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A podcast that holds horror to standards horror never agreed to. Hosts Jeremy Whitley, Ben Kahn, Emily Martin and guests watch, read, listen to, and check out movies, tv shows, comics, books, art and anything else from the horror genre and discuss it through a progressive lens. We'll talk feminism in horror, LGBTQ+ issues and representation in horror, racial and social justice in horror, disability and mental health/illness in horror, and the work of female and POC directors, writers, and creators in horror.
We're the podcast horror never agreed to take part in.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: this movie where I feel like you
could honestly spend four fucking hours
talking about the politics of this movie.
Steve: Heh heh heh heh.
Jeremy: Could, could we, could we not?
Ben: not that I'm suggesting we do that!
Jeremy: Yeah, I, just on, on
Alicia's behalf, could we not?
Emily: Yeah, I actually, like, omitted
most of the political shit from the recap.
I wrote the recap before I rewatched it.
Steve: That's all this movie is!
Heh heh heh
Ben: you know, and you know what?
I haven't had dinner yet, because I like
to stay hungry emotionally and literally.
Emily: okay.
Sounds good.
Well, let's, let's get into
this so I can, so you can eat.
I,
Jeremy: Alright, let's talk about it.
Good evening, and welcome to
Progressively Horrified, the podcast
where we hold horror to progressive
standards it never agreed to.
Tonight, we're celebrating Emily's
birthday by talking about the hyper
realistic adaptation of a movie
about a giant aquatic monster god.
It's Shin Godzilla!
Uh,
!
I am your host, Jeremy Whitley,
and with me tonight, I have a
panel of cinephiles and cinebites.
First, they're here to challenge
the sexy verbal sexy vampire
binary, my co host, Ben Kahn.
Ben, how are you tonight?
Ben: There is not a drink stiff enough
into this world for me to be ready to
talk about the politics of Shin Godzilla.
Am I ready for a movie that got two
enthusiastic thumbs up from Chex Notes?
Shinzo Abe?
No, I'm not ready for this.
Emily: I'm tempted to throw out
that suitcase, but I'm gonna,
I'm gonna at least address it.
Jeremy: Well, on that note, the birthday
girl themselves, cinnamonrollofxenobites,
Archos, Emily Martin.
How are you tonight, Emily?
Emily: I am going to say that as this
movie may have gotten two thumbs up
from Shinzo Abe, it did depict the
Prime Minister of Japan being exploded.
Jeremy: Mm
Emily: So, spoilers.
Ben: I think that seems consistent
given that Shinzo Abe was killed
and the country's reaction was, Now
hold on, let's hear his assassin
out, he's got some good points.
Emily: But he was so creative.
Ben: Fuckin amazing.
Like, just one of the wildest
fuckin stories in recent history, I
Emily: Also get ready for
the Evangelion references.
Ben: I mean, how can you
not?
It's a Dekiano.
Jeremy: I was gonna say, wildly,
wildly, this is not the most ponderous
thing we've watched for your birthday.
Steve: Heh
Jeremy: Having just last year, on this
same occasion, watched all of Evangelion.
Emily: You are true friends.
Ben: I do appreciate that this was
a much shorter runtime for us to
Emily: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Jeremy: and speaking of two friends...
True friends, two friends, our
Emily: true friends.
Jeremy: two of our favorites, comics
artist Jamie Noguchi and podcaster
Steve Say, guys, welcome back!
Ben: Fuckin
Jamie: us,
Ben: this movie rules, so we brought in a
pair of progressively horrified all stars.
Emily: Yes.
Steve: Thank you kindly.
Emily: You're
Steve: to be here.
Jeremy: Alright, uh, well I am
gonna leave the recap on this one
to Emily because frankly, it was
hard for me to keep up with a lot of
it, watching it for the first time.
there's both too much and not
enough going on at some points.
Ben: I
mean,
Emily: So Jeremy contacted me before
watching this, and he asked me if it
was cool to watch with his daughters.
And...
I said, yeah, it should be.
I mean, there's some parts that are
scary, but there will probably be bored.
and it sounds like that
was an accurate prediction.
Jeremy: Uh, Amara being, you know, the
second grader that she is, uh, was very
excited any time Godzilla started glowing
or anything started shooting out of him.
She was very into that.
Zuri was on her computer wandering in
and out of the room at various points.
She was,
Ben: you telling me your second
grader was unable to grasp the
nuance of the criticisms of Japanese
bureaucracy and US Japanese relations?
Jeremy: I will tell you, she
immediately knew who the cool
character was because she came in
and started speaking English, so.
Ben: Oh, you knew she was Ameri But
you fuckin know she's American because
she comes in wearing a leather jacket.
It's incredible.
Jeremy: Amara was like, she's really
pretty and she's speaking English.
Ben: Mmm,
Jeremy: I understand what she's saying,
if there's ever been a movie that it's
difficult to keep up with the subtitles
as they're happening, this is it, because
there are occasions where they introduce
characters through subtitles, which I
guess they probably do in the Japanese
version as well, but like, if you're
not paying attention, you'll miss an
entire section of dialogue because you're
reading that somebody is the head of some
division of some part of the Japanese
government, and you're like, wait, that's
not the subtitles, what, what's going on?
Ben: Okay, here's what I learned
the first time trying to watch
this movie, is that the Crunchyroll
subtitles are fucking unwatchable.
Jamie: no,
Ben: that thing where they put
the person's full title and job
and occupation and name, they
do that every time the character
Jamie: oh no,
Steve: ho.
Emily: like separated.
It's like all the same line.
So it's like half of the screen.
Ben: I took me three fucking attempts
to watch this movie correctly.
There was trying to watch it
on Crunchyroll, and just being
infuriated by the subtitles.
Then I went to Shin Godzilla on Amazon,
where I rented it, only to realize that
there was no Japanese language option.
Jamie: what,
Ben: Only to then have to rent
it again, because Shin Godzilla,
parenthesis, the original Japanese
version, end parenthesis, is its
own separate goddamn movie on the
Emily: Yeah.
No, that's
Jeremy: to see which one Emily
had bought and I watched that one.
Emily: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, my friend
has the steel box, so.
Jeremy: was like, if it's on Amazon, I'm
sure Emily has already bought this movie.
And I was like, oh, there it is.
All right.
Ben: It was a goddamn journey in
technology just getting to this
Jamie: Oh, what a travesty.
Emily: No, I, Ben, I feel you,
because I bought Godzilla Final
Wars which is a completely different
creature, as Jamie's listening
Jamie: you are a true fan!
You are a true fucking fan!
Emily: Yeah, I bought Godzilla Final Wars,
and I realized it was only in English, and
then I realized that I had it on DVD, but
it was a DVD from like 2006 or some shit.
So, I was like, alright, you guys,
we gotta watch this, we gotta watch
it in Japanese, because it also has
a random character speaking English.
But that's about as far
as the comparisons go.
Ben: I don't want a fucking Oscar to
whoever the English voiceover pilot
was who said the line, Roger, payback.
Devoid of all human emotion,
Emily: Yeah, the pilots, I want
to talk to an American Air Force
pilot in one of those planes
being like, hey, are you okay?
Like, is this based on real life?
Ben: has more emotion
than those fuckin pilots.
It's
Emily: Maybe Chad GPT was
piloting those planes.
Jamie: Payback.
Ben: had to rewire just Roger
Payback with the fuckin Rando
Yaguchi's
Jamie: to take out the scratch audio.
They just left it in.
Emily: you know, I think it was just the
TikTok filter that was like reading off.
Ben: a
Emily: They
should have used, like, the missile is
prepared to destroy the the missile is E.
Jeremy: I I love a movie
with a, good character names.
And, this has got a couple, including
Rando Yaguchi, which I was like, when
they said Rando, I was like, Rando?
Oh, oh, that's his name, okay, it's,
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: is top fuckin tier Godzilla
movie human protagonist.
Emily: Goro
Jeremy: then
maybe my
Ben: hell yeah,
Jeremy: that's ever been in a
movie, ever, Kayoco Anne Patterson.
Ben: Oh, Kayoco Patterson.
Holy
Jamie: Kayoco Anne Patterson.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: with her senator dad, whose face
they don't never show like he's fuckin Dr.
Claw.
Jamie: Now, Kayoco, I don't want
you there when the bomb goes off.
Ben: will ruin your chance of
being president in your 40s.
Steve: I'll get you next time, Gadget.
Ben: get a
Steve: time.
Ben: I'm like, goddamn, what's Fox
News got to say about Kayoco Patterson?
Emily: Oh,
my god.
Ben: I need to read her page on what
I assume is the Department of State
website, or Intelligence Files.
I took a fucking photo of my television
screen, because I need to read this
in full, Kayoco Anne Patterson, U.
S.
Department of State
International Mechanism Official.
Emily: What?
Ben: It is the
Jamie: official.
Ben: It is the Japanese
American third from Washington.
She entered Harvard
University at 15 years old.
She learned economics, political
science, and acquired a bachelor.
Emily: I Good for her.
Ben: After doctoral course completion,
she acquired a trial lawyer qualification.
Father member of upper
house of Democratic Party.
Jamie: Oh, God.
Jeremy: house.
Jamie: What does that mean?
We have an upper house?
Emily: Yeah, it's it's like when, Mars
Jeremy: in,
the House of Lords.
He's,
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: I love that the fucking, the
localizer was able to see that and
go like, Okay, you mean senator.
Her dad's a senator.
We're gonna just say that.
But that did not make its way into
this fucking screenshot of the
US Department of State website.
Emily: honestly, considering how
a lot of like government websites
work, I wouldn't be surprised
if they weren't like proofread.
Ben: Yeah, so I just need to share that
in full, because it's fucking incredible.
Emily: it was gorgeous.
Thank you for, I saw the
screenshot and Twitter.
So good.
Jeremy: Speaking of our, uh, time spent
watching various other things, that Emily
has recommended this, including, I think
this abbreviation came up in Evangelion.
There were several, like, abbreviations
in this for different Japanese state
departments that I didn't know,
but then JSDF showed up and I was
like, hey, I know what that is!
I know that one!
It was like Steve Rogers, eh?
Jamie: got that
Ben: Well, I will say, Take anything
we say in this podcast with a grain
of salt, because I feel like the
overwhelming theme of this movie, and
if there's one message to take away
that the creators are trying to impart,
it's GO THE FUCK AWAY AMERICANS, I
DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU THINK.
Emily: I don't know if this is
how the Japanese government works.
I don't know anything.
Ben: Everything I know comes from
Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell.
Emily: When the fucking Fukushima
Daiichi disaster was happening
and when the, tsunami hit.
Back in 2011, I was working retail
and people kept coming into the store
like freaking out about radiation and
I ended up like going on the internet
at the store and looking up like
Japanese radiation, regulation and
like all of these things and looked up
like Nico Nico Live, which is the NHK.
Live stream, uh, NHK being like, one
of the main news outlets in Japan, in
terms of politics, I don't know what
their equivalency is here, but I did
end up seeing a lot of Shinzo Abe, And
a lot of people in their little, in the
blue uniforms and making announcements
and talking about throwing concrete
on things and, pointing it all of the
different reactors of Fukushima Daiichi.
So, at least that was familiar to me.
How all that worked, I am not fluent in
Ben: this satire that I think translates,
even without knowing anything.
thing about the workings of
the Japanese political system.
There is a level of satire that I
think translates no matter what.
Like when they're in the fucking Prime
Minister's office and they're like,
We need a bigger meeting for this!
Quick, to the conference room!
Emily: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Ben: Now we need a smaller meeting!
Quick, back to the
Prime Minister's office!
You've got the fucking The military
is just sitting around, having a
meeting, waiting for the politicians
to sit around and have a meeting.
Emily: yeah.
Jeremy: say Amar's favorite part in
this early going was when the group of
men in the same suits, uh, were all in
one room, and then they went to another
room to find more men in the same suits.
Ben: There's
Jeremy: there was a whole bunch
of them and they left one room and
then they came to another room and
there were even more guys in suits.
Ben: there's an almost Monty
Python quality to a lot of the
the early parts of this movie.
Emily: Yeah, but I think the brilliance
of that is that it is probably
some of the most accurate, I mean,
maybe the real thing is less stiff,
Ben: the Prime Minister being like,
I need to address the nation, quick,
someone get me my emergency gear uniform
so it looks like I'm doing something.
Emily: oh,
Jeremy: the number
Ben: the the one, the
Jeremy: same room go, are
we doing such and such?
Are we doing such and such?
We're doing such and such.
We're doing such and
Jamie: Yeah, it's like horror,
repeating what the computer is saying,
like all in the original series,
Ben: one fucking old guy who just
exists to a press conference.
Emily: and, yeah, and so we were
talking about the subtitles, and a
lot of these people are announced
by subtitles, so I assume in the
Japanese versions are, they're, they
have actual Japanese subtitles there
but there's other times, like, when
they basically like, , superimpose the
entirety of Article 74 over the screen.
I'm glad that they didn't
translate that one, because that
would have been just too much.
Ben: Speaking of superimposing stuff on
the screen, let's give it up for this
movie's innovation in the laptop vision.
Emily: Hell yeah.
Ben: like, fuck it, just people
just staring at a glowing screen
and just fucking, And you know what?
It was fucking hype as hell.
Emily: Yeah.
that's the other thing about this
movie is that it's, really fast
paced for being about bureaucracy.
Ben: It's like, bureaucracy is almost
like, Fuckin that Simpsons quote,
like, Bureaucracy, the cause of and
solution to all of life's problems.
Like, this is a movie all about how,
fuckin just like, rigamortous, like,
fuckin Unable to respond, like the
bureaucracy is, but then I guess it also
presents like it's idealized vision of a
super cool badass bureaucracy where the
camera's whipping around and the cool
music's playing and the guys are just
being like, I'm fucking securing the
manufacturing facilities as we speak.
What about the transport?
I'm on it.
We need to delay the count.
I got a fucking back channel.
Jeremy: I love that like the first half
hour of this movie is Randall Yaguchi
trying to be like uh, guys, I, no, I'm
sorry, guys, I just, no, wait, guys,
I think that we should do something
about this, um, I think that it's a
monster, guys and that he's trying to
tell everybody what's actually happening
for a half an hour, Before Kayoco Anne
Patterson kicks in the door and she's
like, I'm American and fuck red tape.
Let's get some shit done.
The movie starts moving
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ben: This movie will eventually just
bring out a bunch of random white
people to serve as, like, Americans.
Jeremy: to look out windows.
Ben: This is,
Emily: Yeah.
Symmetrically.
Ben: incredibly Japanese woman
who's speaking a lot of very
heavily Japanese accented of what
is supposed to be her native tongue.
And also, my favorite part was her going
like, The land of my grandmother, the
only relative of mine who is from Japan,
I, only one quarter Japanese woman.
Emily: She was spending a lot of
time in Japan before that, I guess.
Jeremy: And they really took the
time for her to be like, Hey I'm
not very good with honorifics.
Can we cut that shit
out and be more casual?
It's like, Oh, very American.
Ben: Yeah, she's like, I'm not super
comfortable with my Japanese, and then
just speaks like, the fucking fastest
that anyone speaks in this whole film.
Jamie: love how they think how
organized Americans are and how
quickly our government would
move in a crisis situation.
We've ha we have documented
proof that that is not the case.
Ben: But that's not, we don't Kayoco Ann
Jeremy: blame
Ben: on the job.
Jeremy: We
Ben: have
Jeremy: somebody else for Godzilla and
bomb them.
Jamie: That part felt real for us.
But like, the fact that they think
the Americans are fast acting.
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
Our, uh, our bureaucracy is just
as bad and doesn't work as well.
Ben: Nope.
I mean, this is like, if we made,
like, I don't know, like, A goddamn
zombie movie that was mostly
about, like, partisan gridlock.
Emily: I, that would
Jamie: that would be amazing.
While the zombies are munching on them.
Ben: Yeah, like
Jamie: like, we gotta have a meeting.
Ben: this zombie incident that
starts very manageable, but then
just all the fuckery of the US
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: like it makes it spiral
into full on apocalypse.
Jamie: Now don't give Hollywood
any ideas unsolicited.
Ben: Alicia, cut this.
Cut this, cut this.
I'm gonna
Emily: Yeah.
TM,
Jamie: You gotta write that shit down.
Emily: mail right now.
Jamie: Save that for
when the strike is over.
Jeremy: the name is not familiar
to me, but apparently the guy who
plays the official of Japan's self
defense forces is a Japanese rapper.
Jamie: Yo.
Ben: Fuck yes.
Emily: I didn't know that.
Ben: that.
like the dude or the la The dude or the
lady who's in charge of the military.
Emily: If the lady was a rapper I'd
be like, that's fucking legendary.
That's more legendary
than legendary Godzilla.
Like, she was hardcore too.
Ben: I mean, in this movie, we
got, Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka
Takenochi, and Satomi Ishihara.
This is a fucking beautiful cast.
Like, all the main characters.
These are stunningly beautiful
government officials.
Emily: Even my girl Mikako Ishikawa,
who is the sort of tired looking,
like, super nerd, who is one of my
favorite characters in this movie.
Um, she plays
Hiromi Ogashira.
Yeah, and she's the one who's like, hey.
Ben: Her and, like, the scientist
who's always wearing, like, a scarf.
And there's, like, Origami.
Like, they're my favorite characters.
They're the best.
Emily: the scarf scientist was so good
too, but let me talk about the specs here
god, this man is gorgeous Almost as hot
as Machinrio, but we'll get to that later.
Ben: Oh, are we talking One Piece time?
Live action?
Okay.
Emily: later.
Jeremy: We cannot get into that.
Emily: No Okay, so this
Is a movie from 2016.
It's directed by Hideki Ano the creator,
director at all of Ev Evangelian.
Um, he's also directed a bunch of live
action movies, some for better or worse.
And Ji Higuchi, uh, co-directs
mostly his V FX director.
Also worked with Hideki ano on
a lot of the evangelian stuff.
Written by Hideaki Anno starring, as
we've said, Hidoki Hasegawa as Deputy
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yaguchi.
Rando Yaguchi, excuse me.
Satomi Ishihara as Kayoco Anne Patterson.
Yutaka Takanochi the aide to the
Prime Minister uh, Hideaki Akasuka.
And Mikako Ichikawa as Hiromi
Ogashira, among others.
Those are the, main stars
that I wanted to discuss.
So,
Jeremy: Deki, is he, uh, Deki
Akasaka the guy who has like a
real cigarette smoking man vibe?
Who's just like, regularly talking to
Yaguchi throughout this and he's like,
Yeah, well, you could do this, but,
Emily: yeah, he's the
one with the glasses.
Jeremy: yeah, he's got a real
like, This is a man who might
quietly murder you vibe.
Emily: yeah, he's got
a big mafia end to him.
Alright, so,
Jamie: He was in Shin Kamen Rider.
Emily: Oh, I haven't seen that yet.
Jamie: Oh shit, sorry.
Emily: talk Oh, Kamen Rider.
Okay.
Jamie: But he was in Shin Kamen Rider.
Ben: Is he Kamen Rider?
Jamie: No he's, um, he's not Kamen
Rider, but he plays, uh, Tachibana Tobe.
So he's, he's like the handler.
Ben: Hiroki Hasegawa, he plays
Ultraman, that one Shin Ultraman,
Jamie: Yes.
Yes.
Uh, uh,
yeah.
Takumi Saito.
Oh, Takumi Saito.
The tank captain.
He has a cameo as a tank captain.
And I was like, I recognize
that motherfucker because
he's in Shin Ultraman.
Emily: Nice.
Ben: Yes, part of, uh, what is that, uh,
Hideaki, Hideaki Anno's, uh, Shinverse.
It has a
Emily: his, his, Japan, it's like Japan
classic Heroes,
first
Jamie: Yeah.
But I think Yutaka Takanochi
also has a role in Shin Ultraman.
So he's in all three.
Ben: Well, I just checked, and
apparently his role in those
other two is government official,
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: Man, man's fucking
playing to its height.
Emily: there you go.
All right, so our movie begins Tokyo Bay,
where else, where an abandoned yacht is
found belonging to a missing zoologist.
This heralds a number of incidents,
including the sinking of a
rescue boat and the flooding of
the Tokyo Bay Aqualine Tunnel.
To clarify, the Tokyo Bay Aqualine.
Is collection of bridges and
tunnels that cross the Tokyo Bay.
It sounds fucking terrifying.
It's like the chunnel.
Yeah.
Anyway, it's flooded and
Jeremy: you do get to exit by a
slide when it fucks up, which is
Emily: yeah, and this is all
represented by like various found
footage and then some footage of the
folks in the government reacting.
Adding to the mystery, a video
of a giant tail thrashing in
the bay waters goes viral.
The government and the populace react.
Enter Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
Rando Yaguchi, who postulates that some
kind of living creature is involved.
Everyone thinks that this is preposterous,
until a giant, awkward, fish eyed
monstrosity starts ambling through
Tokyo's Kamada district, ejecting
copious amounts of blood from its gills,
and stumbling over cars and buildings.
Jeremy: Nobody even says sorry
to you, Gucci, I just gotta say.
Nobody's like, no, our bad, you
were right, it is a giant monster.
Emily: Everyone's like, ha
ha ha, and then, yeah, and
Steve: Can I make a confession?
Ben: Yes.
Steve: I did not realize that we were
dealing with Godzilla right off the bat.
Jamie: Oh, yeah
Steve: I saw,
Ben: was, like, the monster that Godzilla
Steve: yeah, like, I, I didn't, I
walked into this not knowing a single
thing about it other than a bunch of
my friends and Saw it during Comic Con.
They went to like some premiere
or something like that.
So I didn't know that this was going
to be kind of in a more traditional
style Godzilla movie as opposed to
the Americanized ones that we've
gotten in the past like decade or so.
Um,
so,
Ben: will say, it does not get much
more traditional Godzilla than fighting
King Kong with random bullshit involved.
Steve: true, very
Ben: fucking my That's like the fucking,
like, third Godzilla movie or something.
Steve: I just,
Ben: That's good.
That's pretty old school.
Steve: Like, I didn't know about the
evolution stuff, I didn't know that,
like, when that thing came out of the
water and we got our first look at
that googly eye that they, you know,
kind of taped onto the side, I was
like, is that the thing that he fights?
What's up with the arms?
And then it started to transform
and I was like, oh, okay.
Jeremy: I have to say
I was in the same boat.
I knew little to nothing about this
other than like what I've learned having
talked to you guys about completely other
different movies that this comes up on,
you know, somewhat often, but like, with
Godzilla first pops out of the river.
And, uh, he's got those giant fish eyes.
I was like, that's going to change, right?
We're going to change that.
Cause
Steve: I saw, I was reading something
and they were like, The so and so
did the redesign for Godzilla, and
then that thing came out of the
water and I was like, Ooooooh no.
Emily: So,
Ben: and a miss
Jeremy: it's It's a lot for you to expect
me to take that seriously for very low
because I do enjoy those early
things with him, like crashing
boats down the river and
Emily: like flopping its head
on buildings and shit, like it
just has no idea what the fuck.
Ben: I mean,
Jamie: they call him Kamata
kun, and they, yeah, and he
has plushies, and it's so cute.
Ben: There's one family that just straight
up dies because they're in a building
that Godzilla knocks over, not even
trying to, like, knock over a building.
It's just Godzilla's just trying to
keep, like, his balance while, like,
standing up for the first time, and
he doesn't quite have the hang of it.
Emily: I will say Kamata like,
I had the same reaction when
I first watched the movie.
I'm like, what the fuck is this?
Steve: Hehehehe.
Emily: What the fuck is this
googly eyed little shit?
And then, I know, and now
I love him and I would die
Jamie: He must be protected.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: It's
Ben: guess I had more context, cause
I did go into this knowing it was
more of a reboot, and the evolution.
But yeah, really more than other,
especially American takes on
Godzilla attacks, like, this really
did feel like a true modern...
Reboot or recreation.
I mean, just taking the core of
Godzilla from being a commentary
on the nuclear attacks of World
War II to the Fukushima disaster.
I mean, it's such a, refocusing
that so perfectly modernizes it,
and also completely changes the
themes that the story is exploring.
I mean, just so much that it goes
from like, Godzilla is something
that happened to us, to Godzilla is
something we did to, partly to ourselves.
Just changes what this movie
is choosing to explore so much
compared to the 54 original.
Emily: yeah, well, this 1 also is
is a reflection on just how out
of control people are as well.
that works with.
the commentary about nuclear
war and nuclear power I'm going
to continue the recap before we
get too much further, although
Ben: Because, like I said, we
can spend fuckin hours about the
themes and...
Emily: um,
so Kamata kun is, um, out and about
leaving a trail of destruction
behind their, cute little tail.
The Prime Minister and all his
officers struggle to keep up
with the escalating events.
Citizens barely have a chance to
evacuate, and during the time they take
to discuss what to do Godzilla changes
form and retreats back into the bay.
During this brief respite, the government
has time to contemplate the following.
One, what the fuck.
Two, they will explode it.
Three, they should probably
evacuate people better.
Four, oh shit It's radioactive.
Five, actually they should figure out
what the fuck before they explode it.
The Prime Minister makes a statement,
the government issues evac orders, and
Rando Yaguchi assembles an elite team of
super nerds to figure out what the fuck.
The military gears up
for the explosion part.
Best girl, I'm in my opinion, Hiromi
Ogashira, is proven correct that the
creature is powered by nuclear fission,
which complicates explosion plans.
Jamie: In one of the best scenes
where the guy who was like you're
wrong and then like half an hour
half a minute later He's like,
Emily: Guy's like screaming!
He's I love that guy
so much,
Steve: if I could just make a note Let's
go with Band of Rebel Scientists, as they
were called in the version I watched.
Ben: Incredible.
Emily: they have like a
whole like, Upstarts, Super
Steve: That was like, an anime
introduction, of going around the table
introducing all the zany characters.
They really needed some like, eye
twinkle and flair in the background.
Ben: man, we I need like,
fuckin like, some James Gunn
Steve: Just the scarf blowin in the wind,
Ben: graphics appear.
Emily: But it's his towel.
Steve: yeah, big shine in the smile, like,
Ben: I know the first, like, 30
minutes of the movie is mostly
just Old Japanese bureaucrats being
entirely ineffectual and useless.
But I wanted to say...
If I was in a meeting and it was like,
Hey, a pipes person, there's flooding,
we need to deal with this flooding issue.
And one of my co workers went
like, Maybe a monster did it.
Emily: That's true.
Jeremy: I do appreciate.
You're talking about Harumi
Agashira and how much you loved her.
I do think, like, she has a
real, like, April Ludgate of this
office energy, that she's just
Ben: Yeah!
Jeremy: are stupid.
They're like, there's no way that
his weird, you know, coral feet
will work when he gets up on land,
and she's like, yeah, they will.
And then, they do, and
she's like, I told you,
Jamie: I told you motherfuckers
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, other best girl Kayoka
Anne Patterson struts into the
scene with some special info.
Ben: And her leather jacket.
Emily: in her leather jacket and her
Ben: Cause how else are we supposed
to know she's American if she
doesn't wear a leather jacket?
Jamie: It's the best tokusatsu entrance.
It's a proper toku entrance.
Emily: Yes.
so she comes in with this info about
how this creature was predicted by
Goro Maki, who is a zoologist shunned
by Japan and American academia alike.
That was his boat that
we saw in the beginning.
He called the creature Godzilla.
Nobody believed him about it.
So he disappeared and left his notes
behind, which were all in some crazy code.
A bunch of international
scientists have done some research
on it, but it's incomplete.
And now the U.
S., which is Kayoco's home country,
is calling dibs on the monster.
Kayoco may or may not be able
to save Japan and the world, but
hell if it's gonna stop her from
running for president of the U.
S.
A.
Ben: Yeah, there's a great line when
they first start working together, and
I think it's Yaguchi as Kayoco, like, do
you want to study it or exterminate it?
And I just thought to
myself, I'm like, Baby!
We're American!
We do both!
Jeremy: we can study
it after we blow it up.
Emily: yeah,
Jamie: Fuck it or fight it, which one?
Ben: We're not an, we're
not an ore country,
we're an air
Emily: Yeah, yes, and!
So, during this discussion,
Godzilla re emerges from the sea.
It's bigger and badder than ever, and
now it is time for the explosion plan!
The explosions don't work.
That's the short version of that story.
Now the U.
S.
comes in and also uses some
explosions, and they're because
they're helping, they swear.
Um, yeah, quote unquote, helping.
The government offices have to evacuate
because, you know, Godzilla's like right
in the middle of town, and America's gonna
blow Godzilla up in the middle of town.
So, the, PM and several of his officers
climb into a helicopter, but they meet
their untimely demise when Godzilla
reacts to all of the bombs coming out
of the air with his oxyacetylene torch
atomic breath and fucking dorsal lasers.
Yes, folks, this Godzilla has...
More shit.
Jeremy: Like, he's fucking
good at aiming him, too.
He's just, he's a
Emily: Yeah, well, he just
works out the kinks in his back
and I mean, he's kind of a AOE
Jeremy: little shimmy, takes out all
the planes, takes out all the bombs.
Emily: yeah, so he basically just
does a purification spread in
the like dome of space above him.
So,
Steve: All those years of
tap are finally paying off.
Jamie: I can do it!
Steve: I told you I'd
amount to something, Dad!
Jamie: Bucket wing!
Bucket wing!
Emily: Nautilus, don't dance!
Alright,
Steve: I just wanna dance!
Sorry,
Emily: this is all good.
So, yeah a bunch of high ups in
the government, including the Prime
Minister, they have all exploded and
that sucks, but at least Chizilla is,
ooh, that didn't come out right, at least
Jamie: Chizula, I love that though.
He's
straight chillin
Emily: at least G Zilla is suckered
out and hibernates in the middle
of the mostly destroyed Tokyo.
Now the government restructures
and the nerd squad figures out that
Godzilla might be propagating itself.
Fun!
China and Russia want to be involved.
Fun?
Uh, the U.
S.
is all, we had dibs on the monster.
But, actually, you know what, we prefer
dibs on exploding Japan, and so they're
all, Japan, if you can't figure out the
radioactive monster with the resources
to which we limited you by our treaty,
then we're just gonna explode it for you,
radioactively, in the middle of Tokyo.
Yeah, I guess we're gonna
explode Tokyo, sorry.
And, but at least they let the UN weigh in
so they don't, like, start World War III.
We still don't know if they
did or not, but we'll you know,
that movie hasn't been made.
Ben: well we've got that amazing old
dude, new prime minister, who's just
like, Aw, Godzilla's ruining my noodles.
My noodles are soggy.
And it's just like, Well I didn't really,
I don't really want to go down in history
as the guy who let Tokyo get blown up.
Emily: Right?
And my noodles are soggy.
Fuck.
Ben: but, I also don't like soggy noodles.
But like, This movie's really not subtle
when it wants to, like, attack a concept.
Emily: Yes.
Um,
Ben: it's symbol of a guy.
Emily: yeah.
So, Rando and the Nerd Squad wipe their
foreheads as they try to figure out
how to take care of things so the U.
S.
doesn't blow up Japan a third time.
The stand in Prime Minister buys
them time by reminding France
that they are French, so they can
disapprove the whole nuclear thing.
At the 11th hour, the nerd squad figures
out how Godzilla works with the help
of Maki's notes and some origami.
Uh, origami saves the day.
They're gonna freeze Godzilla's blood in
order to shut down its reactor system.
This is an elaborate maneuver
and does they do a lot of things
and, et cetera, they do it.
There's lots of explosions, and
atomic breath, and back lasers,
and now we have a tail laser.
Which, fuck yeah, let's go.
Anyway, they load Godzilla full
of coagulants using a bunch of
cranes and basically turn it into
a moderately radioactive monument.
Just in time, too, because
apparently it was about to evolve
into an army of Godzilla people.
Steve: is that what was gonna happen?
Ben: yeah, oh yeah, so if you're wondering
how Godzilla asexually reproduces
Godzilla just shoots out fucking H.
R.
Giger nightmare homoculus men
Steve: I wasn't I was gonna save
this for later, but I'll ask it
now since I think that we're here.
The final shot of this movie...
They pan to Godzilla's tail, and we
follow it up, and it is this, like,
Hannibal style monument of these charred
bodies, kind of, coming out of the tail.
Is that what that is?
Is that an army of
Godzillas?
Jamie: the fourth and fifth evolution.
The, the
art
Ben: the next stage.
Jamie: the art book has
maquettes of those designs.
And so that would,
that was going to be, that was going to
be the final evolution of Godzilla and it
would just run around and kill everything.
And
Emily: it was gonna be basically
Godzilla's zombie horde.
Ben: The idea
being that, like, Godzilla is an
evolution, and in this way it's
now had so much trouble fighting
humans that it becomes humanoids,
Steve: I did
not catch that when I watched this movie.
That's nuts.
Jamie: oh yeah, Oh yeah.
Ben: If led to continue evolving, it would
just become this absolutely Unkillable,
hive mind creature that eventually
travels to other, like, dimensions.
Steve: Is that why Godzilla
was so out of commission?
Like, I know that it's spent after
doing all the back lasers and stuff,
but it was particularly knocked out
when they were feeding it all the, uh...
Jamie: was, it was growing more stuff.
Emily: Yeah, it was great.
And I think that was 1 of the things
that made the coagulant, like,
immediately work was that it, like,
you know, I mean, the science of
the coagulant and everything is.
Steve: Questionable.
Emily: at best,
Ben: Man,
Steve: hear Bronwen from the other room.
Tyrannosaurus
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: the isotope that
gets it around the thing.
It's fine, the science checks out.
Jeremy: She's talking
in her sleep over there,
Emily: yeah there's all sorts
of
an,
involved where they have,
like, the Godzilla has
Ben: got so much DNA, how can a coagulant
Emily: there's so much
DNA.
Ben: work?
speaking of Evangelion reference,
Did it feel like some of the music
was just straight up from Evangelion?
Emily: that's
Jamie: dun,
dun.
Ben: just straight up the same
Emily: yeah, so that, that song that
you've done, done, done, done, done, done,
that's decisive battle from Evangelion.
There's a bunch of remixes of that one.
Shiro Sakisu, who did the Evangelion
music, did a bunch of the music for
this movie, especially like the...
The part where Godzilla starts,
like, going nuts and you've heard,
like, the, like, all the chorus
singing and it's very apocalyptic.
But the other thing I wanted to talk
about with this movie is that they
have a bunch of the original tracks from
the, uh, original Godzilla movie, which.
apparently they tried to,
like, find stereo versions or
recreate stereo versions of those
tracks and they just couldn't.
So, I also think, like, I didn't verify
this, but I'm pretty sure all of the sound
effects from, like, all of the guns and
shit are classic sound effects because
of all of the other, yeah, all of the
other considerations to update this movie.
Those sound effects were very antiquated.
Ben: Hey, pew pew!
Bang bang bang bang bang
bang bang bang
Emily: yeah,
Jamie: That sounds like some
Anno
Ben: mean, speaking of like, of sounds
though, after you get through like, the
various like, you know, sub forms where
they each have like, their own little
roars where it's not quite right, how...
How satisfying and chilling is it when
that final, like, fourth form appears
and you get the true Godzilla roar?
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah, so what do we think about the new
Godzilla form with his little claws?
His little, like, waaah.
Jamie: So, there's a,
Ben: I, yeah, I like the black and red,
but, uh, the arms are a little too tiny.
Steve: the mouth.
The way
The mouth splits open at the
Ben: I love, I love, the face.
I love that this is not
a huggable Godzilla.
This is just, like, an
emotionless maw of teeth.
Emily: Yeah.
Jamie: there's a thing in Buddhist
statues that if they're pointing
to the heavens or if their hands
are Pointing to the heavens.
It means they're like heavenly and
godly and spiritually so Godzilla
walking around with these hands pointed
to the heavens is sort of like just
Reinforces the godlike imagery of this
force of nature walking through stuff.
So
I thought that was pretty cool
Emily: That is cool.
I didn't, yeah, I never caught that or
I never, like, read anything about that.
So that's really cool.
Because, like, the details of
the new Godzilla form and the new
design that I enjoyed was, like,
the weird like, rib cage bump
that it has, and which is interesting
because the original suit had something
like that, but it was because that's
how the suit needed to be Supported.
Yeah, so they have, basically
recreated all of the, like, weird
shit about the original suit that
at the time was due to, like, the
lack of budget because the original
suit was, like, made out of cement.
They didn't have, like, latex at
that quantity, so they had to make
it out of, essentially concrete.
And so it had this huge,
Yeah, scaffolding inside.
And so this, I think that there was
an effort to make this Godzilla less
of a creature and more of a mistake,
which I feel like is really cool in the
way that it, it's sort of like a giant
wound, you know, it's just, it's got the
fucked up teeth and the fucked up tail,
Jeremy: those skills that it spills
blood and whatever else out of
Ben: just red
goo just
Jeremy: just like that,
is, it's distressing.
Ben: Yeah, that first
Jeremy: much of it, I was like,
Ben: landfall.
It's just like breathing like
rancid strawberry jelly all
over the streets of Tokyo.
Emily: yeah, yeah, it was like,
Jeremy: like tell what Jamie was
talking about with the hands.
I, I feel like that's a really
interesting cross-cultural thing because
I feel like if a, a Japanese person,
a Buddhist person might see that and
then and think of that and to me it's
like, it just invokes Larry David.
I'm just like, ah.
Godzilla, what is this?
Why are you guys getting
Ben: very interesting.
This concept is like, you know, self
evolution and the idea like, you
know, we talked about, you know,
horror movies, what is the core fears
and I think one of the fears that.
This taps into is, like, what if
there was something so powerful that
not even mankind with cooperation
and intellect could overcome it?
Like, what if there's a
force greater than science?
Emily: well, and there is,
Ben: and
it's Godzilla.
Emily: Like, all of the civil engineering
and, all of the, planning and everything,
like, there were all these things in place
because Japan is, Tsunami, like that's
why the word tsunami is Japanese, the
word that has proliferated across cultures
for a giant wave caused by an earthquake.
Ben: I thought it was named
after the Disney Channel
original movie, Johnny Tsunami.
Emily: Actually, no, uh,
I mean, it's a good guess.
Ben: Oh, you're saying that the storm
came first, and then the word, and then
came the Disney Channel original movie.
Okay, okay.
Emily: big wave, as you can see
in the surfing logos, that's,
that's from that's from Japan.
Ben: Okay, so, big wave
then, Disney movie.
Got gotcha.
Okay, I'm I'm I'm on the same page now.
Emily: Yeah.
So,
Jeremy: Previously the movie
was called Johnny Big Waves,
so, you know, he's lucky.
Emily: so anyway, you have all of this,
like, this infrastructure and still
this, the tsunami fucked everything up
the earthquake was fucking everything
up and then, you know, they had
all of this stuff because, like,
Fukushima Daiichi was on the edge of
the ocean and they had, all of these.
Plans in place just in case there
was a tsunami and what fucked them
up was just the amount of water that
got into it because they thought that
they couldn't get, like, There was a,
there's a whole thing and there's some
really interesting podcasts and stuff
that you can listen to about Fukushima
Daiichi and, and what happened there.
Everybody in America was assuming
that we were all dead, everybody
here, especially here on the coast.
We're seeing, like, these completely
fabricated maps of, like, the, Radiation
plume and stuff like that and they were
just like, we're going to die in a week.
We're going to get irradiated
and meanwhile, the Japanese
government was like.
We're just doing this just in case, You
know, we're just kind of overcompensating,
you know, just in case and they were
still completely out of control of it.
I think that, as climate change is more of
a concern on the forefront I think this
movie really fits in and, and includes
the nuclear element because, you know,
I mean, radium is part of nature,
like, but it was us that, decided
to fuck with it and found out.
Ben: We sure did.
We we sure did find out.
Emily: yeah, and, with Shin Godzilla,
rather than the anti war, anti
nuclear power message of like the
vengeance of this, power that we
have unleashed upon ourselves.
I'm not sure because it's barely hinted
at, but there is a possibility that
Goro Maki manufactured something and,
like, created this isotope that turned
into a monster because at one point
they were saying, like, well, Goro
Maki left us this and told us, you
know, do whatever you want with it.
And there was all this
discussion of Goro Maki, like,
punishing the Japanese because.
His wife died from radiation poisoning
and then the Japanese government wouldn't
help him, you know, and these are like
tiny little plot points like particles
in this like mess of bureaucracy and
disaster that's happening in this movie.
Ben: I think what I think the theme
that to me that this movie explores
and really seems to have an incredibly
complicated relationship with is
international relations and cooperation.
Emily: yeah.
Ben: Because on the one hand this
does seem, this movie does seem to
argue that like, Japan does need more
Military independence, it does need
more strength on its own, like, that
it's, that like, other countries are
taking advantage of Japan and pushing
it around and using it as a sacrificial
pawn, and all the ways that's not okay.
So it seems to really be...
You know, maybe not, just criticizing
at least what the movie perceives the
status quo to be from a geopolitical
angle, but at the same time the movie
takes an incredibly positive view towards
international scientific cooperation.
They make very clear, like, the
internet, you know, rogue science
squad, they make very clear that it's
like, Oh, Americans provided a bunch
of really valuable intelligence.
The Germans provided a whole bunch of,
like, computing power that they needed.
The Chinese provided a lot of, like, the
machinery and equipment that went into it.
It's a very nuanced issue that maybe the
movie Is very intelligent enough to take
on a very nuanced on a case by case basis.
It really does paint a very gray, you
know, sometimes good, sometimes bad
picture of international relations and
Japan's role in that international web.
Emily: Yeah, because there's a lot of
discussion about the sort of this idea
of the Americans owning Japan or like
making unilateral requests from Japan
and, you know, which harkens back to
the article 74 and, and the treaties
post World War 2 and things like that.
Like the Japanese special defense force,
which is limited because of World War
Two, because it was, you know, there was
this whole thing for a long time is that
Japan couldn't have a standing army.
And because the army was so, the
army, the defense force in this movie
was so involved, you know, there was
this, like, and I want to go back
to that, the fact that Shinzo Abe is
like, This movie means that people
trust the Japanese defense force.
And I'm like,
Jamie: That's not the read.
Emily: no,
Ben: I, like, I don't feel like
this movie is particularly...
Pro JSDF either.
I mean, they are very ineffectual.
I mean, this movie seems to be
arguing that the current JSDF is
quite ineffectual and needs reform.
Emily: yes.
And then also a lot of, there's a lot
of pride that these older politicians
keep Kind of holding on to and saying
like, well, we have to suffer the
involvement of these other countries.
And and then you have,
Ben: I do love with the military
the running gag of like,
someone calls out the military.
They call, like, the guy
in the military uniform.
He tells the lady.
The lady tells the prime minister.
Emily: I mean, that's how it works.
Ben: I know, which is like,
again, the repeated use of it.
It's just like...
It's just all, like, it just keeps
moving, like, look how many, look how
just, like, redundant and slow everything
is, like, it's both funny and rhythmical
and furthers the themes of the movie.
This movie's good.
This is a very intelligently,
very well done, good movie.
As I so eloquently stated
with my garbled English.
She get a, she enter
Harvard and get a bachelor.
Emily: This movie good.
Top of full shape
Ben: This movie is good.
This movie very good.
Emily: Steve, did you have something?
Steve: I do have something.
Um, while we're talking about the like
government rep and stuff like that Robin
and I were discussing how we thought
it was cool that the movie actually
talks about structural damage and
like the repercussions of that damage
infrastructure costs and stuff like that.
That's not something that you typically
hear in like the action portions of
a movie or the government just kind
of like the writers gloss over it.
And we never get to see, like,
the accountability for all of
that property damage and all the
people suffering and everything
argumentative chats about responses.
To the crisis people actually trying
to figure out different avenues to deal
with it instead of it just being like
cut and dry and we skip all of those bits
like this movie is very much about those
details and how do we arrive at, you know,
the next part of our plan kind of thing.
And I thought it was
really unique in that way.
I don't remember the last time that
I saw a movie that actually focused
on the minutia of solving the crisis.
Ben: Yeah, this wasn't a quick, we have
to invent the super weapon device, and now
quick, somebody do a heroic sacrifice and
get the super device to Godzilla, this was
a movie interested in like, you know, R&
D, testing dis you know, manufacturing,
distribution, equipment procurement,
Steve: I mean, they talked about
the fallout of soldiers marching
on this thing, and firing their
weapons, and how is that going to
affect the people on the ground, you
know, there's a
Ben: Akasaka was really there to
kind of, Be the voice for traditional
respon for like, responsible governance
without quite being your Yaguchi monster
killin rogue scientist leadin badass.
Emily: yeah.
Ben: I mean, just the fact that he's
like, dude, our economy is in free falls,
if we piss off too many other countries,
they won't give us the money we need to
fuckin rebuild Tokyo in the first place.
Emily: Yes.
And there's all of these little bits of
dialogue where you, you know, everything
seems like minutiae, but everything is
so important to the realism of the movie.
One of the things that I thought
was really interesting is that the
military officials that were watching
Godzilla kind of in hibernation and
then they had to do a shift change
because of the radiation exposure.
And having all of those things, I feel
like is less of a celebration of the
military or whatever, but it's more
about, like, all of these people from
various levels are involved from, like,
the old man with his grandma crossing the
Steve: Train tracks?
Emily: train tracks while, like, all
of the helicopters are ready to shoot
Godzilla and they, they didn't shoot
Godzilla because there were just one old
man and old woman to, like, the massive
numbers of, uh, soldiers and civilians
and, you know, people getting on buses
and these shots of, like, all of the
buses just clogging the motorways.
Um,
Steve: my favorite line in the
movie, traffic is going to be murder.
Emily: yes.
Yeah, when they're trying to,
like, evacuate the bombing.
Ben: It is fun that just like, once
you establish like, oh, this whole
area has been evacuated Then it opens
up, you know, our, the military to
be like, oh, we can just fucking
start dropping buildings on Godzilla
Just fucking push, just push him!
I do love that the end of
the movie becomes, NO ONE
GETS TO DESTROY TOKYO BUT US!
Emily: yeah,
Jeremy: Tokyo is literally
fighting Godzilla.
Ben: Yeah.
like, they defeat him with, like, with
trains, and, you, that, no, that literally
is, it's Tokyo fighting back like, trains
and apartment buildings are, like, the
MVPs in this fight against Godzilla.
Jamie: the silver servants
are coming to saved.
Emily: yeah, well, yeah, and then,
they also talk about how, Tokyo itself
and Japan as it is now is a result of,
like, Scrapping together what we can
to rebuild because, you know, of how
many times it's been exploded before.
Ben: I do love the focus on, like, we
can't let Tokyo be exploded, just leads
to the slight implication of being like,
would you be okay if other cities being
What if Godzilla attacks Sapporo?
Hokkaido Godzilla.
Emily: Rebirth of Mothra covered that.
Ben: Oh shit, good for you,
Emily: yeah, Because
that's the most nature.
Ben: Nice.
Emily: But yeah, so this movie is
a huge contrast to the original
Godzilla because of the size.
There's been a lot of fan
people saying like, oh, yes,
this is the biggest Godzilla.
This Godzilla is biggest
of all of the Godzillas.
But the way that the movie is
shot, there are so many scenes
that show Godzilla going through
the city and Godzilla is dwarfed.
By the huge urban sprawl of the city.
So it's really interesting in that way,
too, because you have the post World
War 2 Tokyo, which is essentially a
series of small walls compared to the
huge metropolis of these buildings that
dwarf Godzilla, like, they managed to
subdue this giant monster by putting
bigger things on it that they have built.
There are also shots of, like,
trains running while you see, like,
the smoke in the distance and sort
of seeing that dichotomy of what
it's like to deal with disaster.
Ben: It's interesting the degree
to which civilization doesn't
stop in the face of Godzilla.
Like, Godzilla is actively rampaging
and people are still going to work.
Civilization continuing is almost like a
tool in it, people are still delivering
takeout food, but all of that...
Still being up and running
is what lets them be able to
pull off this coagulant plan.
Emily: Yes.
Jeremy: One of the things that's
really interesting to me and a lot
of this is like, looking at this
movie, it's interesting to have what
a stark contrast it is to previous
attempts to remake Godzilla, especially
American attempts to remake Godzilla.
Like, it really does adapt the original.
You know, the original Godzilla, when
we watched it, we talked about how much
time they spend with the, like, diet
and people trying to, like, figure out
what to do and arguing over what to do
about Godzilla and everybody trying to
work out the politics and the physics
of all this stuff and what they can do.
I think traditional American
filmmaking, like, would immediately
say, like, no, we want to cut
that down as small as possible.
We want to linger on the action, have as
much of the big monster stuff as we can.
And I think what's interesting to me is
not only do they resist that, but he's not
a monster in the, like, traditional sense.
Um, He is god like in that, like, he just
does not seem to care about the people.
we don't know where Godzilla is
going or why, but he's just going.
he's not trying to destroy Tokyo, he's
not even particularly interested in Tokyo.
He doesn't kill anybody by anything
other than accident of his existence
until people start bombing him.
Like, and then he starts...
breathing fire and shooting
shit out of his back.
But he really is like, God, like in
that sense of like, he just doesn't
know or care anything about us.
Like, he's just walking and like, almost
like with a, like a forest gump rigidity.
He's going from like where he started
Ben: Walk, Godzilla, walk!
Jeremy: yeah.
And like, that's, that's just it.
Like, what is he doing?
He's walking like, it's the
first time I was running.
Like, he's just, he's going
Ben: Godzilla's just out for a stroll!
And then, we, and then we start dropping
bombs, and by we I do mean Americans
start dropping, like, bombs on him,
And then he's like, well fine, I'll
just bust out my super sweet, like,
Tail spine, like, fucking lasers.
I love the spine lasers.
Spine lasers are so fucking dope.
Emily: For a movie that is so, involved
with people and not preoccupied with the
monster action, they really bring it when
there's the actual monster action occurs.
Ben: He has a tail laser in this movie,
Emily: yeah, like every time that
Godzilla did something new, I was like,
Jeremy: when like he first grows, when
he first grows the legs and then like
when he's getting ready to go back into
the bay And he just like fucking leans
forward and books it like Godzilla, right?
Running was like whoa the hell
Godzilla's running guys weird
Emily: yeah.
And it also, what you said, Jeremy,
about the God likeness of, the fact
that Godzilla just doesn't give a
shit really does reflect that sort
of unpredictable power of nature.
That people so often,
like, take for granted.
The scene with coming up with all
the boats is coming up the canal and
all of the boats kind of toppling.
I mean, that's basically
straight from tsunami footage.
. But the fact that we never really know
Godzilla's reason is no real emotion
to Godzilla, it just destroys, and
if anything comes close to it, much
like radiation, it just, is destroyed.
Ben: and it does do it without.
Emotion or personality?
Contrast the Godzilla in Godzilla vs.
Kong, who will also just fuckin
throw hands at a moment's notice,
but like, that's his personality.
Is that like, another giant monster
shows up and then Godzilla goes like,
What, you think you're tougher than me?
You ain't tougher than me!
And then just beats the shit
out of whatever shows up.
But you know, does it with personality.
Emily: the very first
Godzilla movie was this.
Just this power that was
getting out of control.
And kind of barely understandable and the
grotesqueness of the original Godzilla
effects kind of worked with that.
Ben: I do want to establish
that I am a fan of Godzilla vs.
Kahn Godzilla, who has the energy of
a really big drunk guy from Boston.
Emily: oh, yeah, well, I mean,
then, like, you had that first
Godzilla movie, and you have Shin
Godzilla, but then every Godzilla
movie in between has been wrestling.
Like, and that's great, you know?
Like, I was talking about Godzilla
Final Wars, and there's a bit in
Godzilla Final Wars where, like, one
monster throws another monster at
Godzilla, and he, like, goes for that
monster, like, he's, you know, trying
to protect a soccer goal, or whatever.
yeah, no, that movie is
Ben: That fucking rules.
Jamie: It's kind of wild
Emily: It's stupid,
Ben: Now,
Emily: and fantastic.
Ben: speaking of things that are
dumb and not fantastic, Do we think
it was a shot at the 97 movie?
The American Godzilla movie?
When they went like, Nah, they'd
totally fucking nuke New York too
if a Godzilla ever showed up there.
Which it never has!
Emily: I mean, the one thing that
makes this movie a little bit hard,
other than all of the non science...
Jeremy: we want to address the the
level at which this movie is like all of
this is improbable bullshit But here's
our explanation they're like Monsters
just can't evolve in one generation.
That's not how evolution works.
And then they're like, well, he's kind
of got a nuclear reactor inside his body.
So he's just like, fucking
powers that shit up.
And he's like, look legs.
Emily: yeah,
Jeremy: that seems highly improbable, but
Ben: look, the G virus from Resident
Evil 2 is one of my favorite fucking,
like, monsters in all of monsterdom.
So you give me, like, Monster capable
of, like, evolving, and, like,
seemingly unkillable monster that will
evolve from anything you throw at it.
That's just fucking terrifying to me.
I'm into that concept all day.
Jamie: Well, didn't it imply that
it was like a, a collection of.
organisms that was constantly
evolving and stuff?
Emily: Yeah.
So Godzilla had, like, a bunch of, parts
Jeremy: Do you think
Godzilla is a rat king?
Emily: Yes.
Which technically in the original
Godzilla series is a thing.
They're called Godzilla cells.
Jamie: the Godzilla's souls.
So
Emily: yeah, they're called Godzilla cells
or G cells, which is very important in
Godzilla Final Wars, which, by the way,
in Godzilla Final Wars, the American
Godzilla is there and gets exploded
Jamie: good.
Emily: The good Godzilla, so
that's my recommendation for that.
if you have a access to extra footage
from the movie, there's actually a
scene where you see, like, these proto
Godzillas, like, you see this sort of,
tumorous material that is like all crazy
eyeballs and shit As part of the, like,
the weird flesh that Godzilla is leaving
behind on the buildings and everything.
So there is maybe a rhyme or reason for
Godzilla to just be, like, walking through
shit because it's just leaving, it's
essentially leaving its eggs everywhere.
One of the reasons that the non
science works for me is that they
don't, they just don't understand.
Um, and that's the point, They have
to make it up in order to understand
Jeremy: Yeah.
I think it's interesting, you were
talking about like, that they kind of
throw in pieces of plot about where
Godzilla comes from or maybe comes from
or doesn't come from like throughout,
and I think that's meant to be sort of
a feature rather than like, you know,
not having time or space for it so much
as like, You know, we can't really know
what Godzilla is or where it comes from.
And like, we're, speculating
based on these, these bits and
pieces of things that we have.
And I, think that really works
rather than there being a true,
like, origin story for Godzilla.
Emily: Yeah.
. Like, we know that Goro Maki is
involved, that he predicted it.
You know, did he create it?
We don't know.
We don't need to know.
it's like Ben says about Prometheus.
Like, some things don't need answers.
I don't need to know where the
fucking aliens from Alien came from.
I don't want to know because
it is much cooler not knowing.
Ben: Okay, but I do want to know the
genetic makeup of the Godzilla cell.
Emily: Well, there's a lot of Godzilla
media that can, that you can look into.
Ben: I'm just imagining a cell,
like, a single celled organism,
but it can do the Godzilla roar.
From its, I don't know, mitochondria.
Jeremy: And it's the
powerhouse of the song.
Ben: It is!
Man, why has there never been,
like, a prison gang guy whose,
like, name is Mitochondria?
Because he's the powerhouse
of the cell block.
Jamie: Oh, my God.
Ben: Why was that not,
like, a villain in Oz?
Ehh.
Emily: Well, TM, we're doing it.
It's ours now.
Mighty, Mighty Chondria,
the powerhouse of the cell.
Ben: It's
Jamie: Well, in, Final Wars, the
elite squad of humans, they're
injected with like G cells,
The G Cells and there's one where
they like they're fighting a kaiju.
They're fighting like the lobster
kaiju and they're like, yeah They're
jumping on it and punching it.
Ben: It's fuckin awesome,
Jamie: Yeah, the G Cells
will make you a badass
Emily: Yeah, and they call, the
people, they call the people who
have G cells, they call them X Men.
Jamie: It's so good.
It's so good
Emily: Also if you send G cells
to space, they'll turn into space
Godzilla, um, and come back and
fuck up the original Godzilla.
Jamie: Thanks, Mothra.
Emily: listen, she Mothra on this
Steve: How dare you?
Emily: podcast.
Jesus Christ.
Anyway, let's talk about
progressive politics.
Um,
Ben: get this one is like, I
don't know how with this one.
Jeremy: This is the most
feminist film I've ever seen.
Steve: 48 people
Jeremy: down to Kayoco
Steve: are women.
Ben: I am writing Kayoco Patterson
for president is getting my
write in vote every election.
Jamie: Yes.
Jeremy: I searched Kayoco Anne
Patterson on like Google, not
knowing what I was in for, looking
for images to post on Twitter.
There is a lot of fan fiction, a
lot of like drawings of Kayoco Anne
Patterson and, your, your science
girl, Emily together, various,
various images of her stroking
her hair as she looks at a laptop.
Uh,
Jamie: Oh my God.
Jeremy: I was
like,
Emily: seen it.
Ben: Uh, yep.
Uh, yep, I'm seeing the
one you're talking about.
Jamie: I need to open up
a new tier on my Patreon.
Emily: There you go.
It's very specific to
Ben: I I need to join I think
I need to join Jamie's Patreon.
Emily: mean, I also think I
need to join Jamie's Patreon.
Good.
Yeah, the, what's her name?
I already forgot.
I'm so in the moment.
Ben: Kayoco Anne Patterson.
Emily: I know Kayoke Anne Patterson.
Um, Hiromi.
Hiromi Ogashira is the cool nerd girl.
Jamie: Oh, she's awesome.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: I also did enjoy, I cannot
remember her name, the third woman in this
movie who is a uh, like, director of some
sort who has the purple under eyeliner.
Jamie: She's so, I think I've seen
her in some other Toku like Kamen
Rider or Super Sentai or like Garou or
something, but she, she looked familiar.
Ben: Kayoco Anne Patterson, according
to the Godzilla Wiki, does make
a cameo appearance in Godzilla,
singular point, the animated movie.
Jamie: Yes.
Emily: Uh, I
Jamie: That show, that
show is real bizarre.
If you thought, like, the
science fuckery was weird in
this one, singular point is...
You need, you need to pause, because
the subtitles are hard to see.
But also, there's sections where it's
just like, pfft, a paragraph of stuff.
Emily: Oh, I, I'm familiar we watch
Evangelion, I'm familiar with that.
Jamie: Hehehe.
Emily: Yeah, the, I think it was the woman
who was the woman in charge of defense.
Like, the military minister.
And she was awesome.
She was just like, Let's fuck it up.
And like, of all these old
men that are like, what?
I, what,
Ben: ready
Emily: right now?
she's
Ben: Lady
would've punched out
Godzilla if she had to
Jamie: Why am I dealing with children?!
Emily: Yeah, she's just like,
director, pointing at watch.
Can we
Jeremy: okay, that is Raiko
Hanamori, defense minister,
who's played by Kimiko Yo.
Yeah,
Emily: does she have?
What are her other performances?
Jeremy: she is...
Jamie: Trying to
Jeremy: Departures, Shin Godzilla,
Dear Doctor, Worst By Chance.
Let's see, anything else I know here?
Emily: Is the list long?
Jeremy: oh, it's, it's,
it's a significant list.
Emily: Oh, yeah.
Jeremy: Miss Accident Investigator.
Jamie: The ramen girl.
Emily: Well, it sounds like she
has quite a prolific career?
so good for her.
Jeremy: oh Yeah.
Emily: But yeah, the feminist movie,
the most ambitious person in this
movie is Kayoco Anne Patterson.
Jamie: Future president.
Emily: future President Kayoco Ann.
Yeah, President Patterson.
Oh, I was gonna say, the one thing that,
the one, like, thing that was difficult
to swallow about this movie is that
this is a Japan that had no Godzilla.
So they didn't know what to call it.
Jeremy: And the Americans called it
Godzilla and they reverse adapted it
back to Gojira, which I was like, what?
Emily: Yeah, I know, right?
Jeremy: Why did you?
Okay, sure.
They were like, Godzilla.
That's silly.
Just let's just call it Gojira.
It's
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: what am I watching here?
Emily: They had, I think Goromaki
called it Gojira, and then he adapted
it into Godzilla because he actually
had like the kanji for Gojira, and
so he was you know, and I think it
actually referred to the island from
the original Godzilla, which is like,
he was like, oh, he's from this island.
And I think that was the same island
Ben: yeah, yeah.
It was, yeah, because the, yeah, no, I
remember that from the 54 movie, this,
it was sure was nice for him to leave
both of like English and Japanese names.
Emily: yeah,
good for branding.
Ben: It's like, yeah, he had the
forethought to be like, I, I'm gonna
localize my own monster discovery.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: You gotta get those
copyrights in, you know.
Emily: I mean, living in America,
Ben: That, that's the new sequel.
It's Goro Maki faked his death, and he's
just cashing in on the Godzilla trademark.
Emily: Right.
God.
Zilla.
Jeremy: Okay, apparently Kimiko Yo is in
the original the live action Ace Attorney.
Jamie: Oh,
cool.
Emily: seen that.
Jeremy: She is Maiko Ayasato,
or Misty Faye, in the original
Ace Attorney live action.
Emily: Amazing.
So other than the shipping there's
not a lot of, discussion of, like,
anything to do with sexuality or
Jeremy: Yeah, nobody's husbands or wives
actually make an appearance in this
movie, or boyfriends or girlfriends.
Nobody is implied to have
a relationship of any kind.
Emily: And then, I mean, all of the
foreigners that we see are white.
Jeremy: Kayla goes, dad just
has old white man hands.
Emily: he could be a puppet.
That's where the puppetry finally,
like, the Godzilla puppetry finally
makes a cameo in this movie.
Steve: Can we talk about
the effects for a minute?
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: Hell yeah, let's
talk about the effects.
Steve: I tried to do some research
on this, and I don't know what the
conclusion was, so maybe y'all can
help me out, but I was fascinated
by the overall look of this movie.
There was something that I read
that said that the Godzilla was CG,
but the way it moved, the way that it's
weight shifted, it looked like it was
a person in a suit with a CGI overlay.
Jamie: They, they did try to build one.
Like there, there, are a couple of shots
where it's a close up where you can they,
but they did try to build one and it
Ben: I, I think
the tail is practical.
I think they built the tail.
Steve: I'll say this, it looks damn good.
It's almost like an optical illusion
when you watch it in motion, like,
especially when they do close ups of
the legs or when the gills are opening
for the blood to spill out or the
plasma, whatever that was, that was
like spilling out onto the streets.
I, like, every single time that we got
a close up of Godzilla when it was in
motion, my face was just glued to the TV.
We just got, like, a 50 something
inch OLED, and this movie looked
amazing on it, and I was like, like,
squinting my eyes trying to find
the, the seams of the effects, and I,
honestly, I do this stuff for work,
like, I, I look at this stuff all the
time, and I really couldn't find it.
in this, and I was kind of mesmerized by
the overall presentation of the monster.
Emily: Yeah, well, and I think that
was part of how they incorporated
the original awkwardness.
And they were trying to.
Not make it, like, cool, right?
Like, it was Shin Godzilla is still cool
in its own right but I feel like there's
some really good design choice of making
it look kind of awkward, um, because
it becomes more monstrous that way.
Um,
Steve: almost like somebody in a CGI,
like a, like a mocap outfit doing the
worm on the ground when it is in its
early form and they just put CGI over it.
Emily: there is a, there is
someone who does motion capture.
There's, there is a guy in there that
did motion capture for the suit, but
like, or for the, uh, for the effect.
But
Steve: I saw, cause I saw a photo of him
in the suit with like the headgear and
the effects points and everything, but
like, I was wondering if there was maybe
early footage that they shot someone
in a suit and then just put stuff over
it, but I guess it's no all around?
Emily: It's mostly, yeah, like a
lot of the kind of shifting that
you're seeing is that's c g I.
Steve: that's amazing.
Emily: Yeah, like, and I also think
that's really cool because you look
at the legendary Godzilla, which is
this, like, solid, you know, monolith
of a creature that is just like, I've
been running and throwing things.
And when Godzilla moves, you
sort of see the plates wobble.
Steve: He looks like he's got a
bunch of shake weights for bones.
Emily: Yeah,
Jamie: like it's, it looks like it's
kind of struggling to move and just,
Emily: yeah, which is the point of
making it look like this sort of mistake.
Jeremy: I, I think I, I was just
thinking about that as, as you
were talking about it and, and the
fact that you had said that this
monster feels more like a mistake.
And I think that's sort of how the
special effects work and that like, it
doesn't have to look perfect because
it's a weird, fucked up creature.
This just wiggle that.
Like it's just wiggle this
way out of the, the river.
And so like every weirdness and
awkwardness and everything about it seems.
Again, like a feature
rather than a bug, like,
you know,
you
can't,
Ben: Look, you don't put Google you don't
put those googly eyes on a fucking monster
if you don't want googly eyes on your
Emily: yeah, yeah.
Well, it's weird too, because if you,
there's actually some really cool
comparisons that the face of Shin Godzilla
looks has a lot more of the essence of
the original Godzilla's face because of
just how kind of fucked up it looked.
And, you know, because the eyes are
kind of, it's kind of wall eyed, the
eyes don't move there's no, like, real
expression to it other than just walking.
Steve: got great side eye.
Emily: Yeah, well, it's, and
that's the thing is that this, it
has fish eyes, like, it has these
kind of giant dead fish eyes.
Steve: I love missiles are going off
in its face and it's just kind of
looking down like, are you kidding me
Emily: Yeah, and it does have
a, um, like, a weird, like, lid.
You can see that it, like, covers
its eyes with, like, another, with,
like, a third eyelid or something.
Jamie: before it explodes, it's
Steve: I love the, um, like I mentioned
the mouth earlier, the bottom part,
how it splits open, but I also love
the initial roar when it was in its
early form with, almost like the
webbing in the mouth on the sides.
And when it expands, and it just,
it was almost like translucent to a
degree, but you still saw the red and,
and like, black, uh, spidering in it.
It was really neat.
Emily: Yeah, it was, it did really feel
like just a bunch of flesh put together
to create something that resembles,
you know, an ambulatory creature.
And then they did mention that the dorsal
plates are supposed to be like cooling
towers essentially for the blood system.
And that's why it has
dorsal plates like that.
Like, a lot of movies would take the
time to, like, point this shit out
and be like, This is how, this is
this thing and this is that thing
and that's how that thing is a,
like, I don't care how the superpowers
work, as long as the action consistently
displays them and, you know, the rules
are known through the storytelling.
I don't need you to explain it to me.
It's, uh, it feels very organic.
I think we've said a lot of the
things that are to be said about
the, social justice, like, angle
of the movie, in terms of class.
And this being a very thorough depiction
of the society as a whole from the top to
the bottom you know, certainly the members
of the government are the main characters.
But we also see these scenes with, rando
and him, like, he's one of the few people
that takes the time to pray for, you
know, the destruction and he actually
goes down to, like, he also joins the
people in the, uh, like, at, on the
ground during the final maneuver, which
I can't remember the name of it, but it
was the historical reference or folklore
reference of the, um, The sake that
Susanoo gave the Hydra, which is from
like a, the Kojiki or something like that.
And, uh, they translate it later as the
Hydra killer, but so they don't, there's
no, uh, oxygen destroyer in this movie
Jeremy: Yeah, much more
frightening, uh, weapon, that one,
Jamie: Yeah.
Jeremy: to destroy the oxygen.
Oh shit.
Hopefully nothing bad comes of that.
Jamie: Well, what happens when he
fucking thaws and all those critters come
out of the tail and fuck everyone up?
Ben: Well, I guess the sub is
just permanently there, ready
to launch a nuke at any time,
Jeremy: Let's be real, it always
is.
Emily: Yeah,
Jeremy: That was already the case.
Ben: Yeah.
Uh, yeah, I mean, I guess all the
little Godzilla people get out and
it's little Godzilla it's kaiju
zom What if a zom what if a kaiju
movie was also a zombie apocalypse?
Emily: well, I think that's
what they were going for.
Jamie: yeah.
Emily: and apparently
Steve: my mind.
Like an hour and fifteen minutes after
the fact, and it's still blowing my mind.
Emily: look up the, the art book,
Steve: Do you know they made
this for fifteen million dollars?
Jamie: Oh my god,
Emily: Yeah,
Steve: That's it.
Fifteen million.
Ben: that's
Emily: made it.
Apparently, they started the
production the fall before the release,
Jamie: I have
Ben: Now, Hollywood, take note with your
goddamn 300 million Indiana Jones movies.
Emily: Well, I don't know.
I don't know if the WGA
terms have been followed.
Oh, yeah,
Ben: I not allowed to
criticize mo wait, what?
Emily: I don't know if the people working
on this Godzilla, these Godzilla movies
are, um, being treated well, is what I'm
trying to say, is that I don't know if
union regulations are, are in effect here,
Jeremy: Yeah, I don't know what,
what unions there are in Japan, but
they would not be represented by WGA.
Ben: No.
Emily: well, yes, but
Ben: I thought you were saying WGA
rules meant I couldn't make fun of
Indiana Jones ridiculous budget.
Emily: oh, no, not at all, please, by
all means, no, go, make fun of Indiana
Ben: 300 million dollars.
Jeremy: That's after making Crystal Skull.
I wouldn't give somebody 50 cents after
making Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Ben: Oh my god.
That's the anyway.
Welcome back to Progressively
Hollywood Accounting.
Emily: Donate to our Patreon
so you can hear more.
So, yeah, it's pretty monofocus
in terms of progressive politics.
That is to say, it talks about
politics and only, like, literal
politics, So Jamie has the art
book, and Jamie is showing some
of the, Godzilla people designs.
So we can see them, so, especially so
Steve can see them, and you know what's
funny is that they kind of look angelic.
Steve: That looks like an
unused Evangelion boss.
Ben: Yes, maybe by Evangelion standards,
Emily: Yes.
Steve: Or Diablo.
Oh,
Emily: yeah, it's like a, Diablo
or Giger, kind of creature.
Steve: it's so cool.
I want to see more of that.
Emily: Yeah, so that if you can find the
art book out there, uh, there's also scans
of it online, but they have all of these.
Incredible images of the little
critters that are coming off
of Godzilla's tail at the
Steve: I'm surprised they're
not more reptilian than
what's pictured in that book.
Jamie: I think the implication was that
it was supposed to be like a combination
of Godzilla and man and like the horrors
that we've wrought upon ourselves
Steve: I'm kind of picturing the
Goombas from the Super Mario Bros.
movie.
Emily: If you look at the tail,
they don't have the small head
situation, but they do have...
Oh, and they have some models.
Steve: I mean, all we really
see is, like, skeletal remains.
It's all, it's very, like,
charred and black and those,
wow, those concepts are so cool.
Emily: Also, I want to mention that
a lot of the concepts have boobies.
Which, yeah, They're not like the
descent zombie kind of boobies.
They are like emaciated, like, skeletal
creature boobies, but it's just
interesting to see that there are,
femme presenting, designs for that.
Jamie: Well and that kind of brought
up an interesting idea for me because
Normally we talk about Godzilla as a
he, like, like a male presenting kaiju.
Emily: Yeah.
Jamie: don't know if that's necessarily
the case in this one, because
all you're right, all of the, the
humanoid forms coming out of the
tail, they're all female presenting.
Emily: Yeah.
Jamie: So, maybe this version of
Godzilla is a pissed off lady,
and you fuckin got in her way,
and she decided to fuck you up.
Emily: They say that Godzilla the shin
Godzilla reproduces asexually by just
kind of leaving bits of itself around.
The fact that this Godzilla can
propagate itself from itself, you
know, there's no other creature that
needs to happen, but that also happened
with Godzilla originally, like, So
Alicia asked us to talk about Godzuki.
Jamie: Oh
Emily: Um, and I'm, I'm talking
about Godzuki because, I
don't know what Godzuki is.
I haven't seen that
show in a million years.
I just remember that Godzuki
is, I remember Godzuki.
I remember Godzuki being in the song
and I remember that he could fly even
though he had really, really tiny wings.
And you know, good for him.
Jeremy: he's he's Godzilla's scrappy dude.
He's a completely unnecessary
comical sidekick to this
Jamie: does Godzuki talk?
Jeremy: lizard monster.
I, he makes noises.
He makes like Tasmanian devil like noises.
Emily: yeah, he does
this Whoa, wait a minute!
Jeremy: it's also very much
a result of that sort of like
eighties, nineties period of like.
Is there a successful
adult movie franchise?
Let's make a cartoon out of it.
As we've discussed things
like the RoboCop cartoon and
Jamie: Oh.
Jeremy: the still, the still
rumored though, like they made art
for it, but apparently according
to everybody involved, it was
never actually going to happen.
Aliens cartoon.
Jamie: oh oh my
Ben: let's be honest here, though.
Godzilla the Animated Series is by
far the best thing to come out of
the 90s American Godzilla movie.
Emily: Well, we're talking about the
one from, like, the 80s, or maybe
even the 70s, like, that's fully Hanna
Barbera, like, Godzilla, because Godzuki
Ben: That's the one where Godzilla went
around in a van solving mysteries, right?
Emily: Uh, yeah, but he's
underwater, and they had to,
like, use a, button to summon him.
Ben: but late 90s Godzilla the
Animated Series, fuckin slapped.
I haven't seen it in like 25
years, but I remember it being
Jamie: Oh, that's,
that's the one with the,
Ben: It's like the baby Godzilla
hatches, but then they're like,
Ah, it's a cool Godzilla, now we're
gonna be a team and help it fight
Jamie: I, I remember seeing toys of
that with like a little jeep and shit.
Yeah.
Emily: I don't, yeah, I
don't remember that at all.
Ben: was just like badass
monster fights every week.
Jamie: Yeah.
Emily: I mean, it sounds fine, but I
wanted to mention Kazuki because in
the movies in the, especially like
the, um, the show era movies, you
have this little fetal mini Godzilla.
His name is Minya or
Manila,
which they call him Minya.
Oh, there's Kazuki.
Hell yeah.
But yeah, Minya is as far as we
can tell a result of Godzilla
cells being sort of spread around.
Jamie: A potato.
It's
Emily: looks looks like a little
potato and it's I hate it.
But it also is important
that Godzilla final wars.
So,
Jamie: But baby
Godzilla is much cuter.
Emily: Yeah, and then there's a, baby
Godzilla that evolves into a big.
Godzilla.
Anyway, we're, we've talked about
pro progressive politics we've
Jeremy: nothing nothing even a slight
bit queer in this movie, but other
than, other than Godzilla themselves.
Emily: yeah, which, you
know, ace represent,
Jeremy: This is queer and
want to be left alone.
Which,
Emily: yes,
Jeremy: understandable.
Emily: her heart,
Jeremy: Just trying to go to the
grocery store, get some cat food.
Jamie: I need better legs.
Let me grow them.
Emily: yeah,
Ben: Just pick up some nuclear waste
food for her and her creepy zombie kids.
Emily: yeah, she probably just had
an itch, like, she probably came out
of the water, she's like, I don't
have hands and I can't scratch and so
she's like, oh, look at all this shit.
I can
Jamie: That's
what is that like?
Emily: on everything.
Jamie: I need to scream but I don't
have a mouth or something like
that.
That sounds
Emily: mouth but I'm a
Ben: I I have, I have no
hands, but I must scratch.
Jamie: Yeah,
Emily: Yeah, what do we recommend?
We've talked about Godzilla Final Wars and
Godzilla and Godzuki And baby Godzilla.
What else?
Would you recommend if
Ben: Uh, I recommend this, I guess, early
SFX still I found of the movie, where
it's very early looking Godzilla and he's
just like puking red blobs onto Tokyo.
Emily: Excellent.
Where do we find that?
Ben: Google, I guess,
Shin Godzilla Form 5.
Jamie: singular, singular point on,
I guess it's on Netflix now, but that
series, I feel it's not quite as dark
as this one, but it has similar ideas in
that, like, it just goes off the rails,
goes way too deep into the science.
It has Jet Jaguar as a, an actual
functional robot that does shit.
Like somebody drives Jet
Jaguar as like a mech.
So if we're talking about Godzilla
recommendations singular point is, was
a surprise because the Godzilla anime
that they did on Netflix is garbage,
garbage.
Ben: serious recommendation
is, if you like...
You know, the way this movie
had lots of fast cuts and made
bureaucracies seem cool and badass.
Check out Hot Fuzz.
I think you're gonna really dig the
paperwork scenes, and also the rest of it.
It's an incredible movie.
Emily: Hell yeah.
Jamie: I also recommend
all the other Shin movies.
Emily: yes.
I haven't seen Shin Ultraman.
Do you know where I can, where we, the, me
and the audience can watch Shin Ultraman?
Jamie: Shin Ultra is I think you
can buy the Blu ray on Amazon.
You have to be careful though,
because the first print of the
Blu ray has incorrect subtitles.
And incomplete subtitles, so
there's things that are wrong.
You know how in ASCII ta or
in, in HTML where you have
I to make italicized things?
The ASCII code is in there
instead of italicizing the thing.
So, it's.
Funny as fuck.
You don't really need the subtitles.
It's Ultraman.
You understand Ultraman.
Even if you haven't seen Ultraman,
you're gonna understand Ultraman.
You could turn off the subtitles
and just watch it in Japanese
and you won't miss a trick.
So that one is available on Blu ray
and it's probably streaming by now.
And then Shin Kamen Rider is
definitely streaming on Amazon
Jeremy: On Amazon it is called Shin Masked
Jamie: Shin Masked Rider.
Emily: Yeah.
I'm sure there's a there's
a Japanese original Japanese
version out there somewhere.
Jamie: Yeah, and both of those
feel more like compilation movies.
You know how like there's the Gundam
compilation movies where they condense
the 50 episodes into three movies.
So Shin Ultraman condenses like the
first half of the show, like, or the
whole show into a movie so it feels
very episodic and Kamen Rider has
that same feeling it's, Shin Godzilla
is the most movie of the three.
These other two feel like a
distillation of the series.
But they're wildly entertaining.
Emily: Oh, good.
Jamie: I think Shin Godzilla
makes the most sense though.
Emily: Oh, oh, no.
Ben: Are they as, are they as, uh,
openly political as Shin Godzilla?
Jamie: Ultraman has hints of it, but
it doesn't go as deep as this one.
Like, you do have a, a monster force.
So it's like the government agency
set up to deal with the kaiju.
Ben: Okay, so it's not like, Shin
Ultraman, this time we dive real
Jamie: yeah, no, it's, it's, yeah,
it's not as deep as the politics is.
And then, um, Shin Kamen Rider If you
enjoy feeling sad, and also watch people
punch heads and explode things but yes,
Jeremy: sounds like our audience.
Jamie: but also feeling sad, you enjoy
feeling sad,
Ben: Yeah, it sounds like our audience.
Jamie: But if, but also
sadness, and punching,
Emily: Yes,
Jamie: sweaters,
Emily: it's anime.
Jamie: and sweaters, comfy sweaters.
the female character doesn't
get a personality until
she gets a comfy sweater,
so...
Emily: me neither.
So,
Jeremy: personality in this economy?
Emily: They might burn me as a witch.
that's why I did the comfy.
Yes, Steve, recommendations.
Jamie: Sorry!
Steve: Sorry.
Y'all covered a lot of the
ones I was thinking about.
Ben: You can do it again.
It's fine.
Steve: No, no, I've got, um, I mean,
the first thing you're gonna want
to do is you're gonna want to get
yourself one of those old school
like Godzilla classic box sets
Jamie: Yeah!
Steve: and just start marathoning
those because those are a ton of fun.
I got you all know Bob Reier
from the Talking Comics podcast.
He, uh, used to work at a video
store and He sold me, like, a
classic Godzilla box set with,
like, all of the old movies in it.
I think I'm gonna dig that up again.
But the first thing that I did after
this movie, I have it on my PC, I
went and played King of Monsters.
The 1991 SNK game
with, like, all the different
kaijus just smashing, like,
picking people up and throwing them
through buildings and everything.
They made two of them.
There's King of the Monsters 1 and 2.
Uh, 91 and 92, those came out.
So, if you could find a way.
It also came out on the Neo Geo.
If you could find a way to fire that up,
I highly recommend it, it's a lot of fun.
The only other movie that I really
feel like watching after this, and I
might get kicked off the podcast for
this, is uh, Dwayne Johnson's Rampage.
Ben: Yeah,
Jeremy: I will watch anything with
Dwayne The Rock Johnson in it, so.
Steve: I unapologetically love this
Ben: I'm still amazed that Dwayne Johnson
was actually willing to be in a movie
where he wasn't the largest character.
Steve: Oh my god.
When the wolf comes in at
the end, I nearly died.
The Giant Crocodile, that movie's fun.
I don't care.
I love, I'm a huge video game nerd,
and I was so pumped for that movie.
And there was like, there was nothing
that was going to ruin it for me.
So,
Jamie: I forgot that came out!
Steve: Rampage rules.
It's so stupid, but I love it.
Emily: That's gonna have to be one
of our birthday specials because
Jeremy, I know Jeremy had Doom on
his list of uh, birthday specials.
Um,
Jamie: BFG!
Steve: I put something out there?
If I, it's not really, um, I mean, we do
different types of movies for birthdays.
My birthday is not until January,
but if we can get together to
talk about Death to Smoochie...
I would absolutely love that.
Emily: Yes!
I've been meaning to re watch that too!
Steve: That is in my top three
favorite movies of all time.
I love that movie so
Jeremy: Love me some Edwin Norton, man.
Steve: Ugh, everything about
that movie is so hilarious.
but yeah, that's all I've got.
Rampage, the old school Godzilla films,
just marathon them and find yourself
a King of Fighters arcade machine
and a pizza place and go and play it.
or bowling alley.
Emily: oh good, yes, King of Fighters.
Good bless.
Steve: Find one of those like, multiple
game, uh, like SNK machines where that you
can actually, there's like a select game
button and, uh, the multi
colored buttons for it.
Yeah.
Emily: that's how you play
SNK.
Steve: Do it.
Emily: Jamie has given us some notes
here, Pluto TV has a bunch of Godzilla
stuff, and Max, uh, HBO, formerly Home Box
Office, Maximum, has a lot of the Showa
era Godzilla, and I think in Japanese,
too, because that's, um, one of, yeah,
one of my recommendations is Godzilla vs.
the Smog Monster, aka Godzilla vs.
Hedorah, which is a fucking acid trip.
It's the environment, and, you
know, it's kind of weird to have
Godzilla be the protagonist.
In a movie about how bad pollution is.
But here we are.
Ben: It's always weird having
Godzilla just be the protagonist,
like the end of the 2014 movie, where
it's like, Yay, Godzilla, you only
destroyed half of San Francisco.
You're our hero.
Everyone clap for Godzilla now.
Emily: Well, I think America can relate.
Jeremy: just,
Ben: Dark.
Jeremy: uh,
Emily: why we love
Godzilla as a protagonist.
Ben: By the way, if you're deciding
between Shin Godzilla or 2014's
Godzilla definitely Shin Godzilla.
Jeremy: when do we get
Shin King Kong though?
on.
Emily: But it's a different thing.
Cause the shin is like, the new one.
Jamie: We need a Shin Mothra.
Emily: We do!
The Rebirth of Mothra was, well, that may
be like a more, more recent Shin Mothra,
Jamie: Yeah, we need a new one.
We
Ben: I'm not sure if this is
Shin King Ghidorah, but I do
want three heads and a baby.
Emily: the new Mothra.
King Ghidorah is actually in Rebirth
of Mothra, a very different form.
But Rebirth of Mothra is
from, I think, the 2000 2001.
Um, and it's just, it's just
three movies and they're just
Mothra, but they are very, very,
Very,
Jamie: very
Ben: for, uh, All Star Gamera.
Emily: yeah.
Oh, yeah, Gamera, you know,
Jamie: Gamera's coming back, I think.
Emily: good,
love, Jeremy.
Jeremy: I still haven't
done recommendations.
I will say.
If you enjoy, especially the first
half of this movie, you may also very
much like the works of Aaron Sorkin.
Um, if you like men in suits
walking down hallways while they
talk, there's your man right there.
the first half of this is very
reminiscent of the West Wing to me.
You know, lots of, lots of
people talking fast, having
meetings, walking down hallways.
So, you know, there's always that.
What I would recommend that has nothing
to do with Godzilla whatsoever, just
that I happen to have watched going
to and from, I went to and from
a convention in Seattle recently.
Doing My Little Pony stuff and
got a chance to, uh, watch a
few movies while I was there.
Uh, one of them was John Wick 4.
If you've not seen John Wick 4 and you've
seen the other three, I mean, why not?
if you enjoy knowing what's going to
happen 10 minutes before it does the
fact that they decide to have their
final battle at Sacré Cœur and he has
to fight his way there, I was like,
I'll fight on those steps for so long.
There's gonna be so
much fighting on steps.
and they did, they did fight up and down
them fucking steps a couple of times.
If you've ever been on those
steps, they're very, very long
steps, there's like 120 steps.
And when they, when they said they
were going there, I was like, oh, are
they going to fight on them steps?
Um, I was very excited about this, but,
uh, what I want to recommend is the
other stuff that I saw, which, uh, back
when we talked about Train to Busan I
also talked about the fact that, uh,
Ma Dong seok, who is in that is my
favorite part of the Eternals film.
He's also maybe my favorite
part of Train to Busan.
He's the thick dad of Good
Dad, Thick Dad, that movie.
He's just, he's a big dude, an
actor, and a martial artist.
And I love seeing a martial artist
in a movie who is like a big dude,
not, you know, a skinny kicking man.
Ma Dong Siak is a big dude.
So, I watched two Ma Dong Siak movies.
One is called The Gangster,
The Cop, and The Devil.
Which I...
Absolutely bar none recommend it is about
he, Madagascar plays a gangster in in
this sort of like rivalry with this up and
coming very Jackie Chan type cop who's,
you know, always trying to do the right
thing despite the fact that the rest of
the, uh, you know, department doesn't care
enough to try and fight these gangsters.
but, uh, Ma Deng Siak is the, like,
lead gangster of, this underground and,
uh, through, like, getting caught in
his car in the rain accidentally gets
targeted by this serial killer who's,
killing people out on the road at night.
and uh, nearly gets killed.
The cops are trying to track down
this serial killer and meanwhile
he is like, I am the biggest
gangster in, in all of Korea.
I cannot let this punk go to
jail without me murdering him.
Uh, because like, If I don't kill this
guy, nobody's ever gonna respect me
again, so like he and the cop character
are like racing to find and stop or kill
the devil of this, the serial killer.
So it's like, both an action movie and a
gangster movie and a serial killer movie.
and a cop movie.
So like, it's, it was a real fun one.
Definitely worth checking out.
I guess they're making a remake of
it, which I assume is going to be
in English, but he's also in, so
who knows if that'll be any good.
The other one is called Unstoppable,
uh, where he like, plays a dude who
seems to be just a dude who like, is
a good guy and gets taken advantage of
by a lot of like, underground types.
He's, he's trying to like, provide
for his, his wife and having a hard
time with like, day to day stuff.
But then, like, his wife gets, uh,
kidnapped by these, like, human
trafficking guys, and so, him and his
loser buddy go on, like, a, a path of...
destruction, trying to get to his
wife and find out what's going on and
fight their way through this whole
like criminal organization while the
cops try and stop him from doing so.
But like you know, he's one of those
like characters that it's like,
oh, he was just a dude, but also
he really fucking loves his wife.
So like he will murder
everybody to get her back.
Jamie: Hell yeah.
Emily: bless.
Jeremy: yeah, it's he's really good.
And his, the woman who plays
his wife is really good in it.
And I, I told my wife, like, this is
exactly what would happen with us, and
that he fights his way through this whole
criminal organization by the time he
gets to where she is supposed to be, she
is broken out and on the run somewhere.
Emily: Yeah, yeah,
Jeremy: I was like, damn it,
that is exactly what would
happen with me and Alicia.
Jamie: That's so good.
Emily: absolutely.
Jeremy: Both of those
are phenomenal movies.
I recommend both of them as well as
Chained Busana if you haven't seen it.
I can't say for sure that I recommend
The Eternals, but you may enjoy it.
Your mileage will vary.
Emily: So yeah, that's I did talk
about talking about One Piece I
just will say now, it's alright.
And Makenryu is,
Jeremy: Which one is Machinryu?
Emily: he's uh, Zoro.
Jeremy: Okay.
Emily: He's the son of Sonny Chiba, so,
Jamie: Yes.
Ben: very handsome and
very good at swords.
Emily: Oh my god.
Ben: I agree, I loved
One Piece live action.
Emily: Yeah, I haven't seen
all of it yet, but it's
Jamie: The chiba.
Emily: I just, I can go on about it But I
do recommend just checking it out because
you know These are the things that we
can do if you like Godzilla, if you like
to animes and uh, I mean, I guess if you
like One Piece, you don't need to like
One Piece to like this One Piece But
Jeremy: You like as
many pieces as you like.
Emily: yeah, it's whatever, however many
pieces This one's alright So yeah, I think
that's about the long and the short of it.
The long and the shin of it.
Um, I love this movie.
I love this I've, I have a lot of things
I can still say about it, but we've talked
Jeremy: Yeah, I guess we didn't really
say whether we, uh, go around the
table as to whether we recommend it.
And how does everybody
Ben: it's safe to say that
we recommend it.
Jamie: Hell yeah.
And get the art book cause
it comes with the script
Jeremy: Oh,
wild.
Jesus.
Jamie: and I can't read
it, but it's there.
Emily: You get that deep lore and you know
when it's, when Anna's involved, you need
to have that deep lore because then you're
gonna find out like how the human genome
is involved in Godzilla's existence.
Steve: I would, I would say, though,
like, if I was going to recommend
this to someone, I would probably give
them a heads up about it being more
of a political thriller than, like,
a Rock'em Sock'em Godzilla movie.
If, if I thought they were the type of
person to get turned off by that, I would
want them to know what they're going into,
so that they can go into it with, like,
luckily, I, like I said, I went into this
blind, and just the fact that it was so
different from everything that I've seen
in the past couple of years, I was all
in, because I was like, ah, thank God.
God, like, breath of fresh air, let's
do something different with this, you
know, classic, legendary property,
but I don't know that everybody
is going to have that reaction.
If you have people that are fans of, like,
the Americanized versions of Godzilla
that have come out, the Kong movies, uh,
the Versus movies, all of that stuff,
if that's their bread and butter, I do
think that you need to be like, listen,
this is gonna be, you know, A little
bit, more heady in the, in the political
department, just so you know, uh, and then
kind of wind them up and watch them go.
Jeremy: Yeah, I my only caution would be
just to let people know how fucking dense
it is Like especially if you're watching
this with subtitles, you will not be able
to look away from the screen people do not
stop talking They will go to 12 different
kind of talking heads in a row crazy Dutch
angles Just so, like, you can get through,
like, the bureaucracy and the, the talking
of this, and if you're the sort of person
that likes to, like, wander off in the
middle of the movie for a little bit, grab
some snacks, you know, get a coffee, come
back, uh, you're gonna have to pause it.
Like,
Steve: we watched this on, we rented it on
YouTube, and it was the only, uh, the only
option that I saw was the dub, and I was
definitely getting, like, Wayne's World
2, Wayne fighting, uh, Cassandra's father
Jamie: Oh, God,
Steve: from this.
Emily: Oh,
Steve: So
Emily: no,
Steve: it was, it was a bit much at
times, but then there were other times
where it was extreme to like a funny
degree, especially when they were going
around introducing the rebel scientists.
Jamie: yeah.
Steve: It was
Jeremy: yeah, I would say go with, go
with Amazon, Shed Godzilla,
original Japanese version.
Emily: Yes.
Jeremy: have the English subtitle on
there, which is what I was worried about
when it's an original Japanese version.
And then it didn't have subtitle options.
It just has the English subtitles on there
Emily: Yeah, they're, integrated.
Jamie: And if it ever comes in theaters
again, for whatever reason, you
should see it in the theater because
the action scenes with Godzilla are
kind of overwhelming when it just
explodes in your face that you kind
of need to come down from that.
Steve: when all
Jamie: when all the political.
Yeah, and that's when all the political
bullshit helps because it lulls you in a
false sense of security and then kapow,
because I first saw this in the theater,
and it blew my fucking mind, just
Jeremy: And it does have
that classic Godzilla music.
And I would like to hear that
through like theater speakers.
Like that would be, it
would be some good shit.
Gotta be.
Emily: I think there was a recent,
there was a showing of it maybe in
Portland or something recently, but
yeah, if you're, especially in, as
we get into spooky season, find it.
Jeremy: And this was the second
in our spooky month series of,
uh, new takes on classic stuff.
So, if you didn't hear us talking
about Invisible Man last week,
that one was also excellent.
Next week we're talking about
the, uh, the latest in the Scream
franchise for however long before
they make another one, Scream 6.
Ben: Who knows at this point?
Jeremy: It could be out
tomorrow, I don't know.
Yeah, and if, you like that, we're talking
about Scream 6 next week, and then we're
finishing off with, uh, Evil Dead Rise.
So, time for that spooky season.
It's only getting wilder from here.
Emily: Excellent.
Ben: Alright, uh, Jamie, Steve,
yeah, where can we find ya?
Emily: where can we find you on online?
Steve: Uh, Jamie, go ahead.
Jamie: Jamie Noguchi.
com.
I fuckin bit the bullet and
put all my shit on there.
It's basically a card site and
I'm building it out, but it
has links to all my other shit.
Emily: Nice.
Steve: Awesome.
Emily: That's, yeah.
Steve: Uh, you can hear me just about
every Wednesday, unless I'm not there
doing the Stalking Comics podcast.
I've been taking a few days off
every now and again just to go to
some concerts and do some stuff.
But normally, uh, every Wednesday
morning at 6am, We drop an episode
of the Talking Comics Podcast.
Beyond that, uh, I am at dead
underscore anchoress on Twitter still,
although I barely tweet anything.
But, uh, if you want to catch me on
Blue Sky, I'm also dead anchoress there.
And then of course on Instagram as well.
That's me.
Emily: you.
Jeremy: Emily, did you
want to give your, uh,
Emily: Yeah, well, I'm megamoth.
net, similar thing to Sajamie's situation,
that's a card but I'm also on Twitter,
I'm megamoth pretty much on Patreon, and,
uh, mega underscore moth on Instagram.
Jeremy: and Ben?
Ben: Fucking go read Al
Campbell, Winsner Weekend.
It's a book, I wrote it.
It'll either be coming out in days
when this episode, like, airs, or
have just come out, so, fuckin go
read it, it's not horror in any
way, but, fuck it, buy it anyway.
Emily: Or else.
Ben: Or else!
Jeremy: Yeah.
And, uh, on that same note, by the time
this comes out, we will be about a month
away from the release of Jamie and my
school for extraterrestrial girls book two
girls in flight, which is out in November.
if you love, this movie, there's
something there for you, for sure.
Jamie: yes, yes, yes,
yes!
Emily: Absolutely.
Jeremy: This book definitely involved me
going, Jamie, what do you want to draw?
So, if that tells you, if that tells
you anything there's a lot of that to,
to this book and what we did with it.
Uh, and, yeah, I mean, you'll
find me in all the usual places.
If you listen to this, you've probably
listened to more episodes of it.
I say it every time.
Uh, and the podcast, of course, is
in all the usual places as well.
Thank you.
Including wherever you're listening to it
now, which we would love for you to give
it a five star review so that other people
can find it, so that we can do more of
them, so that you can enjoy more of them.
It's really yourself that you're
benefiting here, honestly.
Um, so yes, and again, thanks to Steve
and Jamie, again, for joining us.
Uh,
Steve: No problem.
This was a blast.
Jeremy: thank you so much,
Emily, for being born.
Uh huh.
Emily: You're welcome!
Also, I'll, I'll convey that to my folks.
Um,
thank them Yeah they got me into Godzilla.
So,
Jamie: Hehehehehehehehe.
Jeremy: nice.
Uh, and until next time, stay horrified.