Template:TabberMoviePostMillennium Template:Infobox MovieShin Godzilla[1] (シン・ゴジラ Shin Gojira?), also known as Godzilla: Resurgence, is a 2016 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho Company Ltd., and the 29th installment in the Godzilla series.[2][3]
It was released in Japanese theaters on July 29, 2016, and was also theatrically released in limited runs during late 2016 in 100 international territories, including North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Plot
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SPOILER WARNING: This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion. |
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The Japanese Coast Guard boards a small boat in Tokyo Harbor. Its occupant, a scientist, has vanished, despite the boat's interiors being clean, and nearly untouched, with the scientist's slippers being the only visible remains. Suddenly, the boat rocks violently due to an exterior explosion. Meanwhile, a large amount of what appears to be blood crashes into an underwater tunnel, causing multiple car accidents.
People evacuate while the Japanese government desperately tries to determine what caused the incident. At first they insist that it's impossible for it to have been caused by a living thing, much to the chagrin of certain officials, but to their surprise, a news report shows footage of the appearance of an enormous serpentine tail splashing out of the ocean. The Prime Minister proceeds to make a press statement, announcing that it's scientifically improbable for the creature to make landfall, however, mid-speech, it does, much to his surprise.
The fish-like creature that emerges from the bay resembles a cross between a moray eel and a frilled shark, but with spiky dorsal plates on its back and a pair of stubby, undeveloped hind limbs. Bleeding from its gills as it struggles to breathe on land, it thrashes about and drags itself down the streets of Tokyo, pushing ships and cars in front of it out of the way, crushing everything in its path as well as climbing on buildings, causing them to collapse, and leaves an immense trail of destruction in its wake. The government meetings continue.
Suddenly, the creature stops moving and collapses in the street. Then, it begins to grow, its rubbery yellow skin grotesquely rippling and hardening to a tougher, scaly burnt-orange shade. Its gills shrink and close up, the stumpy growths on its side emerge into a pair of small, clawed arms, and its hind limbs grow in size and strength, allowing it to stand upright. As it stumbles through the city in its new form, the Self-Defense Force arrives to attack it. However, the Prime Minister refuses to allow the attack to begin, as there are still people in the vicinity. The monster roars loudly at the attackers nearby, and then proceeds back to the harbor as its dorsal spines begin to glow red, destroying a large building as it escapes, and disappears into the sea. Now the government must figure out what has happened, try to prevent it from happening again, and clean the mess up.
Committees are formed. A group of marginal scientists gathers to try to research the monster with what limited knowledge they have. Talks begin with governments around the world, most of all the U.S. government. Due to its large size and rapid mutations, they speculate it requires an enormous amount of energy, not only to move, but to maintain its metabolism. They speculated its energy comes from nuclear fission, a speculation confirmed by traces of radiation that match the creature's trail. Nuclear fission also produces an enormous amount of heat, which is cooled by the dorsal spines on its back. They speculated the creature had to retreat to the sea because its rapid mutation used too much energy and thus produced too much heat for its body to cool itself down, thus it retreated to the sea to lower its body temperature to prevent overheating. They also discover its genome has eight times as much DNA as humans, explaining its ability to self-mutate seemingly at will.
Then, appearing in the Tokyo Harbor comes the monster who, based on the missing scientist Goro Maki's research, has been dubbed "Godzilla" by the American military. Having mutated further, the creature is now several times as large as its previous form, with a far bulkier body, a longer tail, and a dark, nearly black skin glowing red with energy in some parts of its body. It slowly enters Tokyo, wreaking havoc with every step, destroying the city with its movement alone. The government struggles to come up with answers and a means to counter the threat. The Self-Defense Force then returns. The Prime Minister reluctantly gives permission to hit Godzilla with everything they have, with which they do. Godzilla, however, maintains an undamaged state, and destroys much of the nation's ground force in the process.
The U.S. government steps in, dropping bombs on Godzilla's back. They detonate, causing much of Godzilla's blood to spill onto the ground, visibly injuring and enraging the beast. Godzilla's spine suddenly begins to glow an ominous purple, leaving the city lit up by the effect. As Japanese personnel comment on it, Godzilla begins to vomit black and purple fumes, which flow throughout the city around it. Suddenly, in an instant, it ignites the smoke with a large ball of fire-breath, lighting up a large part of the city within seconds, causing immense amounts of destruction from the sheer force of the blast. This wide fire spray is then slowly intensified into a concentrated purple beam emitting a high-pitched noise, which Godzilla aims to the sky, taking out the B2 Bomber that hit it in the first place, much to the shock of the U.S..
Godzilla then stops, and bends over, the spines on its back glowing a brighter purple as the remaining B2s drop their payload as an act of "payback". Godzilla then fires multiple beams from its dorsal plates, systematically destroying each missile, while bisecting and destroying the remaining bombers. It then unleashes another torrent of its concentrated, purple atomic breath, cleaving the city's skyline in half like butter, before hitting the helicopter carrying the Prime Minister and other governmental members. Both nations armies are destroyed, and with the city in flames, the government shattered, and many people dead, Godzilla finally begins to cease its attack; the glow on its dorsal plates subsiding as it slowly comes to a stop, freezing in place like a giant statue.
Now there is an even bigger incentive to find Godzilla's secrets and stop it. The places in the city where Godzilla's beams touched have severely high nuclear radiation readings, while the radiation plume caused by its breath and fire are drifting out to sea. They study the immobile Godzilla and find that it is slowly producing nuclear energy. Godzilla runs on nuclear power, and it has depleted all of its power in its recent rampage, which is why it's frozen. It's replenishing its energy to continue, a process that will take a few weeks. In addition, they figure out it possesses a "radar-like" system in its body, which is how its dorsal beams were able to destroy each bomb and bomber with pinpoint accuracy.
On top of that, its dorsal spines and blood act as a cooling system, and as long as air and water are available to the creature, it will survive. This is coupled with the new knowledge of its ability to regenerate, as a severed dorsal plate is discovered to be beginning to regenerate a body of its own. The scientists become concerned that due to this ability Godzilla's severed parts could potentially grow into new Godzillas.
The scientists find that Godzilla has more DNA information than any other creature on Earth, at least eight times more than the human genome. It is highly evolved, and may continue to evolve further, with one scientist commenting on how it may sprout wings, provide the opportunity and motive. The U.S. government wants to take over dealings with Godzilla, and begin planning to drop a nuclear bomb on Tokyo in an attempt to kill the monster. They begin a countdown and give the Japanese 2 weeks to evacuate.
The scientists and government formulate a plan in a desperate attempt to avoid another nuke being dropped on the country: the Yashiori Strategy. This strategy involves creating a blood coagulant that would cool Godzilla's internal temperature to the point where the monster would freeze, due to the inability to sufficiently regulate its body temperature. The team narrowly manages to create the coagulant, with hours left to spare due to Patterson's ability to buy the team time, despite the risks.
They send driverless trains, carrying bombs, to crash into Godzilla's legs who wakes up immediately after. They then use American drones to drop bombs on Godzilla. In defense, it begins shooting beams out of its mouth, spikes, and even the growth at the end of its tail, much to the Japanese's shock. This, however, expends Godzilla's energy swiftly, given the sheer number of bombs and bombers Godzilla must strike down, leaving the creature defenseless as it walks into the line of skyscrapers nearby. The Japanese then knock these multiple large skyscrapers down on Godzilla to stun and immobilize the moster, pinning it down to the grond. The first team of pump trucks are then rapidly sent in, and begin to pump the coagulant into Godzilla's mouth. This first attempt results in failure as Godzilla recovers quickly enough to obliterate the pump truck formation to ashes with a powerful blast of atomic breath, before standing up, roaring furiously, and beginning to walk away. One of the leads of the operation comments on how Godzilla's skin's stiffening.
However, shortly after, a second, larger force of driverless trains are sent en masse towards Godzilla. The overwhelming force of the explosion chains send Godzilla falling forward, sprawled on top of a large building. This allows the second pump truck force to finish what the first group started, pumping the full amount of coagulant into the monster's open mouth. Godzilla quickly recovers, however, and swiftly stands once more, destroying the second pump group and begins to walk forward again, seemingly unfazed. Godzilla then lets out a loud roar, and suddenly freezes in place, stopped completely in the middle of Tokyo.
It's stated that after this, the Americans' countdown has been paused, but not cancelled; if Godzilla reawakens, Tokyo will be impacted with a nuclear strike. The people of Japan have no choice but to live together and rebuild their country with an immobilized Godzilla. The final shot depicts a frozen Godzilla, and then focuses on the splitting end of its tail, out of which multiple skeletal, humanoid figures can be seen on the tail's now split open tip, frozen in their seeming escape, all of them possessing Godzilla-esque dorsal plates.
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi
- Written by Hideaki Anno
- Produced by Minami Ichikawa, Taichi Ueda, Yoshihiro Sato, Masaya Shibusawa, Kazutoshi Wadakura
- Music by Shiro Sagisu
- Cinematography by Kosuke Yamada
- Edited by Atsuki Sato, Hideaki Anno
- Assistant directing by Kimiyoshi Adachi
- Special effects by Shinji Higuchi, Katsuro Onoe
Cast
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Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
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Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
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Production
The film was revealed through Godzilla.jp.[2] The movie was set to be in production from summer to autumn 2015. In addition, Toho inaugurated "Godzi-Con" to discuss and determine strategies for future Godzilla films, including this one.[4] On March 31, 2015, it was officially confirmed that Hideaki Anno, known for his work on the popular anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, would be writing the screenplay for the film and serve as executive director, and that Shinji Higuchi, who provided the special effects for the Heisei Gamera trilogy, the upcoming Attack on Titan live-action films, and a scene in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, would be the film's director as well as the director of special effects.
Godzilla's footprint
It was also said that the version of Godzilla in this film would exceed the size of Legendary's Godzilla, making it officially the largest Godzilla ever on film.[5]
On July 31, 2015, Bandai Creation confirmed that it would be producing and releasing figures for the film in the United States in 2016.[6]
Due to this version of Godzilla being even bigger than the previously largest Legendary version (as well as the translation of Shin Godzilla as "True Godzilla"), a common misconception that arose was that Toho disliked the 2014 American film and was trying to "outdo" Legendary's version in a similar vein that Godzilla 2000 was made as a backlash to the much-disliked 1998 TriStar film. On the contrary, Toho actually praised and approved of the 2014 film, and in fact produced Shin Godzilla to celebrate the new attention the American film brought to the franchise. In a complete inversion of the Legendary portrayal of the character, however, they depicted Godzilla as a horrifying force of chaos and death, as opposed to the noble and majestic semi-heroic treatment of Legendary toward the famous monster.
In an interview with the Associated Press conducted on July 31, 2015, Shinji Higuchi revealed that Hideaki Anno had recently completed the film's script, and that filming would begin in September.[7] Higuchi stated that he was under strict orders not to reveal any specific details about the film, but he did state that Godzilla would be portrayed in the film using a combination of computer graphics and traditional tokusatsu techniques, a style that Higuchi called "hybrid," which he also utilized to portray the Titans in the recent live-action Attack on Titan film. Higuchi stressed that he wanted to create the most terrifying depiction of Godzilla possible with the resources available to modern Japanese cinema, to reflect the world's recent "loss of innocence" from modern real-life tragedies like the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan, which Higuchi called "the real monsters of the world."[8]
In the 2015 Tsuruoka Kamakura Hachiman Paper Lantern Festival, a Godzilla paper lantern signed by Hideaki Anno could be found. It read "・ゴジラ・再上陸 Godzilla Relanding!"[9]
Filming began on September 6, 2015 at the Kamata Railway Station, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM.[10]
A smaller scale shoot took place in Yokodai Station in Yokohama, Japan. Filming wrapped up at about 6:00 PM JST.
Another small scale shoot took place in Kamakura Station in Yokohama.
The next large-scale shooting was on September 20, 2015, at the city of Utsunomiya in the Tochigi Prefecture of Japan. The shoot lasted from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM.[11]
Main page of the official Shin Gojira website
On September 22, 2015, the film's official title was revealed to be Shin Gojira (シン・ゴジラ?), which translates to New, True, or God Godzilla in English. According to executive producer Akihiro Yamauchi, the title was chosen to exemplify how the film is a "rebirth" or "revival" to the franchise. Hideaki Anno reportedly decided upon the title to bring about various meanings. On the same day, three of the main cast members were also revealed. Hiroki Hasegawa, who played Shikishima in Shinji Higuchi's Attack on Titan, was cast as the lead, a man working for the Japanese government when Godzilla appears. Japanese Academy Award-winning actor Yutaka Takenouchi was cast as another government operative, while actress Satomi Ishihara, who played Hange Zoe in the Attack on Titan film, was cast as an American agent.[12] Toho also launched an official website for the film.
Toho screened a test reel for the film at the annual American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California, which ran from November 4th-11th. It was at this festival that Toho revealed the original official English title of the film: Godzilla: Resurgence.[13]
On December 9, 2015, Katsuro Onoue, special effects director under Shinji Higuchi for the Attack on Titan films, tweeted a teaser poster for the film, featuring a close-up of the new Godzilla's face along with the film's Japanese title and a release date of July 29, 2016.[14] This poster reveal was soon followed by the release of a brief teaser trailer featuring footage from the Kamata Station shoot and the 1954 Godzilla's roar.
The new head design for Godzilla is heavily based on his 1954 design and preserves the traditional maple-leaf shape of his dorsal plates. Unlike previous designs, this Godzilla has countless rows of jagged sharp teeth in his mouth, giving him a much more grotesque, disfigured and savage appearance. His eyes are also much smaller than previous suits. That same day, it was also revealed that the new Godzilla's official height was 118.5 meters tall, making him officially the tallest Godzilla to appear in a film (about 10.3 meters taller than the Legendary version, mostly due to its longer neck and more upright posture).[15]
On December 10, Toho's official website revealed that Shiro Sagisu had been selected to compose the film's score.[16] Sagisu had previously worked with both Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, scoring Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion series and Higuchi's Attack on Titan films.
On January 3, 2016, images of the new Godzilla suit were leaked to the internet.[17]
In March 2016, Toho ran a short interview with the three main cast members of the film during intermissions in their theaters. This interview revealed the names of the actors' characters: Satomi Ishihara's character's name is Kayoko Ann Patterson, Yutaka Takenouchi's is Hideki Akagi, and Hiroki Hasegawa's is Ladou Yaguchi.[18]
In order to celebrate the film's upcoming release, the Jimbocho Theater announced it would be screening all 28 Toho Godzilla films along with the 2014 American film from May 7 to June 17.[19]
"Godzilla vs. Evangelion" artwork from Toho's April Fool's prank
On April Fool's Day in Japan (March 31 in the United States), Toho announced a fake Godzilla vs. Evangelion film, even releasing artwork showing Godzilla with Evangelion Unit-01. This April Fool's joke was likely done as a nod to Hideaki Anno's work on both franchises. Toho later revealed the announcement was a prank, but also announced an official collaboration between themselves and Gainax involving Evangelion Unit-01 being featured on exclusive tickets for Shin Godzilla.
On April 13, Toho released an official trailer for the film, showing several of the characters from the film along with Godzilla's full design in action, rendered through CGI. A shorter 32-second version of the trailer was released as well. Toho also updated the film's official website with cast and staff information of the film, as well as a new screenshot of Godzilla in the website's background. Composer Shiro Sagisu's website announced that the soundtrack for Shin Godzilla would go on sale on the film's release date of July 29, and would be sold by King Records.[20]
On May 25, it was announced that the company Intercontinental Film Distributors (H.K.) Ltd., who has distributed various Hollywood films in Hong Kong in theaters and on home video, would be giving Shin Godzilla a theatrical release in Hong Kong starting on August 25.[21] It had recently been confirmed that the film would also be released theatrically in Taiwan starting on August 12.[22] On June 1, the Thai film production and distribution company Sahamongkol Film International Co. Ltd. announced via Twitter that it would be distributing Shin Godzilla theatrically in Thailand starting on July 28, one day ahead of the film's Japanese release.[23]
Shinji Higuchi was present at Tokyo Toy Show on June 9, where he took the stage at Bandai and Tamashii Nations' Godzilla presentation. Accompanied by MireGoji, Higuchi showcased the upcoming S.H. MonsterArts Light Sound Songs Godzilla (1989) figure, and also unveiled the new S.H. MonsterArts Shin Godzilla figure. While at the presentation, Higuchi confirmed that Shin Godzilla was currently in post-production and not yet fully completed, as he and everyone else working on the film were continuing to work until the very end to make something great.[24]
A report published by SciFi Japan on June 13 clarified that Shin Godzilla would not be a sequel to the original 1954 film, and will instead feature a story where Godzilla appears in Japan for the very first time.[25]
On June 14, it was revealed that Shin Godzilla was getting a Playstation 4 VR demo, which had a release date of October 13, 2016.[26]
On September 2, 2016, Funimation revealed Shin Godzilla's release structure, stating that the movie would get a limited theatrical run starting October 11, through 18 in more than 440 theaters across both the United States and Canada, with locations being revealed later. Alongside this, they also announced two premiere dates for the title, one in Los Angeles for October 3, and one in New York on October 5, one day before New York Comic Con's opening date.[27]
The film's official poster was also revealed by Funimation at this time.[28]
September 9 opened up with the reveal of a new Shin Godzilla trailer promoting the film for its North American audience. Pre-orders for tickets began upon this date.[29]
This day also came with the news that Shin Godzilla had surpassed 4.2 million in attendance with its overseas run, becoming more successful than the 2014 Godzilla, alongside becoming more successful than any movie in the Heisei era or Millennium series.[30][31]
On October 18, shortly after Shin Godzilla's North American debut, it was announced that the film would be getting an extended theatrical run in select theathers due to immense popularity. This was extended to roughly a week after the original release's end date.[32]
During the month of December, a Japanese site by the name of Yodobashi put up a pre-order listing for Shin Godzilla's home media release, slated for March 22, 2017 in Japan. It was taken down shortly after but had multiple media listings, including a four disc special edition that clocks in at 238 minutes with regards to its runtime. Well over that of the regular movie's 118 minutes.[33]
In January, 2017, a trailer was released for a 4-D Shin Godzilla attraction, to be opened in Universal Osaka under the banner of "Godzilla: The Real 4D".
On January 11, it was revealed within the movie magazine Kinema Junpo, that Shin Godzilla's director Hideaki Anno won their award of Best Screenwriter, and the film was listed within the top 10 films of 2016 in the same magazine.[34]
Less than two days later on the 13, the European debut of the film was finally announced, with the film's release being set on February 24, 2017 at Glasgow's Frightfest Film and Horror Festival.[35]
Later that same month, it was reported that the film was nominated for 11 Japanese Academy Awards, one of which was Best Picture.[36][37]
On March 3, 2016 it was reported that Shin Godzilla had taken 7 victories at the Japan Academy Prize Awards, most notably, that of Best Picture. Anno and Higuchi both took the award for best director with their work on the film.[38]
Theatrical releases
- Japan - July 29, 2016
- Thailand - July 28, 2016[23]
- Taiwan - August 12, 2016[22]
- Philippines - August 24, 2016
- Hong Kong - August 25, 2016[21]
- Macao - August 25, 2016
- Singapore - August 25, 2016
- Malaysia - September 22, 2016
- USA - October 11, 2016 (October 7, 2016 in Columbus)
- Canada - October 12, 2016
- Australia - October 13, 2016
- Europe - February 24, 2017
Reception
Shin Godzilla was given mostly positive reviews by critics. Rotten Tomatoes have the film a 86% out of 100%. IMDb gave the film a 7.5 out of 10.
Potential sequel
On September 16, 2016, the cast expressed their desire for a sequel to the movie, but director Hideaki Anno has said that development of a sequel to the film would be up to Toho.[39]
External links
Notes and references
- ↑ SciFi Japan - Shin Godzilla Funimation Press Release
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Godzilla.jp - Japanese Godzilla returns!
- ↑
- ↑ Cinema Today.jp - 日本版『ゴジラ』復活！12年ぶり完全新作映画が公開決定！
- ↑ Oricon.co - Shin Godzilla to be written and directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi
- ↑ Toho Kingdom - Interview with Bandai America
- ↑ Dreadcentral.com - New Japanese Godzilla Movie Filming this Weekend in Tokyo
- ↑ Yahoo.com - Japan's Godzilla director wants to surprise
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Kanuma Kanko.jp - PDF
- ↑ Anime News Network - New Japanese Godzilla film unveils cast, title
- ↑ August Ragone Blogspot - Shin Godzilla promo reel screens at AFM! Official English title: Godzilla: Resurgence - The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla
- ↑ Twitter.com - Ono_Katsu - Shin Godzilla title, poster and release date reveal
- ↑ Yahoo! Japan - New Godzilla exceeds size of Hollywood version at 118.5 meters tall
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedToho.co.jp - ↑ August Ragone Blogspot - Toho's New Godzilla: Resurgence Exposed - The Good, the Bad and Godzilla
- ↑ Twitter - LiL_Ape117 - Ann Patterson role confirmation
- ↑ Cinema Today.jp - Screening of all past 29 films! Shin Gojira public commemoration!
- ↑ Shiro Sagisu: Official Website - News
- ↑ 21.0 21.1
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Catchplay Theatrical - Shin Godzilla
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Twitter.com - Sahamongkolfilm - "Godzilla is back again in a new film"
- ↑ Natalie.mu -Shin Godzilla is unfinished, Shinji Higuchi reveals at Godzilla figure presentation
- ↑ SciFi Japan -Shin Godzilla: Exclusive high-res photos from Toho
- ↑ VG247.com - Shin Godzilla VR demo news
- ↑ Funimation.com - Shin Godzilla North American release date news
- ↑ SciFi Japan.com - Shin Godzilla poster reveal
- ↑ Funimation Films.com - Shin Godzilla website
- ↑ CinemaToday.jp - Shin Godzilla attendance reveal
- ↑ Godzilla-Movies.com - Shin Godzilla attendance reveal #2
- ↑ SciFi Japan.com - Shin Godzilla theatrical run extension
- ↑ Yodobashi - Shin Godzilla media listing
- ↑ OtakuUSMagazine.com - Shin Godzilla Kinema Junpo report
- ↑ MrSheldonTV's Blogspot - Shin Godzilla European debut announcement
- ↑ Godzilla-Movies.com - Shin Godzilla nomination news
- ↑ Japan Academy Prize.jp - Shin Godzilla nomination listings
- ↑ Hollywood Reporter.com - Shin Godzilla victory at Japan Academy Prize Awards
- ↑ Anime News Network.com - Director Hideaki discusses Shin Godzilla's sequel prospects
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