Sunday, May 18, 2014

(OT) "Janjira Nuclear Power Plant" in Japan in "Godzilla" the Movie


Uh... Janjira? In Japan? Not India? The word doesn't mean a thing in Japanese. (Not to mention most Japanese cannot even pronounce "r"...)

That aside, my attention was drawn to minor details, as usual, in the trailers for the summer-blockbuster-in-the-making "Godzilla", which opened this weekend in the US grossing over $93 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

From Godzilla Official Movie Site, screen shots from "Extended Look" trailer:

"Janjira Nuclear Power Plant" in a town at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The town is supposed to be near Tokyo, even if it is this close to Mt. Fuji. A stereotypical nuclear power plant you see often in the US (but none in Japan) with vigorous steam rising from the cooling towers, like the one you see in "The Simpsons" or Three Mile Island NPP.


The plant seems to sit right in the middle of town. Why a nuclear power plant needs so many smoke stacks of different heights is a mystery to me. But take a look at the house in the foreground. Very interesting roof line, with fin-like structures like in a Buddhist temple in Thailand. The sky is blue, with "The Simpsons"-like puffy clouds, but there are two people walking by with umbrellas. The concrete walkway looks wet.


The plant crumbling like the World Trade Center building after an earthquake (which was in fact caused by a monster):


A closer shot:


But it was only a 6.3 earthquake (from Asia Trailer):


Godzilla's foe this time is a huge ancient creature who feeds on radiation, a "MUTO (or Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism)", according to the wiki entry of the movie.

Nice, sarcastic touch, intended or not. Muto is the surname of the vice president of TEPCO when the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident started on March 11, 2011. Mr. Muto gave daily and nightly press briefings in a small room at TEPCO's headquarters in Tokyo in the first week of the accident.

The impression I got from these trailers is that the movie is way too serious for the loose details. But who cares about details (except me)?

My favorite Godzilla movie remains "Mothra vs Godzilla" (Godzilla was a bad guy). Wonderful loose details galore.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good pick, Mothra I mean.
A funny detail your readers may not know :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_from_20,000_Fathoms
or
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monstre_des_temps_perdus
although it's quoted in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla

Phiphi

VyseLegendaire said...

"The impression I got from these trailers is that the movie is way too serious for the loose details."

ya think?

Anonymous said...

As far as my expererience goes, what Japanese people cannot pronounce is the letter "L", (only sometimes they might pronounce it unintentionally... )
But the R, like in Akira, or kuroi.... Maybe you mean the double R, which is funny because, as with the letter L, sometimes you can hear it but when ask to repeat it again they will fail..
About the movie,doesnt seem they even tried to get it right..who knows, maybe doing something more realistic would have been banned here, you know, hurting Tepcos feelings and that...

Anonymous said...

by the way, these matte paintings (the ones with the nuclear plant), and even the color grading , doesnt look very high quality for a Hollywood movie, at least compared to the trailer....

Anonymous said...

Love the "Japanese" house. A western ranch house with Thai curved roof gables, blinds which resemble paper screens, and a wooden property fence that you would find nowhere in Japan. Hollywood has not come very far since Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable..like Varan.

HuyenPham said...

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Unknown said...

The 6.3 earthquake was after the power plant incident; that was many years later. The trailer may have gotten it incorrect, or simply given a glimpse of two images in the movie which are not linked. That happens. A lot. The rest though, yeah. That's an American adaptation for you; thanks Legendary.

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