Go back to 1954. On March 1, 1954, a fishing boat called the No. 5 Fukuryu Maru entered the waters near Bikini Island to work and returned with a full reward. Suddenly, a huge mushroom cloud appeared in front of the fishermen. A few days after returning to port, a total of 23 fishermen on board were severely nuclear-contaminated. The incident caused a serious anti-nuclear movement in Japan, and also cast a shadow over the hydrogen bomb test of the US "Operation Castle". I have to mention that in the 1954 version of Godzilla, it was the hydrogen bomb experiment that woke this ancient beast from its slumber.
Godzilla is the product of anti-nuclear ideology during the Cold War, and its influence is far-reaching. Toho has successively produced a number of monster-themed films in the following decades. Here, I would like to introduce two producers of the "Godzilla" series, one is the director of the 1954 version, Mr. Ishiro Honda, who witnessed the war of aggression against China and the nuclear explosion of Hiroshima, and the panic and insignificance of human beings under the disaster. , so he created "Godzilla" to let the monster convey catastrophic horror. The other is Mr. Eiji Tsuburaya, the father of special photography. He used a miniature model of the city and made the actors wear monster costumes. With this seemingly simple technology, he realized the scene of the monster attacking Tokyo. Tsuburaya Productions, founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, has produced the "Ultraman" series that countless Chinese young people are obsessed with, and the ninth episode of the original Ultraman is Ultraman vs. Godzilla.
Looking back at the original Godzilla, it was a film with oriental colors. The emotional conflict between a small family affected the trend of the whole big event. This is the long-term concept of the oriental people taking the family as the core and leading the small to the big. . In the end, Dr. Serizawa chose to die with the monster. This choice was based on the lofty belief in suicide and incision in the spirit of Japanese Bushido. Even if there is no knife, it is just a beast, and the oxygen destruction that can dissolve all life developed by himself. device.
In 2014, based on the adaptation of the 1954 version, Hollywood remade Godzilla again. How to transform the film with strong oriental colors in the Cold War era into a Hollywood special effects commercial blockbuster has become a question before watching the film. After watching the movie, I think the movie gives the audience a more satisfactory answer.
Although nuclear war is far away, the threat of nuclear energy still exists, and this proposition has been widely discussed especially after the Fukushima nuclear power plant leakage. In this movie, the Kimela nuclear power plant leakage incident caused by the monster attack reflects the Fukushima incident, which led to the tragedy of the widow of the nuclear scientist played by Lao Bai. Lao Bai became a tragic figure like Dr. Serizawa 60 years ago, and sacrificed himself in order to explore the truth of the incident. Bryan Cranston is an amazing actor, and his tears, after watching his wife forever locked at the door, taught me what the limits of grief are. Although there is only less than half of the movie's role, he explained to us how the Tony Award for Best Actor is developed.
Just like 60 years ago, this blockbuster once again focuses the emotional clues on a family, starting from Lao Bai's son bringing his father home, his way home and his concern for his wife throughout the monster Mu. Too's attack from west to east, until he met his wife, this delicate emotional line like an oriental movie finally ended, and this kind of delicate emotion is rarely seen in Hollywood blockbusters.
Until the end of the film, there are not many scenes that directly describe the fighting of monsters. It has been rendering an atmosphere of horror and suspense for a long time. When the soldiers tracked down Muto, they seemed to walk into the "Alien" ”, and as Godzilla creeps into San Francisco, the birds in the air seem like a Hitchcock-esque flock of aggressive birds. Although the pace is slow, it creates a sense of tension that can be spied on in classic films.
This film is also exceptionally profound in digging into the relationship between humans and the natural world. From beginning to end, humans are only supporting roles in this monster war, because they are too small. The new generation of Dr. Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe, chooses to fight with snipe and mussels when dealing with destroying monsters, precisely because he advocates the law of the weak in natural selection. He believes that Godzilla is the strong one, and that humans are not the masters that decide the fate of nature. When the tiny American soldier, in the cloudy doomsday sky, draws a few crimson, and the sound is indeed the low whine when the black monument of human evolution in "2001 A Space Odyssey" appeared, and he couldn't help feeling awe for the great nature. Respect, and the representative of this natural force is this Godzilla.
Compared to the easy-to-understand version of the 1954 version, this new version of "Godzilla" is a big step forward in terms of esoteric philosophy, but it feels like there are a lot of unresolved issues that can only be felt from a more perceptual point of view. A sacred and great. Yet as Godzilla fades from the horizon and heroes twilight, we need to thank this monster for what he has done for humanity, even if he is unfortunate, yet he is destined to be great. He is the most famous and greatest monster in movie history, Godzilla!
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