After awhile, we were all getting bored and Eric, a fellow classmate, walked over
to me in the computer lab and showed me on his Kansai Walker, the ad
for Godzilla 2000. Godzilla? I knew that Japanese filmmakers were still producing
those movies but I didn’t know how popular they were. When I think of Godzilla, I
think of Saturday afternoons, sitting alone in a big old house that was built in
1892 in Victorian Gothic style in Port Tampa and watching the old Toho Godzilla
films on Creature Feature.
Well, I was bored and anything was better then nothing and it just might be fun, yes
it would be a lot of fun to see a Godzilla movie on opening night in Japan where a
Godzilla movie deserves to be seen.
I even invited Justin, an annoying classmate, along to try to get him
away from the computer his was hording and show him a way to get out of
his gloom and doom outlook. I was going to invite Todd but one day, as
Eric and I, were walking to Makino station, I remembered Todd saying:
“Aren’t you guys almost 30? Isn’t that a little too old for Godzilla movies?”
To which Eric and I ignored him and kept on walking. Let the cynics say what they
will and wallow in their own misery because it has nothing to do with me. I can
tune them out and turn off their words like turning off a facet dripping hot water
slowly.
I was determined to be happy in Japan. Todd wasn’t going to send me into any
particular moody direction so I didn’t ask him. Eric didn’t want him to go because
we both know that he would talk through the whole movie with snide remarks and we
might have to hurt him then.
We arrived in Umeda at night and we walked over to the Hep Five
department store with the big Ferris wheel on top of it. We walked next
door to Hep Navio and took the elevator to the top. The elevators doors
opened at either the 7th or 8th floor and I saw all the restaurants, as
to be expected, we agreed on where to eat and ate quickly because this
was opening night and we weren’t sure how popular the big green lizard
would still be in modern Japan.
After eating, we walked over to the theater and bought our tickets
early. We didn’t want to take any chances. We were still early and we
couldn’t begin to believe everything that we saw.
I saw a souvenir booth that contained every product that you could think
off. Eric ran over there as soon as he bought his tickets. We both
bought a program book that had beautiful glossy photos inside. Japan
was going all out for Godzilla. I bought a pin that had a little rubber
Godzilla on top of it. When you wanted to write something you gently
pressed down on Godzilla’s head and the point came out. My Godzilla pen
provided more than enough power for me to survive the toughest Japanese
exams or so I would like to believe.
There was also a purikuri sticker booth so we looked through all the
choices on the screen and Eric, as always, picked the coolest one. Then
we positioned each other for the slaughter to follow. I was in front
because I was the shortest, Eric was to my left, and Justin was to my
right. We made our silly faces and the camera inside took 2 pictures of
us and while we waited for the stickers to finish and come out there was
even a Godzilla game to play. The sticker pictures finally came out and
these weren’t the small stickers that generally are created; this was
one big sticker with six photos on it. There were different pictures of
Godzilla, a spaceship, Godzilla on fire, and two big photos of all three
of us being menaced by the green machine.
After the pictures were made and equally handed out, we saw a glass case
that contained colored pictures of Godzilla. Eric read the inscription
and it was from a local elementary school. There must have been a
contest and the best-colored ones from the winning elementary school
would make it to the Godzilla premiere. I realized at that time that I
had grown up in the wrong country. How could I have been born American?
I started to ponder this, than I shook my head and changed my thoughts.
I was out here to have a good time and I would think my own thoughts
later.
There was also a huge Godzilla cardboard display. Godzilla had his
claws held out and there was an opening between his hands and his body.
So, like true wacky Americans we each put our heads between the hands
and the body and made a horrible face of pure pain and took each other’s
picture. The ticket girls and the souvenir girls just laughed at us.
No one cared. I still had no idea what to expect, but after taking a
picture of Eric with his head underneath Godzilla death claws, I turned
and stared at the ticket line. The line was just starting to form.
People were rushing in at five minutes before the start time and the
whole area was crowded.
There was one thing left to do. Get our spot in line to hand in our
tickets so we could run into the theater and get the best possible seat.
How many times do you really get to be at a Godzilla premiere in Japan
anyway?
Then the ticket girls started tearing tickets and handing back the
stubs. We braced ourselves. Everyone was going to have a good time
tonight. The girl took my ticket, and I rushed for the theater doors
but I was careful not to push anyone but you just couldn’t help bumping
into that many people crammed into that small of a place. I raced down
the carpet, through the aisle and once again, Eric picked out the best
seats that were near the front but not to close to the screen and we
were right in the middle. We really did get the best seats and Eric was
glowing like he was a 10-year old boy at the premiere of Star Wars.
Eric told me how envious his friends back in Chicago were going to be
over this. He told me how they use to go to Denny’s, drinking coffee
all night long, and talked about Godzilla movies. A lot of Eric’s
friends were working with him for an Internet Service Provider and they
took inbound calls for technical support. They were also big fans of
Godzilla because they grew up watching the big lizard on TV. They
formed a Godzilla club and had books that showed each monster’s
strengths and weaknesses and would talk about Godzilla and buying the
rubber kaiju toys.
I looked over a saw a serious looking Japanese businessman in suit and
tie pondering a big Godzilla encyclopedia. It was as if he was preparing
for a test.
About this time the red velvet curtains parted and the huge screen was
before our naked eyes. There was my first movie in Japan and just
before the lights went out, I looked around and saw that every seat in
that theater was filled. Godzilla was sold out and packed and there
were office ladies, salary men, school children, professionals, trades
people, and college students, all the vast spectrum of human endeavor
was gathered together at one place to see one thing.
The lights went out and the theater went dark and the previews began and
Eric and I yelled out to get it out of our system before the movie
started.
Just before the first preview started to play, I recalled how Godzilla
was entertaining to watch on TV when I was 8 or 9 and then when I was
14, it didn’t have the same effect on me until I went to summer camp.
There at was at 14, living in Kansas City, MO, and one day we went to the
movies. I don’t even remember the first movie it was so boring, as I
walked out of the theater and waited for the 2nd film to start. I
bought Hershey’s chocolate, popcorn and a large Pepsi. Even if the next
flick sucked at least it wouldn’t be a total loss. The next film was
called Godzilla vs. MekaGodzilla and I was pulled into it instantly. On
the screen Godzilla came alive, as he couldn’t do on TV. I remembered
liking it so much better on the big screen.. I believe that Godzilla was
made for viewing on the big screen. That is the only way to do the
films justice.
I looked at the screen and a cartoon Godzilla walked out and told
everyone that “Silence was Golden” in Japanese and then the little
Godzilla picked up his empty popcorn box and soda cup and stomped over
to the nearest trash bin and tossed everything inside. Godzilla advised
everyone to do the same with his or her trash and who in the right mind
wants to upset Godzilla?
The first preview started and it was for Japan’s favorite blue robotic
cat, Doraemon. It looked OK. In fact, it looked like it would be easy
for someone just trying to grasp the basics of learning Japanese to see
so I made a mental note to myself to go see it.
The previews came and went and as I sat watching the trailers for various American
movies getting ready to invade Japan, I thought about my Japanese friends and how
all of them only watched American movies. They would tell me how bad Japanese films
were and how they were so low budget and the stories weren’t that good. Despite
what my Japanese friends told me, Godzilla was still big business.
Finally the movie started. While standing in line, Eric and I discussed
how much we both hated the recent American-made Godzilla that came out
in ’98. We both agreed that Toho should make Godzilla films and that
America should hang it up and stick to over-the-top glorified Hollywood
epics. I was hoping that Toho wouldn’t try to copy the American version
because I wanted to see the real Godzilla stomp and destroy that turkey.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Just before it started there was a short Toho retrospect of all the
Godzilla films up to this one. The movie started and I saw on the
screen a Japanese man with his family, driving a jeep that had at least
4 computers running inside it. The jeep stopped at the edge, just
before going over a cliff and Godzilla’s head peered into their little
window. The little girl in the back seat looked like she would cry any
second. The Japanese man driving opened his mouth wide and his nostrils
flared. The Japanese woman sitting next to him took a series of
pictures using her camera’s flash. Well, that did it. You could see
Godzilla’s breath fog up the glass and then he let out his famous roar
and shattered the glass. The man pounded his foot down on the gas pedal
and sped away backwards through a tunnel. Godzilla leaped out of the
water and gave chase. You could see the sparks fly off the wheels as
the Jeep banged up against the tunnel’s walls and then you could see the
pavement rip apart and Godzilla stomped after them. It was a breath
taking scene and it put away my doubts that I would be watching some
kind of weird Western influenced cross between, Godzilla 1998 and
Jurassic Park. The special effects were all CG now and you didn’t think
you were seeing a struggling actor in a suit. All the hokey stuff that
I remembered from the 60’s and 70’s was gone.
I felt like I was 8 again as I watched the big final battle between
Godzilla and Orga. Orga came in the form of a mysterious spaceship that
created its own monster by stealing some of Godzilla’s power. Orga was
this weird mound of rock sitting on top of the waves of Tokyo Bay as
helicopters buzzed around it.
After it was over and the lights came back on, Eric and I were well
satisfied and we hoped to see no further American Godzilla sequels in
our lifetime. We were talking to each other as if were where back in
junior high. I asked Justin if he liked it and he said he did but
Justin always said he liked everything. He didn’t really apply any
critique at all. I think he was just glad to finally have some friends.
We took the crowded elevator down and used the crosswalk on the 7th
floor to stroll over to the Virgin Megastore in the building next door.
At the music store we saw the Godzilla 2000 soundtrack and we also saw a
CD called Destroy The Monsters that featured various indie and punk
artists doing techno/rock remixes of the Godzilla themes. So going
completely on impulse we both bought it. We left the music store and
decided to walk around the other stores.
We walked through a clothing store to get to the exit and saw a
miniature city of Tokyo with an 8-foot Godzilla next to it and I really
wanted to pick it up and try to take it home on the train with me but I
took 2 pictures instead.
Despite what I was reading about the Japanese cinema dying and that
there were no good directors anymore it was refreshing to see the drive,
desire, and passion, which the Japanese still had for Godzilla. The
trains were overcrowded more than usual for even a typical weekend crowd
and I think that a lot of them had seen Godzilla right along with me.
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2009 by Jason Fetters. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.
