Get Ready - July 29, 2016 marks the return of a giant of Japanese cinema. Godzilla. Toho Cinemas is bringing back, after a 12-year absence, the iconic creature to Japanese screens.
Check out the “Teaser” trailer here:
The movie is being directed by the famous director Hideaki Anno, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, who also wrote the picture. The other co-director, Shinji Higuchi, maker of this year’s “Attack on Titan”, is in charge of the film’s special effects. Godzilla promises to be big - like, actually quite big. Godzilla, in the new film "Godzilla Resurgence” (aka “Shin Godzilla”), will be 118.5 meters (389 feet) tall, compared to just 108 meters (354 feet) for the 2014 Hollywood “Godzilla” directed by Gareth Edwards.
The last made-in-Japan Godzilla was Ryuhei Kitamura's 2004 "Godzilla: Final Wars". The film's Japanese title, "Shin Gojira", signifies that it is not a "revival" or a "rebirth." While it can be translated as "New Godzilla," it can also mean "True Godzilla," "God Godzilla," and other connotations, and director Anno selected the name due to the double-meanings. Like the classic Godzilla films, this film promises to tap into deep fears over modern threats to life and society. Co-director Higuchi promised that this will be the scariest Godzilla yet, quoting the horrors of the real world, like 9/11, the March 11 tsunami, and subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis. The film will use a hybrid of actors moving through miniatures (a staple of the early Godzilla films), computer graphics, and special effects.
If you can’t wait, of course, you can always visit Godzilla at his home, above the Toho Cinema theatre in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The Japanese government, in a ceremony this year, issued the monster official Japanese residency papers. The papers note that the 61-year-old monster was born on April 9, 2015, the year the first Godzilla film from director Ishirō Honda. Since then, Toho has made 28 other Godzilla movies that sometimes saw the lizard defending humanity by fighting other monsters, and other times Godzilla had to be fought off by even more monsters and the militarized humans. If you are a real Godzilla fan, you can even book a room at the Hotel Gracery in Shinjuku, which opened this year and offers Godzilla-themed rooms and views of the monster outside the window.
The Japanese Godzilla films are unrelated to the American Godzilla remake that hit screens last year. However, Gareth Edwards's followup to Godzilla will hit theaters on June 8, 2018. The first of his Godzilla movies made over $500 million worldwide. Edwards teased Godzilla 2 at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014, hinting at the appearance of Rodan and Mothra in the sequel. As for the 1998 American version, the Japanese version killed off that creature in the 2004 “Final Wars” movie, but unfortunately also destroyed the Sydney Opera House in the process.
Sources:
Kotaku.com
Anime News Network
RocketNews24
Geek.com
IGN
Variety