Why Kaiju, Why Monsters?

The monster movie genre is a combination of many genres such as the disaster genre, science fiction, and horror. These movies are reflections of societal and political fears and anxieties, using spectacle sequences of destruction to convey their messages. As these movies were exported to other countries, filmmakers took the genres and created their own films that reflected their own socio-political fears and anxieties. The original Gojira is a symptomatic text to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Pacific Nuclear tests. Godzilla is a stand-in for nuclear weapons that haunted Japan as his destruction and powers echoed the power of atomic weapons. The human characters reflect the subversion of the genre as their roles reflected the anxieties of nuclear weapons. The roles of mad scientists are transformed into conversations about whether humanity can coexist with nuclear weapons and the consequences of continuing to experiment with technology that cannot be fully controlled. Understanding the original Gojira's historical and socio-political context is one opportunity for transnational analysis. 

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters is another opportunity for transnational analysis with the roles of importer and exporter being switched. A Hollywood distributor transforms the disaster movie into a generic Western monster movie. The context of Japan's relationship with atomic weapons is changed with America's own relationship. The human roles are also changed to be more in line with tropes familiar to the genre. Characters are used mainly for exposition to explain what is happening to the new American audience, cutting out mentions of Japanese fears of nuclear weapons. Serizawa becomes a martyr scientist who uses his weapon for the greater good, but the impact and discussion of potential consequences of such weapon are downplayed. The sympathetic characteristics of Godzilla are also downplayed and absent. Instead of a creature that is also a victim of atomic weapons, he becomes an obstacle and spectacle action set piece. However, both Gojira and Godzilla are only two points of transitional analysis.