In this episode Rachel, Gretchen and Kyle brave the Wrath of Daimajin!
Join us for a deeper look into the final Daimajin film of 1966: Wrath of Daimajin. We originally spoke about this in episode #14 (so very long ago) and it was only our second ever Daikaiju Discussion!
For kaiju eiga (cinema) , the 1966 Daimajin trilogy is a bit of an enigma. All three films were released by Daiei, the same company that made the Showa era Gamera flicks, and are unique among other kaiju films in that they are set in the Sengoku era (Japan’s “Age of warring states”). We’re talking about the 1400s here, so there is no standard city destruction in the trilogy and the beast is bascially fighting samurai ( I know, I know… they aren’t all samurai, but I digress…). Sure, you’ll get some classic Japanese-style architecture brought down by the titular titan, but they are far from the skyscrapers of modern kaiju films. All three of the films are essentially revenge movies – definitely not something you’d see in the Godzilla series!
Also, do you consider Daimajin a kaiju? Or are you a little more strict and identify this vengeful god as a kaijin?
Check out how similar this doll of a 4th century Japanese warrior looks like Daimajin! (Source: MyArmoury.com)
In addition to talking specifically about this film with Rachel and Gretchen, I wanted to share as much of this film’s history as I could both with my cohosts and our fabulous listeners, so we all hope you enjoy this episode.
Only a smidge of music was played in this episode but make sure to check out the following awesomeness about Daimajin:
MAJIN’S MUSICAL MOMENTS:
1. Daimajin Goes to Hell Valley by Akira Ifukube from Wrath of Daimajin (1966)
2. Death of the Golden Sun by Akira Ifukube from Wrath of Daimajin (1966)
3. Wrath of Daimajin by Cianide from Cianide/Coffin split (2007)
DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION:
Since we’re *guessing* that Netflix is going to add Godzilla City On The Edge of Battle to their streaming service next month, but we cannot be sure, we’re going to have a pre-requisite for our homework in July. If Netflix doesn’t add the new Godzilla Anime to their library, we’ll turn to 1989’s Godzilla vs Biollante for our homework assignment. Either way, please make sure to send in your homeworkbefore July 27th to be included in the next daikaiju discussion episode!
In this episode, Kyle speaks with Yuji Kaida, Kuzuhiro Nakagawa and Ryuki Kitaoka (all reacorded at last year’s G-Fest).
It’s time for an interview mulit-ball! At last year’s G-FEST, a number of podcasters and youtubers were given the opportunity to interview the convention guests in 15 minute sessions. In this episode, you’ll hear two of these interviews and a panel recording from the convention, plus I go into some details about the upcoming festival, happening July 13th-15th in Chicago, Illinois.
The first interview is with Yuji Kaida, a master painter and illustrator who has an eye for giant monsters. He’s also a big mech artist too. But for more information about this living legend, check out the links below to some of his work. And I do believe that the final image in this post is the Godzilla 1954 painting Kaida-san referred to in the interview.
Our second interview is with a younger assistant director from Japan who has been working steadily in the Japanese film business, Kazuhiro Nakagawa. He worked on both live-action Attack on Titan films and Shin Godzilla. Nakagawa also directed a recent independent kaiju film entitled Day of the Kaiju (2012)
And thirdly, join myself, Stan Hyde, Robert Scott Field and Japanese stunt actor Ryuki Kitaoka for a panel reflecting on his career as a stunt actor in Japan and in Hong Kong, and his fateful meeting with Jackie Chan. We get to hear about his work on the Ultra series and his time at Toho working on Godzilla Final Wars.
Don’t forget that if you want to submit your homework for this month’s daikaiju re-discussion film Wrath of Daimajin (1966), please do so here.
AUDIO INTERLUDES:
1. Monsterland Tour from Destroy All Monsters (1968)
2. 12 Intercept Godzilla (M16) by Akira Ifukube from Godzilla (1954)
3. 18 EM20_CH_Alterna_04 by Shiro Sagisu from Shin Godzilla (2016)
4. We Love X II (Cruising The Cirro-Stratus) by Keith Emerson from Godzilla Final Wars (2004)
5. Godzilla by The Creatures from Hái! (2003)
Kaijucast #237 Taste of G-Fest with Yuji Kaida, Kazuhiro Nakagawa & Ryuki Kitaoka[ 1:24:16 ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
June 17th,2018 Podcasts |
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Kyle, Gretchen and Rachel revisit one of the stinkiest Godzilla films ever made: Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Wowsers! We posted FOUR episodes in one month — I assure you this is not the future of the podcast.
In this episode we are taking another look at Godzilla vs Hedorah for the podcast – this time in the form of our Daikaiju Re-Discussion, which is a year-long series of films that we looked at really early in the life of the podcast and we’re giving some of our newer listeners the opportunity to comment on these movies before the format is changed and we reboot the process entirely.
This environmentally charged entry in the Godzilla series was originally covered in episode #16 when I had August Ragone on to discuss the classic tokusatsu television series Ultra Q. The Hedorah discussion was tacked onto the end of that episode, so I’m pleased to give this movie another “full episode” shot this month — and if you haven’t checked it out yet, we recorded a pretty great commentary on the film too!
Make sure to check out the links below to all of this awesome news and these rad events…
THIS EPISODE’S NOISE POLLUTION:
1. Defeat Hedorah (Union Volume) by Kazumi Kitayama from Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
2. Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster US Trailer (1972)
3.The Polluted Ocean and Godzilla by Richiiro Manabe from Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
4. Rise of Hedorah by Hedorah (2016?)
MERCH RUN:
If you’d like to purchase one of our “footprint” enamel pins, you can do so here.
CATASTROPHIC EVENTS:
7/12 – 7/15 — Florida SuperCon in Fort Lauderdale, FL with Bin Furuya (Ultraman 1966 Suit Actor) & Tsutomu Kitagawa (Millennium Godzilla Suit Actor)
7/13 – 7/15 — G-Fest XXV in Chicago, IL with Akira Takarada, Megumi Odaka & Keizo Murase …Internationally tho!
7/20 – 8/27 — ULTRAMAN FESTIVAL in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan
6/30 – 9/16 — Lord of The Monster Godzilla in Taipei, Taiwan
NEXT DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION:
Our film for June is Wrath of Daimajin (1966), the THIRD film in the Daimajin trilogy — this is the one with the kids crossing Majin’s mountain (we don’t want anyone to get confused and submit a review of the wrong film). If you’d like to take part in the re-discussion episode, make sure you submit your homework (aka your thoughts, questions and reviews) before June 25th – thanks!
Rachel, Kyle, MonsterMan (j/k), Jeff, Clancy & Gretchen (front) got back together to recap the trip to Monsterpalooza last month! [Photo credit: Kyle Lang]
Hey, check it out, it’s a recap episode of last month’s Monsterpalooza with the entire crew who made the trek — that’s Rachel, Gretchen, Jeff, Clancy and Kyle! If you aren’t familiar with Monsterpalooza, it’s an annual monster-related convention held in the Los Angeles, California area. Most years we’ve seen some kind of Japanese celebrity guests — this year the show brought Bin Furuya (Ultraman 1966), Tsutomu Kitagawa (Millennium series Godzilla) and Shinji Nishikawa (Heisei & Millennium concept artist and master illustrator) to the convention. Major thanks to everyone who came up to us and especially to those who came out to the listener party!
We played a little music in this episode and it went like this…
MONSTERPALOOZA MUZAK:
1. Monster Man by DEVO (2012)
2. The Young Woman At The Seacoast by Masaru Sato from Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
Check out our Kaijucast Purikuri video!
Did you hear about our new MERCH RUN! aka Did you want an awesome enamel pin? Check it out here.
Join the KAIJU CORPS, which is our FB group for the listeners!
JUST A MINUTE OR SO OF MONSTER MUSIC:
1. Nameless by KING GHIDORA from NAMELESS EP ()
DAIKAIJU DISUCUSSION REMINDER:
Don’t forget that we’ll be watching Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) for our Daikaiju Re-Discussion this month. If you’d like to submit your homework, please do so before May 24th to be included in the discussion episode!
Kaijucast #238 Wrath of Daimajin Daikaiju Re-Discussion [ 1:08:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
