M/U Film Soiree Chat: SHIN GODZILLA
Many, many months ago, the (mysterious and exclusive) Monadnock Underground Film Soiree met virtually to watch Shin Godzilla together. We loved it. What follows is a transcript of our Facebook Messenger live chat throughout the film. Spoilers abound, of course, and we can't promise it will make sense. But it will be fun.
David: Hashin!
(means launch)
John: They’re on a boat
Zoë: I think the last salt water I put my feet in was Tokyo Bay
Chris: Whoa
To both
David: Then you know all about this
John: Why was it red?!?
Chris: All wearing the same suits
John: Cool, a slide
Chris: A slide!
David: I recall that area being insanely humid
Chris, can you see Anno in the direction? Doesn’t it feel like Eva?
Zoë: I grew up in the South and I have still rarely felt humidity like Tokyo
Chris: Yes it definitely does
Leah: The upholstery is creeping me out
David: Nice catch
Chris: I like how hotel-ish it is
Don’t stir things up!
David: Get ready for a Godzilla film about dudes in suits
Zoë: Hahahah "following abbreviated"
Jesse: I actually don't think I've actually seen a Godzilla movie all the way through
Y'know, except that one in the nineties
Leah: Neither have I!
Chris: I don’t think I have either
Including the 90s one
Zoë: I haven't either!
John: They just keep moving to a different office
Chris: I’ve seen most of one of the early ones
Haha I know
And they all look like hotel rooms
David: I like to think of this film as a procedural
John: I’ve seen a lot of them
David: Moving through the options
Jesse: The dub job ain't that bad
David: Showing the mechanisms of civilization
John: Just saw the new King of the Monsters a couple of days ago
Chris: Is each Godzilla film each a product of its specific time, with a different slant accordingly?
David: Not exactly. First was, later ones were a bit more franchises
Seems a bit dense with expo at the moment but don’t worry, will be moving fast
John: I saw the one with the little guy that blew smoke rings and could talk to kids wayyy too many times
Chris: I actually like the tension here
Which one was that one
David: Yeah which one
Jesse: Exposition is my favorite part of scifi/fantasy stuff. The only time I liked The Walking Dead was the CDC arc
John: All Monsters Attack
Chris: Haha we haven’t determined which agency this falls under
John: I hope the message of this ends up being not to trust the experts
Chris: Hahahahaha
Wow goofy lookin godzilla
Jesse: Right?
John: That’s a nice misdirect
Chris: It’s like fuzzy
Like a muppet
Jesse: And googly-eyed
Zoë: A muppet with bloody gills
John: It’s not Godzilla
Leah: Exactly, Zoe... so strange
Chris: I like the classical score right now
Jesse: I'm confused about the timescale here.
John: This thing is not Godzilla I refuse to believe it
Jesse: Oh wow
Monster Law
Chris: The laws and the manuals and the trainings are all useless!
John: “It’s not time for semantics”
Chris: “Can we get the US to kill it”
John: These movies would be a lot shorter if they could
Jesse: This is Japanese bureaucratic efficiency porn
John: Turns out we just needed giant monsters to end US imperialism
David: Sadly John that would only make them create more weapons
Chris: But the “efficiency” is powerless!
John: Did it just die
David: It’s a short movie
John: Oh no
Jesse: Fuck, give it a nictitating membrane, something other than googley eyes
John: This isn’t even its final form
Ok so this thing IS Godzilla?!?
David: I frankly love how the thing just looks mindless
Chris: Hahhaha wtf man
Yeah I do too
Doesn’t conform to our sensibilities of what a monster should look like
David: I think Anno just tried to tackle this material as realistically as he could
How DOES anybody deal with something like that?
Chris: Right I think that’s what is so interesting
I think this is pretty realistic
Jesse: They just... lost it?
David: Hey its more realistic than Godzilla 1998, where the “lost it” in downtown Manhattan
Jesse: Fair
Leah: Fatality count of 100 seems low considering what we’ve seen...
Chris: I can’t remember if I saw that one I just remember P Diddy
John: Back in the hotel
David: Omg
Jesse: One of the dub VAs sounds like Fry from Futurama and it's super distracting
Chris: Maybe it is
Haha
David: isn’t this Eva music
It so is
It is
The same
Chris: Love it
And it is like control room emergency music
David: Except it isn’t a sci-fi future NERV, it’s what we have now
Chris: Misato issuing emphatic commands
Haha right
David: Misato’s right around the corner
Chris: I like Anno’s vision
Jesse: Yeah so far I'm weirdly into this
Chris: AHHH!!
Yeah I really like this
I’m engrossed - and yeah, in that “procedural” way
David: Hey, one of those screen names was an avatar of Asuka
Chris: Hahaha I didn’t notice that
Misato?
Wait is Dr Maki the guy who disappeared from the boat
David: Correct
Chris: Hahaha the protesters
Jesse: #StayTheFuckHome
John: They are not DISTANCING
David: I just realized we’re going to have a brief generation of films in which everybody is wearing masks
The 2020 films
Chris: nooooo
John: It fixed its eyes!
Yay
Oh it’s fourth form
Chris: Evolution!!
Stay at home order!
Jesse: Did I miss a form somewhere?
David: Yeah... perhaps its first form was the initial underwater thing
When it came upon the waste containers
Chris: That would make sense
Jesse: Brrrrrt
Chris: Lol little bullets
It just smiles
David: Somehow never imagined tanks could be this agile and useful
Chris: That’s kinda what they’re supposed to be for
John: What are these? Like MOABs?
Jesse: I'm glad everyone's okay
David: “Bridge fell on me during the Godzilla incident”
Chris: A perfect organism surpassing man
Zoë: I feel like "a perfect organism surpassing man" is going a BIT far
David: haha
it’s a melodramatic procedural
Zoë: hahaha
its natural armor is far superior, I'll give it that
John: Here we come to save the day
Chris: It’s a pre-metaphor for Covid
Jesse: NATURE IS HEALING
David: When you need muscle, you know who to call
Chris: GRAB THE FILES
Way to go, USA
Jesse: U S A ! U S A !
They couldn't get the rights to “Ave Maria”?
Chris: LASER POWERS
David: I love Anno’s interpretation of US guys
Zoë: The Godzilla protest cult is going to be all about those mouth lasers
John: The Americans are just making it worse!
Chris: HAHA me too
“Payback time”
“Yes. Payback.”
Total devastation
Leah: Americans making things worse with their weapons? Shocking!
David: Evolution vs escalation
John: Godzilla takes some time to reflect
Chris: Self-crit
Do Japanese people not smoke tons of butts anymore
John: Nothing calms me like a sip of water
David: WATER
Yeah Chris good call
Chris: Hahahaha yeah no alcohol either
David: I guess that’s changed?
Jesse: Pepsi shortage, see
Chris: Hahahaha soggy noodles
David: Japan’s in good hands
John: I’m loving all the politics
Jesse: Are the aides alphabetized in your version?
Chris: Me too, I really enjoy this side of it
Alphabetized?
Jesse: Like, "Aide F"
David: Yaguchi the HEART of Japan
Chris: The timpani drum of problem solving
I don’t think I see aide letters
David: Yeah I was just thinking of that. Timpanis are never used for anything but SERIOUS STUFF
Chris: So true
Next time I’m confronted with a problem I’m gonna summon that song
David:we all have “getting it done” music
though it would be nice to be standing around people in your own war room
Chris: Haha agreed #goals
David: Haha these American guys are SO actors currently living in Japan
Expats
It’s a type
Jesse: "US Team Lady B"
John: Godzilla is a settler colonialist
We can’t bomb it but we can cancel it on Twitter
Chris: Cancellation is our last hope...
John: Noam Chomsky will sign a letter defending Godzilla
David: Guilt tripping Godzilla out of relevance
Godzilla film about dudes in suits and nation states
Chris: The economic consequences of lockdown!!
David: You’re clearly suggesting the UN step in and manage things for the American government
It’s bold
John: We just need to deplatform Godzilla. Demonetize its YouTube videos
Leah: This whole score is incredible.
David: Yeeeeeah
“AMERICA”
John: Ok so obviously nuking Godzilla is just going to make it even more powerful, right?
Leah: Right
Jesse: Right?
Chris: “THIS time it’ll work!”
John: “This time is DIFFERENT!”
David: Whole movie cost $15 million USD, remember...
John: That’s crazy
David: Just reminds me of how wasteful and uncreative so many films can be
And frankly how computers can just solve every problem, if you want them to...
John: A movie like this here is probably 200 million easy
David: Yeah easy
Chris: Yeah what a budget! That’s extremely impressive
David: I mean 15 is the advertising budget in the US for a movie this size
Chris: Right hahhaa
David: (Relatively speaking, actually I don’t know that side)
John: Godzilla is a Statue now?
David: Jesus Christ, the marketing budget for Avengers: Endgame was 200 million
John: The jokes I want to make are too easy
David: whoa a third culture
Always listen to the guy running with the laptop
Zoë: Does anyone remember the laptop guy's name? (Or know why he looks so familiar to me?)
David: Sorry no
we’ll check credits for laptop guy, only 450 to sift through
Never heard the word coagulate so many times in your life, I imagine
Rather coagulant
Chris: Hahaha I love this portrayal of the US
David: It’s got a funny West Wing vibe to it
Chris: Haha but kinda villainous
David: It’s more like they can’t imagine how casual and crude we get
Chris: “You’re grown up enough to have trade deals on the sly”
Always subverting all the other countries, acting alone
David: big gangster dudes
Kubrick said nations tend to operate like gangsters and prostitues
Chris: Dude really wants a high post
Jesse: Quarantine
Chris: Soundtrack IS fantastic
Zoë: Haa, shinkansen as weapons. I enjoyed that little moment.
David: And origami - inherently Japanese solutions
Chris: This very much reminds me of like an Eva-vs-angel operation
John: Here comes the crane platoon
David: Yeah, very much
Action cranes
John: Well there goes that
David: We have more crane platoons
Zoë: and more TRAIN BOMBS
Chris: I love the train bombs
David: Hahaha
John: I’m getting a kick out of the train bombs
David: He fucking hates those things
We need the best craners you’ve got
Crane prodigies
Chris: I love the use of cranes too
David: Also the most dramatic scoring you’ll ever hear about cranes
Chris: Hahahahaha yes
Zoë: The crane brigade DESERVES this score
David: See now here’s the question
Do we leave this statue to remind us of the event
John: Yes
I love a good statue
Chris: I feel like Anno has a fundamentally optimistic outlook despite his depressions
David: ha jury’s still out
Let’s just say he knows the importance of focusing on love and beauty
Chris: Well even that line about “we’ll build it up again”
I thought that was excellent
Thanks for the suggestion Dave
David: Good man
Chris: I really enjoyed that
John: Yeah I’m glad to have seen this
David: I also just think it’s a fascinating film for Americans to watch
Uniquely Japanese film, and Japanese-American film
Leah: Same here. It was well worth the $2.99
David: so Jesse, you were watching a dub?
Zoë: Yeah, me, too. I figured worst case it's never bad to spend a couple hours listening to some Japanese language, but I wasn't expecting to like it as much.
John: I wanna know what those things on its tail were!
David: they were sequels
Jesse: Yeah, and it was pretty good as far as dubs go. Only one or two wonky deliveries
Zoë: Hahahaha a future statue for each prefecture
David: I can’t imagine watching all these Japanese guys speak English while Japanese text is plastered on the screen
I mean its a VERY Japanese film, it’s entirely about being Japanese
Chris: I really think its portrayal of government and military and industry was oddly plausible
David: Japanese identity
Jesse: I'm a filthy dub peasant, I'm used to it
David: Unfortunately I don’t think Anno will be returning for a sequel if there is one
Chris: I’m ambivalent when it comes to anime but I’m glad I watched that in Japanese
David: Which makes me wonder what the point of one would be, but that’s me
Oh Chris, I did my best with you
Chris: You did - you and many others
What’s Anno doing now?
David: Anyway all, thanks for indulging me with this one! I always wanted to sic it on more Americans
Dunno, but he’s long overdue to do Evangelion 4.0
Jesse: That was great man, thanks
David: That got put on hold for like 5 years
Glad you enjoyed it, Jesse
Chris: Ah I didn’t realize that was still on hold
David: Rebuild 3.33 came out in like 2014...
I think? Ages ago.
Chris: That was a like The Wire-level portrayal of institutions and individual ambitions
John: Yes definitely
David:Haha yes
Or even a little West Wing
Chris: Nobody does that with an action/disaster movie
David: Very EARNEST folks doing their best
It’s not a sexy sell, but frankly it’s a massive administrative procedural
But you know it’s about THE CITY and THE NATION and NUCLEAR SHITE
All with Anno’s hyper-attentive ADHD lens
Zoë: I think it does the procedural parts in an interesting way, too!
hahaha YES, I couldn't find the words but that's perfect
Chris: Yeah I mean that’s the shit I want hahaha
With timpani!
John: Who doesn’t love a timpani
Zoë: The nuclear stuff is super important, too -- this reminds me of this sculpture installation a Japanese friend of ours made all about his struggles with nuclear power after Fukushima. To paraphrase, he wrote on the plaque (that went with a huge ceramic sculpture of a god) about how nuclear power is a natural thing but it also holds the potential for so much destruction, and how could that be reconciled?
David: "Mercury is natural, that doesn't mean you pour it on your Cheerios"
The natural stuff is scary man - like infinite space? that's NATURAL. Comprehend that one.