comes in. 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.400 Actually, when I was reading about this movie before we 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.240 decided to watch it, one of the most common things 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.800 I saw in like user reviews all over the internet 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.280 and stuff, was I don't know what happened in this movie, 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:16.080 but I loved it. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:17.640 Yeah. 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:19.640 Anyway, let's hit some trailer audio. 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:37.160 Oh my god, look at this junk. 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:52.840 Give it up, Brooklyn ten seconds to contacts cross fire. 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:57.760 Gun Head. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.440 Now in the English language trailer. I don't know if 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.400 this is the part we just got clipped, but one 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.839 of my favorite things about it was that it was 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.719 it had the announcer, you know, the same guy who 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:17.920 does the Inner World part, also reading quotes about the 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.720 movie from critics. So it's this Duke nukeomb voiceover saying 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.360 things like totally delivers the goods. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.760 Yeah, though, I have to say it did sound like 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.160 a third rate in a world narrator, you know, like 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.720 it's not the narrator who does the big cinematic trailers. 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:38.160 This is the narrator type of narrator that does trailers 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.240 that you watch on other DVDs that come out in 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.720 the mid nineties, right, yes, yes. 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.599 Well, actually no, I stand by my original comparison. He 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.000 sounds like Duke nukemb I don't know who did that voice, 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:50.720 but that was very close for me. 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:52.480 Yeah. 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.800 Well, let's start where we normally start. Let's talk about 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.760 the people of note the connections here. The first connection 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.360 to make here though, is not really you know, individual 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.079 human specific. It has to do with the production company 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:09.520 because this was a co production between Nippon Sunrise as 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.120 well as a number of a number of other companies 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.440 like Bandai the toy Company was involved. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.000 There were like seven companies listed yeah on the yeah. 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.160 But the big one, the one that instantly gets our 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:24.040 attention is of course Toho the best. Yeah, legendary film studio, 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:30.400 most famous, I guess for many listeners for Godzilla, but 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.320 also for various other films, such as especially the early 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:37.080 films of Kira Kurosawa. But it was founded in nineteen 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:42.800 thirty two as the Tokyo Takarzuka Theater Company. It controlled 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.680 traditional theaters throughout Tokyo, and as films began coming in 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.319 from overseas, they got in on the production as well. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.800 Every time I see the Toho logo at the beginning 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.760 of the movie, I have a Pavlovian reaction to it 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.720 because I know I'm about to watch something I adore. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.360 I know Toho must put out bad movies too, but 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.559 I guess somehow the bad ones just never make it 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.640 to me in my personal brain archives. It's either going 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.559 to be like a lovely Kaiju meet Slam or a 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.320 Kurosawa masterpiece, or something else of godly merit. 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:16.280 Yeah. Yeah. 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.040 If you're not like a regular consumer of Japanese cinema, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.400 then you you've seen a Toho film. It's probably a 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:26.120 Godzilla film or a Kurosawa film, and in different ways 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.120 the great results. So anyway, like I was saying, they 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.120 started out as being just a theater company, but then 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.160 they got into producing films as well. Their first film 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.959 was nineteen thirty five's Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts. This 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.760 was a drama, and apparently drama in historical pictures pretty 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.640 much defined the first couple of decades of Toho films, 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.839 which included the early films of legendary director A. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:50.800 Kira Kurosawa. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.760 Now during the post war period, specifically in nineteen fifty four, 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.880 things got really interesting, so the company nearly bankrupt itself, 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:03.920 putting out first Kisawa's latest historical film and a giant 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.640 monster movie. These were, respectively, the Seven Samurai and Godzilla 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.200 films that would become major box office successes and lead 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.040 to a string of hits from both Karrosawa and The 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:16.079 King of Monsters. 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:20.120 Can you believe that Seven Samurai and Godzilla came out 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.040 in the same year from the same company, I mean, 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:24.200 that is a good year. 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.960 Yeah, and they were taking a risk doing it. Yeah. 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.400 So Godzilla was to Hoos's first sci fi or horror film, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.640 depending on how you look at it. We were discussing 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.080 this off Mike beforehand about just how dark that first 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:37.080 Godzilla film is. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.680 Yeah. If in fact, if you've never watched it, you 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.480 should definitely go back and watch the original fifty four 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.880 Godzilla because it is. It is very unlike the silly 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.920 monster romps that would come in decades following, Like, the 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:57.079 first Godzilla movie is a dark, bleak, scary adventure. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.960 Yeah, but it was a monster movie. Was a success. 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.800 So after this, Toho continued to bust out stuff. In fact, 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.040 that very same year they busted out Invisible Man in 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.680 fifty four, and then Godzilla was back in fifty five 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.320 for the first of just endless sequels. Like even as 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:18.480 we're recording this, Godzilla is debuting in a new motion picture, 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.680 so he absolutely cannot be stopped, and he gets bigger 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:23.360 every time. 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:25.800 If you've never heard me advocate it before, one of 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.400 the recent movies I have loved the most is shin Godzilla. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.959 One of it. It's not part of the recent I 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.319 don't know what you'd call it, like the American partnership 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.520 or the international Godzilla pictures that have lots of American 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.040 actors and stuff in them. This was a Japanese production. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.000 I think it came out in like twenty fifteen or 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.079 sixteen something like that. Does that sound right? Yeah? It 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.320 is just magical. It's a movie that is surprisingly focused 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:55.040 on government bureaucracy in a strangely compelling way, and it's 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.640 got great music, great monster effects. I just love it. 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.960 Yeah, it's so absorbing. I remember I watched it in 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:05.640 its entirety in mute with subtitles on an airplane one. 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:06.800 So it was one of those where I was listening 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.240 to music and I was like, Ah, another Godzola movie. 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:10.800 Let me give it a preview. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:12.960 I'm just curious, and then I started watching it and 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.240 I just watched the whole thing just sucks you in. 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.640 Have you still not seen it with the original soundtrack? 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.920 No, I haven't. I have no idea what it sounds like. 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.480 Oh oh, oh, you've got rob I think you would 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.720 love the soundtrack to it. It's got fantastic music, a 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:31.200 great kind of nervous string theme. It's just wonderful, I 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.800 guess I should say. By the way, directed by Hideakiano 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:35.360 and Shinji Higuchi. 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:35.880 Cool. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:37.720 Yeah, I need to come back to it for sure, 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.720 real real quick. About some other Toho films of note, 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:43.720 one of my favorites that we may have to come 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.800 back to in Weird Else Cinema is nineteen sixty three's Matango, 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:51.040 which is about a haunted island of mushroom people. It's 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.560 really kind of grizzly with people being infected by spores 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.000 and slowly mutating in the mushroom people. 0:14:58.040 --> 0:14:59.360 It's pretty errithic stuff. 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:00.920 Oh, that's definitely on the list. 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:03.720 And then of course one that I know has we 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.160 have on the list already, and we've actually heard from 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.920 some listeners about Toho also put out the nineteen seventy 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:10.040 seven Film. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.080 House Best Haunted House film of all time. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:17.120 Now, speaking of Bandai, yes, there have been and are 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:22.280 models and toys of Gunhead, which is the central robot 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.720 slash mac slash tank in this film. And you know, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.480 I'm assuming they must have put some I'm really assuming 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.120 they put some sort of toy out back in the day. 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.840 I couldn't find evidence of it, but I was looking around, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.840 and you can still get a high quality model kit 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.960 of Gunhead. There's a one thirty fifth scale model that 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:44.560 was released in twenty twelve from Codo Bokeya, and it 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.200 is a pricey kit, especially imported in out of production, 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.520 but it's said to be really fun. It's a three 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:55.400 hundred part kit to build, and it looks at Japan 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.920 has a long had a very strong scale model culture. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.960 And I've never built a a kit from this company, 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:06.080 but I understand that they specialize in both traditional kits 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.120 and also pre painted collectible so stuff that includes major 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.280 brands like Star Wars and even things like Texas Chainsaw, 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:15.400 Massacre and others. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.640 I feel like this time in the late eighties here 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:23.680 was a really high point for toy etic movie and 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.480 TV development, unless I'm wrong. Like this was also the 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.680 era of Transformers, right, which was a very much a 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.120 toy driven media property, and there were others like it. 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:35.680 Yeah, so I can only assume a film like this 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.720 a major production. You would have had Gunhead toys back 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:42.880 in the day. I mean they made video game I'm 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:44.480 a video game of it for crying out loud, So 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:45.520 there had to have been toys. 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.080 So all of the existing Gunhead games they look like 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.000 sort of high budget graphical affairs. But what if there 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.200 was a gun Head text adventure like Zork, Right, it 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.520 would be pretty good. You say, you say go East 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.680 and then it says you were absorbed by a biodroid. 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.520 All right, let's talk about some of the actual humans 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.680 involved in this baby. First of all, let's talk about 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.480 director co writer Masato Herada born in nineteen forty nine. 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.399 As a director, it looks like most of his directorial 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.119 credits are for the sort of non genre jama film 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.280 that tends to be far more successful domestically in Japan, 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.479 as well as some award winning historical dramas. As an actor, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.720 though this is fascinating. He only has two credits on IMDb, 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.200 but they're both Wes films that Western viewers are likely 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.520 to be familiar with. So he had a villain role 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.800 in both two thousand and threes The Last Samurai starring 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.240 Tom Cruise, and two thousand and six is Fearless starring 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:43.679 Jet Lee. 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.960 Interesting why is that so often such a pleasing turn 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.879 when somebody who is primarily a film director later in 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:56.480 their careers starts taking acting roles, especially as villains. David 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.120 Cronenberg did out. I remember he plays a really creepy 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.840 serial killer in that movie Night Breed, and he's had 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.639 some other acting roles. Of course, Werner hertzog right for 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:08.520 some reason later in his career, I was like, yeah, 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:09.520 I'll play some villains. 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.959 Yeah, I mean like with Cronenberg for example. And granted 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:18.160 he's a much older director at this stage, he's been 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.400 far more active as an actor recently than a director. 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:23.280 He's even shown up on one of the new Star 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:24.080 Trek shows. 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.000 Oh I didn't know that, but I wondered if you 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.560 noticed this, Rob When I was watching the opening credits 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.560 to Gunhead, the director was listed as Alan Smithy. Do 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.920 you know anything about what the story is here? 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:36.760 I do not. 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.320 Of course, that tends to mean that there was something 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:42.520 bad happened, he got out of control. 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:47.080 Yeah, Alan Smithy Films. I'm not an expert on the industry. 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.679 My understanding is that happens when the director has gotten 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.480 their name removed from the film, or when the production 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.119 company wanted their name removed. I mean, I guess it 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.240 indicates some kind of dissatisfaction or dispute. 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.600 Yeah, I don't know. Maybe at least it didn't say 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:03.840 directed by Chiron five. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:05.760 Didn't you know? Something went really bad? 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:06.520 Right? 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:09.359 But yeah, I don't know the full story on that. 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:10.800 Now. 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.919 Another interesting thing about this film that pops up is 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.760 when you look at the at the writing credits. Again, 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.240 Herada also has a co writing credit. But then there's 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.760 this guy James Bannon on there credited as co writer 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:26.600 and he's written a couple of other things. But when 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:28.240 you look him up on IMDb, you see that he's 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.520 he's mostly involved in the industry for his work as 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:33.000 part of an ad R loop group. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.720 Ah. Now that led me to suspect that his writing 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.400 credit could have had something to do with writing English 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.399 lines or possibly writing for the English dub. 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:42.840 That. 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.600 Yeah, and that's what I thought, Well, that sounds sounds 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.560 pretty reasonable. But then I started looking around on IMDb 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.320 more and the truth seems to be that he won 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.879 a Godzilla screenplay contest hosted by Toho, and in this 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.439 original screenplay, Godzilla would fight a giant robot, and this 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.040 ended up no not being used, but various elements of 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.720 his work eventually became Gunhead. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.520 Now, I guess this would post date Godzilla Versus Mecha Godzilla, Right, yeah, yeah, 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.320 so Godzilla has already fought a giant robot at this point, 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:14.560 but I guess you can have different kinds of giant robots. 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:16.879 Yeah, I mean, Godzilla has done everything at this point, 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.560 so it's just coming up with new ways to have 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:21.399 him do the same thing over and over again. 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.119 Well, thank you, James Bannon for whatever role your giant 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.000 robot idea played in inspiring this wonderful film. 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:33.040 All right, let's talk about the cast. Masahiro Takashima plays 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.920 the character Brooklyn. He was born in nineteen sixty five. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.120 This was only his fourth acting credit, but he's had 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.800 a long career on Japanese TV and in Japanese film, 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:47.760 including an appearance in Godzilla Versus Destroyer in nineteen ninety five. 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:50.239 We'll talk more about Brooklyn as we go here. But 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.120