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Jun 15 11 11:51 PM
Jun 16 11 10:50 AM
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Jun 17 11 3:18 PM
NATURALISTIC! UNCANNY! MARVELOUS!
Jun 17 11 11:36 PM
Jun 18 11 12:32 AM
Erik wrote:There are two music alterations to the US version from memory, both of which actually improve on the Japanese version. 1) Instead of the upbeat martial march, the US title sequence uses the eerie music heard when Godzilla is risen from the lake.
Jun 18 11 12:40 AM
gene phillips wrote:As I watched of MZ recently, I found myself whether or not the Xilian leader's lines in Japanese (in the death scene) might've had different content than the English dubbing. Yeah, I know, it's never happened before, but... (!!) As you'll all recall the alien leader's last lines are something about escaping the Earthmen's bombardment by voyaging through time. He fails and the saucer blows up. But given the force with which the leader flips that switch at the end-- body language now suggesting to me that he had a little difficulty making himself do it-- I can't help if it wasn't more of a suicide action, a last gesture of defiance to the Earthmen. I can't say I have encyclopedic knowledge of Japan's complex ethic about suicide, but in a way last-ditch self-immolation would make more sense than a last-ditch "Hey guys, let's see if we can find a wormhole in the next six seconds!"
Jun 18 11 1:55 AM
Jun 18 11 9:45 AM
Jun 18 11 5:23 PM
SparkieGojira wrote:Wow. Good call, Uchujin65. I've long thought that WW2 haunts everything from GOJIRA to GUNDAM and MACROSS in ways the casual viewer might not even want to perceive.
Jun 19 11 6:44 PM
Uchujin65 wrote:SparkieGojira wrote:Wow. Good call, Uchujin65. I've long thought that WW2 haunts everything from GOJIRA to GUNDAM and MACROSS in ways the casual viewer might not even want to perceive.WWII impacted the Japanese psyche like nothing else, in fact I'd say there's barely one piece of Japanese pop culture that doesn't contain some reference to it. In Evangelion for example all the characters' last names are actually navy vessels used by the Japanese Imperial Navy. It's made for some very interesting themetical elements in Japanese cinema, the collective experience of essentially being a part of waging war for what ended up being an unjust and inevitably doomed cause.Though this is completely theoretical and conjecture and some may take offense, I even wonder if anime and all that, the fact that the Japanese love to draw themselves with large eyes and definitely more Caucasian features than Asiatic comes from a sort of deep national collective feeling of self loathing instilled by being defeated by America and most of the West. Hideaki Anno has kind of hinted that he sort of believes this, he once said that he thinks Japan's defeat and post-war subjugation has created a nation where a child-like mentality seems to reign supreme, ironic since McArthur called Japan a nation with the mind of a 12 year old boy.
Jun 19 11 9:25 PM
Jun 19 11 9:32 PM
Jun 19 11 9:33 PM
gorgozilla wrote:Maybe unrelated, but has anyone else noticed how some of the old Japanese movie stars somewhat resembled Hollywood actors of the same period? Akira Takarada.....Rock Hudson
Jun 20 11 12:04 AM
Uchujin65 wrote:Gorgozilla raises an interesting point as well. Actually, both the Japanese and Chinese/Hong Kong (like Shaw Brothers) studios often cast lead actors who had some Western facial features and always relegated their "really Asian" looking actors to smaller roles.
Uchujin65 wrote: Perhaps there's a weird undercurrent of self loathing and Anglophilia inherent in much of Asian culture. Or maybe certain parameters of physical beauty are universal. Or there's the "exotic" or "novelty" factor. If you look at paintings of Nyi Roro Kidul, the Queen of the South Sea, you'll see a big difference in how this beautiful and lethal legendary diety is portrayed by Indonesian vs Dutch artists. In the Indonesian paintings, she looks kind of like Catherine Zeta-Jones. In Dutch depictions, she looks like Whoopi Goldberg with Lucy Liu eyes (prominent cheekbones, thick lips, snub nose, very slanted eyes- every stereotyped "nonwhite" facial feature rolled together. Maybe to the Dutch, such a woman is considered "exotic". But to Indonesians, these pictures just look "ugly".
Sep 15 11 9:05 PM
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Sep 16 11 2:34 PM
Hachigatsu wrote:I'm reading lots of very interesting speculation on the Japanese psyche, WW2 complexes, etc. It's amazing how we look at other cultures we know little or next to nothing about. Is that all we think of Japan? Samurai, Bushido, Suicide, and WW2? I mean, do we get into dissecting our own "American Xenophobia" in something like THE SPACE CHILDREN or I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE? Yes and no (but, mostly, "No"). We, as Americans, usually analyze our films by the measure of the Human Condition, in general, and not solely by our Culture or History. Sometimes the latter never even comes into play. But we always cite WW2 when discussing Japanese fantasy cinema. In fact, we bring that to the table more than the Japanese do — and that could stem from the guilt of dropping two A-Bombs on civilian targets. I'm sure if that if we read a foreign message board with folks discussing the "American anxiety over Peal Harbor" in analyzing the "excessive military aggression against the Martians" in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, or finding subtext of Imperial-Capitalist Expansionism in THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, or Civil War Complexes in THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED, we'd think that they were daft. Wouldn't we? This isn't an indictment — it's just an observation — simply some food for thought.
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