Talkback: GMK - Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah (2001)

[Rody]

I didn't care for it, the thought of King Ghidorah being a good guy made me cringe, and the whole He's supposed to have eight heads thing was stupid.

What? I don't remember anything like that in the film.

Mothra looked odd, not really bad, but odd

I like this design. It portrays Mothra as being a little darker and more mysterious. I'd rather not see it again, though.

Godzilla being possesed was stupid

What's stupid about it? I think it was an interesting sort of twist on the original concept.

But Baragon looked good.

That he did. I think this suit makes several small improvements over the original.

[Patrick Alan]

Godzilla shouldn't be able to be possesed in my opinion

and you maybe right but im pretty sure they say ghidorah should have 8 heads, but he's not finished growing yet or something

[SpanishBulldog63]

I didn't care for it, the thought of King Ghidorah being a good guy made me cringe, and the whole He's supposed to have eight heads thing was stupid.

What? I don't remember anything like that in the film.

Its been a while since i've seen GMK but iirc it was in the beginning of the movie,i think when they went back to check out the shrine.

[TokyoVigilante]

Godzilla shouldn't be able to be possesed in my opinion

This is so arbitrary and creatively limiting. It is like saying Godzilla shouldn't be able to be defeated.

and you maybe right but im pretty sure they say ghidorah should have 8 heads, but he's not finished growing yet or something

The idea is that he was a young Orochi, a Japanese mythological creature that is partially responsible for inspiring the original King Ghidorah.

IMO, they should have just made Ghidorah an actual Orochi Dragon. I think having Godzilla fight such a widely recognized piece of Japanese mythology would be a decent enough draw. But whatever, getting hung up on monster elements of a movie and whether or not you agree with their creative decisions in that regard is pointless and shallow, especially when there are so many more legitimate critiques to be made about the film.

[Superrex]

Speaking of the shrine in GMK...
Remeber when the camera guy(forgot his name) showed Yuri and the other guy(forgot his name too)these three yellow sticks that he filmed but they were gone when he showed them where they were? What were they? Ghidorah's horns? His gravity beams?

[Patrick Alan]

I know about the Orachi, I just didn't like Ghidorah being one.

[Living Corpse]

Godzilla shouldn't be able to be possesed in my opinion

How is it any different then being mind controlled by aliens? It's kinda normal at this point.

[Tyler]

Speaking of the shrine in GMK...
Remeber when the camera guy(forgot his name) showed Yuri and the other guy(forgot his name too)these three yellow sticks that he filmed but they were gone when he showed them where they were? What were they? Ghidorah's horns? His gravity beams?

Yeah, what were those?

And I don't see it as Godzilla being directly possessed/controlled. I see it more as him being let loose and put in a certain direction and just doing his thing. Or at least that's my way of seeing him as less of a mindless puppet.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Speaking of the shrine in GMK...
Remeber when the camera guy(forgot his name) showed Yuri and the other guy(forgot his name too)these three yellow sticks that he filmed but they were gone when he showed them where they were? What were they? Ghidorah's horns? His gravity beams?

I believe that those are suppose to be an indication to the audience of how many heads this creature currently has.

As for Godzilla being possessed, that really didn't make any difference to me. Godzilla still acted how he normally does, so what I saw was just Godzilla being Godzilla. So what if he was possessed?

[Rody]

Speaking of the shrine in GMK...
Remeber when the camera guy(forgot his name) showed Yuri and the other guy(forgot his name too)these three yellow sticks that he filmed but they were gone when he showed them where they were? What were they? Ghidorah's horns? His gravity beams?

You know, I've never actually figured out what they were looking at in that scene. I thought it was a little hill or something that disappeared.

I'll keep this in mind next time I see it.

[Patrick Alan]

Superrex wrote:Speaking of the shrine in GMK...Remeber when the camera guy(forgot his name) showed Yuri and the other guy(forgot his name too)these three yellow sticks that he filmed but they were gone when he showed them where they were? What were they? Ghidorah's horns? His gravity beams?

Can anyone find a link for that scene?

[kpa]

That scene is very unclear, but if I remember correctly the tips of Ghidorah's spines poking out of the ground in one shot but gone in the next.

[ZillaMaster91]

What makes Godzilla, mothra, and Ghidorah: All monsters attack so good?

Boy, this topic resurfaces again and again, doesn't it?

Rather than write another long reply, I'll just cut and paste and old long reply explaining what I like about GMK...

GMK addressed a growing trend in Japan to minimize their responsibilities for WWII. This behavior has led many in Japan to see their country as the victims of foreign aggression in that war and now want Japan to once again build up its military forces.

There are also many Japanese who disagree with that thinking. Shusuke Kaneko is one of those people, and he made GMK as a ''Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it'' story, with Godzilla as a reminder of where that path will lead Japan.

To do so, Kaneko followed the basic concept presented in the original GODZILLA. In both GODZILLA and GMK Godzilla is both villain and victim; a representation of many things (the war, the bomb, etc), and a warning to mankind. Honda and the other filmmakers used GODZILLA to address what was happening in Japan at the time it was made and say that worse things were on the horizon if mankind didn't learn from it's mistakes. GMK is the same. Once again, the monster is not a one-note character... Godzilla is a villain, a representation of the victims of WWII, a symbol of the bomb, and a warning.

The "spirits of the war dead" angle is directly connected to the central theme of the movie. Godzilla specifically attacks Japan at that particular time because the souls of those killed in the Pacific conflict feel their sacrifices will have been in vain if Japan continues on its current path. It's the point of the story and the whole motivation for Godzilla's character in the film.

Up to WWII, the Japanese people believed their Emperor was a living god, and over many years the military rulers convinced the people that they were superior to everyone else and the world was theirs by divine right. Those soldiers fought and died for a lie, and the only thing that would make their sacrifice worthwhile would be Japan to learn from it's mistakes and never repeat them again.

The idea that Godzilla represented those soldiers had been around long before GMK. In an interview with the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shinbun, Akira Ifukube described how audiences reacted to seeing the original GODZILLA in 1954: “The terror of the times was such that people thought that Godzilla might be the symbol of the spirits of the departed soldiers at sea.” In 1994, Professor Norio Akasaka wrote that Godzilla was a “representation of the spirits of soldiers who died in the South Pacific during World War II” and compared Godzilla’s actions in the 1954 film to the story The Voice of the Hero Spirits, in which the ghosts of kamikaze pilots appear before the Emperor and accuse Japan of spiritual decay.

That idea fits perfectly with Kaneko's theme for GMK and also provides Godzilla's motivation for why he returns after and attacks again so many decades. Godzilla is a warning... and as deadly as the monster is in the film, he doesn't compare to what could happen if Japan returned to its pre-WWII ways.

General Tachibana is the only character pushing for Japan to stay aware and vigilant against the old threat... but he's also not some right winger pushing for military might. He talks about how a true soldier at heart takes honor in never having to fight, he keeps an open mind about the Yamato Guardians, and disagrees with his superiors belief that more firepower is all that is needed. It's not an accident that Tachibana is the one who helps save the day.

Nearly everyone else (including Tachibana's own daughter) really couldn't care less about Godzilla or remembering the past. Godzilla has become such a distant memory that people are unsure what he even looks like (he's confused with Baragon), and high school kids call him a "poor animal" who would make a good pet. The government refuses to take the threat seriously at first. The Yamato shrines are disturbed by people who (again) have no clue or interest in what they represent. Again, it's no accident that many of those characters end up dead or are proven wrong.

So rather than not gelling, all the major story elements act in service to the central theme of GMK. In fact, the story is so well developed that Kaneko also uses it to make a point about the current public perception of Godzilla. In Japan these days Godzilla is no longer considered "cool"; kids are more into anime and hero shows while adults think the movies are only good for children and geeks. In GMK, notice how many of the characters think Godzilla to be old news, unimportant, passé, or not much of a threat... and how everyone (who lived) has vastly different views by the end of the film.

That's what I like about GMK... just like the original GODZILLA-, it's actually about something beyond the usual monster fare. It's not doing the standard "we should stop nuclear testing", "we should respect the environment" lip-service these films often have but instead deals with a current situation (just like GODZILLA did) on multiple levels. You can enjoy films like GODZILLA and GMK on a simple "monsters smashing stuff" level, but if you're aware of the subtext they become that much richer.

GMK opened well in Japan, and then ticket sales went up weeks into its theatrical run based on positive word of mouth. The positive buzz spread outside Japan (very rare for a Godzilla film)... when it was shown at the American Film Market the audience applauded Kaneko's onscreen credit at the end of the film (the only time I've seen that happen for any movie at AFM). Sony Studios requested a print of GMK for a private screening, they picked up the US rights, and over the past 8 years it is easily the most theatrically booked Godzilla film in their repertory division.

Dude...

This right here just blew my mind. I failed to connect the issues brought up in GMK with the current (at that time) issues in Japan. Reading that just makes me want to rewatch the film. Knowing this, I definitely have a newfound respect for the film that I did not have before. I like films with meaning to them. While growing up GMK was one of my favorites because of the action. However later on when I become more interested in the story my view of the film drifted because of the whole spirit angle and how I did not grip the whole unsettling souls of the war inside Godzilla bit. Reading your post, it makes much more sense.

[Living Corpse]

So in a weird sense Godzilla is a necessary evil in the GMK universe. Everytime Japan strays from the path and starts to repeat the same mistakes he comes back to put them back on track to learn from their mistakes.

That's kinda cool in a morbid and twisted way.

[Patrick Alan]

I kinda got lucky, my birthday was just tuesday, so I drove to the mall, and walked into FYE, thinking I'd only find a few Godzilla movies, I found many! Out of all the ones they had was GMK, I had to pick it up along with G2K, GT3HM, GvSG+GvD, and the original masterpeice Gojira.

[King Caesar]

That scene is very unclear, but if I remember correctly the tips of Ghidorah's spines poking out of the ground in one shot but gone in the next.

Geesh, that scene's more of an I Spy game than a revealing scene. My gosh, that camera man must have eyes like a hawk.

@ Patrick Alan: Most of the movies you saw are either from Classic Media's releases (or re-releases) of some of the Showa movies as well as War of the Gargantuans and Rodan. That or more plausibly they're Tri-Star's batch, which includes the 90's Godzilla movies, several of the 70's, and all of the Millennium Series. The ones you won't find on DVD (as far as I know) are Godzilla vs Megalon, Godzilla 1985, and Godzilla vs Biollante.

[Rody]

I'd like to know something - just how accurate/inaccurate are the Sony dub & dubtitles? I can tell that some of the lines are completely off, but that only goes for a couple.

[Living Corpse]

I'd like to know something - just how accurate/inaccurate are the Sony dub & dubtitles? I can tell that some of the lines are completely off, but that only goes for a couple.

There's a scene in GMK where a submarine dude accidantly shoots the wrong monster and both the dub and subtitles have him saying "yes!" when he's clearly saying "shit!" in his native language.

Yeah...

[Rody]

^ Yeah, that's one of the few lines that is painfully, obviously wrong.

That, and "Good luck everyone! You're all going to die!" *facepalm*

Overall, though, how does the dub compare to the original?

[Living Corpse]

For the most part it's passable, though the scenes you and I mentioned showed that they really didn't care and were like "okay I showed up for work and half assed my job, now give me my pay check".