Skip to content

Category: Jimmy’s Notes

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 43: ‘Godzilla’ (1954) (feat. The Tourists)

Published July 8, 2021

Everything’s been a bit late this week because of Independence Day. I know I live and work on Monster Island, but all the Americans on the Island celebrate it. As an Air Force/War in Space veteran, I may have partied a little too hardy, which kept me from getting this finished. So, to make up for it, not only am I sharing notes for episode 43 on Godzilla (1954), I’m also sharing Nate’s leftover notes from the collab episode on Godzilla: Singular Point in a separate blog.

As for episode 43, I didn’t make many notes, but hot damn, Marchand had too much research on this film. It’s Godzilla (1954), I get it, but it’s been annoying to decide what to use for my blog. So, I’ve decided to use what was leftover in his “final notes” for the episode. He’s saving the rest for that book he’s supposedly writing with Danny DiManna.

So, here’s what I have to say:

  • Emperor Hirohito said, “unsufferable,” not, “Insufferable,” Nate. It’s not grammatically correct, but it’s the translation.
  • Marchand, you goofball, you said, “Hirata,” when you meant, “Takarada.” You must’ve gotten them mixed up because they almost played opposite roles.
  • Yes, Godzilla was green in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus. The MireGoji suit from Godzilla 2000 was reused.
  • I beat you to the meme, Marchand! (Sunglass monocle, as requested):

  • FYI, Nate can’t hold his liquor, as seen at the game night. It’s sad.

Here are Nate’s overly-copious notes on this classic film:

Godzilla (1954) Notes

New Notes:

  • Kalat book
    • Came about thanks to King Kong (1933). It had a profound effect on Eiji Tsuburaya and inspired him to get into special effects.
    • Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka hired sci-fi author Shigeru Kayama to write the story. Kayama drew heavily from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, submitting an outline titled, Daikaiju No Kaitei Niman Maru (“Big Monster from 20,000 Miles Beneath the Sea”). The storyboards even mimicked the Rhedasaurus. This was why Ray Harryhausen grew to hate these movies. The title was later changed to “G” for “Giant.” Godzilla Japanese name, Gojira, supposedly came from a fat stagehand at Toho, but this has long been disputed as “legend-making.” Regardless, it’s a portmanteau of “gorilla” and the Japanese word for “whale,” kujira.
    • Ishiro Honda, a pacifist and longtime friend of Akira Kurosawa, directed the film. He tapped into his wartime experiences to make it, having surveyed the aftermath of firebombings and visiting Hiroshima in 1946. He said in a 1991 interview, “The number one question concerning [Gojira] was the fear connected to what was then known as the atomic bomb, in the original film. At the time, I think there was an ability to grasp ‘a thing of absolute terror,’ as Shigeru Kayama himself called it. When I directed that film, in terms of society at the time, it was a surprising movie with all its special effects but, actually, when I returned from the war and passed through Hiroshima, there was a heavy atmosphere—a fear that Earth was already coming to an end. That became my basis.”
    • It was Honda and writer Takeo Murata who took Kayama’s outline, revised it, and made it into a script. It was Honda who decided to have the monster emit radiation from his mouth as fire in order to make it visible. The creature was originally an octopus and was later changed to a melding of a T-rex and stegosaurus.
    • For Honda, scientists were the heroes, and their rationalism trumped nationalism.
    • Godzilla was played by Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka. However, Nakajima was better able to handle the suit, and most of Tezuka’s footage was cut. Nakajima prepared by watching Tsuburaya’s copy of King Kong and studying the behavior of animals at the Ueno Zoo. His footage was shot at a high frame rate and slowed down to create the illusion of mass. A cup of sweat was drained each time the 220-pound suit was removed. He suffered blisters and muscle cramps and lost 20 pounds.
    • It cost 100 yen with advertising (62 million yen to make), making it the most expensive Japanese film to date (three times the average). It grossed 152 million yen and sold 9.6 million tickets. It was number 12 on the highest grossing films in Japan that year, which included Seven Samurai and foreign films. It was named one of Japan’s 20 greatest films by Kinema Junpo (“Cinema Journal”).
    • Dark and operatic. The love triangle “implicates the fate of the world.” There’s a weird love triangle in KK33 (Ann, Jack, Kong), which is resolved with the death of Kong the noble savage. In this, Serizawa’s death resolves it.
    • The conflict isn’t society vs. nature but society vs. society. Godzilla, who symbolizes the bomb, is defeated by more technology. The end is a draw. Ambivalent.
    • The score was composed by Akira Ifukube, a self-taught composer who drew heavily from Ainu and European influences. He wrote many marches for the Japanese military during the war. He saw Godzilla as an opportunity to address his own experiences with radiation, since his brother Isao was killed by it and it made Ifukube himself very sick.
    • Prof. Toshio Takahashi: “Godzilla was and is a powerful antiwar statement. Besides that, he is a mirror into the Japanese soul.”
    • Film historian Tomoyasu Kobayashi noted that at a time when Japan and the U.S. entered the Mutual Security Act, American never helps Japan in this. “The Japanese an only count on themselves to defend Japan.”
    • Writer Norio Akasaka interprets Godzilla as the embodiment of soldiers who died in the South Pacific during the war as sees the film as an indictment of Japan’s moral decline. Ifukube agreed.
    • Current-affairs commentator Yasuo Nagayama saw Godzilla as a symbol of Takamori Saigo, a 19th century revolutionary. Jim Bailey writes, “Like Godzilla, Saigo was famed for his physique, conquered in a path that ran from south to north, was ultimately defeated and underwent a transformation in his reputation from villain to hero.” Nagayama: Saigo and Godzilla were not enemies of the people, but enemies of mistaken government policies.”
  • Honda biography
    • There was little respect for sci-fi films at the time, so Honda tapped into his experience as a documentary filmmaker and presented absolutely straight with no humor or levity.
    • Ifukube told Honda, “The music must not lose to the monster’s roar.” This was solved with strategic use of silence.
    • It doesn’t focus on a particular political viewpoint, but it’s highly political.
    • Honda changed the monster from a hungry animal to a more impersonal force of nature.
    • Yamane represents prestigious and influential scientists like Einstein while Serizawa symbolizes the trade-off of dangerous scientific advancement that led to the atomic bomb (Oppenheimer).
    • Honda: “I wanted to express my views about scientists. They might invent something wonderful, but they also must be responsible for how it is used. A good example is Alfred Nobel, for whom the Nobel Peace Prize is named. He invented dynamite for mining purposes, but in the end it was also used to kill people. That’s why he created the award. It was his wish that [science] benefit and bring peace to humanity. Similarly, I wanted to warn people about what happens if we put our faith in science without considering the consequences.”
    • The ending is the antithesis of typical for the genre. No action or thrills.
    • The film was made at a time of increasing anti-American sentiment. The AMPO allowed them to maintain bases in Japan and offer military assistance when needed. They are absent here, despite the implications that it was American nuclear tests that created Godzilla. That being said, the film isn’t anti-American.
    • The Eirin board, when approving the screenplay, told the filmmakers to portray Japan’s military “with the utmost care and respect.”
    • Critic Saburo Kawamoto points out that Godzilla doesn’t destroy the Imperial Palace.
    • This says it was the 8th highest grossing in 1954.
    • Godzilla was Honda’s darkest work, a “window to his fears.”
    • Honda frequently questioned traditional Japanese customs in his films. In Love Makeup (1954), he examined the concept of giri, a Japanese tradition to “repay social debts in equal or greater amounts, even if it hurt.”
    • None of Honda’s heroines submit to traditional arranged marriages. He was quite the romantic, thinking marriage should be based on love and friendship and not on needs and wishes of the couple’s families or communities for economics, class status, or continuity of bloodlines. This was influenced by his own marriage, where he bucked tradition and didn’t receive the usual support.
  • LeMay – The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monsters
    • A studio employee told Takarada, “You aren’t the star, you fool! Gojira is!”
  • LeMay – Writing Giant Monsters
    • The film came about when another film, In the Shadow of Glory, which was to be filmed in Indonesia (which had been occupied by Japan during the war, and they wanted compensation), was canceled. Tanaka was flying back to Japan, looked out the window, and imagined a giant monster below the waves.
    • Kayama wrote a short story in 1952 called “Jira Monster” about a dinosaur immune to bullets terrorizing primitive people.
    • Honda rewrote the script and it was polished by Murata.
    • Kayama’s original treatment was published as a novel, and an 11-part radio drama was produced to promote the film. Both were titled Kaiju Gojira.
  • Ryfle and Godizsewski Classic Media DVD Commentary
    • Tsuburaya worked on a film in the ’40s that recreated the Pearl Harbor attack, and the Occupation government thought it was real.
    • Odo Island and its natives are like the Skull Island natives.
    • Argued that Honda and Murata used Shinkichi to symbolize the children orphaned by the atomic bomb.
    • Theme: Honda’s films put more faith in the scientists and ordinary people than the government and the military.
    • The film’s attitude toward radiation isn’t fearful or sensational, but it’s used to call attention to the issue of the nuclear arms race and the radiation.
    • This film is anti-nuclear and antiwar, not anti-America.
    • Kayama, despite his knowledge of paleontology, said the Jurassic period was 2 million years ago. It was 110 million years ago. He may have wanted to connect Godzilla to the origin of man.
    • The scene of the argument in the Diet was cut in the U.S. version. It may have been cut because of implicit indictments of the U.S. The Korean War was over and the seeds of the Vietnam War were being planted, so Japan was caught in the middle.
    • Honda probably didn’t want to criticize the U.S. because of Japan’s alliance with them in the Cold War.
    • The Yamane family has a TV, which was a luxury item at the time, so they’re wealthy.
    • The electrical towers are erected quickly and in just the right spot. Kayama’s treatment had them take several weeks to build them, causing unrest.
    • The music pauses just before Godzilla hits the electrical lines to create tension.
    • Godzilla’s tail hits a Toho theater where the film premiered, and the crowd freaked out.
    • Honda described the mood of this film as “an invisible fear” that hung over Japan and the whole world.
    • They argue that Serizawa revealing the Oxygen Destroyer is Honda pleading with scientists to not reveal anything like a doomsday weapon.
    • Ogata originally had a prominent facial scar, but it was removed because Honda wanted the tragedy to come from the performance.
    • Instead of luring the monster out in an urban or unfamiliar environment in an exciting action sequence, the humans sneak up on Godzilla in his own habitat.
    • It seems for a moment that Serizawa’s sacrifice is in vain as Godzilla emerges.
  • Galbraith
    • “There are few men as honest and reliable…I’m often told that I captured the atmosphere of post-war Japan in Stray Dog, and, if so, I owe a great deal of success to Honda.” –Kurosawa
    • Cost $900,000 in 1954 money. The average Japanese film cost $75,000. (Seven Samurai cost $500,000).
    • 1/25 scale miniatures.
    • This is to Japan what King Kong is to America.
  • Brothers
    •  “…Godzilla is a highly original work without precedent and not an easy film to define: part documentary, part social drama, part commentary, part allegory, part cautionary statement and part monster movie. In essence, the film is a porthole to the past showing the fear and insecurity of a nation still trying to cope with having been recently decimated by a war brought upon its helpless and innocent civulians.”
    • Some have suggested Ogata’s bloody headband looks like the hachimaki headband worn by kamikaze pilots.
    • At Honda’s direction, Godzilla’s roar sounds like an air raid siren.
    • Likened Shimura’s casting to Sir Alec Guinness in Star Wars: it added legitimacy.
    • When Godzilla roars at the clock on the Wako Building, it is 11 o’clock, indicating time is running out for humanity.
    • Hearing the “Prayer for Peace” is likened to the Japanese hearing the Emperor’s address after the war.
    • The prayer sequence shows Japan coming to grips with its past and pleading for nuclear disarmament.
  • Brothers (G-Fan)
    • Says modern movies are full of spectacular special effects, but they’re empty. “They are movies without souls, all polish and no spit … Godzilla has a lot of spit.”
    • Says this film is difficult for American critics to watch because they have confront the fact that they’re part of the society that dropped the bomb.
    • King Kong had meaning read into it when the creators didn’t intend any. Godzilla had the opposite. (He also argues Godzilla embodies American military might).
    • Ogata isn’t a typical American hero who would confront Serizawa and take the Oxygen Destroyer. Instead he sympathizes with Serizawa’s plight.
  • Barr
    • Serizawa burning his notes could be a reference to forbidden knowledge and the infamous Unit 731. They conducted horrendous chemical and biological warfare experiments on POWs. The personnel were granted immunity by the United States if they shared their findings with only them.
  • Napier
    • “In this regard Godzilla clearly belongs to the genre of what Andrew Tudor labels ‘secure horror.’ In this genre the collectivity is threatened, but only from outside, and is ultimately reestablished, usually through the combined efforts of scientists and the government. It is a fundamentally optimistic genre in which it is possible, as Tudor says, ‘To imagine successful human intervention.’”
    • It doesn’t happen until the end, creating suspense.
  • Miwa
    • “MacArthur’s ultimate objective, in short, was not to rehabilitate. It was to prevent: to ensure that Japan would not again threaten the rest of the world.”
    • “Yet ‘rebuilding’ was not among them. Instead, they ordered him ‘[t]o destroy the economic ability of Japan to create or support any armaments dangerous to international peace,’ and ‘[t]o encourage the development within Japan of economic ways and institutions of a type that will contribute to the growth of peaceful and democratic forces in Japan.”
  • Glownia
    • “In contrast, Godzilla does not legitimize the nuclear arms race, but strongly opposes it. The dominant interpretation of Godzilla states that the monster symbolizes the atomic bomb, and the whole movie serves as an allegorical warning against potential nuclear conflict. However, the vagueness of meaning of certain aspects of the film, and the ambiguous character of Godzilla, who can be perceived both as a demonic oppressor and as an innocent victim of a weapon of mass destruction, tend to support less canonical readings of the movie.”
    • “Scenes depicting the inefficiency of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in their struggles with Godzilla are often interpreted as a symbolic representation of the dread of not being able to repel potential foreign invasion, especially from the Communist Bloc (Palmer 2000: 468). On the other hand, some argue that, as Godzilla is depicted as a creature from the Odo islanders’ folklore, it is more reasonable to perceive the movie as a metaphor for Japan’s former imperialistic policy, which led to American retaliation that literally levelled Japanese cities (Rafferty 2004).”
    • “In applying psychoanalytic terminology various authors tend to perceive Godzilla as both an embodiment of the fears of Japanese society and a means for defining, reworking and taming its traumas.”
    • “Following this lead Susan Napier argues that Godzilla – especially its scenes depicting panic and destruction – may be read ‘as a form of cultural therapy, allowing the defeated Japanese to work through the trauma of wartime bombings” (Napier 2006: 10).”
    • “Tatsumi Takayuki argues that the monster “helped the post war Japanese to reconstruct national identity by making themselves into victims of and resistors against an outside threat” (Tatsumi 2000: 228).’”
    • “The reason why Honda decided to communicate his experiences and beliefs through allegory is probably because previous ‘rational’ films had failed to enable audiences to rework their traumas and to tame their nuclear fears. A symbolic monster from the domain of the irrationality was more suited to express the unspeakable and to present the unpresentable.”
  • Ryfle (Classic Media)
    • Godzilla demolishes the Nichigeki Theater.
  • Hoberman
    • “Much of the movie is coded naturalism, specifically the emphasis on civil defense and collective solidarity in the face of purposeless mass destruction.”
  • Kalat Commentary (Criterion)
    • 67 nuclear tests were conducted in the Marshall islands, including the first H-bomb. It was later declared the most contaminated place on Earth.
    • Masaji, despite surviving the destruction of the boat, he’s killed later by Godzilla. It’s like Japanese ghost stories, where someone is cursed by the avenging spirit.
    • Tusburaya won special effects awards for this film.
    • Tsuburaya was blacklisted after the war because of his connections to making wartime propaganda films.
    • Emiko and Ogata are examples of an old Japanese archetype in stories: the longsuffering female and “weak, passive male.” Romance wrecks the social order, so it usually ends in tragedy.
    • Honda prefers to introduce story elements by showing its effects on others. Case in point: the introduction of the Oxygen Destroyer.
    • Yamane also bears minimal resemblance to a scientist in The Thing from Another World.
    • The dilemmas faced by the characters goes back to the war, where Japanese soldiers like Honda had to decide whether being a good Japanese was to obey the government or question it.
    • Godzilla was nicknamed “Goji” because it rhymes with the Japanese term for “5AM” because the crew would be up that long making it.
    • The conflict between duty and conscience was true for the audience, too. They sympathized with Godzilla because he was attacking places like the Diet, who had nearly destroyed their country during the war. They cheered when that happened.
    • Story has it that the “Prayer for Peace” was sung by 2,000 schoolgirls and was conducted by Ifukube himself.
  • Misc.
    • Kuboyama was 40 and left behind a wife and three daughters.
    • The Lucky Dragon incident inspired a grassroots anti-nuclear movement that got signatures from an astonishing 1/3 of the Japanese population.

This blog post is going to be taller than any of the kaiju on the Island!

The “Year of Gamera” continues next week with Gamera vs. Zigra, which will feature Kaiju Weekly co-host/MIFV MAX member Travis Alexander and now (because our previous guest vanished off the internet), kaiju author Neil Riebe. Nate isn’t a fan of this movie, but again I remind you a beautiful woman parades around in a bikini for a while! How can you complain? Then we have another first on the show: a Patreon-sponsored episode. Not only that, but that generous MIFV MAX member is joining us on the air: Eli Harris. The topic will be three episodes of Godzilla: The Series, specifically “New Family” parts one and two and his favorite episode, “Deadloch.”

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy
Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The Monster Island Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

BONUS Jimmy’s Notes on Quantum Mechanics (for KW Episode 80/MIFV Bonus Episode 8)

Published June 28, 2021

The special crossover broadcast between MIFV and Kaiju Weekly on Godzilla: Singular Point went long. So long, in fact, Nate wasn’t able to share his research on quantum mechanics. Their “Amalgam Universe” fusion wasn’t quite absolute. Well, I should say he wasn’t able to share our research. I did 97% of it since, you know, I worked at NASA. But as Nate said during the broadcast, he’s “the best three-percenter” we know. (I kid, by the way. Nate spent several hours researching, and he consulted with me and the other scientists on Monster Island).

So, as a supplement to this special episode (which will be out Wednesday on both the Kaiju Weekly and Monster Island Film Vault feeds), I’m presenting that research. I think it explains quantum mechanics pretty well for a layman and sheds a little light on Singular Point. It’ll hopefully make the series a bit easier to understand and increase your appreciation for it. Toh Enjoe, the screenwriter, is a former physicist, and that background is definitely apparent in this wonderful series.

Anyway, like I said, the episode drops Wednesday. Enjoy!

NOTE: All bullets in quotes are lifted directly from the listed sources. All others are paraphrases.

NOTE 2: Read Nate’s leftover notes on the series itself in another Jimmy’s Notes.

  • Sources:
  • Richard Feynmann, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics, said, “If you think you understand quantum physics, you don’t understand quantum physics.”
  • However, has helped us develop technologies like computers, digital cameras, LED screens, lasers, and nuclear power plants.
  • Basically, everything works with quantum physics.
  • “It’s right there in the name– the word “quantum” comes from the Latin for “how much” and reflects the fact that quantum models always involve something coming in discrete amounts.”
  • “Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.[2]:1.1 It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.”
  • “Classical physics, the description of physics that existed before the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, while quantum mechanics explains the aspects of nature at small (atomic and subatomic) scales, for which classical mechanics is insufficient. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.[3]”
  • “In classical mechanics, objects exist in a specific place at a specific time. However, in quantum mechanics, objects instead exist in a haze of probability; they have a certain chance of being at point A, another chance of being at point B and so on.”
  • “Quantum mechanics (QM) developed over many decades, beginning as a set of controversial mathematical explanations of experiments that the math of classical mechanics could not explain. It began at the turn of the 20th century, around the same time that Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity, a separate mathematical revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds. Unlike relativity, however, the origins of QM cannot be attributed to any one scientist.”
  • The three principles of quantum mechanics, which gained acceptance between 1900 and 1930:
    • “Quantized properties: Certain properties, such as position, speed and color, can sometimes only occur in specific, set amounts, much like a dial that “clicks” from number to number. This challenged a fundamental assumption of classical mechanics, which said that such properties should exist on a smooth, continuous spectrum. To describe the idea that some properties “clicked” like a dial with specific settings, scientists coined the word ‘quantized.’”
      • “In 1900, German physicist Max Planck sought to explain the distribution of colors emitted over the spectrum in the glow of red-hot and white-hot objects, such as light-bulb filaments. When making physical sense of the equation he had derived to describe this distribution, Planck realized it implied that combinations of only certain colors (albeit a great number of them) were emitted, specifically those that were whole-number multiples of some base value. Somehow, colors were quantized! This was unexpected because light was understood to act as a wave, meaning that values of color should be a continuous spectrum. What could be forbidding atoms from producing the colors between these whole-number multiples? This seemed so strange that Planck regarded quantization as nothing more than a mathematical trick.”
      • “Planck’s equation also contained a number that would later become very important to future development of QM; today, it’s known as ‘Planck’s Constant.’”
    • “Particles of light: Light can sometimes behave as a particle. This was initially met with harsh criticism, as it ran contrary to 200 years of experiments showing that light behaved as a wave; much like ripples on the surface of a calm lake. Light behaves similarly in that it bounces off walls and bends around corners, and that the crests and troughs of the wave can add up or cancel out. Added wave crests result in brighter light, while waves that cancel out produce darkness. A light source can be thought of as a ball on a stick being rhythmically dipped in the center of a lake. The color emitted corresponds to the distance between the crests, which is determined by the speed of the ball’s rhythm.”
      • “In 1905, Einstein published a paper, “Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and Transformation of Light,” in which he envisioned light traveling not as a wave, but as some manner of “energy quanta.” This packet of energy, Einstein suggested, could “be absorbed or generated only as a whole,” specifically when an atom “jumps” between quantized vibration rates. This would also apply, as would be shown a few years later, when an electron “jumps” between quantized orbits. Under this model, Einstein’s “energy quanta” contained the energy difference of the jump; when divided by Planck’s constant, that energy difference determined the color of light carried by those quanta.”
      • “Roughly two decades after Einstein’s paper, the term “photon” was popularized for describing energy quanta, thanks to the 1923 work of Arthur Compton, who showed that light scattered by an electron beam changed in color. This showed that particles of light (photons) were indeed colliding with particles of matter (electrons), thus confirming Einstein’s hypothesis. By now, it was clear that light could behave both as a wave and a particle, placing light’s “wave-particle duality” into the foundation of QM.”
    • “Waves of matter: Matter can also behave as a wave. This ran counter to the roughly 30 years of experiments showing that matter (such as electrons) exists as particles.”
    • These aren’t physical waves, though. It’s an abstract mathematical description. In other words, no one knows if it’s real because no one has seen a quantum wave. All we see is an electron particle. This barrier in knowledge between the quantum realm and our world is called a measurement barrier.
    • The Double Slit experiment: Think of firing a paintball gun at a wall with two slits. You expect to see two lines on the back wall thanks to the slits. Quantum wavelengths enter those slits and then split off into new waves, creating multiple lines.
  • “Also in 1927, Heisenberg made another major contribution to quantum physics. He reasoned that since matter acts as waves, some properties, such as an electron’s position and speed, are “complementary,” meaning there’s a limit (related to Planck’s constant) to how well the precision of each property can be known. Under what would come to be called “Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle,” it was reasoned that the more precisely an electron’s position is known, the less precisely its speed can be known, and vice versa. This uncertainty principle applies to everyday-size objects as well, but is not noticeable because the lack of precision is extraordinarily tiny. According to Dave Slaven of Morningside College (Sioux City, IA), if a baseball’s speed is known to within a precision of 0.1 mph, the maximum precision to which it is possible to know the ball’s position is 0.000000000000000000000000000008 millimeters.”
  • “In 1927, Paul Dirac applied a quantum understanding of electric and magnetic fields to give rise to the study of “quantum field theory” (QFT), which treated particles (such as photons and electrons) as excited states of an underlying physical field.”
  • “Since the breakthrough of renormalization, QFT has served as the foundation for developing quantum theories about the four fundamental forces of nature: 1) electromagnetism, 2) the weak nuclear force, 3) the strong nuclear force and 4) gravity. The first insight provided by QFT was a quantum description of electromagnetism through “quantum electrodynamics” (QED), which made strides in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Next was a quantum description of the weak nuclear force, which was unified with electromagnetism to build “electroweak theory” (EWT) throughout the 1960s. Finally came a quantum treatment of the strong nuclear force using “quantum chromodynamics” (QCD) in the 1960s and 1970s. The theories of QED, EWT and QCD together form the basis of the Standard Model of particle physics. Unfortunately, QFT has yet to produce a quantum theory of gravity. That quest continues today in the studies of string theory and loop quantum gravity.”
  • “There’s lots of places to start this sort of discussion, and this is as good as any: everything in the universe has both particle and wave nature, at the same time. There’s a line in Greg Bear’s fantasy duology (The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage), where a character describing the basics of magic says “All is waves, with nothing waving, over no distance at all.”
  • “One of the most surprising and (historically, at least) controversial aspects of quantum physics is that it’s impossible to predict with certainty the outcome of a single experiment on a quantum system. When physicists predict the outcome of some experiment, the prediction always takes the form of a probability for finding each of the particular possible outcomes, and comparisons between theory and experiment always involve inferring probability distributions from many repeated experiments.”
  • “The mathematical description of a quantum system typically takes the form of a “wavefunction,” generally represented in equations by the Greek letter psi: Ψ.”
  • “In either class of foundational model, the probability of finding an outcome is not given directly by the wavefunction, but by the square of the wavefunction … This is known as the “Born Rule” after German physicist Max Born who first suggested this (in a footnote to a paper in 1926), and strikes some people as an ugly ad hoc addition.”
  • Einstein’s EPR paper and “entanglement”:
    • “The EPR paper argued that quantum physics allowed the existence of systems where measurements made at widely separated locations could be correlated in ways that suggested the outcome of one was determined by the other. They argued that this meant the measurement outcomes must be determined in advance, by some common factor, because the alternative would require transmitting the result of one measurement to the location of the other at speeds faster than the speed of light. Thus, quantum mechanics must be incomplete, a mere approximation to some deeper theory (a “local hidden variable” theory, one where the results of a particular measurement do not depend on anything farther away from the measurement location than a signal could travel at the speed of light (“local”), but are determined by some factor common to both systems in an entangled pair (the “hidden variable”)).”
  • “This was regarded as an odd footnote for about thirty years, as there seemed to be no way to test it, but in the mid-1960’s the Irish physicist John Bell worked out the consequences of the EPR paper in greater detail. Bell showed that you can find circumstances in which quantum mechanics predicts correlations between distant measurements that are stronger than any possible theory of the type preferred by E, P, and R. This was tested experimentally in the mid-1970’s by John Clauser, and a series of experiments by Alain Aspect in the early 1980’s is widely considered to have definitively shown that these entangled systems cannot possibly be explained by any local hidden variable theory.”
  • Quantum tunneling: when a wavelength passes through a barrier, is degrades. If the barrier is narrow enough, it may still exist on the other side. Protons have a chance of existing on the other side. We’re alive because of it. This is what makes the sun shine. Protons normally repel each other, but they have a small chance of tunneling, which turns hydrogen into helium and releases fusion energy.

Until next time, remember: #WeShallOvercome

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 42: Ben Avery vs. ‘Gamera vs. Jiger’

Published June 16, 2021

As good as episode 42 was (because “life, the universe, and everything”), I took plenty of notes on it. Nate has some explaining to do! 😛

Let’s get started:

  • Nate mispronounced “syndrome.” Shame, shame. 😛
  • I asked Mr. Martin for his thoughts on pen theft, and this is what he told me on Twitter:
    • “Per the Standards and Practices memorandum issued by the (Monster Island Board of Directors): Any and all items located on Monster Island, its wharf and docking bay, and all nearby archipelagos, whether explicitly or implicitly stated, belong to the Monster Island Entertainment Corporation, LLC, and its subsidiaries and stockholders. Any willful destruction and/or unauthorized removal of MIEC ‘meek’) property is a crime under Oceanic Law; dismissal, fines, and jail time are all possible dependent upon the severity of the crime. Judgement will be handled by the Monster Island Judicial System (‘midges’) and justice will be swift and fair. The Monster Island Legal Action Team will oversee all prosecutions, with the current Attorney General presiding as Lead Counsel against any defendants.”
    • I then said, “Thank you. I now fear for (Ben Avery’s) life.” To which Mr. Martin said, “I believe the Board has discontinued the use of genetically-engineered Hunter-Tracker Meganula larvae, but don’t quote me on that until I get Gary to do the archive research.”
  • How did Ben watch both versions of the movie? I suspect he watched it with his kids before leaving for the Island and then again when he arrived.
  • The Exorcist film was released December 26, 1973. The novel was published June 1971. In other words, Gamera vs. Jiger predates both.
  • Yes, Shunsuke Kikuchi worked on both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.
  • “You and Jimmy”? You mean me and Masao? Be specific, Marchand!
  • The name of the Keisuke actor is Sanshiro Honoo.
  • It’s Lemuria, Nate. That was the other “lost continent” you couldn’t think of.
  • It annoys me that I forgot what I was going to say toward the end of the Toku Talk.
  • Nate was right. The Irwin Allen-produced submarine TV series was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
  • According to this inflation calculator, $500 million in 1970 would be $3,469,007,731.96 in 2021(!).
  • Here are the authors the International Symposium of Science Fiction that Nate didn’t mention (all of them hailed from the Soviet Union):
    • Vasilii Pavlovich Berezhnoi
    • Yulii Iosifovich Kagarlitskii (aka Julius Kagarlitsky)
    • Ieremei Iudovich Parnov
    • Vasilii Dmitrievich Zackharchenko
  • Personally, I loved Expo ’70! Seeing Gamera there was exciting. He even remembered me and gave me a wave. But sadly, all my photos from the event were destroyed when the Messiah 13 Aliens attacked New York. L
  • Your Dad guarded a moon rock, eh, Nate? That’s impressive, but I have Venus rocks. I’ll show them to you next time you come over to my quarters, Nate.
  • This is the human washing machine, and I do like this model. 😉
  • This was the best info I could find quickly on Tiger Child. And it’s not a nature documentary. It’s loftier than that, it seems.
  • Here’s an article on maglev technology. It’s mostly used for trains. If you’ve been to Disneyworld in Florida, you’ve ridden a train that uses it.
  • Nice catch at the end with Patreon, Ben. In order to donate $3 a day, someone would have to become my intern—which would be nice, actually.

Now for the contractually-obligated leftover notes from Nate’s episode prep:

The Film (Main Notes)

  • Hiroshi has the bushiest eyebrows. (He practically has to comb them. –Jimmy)
  • There’s a nice matting of a long distance live action shot with some toku footage of Gamera.
  • Jiger is female. Jiger has a giant head. Big head code? She drinks water after awakening. Rarely seen. Jiger doesn’t crawl, unlike other quadrupeds. (“Big head code”? That was a thing in ‘90s video games, right? I know, “Okay, boomer.” 😛 –Jimmy)
  • How did Gamera go from flying to swimming in one cut? (Bad editing. –Jimmy)
  • You know, Jiger, Mothra did that ship-destroying move first. Must be a female kaiju thing. (I’ll pass that observation along to the scientists. –Jimmy)
  • Jiger means “terrible as a demon,” apparently.
  • Now the “Gamera song” has gone from listing planet names to the days of the week. Because. (The original was better. Because it was in my movie, of course. –Jimmy)
  • Gamera has a cheerleading squad. (Lucky bastard! –Jimmy)
  • Gamera stole the “tail smash” move from Godzilla.
  • Those x-rays are on display on the Island and used for reference.
  • These kids just know how to operate the sub. (Well, Masao and I did, too. But, you know, we’re smart. –Jimmy)
  • Unsurprisingly, the English-speaking actors aren’t great.
  • What does people from Africa getting weak going north and Eskimos getting weak going south have to do with Jiger being weak to sound?
  • 80 metric tons? Gamera’s a lot lighter than basically every Toho kaiju. By a lot. Godzilla is at least a 1,000 times heavier. (Talk about completely different weight classes! –Jimmy)
  • The kids yell at Gamera as if he can hear them. Which it seems he can. (Because…psychic? –Jimmy)

Intro by Ragone

  • In Shoben Jump Magzaine, Jiger was called “Monster X.”

The Commentary by Edward L. Holland

  • Yuasa sought out the child actors in this film.
  • There was a second monster boom in Japan in 1971.
  • Jiger’s roar is a variation of Guiron’s.
  • Yuasa was fond of beer.
  • Says the film plays out a bit like an Ultraman episode.
  • Sithantaku, the “Eifel Tower of Osaka.”
  • Story has it that Tsuburyaya sent a letter to Yuasa telling him to tone down the gore in the Gamera films.
  • Gamera looks like a vinyl toy after being impregnated by Jiger.
  • They use an “opaque projector on steroids” to discuss Gamera’s anatomy.

Galbraith

  • People either think it’s outrageous or “routine.”

Toku Topic: Expo ‘70

  • Many science fiction writers and artists were involved with the Expo, including:
    • A farcical multi-screen science fiction film created by writer Abe Kõbõ and filmmaker Teshigahara Hiroshi for the Auto Pavilion.
  • “With its characteristic rhetoric of multi-polar humanism, the text goes on to assert that wisdom to avoid such a dire fate and unlock the ‘prosperity of mankind’ can be found not in one place but ‘wherever human beings can be found.’ ‘If the diverse wisdoms of mankind can be effectively exchanged and [allowed to] mutually stimulate each other,’ the text continues, ‘a higher level of knowledge can appear, and from the understanding and tolerance between different traditions, we can achieve the harmonious development of a better life for all of mankind.’”
  • The corporate pavilions, which were dominated by domestic Japanese pavilions, also featured various visions of the future. “The Mitsubishi Future Pavilion, which was divided into a display of the untamed elemental power of ‘Japan’s Nature’ followed by ‘Japan’s Sky,’ ‘Japan’s Sea,’ and ‘Japan’s Earth’ as they would be developed in the twenty-first century: space stations and a weather monitoring and control center in the sky; an underwater city, ‘marine pasture,’ and power plant in the sea; and a twenty-first century city on land.
  • The biggest reason Expo ’70 was seen as a “city of the future” (mirai no toshi) was the “juxtaposition of innovative architectural forms, including Tange’ s Grand Roof, the low inflated dome of the American Pavilion and aggressively pitched roof of the Soviet Pavilion, and most especially, the contributions of the young Japanese architects associated with the Metabolist movement, including Kikutake Kiyonori’s Expo Tower and Kurokawa Kishô’s Toshiba IHI Pavilion and Takara Beautilion, all interpenetrated by the futuristic transportation infrastructure of monorails and moving sidewalks.” (By the way, the Metabolist movement was a postwar architectural movement in Japan that sought to fuse architectural megastructures with organic growth).

Writing this made me nostalgic for Expo ’70. I was barely 11 and was very impressionable. I’ve little doubt attending it pushed me toward a career in space and NASA.

Anyway, next week’s episode marks the beginning of a new chapter for MIFV: “Godzilla Redux.” Nate will be covering the Godzilla films he discussed on…his previous podcast with…someone else. He starts with the beginning, naturally, with Godzilla (1954). He’s bringing back the original Tourist crew of Nick Hayden, Timothy Deal, Joe Metter, and Joy Metter. Then we have a special crossover episode with Kaiju Weekly for the soon-to-be-internationally-released anime Godzilla: Singular Point. We’re working out the details, but it should be BIG. Then the “Year of Gamera” continues with Gamera vs. Zigra, which will feature Kaiju Weekly co-host/MIFV MAX member Travis Alexander and Atomic Turtle host Matt Noponen. I know Nate dislikes it, but come on! A beautiful woman parades around in a bikini for 15-20 minutes! What’s not to like?

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy
Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The Monster Island Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 41: ‘Sayonara Jupiter’ (Mini-Analysis)

Published June 2, 2021

I’m amazed we weren’t bombarded with e-mails and DM’s calling me crazy. Why? Sayonara Jupiter isn’t exactly a classic for tokusatsu fans, but I love the damn film. Marchand can joke all he wants about it only being because of the infamous zero gravity sex scene or because it was dedicated everyone from my former employer—which means it was dedicated to me. And let me tell you, I wasn’t the only one at NASA who tried zero G lovemaking. However, I will tell you that, as John Varley showed in his novel Titan, it takes great care and every move must be planned. Otherwise, you risk a concussion, and that would kill the mood. I speak from experience.

(Poor Maggie. She dumped me the next day at the infirmary for that. Served me right).

Anyway, as usual with Nate’s scripted episodes, I don’t have many notes since he consults with me before going on the air, especially with a space film like this. I do have the leftover notes from his research, though. Here they are:

  • Solar System Weekly magazine. They still thought paper mags would be a thing in 150 years. (I still have a subscription. –Jimmy)
  • There’s a lot of English being spoken in this. (It’s a very international film. Also, English is already the trade language on Earth, so it makes sense it would be in space. –Jimmy)
  • Blatant product placement for Coke in zero G! (And I still prefer Pepsi. –Jimmy)
  • Loves long sequences of the spaceships. And odd cinematography at weird angles. (Beautiful. –Jimmy)
  • Also, Zoids! (You mean “droids”? 😛 –Jimmy)
  • The woman knows a little Japanese. And she speaks it perfectly.
  • Characters switch between English and Japanese and still understand each other. Proto-Final Wars. Star Wars. (Two words: universal translator. –Jimmy)
  • Ha! American watches Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. Honda watched a samurai movie. (That’s a popular film in NASA. –Jimmy)
  • Hmm. That’s a clever logo. Many meanings.
  • Why do the old ladies dress like they’re from ‘50s? (Because they’re old? 😛 –Jimmy)
  • There’s some strange parallelism between the protester attack and GT3HM. (Which is weird. –Jimmy)
  • Hirata appears. He has a mustache.
  • Of course Honda grabs the cute terrorist and takes her away. In a slo-mo hall scene. Well, they know each other, at least.
  • Space Arrow. (I love this ship. Not as much as other ships, but it’s still excellent engineering. –Jimmy)
  • The ship’s AI is named Navajo. Okay…. (The combat AI was named “Tom A. Hawk. 😛  –Jimmy)
  • Oh no. A photo of his family. He’s dead.
  • The scale of these miniatures aren’t quite as convincing as American sci-fi films.
  • Is the Jupiter Ghost ship the dark spot? It’s 120 KM long—3/4 of a mile!
  • There are several interracial romances between Japanese and westerners in this. (You can thank Nick Adams and Glen for that. J -Jimmy)
  • What’s happening with this red wormhole thing? Where’d it come from? (Amusing that computer screams “Wake up”). Later established to be a black hole. (Shouldn’t it be a “red hole”? –Jimmy)
  • The Japanese actors speak surprisingly good English.
  • Einstein City? Where’s that? (The moon. –Jimmy)
  • ‘80s-style retro-future. (Reminds me of my youth. –Jimmy)
  • Hippy Jesus gets a music video?
  • These people hardly seem like terrorists. (That’s what terrorists want you to think! –Jimmy)
  • Some of the acting is subpar. Mostly the westerners.
  • Pills that give you courage without side effects? That’s an interesting drug. Placebo? (The pill is a lie. –Jimmy)
  • “Neo-retro.” (Good one, Nate. –Jimmy)
  • What’s with the graffiti on the walls of the control room? (Freedom of expression is encouraged in NASA. Sometimes. –Jimmy)
  • I don’t get Carlos’s weird love for Jupiter. He wants to give it a “perfect death.”
  • Crewman named Tanaka. Another homage?
  • They have a warp core?
  • I get the feeling the conflicting theme here is whether humanity has the right to destroy a planet to save themselves. Destroy part of nature to save themselves.
  • Eiji says he’ll “turn to gas” to protect the solar system. (All matter can become gas at the right temperatures. That sounded unintentionally frightening. –Jimmy)
  • One guy—a westerner—gets excited at the end, but everyone else is somber. Probably for the deaths and other sacrifices.
  • Eiji and his lover get graves on an asteroid. Carlos asks for one next to him. Millie says she’s tired of making graves for those she loves. A statement celebrating life.
  • First scene based on images from Voyager 1 and 2 of Mars.
  • The Jupiter Church scenes were filmed in Okinawa.
  • Says the Jupiter Ghost was a lifeform?! So, it’s a kaiju?! It was a massive model.
  • Found the theory about solarizing a planet to be “romantic.”
  • Komtasu wrote the novel and created the studio Io to make the film.
  • Hashimoto whispered to Komatsu just before starting filming: “Komatsu-san, I hope we stay in the planning stages forever.” (That would drive me crazy! I like results and enjoying the fruits of my labor. –Jimmy)
  • The same special effects system used for Star Wars, Motion Control System (MCS) was requested, but the staff was inexperienced with it and had to learn it. They even had a “top secret” robot cameraman called “Abbot” that required the operator to spend a day at lecture and training to learn its computer system.
  • First Japanese film to use computer graphics.
  • The miniature designers also worked on Macross and Gundam.
  • Several sources say Gorath eventually led to this film. (That damn rogue star still gives me nightmares! –Jimmy)
  • Considered making this into an anime first.
  • Director Tezuka modeled all his scientist characters after Komatsu.
  • Yuko Weisser says a theater group he was in called Forest of Muses (Muse No Mori) made their own stage version of the film subtitled End of Miyazu. It featured yakuza clan trying to explode Jupiter. The clan’s ladies were the main characters.

And now my Jimmy’s Notes on Toho classics comes to end. But now I get to write them as part of MIFV’s “Godzilla Redux.” Which means we eventually get to discuss my “man crush,” as Marchand puts it, Nick Adams again!

Next week Nate continues the “Year of Gamera” with Gamera vs. Jiger, an episode that will feature podcaster and writer Ben Avery. Then the aforementioned “Godzilla Redux” begins with the original 1954 classic, Godzilla, directed by Ishiro Honda.

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy
Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The Monster Island Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 40: The MSTies vs. ‘Gamera vs. Guiron’

Published May 18, 2021

Strap in, folks. I have a lot of notes for last week’s episode. And Marchand took way too many notes and didn’t use them all. Of course.

First, here are my notes:

  • Correction, Nate: “Joel and the Bots.” I know you love Mike, but the Gamera episodes were Joel’s.
  • It’s “Gaos” (“gows”) not “Gyros,” Greg.
  • The “Dull surprise!” skit was from the Alien from L.A. episode of MST3K.
  • The ridiculously long title of LeMay’s film cuts book is The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Cuts: Editing Japanese Monsters Volume 1: U.S. Edits (1956-2000). You’re welcome.
  • The name of Kondo’s/Cornjob’s’s actor is Kon Ohmura.
  • Did you say, “Mao,” Nate? Like the Chinese communist leader? How have you not been fired? Does the Board secretly admire the tyrant?
  • It was snow, not a block of ice, Luke.
  • Those alien women’s eyes … they haunt my nightmares! It’s why I’m glad I wasn’t around when they tried to kidnap Gamera after the broadcast. It’s a good thing Crystal Lady was around to save the day.
  • “Flobella” not “Florbella,” Luke. Although, there is some confusion over this.
  • Come on, Nate, have you seen the Xilien women? Hot damn!

  • Yes, I am a proud “Plutoist.” I’ve only visited that rock once, but I assure it is still a planet!
  • “Ideal”? You meant, “idea,” Luke.
  • I know what you mean, Luke, when it comes to navigating city traffic. I grew up in New York City and Japan. I saw the madness of both.
  • What’s a “kig,” Nate? (it’s “kids”).
  • Gamera vs. Jiger not on MST3K, Nate says. Hahaha! (Click here to see how wrong he is).

Now to fulfill my contractual obligations by posting Marchand’s leftover notes:

The Movie

  • Starts with an astronomy lesson. This made Jimmy happy. (Yes, it did, even though some of that info is wrong. –Jimmy)
  • Jimmy also felt right at home in the observatory. He’s been there. (Yes, and it is a wonderful place. I would live at an observatory, if I could. –Jimmy)
  • Of course the kids see the spaceship before everyone else! It’s Gamera! (I usually see spaceships before everyone else. But I’m also a Gamera kid. –Jimmy)
  • Why was the ship sent to earth? (To get to the other side? I don’t know. It’s Gamera. –Jimmy)
  • You could cynically say that the monsters and aliens and stuff only exist in the kids’ imaginations.
  •  “It’s just a rabbit.” Tell that to Night of the Lepus! (Hear Nate’s appearance on Kaiju Weekly for that here. –Jimmy)
  • “They flew here. They’re civilized!” Hahaha! Did you forget the Virasians? (I didn’t. Yeesh! –Jimmy)
  • Gamera must have a spider-sense for children in peril.
  • Do we need color commentary from the kids? (Is this a rhetorical question? –Jimmy)
  • Ah, they have short range transporters. Someone saw Star Trek. We’re leery of teleporters now, though. That’s why your tour guide (Jessica) is out there. (At least you have a sister …. –Jimmy)
  • These sets want to compete with the color of Oz.
  • Jimmy’s annoyed that this sliding floor is nicer to kids than the anti-grav hallways on the Virasian ship. (So unfair! 😛 –Jimmy)
  • Maybe the bad dubs are malfunctioning translator chokers?
  • There is some nice subtle acting from the spacewomen.
  •  “My son”? Trying to be his mother?
  • Jimmy says the American Aerospace Bureau are a bunch of hacks. You can’t believe them when they say flying saucers aren’t real. (Damn straight! –Jimmy)
  • Do they really think these kids are that smart? According to Ragone, the actor playing the white kid couldn’t be in the next movie because his grades dropped.
  • Their razor looks like a ray gun! And the buzzsaw does, too.
  • “Let the monsters fight.” That’s where Ishiro Serizawa got the line.
  • Tom calls the Terrans “big sisters”? It’ a Japanese thing that’s weird in translation. (Probably, given what we’ve researched before. –Jimmy)
  • The “reverse button.” How these two are smart makes no sense, unlike the last one.
  • This is a slow teleporter suddenly.
  • Flobella shoots Barbella because a chair fell on her? There’s a word for someone like that. Also, Terrans just disappear when they die? Did they die? (Apparently not. –Jimmy)
  • The foam blocks don’t hurt the kids. 😛 But it’s a nice subversion that they don’t escape by shooting the button.
  • Gamera has his kid cheerleaders again. They do pretty much nothing aside from accidentally unleash Guiron, who attacks the Terrans, and pushing random buttons that somehow make Guiron go to his room. And even then, Gamera had already retreated underwater! And then they launch a missile that accidentally kills Flobella. At least Masao and Jim did stuff. (Thank you! –Jimmy)
  • Gamera can’t touch his legs. I think that’s a problem.
  • The kids only launched one missile. Where’d the other one come from? Probably the same place as the second Ghidorah skull in GvK.
  • I didn’t realize Gamera was a certified welder. Or that it was magic welding that could make a spaceship airtight again.
  • In the end, the adults learn to believe their kids. Is that a good lesson?
  • The little girl jokes that Kon (Cornjob) is an alien. (I think he is. –Jimmy)
  • Gamera nods at Akio makes his speech. It is Gamera approved.

The Commentary by David Kalat

  • He defends the child actors by saying they are part of a sliver of the population of people who want to be an actor, are good at acting, and are children.
  • Yuasa focused less on the dialogue with the kids and let them “play act” the scene.
  •  (Kalat can’t pronounce half of the Japanese names right).
  • (Says he knows only one sentence in Japanese: “My whole family loves baseball.” He says one day he will go to japan, say this, and presumably starve).
  • Argues that the gory death of Space Gyaos wasn’t intended to be taken seriously. Compared it to Loony Tunes.
  • A kid once said a kid told him that Tsuburaya told him he shouldn’t have such gruesome violence in the Gamera movies. He wasn’t sure the kid was telling the truth because he thought they’d be kindred and introduced more silliness to the Godzilla films. They never met.
  • Compares the effects in this film to a Mickie Mouse cartoon and Kermit the Frog. It looks pleasing, not believable.
  • Yuasa actually asked Toho to let him watch prints of Godzilla films to make Gamera, which they said no. Tsuburaya Productions (I think) let me watch them. He didn’t see Toho as competition but as an older brother he could learn from.
  • Daiei owed Nisan Takahashi more money than anyone else in 1971. Supposedly, he was given the rights to Gamera as payment. He was confused when the heisei trilogy was made, but he did publish a novel titled, Gamera vs. Phoenix.
  • Yuasa: “Watch many movies. Praise what you like about them.” (Words to live by. You hear that, internet? –Jimmy)

Intro by Ragone

  • The composer, Shunsuke Kikuchi, went on to make music for many anime, including Dragon Ball Z.
  • Kids didn’t like the Space Gyaos death, and Yuasa regretted it.

Arrow Booklet

  • Films were churned out annually. Drama scenes filmed in four weeks and the special effects done in two months.
  • Guiron is art director Akira Inoue’s personal favorite monster.

LeMay

  • Yuasa was given another tine budget (20 million yen). They decided to set it on an alien planet to save money and tap into children’s fears of being lost from home.
  • Reiko Kasahara, who played the kind older sister in Gyaos, is one of the alien villainesses.
  • Guiron was considered for Gamera 2, and is rumored to have inspired Legion’s pointy head.

Galbraith

  • Says the dub is so bad, the lines could’ve been read by a cocktail waitress or gas station attendant.

Toku Topic: The First “Traffic War” in Japan

  • Due to all of this growth, key traffic problems included overloading and speeding by dump trucks and gravel trucks and reckless driving by taxi drivers, which were frequently criticized by newspapers and other media. “Most media accounts built a consensus that the main victims of accidents were children, the aged, pedestrians, and cyclists, while the main offenders were professional drivers.”
    • “The situation is very different in Japan. More young (less than 16 years old) and old (more than 54 years old) non-car users are killed in traffic accidents than are car users.”
    • 75% of Japan is mountainous, so population density is high. Since most roads go through highly populated urban areas, it’s difficult to isolate pedestrians and cyclists, who are constitute 60% of auto accidents in Japan.
  •  “…collisions with other vehicles in the US constitute a higher proportion of fatal accidents, whereas collisions with pedestrians play a larger role in Japan. The percentage of fatal vehicle accidents involving collisions with pedestrians is larger in Japan than in the US (28.5 vs. 18.2%). The percentages of traffic accident deaths among non car-users are also larger in Japan than in the US (motorcyclists: 18.6 vs. 6%, bicyclists: 12.3 vs. 2%, pedestrians: 27.7 vs. 14.1%). This results in nearly 60% of Japanese traffic-accident deaths being among non-car users, compared 20% in the US (ITARDA, 1997).”
  •  “In Japan, accident death rates for 16–24 years old increased during the late 1970s and 1980s (MCA, 1997b), even though most high school students were prohibited from having drivers’ licenses by internal school rules (Koshi, 1988).”
  • A few of the aforementioned policies:
    • Japan solutions are focused more on law enforcement and education that engineering (i.e. airbags). It seemed to work as traffic deaths dropped by half from 1970-1980.

Marchand talks about this movie more than Akio talks about traffic accidents. The Stockholm Syndrome really is settling in!

Next week Nate finishes his series of mini-sodes on Toho classics with one of my favorite Toho films, Sayonara Jupiter. It’s a film by the author of Submersion of Japan and the director of Return of Godzilla. It should be … interesting, to say the least. What Nate’s doing after that, I don’t know. Then his friend Ben Avery, the ruler of a mighty podcast empire, returns for the next chapter in the “Year of Gamera” with Gamera vs. Jiger. She got the moves.

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy
Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The MIFV Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 39: The Drifters vs. ‘Gamera vs. Viras’

Published May 5, 2021

I wrote down the most notes I’ve had in a long time for episode 39, so buckle up, space cadets, you’re about to get schooled by Jimmy!

  • Nate, the “uncut 90-minute version” was how the first Japanese laserdisc was marketed, not when it was on U.S. TV. Did you forget that from my Entertaining Info Dump? Apparently.
  • There was debate over whether the actress in the film had the same hair color as my mother, but it’s a moot point now because she … died in New York. Yeah, the woman J.R. was probably the actress who played her in this film. Or someone who looked like her. Or he’s crazy.
  • Goji-kun and Bro Kong caused a lot of issues with the broadcast that were edited out of the podcast version. It was a mess. Ultra-Mite was sleeping on the job or something.
  • In Nate’s defense, I’ve gone back and forth on how to say Viras’s name, and I grew up in Japan. I guess I’m still a dirty, dirty American. I also fought the space squid. Well, I helped Gamera fight him. It’s more than most of my fellow Gamera kids did.
  • It was cut to a third, Jack, not by a third.
  • So, while Carl Craig has the spray-painted Nerf gun with a beer can on it, I have a real Virasian blaster rifle. It’s not my favorite gun, but it did burn through my target in my private little shooting range here on the Island.
  • Yes, I’m not happy about not getting invited to the Gamera Gala. And Masao is upset I wasn’t, too. But given what happened to Nate, maybe it was for the best.
  • Yeah, and here’s my Gamera badge:
  • “Relegate,” not, “regulate,” Jack.
  • Yeah, Masao won’t shut up about giving Gamera the “Friend to All Children” title. It drives our fellow Gamera kids crazy. And given that Kenny is already psychotic, that’s saying something!
  • I should also note that my father doesn’t look like the actor in this movie, either. He was a proud member of the U.S. Air Force who was stationed in Japan for a while. It was partly because of him that I enlisted.
  • Carl Craig’s father was American and his mother Japanese.
  • I have a judo merit badge and a blackbelt. Don’t cross me, J.R.! (They don’t work well when I’m drunk, though ….)
  • Masao and I didn’t get our Golden Pheasant awards for a month because we got grounded for our shenanigans. You’d think helping to save the world would nullify that, but no, my parents didn’t want me sub-jacking later in life.
  • Soichi Noguchi and I go way back. He helped me test fly the Gohten once.
  • There was a lot of crack in that MIBOD memo.
  • Death trumps cancer. And I will find out what “J.R.” stands for! Maybe it’s just “Junior.”
  • I’m looking forward to Sayonara Jupiter.
  • Marveller? I’ve yet to examine that machine. Japanese Spider-Man needs to let me keep it in my garage for a day next time.

Now for Nate’s leftover notes:

The Movie

  • Gamera can breathe fire in the vacuum of space. Sure. (Even physics bow to the new MIBOD-appointed “king of the monsters.” –Jimmy)
  • Of course the kids can operate a sub better than the adults. This is a Gamera movie! (No, it’s because Masao and I were brilliant children. –Jimmy)
  • On Twitter, Gamera offered to race Jimmy and Masao in a sub again. (And one of these days, we’ll take him up on that offer. –Jimmy)
  • “Super Catch ray.” Do they use that on Pokemon, too?
  • Gamera can somehow hear the kids in the sub and understand them. Because. (This still baffles the scientists. –Jimmy)
  • Videotron. Isn’t that a sequel to Videodrome?
  • “Making up stories”? Did you forget Gamera is real? (Just wait until the next movie ….)
  • That flying Gamera prop looks goofy. It’s the eyes.
  • Transformer mass shifting. The mind control device goes from the size of a grapefruit to the size of a VW Beetle. (I want some of this tech. It’d make it easier to hide more vehicles in my garage. –Jimmy)
  • Their computer’s “Processing” screen is a kaleidoscope.
  • Well, that guy was disarmed.
  • Getting pinned to the wall like that doesn’t look comfortable. How do they stay up when they’re off the floor and not pinned to the wall? It’s terrible because they can slip their hands out easily. And they escape easily. (Or I’d been reading a lot of books on Houdini. –Jimmy)
  • This stock footage is passed off as a different dam (Okumusashi Dam). Sadly, it still has the B&W problem.
  • Because an alien spaceship somehow works the same as an earth submarine?
  • I see Jimmy was a tech genius even back then. He figured out the Virases ship in no time. (Did you forget it’s me you’re talking about? –Jimmy)
  • Why can’t the aliens control Gamera anymore? (Because. –Jimmy)
  • Virases can combine into a giant. Because.
  • I do like how big Viras weaponizes what’s left of the ship.
  • Gamera says, “Go home and get stoned!”
  • Seriously, Gamera? Defeated by getting flipped on your back?

Intro to the film by Ragone

  • Carl Craig was born in South Carolina to Japanese mother and American military man. He spoke fluent Japanese. He served in the military himself and for U.S. security after 9-11.
  • Viras looks like a squid, but in the original script, he was called “Geso,” the Japanese word for cuttlefish. His name was chosen in a name contest held by Shonen Jump and Bokura, which had prizes, but Yuasa said these were staged.

The Commentary by Carl Craig and Jim Cirronella

  • Carl Craig got the role because his aunt lived next door to one of the producers. They wanted an American kid who spoke Japanese, and he was blonde-haired and blue-eyed and could do that. Yuasa wanted it to have an international flair.
  • It was filmed in 2.5 months. Craig’s days started at 4am. He was picked up from a base and had a tutor for school over the two-hour drive.
  • There are some scenes where Craig has a bandage on his finger because he cut his finger throwing a bottle and went to the ER. He also lost his U.S. handkerchief and was given a Japanese one.
  • This was the first Gamera movie to have stock footage. About 20 minutes. Craig hadn’t seen this footage until he and his fifth-grade class went to see it at the premiere.

LeMay

  • Masakazu Nagata, the president of Daiei, was involved with the Boy Scouts, which is why they were involved.
  • One of the aliens is Riki Hashimoto, who played Daimajin.

Galbraith

  • He says Carl Craig’s last name is “Clay.” (Seriously, why can’t anyone get his name right? I know how he feels. –Jimmy)

He got through all his Toku Topic notes, which is good.

Next week is the second of the “Year of Gamera” double-header when poor Nate has to suffer through Gamera vs. Guiron (which has the best of the MST3K episodes). He’ll be joined by Luke Jaconetti of the Earth Destruction Directive podcast and Greg Meyer, who formerly hosted the Out of the Speedforce podcast. After that Nate’s series of mini-sodes on Toho classics comes to an end with another of my favorite Toho films, Sayonara Jupiter. We’re still working out issues with guests, but it looks like to be a solo episode.  

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy
Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The MIFV Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 38: Eric Anderson vs. ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’

Published April 21, 2021

Well, this is annoying.

Nate and I were transferring files between our respective laptops, and in the shuffle an older version of “Jimmy’s Notes” overwrote the newer version.

In other words, my notes on episode 38 (Godzilla vs. Kong) were lost.

Damnit, Marchand!

I can tell you that my notes included bullet points about:

  • Eric mispronouncing something.
  • H.E.A.T. being sent to the Hollow Earth to get Titanus Doug succeeded in finding him, and he was released on Monster Island today.
  • The fact that a kaiju version of Alcoholics Anonymous should probably be started in light of Kong’s latest antics. Speaking as someone who’s been known to drink a bit too much Jack Daniels on occasion (and get into bar fights), I know how Kong feels.
  • Realizing I’m 0-2 against Kong with Mechani-Kong Mk. 2. In my defense, I was trying to incapacitate and not kill him both times. If I ever went all out with Mechani-Kong Mk. 2, the results would’ve been much different. Regardless, my pride has recovered since then.
  • Nate needing to get his own tux! He asked me to loan him mine, but it wouldn’t fit. He owes it to himself to get his own, just like Eric said.
  • How getting Jet Jaguar fitted for a tux was … weird. Especially now with his Singular Point mods. I had to call in a favor with a special tailor.
  • How it wasn’t “Kongtainment,” Nate. It was just “Kong Containment.”

Here’s Nate’s leftover notes … which is a lot.

The Film

  • Someone should merchandise Jia’s Kong doll. (I’m sure the Board will get on that. –Jimmy)
  • I like the MV credits sequences. There are lots of throwbacks to past MV films in here. Like Randa talking about the many ecosystems. Then we get a rundown of Godzilla and Kong’s past exploits.
  • I heard some people say that Bernie was Alex Jones. That’s not far off. I didn’t mind him, but that might be because I know a few people like him. (Even Alex Jones is right sometimes. –Jimmy)
  • Like in K33, they just put Kong on a huge raft with no explanation of how. I prefer that. Given the big jump in technology in this, you just learn to accept it.
  • Some things get repeated a bit too much at first. “Ancient rivalry” is one.
  • Call me crazy, but the finger touch reminds me of the Da Vinci painting of God touching Adam. (I thought Kong was the “king” not the “god.” –Jimmy)
  • I love the van scene because it makes me think of Stranger Things with the ‘80s-sounding techno.
  • I heard someone complain about the Tide pod reference. It would’ve been a long time after that, but it makes sense that he’d be leery of internet challenges and would still be dealing with lawsuits. Maybe it was an adlib?
  • The score doesn’t have nostalgic tunes like KOTM, but it does have shades of them. It’s somewhere between G14 and KOTM.
  • I love how Kong is puzzled by snow. (Sometimes it puzzles me, too, so he’s in good company. –Jimmy)
  • Josh naming MG seems a bit odd. It really should’ve been Ren Serizawa. (Or me. –Jimmy)
  • I really did feel a bit sorry for the Skullcrawler MG kills. It does show how much of a threat MG is because those things were terrifying in Kong: Skull Island.
  • The Heisei Gamera trilogy is all over the MV G-films. This has Gamera 3 in it. Godzilla is protecting the Earth/nature and not humanity, which means he causes lots of collateral damage without regard to humans.
  • When Jia signs about Kong’s heartbeat, she beats her chest a bit like Kong. I like that. (It’s cute. Is it her sign for Kong? –Jimmy)

Toku Topic: Theaters vs. Streaming

These are mostly quotations from the following sources:

  • https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/02/movie-theater-owners-are-frustrated-about-streaming-but-their-survival-depends-on-studios.html
  • “According to a study held in June 2020, just 14 percent of adults said that they strongly preferred seeing a movie for the first time in a theater, and 36 percent said that they would much rather stream the film at home than visit a cinema. Preferences for watching a new release in a cinema instead of via a streaming service in the United States changed significantly between 2018 and 2020, signaling a shift in consumer behavior and potentially a risk for movie theaters in the country. Also important to note is the effect of the coronavirus on consumer confidence. There was a drop in the share of movie fans willing to visit cinemas between March and June 2020, likely the result of consumers fearing the risk of infection and feeling more comfortable viewing movies in the safety of their own home.”
  • “Studios and exhibition have always had a lovely but contentious relationship,” one movie theater operator with locations in the southern part of the U.S. said on condition of anonymity. “Exhibition is basically a business that has blank screens and empty seats and we can’t do what we do without the studios.”
  • “These windows were created by studios decades ago in an effort ‘to get multiple bites out of the same apple,’ another movie theater operator said.”
  • “Netflix Inc has streamed original movies at the same time, or just a few weeks after, their debut in cinemas. Competitor Amazon Studios has said it would like some of its films to play for only two to eight weeks in theaters before hitting the Amazon Prime Video streaming service.”
  • “Director Steven Spielberg told Britain’s ITV News last year that movies seen primarily via streaming should compete for Emmys, not Oscars. A representative declined to comment on whether the director will urge the Academy to address the issue.”
  • Before the pandemic, there was talk of extending the theater duration times for big budget films and allowing smaller films to head to “direct-to-consumer” channels faster. But when cinemas were forced to close for six months (or more), cinemas were forced to adhere to much shorter releases. Many faced bankruptcy.
  • Theaters owners and other industry observers were quick to criticize Warner’s move. Chris Johnson, the CEO of Classic Cinemas, called Warner’s decision “ridiculous and short-sighted,” and Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Theaters, argued that Warner would “sacrifice a considerable portion of the profitability” of movies that bypassed the traditional theatrical release. David Sims piled on in The Atlantic, saying of Warner’s decision, “Audiences will have little incentive to pay more to see these films in theaters.” His conclusion? “Theater chains are right to fear for their survival.”
  • You know who else hated it? Christopher Nolan. He spoke against it vehemently in defense of the theater-going experience (it might’ve been to promote Tenet, but who knows).
  • “PwC partner CJ Bangah told me her big consulting firm’s annual media and entertainment outlook is projecting a 65% drop in global revenues for the movie sector.”
  • “Worse, Bangah said, recovery for the film industry is a long ways away. As she delicately put it, it’s ‘within the realm of possibility’ that the industry will fight through an “uphill battle” to full recovery, but ‘we’re not forecasting a return to 2019 revenue levels in the five years of our forecast for cinema.’”
  • “Shorter windows would keep some customers at home, said Greg Marcus, chief executive of The Marcus Corporation, owner of the fourth-largest U.S. theater chain. ‘If you damage the business and take away 10 percent of our customers, we won’t be able to reinvest in the theatrical experience,” Marcus said. “That would ultimately hurt content providers.’”
  • “In the study, we analyzed what happened to theatrical revenue in Korea from 2015 through 2018 — a period during which Hollywood studios significantly shortened the exclusive theatrical windows for their releases, from three months to only one month. We found that, after controlling for differences between movies with early digital releases versus traditional release windows, early releases had a statistically and economically insignificant impact on theater sales, equivalent to around a 0.8% drop in total theatrical revenue during the first eight weeks of the movie’s theatrical run in Korea. Most theatergoers, it turned out, remained loyal to the theatrical experience even when they had the option of watching the movie at home while the movie was still showing in theaters.” Take this with caution.
  • “What we learned in our Korean study suggests that a similar effect may exist for movies, which in turn suggests that John Fithian, the president of the National Association of Theater Owners, was right when he argued that ‘theaters provide a beloved immersive, shared experience that cannot be replicated’ — but that Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia, was also right when said that early digital releases provided an opportunity to give customers a choice ‘whether that choice is to enjoy a great new movie out at the cinema, to open up HBO Max, or to do both.’”
  • In 2019 (before the dark times—before the COVID), Christina Garnett wrote, “Maybe we’ve already chosen the user experience we want… instant, at our fingertips, and cheaper than the traditional alternative.”

Okay, it wasn’t as much as I expected.

Next week you’ll hear the return of another member of my ever-growing rogues gallery, and this time he brought a friend: Jack “GMan” Hudgens and J.R. Villers from The Drift Space podcast. They came to continue the “Year of Gamera” with a movie that dramatizes an exciting chapter of my life: Gamera vs. Viras. Yes, I have lasso skills and helped Gamera fight aliens. How do you think I got a job at NASA? Then poor Nate has to suffer through a second Gamera movie in a row with Gamera vs. Guiron, and he’ll be joined by Luke Jaconetti of the Earth Destruction Directive podcast and Greg Meyer, who hosts several podcasts.

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy
Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The MIFV Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 37 – ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ & Bonus Episode 7: ‘Gammera the Invincible’

Published April 6, 2021

You’re getting a twofer today. I’ve got notes on both episode 37 (which has proven to be one of our most popular episodes yet) and the bonus episode on Gammera the Invincible. For the latter, I didn’t take any notes, but Nate had some of his own left over. I’m just as surprised as you are.

Admittedly, much of my notes on the episode are rants about Snazzy, but they must be said.

  • Snazzy was a little bugger! He’s lucky he didn’t hit the emergency evacuation button and launch KIJU into space…or at least to the Japanese beach. Again. (Seriously, we’ve had two incidents where something or someone from the Island ended up on the Japanese coastline. Just ask Nate).
  • “Sidekick Central”? That sounds like some fifth-rate comic book company making a rip-off of the Teen Titans. Either that or a humor comic about all the kids who keep getting employed by Batman as sidekicks. (I hope Eric Elliott is reading this).
  • I have a lot of ironically-named buttons on my board. That way no one is quite sure how to properly use it, creating some job security for me. For example, I labeled the caller button “Bidi-Bidi,” the mute button “Mando,” and the volume control dial “Marchand.”
  • Those aren’t “mandibles,” Nate. They aren’t in Mothra’s mouth. Those are claws. Or as this image on mantis anatomy says, “double-spined murder clamps.”
  • Dante’s Inferno describes Satan as having three faces but not necessarily three heads. That’s close enough to Ghidorah, though.
  • “Boisters”? You meant “bolsters,” Brandon.
  • I will not be replaced by…whatever Snazzy is! My guess is he’s a “Whatever” like Gonzo.

Here are Nate’s leftover notes:

The Film

  • I like this movie. I always have. The problem I have is many of the others who also say they like this movie give the worst reasons for liking it. (i.e. “It’s supposed to be bad like the old movies!”) (Idiots making everyone look bad. –Jimmy)
  • The opening is very Gamera 3. Characters lose loved one during a kaiju attack but the kaiju meant no harm. (The whole MonsterVerse stole from the Gamera Heisei trilogy. –Jimmy)
  • Dougherty said in his commentary that he saw Mothra’s lifecycle as reincarnation. Each Mothra generation inherits the memories of the past ones. It adds a spiritual element and fits with what’s implied in the Japanese films. It’s also in keeping, as I’ve noted, with Shinto teachings.
  • I will admit not all of the film’s jokes work. “Ghidorah-gonorrhea” is the best example of a bad one. “Dude hates Titans,” is also a bit too on the nose to be funny. I know one podcast said they expected better jokes from Dougherty. (We’ve called Ghidorah worse around here, most of which isn’t fit to print. –Jimmy)
  • The “intimidation display” scene is one of the best in the film. It’s suspenseful and scary. I confess I jumped in the theater when I first saw it. It’s also a clever expansion.
  • The death of Dr. Graham is cited as an issue. It’s similar to how the elder Brody died about 45 minutes in. Jason Barr defended that by saying it shows that no characters are safe.
  • It is a little astonishing that Emma Russell has a Ted Talk prepared when she makes her villain speech. I’ve heard people call her crazy, but there are people who think like her. And if you think people won’t do crazy things because of grief, you’re mistaken. As for Mark saying it won’t bring their son back, it make sense because he was getting to the heart of the matter. She’s always conflicted throughout the film. Alan Jonah is the true believer.
  • Am I the only one who thought the climax taking place at Fenway with the “Green Monster” was intentionally ironic? (Maybe. As a Yankees fan, I enjoyed seeing it get destroyed. 😛 –Jimmy)
  • I’m really tired of the “day battles” people. Stuff like this and Pacific Rim is set at night—as someone on Twitter pointed out—because with their colorful attacks and abilities, they show up better. Kong: Skull Island is in the day because those earthy colors and less flashy creatures look better. It isn’t always some excuse to hide SFX flaws.

KOTM Spirituality

  • Godzilla is also similar to God in the OT, casting out humanity from Paradise after violating the natural order, or even the God who flooded the Earth to wipe it clean of humanity’s moral bankruptcy.
  • Rodan, to a certain extent, could be seen as Judas figure, bowing to whoever he sees as the strongest alpha. Unlike Judas, he survives his betrayal and, so it seems, is repentant.
  • Humanity must make peace with these “gods” and realize they are not the most powerful beings on Earth, even with all their weapons.
  • Godzilla, while born out of war, has evolved since then, taking on more significance while not losing his roots as an atomic allegory. “This art born of war, this new mythology, makes Godzilla and his fellow beasts of burden, like Mothra, Gamera and Rodan, not unlike the American superheroes who became a means for children and adults to process WWII and instill a sense of patriotism. And like those caped and costumed heroes, these giant monsters have seen their share of evolution and rebooting over the years in order to better reflect the society that relies on them.”
  • “There’s still that element of fear, fear of dying off, fear of destroying the world, but King of the Monsters suggests that fear doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Fear can drive our desire to reconnect with our earth and also our gods. Humanity’s fear in this context is a positive aspect as both a call to action and a reminder of a human need to be made aware of our modest scale and to feel in awe of something again. King of the Monsters is about relinquishing control.”

KOTM and The Nuclear Agenda

  • Tell us what you got from that long fortune cookie.
  • Radiation is used to treat cancer (chemotherapy)

Here’s what’s left from Gamera-Double-M:

  • I wasn’t allowed to watch the RiffTrax. (Too similar to MST3K, apparently. –Jimmy)
  • Arrow’s presentation is by far the best this has ever looked compared to the numerous cheap releases because it’s public domain. Ring in pig’s snout.
  • “Red alert.” I can’t hear that without thinking of Star Trek. This was before ST.
  • Newspapers in English.
  • “Papa-san”? (This line was odd. Like most of the movie. –Jimmy)
  • The dubbed dialogue actually says Gammera will starve in a month. (They underestimate that big turtle. It’d take at least two months. –Jimmy)
  • I don’t remember the establishing interior shots in the Plan Z facility. (But I love them! I took a tour of the place once. I almost wish I worked there. –Jimmy)
  • It says “Sayonara Gammera” and “The End” at the end. (A fitting place to finish my notes. –Jimmy)

With King of the Monsters out of the way, it’s time for the culmination of the “Kong Quest” with the long-overdue Godzilla vs. Kong. There was quite an eventful premiere for it on the Island. Trust me, I know because I tried to have a rematch with the big ape in Mechani-Kong Mk. 2. Yep. Nate was joined by his friend and collaborator, Eric Anderson, for that special broadcast. Then we return to the “Year of Gamera” with a film dramatizing one of the most exciting chapters of life, Gamera vs. Viras. We’ll be joined by two of the hosts from The Drift Space podcast, J.R. Villers and my barroom brawl opponent Jack “GMan” Hudgens (I’ll happily take a rematch).

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy

Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The MIFV Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed

Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 36: The MSTies vs. ‘Gamera vs. Gyaos’

Published March 16, 2021

Michael, Michael, Michael. Now you’ve gone and done it. You have supplanted John LeMay as my new nemesis. You haven’t surpassed Commander Hell—the self-proclaimed “emperor of the universe” during the War in Space—but that’s hard to do since he’s an evil overlord. But, well, I may wait a little a little longer to retrieve you next time you take a tour of Monster Island’s jungle. You need a bit more excitement in your life, anyway.

Besides that, here are my other notes from last week’s episode on Gamera vs. Gyaos:

  • You should know better than to eat food in a cockpit around sensitive equipment, Michael! Serpentera Mk. 3 is a delicate machine!
  • Can’t tell, Michael? Nate, are we sure about his loyalty? #justsaying
  • I regret not reminding Nate to let Damon talk at the beginning about how he got to the Island, especially when it involved Giant Robo and Johnny Socko (he’s a friend of mine). Of course, Michael kept butting in.
  • The full name of Eiichi’s little actor is Naoyuki Abe.
  • In 1967, $1,000 was 360,000 yen, and the film’s budget was 60 million yen. Now I, too, want to know how many times Gyaos used that ray!
  • Haneda airport is nice. Japanese customs sucks, though. They never let me keep my laser pistol. I have a permit, damnit!
  • Good grief, did Damon and Michael go on and on and on at the end of the episode. Nate wisely chopped 20 minutes out. I feel sorry for the listeners here on the Island who had to hear it all.

Now for Nate’s leftover notes. He actually used all his Toku Topic notes again. Good work.

  • We’re quickly introduced to Gamera and his “Kenny,” Eiichi. Gamera eats some fire from the erupting Mt. Fuji. Reporter asks if he’s storing flames for energy or burnt to a crisp. Of course he’s still alive! He’s in the title!
  • Kojiro Hongo returns from the previous film.
  • Of course there are bats in the vampiric Gyaos’s cave!
  • Gamera is supposed to be holding Eiichi, but his hands are clearly open in the next shot. Also, he either stretches his arm like Mr. Fantastic or is crazy flexible because he’s able to place Eiichi on his back at an impossible angle. (Well, he was in space for a while, so maybe he found some cosmic rays? –Jimmy)
  • “Gyaos” is how he sounds? Okay. (Sounds like me when I cough. –Jimmy)
  • I see why Gyaos was brought back in the Heisei trilogy. He’s the easiest one to reboot.
  • There are gags like the car slicing in this. And Gyaos having a rock fall on his newly grown toe.
  • HEADSHOT on Gamera. Gyaos shoots off his own toes—but Gamera shoots off his own hand.
  • Gyaos looks constipated while re-growing his toes. (We’ve all made that face at some point, Nate. –Jimmy)
  • I want Gyaos to speak like Bela Lugosi.
  • “Exactly like our blood!” Because it’s pink? Cotton candy?
  • There’s a bit character named Toku. Okay. (Does that mean we talk about him in every episode? –Jimmy)
  • It never occurs to Gamera the THREE TIMES Gyaos drops him from midair to start flying?
  • “Put a rock in it!” (I’ll remember this the next time I want you to shut up, Marchand! –Jimmy)
  • Gyaos is barely in the volcano before the village leader says the road construction can continue.

From my books:

  • The rivalry between Godzilla and Gamera at this time was likened to The Beatles and the Rolling Stones by Patrick Macias.
  • Kichijiro Ueda, who plays the village mayor, told Yuasa, “I will defeat Gamera in performance!”
  • The humans’ efforts against Gyaos were inspired by Mission: Impossible, according to the producers.

The Commentary by Stuart Galbraith IV

  • It was decided by all to make this a children’s film. The kids would play on the floor or go buy popcorn during scenes in first two films with adults. This was made like a children’s storybook. Everything moves briskly.
    • They used a lot of real locations/offices instead of sets. One scene was Daiei’s dubbing studio.
    • This is the same Gamera suit from the previous film, but the eyes were made bigger and friendlier.
    • Daiei liked having expressive eyes on their kaiju. Detailed and brightly lit.
    • Yuasa said kaiju should all be night creatures to hide the defects of the special effects and because it’s dramatic. (Take that, day battlers!) 😛
    • The fat villagers, that actor committed suicide a few months after this movie released at age 31 because his career wasn’t going anywhere after some big success in TV.
    • Yuasa saw giant monsters and illogical, so scientists have much less screen time and no solutions. He wanted the kid audience to join Eiichi in coming up with solutions. (And yet we have an entire science lab dedicated to the kaiju here on the Island…. –Jimmy)
    • This year saw more foreign films out-grossing Japanese films.
    • Gyaos gave a press conference to promote the film, which angered some reporters. (Maybe he should be the next president’s press secretary. –Jimmy)

There you go.

The “Year of Gamera” takes a brief hiatus as we prepare for the long-awaited release of Godzilla vs. Kong, which will have a special premiere on Monster Island. Next week you’ll hear when Nate was joined by the biggest guests to be on the show (so far): Ryan “The Omni Viewer” Collins and Brandon Jacobs, the host of Up From the Depths on YouTube. Ryan’s sidekick, Snazzy, hung out with me and Jet Jaguar in the producer booth. And pushed random buttons. Before I put him in a headlock.

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy

Follow MIBOD on Twitter: @MonsterIslaBOD
Follow Raymund Martin (The MIFV Legal Team) on Twitter: @MIFV_LegalTeam
Follow Crystal Lady Jessica on Twitter: @CrystalLadyJes1

#JimmyFromNASALives

Comments closed