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Revision as of 16:44, 23 October 2010 by 76.236.150.79 (talk) (→Appearances)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the monster. For the 1954 film, see Godzilla (1954 film). For the 1998 film, see Godzilla (1998 film). For an overview of the franchise, see Godzilla (franchise).| Godzilla | |
|---|---|
| File:Godzilla collage.jpg | |
| First appearance: | Godzilla (1954) |
| Latest appearance: | Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) |
| Created by: | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Height: | 50–100 meters (164–328 feet) |
| Weight: | 20,000–60,000 tons |
| Portrayed by: | Shōwa Series: Haruo Nakajima Katsumi Tezuka Yū Sekida Ryosaku Takasugi Seiji Onaka Shinji Takagi Isao Zushi Toru Kawai Heisei Series: Kenpachiro Satsuma Millennium Series: Tsutomu Kitagawa Mizuho Yoshida |
Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira) is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games, novels, comic books, television series, and an American remake. An American reboot is currently in the works by Legendary Pictures.
With the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a monster created by nuclear explosions and a metaphor for nuclear weapons in general. As the film series expanded, the stories took on less serious undertones portraying Godzilla in the role of a hero, while later movies returned to depicting the character as a destructive monster.
Name
Gojira (ゴジラ) is a combination of two Japanese words: gorira (ゴリラ, "gorilla"), and kujira (鯨（クジラ）, "whale"), which is fitting because in one planning stage, Godzilla was described as "a cross between a gorilla and a whale", alluding to his size, power and aquatic origin. A popular story is that "Gojira" was actually the nickname of a hulking stagehand at Toho Studio. The story has not been verified, however, because in the fifty years since the film's original release, no one claiming to be the employee has ever stepped forward and no photographs have ever surfaced. Godzilla's name was written in man'yōgana as Gojira (呉爾羅), thus the kanji used were for phonetic value and not for meaning. Many Japanese books on Godzilla have referenced this curious fact, including B Media Books Special: Gojira Gahô, published by Take-Shobo in three different editions (1993, 1998, and 1999).
The Japanese pronunciation of the name is [ɡodʑiɽa] ; the Anglicized form is /ɡɒdˈzɪlə/, with the first syllable pronounced like the word "god", and the rest rhyming with "gorilla". When Godzilla was created (and Japanese-to-English transliteration was less familiar), it is likely that the kana representing the second syllable was misinterpreted as ; in the Hepburn romanization system, Godzilla's name would have been rendered as "Gojira", whereas in the Kunrei romanization system it would have been rendered as "Gozira".
yet godzilla weight was 100000 tons
godzilla weighed a thousand fucking tons
Cultural impact
Main article: Godzilla in popular culture
Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. He has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla films, especially the original, portrayed Godzilla as a frightening, nuclear monster. Godzilla represented the fears that many Japanese held about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the possibility of recurrence.
As the series progressed, so did Godzilla, changing into a less destructive and more heroic character as the films became geared towards children. Since then, the character has fallen somewhere in the middle, sometimes portrayed as a protector of the world from external threats and other times as a bringer of destruction. Godzilla remains to be one of the greatest fictional heroes in the history of film, and is also the second of only three fictional characters to have won the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded in 1996.
Awards
- 1985 Japan Academy Award - Special Effects (The Return of Godzilla)
- 1992 Japan Academy Award - Special Effects (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah)
- 1993 Tokyo Sports Movie Awards - Best Leading Actor (Godzilla vs. Mothra)
- 1993 Best Grossing Films Award - Golden Award and Money-Making Star Award (Godzilla vs. Mothra)
- 1995 Best Grossing Films Award - Silver Award (Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla)
- 1996 Best Grossing Films Award - Golden Award (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah)
- 1996 Japan Academy Award - Special Effects (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah)
- 1996 MTV Movie Awards - Lifetime Achievement
- 2002 Best Grossing Films Award - Silver Award (Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack)
- 2004 Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
- ^ "''Godzilla'' (1954)". Tohokingdom.com. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ "Godzilla (Heisei)". Tohokingdom.com. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ Takeo Murata (writer) and Ishirō Honda (writer/director) (2006). Godzilla (DVD). Classic Media.
- ^ Al C. Ward (writer) and Ishirō Honda, Terry Morse (writers/directors) (2006). Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (DVD). Classic Media.
- Steve Ryfle. Japan's Favorite Mon-Star. ECW Press, 1998. Pg.22
- Gojira Media. Retrieved 2006-09-23.
- B Media Books Special: The Godzilla Chronicles Ver. 2: The History of Toho Fantastic Movies, 1935-1998. Japan: Take-Shobo. 1998. ISBN 4-8124-0408-8.
- The Monster That Morphed Into a Metaphor, By Terrence Rafferty, May 2, 2004, NYTimes
- "Godzilla Wins The MTV Lifetime Achievement Award In 1996 - Godzilla video". Fanpop. 1954-11-03. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
