Kaiju Fan Confessions

For discussions covering more than one Toho film or show that span across more than one “era.”
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HedorahIsBestGirl
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by HedorahIsBestGirl »

I just rewatched Cloverfield and damn... Just wow. I often change my opinion on films when I view them again after several years, but I can't remember the last time my opinion on a movie improved so drastically with a new viewing.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cloverfield and, moreover, I was very impressed by it. Every "found footage" film should aspire to immerse the viewer to the point where they fell like they are in the middle of the movie, and Cloverfield accomplishes this better than damn near any other movie in the genre. It was gripping and, at several moments, genuinely gave me the chills, which is something few movies have accomplished. I'm glad I waited to rewatch this until I was an adult, because there's a lot I didn't understand or appreciate as a teenager. Where before I wrote Cloverfield off as overrated and overhyped, I would now put it on a list of my favorite kaiju films.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

I will say Cloverfied was easily one of my most immersive cinema going experiences.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Cryptid_Liker »

Let's hope the direct continuation is good.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Dv-218 »

Not to mention, the soundtrack fucking blasts. Even if it just appears in the end credits "roar!" is a fantastic theme, really fits the omnious and secretive tone of the film. Gotta love Giacchino.

Overall not my favorite kaiju film, but it absolutely excels at what it tries to do. Both a fantastic homage to classic Kaiju films and one of the best found footage films ever made imo.
Last edited by Dv-218 on Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Marp »

Yeah, Roar is legitimately one of the best kaiju themes ever made imo, definitely from America anyway, with "Godzilla!" as a close second. 12 minutes of pure powerful art.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Cryptid_Liker »

Marp wrote:Yeah, Roar is legitimately one of the best kaiju themes ever made imo, definitely from America anyway, with "Godzilla!" as a close second. 12 minutes of pure powerful art.
Especially the parts at 1:33, 5:10, 6:56, and 11:58.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by LockBite »

I have to confess that while I appreciate the social commentary of Godzilla films, it rarely has much to do with my enjoyment of said film. Even the original- I like that one mostly because of how it looks and sounds.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by BlankAccount »

I know an apocalyptic setting can work in a Godzilla story. But most films that try to attempt it tend to drop the ball. They end up being too light hearted or goofy (GFW), or just fail to really sell the danger until the last 5 minutes (GvsD). I feel like the Godzilla films that do the best at selling "the world is gonna end! or the world is ending!" theme is the original, DAM, GvsH of all things, TOMG and G:KOTM2019. And most of those I'd say they did an okay job of selling it, they could have done better. It doesn't have to be super dark doom & gloom but they could have had a bit more weight. Even the anime films which are set in an post-apocalyptic world felt meh.

KOTM for example does show monsters are wrecking havoc all over the world but they don't linger on those shots long enough for the weight to really sink in. It's a case of show not tell would have helped and they needed to show more, tell less. Even the games kind of drop the ball on this. Godzilla: Unleashed had a pretty good concept, Spacegodzilla's crystals causing the whole planet to be fucked up, an idea that would be repeated with King Ghidorah's storms in the 2019 film but I guess it was too ambitious for the development team cause the execution left me wishing it had more time in the oven to finish. It's frustrating, I can see what they were going for but they failed to reach it. I feel Super Godzilla's final did it better (yeah yeah, Bagan is overrated blah blah). Heck if we're count non-Godzilla films, Gamera 3 feels like it sold it better than a Godzilla stuff, like Gamera can not fail against the Hyper Gyaos army or else the same is gonna happen to us as it did to Atlantis.

Now the reason I say I know it can work and not I think it can is because I've seen it done pretty well in the Random House novels (especially Godzilla at World's End, lives up to the title) and the IDW comics. Godzilla at World's End really gives the dread that the world is actually ending as communications is breaking down and a plague of monsters is attacking countries all over the world, who are unable to effectively communicate with each other in a timely fashion and tension has even arisen to paranoia and skirmishes between them as some are not even aware there is monsters about.

EDIT: Just to clear anything up, I use apocalyptic as a catch all term for

Pre: This needs to be stopped now or it can become apocalyptic.

Apocalyptic: Self explanatory. This is the end and it must be stopped.

Post: The world as we know it has ended but there's a chance to recover but the threat must be stopped from ruining a new beginning or else it will become the true end of all.
Last edited by BlankAccount on Mon Apr 06, 2020 1:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by SoggyNoodles2016 »

I think the problem with apocalyptic tones and Godzilla is kaiju are ALREADY supposed to be apocalyptic. Them emerging and rampaging is already supposed to be the worst of worst case scenarios.

Nearly every piece of Godzilla media tries to make apocalyptic by increasing the monsters but because its usually supposed to be bad with one, it just feels like excess.

The only pieces of Godzilla media that have used the apocalypse caused by kaiju in their story and WORKED imo have been the animes (well half of them) and Catclysm, and they worked because they left the kaiju overwhelming humanity more then before and the usual stuff in apocalyptic Godzilla stuff as backstory while focusing on the world that remains and humanity trying to survive in it.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by BlankAccount »

SoggyNoodles2016 wrote:I think the problem with apocalyptic tones and Godzilla is kaiju are ALREADY supposed to be apocalyptic. Them emerging and rampaging is already supposed to be the worst of worst case scenarios.
Not necessary, most films treat them as natural disasters and that seems to be everyone's attitude after several have shown up over the years, stayed alive and the world hasn't ended. A lot of people die and cities get burned to the ground but the storm or monsters rampage in this case, does end. I'm sure they thought it was the end when the first ones showed up but after a while they "accepted" them as an everyday fact of life like a hurricane, volcano, earthquake or tornado. That's why everyone is supposed to lose their shit when one is proven not only capable of destroying the world but willing.
Nearly every piece of Godzilla media tries to make apocalyptic by increasing the monsters but because its usually supposed to be bad with one, it just feels like excess.

The only pieces of Godzilla media that have used the apocalypse caused by kaiju in their story and WORKED imo have been the animes (well half of them) and Catclysm, and they worked because they left the kaiju overwhelming humanity more then before and the usual stuff in apocalyptic Godzilla stuff as backstory while focusing on the world that remains and humanity trying to survive in it.
You should really read the Random House novels if you haven't. If you enjoyed Catclysm you might enjoy them.
Last edited by BlankAccount on Mon Apr 06, 2020 3:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by SoggyNoodles2016 »

Living Corpse wrote:
SoggyNoodles2016 wrote:I think the problem with apocalyptic tones and Godzilla is kaiju are ALREADY supposed to be apocalyptic. Them emerging and rampaging is already supposed to be the worst of worst case scenarios.
Not necessary, most films treat them as natural disasters and that seems to be everyone's attitude after several have shown up over the years, stayed alive and the world hasn't ended. A lot of people die and cities get burned to the ground but the storm or monsters rampage in this case, does end. I'm sure they thought it was the end when the first ones showed up but after a while they "accepted" them as an everyday fact of life like a hurricane, volcano, earthquake or tornado. That's why everyone is supposed to lose their poop when one is proven not only capable of destroying the world but willing.
True, but I still feel the same. It's ALREADY a disaster, adding more doesn't make it apocalyptic, it makes it bloated.
Nearly every piece of Godzilla media tries to make apocalyptic by increasing the monsters but because its usually supposed to be bad with one, it just feels like excess.

The only pieces of Godzilla media that have used the apocalypse caused by kaiju in their story and WORKED imo have been the animes (well half of them) and Catclysm, and they worked because they left the kaiju overwhelming humanity more then before and the usual stuff in apocalyptic Godzilla stuff as backstory while focusing on the world that remains and humanity trying to survive in it.
You should really read the Random House novels if you haven't. If you enjoyed Catclysm you might enjoy them.
I've read Returns and enjoyed it but am still trying to find the rest. Want to read them though.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by BlankAccount »

I will say I am kind of glad Godzilla vs Kong is gonna be the fallout or aftermath of King Ghidorah's climate change attack. Usually the apocalyptic stories in anything Godzilla related is the final chapter in a series. KOTM came the closest to what I wanted to see in a doomsday story in a Godzilla setting, so close but yet so far.
SoggyNoodles2016 wrote:
I've read Returns and enjoyed it but am still trying to find the rest. Want to read them though.
I just looked them up on Amazon, some of them are going as high as 50 bucks. Yeesh. I mean I get it, they're out of print. Part of me was thinking of trying to get a movement started to get the last book out and maybe get the previous books get reprinted. Godzillas back in the public's mind again, they could cash in on Godzilla vs Kong, but I also know countless petitions have tried to get the last book out and nothing came of them.
Last edited by BlankAccount on Mon Apr 06, 2020 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Jetty_Jags »

Honestly from a guy whose usually pretty anti pirating, if its not going to the creator, and just going to some scalper, I'd say just rip it online if you can find any scans.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Terasawa »

The modern Godzilla fandom was built on piracy.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by BlankAccount »

Jetty_Jags wrote:Honestly from a guy whose usually pretty anti pirating, if its not going to the creator, and just going to some scalper, I'd say just rip it online if you can find any scans.
I'm honestly surprised Godzilla and the Lost Continent was never put online be it official or leaked. You don't have to spend money printing it on paper, so no money wasted, fans just pay to download it. And if it's never gonna get an official release this is the time when no hero leaks it, when we can't legally obtain it?

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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by UltramanGoji »

Terasawa wrote:The modern Godzilla fandom was built on piracy.
This.

If it weren't for piracy, the Heisei Godzilla series would be unknown to American audiences in the 90's. If it weren't for piracy, some of the greatest pillars of this fandom such as G-FEST would not exist. If it weren't for piracy, nobody would have seen anything related to Ultraman from the past twenty years. You see where I'm going.

There is no reason to feel morally wrong for pirating content in this fandom. 75% of media related to this fandom is unobtainable in the West. We are not the primary consumer. Toho, Tsuburaya, Kadokawa, etc. consider us to be the secondary market. In recent years, yes, they've changed their ways slightly (and in the case of Tsuburaya, legal actions prevented them from doing so) but at the end of the day, we're still neglected when it comes to certain aspects. Many people seem to forget that most of these franchises are from an entirely different language. There is an astronomical amount of information present in Japanese media that Western audiences do not have (legal) access to. The 4K restoration of KKVG that everyone pined for on the Criterion disc? It's been available to download for years. But people held out hope that Toho would find some way to release it here. They didn't and still haven't.

Obviously, support the official releases where available. We want to show Toho and company that there's a market over here. But don't settle. These corporations are exactly that and complacency and resigning yourself to a rewardless fate as a fan isn't fun. I'm honestly curious how most of the fandom was pre-2011 when three Godzilla films were legally unavailable on R1 DVD. Did they just resign themselves to the fact that they'd never see Godzilla vs. Megalon/Godzilla 1985/Godzilla vs. Biollante?

Piracy, bootleg tapes, fan edits, etc. They're not uploaded/created by ungrateful goons looking to stick it to Toho. They're made by fans with a love for the franchise(s) and a passion for seeking out new things and making them available to others.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Terasawa »

UltramanGoji wrote:I'm honestly curious how most of the fandom was pre-2011 when three Godzilla films were legally unavailable on R1 DVD. Did they just resign themselves to the fact that they'd never see Godzilla vs. Megalon/Godzilla 1985/Godzilla vs. Biollante?
The options were to import the foreign DVDs (which, depending on region, might not have an English option), bootleg, download, or buy them used on VHS.

But as I recall the most common option was to incessantly whine that they weren't available.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by Maverick Centigrade »

I had no idea Ariana Richards played Mindy in Tremors, like ZERO. Wow.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

UltramanGoji wrote:Obviously, support the official releases where available. We want to show Toho and company that there's a market over here. But don't settle. These corporations are exactly that and complacency and resigning yourself to a rewardless fate as a fan isn't fun. I'm honestly curious how most of the fandom was pre-2011 when three Godzilla films were legally unavailable on R1 DVD. Did they just resign themselves to the fact that they'd never see Godzilla vs. Megalon/Godzilla 1985/Godzilla vs. Biollante?
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What you did is you watched Godzilla vs. Megalon on repeat until the VHS became so unreadable you gave up and discovered ulterior methods in the late 2000's.
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Re: Kaiju Fan Confessions

Post by DirektorSplennic »

Speaking of piracy, where can I find KKvG in its subtitled form? I really want to see the original Japanese version. I hate the American re-edit.

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