3 November: Godzilla

On this date in 1954, the first in the Godzilla series of films was released in Japan. It was directed by Ishirō Honda and was the most expensive Japanese film ever made at the time. The monster went on to appear in another 29 films, not to mention comics, games and TV ads for Nike, Dr Pepper and Snickers. Here are 10 things you might not know about Godzilla:

1. In Japanese, the monster’s name is Gojira, a portmanteau of the Japanese words: gorira ("gorilla") and kujira ("Whale"), since the original design concept was a cross between a gorilla and a whale. There’s a rumour that the monster was named after a rather large man who worked at the Toho studios who was said to be as big as a gorilla or a whale and hence had the nickname Gojira, but this story has been refuted by Honda’s widow.
2. Godzilla is depicted as a prehistoric sea monster which generates nuclear energy inside its body and uses it to make an "atomic heat beam" which emanates from its jaws in the form of a Blue or Red radioactive beam. As for size, Godzilla is getting bigger. In the 1954 film, Godzilla was scaled to be 50m/164 ft tall, so it could be seen over the tallest buildings in Tokyo at the time. As the buildings in Tokyo got bigger, so did the monster. In the 1956 American version, Godzilla is estimated to be 122m/400 ft tall so it could be seen over the new ones, and also because producer Joseph E. Levine didn’t think 50m sounded impressive enough for modern audiences. It’s estimated that Godzilla weighs 20,000 and 60,000 metric tons. In films, Godzilla has Grey skin but in comics, he’s usually Green.
3. The original concept was that Godzilla would resemble a giant Octopus.
4. Animation was considered too expensive back in the 50s, so in the early films, Godzilla was a bloke in a suit. The first suit was made of thin wires and Bamboo wrapped in chicken wire covered in fabric and cushions, coated in latex. It was held together by small hooks on the back, though later Godzilla suits had Zippers. The suit weighed over 100kg/220 lb, and they got heavier as time went on as mechanical parts were added; so playing Godzilla was a physical challenge. Add to that poor ventilation and visibility. One of the actors who played him was Kenpachiro Satsuma, who described how occupational hazards included Oxygen deprivation, near-drowning, concussions, electric shocks and lacerations to the legs from the suits' steel wire reinforcements wearing through the rubber padding.
5. Godzilla’s roar was made by rubbing a pine tar-coated leather glove over a double bass string.
6. Godzilla is one of only 15 fictional characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He also received an MTV lifetime achievement award in 1996, which was presented by Patrick Stewart, who said “We’ve all heard about his temper, about the people he stepped on on his way to the top. In this world of stars and superstars, it would be no exaggeration to say [that] he is the biggest.” Then, in 2015 he was made an official cultural ambassador in Tokyo and was presented with a certificate. However, the Godzilla suit used for the ceremony didn’t have grasping hands, so a studio executive had to accept it on Godzilla’s behalf. Finally, there is an Asteroid named after him – main-belt asteroid 101781 Gojira, discovered by American astronomer Roy Tucker in 1999.
7. The original inspiration was said to be an American film called The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Since the first film was released just nine years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those events would certainly have influenced the creators. Godzilla's skin was intentionally made to look like the keloid scar tissue many survivors of the bombings had. Godzilla's attack on a fishing boat at the start of the first film is thought to have been based on a real event where fishing boat drifted into fallout from an American atomic H-bomb test, giving the crew severe radiation poisoning. Hence Godzilla was a metaphor for nuclear bombs and/or the USA.
8. At time of writing, there’s a meme going around which says, “Sounds like thunder, but this is 2020 so it’s probably motherf**king Godzilla.” Should Godzilla actually show up, it’s probably worth knowing what the monster’s main vulnerability is. Basically, cold, Snow and ice. In several of the films he was defeated by being frozen or hit with a man made snowstorm.
9. Could Godzilla really exist? No, says Paleontologist Mike P. Taylor. Limb cartilage would simply not be strong enough to support a creature that size. The monster’s sheer weight would crush its limbs “like over-ripe watermelons”.
10. I’ll end with some amusing tales. Godzilla is known to be one of Stephen Spielberg’s influences for Jurassic Park and there’s a reference to it in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, as a T. rex terrorises San Diego. A Japanese tourist, running his life, yells (in Japanese), “I left Japan to get away from this!” Kim Jong Il kidnapped a Japanese director and forced him to make Pulgasari, a version of Godzilla especially for North Korea. When a Godzilla suit worth $39,000 was stolen from the studio, it was finally found washed up on the shores of Lake Okutama near Tokyo, but not before almost giving one female hiker a heart attack. And finally, there is a town in Washington state called Zillah. So there is a Church of God-Zillah, which capitalised on the name by erecting a wire Godzilla statue, holding a cross.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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