Japan's green monsters

McFarland & Company

2018

vii, 218 p.

9781476663906

Contents: Japanese Giant Monster Movies --Nuclear Terror and Radioactive Landscapes --Godzilla, Nature and Nuclear Revenge --Mothra, Marx, Mother Nature --he Decline of Cinema and Rise of Monsters --Daikaijū Gamera: Consuming Natural Resources --1970s Japan: "A polluter's paradise" --Smog, Sludge and Hippies: Godzilla vs. Hedorah --Gamera vs. Zigra: A Tale of Space Invaders and the Sea --The Bubble and the Beasts: Kaijū eiga of the 1980s --Rebirth of Mothra: Daikaijū and the Environment in the ­Post-Bubble Era --Prevailing Concerns in the New Millennium.

In 1954, a massive irradiated dinosaur emerged from Tokyo Bay and rained death and destruction on the Japanese capital. Since then Godzilla and other monsters, such as Mothra and Gamera, have gained cult status around the world. This book provides a new interpretation of these monsters, or kaiju-ū, and their respective movies. Analyzing Japanese history, society and film, the authors show the ways in which this monster cinema take on environmental and ecological issues--from nuclear power and industrial pollution to biodiversity and climate change.

Английский