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Art in Japan>Film> Since Godzilla Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan. Since Godzillaby John McGee Not everyone gets misty-eyed at the sight of a giant reptile destroying their hometown. But in Tokyo, it's natural. 
Movie poster for the
first Gojira,
1954 As two 60-ish oba-san (older women) waddled among the Godzilla film stills in this exhibition—He's smashing his arm through a Yurakucho depato! He's tramping through the skyscrapers of Nishi-Shinjuku!—they kept muttering "natsukashii!" ("that really brings back memories!"). In a perfect world, fans would be able to put on the various rubber monster suits on display and battle with friends or stomp through Shinjuku themselves. This modest exhibition of posters, paintings and props, however, is not only an event for enthusiasts. The big G's first exhibition in an art museum marks his graduation from sub-culture to mainstream. It's also the biggest and most comprehensive Godzilla show ever, according to curator Hiroshi Ohsugi. As part of the Taro Okamoto Museum's art and society series, the show focuses on how the franchise has reflected the changing concerns of postwar Japanese society over the last half-century. (Toho—the film company behind the beast—lent items only after assurances that this would be a cultural investigation and validation). 
Film still from Ghidorah the
Three- The show divides Godzilla's oeuvre and contemporaneous social issues by decade. Godzilla was apparently inspired in part by a 1954 incident in which radioactive fallout from a US hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll contaminated the Japanese tuna boat Lucky Dragon which was fishing in the area at the time. The first Gojira film (1954) had a strong anti-nuclear storyline (though it was toned down in the re-edited US version). Mutated by radiation from A-bomb tests, the dinosaur-like creature emerged from deep undersea to spew fire and wreak havoc on Tokyo's citizens. During the '60s economic expansion, a kinder, gentler Godzilla became the symbol of Japan's burgeoning strength and even battled the US (in the guise of King Kong). In the '70s, he took on the smog monster—the hangover of '60s industrialization. The schizophrenic G-ster—first bad ('50s), then good ('60s-'70s), then bad again ('80s-'90s)—is more than the result of five different directors and a slippery marketing strategy. He reflected the complexity of the changes taking place. The identity crisis reached a head when he faced himself as the automaton Mecha-Godzilla (1975) and the bio-toxic clone Biollante (1989). 
Long-suffering Shinjuku meets
its Gojira—the Japanese name is a combination of gorilla and kujira (whale)—may echo Japanese society, but one thing this show leaves out is how fans interpret him. For example, the "King of the Monsters" has fought over 20 sanctioned bouts with every kind of creature including a giant lobster (Ebira). But he has also been borrowed for campy classics like Bambi Meets Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Disco Lando (co-starring Star Wars action figure Lando Calrissian). Another disappointment is the relative lack of film screenings. Though excerpts from the first film and a digest of all the films run regularly, only two full-length features will be shown for the remainder of the exhibition. Most Godzilla films are available on video, but an acknowledged proto-Godzilla, the American B-movie The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), isn't. Finally, there's limited English (a pamphlet should be available this week). Overall though, this exhibition does a good job fleshing out Godzilla's past and showing how popular culture often mirrors the most salient social issues of its day.
Mothra worms his way into the exhibition in several forms (Photo: John McGee) The museum and two others nearby (Nihon Minka-en, an outdoor folk architecture museum, and Kawasaki Juvenile Science Museum) are located in Ikuta Green Park in the Kawasaki foothills. _______________________________________Since Godzilla was held May-July 2002 at Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. ©2006 John McGee |
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