Shin Godzilla (Review)
Shin Godzilla
aka シン・ゴジラ aka Godzilla Resurgence
2016
Written by Hideaki Anno
Directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi
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New facial cleanses have gotten out of control!
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Godzilla was on one of his occasional breaks after his Final War while the US developed their own Godzilla franchise. But after that monster hit, Godzilla reawoke in Japan to return with a spiritual successor to the original Gojira that is also one of the most successful films in Japan. Godzilla is back as a force of nature, the appearance and response directly referencing the Japanese Fukushima earthquake/nuclear disaster. Much of the film is spent in a West Wing style series of high level government meetings, in which entrenched minsters and officials do little of consequence in order to avoid looking bad if their actions don’t have the desired effect. While that sounds like it could be terrible, it’s actually really good, the scenes are cut quickly and innovatively to keep things moving briskly along while still giving you the feeling that the characters were in long unproductive meetings.
Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi were given free reign to tell their story, the pair having collaborated on Evangelion, with Anno subsequently directing cult live action films such as Cutie Honey and Higuchi doing effects work on the Gamera trilogy and directing the Attack on Titan features. Their strong pedigree promised that we would get something unique and entertaining, and the pair delivered with a strong entry.
The effects are a bit mixed, the final form of Godzilla is well done, but the earlier forms look goofy and some effects with them seem more rushed. While most of the music is new, there is some nice Akira Ifukube put in at the right time, with tanks driving around and blasting away that helped made the scene come together, you won’t care that everything is now CG instead of models and a guy in a suit. It really is modern mixed with the past, besides the retro tank fight, we have unmanned drones attacking Big G at one point, and the final sequence has a bunch of industrial and civilian vehicles that make up the heart of Japan’s economic might being used to save Japan.
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Categories: Bad, Movie Reviews Tags: Akira Emoto, Arata Furuta, Godzilla, Hideaki Anno, Hiroki Hasegawa, Issei Takahashi, Japan, Jun Kunimura, Kanji Tsuda, Keisuke Koide, Ken Mitsuishi, Kengo Kora, Kenichi Yajima, Kimiko Yo, Kyūsaku Shimada, Mansai Nomura, Mikako Ichikawa, Pierre Taki, Ren Osugi, Satomi Ishihara, Sei Hiraizumi, Shinji Higuchi, Shinya Tsukamoto, Takumi Saito, Tetsu Watanabe, Yutaka Takenouchi
Edo period Unforgiven remake is coming!
Tired of all those US remakes of Asian film? Well, let’s flip the script and report on Asian films remaking US films! And this one might be good, as it’s a remake of Unforgiven set in Edo period samurai Japan (actually, it’s set slightly after the 1868 end of the Edo period, in the 1880s.) Westerns and Samurai flicks have a lot of similar story elements that make the transitioning of the story between the two settings far easier to pull off than a lot of other random new locations, and has a well-established history of successfully doing just that. Unforgiven (real title: Yurusarezaru Mono – 許されざる者) will be written and directed by Lee Sang-il, the writer/director of Hula Girls. It will star Ken Watanabe as the main character Jubei Kamata, a famous samurai killer who has hung up his sword and retired, but is forced back into work as a bounty hunter due to poverty. Akira Emoto and Koichi Sato also star.
via AsianWiki
Categories: Movie News Tags: Akira Emoto, Japan, Ken Watanabe, Koichi Sato, Lee Sang-il, Remakes are stupid, Unforgiven
Zebraman (Review)
Zebraman
aka Zeburaman aka ゼブラーマン
2004
Directed by Takashi Miike
Written by Kankuro Kudo
If you know anything about cult cinema, you know Takashi Miike is awesome. Miike is always firing with all cylinders, and even on his weaker efforts he never does a half-assed job or sleepwalks through a film. Miike hops genres like Q*bert down a pyramid, able to make the most disgustingly violent film you’ve ever seen and follow that up with a kiddie flick. Zebraman is a love letter to tokusatsu heroes, particularly those from the 70s and 80s on Japanese television. Miike takes a fictitious hero and series and turn it into much more than just a simple tokusatsu film. It becomes a tale of finding yourself, of destiny, of belief, and about doing what’s right because you’re a hero. And it also has a guy riding a flying zebra while battling a giant goo monster. Zebraman takes these conventions and has fun with them, turning some deadly serious and others into more ridiculous fare than they’re treated by the real tokusatsu shows.
The fun with Zebraman is how all these different conventions and story bits add up to create a good story, despite the difference in tone and style. It’s a testament to Miike’s talent that he can take so many differently shaped parts and put together the puzzle with no missing pieces. My biggest fault with Zebraman is that the sequel outshines it at every turn. But I’ll worry about that when the review of the sequel goes up. For now, let’s learn about the man, the myth, the hero, Zebraman!
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Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: Akira Emoto, Atsuro Watabe, Japan, Kankuro Kudo, Koen Kondo, Kyoka Suzuki, Makiko Watanabe, Naoki Yasukochi, Show Aikawa, Takashi Miike, tokusatsu, Yoshimasa Mishima, Yui Ichikawa