#SHOWBIZ: Godzilla fans fete the monster as it turns 70
The Japanese studio Toho, which created Godzilla, maintains a calendar of events to celebrate the beast often called the king of monsters, and Comic-Con is on the agenda.
Godzilla was born on Nov 3, 1954, with the launch of the first movie about it, directed by Ishiro Honda.
"I am a very big fan of Godzilla," said Angela Hill, a teacher who traveled from Arizona to take part in Comic-Con, which this year featured events and displays celebrating Godzilla.
One of the world's largest celebrations of pop culture, Comic-Con brings together 130,000 people, many of whom come dressed as wizards, princesses or characters from movies, games or TV series.
As the story of Godzilla goes, a prehistoric amphibious beast is awakened and mutated by nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific.
It emerges from the sea and attacks Japan in a rage, symbolizing the deadly power of nukes.
"I think because he came from such a historic event — like, a lot of other monsters are just interesting creatures, but they don't hold the grief of a nation," Hill said, referring to the US nuclear bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
At the pop culture watering hole in San Diego, people lined up to shoot pictures and video with an image of Godzilla, which was also the theme of a panel discussion on Friday that featured Shinji Higuchi, who co-directed a reboot in 2016 called "Shin Godzilla."
The movie franchise includes nearly 40 films and has spawned hundreds of animated productions about the monster, as well as TV series and graphic work.
ROOTING FOR HIM
On Saturday, the writers Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle signed autographs of their book "Godzilla: The First 70 Years," which sold out at Comic-Con.
"It's a rich history," Ryfle told AFP.
"This is the longest-running feature film franchise in cinematic history that's focused on a single, continuous character. It's been around longer than James Bond."
He said the key to its longevity is that Godzilla has evolved over time but stayed faithful to its origins.
"Godzilla has been serious, it's been scary, it's been heroic, it's been funny. But at the same time, this is a movie character that's rooted in something that's very real," Ryfle said.
"And that's the trauma that Japan experienced, both during World War II, and also the trauma of the aftermath of World War II, the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he added.
He said Honda, who directed the first Godzilla movie, was a veteran who used the film to send a message against war and, in particular, against nuclear weapons.
Michelle Pena, a Godzilla fan who waited in line to get the autograph of the two writers, said part of the monster's charm is how it has changed over the years.
"Good, bad, hero, anti-hero, you know. And I like that," she said.
"He's not, like, lovable," she added.
"He's a big dinosaur-looking thing, you know. He's scary. But, like, you really, really find yourself rooting for him."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Banquet offers spirited toast to Chinese cuisine
Wines and spirits have long been used in Chinese cuisine, not only for their refreshing or earthy, cask-aged flavour but also for the aromatic fragrance they impart to dishes. To showcase the marvel of various spirits and liquors in Chinese cuisine, a team of chefs from the Oriental Group has crafted a menu for their annual Grand Banquet Series titled 'The Tradition of Liquors in Chinese Cuisine'. The menu, by group senior executive chef Paul Lee and chef Wong Chin Leong, along with executive chefs Jay Chan and Vincent Ong and barbecue chef Kent Yam, pays homage to the rich cultural and culinary legacy of pairing and infusing a variety of liquors into gourmet creations. Group founder and chairman Datuk Seri Phillip Siew said the group had hosted a few special dinners every year. 'Previously, we partnered with international chefs. 'This time around, our team created a menu that paired with different wines and liquors.' The dinner began with a combination of four dishes showcasing the incorporation of different alcoholic beverages. Pickled radish roses with Japanese umeshu offered a tangy, plum-scented flavour to excite the palate. Spring rolls filled with prawn paste and (below) steamed wild Sultan fish. Spring rolls filled with prawn paste and a hint of Chinese wine featured finely diced water chestnuts for a satisfying crunch. For the drunken chicken, Shao Xing wine was used in the marinade, with balsamic vinegar pearls added for an extra tang. The final starter was chilled Japanese sake sea clam. Next, guests were presented with four main dishes highlighting the influence of wine and spirits in Chinese cuisine. The first was XO Cognac stuffed treasure duck with five-head South African abalone in a pool of thick, flavourful stock. 'After the deboned duck was stuffed and braised in a rich stock made from chicken and duck bones, a shot of cognac was added to the dish,' said Lee. The meat that soaked up the essence of the stock was tender and savoury, while the shot of XO cognac lent earthy notes and a layer of complexity to the dish. The plump abalone and yam in the filling were a delight. For the steamed wild Sultan fish, Lee's innovative method in using eight-year-aged Hulu Shao Hsing, spring onion, and rooster's fat to enhance the flavour, brought something special to the dish. According to Lee, roosters generally have lower fat content but the fat has more intense flavour. The perfectly steamed fish, weighing in at about 2.5kg, had a firm texture and a subtle richness, with the Hulu Shao Hsing wine adding a fragrant aroma. Next was a duo of bite-sized dishes, Suckling Pig with 'Mei Kui Lu' (a rose essence baijiu) Glutinous Rice Rolls and Cinnamon-Whiskey Braised Pork. The crispy skin, wrapped around a fragrant glutinous rice filling, was served alongside tender, caramelised pork belly that gave it a sweet and savoury taste. The final main dish showcased prawn paste stuffed into Morel mushrooms, stir-fried with baby corn, asparagus, ginkgo, lily bulb, Chinese celtuce and Chinese yam in a rich house-made dried scallop sauce. Dessert was a perfect pairing of red bean paste with aged tangerine peel and a mini version of the restaurant's award-winning Teochew taro puff. The Teochew taro puff's lacy outer shell enveloping mashed taro and egg yolk was savoury and appetising, a nod to the upcoming Mid-Autumn festival. The Grand Banquet Series is priced at RM2,988++ per table of 10 at the 11 Oriental Group Restaurants. The series will be featured at The Ming Room (Aug 13), Tang Room (Aug 14), Noble House (Aug 15), Noble Mansion (Aug 21), Oriental Sun (Aug 22), Ruyi (pork-free) (Aug 25), Oriental Pavilion (Aug 26), Oriental Star (Aug 27) Oriental Parade (Aug 29), Oriental Treasure (Aug 30) and The Han Room (Sept 9). NOBLE MANSION, P1-01, Level 1 Podium, Plaza 33, Jalan Kemajuan, Section 13, Petaling Jaya. (Tel: 03-7932 3288). Business hours: 11am to 3pm, 6pm to 11pm (Mon-Sat); 10am to 3pm, 6pm to 11pm (Sun and public holiday). Non-halal. This is the writer's personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
The Star
14 hours ago
- The Star
Cultural fallout: the impact of the atomic bombings on Japanese arts
From Godzilla's fiery atomic breath to post-apocalyptic anime and harrowing depictions of radiation sickness, the influence of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki runs deep in Japanese popular culture. In the 80 years since the World War II attacks, stories of destruction and mutation have been fused with fears around natural disasters and, more recently, the Fukushima crisis. Classic manga and anime series Astro Boy is called Mighty Atom in Japanese, while city-levelling explosions loom large in other titles such as Akira, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Attack On Titan . "Living through tremendous pain" and overcoming trauma is a recurrent theme in Japan's cultural output "that global audiences have found fascinating", said William Tsutsui, a history professor at Ottawa University. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945 left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki that killed around 74,000 people. Some poetry "portrays the sheer terror of the atomic bomb at the moment it was dropped", but many novels and artworks address the topic indirectly, said author Yoko Tawada. "It's very difficult for the experience of the atomic bomb, which had never existed in history before, to find a place in the human heart as a memory," she told AFP. Tawada's 2014 book The Emissary focuses on the aftermath of an unspecified terrible event. She was inspired by connections between the atomic bombs, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and "Minamata disease" - mass mercury poisoning caused by industrial pollution in southwest Japan from the 1950s. The story "is less of a warning, and more a message to say: things may get bad, but we'll find a way to survive", Tawada said. Godzilla's skin Narratives reflecting Japan's complex relationship with nuclear technologies abound, but the most famous example is Godzilla, a prehistoric creature awakened by US hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific. "We need monsters to give a face and form to abstract fears," said professor Tsutsui, author of the book Godzilla On My Mind. "In the 1950s, Godzilla fulfilled that role for the Japanese - with atomic energy, with radiation, with memories of the A-bombs." Many people who watched Godzilla rampage through Tokyo in the original 1954 film left theatres in tears, he said. And "it's said that the special effects people working on Godzilla modelled the monster's heavily furrowed skin after the keloid scars on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." In the nearly 40 Godzilla movies released since, nuclear themes are present but often given less prominence, partly to appease American audiences, Tsutsui said. Even so, the series remains hugely popular, with 2016 megahit Shin Godzilla seen as a critique of Japan's response to the tsunami-triggered Fukushima disaster. 'Black Rain' Black Rain , a 1965 novel by Masuji Ibuse about radiation sickness and discrimination, is one of Japan's best-known novels about the Hiroshima bombing. But the fact Ibuse was not an A-bomb survivor is part of a "big debate about who is permitted to write these stories", said Victoria Young of the University of Cambridge. "How we talk about or create literature out of real life is always going to be difficult," she said. "Are you allowed to write about it if you didn't directly experience it?" Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe collected survivor accounts in Hiroshima Notes, essays written on visits to the city in the 1960s. "He's confronting reality, but tries to approach it from a personal angle" including his relationship with his disabled son, said Tawada, who has lived in Germany for four decades after growing up in Japan. "The anti-war education I received sometimes gave the impression that Japan was solely a victim" in World War II, she said. "When it comes to the bombings, Japan was a victim - no doubt" but "it's important to look at the bigger picture" including Japan's wartime atrocities, she said. As a child, illustrations of the nuclear bombings in contemporary picture books reminded her of depictions of hell in historical Japanese art. This "made me consider whether human civilisation itself harboured inherent dangers", making atomic weapons feel less like "developments in technology, and more like something latent within humanity". - AFP
Malay Mail
a day ago
- Malay Mail
From Godzilla to Akira: how Japan's nuclear trauma shaped its pop culture legacy
TOKYO, Aug 5 — From Godzilla's fiery atomic breath to post-apocalyptic anime and harrowing depictions of radiation sickness, the influence of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki runs deep in Japanese popular culture. In the 80 years since the World War II attacks, stories of destruction and mutation have been fused with fears around natural disasters and, more recently, the Fukushima crisis. Classic manga and anime series 'Astro Boy' is called 'Mighty Atom' in Japanese, while city-levelling explosions loom large in other titles such as 'Akira', 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' and 'Attack on Titan'. 'Living through tremendous pain' and overcoming trauma is a recurrent theme in Japan's cultural output 'that global audiences have found fascinating', said William Tsutsui, a history professor at Ottawa University. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki that killed around 74,000 people. Some poetry 'portrays the sheer terror of the atomic bomb at the moment it was dropped', but many novels and artworks address the topic indirectly, said author Yoko Tawada. 'It's very difficult for the experience of the atomic bomb, which had never existed in history before, to find a place in the human heart as a memory,' she told AFP. Tawada's 2014 book 'The Emissary' focuses on the aftermath of an unspecified terrible event. She was inspired by connections between the atomic bombs, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and 'Minamata disease' — mass mercury poisoning caused by industrial pollution in southwest Japan from the 1950s. The story 'is less of a warning, and more a message to say: things may get bad, but we'll find a way to survive', Tawada said. Godzilla's skin Narratives reflecting Japan's complex relationship with nuclear technologies abound, but the most famous example is Godzilla, a prehistoric creature awakened by US hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific. 'We need monsters to give a face and form to abstract fears,' said professor Tsutsui, author of the book 'Godzilla on My Mind'. 'In the 1950s, Godzilla fulfilled that role for the Japanese — with atomic energy, with radiation, with memories of the A-bombs.' Many people who watched Godzilla rampage through Tokyo in the original 1954 film left theatres in tears, he said. And 'it's said that the special effects people working on Godzilla modelled the monster's heavily furrowed skin after the keloid scars on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.' In the nearly 40 Godzilla movies released since, nuclear themes are present but often given less prominence, partly to appease American audiences, Tsutsui said. Even so, the series remains hugely popular, with 2016 megahit 'Shin Godzilla' seen as a critique of Japan's response to the tsunami-triggered Fukushima disaster. This photo taken on June 26, 2025 shows a general view of the Atomic Bomb Dome at dusk in the centre of Hiroshima, Hiroshima prefecture. — AFP pic 'Black Rain' 'Black Rain', a 1965 novel by Masuji Ibuse about radiation sickness and discrimination, is one of Japan's best-known novels about the Hiroshima bombing. But the fact Ibuse was not an A-bomb survivor is part of a 'big debate about who is permitted to write these stories', said Victoria Young of the University of Cambridge. 'How we talk about or create literature out of real life is always going to be difficult,' she said. 'Are you allowed to write about it if you didn't directly experience it?' Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe collected survivor accounts in 'Hiroshima Notes', essays written on visits to the city in the 1960s. 'He's confronting reality, but tries to approach it from a personal angle' including his relationship with his disabled son, said Tawada, who has lived in Germany for four decades after growing up in Japan. 'The anti-war education I received sometimes gave the impression that Japan was solely a victim' in World War II, she said. 'When it comes to the bombings, Japan was a victim — no doubt' but 'it's important to look at the bigger picture' including Japan's wartime atrocities, she said. As a child, illustrations of the nuclear bombings in contemporary picture books reminded her of depictions of hell in historical Japanese art. This 'made me consider whether human civilisation itself harboured inherent dangers', making atomic weapons feel less like 'developments in technology, and more like something latent within humanity'. — AFP
