The delicate, human side of Godzilla played by a real actor has drawn crowds for 50 years and shows that high-tech Hollywood doesn’t have all the answers, the creators of the Japanese monster’s latest instalment said on Wednesday.
True to tradition, the 28th and possibly last episode of Godzilla was shot almost entirely with a man dressed up as the fire-breathing giant reptile.
”This is a way for us to kind of fight back against Hollywood films that use all these great computer-graphics technologies, use so much money and have hundreds of thousands of extras,” said Ryuhei Kitamura, director of Godzilla Final Wars, which hit Japanese screens the past weekend.
”Because there is a human being inside that suit, you feel that human energy bursting out of it. That’s what I like about this film,” he told a press conference.
However, the latest film, shot at two billion yen ($19-million), takes advantage of sophisticated computer graphics to give the costumed monster’s performances unique movement.
”This is a way for us to use our own, uniquely Japanese special-effect technology and to really challenge Hollywood,” the director said.
Actors in Godzilla suits have been smashing meticulously designed miniature buildings of the world’s great cities since the monster’s film debut in 1954.
”In the past works, even in recent works, computer graphics has been used to create Godzilla movies. But still, with the suit, I basically feel that Godzilla gets more of a human nuance,” said Eiichi Asada, special-effects director of the latest episode.
”I personally feel that Godzilla has survived because there is a person inside, because there is a person acting. I think that’s why Godzilla is admired and loved so much by the fans throughout the world,” Asada said.
In the new movie, defenders on the Earth awaken Godzilla, trapped in ice at the South Pole, to make ”the most destructive weapon on Earth” fight against rival monsters going on the rampage in New York, Paris, Shanghai and Sydney.
The film had its world premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood last month and has been advertised as the last Godzilla film, although the director himself left open the possibility there will be even more final wars for the monster.
In the original 1954 film, Godzilla rose out of a roiling sea and swam to Japan after being awakened by a hydrogen bomb test in the South Pacific.
It was a pointed allusion to a United States test at Bikini Atoll in March that year. The crew of a Japanese tuna-fishing boat suffered from the fallout of the test, fuelling Japanese activism against nuclear weapons as the test came nine years after the US atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
”Whether the problem is nuclear wars or terrorism, I think the main message in Godzilla films is very simple: don’t do needless violence, don’t make wars,” Kitamura said.
”Godzilla’s message is very simple. In his unique way, he tells us not to do bad things, as he destroys everything in his sight,” he said. — Sapa-AFP