How I Came To Love Godzilla vs Megaguirus

By Joe Gibson

 

“Japan creates an artificial black hole device to trap Godzilla forever, but a test of the device creates new foes for Godzilla, car-sized dragonflies called meganula and their queen, Megaguirus.” - IMDB storyline description for Godzilla vs Megaguirus (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0255198/). 

 

My Story With Godzilla vs Megaguirus

 

Today, December 16, is the 24th anniversary of the theatrical release of Godzilla vs Megaguirus.

 

This is not a strict traditional review where I will argue a reasoned assessment of this film’s flaws and merits, though that could occur at a later date. This is a celebration of Godzilla vs Megaguirus because I honestly passionately enjoy this film, which is a surprise to me given my history with it that I will also detail here. While I am attempting to explain enough to make this accessible to someone with no or at least very little knowledge about Godzilla vs Megaguirus, I am hoping you have your own evaluations of the film’s stupidities and strengths in mind as you see my evolving thought process on how I came to love it.

 

I initially viewed the Millennium series (that's the 6 movies made between 1999 and 2004 as a response to the Tristar 1998 abomination) as wholly unnecessary additions that only served to undermine Godzilla's legacy. Naturally there were some exceptions to that. I have always respected Shusuke Kaneko's (of the Heisei Gamera trilogy) 2001 film Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All Out Attack, and Godzilla 2000 (1999) is an all around fun monster mash (read Doug Gibson's review here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2021/12/godzilla-2000-review.html).

 

But largely, I saw it as an experimental era and a failed experiment, and Godzilla vs Megaguirus was the most obvious failed experimental step because of the later adaptations to its formula. It is no secret that Masaaki Tezuka got three directorial attempts in this six installment series (debatably two more chances than he should have gotten), and many people have articulated better than I can just the sheer amount of observable ways that Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla 2002 is a far more polished version of Godzilla vs Megaguirus 2000 in terms of basic plot and characters. But you must recall I hated the larger Tezuka driven Millennium series until recently (the only exceptions being Shusuke Kaneko of GMK and Takao Okawara, who directed G2K as well as Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II 1993 that we have also discussed on this blog here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/11/part-three-godzilla-vs-mechagodzilla-ii.html).

 

Gaining appreciation for Tezuka’s 2002 masterpiece proved tantamount to admitting my issues with his half of the series were overblown. And truly they were. While Tokyo SOS 2003 suffers from a split focus between being a sequel to Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and being one to the original Mothra, the premise of Kiryu (a Mechagodzilla made from the original Godzilla’s bones) is executed for excellent pathos in both. More interestingly, Vs Megaguirus and Against Mechagodzilla each contributed a strong lead trying to overcome a past mistake in a fight with Godzilla that cost them their teammates, a plot point so very similar to Shikishima’s arc in Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One that it warrants resumed study. But Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla was the elegant film and Megaguirus merely the crude draft, so I would revisit Yumiko Shaku's Akane Yashiro in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla time and time again instead of Misato Tanaka’s Kiriko Tsujimori.

 

But a funny thing happens when you want more of that archetype in a pre Godzilla Minus One world. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla is a very light and breezy movie clocking in at only an hour and a half. With more ambitious ideas than Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, I think it probably should have exceeded that film’s runtime of 1 hour 47 minutes, especially because there is something very understated about the film’s use of Akane, where the film as it technically ends leaves you off on a cliffhanger in regards to her growth and only resolves her journey and relationship with the other leads in the post credits scene. I should clarify that Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, in my estimation, is still one of the very best films in this entire series, but what holds it back from absolute perfection is a lack of time to truly explore its own brilliance. What further hurts this is that Akane is only in Tokyo SOS long enough to be written out, so, for better or worse, we only get that first film with her. To truly illustrate my point for a moment, let me use Godzilla Minus One as an example. Think about how well the film explores the facets of Shikishima’s trauma in its 2 hours. I cannot think of a single scene of him that movie would be better off without, much less an entire half hour, and I think Against Mechagodzilla needed as much time and space with Akane as Shikishima had in Minus One. 

 

But what’s this? Godzilla vs Megaguirus is 1 hour and 45 minutes? Kiriko Tsujimori, the verifiable template for Akane Yashiro, has some beats of her adventure that Akane never adapted such as climbing on Godzilla’s back? I’ll just watch that scene then. Now, make no mistake, when I learned that the milestone for the first human character to touch Godzilla was wasted on Godzilla vs Megaguirus, I was majorly pissed off, but I couldn’t look away.

 

 

Megaguirus herself is the next relevant factor. If you are unaware, she is the queen of the Meganula, a dragonfly horde that originated in the original Rodan 1956, now mutated to have a reptilian-esque face because part of her origin in the 2000 film involves the use of Godzilla’s DNA and energy. Compared to the dark “battle Mothra” Battra in Godzilla vs Mothra The Battle For Earth 1992 (also directed by Takao Okawara) who had copious amounts of energy beams and earth shattering strength, Megaguirus is quite weak, depending on her great speed and a tail stinger to siphon Godzilla’s energy so that the title fight is even a slight challenge. It was quite easy to use this to support my anti Tezuka bias initially, but, the more I think about these characters, the more inherently interesting this makes Megaguirus.

 

So, there is a lot of utility to making the villains resemble the hero in more than just cosmetic similarity; if they represent two different sides of an idea or concept, similarity strengthens the overt contrast present (such as how I argued Skar King and Kong represent different fatherhood styles in my review of Godzilla x Kong The New Empire here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/part-two-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html). 

 

Contrast of some kind is always necessary. It can also be interesting to see similarity in fighting style too, but, make no mistake, that shifts the conflict from testing character’s ideals to just how good at their fighting style they are compared to essentially a clone. And the problem that emerges in a lot of modern storytelling is that many stories conflate those contrasts. Think about most superhero movies especially consumed back to back. 

 

“Oh, Iron Man is special because he has a robot suit…but Iron Monger also has a robot suit, so they fight normally. The Hulk is special because he has super strength…but so does Abomination so they have a normal fight. Captain America is a super soldier, and so is Red Skull, so outside of their clashing moral outlooks of self sacrifice vs world domination which thankfully are there, it is just a normal fight. Rinse and repeat for the shrinking of Ant-Man and Yellowjacket and reflexes and super durable suits of Black Panther and Killmonger.” 

 

Battra comes dangerously close to this Mirror Match fight for Mothra, only set apart by having copious beams…oh wait, this was the Heisei series, so Mothra also had beams (we can blame special effects director Koichi Kawakita for that). That film mitigates the pitfalls by having Mothra and Battra end up teaming up against Godzilla, but, in a similar way to how a really good purposeful and self aware mirror matchup is exciting, it is equally exciting for Godzilla to have a villain nothing like him, because he cannot just fight with punches and beams if Megaguirus is faster than both of those and actively siphoning his energy. Add to that the automatic characterization the film milks from her maneuvers and reactions in the fight scenes, and Megaguirus won me over a lot sooner than her film did. That said, GMK Mothra also uses a lot of these building blocks just as effectively.

 

The depiction of Godzilla in the Millennium series compared to Showa (1955 to 1975) or Heisei (1984 to 1995) was always a bit of a sore spot for me, since I very much appreciated seeing Godzilla grow and evolve in the Showa and Heisei continuities. Still, the unresolved fierceness of Godzilla in the Millennium series was something interesting to glance at with the spiky edgy design and lack of the linear redemption arc between enjoying continuity. Upon realizing I preferred the Heisei Godzilla’s anti hero persona to even Showa Godzilla, I had to acknowledge that Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs Megaguirus both showed the clearest picture of anti hero Godzilla that you get outside of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah 1991: Godzilla will destroy the attacking monster but then turn around and destroy Japan himself. Godzilla vs Megaguirus also shows a dangerous morally ambiguous Godzilla (he attacks as much as he wants to, but it seems to correspond to the use of banned energy) and shows off design improvements. MireGoji (the name for the suit in G2K) and GiraGoji (the vs Megaguirus suit) are very similar, both having the rougher edges and green skin texture, but GiraGoji, whether from filming in more daytime scenes or not, seems to have a more vibrant green that I now very much enjoy. 

 

It took the MireGoji similarities in Godzilla’s Evolved form in Godzilla x Kong for me to reevaluate these suits, but, after that, it was only a short time for me to realize I really enjoy both suits, and GiraGoji may be my favorite Godzilla design of all time (though any Heisei Godzilla suit and Minus One Godzilla also have claim to that title). At this point, I still thought it a tragedy all these enjoyable aspects were relegated to this film in particular. I attempted to revisit the film, but that was the dub. (Some dubs are worse than others. Because the English speakers in the Japanese cuts of the Heisei series are even worse than the dub actors, those films, for instance, are far better in dub than subtitled, and most Showa dubs are not so terrible. Godzilla vs Megaguirus has an abysmal dub that is the kind of thing I can really only appreciate if I have the original recording in my mind.)

 

Still with a hunger for this movie but unwilling to admit it after failing to sit through the dub, I listened to the soundtrack, which is honestly amazing. I have defended Tom Holkenborg’s Godzilla vs Kong and Godzilla x Kong scores for their semi memorable leitmotifs, but this film honestly blows it away, and that’s not an unpopular opinion. Of the Godzilla film composers obviously Akira Ifukabe is the biggest name with his contributions lasting through the end of the Heisei series, but, for the Tezuka films, Michiru Oshima composed, and her incredibly memorable Godzilla motif in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla originated in Godzilla vs Megaguirus as it turns out. Moreover, this soundtrack represents Megaguirus through the use of very shrill and ugly string instruments that build suspense but also weave in and out of tracks with the other motifs very well (this makes almost every scene set in Shibuya or about the Meganula nearly perfect). Regardless of your opinions on Masaaki Tezuka, this film did have one certifiable genius working on it, and since the music is another way to enjoy a film, if I am enjoying pretty much every aspect of this film already, there is no reason not to rewatch it, so let’s just run through what’s left to speak of about the plot (with a couple tangents on my thoughts on the quality of some plot points because I can’t help myself).

 

The Film’s Plot

 

The film begins with a news broadcast exposition to ground us in this new continuity, where there was no Oxygen Destroyer in 1954 so Godzilla kept attacking at his own pace (again two months after the 54 film, then the first nuclear plant in 1966, and for plasma energy in 1996), and his design was canonically always the green with purple spikes body and red beam in this continuity. When Godzilla attacks, soldiers including Kiriko Tsujimori fight against him with bazookas, and her Commanding Officer dies saving her from rubble after they accomplish very little.

 

The next time we see Tsujimori is in 2001 as part of the G Graspers (the military side of the operation) where she is recruiting whimsical inventor Kudo into the latest project to destroy Godzilla: a black hole gun spearheaded by Professor Yoshizawa, who serves a mentor role to Kudo. Mr. Sugiura is the other major character of this plotline, someone who is responsible for the current situation in more ways than one. Tsujimori and Kudo have a flirtatious banter (though she is more focused on defeating Godzilla), Tsujimori and Yoshizawa are both haunted by the deaths of comrades, and Tsujimori is compassionate to her team of G Graspers (getting them to safety to risk only her own life on two occasions) with Yoshizawa as a maternal influence on the cast to mediate the disagreements and arguments that do occur (especially between Tsujimori and Kudo)..

 

A subplot that weaves in and quickly out of this story is about young boy that just so happens to live near the facility of the first Dimension Tide test and have an interest in insects, so when DT causes a dimensional space anomaly that lets through a Meganula that lays an egg, he takes that back to Shibuya but then dumps it in the sewer, allowing that side of the plot to continue. The film establishes his loneliness and also guilt over the whole situation to where I buy his actions even if they do rest on some contrived set up (personally, if I were writing it, I would have combined him with the Doctor that exposits on the Meganulon/Meganula species later on and possibly both of those with Yoshizawa just for peak editorial efficiency). The boy’s other contribution is his conversations with Tsujimori that humanize her and somewhat clarify her drive to defeat Godzilla: that her CO told her that when you are scared, you should fight and not run.

 

Some Meganulon hatch from the egg and begin to prey on citizens of Shibuya as they gradually flood the town to help them mature into Meganula (winged versions) and grow their queen Megaguirus that they feed with Godzilla’s nuclear energy absorbed through their stingers. This subplot occurs over a variety of scenes that all effectively use the soundtrack to enhance the often wordless scenes of the Meganula, and the first of these scenes, a very tense horror scene of a Meganulon slaughtering people is so brilliant and suspenseful in the original Japanese audio. A comparison in Western media that seems apt is the scene in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 where it briefly becomes an Evil Dead film about Doctor Octopus’ tentacles wreaking havoc on doctors and nurses: abrupt but memorably shows off directorial talent for horror.

 

The G Graspers track Godzilla over the course of the film, and the Meganula seeking out Godzilla intersects these plotlines, leading to an ocean confrontation between Tsujimori, her team and Godzilla while taking samples of a Meganula carcass. This is the scene where Tsujimori climbs on Godzilla’s back, and it is a testament to her tenacity and leadership as she sends her teammate back to the ship and survives the struggle, even placing a tracker in Godzilla’s skin. From there, it builds up to its final action set pieces with a skirmish between Godzilla and the horde of Meganula interrupting the first Dimension Tide attempt on Godzilla on an abandoned island, and Tsujimori and Sugiura becoming more desperate to use Dimension Tide on Godzilla as soon as possible compared to the more cautious Kudo and Yoshizawa.

 

Because I find it a little weird that this subplot was resolved after the title fight and not before, I’ll wrap it up here. Sugiura acts strange throughout the movie, and, with the emphasis the film places on Godzilla’s 1966 and 1996 attacks being energy related (nuclear then plasma), there is an implication something could be stirring Godzilla now. It turns out that Sugiura has known that the Science and technology Bureau has still been using plasma energy to some degree and that attracts Godzilla. (In any eventual full review of this film, the areas I foresee the most weakness in the script are here and the little boy from earlier. These clearly do not detract from my enjoyment of the film but are necessary considerations when speaking on quality.)

 

And finally, to bring this back around to my earlier point about the intrigue of Megaguirus as a villain, Godzilla has to use his wits to turn the tides of the fight: crouching at just the right moment to use his dorsal fins to slice her, pretending not to see where she is so he can wrap his tail around her, and getting into a tussle so he can bury her stinger in the ground and belly flop on her (yeah, if you were unaware, that level of creative Showa era buffoonery happens in this fight, and it’s justified on a storytelling level). Ultimately, he bites her tail off, and the first atomic breath he lands on her sets her on fire because their fight was testing different aspects of him than how strong his fists and beam are.

 

Conclusion 

 

 

Like I said, this is not a traditional review of mine where I focus on using the film evidence to come to a conclusion about its quality, but here is why today's approach is also important sometimes. Because we are not objective creatures, our subjective sense of liking or not liking a film proves important in our motivation surrounding how thoroughly we investigate a film’s plot points and with what degree of enthusiasm. We all do this subconsciously, but here is a conscious example pertaining to this film. 

 

One of the most common criticisms I have seen for Godzilla vs Megaguirus is that, at the beginning of the movie, Tsujimori and her squad are going after Godzilla using bazookas and not tanks or maser tanks or anything more than big guns. I suspect that the people that do not appreciate any aspect of this film or otherwise do not have any respect for it will stop there; the film does comment on that somewhat. The opening fight takes place in 1996, and while the presentation makes it a little hard to tell, it seems like Tsujimori is not yet in the G Graspers. In any case, 1996 is the year that the Science and Technology Bureau opened their Institute and the year that made major progress in the fight against Godzilla. The following five years' worth of development leads to a G Graspers unit well equipped with SGSs (Search Godzilla System), as well as branded rafts, The Griffon Jet and advanced equipped suits. There is clearly supposed to be a contrast between the 1996 and 2001 efforts against Godzilla, and criticizing the film for that is missing the point of what it’s trying to say. That said, the ultimate plan against Godzilla is the Black Hole Gun: Dimension Tide, which is a patently awful idea especially when considering they plan to put in space and fire down at the Earth unobstructed at any moment (how did the UN allow this?), so…either the film just is irredeemably stupid or it is trying another more subtle juxtaposition at the heart of its story rather than just in act one (admittedly, both could also be true). 

 

Because I like this movie, I have more patience around the proposition that maybe there is something deeper there. Tsujimori herself demonstrates an interesting mix of traits that make her both the best person to fight against Godzilla (general badassery and the compassion for others) and the worst (an unanswered recklessness where she advocates stronger for Dimension Tide than the actual scientists working on it to the point of siding with the twist villain briefly). Indeed, her great hero moment at the end of this film is looking at her CO’s dog-tags reminded on how he said to fight not run but saved her by making them run away from Godzilla. Not only that, but she is wearing the G Grasper uniform using the G Grasper tech that only exists because of villain Sugiura (who has been luring Godzilla) to save people from Godzilla by firing Dimension Tide at Godzilla IN A CITY. (Indeed, only the first attempt of Dimensio Tide on Godzilla took place on the uninhabited Ogasawara islands.) The similar contradictions in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II indicated some deeper themes, according to my analysis, so perhaps the same will be true here. If I find nothing, I find nothing (and any review will reflect that), but it is because I like this movie that I’ll look more into what themes it could have before doing a dedicated review of it here.

 

Today, it is the film’s anniversary, and, over my part in its first two dozen years, I have held a variety of viewpoints on it. I will take this time to remember it fondly and invite you all to do the same, but if you have any thoughts positive or negative on this film, you can share them as a comment below. Here at Plan9Crunch, Godzilla is not our main focus, but you can check out a good assortment of content from us about the franchise if you care to do so.

 

Links to other Plan9Crunch Godzilla articles and videos:

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-godzilla-versus-kong-2021-remake.html

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2014/03/godzilla-is-on-this-authors-mind.html

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2021/12/godzilla-2000-review.html

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2010/02/godzilla-versus-monster-zero.html

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-nuanced-deconstruction-of-godzilla-x.html

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/part-two-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

 

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-three-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

https://youtu.be/yV6i2xX0pf4?si=Nu9RWsP5k6CbT68H

 

https://youtu.be/1HMV1hMPgzs?si=1Iip-2qfPxDe6G_B

 

https://youtu.be/pSosxtg51oM?si=CoDIwTko6C5N5DCY

https://youtu.be/AI_FMxtTlIk?si=EA51lODIQp2LUVr1

Renfield: An Analysis (1897, 1931, 2023)

By Joe Gibson

The following essay is an excerpt from a cross-disciplinary research paper comparing the redemption of Renfield from the trajectory of the original book Dracula to the 1931 film to Renfield’s own 2023 film with the history and efficacy of blood transfusion itself. The scientific and historical connections to blood transfusion were ill thought out and obligatory, so here are the cult film analysis sections that should stand up to scrutiny a little more. We here at Plan9Crunch have analyzed Dracula 1931 a fair bit already (links at the bottom of this post) and will likely find new things to talk about in the future, but I hope you enjoy these research paper excerpts.

On page 72 of the Barnes and Noble edition of Dracula by Bram Stoker, it reads, pertaining to Renfield’s fly indulgence, “...he argued quietly that it was very good and very wholesome; that it was life, strong life, and gave life to him.” 

At several points of Renfield 2023 but notably the denouement, Dracula’s whole blood is administered to heal substantive damage and even death with no negative side effects. Indeed, “the blood is the life” in Renfield, as he stated it was in Dracula 1897. In most adaptations and the original story itself, Renfield was deluded; Dracula’s blood would only corrupt the user into something unrecognizable (see the personality changes of Mina, Renfield, and Olgaren in Dracula, Dracula 1931 and The Last Voyage of the Demeter 2023 respectively). This redemption of Dracula’s blood necessarily translates to redemption of Renfield (and his psychology) and not Dracula (because Renfield highlights Dracula’s abusive tendencies).

The history of R.M. Renfield (via bullet points since the admittedly profuse publications featuring this character either do little to change him or are too obscure to be relevant to Renfield 2023’s character study). Broadly, the loose inspiration for [Renfield] starts in antiquity regarded positively, then the concept itself [Renfield] emerges regarded less positively as the modern era approaches and each gets refined to such a degree to show efficacy.

Renfield’s development is grounded in the context of warping and stretching Christian symbolism and scenarios; quite clearly in the original novel, the way that Bram Stoker intended Renfield was an allusion to John the Baptist. On page 106, Renfield speaks in bride-maid and bride parables similar to Jesus, compounding the idea that Renfield and John the Baptizer both espoused similar philosophies to their lords and then deferred to them (Renfield commits himself to Dracula on page 107). Renfield’s famous line on page 148, “...the blood is the life” works as a direct quotation of Deuteronomy 12:23 (Renfield being the vehicle for most of the novel’s religious imagery). Most tantalizing, John the Baptist is understood to have eaten locusts. (He may not have, but the symbolism and imagery need not correspond to reality in literary use. Similarly, some scholars doubt that Jesus sweating blood was originally part of the Gospel of Luke, but that is obviously a strong image still on the table to use in literature.) Renfield dies from trauma to the head and neck, just like John, but this is warped because the Herod figure (if anyone fits Herod’s role in Renfield’s life, it would be Dr. Jack Seward for his notable observation of Renfield and hasty woman-motivated decision making) does not cause the death; Dracula, the dark Lord, does (Stoker, 1897, 2011). There is stark reversal more so than similarity with the Baptizer.

The audience of Bram Stoker’s Dracula understands Renfield not as a person but as an enigmatic mystical contradiction. Dr. Seward observes Renfield scientifically, where one could read neurosyphilis greatly into the latter’s behavior, but the hints of great strength (for a 59 year old man), prophetic forewarning and religious allegory communicate Renfield as a mystical character. Renfield never gets his own point of view sections to explain himself (and the audience never learns who he was before Dracula), locking his character behind two different veils of interpretation.

By the time of Tod Browning’s Dracula, Renfield had changed somewhat, consolidating Harker’s castle scenes into his own tragic subplot. Harker loses much of his development, Mina’s moments of reflection at her infection reduce, and the suitors of Lucy are all but eliminated to make room for Renfield, a sane man, falling victim to Dracula at the castle, Renfield, an insane man, onboard the Demeter, Renfield interacting with the comic relief orderly and nurse at Seward’s sanitorium, and Renfield surviving until the final confrontation with Dracula where he leads Harker and Van Helsing to Dracula’s resting place (Browning, 1931). The novel is an ensemble, and so is the film, but, whereas Harker, Mina, Seward, and Van Helsing are the major players by amount of journal entries, it is Renfield, Dracula and Van Helsing that enjoy increased relevance and focus for the movie adaptation. That is important for the horror and terror since, in all versions, Renfield is the most clear picture of what Dracula can do to a person, but, now, Renfield was a sane person before, which means Dracula can turn anyone into Renfield, a far scarier thought than one Renfield existing somewhere in isolation. There is still a layer of separation between the viewer and Renfield: the tragic delusion. Renfield is wrong and insane, and the audience, like Seward before them, observes Renfield live and die in delusion.

Seemingly, the biggest reframing Renfield 2023 does is posit “What if Renfield is not only the point of view character but also undeniably correct in his delusion?” That is why Dracula’s Whole Blood carries infallible life giving properties: because Renfield has always believed it does. (Likewise, rather than ambiguous mad strength, eating bugs genuinely gives Renfield and any of Dracula’s other familiars super strength and reflexes.) However, if Renfield is now correct and has the opportunity for growth and change as an audience insert character, the pendulum has swung to necessitate a vehicle or mechanism to explore how the average audience member can become Renfield through Dracula’s interference (and how Renfield’s foil Teddy Lobo can become a Dracula familiar). The answer to that problem is very simply an abusive codependent relationship. This is pretty blatantly the point of the film, especially since Renfield sums himself up as a codependent during the climax, but there are more specific examples as well.

The opening, midpoint and denouement of the 2023 film take place in character Mark’s Dependent Relationship Anonymous Addiction Group (DRAAG) within the gym sector of a church, where Renfield explicitly (and the film implicitly though Dracula’s dialogue during pinch point confrontations with Renfield) identifies the relationship between servant and master as similar to the codependent relationship of Caitlyn and her narcissist boyfriend. Beyond the obvious, Caitlyn also, despite herself, finds herself defending ska music as one of her partner’s interests, just as this film indicates Renfield’s life obsession was given to him by Dracula as Renfield is capable of letting go of his bugs after he makes a breakthrough. Most interestingly, a use of double entendre occurs when Teddy Lobo replaces Renfield as Dracula’s familiar; because Dracula is aiming for world domination and Lobo’s gang, led by his mother, has lofty ambitions, the pact between them comes with the romantic image said by Teddy that Dracua should meet his mother (McKay, 2023).

Much of the audience distance from Renfield in the earlier referenced works came from comparison to more sane characters (or a saner Renfield in a cold open), so much of the audience sympathy for Renfield in this film comes from comparison to other characters. Nicholas Hoult’s Renfield only does the Dwight Frye laugh when preparing to kill abusers and drug dealers, and Teddy Lobo serves as a shadow to Renfield (being the weaker element to a criminal enterprise) especially after supplanting him as Dracula’s familiar because of the contrast of “Drug Use and Bug Use.” While Renfield abandons the bugs as part of his new life early into the story and treats “bug use” as part of the curse that puts someone under Dracula’s spell, he consumes the largest amount possible in the climax and puts up the most credible attack against Dracula possible (meaning no correlation between the bugs consumed and being under Dracula’s thrall). Renfield consumes the bugs for strength, and he is ultimately correct, so he can consume that for strength independent of Dracula, but Teddy Lobo, established to be in the cocaine trade, also uses cocaine and takes his bugs via snorting, making him more vulnerable to Dracula’s influence because he is treating it as a hit not the disgusting source of strength it is (McKay, 2023).

As the last vestiges of syphilitic imagery in the 2023 film, the seductive Dracula also takes form as a decaying corpse clinging to Renfield when the title henchman tries to escape Dracula’s destructive influence. There is some symbolism in Renfield that a fair analysis must ignore, because if Dracula’s Whole Blood were syphilitic in this film, it would not have those life-giving qualities (the syphilis subtext is only here because this is a Dracula story). Along those same lines, the narrative of Renfield’s backstory only hazily corresponds to the 1931 film; Renfield was not present to attend high society with Dracula or assist him in procuring any of his successful victims after the boat. The name of the DRAAG leader, Mark, is most likely unimportant on a larger scale, while being a notable Christian name.

The recent data that Whole Blood can efficiently combat preventable deaths raises an interesting implication in that the preventable deaths and collateral damage of the story (Renfield himself, the gang’s foot soldiers, Rebecca’s sister, and the other DRAAG participants) are the ones healed by Dracula’s blood. Dracula’s blood does not save the leaders of any given faction (Dracula himself, Teddy’s mother, the police captain and Rebecca are figureheads whose deaths would necessarily be conclusive, but the film never uses the blood to heal any of them, just the unnecessary preventable ones).

The final image of Renfield is that pitcher of Dracula’s blood on a table in the church next to a bowl of some bread product (likely muffins), and the caricatured nature of that imagery masks it somewhat, but that is a holy sacrament, perhaps a picnic version but a holy sacrament nonetheless. Does this entail some commentary on or against organized religion? Perhaps; if someone at a later date can delve into that interpretation, it may be helpful for overall analysis on the film; but there is another simple implication. Because the film is dealing directly in the redemption of Renfield and his ideology, and Renfield has always been a symbol of warped religious devotion, this sacrament is most simply the ritual necessary to redeem R. M. Renfield in this movie. In that sense, Renfield finally gets to rise above John the Baptist. Renfield first partakes of the bread of DRAAG by attending and opening up to it, then dies opposing Dracula, but gets to live again from the miraculous blood of Dracula, becoming an admittedly haphazard Christ figure. Both were necessary for the redemption of Renfield (but the purpose of this essay is obviously to focus on the blood).

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2016/09/dracula-85-years-later-vampire-is-still.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2015/02/tod-brownings-dracula-defense-of-often.html

https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2021/06/dracula-was-count-resigned-to-his.html

Hot Spur is a grimy western roughie, but National Review apparently liked it

 

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Review by Doug Gibson

I'm not much for the 1960s "roughie" genre (today essentially violent R-rated films with nudity), but one film has always intrigued me. It's called "Hot Spur," a 1968 revenge western directed by Lee Frost and co-written by exploitation genre legend Bob Cresse. The reason? Legend has it that the  conservative opinion magazine National Review named it one of its Top 10 films of the year.

Is this true? Perhaps I'll need to search back archives of the magazine to confirm. But just the thought that the late William F. Buckley might have traversed 42nd Street to see this sleazy film, with its frequent nudity and violence, intrigued me. I had to view it and did, for free, on Plex.

It is indeed grimy. A Mexican teenager stablehand, Carlo, is sick and tired of seeing his sister raped. The films opens with a sexual assault on a barmaid, who might be his sister; it's kind of unclear. The teenager follows the rapists back to the ranch. He eventually kidnaps the rich rancher's wife, and rapes and tortures her. There is a very bloody, nihilistic finale. There is gratitious nudity. A typical long-scene example is a visit by the misogynistic assaultants to a bordello, where prostitutes disrobe and for several minutes are groped, squeezed and have beer poured on them by the clothed men, who behave like pigs.

So is this film a step above its low-tier genre?  Maybe a little. It's a pithy tale, direct and to the point; brevity works here. Perhaps National Review was impressed by the crude frontier justice and chaos that results. Also, Carlo, played by James Arena, is kind of interesting. At first the viewer has sympathy for him, due to the abuse he takes from the cowboys and rancher. But as the film goes on Carlo's actions turn evil and his character loses sympathy. That reminds me of George A. Romero's "Martin," where the title wannabe vampire, played by John Amplas, could evoke sympathy but simply goes too far until the audience wants him dead.

Apparently Joseph Mascolo, who plays the rancher Jason O'Hara, became a soap opera star later. Virginia Gordon plays his kidnapped wife, Susan O'Hara. My assumption is she was a star of the adult genre of that era.

Besides Plex and other streamers, this film is for sale by Severin Films as a Blu-Ray, with accompanying feature, shorts and interviews. I believe this weekend it's half price for Black Friday. The Blu-Ray is also at Amazon. If you like this revenge western genre, Plan9Crunch has also reviewed "Cain's Cutthroats." John Carradine is great in that grimy film.

Joe's Gamera Film Ranking, Worst to Best - Gamera Day Nov. 27, 2024

 

By Joe Gibson

Very suddenly, the anniversary of the original 1965 Gamera film, November 27th, 2024 (otherwise called Gamera Day) is close upon us. Now, here at Plan9Crunch, I, Joe Gibson, have been working my way through specifically the Showa Gamera series (1965-1980) out of order, and I eventually intend to have reviews up here for all of the Showa Gamera films + Gamera The Brave and Gamera Rebirth (if you are interested in essays on the Gamera Heisei trilogy, let us know). However, Gamera Day comes only once a year, and this ranking can serve as a preview for those later thoughts and a concise summary of earlier articles (links interspersed throughout). If you disagree, share your own rankings below.

13. Gamera vs Zigra 1971 (Link here to a Plan9Crunch review: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/gamera-vs-zigra-turning-53-years-old.html)

As I have already expressed, Gamera vs Zigra is constrained by such lack of budget that Director Noriaki Yuasa's creativity is unable to realize in any substantive charm. The film, set almost entirely in Kamogawa Sea World has to contrive reasons to stay at the setting without destroying it and proves unable to use the setting to ground any main characters' arcs and actions (outside of a superfluous aquarium worker that somehow contributes more than the children do). The plot comes off as a retread of Gamera vs Viras, and the intention and powers of Zigra and those under his thrall as well as the stakes are very inconsistent without many creative fight scenes to offset that. As I will discuss in the following sections, most Showa Gamera movies are a mix of high highs and low lows; this film is just the same bland tripe throughout where the contrivances in Zigra's paralysis working differently for different people leads into the contrivance of the main cast's ultimate survival, but the more clever choreography and aquarium juxtaposition taper off into nothing by the end of the film.

12. Gamera 1965

Being the first Gamera movie ever made and one of the most influential kaiju films (at the very least, Yongary seems to have copied this film's tonal inconsistency of designating the title monster as  terrible destroyer as well as friend to a child), it is surprising I have not discussed this in its own dedicated review yet. Personally, I find it quite hard to watch with its very abrupt storytelling and confusing character motivations of Toshio and his family, but it places here on the list because the image of Gamera catching Toshio from the lighthouse (as well as other scenes that support Yuasa and writer Nisan Takahashi's intent for Gamera as an icon to children) touched upon something that would go on to fuel the childlike whimsy of this franchise. Gamera 1965 is a movie at war with itself, with the studio Daiei wanting a darker Godzilla ripoff and Yuasa wanting to emphasize his childlike creativity; Gamera vs Barugon 1966 shows us Daiei's vision more fully realized, and Gamera vs Gyaos 1967 is the earliest film where Yuasa can show off what he wants to do unopposed. Both are much higher on this list so stay posted for my thoughts on those.

11. Gamera vs Viras 1968 (link here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-best-of-scenes-and-worst-of-scenes.html)

In my review of Gamera vs Viras, I emphasized the growing pains of the transition from early to late Showa Gamera with the decreasing role of series mainstay Kojiro Hongo and introduction of an American child alongside a Japanese one per AIP's dictates, and, consequently, this very uneven film is the best of the Showa series...and also the worst. It averages out to merely decent (there are more things done well here than in the original Gamera). Whenever I get to reviewing Gamera Rebirth, I will have to compare Viras' utilization there to his original film, so while I do not have much new to say on this movie now, it will get its time for fresh thoughts.

10. Gamera Super Monster 1980

Having Gamera Super Monster this high is an insane hot take; I understand that. Hear me out. While I enjoy the common joke that Gamera Super Monster, as a trashy clip show, makes the worst Godzilla films look like Shakespeare, that just is not true according to the way I am watching these movies. The two films before this on this list are intensely inconsistent, detrimentally affecting their value as stories and art to relay a theme, emotion or internally consistent script. Do I enjoy any of the component parts of Gamera vs Viras less than watching a dorky child try to impress three good spacewomen and an evil one? No, obviously not since I haven't talked about this one and only intend to reference it as scarcely as necessary, but this movie is consistently about Keiichi seeking an older sister influence, said arc justifying his interactions with the three good spacewomen and his naivety that redeems the evil spacewoman. Add in the genuinely good transitions into the stock footage segments and a great soundtrack, and it is better than several Godzilla films (but I should probably stop that train of thought before I incite a mob against me). If you want some literature to give you a newfound appreciation for Gamera Super Monster, pick up Constantine Furman's "The Unoffical Tokusatsu Fan's Handbook For Gamera Super Monster" (link here: https://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Tokusatsu-Handbook-GAMERA-MONSTER/dp/B097VBGYTL).

9. Gamera vs Jiger 1970

I feel kind of bad having this film this low since, though I have not yet had the opportunity to talk about it, I genuinely think this is one of the best Showa Gamera films and a darn fine Showa kaiju film in general. Because I mentioned that Vs Viras is an awkward intermediary stage between early and late Showa Gamera, I should probably expound on how I would characterize both halves of this era. Just like with Showa Godzilla (where I would argue Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster 1964 exemplifies grounded but absurd early Showa with Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1974 carrying with it the tropes of goofy late Showa and Godzilla's Revenge being the awkward middle step where priorities reframed to children), the trajectory changed, and this film pays off the influence of Yuasa the best in AIP era Gamera. Yuasa's childlike creativity is best epitomized by the treatment of Jiger, a triceratops with an absurd amount of long range weaponry I can't even summarize efficiently that has been locked away  for a long time. But Yuasa tackles this daunting premise in a way only he can. So Jiger escapes her captivity, right? Immediately, she goes to take a long drink of water. It's so simple (this is the way a child thinks) but it helps to not only characterize the villain monster but also set the creative and whimsical tone. Throughout the movie, Jiger cycles through her absurd arsenal believably and efficiently, again in a childlike cycle: Jiger lands her attack, Gamera recovers, Gamera learns how to counter the attack, and then Jiger moves on to the next weapon because the other one stopped working. It is a simple formula, but this series' creativity thrives in simplicity.

8. Gamera vs Gyaos 1967

Though I am placing this film this low, I can understand and would defend any placement above this point; everything just genuinely comes together extraordinarily well: Kojiro Hongo is a very engaging hero, there is enough social commentary to keep the intersecting subplots and archetypes purposeful, and the influence of child character Eiichi on this plot helps to keep the sci-fi aspects simple and creative. Gyaos gets its name from Eiichi imitating the cry it makes (meaning the pronunciation regardless of how you spell it is probably meant to be Gy--oww-ssss as one syllable), and the explanation of Gyaos' head stiffness is a unique way to account for the limitations of suitmation. All in all, this is just a great example of Showa kaiju eiga and proves what Noriaki Yuasa and Nisan Takahashi can do when Daiei appoints a producer Hidemasa Nagata that agrees with their child marketing enough to write children's songs for them.

7. Gamera vs Guiron 1969 (read Doug Gibson's review here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/04/gamera-versus-guiron-was-fun-fare-for.html)

You may be thinking that this film has no valid reason to be this high, that it messes up incredibly easy dumb things like Akio and Tom's mothers not remembering that aliens literally invaded last film when they say that there is nothing left to be discovered in space. You would be kind of right. You may also say this a morbid trainwreck of a fairy tale, but I'd contest the label fairy tale when portal fantasy is much closer philosophically and by counting common tropes. Technically speaking, I am evaluating this film's placement with different rules than the previous ones, but that is because no one else seems to have considered the portal fantasy connections or the ones I can draw between this film and the teachings of Carl Jung (see my Jungian Analysis of Gamera vs Guiron here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-jungian-exploration-of-gamera-vs.html). Most speakers on this movie have some knowledge on how Noriaki Yuasa's psychology made it into these films, but the literary criticism stops there for some reason. All art is art, and, if any art deserves deeper in depth analysis, all art does. If we were just focusing on the craft and internal consistency, this film's placement would slip, but I also will point to the possibly unintentional way that this film transforms Gamera's stock footage into a very effective Jungian Answer to Job Christ figure. If the pendulum ever swings to favor this film intellectually, I will be more critical of it; as of now, I have the most fun being its most stalwart defender. If you want to hear a more dynamic presentation of this argument, you can visit our YouTube page, watch this podcast episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsnr2cNOm2c) and comment your thoughts.

6. Gamera Rebirth 2023

Despite poor viewership, I honestly think Gamera Rebirth was one of the best shows of 2023 (far better than the Skull Island cartoon anyway). It has the unique and unfortunate position as the revival for Gamera while kaiju reintrepretations are at an all time high in supply and Gamera's popularity is high among fans but low generally. As a kaiju/tokusatsu fan entering 2023, distributions of Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider were on the horizon as well as Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla x Kong, etc, and Gamera Rebirth pretty provably fell out of attention. But it somehow managed to thread together Showa and Heisei sensibitilies to be a love letter to this series, the Shin Gamera that no one seems to want to make. The 6 episodes each give Gamera a different opponent (Gyaos, Jiger, Zigra, Guiron, Viras and a really big mutated Gyaos called S-Gyaos) mostly in retrospect to each kaiju's film (the Jiger episode brings up the subplot from that movie of the military not trusting Gamera, and the Guiron episode is when the characters realize they cannot necessarily trust the adults, which is a major idea in that film as well). As such, I really will need to have fleshed out reviews for all the relevant movies to point to when I end up reviewing this show. Broadly, I can say this series builds up its characters really well because the templates of Toru (from Gamera the Brave), Asagi (from the Heisei trilogy) and Akio and Tom (from Gamera vs Guiron) exist and can be revised and shaken up for Boco, Joe, Junichi and Brody. The last episode is, by far, the worst one (something this show has in common with Johnny Sokko) because, given the explanation provided, S-Gyaos really should not exist (if Viras can absorb dead kaiju parts while they are enclosed in a box, how did it fail to assimilate living tissue that had no plastic protection from his body?), and Joe, Junichi and Brody have barely any relevance during the final battle.

5. Gamera vs Barugon 1966

While I am mainly a fan of Noriaki Yuasa's Gamera vision, I cannot deny that Gamera vs Barugon 1966, the only Showa Gamera film not to feature Yuasa as director is really really good. It focuses on human greed and the collateral damage that causes as dastardly villain Onodera murders his friends and sics a kaiju on Japan because of his self serving greed. This is Kojiro Hongo's first Gamera role as the brooding protagonist Keisuke Hirata who deconstructs his own blame for these events and selfishness throughout the runtime. This film otherwise will probably assault the senses in a marathon: it is dark and edgy with bloody human fights that outshine the monster ones, the only child character is newborn monster Barugon, who Gamera drowns, and for some unknown reason, there is a shot that simulates oral sex when Karen licks Keisuke's blood from his arm at an odd angle. In retrospect, does this make sense as part of this series? No. But is it a great blockbuster achievement for Daiei? Yes.

4. Gamera 2. Advent of Legion 1996

For the 30th anniversary of Gamera, Daiei allowed Shusuke Kaneko and Kazunori Ito to reboot Gamera, and the ensuing 90s trilogy that places these next three spots on the list was born. There was some executive meddling in keeping Gamera's cuddly and childlike nature around and only incrementally letting Kaneko and Ito bring in their darker ideas, but, like an ouroboros, that meddling ended up clarifying how they wrote their story (i.e. building up Gamera as an obvious hero and then casting that in doubt as the stakes, building dread by showing Gamera getting scarier and scarier but still being on our side...for now). As the middle chapter in this story, Advent of Legion has to build the stakes from the previous film and provide something new and interesting. The worldbuilding of the Legion alien army is spectacular, being somewhat feasible pneumatic aliens that spread through pods. As I mentioned in the third part of my Godzilla x Kong review (https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-three-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html), I do take issue with a major contrivance toward the end that goes unexplained, namely how Gamera does defeat Legion. It is debatable if it actually ruins the cause and effect of the climax, but I do not like having to make inferences for a movie even if it has definitely earned that.

3. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe 1995

Talking about the Heisei trilogy comes far less naturally to me, but again I have nothing but praise for how this movie interprets its monsters, especially the villains where Gyaos returns for a sleek redesign involving better fleshed out science fiction and fantasy by delving into the origins for Gyaos (and Gamera), something that has only really ever had lip service paid. (For what it is worth, the plot point of the Gyaos turning on their creators comes directly from Gamera vs Guiron, if you wanted another reason to reevaluate any negative opinions on it.) To be concise, GOTU, AoL and RoI all have a different focus; this first part is a streamlined kaiju format that balances its plot and character complexities, Advent of Legion was very plot heavy, and Revenge of Iris will be so vague in the plot just to prop up its characters and themes more. What approach you prefer depends on your preference, but I will argue that RoI is superb enough to place above this, and Advent of Legion is flawed enough to deserve placement beneath this.

2. Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris 1999

I suspect later honest inquiry will find this to be the best Gamera movie of all time because Ayana's arc perfectly develops the moral ambiguity, revisionist ambiguity and mythological ambiguity that not only the trilogy up to this point but especially this film is building to in its climax . If you are unaware who Ayana is, I ended up going on a tangent about her in my Godzilla vs Kong review that is a better summary than I can give here (https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-godzilla-versus-kong-2021-remake.html). This movie, as I mentioned in my later Godzilla x Kong review manages to redeem the Deus ex Machina of Gamera's final attack on Legion in G2, and it uses the mythology of Atlantis, Gamera, Gyaos and now Mana (what allowed Gamera to kill Legion but seemingly also creates Gyaos if Gamera uses too much in any single dose) to tie together this trilogy's storytelling in a very satisfying way. The storytellling, fight scenes and character progression of Ayana as well as returning characters Nagamine and Osako are genuiney top tier, so there was never any question in my mind that this would be top 2. So what can be better than this?

1. Gamera The Brave 2006

Despite heavy ambivalence, I have chosen Gamera The Brave (original title The Little Braves, Gamera) to be at the top of this list rather than Revenge of Iris. In my defense, this is a close matchup. The debate for best human character in this franchise is always going to be Toru or Ayana, and, ultimately, which one you choose is going to depend on if you prioritize deconstructing the Showa formula or reconstructing it to be stronger in the modern era. (Like the Showa era, this film is about Gamera helping the development and survival of a young boy Toru, caring for him after his mom dies and while his neighbor is about to undergo a surgery, while Revenge of Iris was about a young girl trying to cope with her loss by destroying a very destructive Gamera.) The effects are impressive in both GtB and RoI (surpassed by both GOTU and AoL), and I think both scripts are near perfect. It will be a challenge to find a victor just focusing on either film because the strengths of each film are firmly rooted in retrospect (the flagship scene of this movie involves all the children passing off a magic rock to give to Gamera, which plays off of the series trope that Gamera is the Friend to All Children, while one of the most impactful scenes in Revenge of Iris features Gamera saving a random child seemingly accidentally, deconstructing the purpose that we apply to Gamera or gods in general in our relationship with him). But if you prefer slice of life character development to dramatic philosophizing, you may see what I see in Gamera the Brave that makes it the very best this franchise has to offer.

Hope you enjoyed this ranking and that you enjoy Gamera Day by watching some of the above films and show. Gamera Rebirth is on Netflix, and you can stream all the other Gamera films on Amazon Prime Video. Tubi, Pluto and YouTube should also have listings to stream for most of these films.