{"id":12134,"date":"2014-05-21T01:58:21","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T06:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=12134"},"modified":"2015-11-12T08:01:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:01:38","slug":"will-the-real-godzilla-please-show-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/will-the-real-godzilla-please-show-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the real Godzilla please show up?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jason<\/a>
Jason Jones, assistant professor of Japanese, says pop culture has helped to erase the more complicated character of the original 1954 Godzilla. Watch video below.<\/a> (UWM<\/em> photo by Troye Fox<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So which is it? Is Godzilla \u2013 the giant, reptilian monster of Japanese movie fame \u2013 a good guy or a bad guy?<\/p>\n

Godzilla Private Viewing Party<\/strong>
\nwith alumnus Jim Rygiel (’77) and
\nUWM faculty member Jason JonesThursday, May 29<\/strong>
\n5:30 p.m., reception
\n7 p.m., program
\nMarcus North Shore Cinema – Mequon
\nregister: https:\/\/alumnidirectory.uwm.edu\/godzilla<\/a><\/div>\n

Since Ishir\u014d Honda\u2019s first film in 1954, the creature has been both. That isn\u2019t so surprising, says Japanese film scholar Jason Jones.<\/p>\n

Sprung from man\u2019s misuse of nuclear weapons, Godzilla was intended by its creators to be a reflection \u00a0of human behavior, forcing us to struggle with our own emotional and ethical conflicts, says Jones.<\/p>\n

So it will be interesting to see how the upcoming new film will portray the King of the Monsters on his 60th anniversary, he says.<\/p>\n

\"Godzilla\u2019s<\/a>
Godzilla\u2019s image can be found all around Japan. This statue is in Tokyo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGodzilla is an anomaly among monsters,\u201d says Jones, who teaches Japanese and Japanese culture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). \u201cHe\u2019s fun but scary; entertaining but serious; Japanese but international. Compared to other silver-screen creatures, Godzilla has proven the most popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that he\u2019s the most like humans is the key to that enduring appeal, says Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis to me is one of the most important things about Godzilla: Reconnecting him to that original narrative that allows humans to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask these difficult but very important questions: Are we doing what responsible humans should be doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

The human issues that are embedded in the stories \u2013 war, pollution, technology \u2013 make Godzilla a global cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first Godzilla came out almost a decade after the conclusion of WWII. It really is about Japan being dragged back into wartime,\u201d says Jones. \u201cSo Godzilla is this threat of war, this threat of the past that just won\u2019t go away. He also represents the development of nuclear technology \u2013 that power for life to change in an instant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many people today are more familiar with the zany Godzilla than the serious one, says Jones, who is writing a book, \u201cGodzilla is Dead: How Capitalism Killed Meaning in the Monster.\u201d In fact, students who take his Japanese film courses, he says, are struck by how sad it is when the monster dies at the end of the original film.<\/p>\n

Godzilla has become so ingrained in popular culture it is difficult to keep the seriousness of the original message alive. Even in Japan, where his presence is ubiquitous, younger people aren\u2019t much more knowledgeable than their American counterparts when it comes to Godzilla\u2019s beginnings.<\/p>\n

The blockbuster American Godzilla film came out in 1998, recasting the monster as a one-dimensional iguana-beast of destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe producers were competing with \u201cJurassic Park II: The Lost World,\u201d so they wanted to make Godzilla look larger than the Tyrannosaurus rex<\/em>. If you\u2019ve ever seen the preview for the 1998 film, Godzilla actually steps through the ceiling of the museum and onto the Tyrannosarus rex, as if to say, \u2018You\u2019re nothing; I\u2019m so much bigger than you are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones was still in college at the time, and he began to wonder how this version fit into the greater body of Japanese films about Godzilla. He found that the creature\u2019s purpose had strayed far away from the original.<\/p>\n

Current events, however, could provide an opportunity for the new movie to remind viewers why Godzilla came to be in the first place. Since the earthquake that hit Japan last year and the ensuing radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the country is revisiting its relationship with nuclear power, says Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilms have the power to make us think,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course, we want the eye candy too, but there\u2019s a need as humans for us to constantly review and assess whether we\u2019re acting in our own best interests. This film has the potential to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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