Essay By A Japanese Otaku

In this day and age, the majority english written material on tokusatsu eiga has been writen by American otaku. Very rarely does one find a piece composed by a Japanese tokusatsu otaku which is eye opening. Today is an exception - for all of you who read this blog. By clicking the link below, you will go to a page which in adobe format is an english language version of the paper "Signs Taken For Monsters: What Made Godzilla So Angry Then" by Hiromi Nakano. In this paper, you will be exposed to a great analysis of GMK with the fallowing:

-look into some alternate dialogue from the GMK script

-where Kazunori Ito got his ideas

-information from rare information sources, such as the "GAMERA PERFECT BOX" (a limited 2 book set)

-and alot more!

Happy reading and make sure to leave a comment!

http://kamome.lib.ynu.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10131/3792/1/1-Nakano.pdf

Tales From Toho's Back Editing Room: FINAL CUT

Back when the original blog was hacked, I did not have intentions of bringing this feature back. But it turns out that while submitting material to Tohokingdom, Anthony did not take all of it thus I felt that I might as well resurrect this feature with the rejected material. So here are pictures of the cut scenes with what would have been their descriptions. Enjoy!

Just a deleted scene from King Kong vs. Godzilla. No description here :P...

The most famous of the deleted scenes from the 1964 film, the original version of the scene ended with an accident. Evidently the building was too strong or Nakajima did not strike in the right place and the castle did not crumble the way it was supposed to. Though when the suit hit up against the castle, the resin piece that the skin of the top lip was broken. Tsuburaya actually kept this for couple of scenes before it was repaired. Nakajima did try to save the scene though, looking at the camera trying to maker Godzilla seem frustrated. While some of the original shot was kept, the scene had to be redone at great expense.

This shows something more intricate when it came to Tsuburaya's SFX, the animation. The then magnificent 1200 Optical Printer was in no doubt the machine which made this beautiful scene. The only real difference between what is in the final film and this, which is basically an unfinished version. The scene is not as light as the final version and lacks the beginning explosions. But with this the scene is actually more detailed, seeing the flames on Ghidorah's body and a couple of orbs that seem to be in the middle of the fire before we finally see the Ghidorah suit 100% exposed. It was cut because the scene would have been more excited, which once some things were added, it was.

Like some scenes, they are taken out for no apparent reason. This is one of them. Or at least this version. It is a beautiful shot, mixing dust effects with houses that are blown away which would have been a big plus on Tsuburaya's already impressive body of work. The only real reason why the scene would be cut out is how Rodan looked when they showed his wings moving. Other than that, nothing.

The scene is rather well know scene. But the problem with it is the overuse of the 1/3 Godzilla foot model. While a couple of clips of the foot made it to the final cut, most of them were thankfully cut - including some which showed the inside of the foot prop! About five shots were cut with a side view of the bottom half of the suit stomping through some models. Another imperfection is that some of the buildings were a little too sturdy and through that showed their hollowness.

The main difference with this shot from the finished film was that we see the train go across the bridge before Rodan wrecks it, giving the audience a "whew" moment, adding some suspense to the film. Though it would have been a cool scene, it would have been detrimental to the pacing of the film. Still a nice shot though.

Just an extended version of Godzilla's landing, with some footage being of Rodan's POV while flying.