Anti-nuke Godzilla?

May 10, 2014

New Hollywood remake of ‘Godzilla’ questions nuclear power

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201405100027 

By ARI HIRAYAMA/ Correspondent

LOS ANGELES--The latest Hollywood remake of “Godzilla” debuted in Los Angeles on May 8, once again bringing an anti-nuclear message to the silver screen as the original film did in 1954.

The monster flick begins with a catastrophic accident at a nuclear power plant in Japan, caused by a major earthquake--an apparent reference to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

British director Gareth Edwards, who shot the film as the Fukushima crisis unfurled, said, “Our film is not about Fukushima, but it hopefully raises some questions that I feel about this power.”

Japanese actor Ken Watanabe, who plays a scientist in the film, said he was concerned about how people affected by the Fukushima disaster would react to the film, which presents scenes of a catastrophic collapse of a nuclear plant.

“But I realized that I must take the challenge as a Japanese actor,” Watanabe said.

The movie is the first 3-D Godzilla film, featuring a computer-generated 108-meter tall monster that terrorizes cities.

While Godzilla in the 1998 Hollywood remake looked more like a giant lizard, the latest design keeps true to the original film franchise, which produced 28 titles in Japan.

The first Godzilla film was inspired by the exposure of a Japanese tuna fishing boat, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, to radiation from a U.S. nuclear weapons test on the Bikini Atoll in 1954.

The film will hit theaters in 63 countries and regions from mid-May and in Japan on July 25.

By ARI HIRAYAMA/ Correspondent