WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Gunhed 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.119 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob Lamba. 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:10.719 Today we have one for you that originally published four 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.320 to twenty twenty one. We're going to be talking about 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:19.920 the nineteen eighty nine Japanese sci fi film Gunhead. This's 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.600 a lot of fun. You get into some nice cyberpunk 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.599 territory with this one. So let's dive right in. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:35.120 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.320 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.720 And I'm Joe McCormick and it's Mech Day on Weird 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.839 House Cinema. Rob. Is this our first No, wait what 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.680 am I asking? I was gonna say, is this our 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.440 first full on mech movie? But we did Robot Jocks 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:55.680 that's like an all time fave. 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.320 Yeah, yeah, this is coming. This would be our second 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:05.560 mech film. It's going to be what our second Japanese film, 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.160 And in a very broad sense, I guess it's like 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.240 what our second cyberpunk film. 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.479 I guess it depends on what you count as cyberpunk. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.880 So today we're going to be looking at the nineteen 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:22.319 eighty nine Japanese cyberpunk movie gun head aka gun Hato 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.600 and gun head. I know what you're thinking. Is that 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:26.479 spelled right? 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:26.720 No? 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.319 It is spelled with an hed instead of an hga 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.080 D like that. Isn't there a band that's called like 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.520 head p or something. I don't know anything about that band. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:38.240 I remember them from when I was in high school 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.960 and they also spell it AGD. No comment, There nothing 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:44.080 interesting about that. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.360 I have nothing to add on that. I don't know 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.680 anything about p head though Gunhead with the AGD spelling 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:52.120 would be a great name for a band. 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.560 It would be. Actually, I was just thinking that. Not 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.640 only that, the logo for the movie, where the title 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.680 is rendered in the full on screen fall looks like 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:02.880 a band logo. It looks like the Van Halen logo 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:03.440 or something. 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.120 Yeah. Now, some of you might be wondering, especially if 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.920 you're going to this episode's sight unseen? Is this about 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.240 a This is a Japanese cyberpunk film about a guy 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.359 with a gun for a head. No, even though that 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:20.160 would be a perfect perfect plot device for a Japanese 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:21.079 cyberpunk film. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.280 Sure, like a guy who gets some kind of virus 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.120 inside him that causes his head to fuse with a gun, 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.320 and it's all about like his identity changing as his 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.400 mind is taken over by the gun mind. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.359 Yeah, that would that would be totally an expected plot device. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.680 In fact, it may exist. But no, gunhead stands for something. 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.680 That's right, it's your classic acronym. This stands for rob. 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:45.520 You dug this up, so I have to trust you 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.920 on this one, but I think you're correct. It stands 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.720 for gun unit of heavy eliminate device. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.320 Yeah. It's one of one of those kind of cheap 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.239 acronyms where they they get two letters from the second word, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.200 So if we were being really strict about it, it 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.680 would be goohead instead of gunhead. But you know, gunhead 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:05.320 sounds cooler. 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.680 Yeah. Well, it's like those government bills that are called 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.359 like the Opportunity Act or something. An opportunity is an acronym, 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.920 and they're grabbing three letters from here and one letter 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.000 from there in the middle of a word. It's just 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:21.200 all over the place. They're back engineering the actual name 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:22.280 from the acronym. 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:26.280 So again, this is a nineteen eighty nine film, And 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.440 for those of you out there who you know follow 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.600 like Japanese media, maybe a little bit enough to just 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.000 know to have picked up on the title at times. 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:36.920 You may have noticed that there is a manga. There 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.880 are two different video games, nineteen eighty nine's gun Head 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.520 for PC and Gunhead The New Battle for NES. It 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.760 might make you wonder, like what came first? Is this 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:47.720 a movie based on a video game? Is it a 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.200 movie based on a manga, which is certainly something you 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.960 see a lot of these days. But no, this film 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.160 is original IP and these are all things that were 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:58.080 adapted from it. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.000 God, I love a sci fi movie that's original IP. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.000 It's a beautiful unicorn. 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.440 Yeah, I mean is this yeah? Especially today? But yeah, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.280 this was this was This was an original IP and Joe. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.480 You even found us some screenshots from these games. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.240 Oh, that's right. So I found that. I don't know 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.400 if it was ever released for the Nees in the 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.240 United States or internationally, but it was released for the 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.480 Famicom in Japan, I think, which was the I believe 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.200 the Japanese equivalent of The Nees. 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.000 Yeah, that's my rough understanding. I'm not really an expert 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:32.400 on that kind of stuff. 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.120 But at least the version I found is a Famicom 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.280 game called Gunhead. I guess this was Gunhead the New 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.840 Battle or something, but it looks like it is a 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:45.000 combination of like a real time or turn based strategy 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.520 game where you would be like managing Gunhead units, which 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.880 are these big battle robots as they move around into 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.599 positions on an island. So you know, it'd be like 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.480 Warcraft or StarCraft or something. There's a map in you're 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.560 managing units, and then I think when the unit it's meat, 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.880 it goes into a different type of gameplay where it's 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.680 like a side view real time battle where you're shooting 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:07.760 at each other and stuff. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.560 Yeah, with some kind of amusing looking sprites. 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.760 I like these now, based on what I saw within 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.840 the game, this would not be based within the same 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:17.960 timeline as the movie itself. It looks like this would 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.760 be the prequel to the movie. I think this would 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.839 take place during the Robot War that is the background 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.400 we're told about in the opening text crawl of the movie. 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.080 Though I also read on the internet that the Gunhead 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.160 I don't know that this is true because I really 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.680 don't see much resemblance here, but I at least read 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.520 the claim that there is a turbographic sixteen game called 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.480 Blazing Lasers that was also inspired by Gunhead. I looked 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.520 it up. It's one of these vertical scrolling space shoot 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.880 them up games. I guess, kind of like Space Invaders, 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.240 but where you're like moving quickly down across a background. 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.000 Yeah, I'm glancing at footage from it now, and yeah, 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.560 I don't see a lot of shared DNA, but maybe 0:05:59.560 --> 0:05:59.920 that's just. 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.039 I never had this game, but I did have a 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.400 Turbographic sixteen. I had one of those weird off brand 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.480 consoles that I remember playing games like Bonk's Adventure, which 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.640 was a game where you play a think a baby 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.479 caveman with a giant head and you would hit people 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:17.119 with your head. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.920 So this is a system that didn't have Mario, didn't 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.680 have Sonic, but it had Bonk the Baby Caveman. 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:27.000 It had Bonk and perhaps dubious gunhead ripoff ip. 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:27.880 Okay. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:30.720 I was trying to write the one line elevator pitch 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:32.359 for this movie, and I was just failing. So that 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.480 must be reflected in my actual pitch, which is, in 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.000 the future armored mechs will be so advanced that humans 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.919 do not have the slightest chance to understand what they're doing. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.800 Yeah, yeah, this, I have to add the caveat here. 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:51.279 So first of all, I'm not the initial intended audience 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.359 for this. You know, this was released largely in Japan 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:59.360 in nineteen eighty nine, and the version I watched, obviously 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.279 I'm watching it for the first time, you know, sometime later, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.520 decades later, I'm watching it dubbed. And of course anytime 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.200 something has been dubbed, there are some great dubs out there, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.240 there are some not so great dubs out there. So 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.120 it's possible that that contributed to me maybe not understanding 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.480 what was going on in the film most of the time. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.480 So I found myself watching the film while also checking 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.160 regularly checking in on the Wikipedia plot summary for the film, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.320 which didn't really This didn't make the film like a 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.200 poor movie vig going experience. It just kind of made 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.520 it more It's like reading reading a historical text, where 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.640 you need to keep checking in to see what's being discussed, like, 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.480 all right, what are they talking about here? What's supposed 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.880 to be going on here? Because if I just had 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.600 to go on the movie itself, I would have been 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:48.800 lost very quickly. 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.120 I would argue that this was only really a problem 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.120 for us because we're having to record a podcast about it. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:57.640 I think if I had just been watching this movie, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.840 I would not have looked up anything. I would not 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.680 understood a lot of what was happening on screen, and 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.560 I would have loved the experience. Nevertheless, this is a goot. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.480 Like, in terms of just recommending this movie, I highly 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.120 recommend this movie to play in the background with other 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.840 music on top of it. Like, as we'll get into, 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.440 the visuals in this are wonderful. The visual world of 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.760 this movie is very rich. But yeah, if you're watching 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.760 it for a podcast intending to speak coherently about what 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.360 happened in it, that's where our cross referencing comes in. 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:32.760 Actually, when I was reading about this movie before we 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.600 decided to watch it, one of the most common things 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.160 I saw in like user reviews all over the internet 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.640 and stuff was I don't know what happened in this movie, 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:42.400 but I loved it. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.000 Yeah. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:56.080 Anyway, let's hit some trailer audio. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:09.600 My god, look at this junk. Give it up, Brooklyn. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:15.000 All the ten seconds to contact. 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.000 Of the two Marcus cross fire. 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.960 Gun head. 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.800 Now in the English language trailer. I don't know if 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:33.760 this is the part we just got clipped, but one 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.199 of my favorite things about it was that it was 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.040 it had the announcer, you know, the same guy who 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:44.280 does the inner World part also reading quotes about the 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.079 movie from critics. So it's this Duke newcom voiceover saying 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.680 things like totally delivers the goods. 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.080 Yeah, though I have to say it did sound like 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.200 like a third rate in a world narrator, you know, 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.000 like it's not the narrator who does the big cinematic trailers. 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.520 This is the narrator type of narrator that does trailers 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.600 that you watch on other DVDs that come out in 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:08.800 the mid nineties. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.880 Right, yes, yes, well, actually no, I stand by my 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.520 original comparison. He sounds like Duke Nukem. I don't know 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.040 who did that voice, but that was very close for me. 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.720 Yeah. Well, let's start where we normally start. Let's talk 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.760 about the people of note the connections here. The first 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.120 connection to make here though, is not really you know, 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.960 individual human specific. It has to do with the production 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:35.600 company because this was a co production between Nippon Sunrise 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.040 as well as a number of a number of other 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.760 companies like Bandai, the toy company was involved. 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.120 There were like seven companies listed yeah on the. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.400 Yeah, but the big one, the one that instantly gets 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.599 our attention, is of course Toho. The best yeah, legendary 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:56.240 film studio, most famous, I guess for many listeners for Godzilla, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.400 but also for various other films, such as especially the 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.000 early films of Kira Kurosawa. But it was founded in 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:08.640 nineteen thirty two as the Tokyo Takarzuka Theater Company. It 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.959 controlled traditional theaters throughout Tokyo, and as films began coming 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.679 in from overseas, they got in on the production as well. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.200 Every time I see the Toho logo at the beginning 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.120 of the movie, I have a Pavlovian reaction to it 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.080 because I know I'm about to watch something I adore. 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.720 I know Toho must put out bad movies too, but 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.880 I guess somehow the bad ones just never make it 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.000 to me in my personal brain archives. It's either going 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.920 to be like a lovely Kaiju Meet Slam or a 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.680 Kurosawa masterpiece, or something else of godly merit. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.240 Yeah. Yeah, if you're not like a regular consumer of 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.640 Japanese cinema, then you've seen a Toho film. It's probably 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.080 a Godzilla film or a Kurosawa film, and in different 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:56.079 ways the great results. So anyway, like I was saying, 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.280 they started out as being just a theater company, but 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.880 then they got in to producing films as well. Their 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:06.120 first film was nineteen thirty five's Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.840 This was a drama, and apparently drama and historical pictures 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.000 pretty much defined the first couple of decades of Toho films, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.880 which included the early films of legendary director at Kira Krrosawa. Now, 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.120 during the post war period, specifically in nineteen fifty four, 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.240 things got really interesting, so the company nearly bankrupt itself, 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:30.280 putting out first Karisawa's latest historical film and a giant 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:35.000 monster movie. These were, respectively, the Seven Samurai and Godzilla 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.560 films that would become major box office successes and lead 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.400 to a string of hits from both Karrosawa and The 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:42.439 King of Monsters. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.480 Can you believe that Seven Samurai and Godzilla came out 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.400 in the same year from the same company. I mean, 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:50.560 that is a good year. 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.320 Yeah, and they were taking a risk doing it. Yeah. 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.760 So Godzilla was to Ho's first sci fi or horror film, 0:12:57.880 --> 0:12:59.880 depending on how you look at it. We were discussing 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.440 this off mic beforehand about just how dark that first 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:03.440 Godzilla film is. 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.040 Yeah, if, in fact, if you've never watched it, you 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.840 should definitely go back and watch the original fifty four 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:14.240 Godzilla because it is it is very unlike the silly 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.280 monster romps that would come in decades following, Like the 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:23.440 first Godzilla movie is a dark, bleak, scary adventure. 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.319 Yeah, but it was a monster movie. It was a success. 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.160 So after this, Toho continued to bust out stuff. In fact, 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.360 that very same year they busted out Invisible Man in 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.040 fifty four, and then Godzilla was back in fifty five 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.679 for the first of just endless sequels. Like even as 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.800 we're recording this, Godzilla is debuting in a new motion picture, 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.040 so he absolutely cannot be stopped, and he gets bigger 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:49.680 every time. 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.120 If you've never heard me advocate it before. One of 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:55.760 the recent movies I have loved the most is shin Godzilla. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.319 One of it. It's not part of the recent I 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.880 don't know what you'd like, the American partnership or the 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.319 international Godzilla pictures that have lots of American actors and 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:07.679 stuff in them. This was a Japanese production. I think 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.199 it came out in like twenty fifteen or sixteen something 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.800 like that. Does that sound right? Yeah, it just just magical. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:18.280 It's a movie that is surprisingly focused on government bureaucracy 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.240 in a strangely compelling way. And it's got great music, 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.040 great monster effects. I just love it. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.320 Yeah, it's so absorbing. I remember I watched it in 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:32.000 its entirety in mute with subtitles on an airplane once. 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:33.200 It was one of those where I was listening to 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.400 music and I was like, Ah, another Godzilla movie. Let 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.160 me give it a preview. I'm just curious. And then 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.520 I started watching it and just watched the whole thing 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:41.600 just sucks you in. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.000 Have you still not seen it with the original soundtrack? 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:46.280 No, I haven't. I have no idea what it sounds like. 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.800 Oh oh, oh, you've got rob I think you would 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.080 love the soundtrack to it. It's got fantastic music, a 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:57.480 great kind of nervous string theme. It's just wonderful, I 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.800 guess I should say. By the way, directed by hidiaki 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.240 On and Shinji Higuchi, cool. 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.080 Yeah. I need to come back to it for sure, 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.400 real quick. About some other Toho films of note, One 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.200 of my favorites that we may have to come back 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.120 to in weird El Cinema is nineteen sixty three's Matango, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.360 which is about a haunted island of mushroom people. It's 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.880 really kind of grizzly with people being infected by spores 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.720 and slowly mutating in the mushroom people. It's pretty horrific stuff. 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:27.280 Oh, that's definitely on the list. 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.080 And then of course one that I know has we 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.520 have on the list already and we've actually heard from 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.240 some listeners about Toho also put out the nineteen seventy 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:36.840 seven Film House. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.440 Best Haunted House film of all time. 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.480 Now, speaking of Bandai, yes, there have been and our 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:48.640 models and toys of Gunhead, which is the central robot 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:53.080 Slash Max Slash tank in this film. And you know, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.840 I'm assuming they must have put some I'm really assuming 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.440 they put some sort of toy out back in the day. 0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.960 I couldn't find evidence of it, but I was looking around, 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.200 and you can still get a high quality model kit 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.280 of gun Head. There's a one thirty fifth scale model 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.680 that was released in twenty twelve from Codo Bokeya and 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.560 it is a pricey kit, especially imported and out of production, 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:16.880 but it's said to be really fun. It's a three 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.760 hundred part kit to build and it looks at Japan 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.480 has long had a very strong scale model culture, and 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.520 I've never built a kit from this company, but I 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:33.240 understand that they specialize in both traditional kits and also 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.480 pre painted collectible so stuff that includes major brands like 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.760 Star Wars and even things like Texas Chainsaw, Massacre and others. 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.000 I feel like this time in the late eighties here 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:50.040 was a really high point for toy etic movie and 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.080 TV development. Unless I'm wrong, this was also the era 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.480 of Transformers, right, which was a very much a toy 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.480 driven media property, and there were others like it. 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.760 So I can only assume a film like this a 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:07.159 major production, you would have had Gunhead toys back in 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.280 the day. I mean, they made video game I'm a 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:10.959 video game of it for crying out loud, so there 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:11.879 had to have been toys. 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.439 So all of the existing Gunhead games they look like 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.360 sort of high budget graphical affairs. But what if there 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.720 was a gun Head text adventure like Zork, Right, it'd 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.119 be pretty good. You say, you say go east, and 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.080 then it says you were absorbed by a biodroid. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:29.880 All right, let's talk about some of the actual humans 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.520 involved in this baby. First of all, let's talk about director, 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.560 co writer Masato Herada born in nineteen forty nine. As 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.240 a director, it looks like most of his directorial credits 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.679 are for the sort of non genre drama film that 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:48.600 tends to be far more successful domestically in Japan, as 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.840 well as some award winning historical dramas. As an actor, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:56.080 though this is fascinating. He only has two credits on IMDb, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.560 but they're both West films that Western viewers are likely 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:02.880 to be familiar with, So he had a villain role 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.159 in both two thousand and threes The Last Samurai starring 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.600 Tom Cruise and two thousand and six is Fearless starring 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:10.440 Jet Lee. 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.280 Interesting why is that so often such a pleasing turn 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:18.239 when somebody who is primarily a film director later in 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:22.840 their careers starts taking acting roles, especially as villains. David 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.920 Cronenberg did it, Remember he plays a really creepy serial 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.280 killer in that movie Night Breed, and he's had some 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:33.520 other acting roles. Of course, Werner hertzog right, for some reason, 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:35.280 later in his career, I was like, yeah, I'll play 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:35.880 some villains. 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.200 Yeah, I mean, like with Cronenberg for example, and Grant. 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:44.480 He's a much older director at this stage. He's been 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.760 far more active as an actor recently than a director. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:49.640 He's even shown up on one of the new Star 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:50.440 Trek shows. 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.359 Oh I didn't know that, but I wondered if you 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.880 noticed this, Rob. When I was watching the opening credits 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.879 to Gunhead, the director was listed as Alan Smithy. Do 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:02.280 you know anything about what the story is here? 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.520 I do not. Of course, that tends to mean that 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.880 there was something bad happened, he got out of control. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:13.399 Yeah, Alan Smithy Films. I'm not an expert on the industry. 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.040 My understanding is that happens when the director has gotten 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.840 their name removed from the film, or when the production 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.520 company wanted their name remove. I mean, I guess it 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.600 indicates some kind of dissatisfaction or dispute. 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.920 Yeah, I don't know. Maybe at least it didn't say 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.840 directed by Chiron five and you know, something went really bad, right, 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.120 But yeah, I don't know the full story on that. Now. 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.280 Another interesting thing about this film that pops up is 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.119 when you look at the at the writing credits. Again, 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.600 Herata also has a co writing credit, But then there's 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.119 this guy James Bannon on there credited as co writer 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:52.960 and he's written a couple of other things. But when 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:54.640 you look him up on IMDb, you see that he's 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.879 he's mostly involved in the industry for his work as 0:19:57.920 --> 0:19:59.359 part of an ad R loop group. 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.399 Now, that led me to suspect that his writing credit 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.280 could have had something to do with writing English lines 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.720 or possibly writing for the English dub. 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.600 That. Yeah, and that's what I thought, Well, that sounds 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.399 sounds pretty reasonable. But then I started looking around on 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.320 IMDb more and the truth seems to be that he 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.080 won a Godzilla screenplay contest hosted by Toho, and in 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.680 this original screenplay, Godzilla would fight a giant robot, and 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.359 this ended up not being used, but various elements of 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.119 his work eventually became Gunhead. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.359 Now, I guess this would post date Godzilla versus Mecha Godzilla. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.400 Right, yeah, yeah, so Godzilla. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:38.760 Has already fought a giant robot at this point, but 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:40.920 I guess you can have different kinds of giant robots. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.200 Yeah, I mean, Godzilla has done everything at this point, 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.919 so it's just coming up with new ways to have 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:47.760 him do the same thing over and over again. 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.440 Well, thank you, James Bannon for whatever role your giant 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.080 robot idea played in inspiring this wonderful film. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:59.359 All right, let's talk about the cast. Masahiro Takashima plays 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.280 the character Brooklyn. He was born in nineteen sixty five. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.480 This was only his fourth acting credit, but he's had 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.159 a long career on Japanese TV and in Japanese film, 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:14.080 including an appearance in Godzilla Versus Destroyer in nineteen ninety five. 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:16.600 We'll talk more about Brooklyn as we go here, but 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.480 you know, Takashima is perfectly acceptable in this role as 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:23.120