Should there be more Kung Fu in Godzilla movies?

[Jeff-Goldblum1]

A thought occurred to me whilst I was watching some Stephen Chow movies, they were very funny indeed, and it got me thinking.

Should there be more Kung Fu in Godzilla movies?

I don't mean the monster fights.

I mean like in Godzilla: Final Wars. Where you use martial arts sequences to increase the potential for the action scenes when spending time with the human characters.

I guess it would be more Karate than Kung Fu since Godzilla is Japanese.

But if they started it around the late Showa series when Bruce Lee was popular. Maybe Bruce Lee could have been in Godzilla Vs Hedorah and Godzilla Vs Gigan, fighting cockroach humanoids whilst Godzilla fought monsters.

[Major sssspielberg!]

Maybe it's because I literally just woke up, maybe it's my new allergy medicine, but.... Bruce fighting Nebula M roaches? Awesome. I'm way into it..

[Jeff-Goldblum1]

You don't really need any external effects to heighten it, the concept is awesome enough on it's own!

[KaijuCanuck]

Nope. I like kung fu movies, and I appreciate Final Wars for what it is, but one is more than enough for me. Give me ineffectual observers standing on a hill any day.

[GigaBowserG]

It sounds so fun on paper. But I don't know how well it'd translate to the big screen. I guess it all boils down to the tone of the Godzilla movie it appears in? I'd prefer not to see a retread of GFW wherein it's these super-powered mutants fighting aliens, perhaps something more basic, like... professional agents against other agents, or something, in a one-and-done clash instead of multiple encounters throughout the movie.

[Ivo-goji]

Historical setting.

Think Daimajin.

The beast's rampage can only be stopped when the maiden's death is avenged.

The hero must carve his way through hordes of monks to reach the villain's inner sanctum, and if he fails the kaiju will destroy the kingdom.

Or a modern setting with the trappings of a wuxia film. Monsters trampling the city above, sorcerers dueling in the tunnels beneath, only kung fu can end the chaos. John Carpenter with tokusatsu.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Ive always loved the idea of martial arts in a Godzilla film. I want real martial arts with too with hits that have impact. As much as I enjoy Final Wars I thought the fight scenes sucked ass. The hits felt whimpy and the choreography was really stiff. Its sad too cause Kitamura usually has pretty good martial arts action in his films. I think Toho forced him to water down his action too much. It came off as very fake and unconvincing.

[Gerdzerl]

I love it when martial arts are included in a Godzilla film, so I would definitely be all for them reappearing at some point, whether it be the human characters or the kaiju.

[Maritonic]

I would have been alright with it in the Showa era, but I'm not so sure I'd be okay with it in the modern films. Can't really explain this feeling, but I really hated the campiness of the "kung fu" in Final Wars. BUT, the idea of Bruce Lee fighting off the aliens in Gigan sounds incredible. So...-shrug- kinda feel like the time for it passed.

[eabaker]

Kaiju movies and Kung Fu movies - or any kind of action movies - are like musicals, in that they build to period genre set-piece sequences - "numbers," if you will.

In a kaiju movie, the big numbers are the monster fights and/or the city destruction sequences.

In a Kung Fu movie, the big numbers are obviously the martial arts fight scenes.

For those numbers to have their biggest possible impact, as in a good musical, the story builds to one (in terms of narrative, pace and energy), then breaks from it and recovers, then builds to the next, and so on.

Part of why Final Wars doesn't work for so many people is that, by shifting back and forth between two different kinds of numbers, it misses out on both the pacing and the story development that comes from having peaks and valleys, and it underserves the kaiju aspect. The result is monotonous, and cheats a large portion of the audience out of part of what they came to see.

Making a kaiju movie that is also a Kung Fu movie means trying to be a servant of both of those masters, and - while it's not impossible to pull it off - the risk of under-serving one genre or the other, and of running out of room for fleshed-out story and character, is pretty tremendous.

[TheRedKing1979]

They tried that, it was called Godzilla Final Wars and in 2004 I sung it's praises.

Now, after rewatching Goji vs Monster X for an FM, Mighty Megasaurus Power Kaiju is a no-go

[edgaguirus]

I don't think so. It can work in some plot lines, but not all stories would benefit from it. Personally, I'm more interested in monster combat than human combat.

[eabaker]

Also, why Chinese martial arts rather than Japanese?

[Jeff-Goldblum1]

They should definitely use ninjutsu since that's kind of the adopted martial art for genre films in pop culture.

[kamilleblu]

BUT, the idea of Bruce Lee fighting off the aliens in Gigan sounds incredible.

As awesome as that sounds, Toho had already written Godzilla off as children's fare at that point and probably wouldn't have wanted to pay him his asking price.

[BlankAccount]

You mean the monsters doing Kung Fu? Sure, as long as it's not too goofy.

Humans? Eh depends on the film.

Added in 6 hours 53 minutes 17 seconds:

They tried that, it was called Godzilla Final Wars and in 2004 I sung it's praises.

Now, after rewatching Goji vs Monster X for an FM, Mighty Megasaurus Power Kaiju is a no-go

Failed once =\= always fails. There are so many things in Godzilla films that sound dumb on paper but ended up being some of the franchises most beloved aspects. GFW had poor execution and didn't seem to know what film it even wanted to be. To say a film crew can't make it work cause the one that tried it with GFW couldn't is an absolute fallecy. Before GFW the Showa films were doing kaiju fu and fans generally accepted Godzilla suplexing or boxer punching just fine. So GFW dropped the ball, not the first or last time Godzilla has had misses in the past 60 odd years.