Showing posts with label mecha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mecha. Show all posts
Japanese don't like Kaiju movies. They only made them for export.
They've had giant robots battling aliens up to here, thank you very much.
Actors were too old to be believable as child pilots -- not one had blue hair.
They've had giant robots battling aliens up to here, thank you very much.Yanks piloting Gundam-like mecha is Japan's worst nightmare.
Character names sound ridiculous in Japanese (oops! they sound ridiculous in every language).
First reports declared it Gainax's weakest-ever reboot of
Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Film did good in China -- too good.
Actors were too old to be believable as child pilots -- not one had blue hair.
Japanese audiences turned off by American habit of dropping atomic bombs on everything.
Here are some photos of a few Super Robot toys, all mid-1980s vintage, which some family left in a pile by their recycling. Someone had gone to the trouble to rebox the toys in their original compartmentalized styrofoam inserts, and cardboard boxes, but all the packaging was falling apart, and none of the toys I really looked over had all their original bits. So I settled for grabbing one boxed bot, and taking some photos.
One boxed Super Robot : DAIDEJIN
A 1984 Super Robot by Bandai America (Made in Japan) from their Godaikin series of Super Robots. Item #377033. This is a die-cast metal, transforming toy:
Unfortunately the box, which is in very bad shape, only included Daidenjin, and his two alternate "Big Punch" hands. So I'm missing the Denjin Sword, Denjin Boomerang, Denjin Ball, and the missiles.
According to the original price tag, the toy was purchased at Mannings, a chain of department stores in Hong Kong, and Macau, for $75.00. This one just sold on Ebay, last month -- complete in original box -- for $266.00 US.
Daidenjin, it turns out, is a mecha character from an ancient Super Sentai television series called Denshi Sentai Denziman (1980-1981), Power Rangers-like TV Show made by Toei, hence Toei's copyright credit on the box, along with TV Asahi, and M.C.G. Daidenjin ("giant electic man") was the first transforming robot in a Super Sentai series.
One boxed Super Robot : DAIDEJIN
A 1984 Super Robot by Bandai America (Made in Japan) from their Godaikin series of Super Robots. Item #377033. This is a die-cast metal, transforming toy:
"DAIDENJIN, the robot is transformed into DENJIN, the spaceport, with a few moves here and there."
Unfortunately the box, which is in very bad shape, only included Daidenjin, and his two alternate "Big Punch" hands. So I'm missing the Denjin Sword, Denjin Boomerang, Denjin Ball, and the missiles.
According to the original price tag, the toy was purchased at Mannings, a chain of department stores in Hong Kong, and Macau, for $75.00. This one just sold on Ebay, last month -- complete in original box -- for $266.00 US.
Daidenjin, it turns out, is a mecha character from an ancient Super Sentai television series called Denshi Sentai Denziman (1980-1981), Power Rangers-like TV Show made by Toei, hence Toei's copyright credit on the box, along with TV Asahi, and M.C.G. Daidenjin ("giant electic man") was the first transforming robot in a Super Sentai series.
[caption id="attachment_3338" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The American Jaeger Gypsy Caravan playing hide-and-seek with a Kaiju in Hong Kong.[/caption]
To be blunt, the actual movie didn't really start for me until about 20 minutes into the running time: The anti-kaiju wall is breached in Sydney, Australia. We get an exciting snippet of the Aussie Jaeger whupping a Kaiju in broad daylight!
When I say it starts, I don't mean it starts cleanly. This obviously finely crafted machine has been left in low gear too long, so it coughs, and sputters a bit as it revs up. When the Jaeger program boss Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) is trying, gruffly, to woo the American, former Jaeger pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) back into the Jaeger program, he caps his sales pitch with: "Haven't You heard? The World is comming to an end! Where would you rather die: Here, or in a Jaeger?" I thought dying in my seat at that low point would've been a mercy.
But then, The Marshall's personal assistant, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) finally arrives -- only 23 minutes late -- the gang's all here, and the movie begins to show real signs of life. The Jaeger program has it's back to the wall; all that's left has been garthered up in Hong Kong -- that's only four Jaegers -- the elegant Chinese Grab Hand, the very, old-school Russian Bucket Head, the macho Australian Rocket-Chest (Bustgunner was taken), and the swaggering American Gypsy Moth. Everything, and everyone connected with the Jaeger program is cooped up in something called the Shatterdome, which includes two wacky Kaiju researchers, a so-called "Kaiju-groupie," (Charlie Day), and his very pent-up boss, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman). I din't warm up to Charlie Day immediately, but Burn Gorman, Owen Harper from Torchwood, among other things, was a treat to watch from his first scene. The pair's interplay is good comic relief from all the histrionics.
Giant robots need dysfunctional people -- we know this, and with so many of them together under one roof, we get real emotional fireworks, and not-so-pent-up physical aggression, and several helpings of back-story trauma, until the movie finally, fully, roars to life with an incredible scene where Mako Mori relives her chilhood encounter with a Kaiju (played poignantly by Mana Ashida). The difference with Mako the child, is that Mako the adult is in a Jaeger with her finger on a plasma cannon -- wow!
The rest of the movie pretty much just rocks. It moves fast enough that you no longer have time to ponder the flaws and inconsistencies. The emotional intensity, and the scale of the visuals are finally in synch. The movie just flies. The final battle scenes -- progressing from bay, to port, to downtown Hong Kong are relentless, and breathtaking. One scene, in the city battle, which is already famous, culminating in a Newton's Cradle on a desk, should leave you gasping at director Guillermo del Toroo's skill, and chutzpah. Oh, and a mecha finally uses a sword to dispatch a Kaiju.
The climactic ending, was satisfyingly explosive, allowed the audience to see Mako Mori in her shiny black plugsuit one more time, and left everything up in the air for a sequel. Great stuff! Click the Mako Mori stills to enlarge them.
The American Jaeger Gypsy Caravan playing hide-and-seek with a Kaiju in Hong Kong.[/caption]Pacific Rim, if you haven't heard, is a recently-released, would-be Summer blockbuster film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring almost no one you've heard of, and released by Legendary Pictures. It tells a science fiction, action-adventure story built around two Japanese genres: mecha (Japanese for "kids in giant robots") and kaiju (Japanese for "guys in rubber monster suits"). Based on the trailer, and the track record of previous American efforts with anime, I was sceptical ►, and so, apparently, have been North American movie audiences ►. I've finally seen the movie -- three times.
To be blunt, the actual movie didn't really start for me until about 20 minutes into the running time: The anti-kaiju wall is breached in Sydney, Australia. We get an exciting snippet of the Aussie Jaeger whupping a Kaiju in broad daylight!
When I say it starts, I don't mean it starts cleanly. This obviously finely crafted machine has been left in low gear too long, so it coughs, and sputters a bit as it revs up. When the Jaeger program boss Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) is trying, gruffly, to woo the American, former Jaeger pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) back into the Jaeger program, he caps his sales pitch with: "Haven't You heard? The World is comming to an end! Where would you rather die: Here, or in a Jaeger?" I thought dying in my seat at that low point would've been a mercy.
But then, The Marshall's personal assistant, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) finally arrives -- only 23 minutes late -- the gang's all here, and the movie begins to show real signs of life. The Jaeger program has it's back to the wall; all that's left has been garthered up in Hong Kong -- that's only four Jaegers -- the elegant Chinese Grab Hand, the very, old-school Russian Bucket Head, the macho Australian Rocket-Chest (Bustgunner was taken), and the swaggering American Gypsy Moth. Everything, and everyone connected with the Jaeger program is cooped up in something called the Shatterdome, which includes two wacky Kaiju researchers, a so-called "Kaiju-groupie," (Charlie Day), and his very pent-up boss, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman). I din't warm up to Charlie Day immediately, but Burn Gorman, Owen Harper from Torchwood, among other things, was a treat to watch from his first scene. The pair's interplay is good comic relief from all the histrionics.
Giant robots need dysfunctional people -- we know this, and with so many of them together under one roof, we get real emotional fireworks, and not-so-pent-up physical aggression, and several helpings of back-story trauma, until the movie finally, fully, roars to life with an incredible scene where Mako Mori relives her chilhood encounter with a Kaiju (played poignantly by Mana Ashida). The difference with Mako the child, is that Mako the adult is in a Jaeger with her finger on a plasma cannon -- wow!
The rest of the movie pretty much just rocks. It moves fast enough that you no longer have time to ponder the flaws and inconsistencies. The emotional intensity, and the scale of the visuals are finally in synch. The movie just flies. The final battle scenes -- progressing from bay, to port, to downtown Hong Kong are relentless, and breathtaking. One scene, in the city battle, which is already famous, culminating in a Newton's Cradle on a desk, should leave you gasping at director Guillermo del Toroo's skill, and chutzpah. Oh, and a mecha finally uses a sword to dispatch a Kaiju.
The climactic ending, was satisfyingly explosive, allowed the audience to see Mako Mori in her shiny black plugsuit one more time, and left everything up in the air for a sequel. Great stuff! Click the Mako Mori stills to enlarge them.
Pacific Rim may also be starting slow at the box office. It seems obvious the film was built to succeed in the international market, but in large chunks of the world it still hasn't opened. It doesn't hit theatres in Japan, for instance, until August 5th.
[caption id="attachment_2666" align="alignnone" width="497"]
This film doesn't even have good stills! But click the image to enlarge it anyways.[/caption]
Blockbuster movies starring the Pacific Ocean have a poor track record. It's been little more than a year since audiences told Universal Pictures, "We sunk your battleship!" Now comes Pacific Rim, a science fiction, action-adventure film, set to open July 12. The trailers I've watched make it look an awful lot like Transformers, and Battleship, and Cloverfield, all rolled together -- and, did I mention "awful?"
This film doesn't even have good stills! But click the image to enlarge it anyways.[/caption]Blockbuster movies starring the Pacific Ocean have a poor track record. It's been little more than a year since audiences told Universal Pictures, "We sunk your battleship!" Now comes Pacific Rim, a science fiction, action-adventure film, set to open July 12. The trailers I've watched make it look an awful lot like Transformers, and Battleship, and Cloverfield, all rolled together -- and, did I mention "awful?"
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