William Tsutsui
Autore di Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters
Sull'Autore
William Tsutsui is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kansas.
Fonte dell'immagine: William Tsutsui [credit: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR.]
Opere di William Tsutsui
In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage (2006) — A cura di; Collaboratore — 24 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Tsutsui, William Minoru
- Data di nascita
- 1963-07-09
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- New York, New York, USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Bryan, Texas, USA
- Istruzione
- Harvard University
University of Oxford
Princeton University - Attività lavorative
- historian
economic historian
Japanologist
college president - Organizzazioni
- Southern Methodist University
University of Kansas
Kansas State Historical Society
Association for Asian Studies
Hendrix College
Utenti
Recensioni
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 6
- Utenti
- 170
- Popolarità
- #125,474
- Voto
- 3.5
- Recensioni
- 6
- ISBN
- 20
Then after the Introduction the book's chapters deliver on their descriptive titles with Chapter One: The Birth of Gojira which details how the film came to be with key creative participants Director Honda, FX Specialist Tsuburaya, Producer Tanaka, and Composer Ifukube; Chapter Two: The Godzilla Franchise looks at how an immediate sequel Godzilla Raids Again was produced six months later then nothing for seven years until back to back successes King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla formally launched the ongoing series; Chapter Three: Understanding the Monster considers the question of "what are these Godzilla pictures all about?"; Chapter Four: The Making of an American Icon investigates the transformation of the Japanese film Gojira into the American film Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and how dubbing, editing, theatrical, and especially television distribution of it and all the films that followed popularized him in the USA; Chapter Five: A Personal Godzilla surveys fans on what the character and films have meant to them and how a formerly isolated fandom has come together first with fanzines, then conventions, and the internet to share their mutual enthusiasms; Chapter Six: Godzilla's Spawn looks at monsters that followed in Godzilla's wake at other Japanese studios and then in films in other countries around the world; Conclusion: Godzilla Forever covers the mon-star's enduring popularity by discussing "What makes Godzilla such a malleable monster, an inveterate chameleon, a ready vehicle for others hopes, agendas, and fantasies, is by no means obvious."
This book is a fun and informative overview of how the films came to be and evolved from a serious horror film Gojira centered on a giant radioactive lizard that was a manifestation of the atomic bomb come to life into a kid friendly comedy inflected series of giant monster battles with Godzilla as the defender of Japan. The ubiquity of Godzilla has become such that even people who have never seen one of the films know that he is giant lizard with radioactive breath. As the author observers this pervasiveness is underscored by all words that have had zilla appended to them to imply large or monstrous such as truckzilla or bridezilla.
Some interesting Godzilla factoids-
Next year in 2024 Toho Studios will mark the 70th anniversary of two its landmark and defining films "Seven Samurai" and "Gojira" known globally today as "Godzilla" and the actor Takeshi Shimura starred in both of them. Inoshiro Honda directed many original science fiction films for Toho and only reluctantly returned to the series again and again until he retired. Honda was good friends with director Akira Kurosawa who persuaded by him to come out of retirement to assist on his film Kagemusha in 1980 and they worked together until Honda's death in 1993. The American dubbed, re-edited, and re-titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters! starring Raymond Burr was released in Japan and was a hit. The original Gojira in Japanese was not released in the USA until 2004. The name Godzilla was not created by American producers and was actually coined by the Toho marketing team and has become so widespread it is commonly used in Japan today. Another term created by the Toho marketing team was suitmation to describe the special effects used by Tsuburaya to bring Godzilla and his monster opponents to life with men inside the suits. The actor Haruo Nakajima wore the Godzilla suit in the mon-star's first 12 films from 1954 to 1972. Godzilla was the bad guy for his first decade and did not become the good guy until his appearance in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster released in 1964. Godzilla's iconic roar was created by composer Akira Ifukube rubbing a pine tar dipped glove on the loosened strings of a contrabass.… (altro)