| Issue 14.07 - July 2006 Subscribe to WIRED magazine and receive a FREE gift! |
Crabzilla Takes Tokyo
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Rants + Raves
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START
- MLB.com levels baseball’s playing field
- The 1,350-hp, jet-turbine Beetle really flies
- Phew! The best apocalyptic near-misses.
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PLAY
- Sufjan Stevens’ avalanche of odes to Illinois
- A mecha makeover for Japanese monster flicks
- Online craft faire – Linux blankie, anyone?
- Meet your next favorite game guru
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POSTS
- Monk ebusiness
- Superheroes go ape for Stan Lee
- Lessig examines Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth
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The defining characteristic of Japanese monster movies has always been ultralow-budget effects. Spotting the man inside the rubber suit in Godzilla and other post-World War II kaiju flicks is half the fun. That DIY spirit inspired director Jun Awazu to update the genre with Negadon: The Monster From Mars, the first all-CG movie of its kind.
Awazu and his crew of 11 produced this 25-minute short in his apartment over the course of two years. The story follows a robotics engineer and his giant mecha as they try to save Tokyo from a lethal crustacean-like creature. “The biggest challenge was how to get a realistic look,” Awazu says. So he ditched unconvincing conventions like miniature sets and made Negadon entirely with off-the-shelf software such as 3D Studio Max and After Effects.
The film won raves in Japan and debuts stateside on DVD in July. Can we expect a feature-length version? “Making a 90-minute Negadon would require 10 times the staff,” Awazu says. “Is it possible to get that many reliable people?” More plausible, at least, than destroying a fire-breathing kaiju.
NEGADON’S NODS TO CLASSIC MONSTER MOVIESMOTHRA
Awazu’s most obvious homage is a slo-mo close-up of a moth flying into the living room of Negadon’s hero, Dr. Narasaki. Kaiju fanatics will immediately recognize it as a miniature version of Mothra.
GOJIRA
Just as in this original 1954 Godzilla film, Negadon’s characters follow the destruction on TV and in the newspaper. Both movies use mass media as a narrative device to advance the plot.
PATLABOR 2
Dr. Narasaki is modeled after Captain Yukhito Tsuge (left)
in Mamoru Oshii’s Patlabor 2.
He even has the same scar across his brow. The difference? Dr. Narasaki is the good guy.
- Brian Ashcraft
