And, here he is with two of the "opposing" monsters, Gigan and Monster X...
Posted on 11/24/2004 7:55:40 PM PST by NormsRevenge
It's taken 50 years, 29 movies and, owing to one monster-sized tail, who-knows-how-many accidentally knocked over craft-service tables, but Godzilla is finally getting his Hollywood coming-out party.
In the coming days, the made-in-Japan leading lizard will ride in a parade, get starred on Hollywood Boulevard and storm the red carpet for a Grauman's Chinese Theatre movie premiere.
He'll also say goodbye. Or so it's been said.
"It's the latest last movie," says Ed Godziszewski, publisher of Japanese Giants magazine.
"It" is Godzilla Final Wars, billed as "the last Godzilla film."
Well-versed in kaiju eiga (that's Japanese for "monster movie"), Godziszewski is skeptical that audiences have seen the last of the big guy.
"Even when Godzilla is killed in a movie he's never really dead," Godziszewski says.
There is no indication that Godzilla breathes his last atomic breath at the end of Final Wars. But there are pledges from his bosses at Japan's Toho Studios that their star is headed for retirement.
The move comes as fandom wraps a year spent commemorating Godzilla's golden anniversary. It was 50 years ago this month--on Nov. 3, 1954--that Gojira, a serious-minded, black-and-white horror film about a giant creature who doesn't mind where he steps in Tokyo, opened in Japan. In 1956, the movie was redubbed, recut, recast (see: Raymond Burr) and exported to the United States under its new title: Godzilla, King of the Monsters!.
Toho has gone on to produce 28 cult-inspiring films, including Final Wars. In all, Godzilla has starred in 29 films if you count 1998's U.S.-made Godzilla, which most fans frankly don't.
As Godziszewski points out, Godzilla has taken breaks before--he's even been killed before--only to return to make life heck for puny humans and assorted atomic freaks of nature.
"No matter what happens in the end to conclude the movie, Godzilla will never actually die," Godziszewski says.
Tsutomu Kitagawa, however, is emphatic that Godzilla is going away for good this time. Kitagawa is the ultimate Godzilla insider, in that he's been inside the Godzilla suit for five of the last six Japanese-produced films.
"[Shogo] Tomiyama, the producer, and the staff of the movie are doing their best to make this the best movie because it's the final movie," Kitagawa said this week of Final Wars, through a translator. "They put everything in this movie."
Indeed, few parts of the world are safe in Final Wars, with New York, Paris, Shanghai and Sydney all taking hits.
Kitagawa will be on hand, and in character, for Monday night's Grauman's Chinese invite-only screening, the first time a Japanese-made Godzilla movie has premiered outside of Japan. (The movie opens for paying customers in Japan on Dec. 4.)
Other Godzilla firsts: Monday morning's unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; Sunday night's scheduled appearance (in float form) at the 73rd annual Hollywood Christmas Parade; Thursday's Thanksgiving at Peggy Aiken's house in Sacramento, California.
Technically, that last one's a first for Kitagawa, not Godzilla--although how many holiday dinners can a skulking monster possibly have been asked to attend?
Stateside for the last week attending a Godzilla film festival in San Francisco, Kitagawa will be at Casa Aiken at the invitation of Keith Aiken, of the Japanese fantasy film and TV site, Henshin!Online (www.henshinonline.com). Peggy Aiken is Keith Aiken's understanding maternal unit.
"She said, 'Well, you've been a fan since you were a kid, so I guess it's come to this,' " Aiken said of his mother's reaction to having Godzilla over for dinner.
Aiken said the traditional turkey and fixings will be served.
After 50 years, and another looming retirement, Godzilla deserves the drumstick.
"Raising the bar is the perfect way to ruin the spirit of a Godzilla movie."
Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. My comment was only that most in the series were so bad, that making the "best Godzilla movie" isn't much of a stretch...
I grew up watching cheap sci-fi/monster movies. If they weren't hysterically-funny, they'd be unwatchable. You can't take something that was unintentionally funny and make a new, serious, "hi-tech" version that people will want to see. Look at "Lost in Space: The Movie". Bad idea, bad movie.
And, here he is with two of the "opposing" monsters, Gigan and Monster X...
........and Happy Thanksgiving.
Same to you! I'm spending it on Watch right now, though. A Sailor's job is never done, it seems.
My family and myself would like to thank you for serving.
My Dad was in the navy during WW2 doing convoy duty on the Atlantic. He's had some good stories about those times.
My dad was a Sailor, too, '48-'52. I've been in 11 years now.
On nights like this (it's cold, rainy, and miserable, and I'm not with my family), FR and threads like this are a godsend.
If you don't mind me asking, where are you at? The weather your having sounds like the weather we had yesterday only we got snow and wind, too.
Tsk, tsk. The Navy sure is different now days.
General Order #7, sailor.
;)
I'm in Maine. Not as bad as when I was in Iceland, but still rotten.
I'm not a Sentry, Shipmate. I'm on a phone watch.
After we got a new skipper we got a TV and VCR and could bring anything we wanted to watch or read.
Hmmm. Well, not anything, but unless it was porn, no one cared.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there's Internet access with the duty phone next to it, but then, when I stood a phone watch, it still had a rotary dial.
:)
Hell, they won't let us be armed, and we don't even have a weapons locker here.
In New Orleans we shared a hangar with a Marine UH-1N squadron. They had cameras. We still walked around. It was humiliating.
But that's what happens when you have nearly unlimited manpower and the manpower can't quit. :)
Lessee....Maine, Navy...that would be Brunswick, eh?
P-3s and C-130s, if memory serves. We used to send A-7s cross-country up there with blivits full of crawfish and trade for lobster.
You got it...NAS Brunswick. I'm an E-6, P-3 Aircrewman when I'm not answering phones.
Yep, Yep, and they already know.
Last year, I flew on actual combat flights over hostile territory, with NO personal weapons except the Bowie I carried with me, and NO weapons on the aircraft. Go figure.
Since they were making one AMEC a year and most squadrons had two AME1 billets, I figured I'd be a 13B supervisor or QAR for the next 10 years, so I quit.
It has to be better now. I came in under Reagan and left under Clinton. It sucked pretty badly under Clinton.
My brother just went from MM1 to an Army WO1. He says it's a lot better than it was then.
I'm an AW1(AW/NAC), Acoustic, meaning I track submarines and work the surveillance gear on the ORION. Been doing that my whole career. I'm up for Chief in January, first time.
LOL. My sister loves Maine. She must have visited every lighthouse in that state.
My Dad docked in Iceland during the war. He didn't think much of it either.
One night, we pre-flighted in 20-below with winds gusting to 70 kts. Had to wrap tie-down chains around the female linemen to keep them from being blown across the ramp ice.
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