Godzilla fans are riding high at the moment, between Godzilla Minus One’s recent Oscar triumph and the imminent release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. And you can count directors Takashi Yamakazi and Adam Wingard among those happy fans; as this conversation between the pair clearly shows, these guys both really love and understand their scaly star.
It’s worth watching the full six-minute chat between Godzilla Minus One’s Yamakazi and Godzilla x Kong’s Wingard (he also made 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong), in which they discuss how they both became Godzilla aficionados as children—one growing up in Japan, the other in America. (Yamakazi says that the instant he realized someone could make monster movies for a living, he knew what his dream job would be.)
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But most interestingly, the reaction they had as kids to the movies they watched—Wingard was delighted; Yamakazi was delighted but also terrified—ended up having an impact on their respective current projects, even decades and decades later. “[Our films] couldn’t be more tonally different from each other,” Wingard points out. “I think that’s what’s so cool about Godzilla, is that metaphorically, tonally, he’s just very versatile in terms of what he can mean and represent in the movies.”
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Yamakazi agreed. “It mirrors the social climate of the era each film was made, which I believe is the biggest reason why Godzilla could maintain its popularity for such a long time. ‘I want to see the terrifying, strong Godzilla,’ is where I started. I couldn’t help but take that direction when making it,” he said. “However, the fun and psychedelic Godzilla from the Showa Era that you [loved watching as a kid] is also an important element of Godzilla. Because you, Adam, have inherited that side of this character, we can take the totally opposite direction, and together we are maintaining the wide spectrum of this Godzilla IP, even now … [it’s] the best for Godzilla, I believe.”
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opens March 29. Godzilla Minus One is not currently in theaters or available for home viewing, but claws crossed that’ll change soon.
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