#222. 'Godzilla Minus One'
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The main event is Godzilla Minus One, the Toho entry that's become the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film ever released in America, and all three hosts are big fans. Sonny loves that this Gojira is played straight as a terror rather than a hero, singling out the minesweeper-boat chase as a Jaws-caliber set piece and praising the film's sense of scale in the Tokyo rampage even as he waves off the "karaoke bar level" melodrama as beside the point. JVL reads the movie as a Japanese national psychodrama — an explicit, liberal-enlightenment rejection of the Imperial "fight to the last man" ethos, with the cowardly kamikaze-pilot protagonist stalked by Godzilla in a structure JVL likens to It Follows, except the "sin" is cowardice rather than sex — and says he "liked it quite a bit," while lamenting a shortage of tentacles. Mike, hosting solo alongside Sonny and JVL, says the monster genuinely scared him from the opening deep-sea-fish shot onward and praises the creature design's callback to the original man-in-suit Gojira over the more generic CGI of the Matthew Broderick-era American version. Before getting there, the trio spends the first third of the show parsing the baffling politics of the Civil War trailer (Alex Garland's A24 movie), riffing on Jesse Plemons as Kirsten Dunst's husband, box office chatter about The Boy and the Heron and Hunger Games, JVL's enthusiastic pitch for the Dead Eyes podcast (with its John Hamm cameo and Tom Hanks "dead eyes" backstory), and a debate over subtitles versus AI-assisted dubbing. They close out with a detour into the notoriously bad 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla, its inescapable Taco Bell marketing tie-ins, and hazy memories of the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla cartoon and its sidekick Godzooki.
From the show notes
Go go Godzilla!
Full transcript
Mike00:00:00Welcome back to the Sub-Beacon podcast. I'm your co-host, Mike Warren. I am joined by, as always, by my two co-hosts.
Sonny00:00:35Get it together. Say your words right.
Mike00:00:38I stepped on it all. Who think they need a bigger box. Jonathan V. Lasttemps, Sonny Bunch. You know that reference? No? Yes? No? Okay. Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com. You can become a patron of the podcast. Get episodes every Friday morning. Join the conversation over at Patreon. It's Sub-Beacon.com. Come join us. Tell your friends, if you're listening to this, tell your friends to sign up and become a patron. We'd love to have you. We're going to be talking about Godzilla Minus One later in this episode. But first, what's going on? Sonny, should we talk about Civil War?
Sonny00:01:24Heavy topic. We try to keep it. I know. I know. We try to keep it. We try to keep it away from the politics on this on this show. But yeah, we actually I think there's no choice. I think we have to talk about it.
Mike00:01:33It's looming. It's I mean, it's coming. It's coming next year.
Sonny00:01:37It's coming soon. This spring, we're going to have Civil War. We're referring, of course, to the Alex Garland directed and written A24 film Civil War, which looks like a which looks like a classier version of this straight to DVD VOD movie called Bushwick. I can't remember. I can't remember. We did. But did we do Bushwick on the show, JBL? I don't think so. Bushwick is a is a is a movie that stars Dave, Dave Bautista as like a guy living in Brooklyn or I guess Bushwick. Yeah. And he there's there's like a there's like an actual Civil War going on raging around America and the the Southern hordes invade New York. And he's trying. And the gimmick of it was it was it's theoretically it's like made to look like it's all shot in one take, more or less. If I remember correctly, like 1917, similarly, similarly, maybe the whole thing wasn't shot to be like 1917, but it was but it's like a series of long takes, if I remember correctly. Anyway, not a very good movie, not a very good movie, and also has this very funny ending where the people of New York rise together with all of their arms, all of their guns and march on the the repel the like Mormon forces or whoever it is that has invaded. But so so Civil War from Alex Garland is like a. A classier version of this, because it's a twenty four stars of what's her name? Kirsten Dunst, Kirsten Dunst and Kirsten Dunst, his husband, Jesse Plemons, as well as some other other sundry folks. And it basically the voiceover of the trailer wasn't entirely clear to me exactly what the setup here was. But apparently 19 states have seceded from the union in the wake of a of Ron Swanson winning his. Third term as president, unclear exactly what the politics are here, but one of the things that is said is that the Western Alliance, which is led by California and Texas, who have teamed up. In a Batman versus Superman situation, I guess, to dethrone them and then also Florida isn't the Florida Alliance is is down there. It's hard to tell if they're neutral or if they are on the side of the Floridians.
Mike00:03:56You've already done more parsing than I thought was possible.
Sonny00:04:01Well, it's wild. It's wild. So like this again, it looks like. The way this is kind of set up to look like, and I'm hoping it's not quite this obvious, is that it is like a boomer lib fever dream of like. We got the religious president in the White House and he's doing all the best. I hope it's like something totally psychotic, like a president. A president takes the third term and in so doing both seizes everybody's arms and shuts down all the Planned Parenthood's and he does all this while passing Medicare for all, which is, you know, how he got elected by promising a real, but, you know, promising health care
JVL00:04:44for like which side in this is the bad guy conservative side, though, because that's what I don't understand. We have President Ron Swanson, third term, bloodthirsty. An autocrat. And then we also have like Florida, Texas, Southern Alliance marching on Washington. Exactly.
Sonny00:05:05I'm saying that this is this is why we got to see the movie to understand. But and this is frankly what I'm most excited for. Alex Garland, who, again, I like a great deal. Alex Garland's movies with Danny Boyle include 28 Days Later and Sunshine, and they are great. I love them. He wrote and produced and is like credited by people as being. More or less the the secret director of Dread, the Judge Dread reboot that came out about a decade ago now. And also he made Ex Machina, which I liked a lot. Annihilation, which I thought was OK. And Men, which I think is is it's like a response to me to and stuff and is just a disaster. And I'm I'm kind of worried that this is trending more towards men than Ex Machina. But, you know, you never know. No, I again, the thing I'm most interested in is I want to see what this British movies author and director has come up with to create a scenario in which, again, Texas and California have kind of teamed up with Florida and some like states in the middle of the country to march on Washington and depose.
Mike00:06:12Is there so is it could it be possibly is there some sort of kind of pan Latino, you know, alliance that that is aligning these two giant maybe giant states?
Sonny00:06:24I mean, look, what what what would what would it take to get California? And Texas on the same side and like I like absent absent an actual literal invasion by Mexico, not like illegal immigrants coming. I mean, like an actual invasion by Mexico that was not repelled by the federal government that the states themselves had to put down. Like, I don't see I don't I there's no there's no universe in which that coalition really makes any sense.
Mike00:06:50But OK, but I want to dig down a little more into the to the plot. Or the or sort of what this movie is about, right? Because it follows Kirsten Dunst as a journalist, as a journalist, and journalists are shot
Sonny00:07:05on sight in the Capitol.
JVL00:07:07I don't know if you write to the president himself, right? The federal government are bad guys, right? Right in this, I think. And I guess also the Texas, Florida, California. I think they're supposed to be the good guys.
Sonny00:07:19You know, you know who is the bad guy here, JBL partisan division, division, division, division. It doesn't really matter. We're all on the same side.
JVL00:07:29And this is why we're all Americans.
Sonny00:07:31Well, as you know, Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst's husband. I like I really like saying that for some reason. I don't I don't know why.
Mike00:07:39Mr. Kirsten Dunst.
Sonny00:07:40Mr. Kirsten Dunst in the trailer asked what kind of Americans they are. And that that suggests to me that the real enemy here is division, our lack of unity, our lack of shared national purpose. That's the real that's the real problem.
Mike00:07:55Or the real enemy is all. All of us. I kind of I kind of I kind of go toward toward that.
Sonny00:08:01To be fair, if you're going to make me choose between Jesse Plemons, redneck hunter guy and Kirsten Dunst, annoying New York Times lib journo. I don't know which I'm going to pick here.
JVL00:08:11Depends on whether or not Kirsten Dunst takes her shirt off.
Sonny00:08:15Well, I didn't want to take her shirt off.
JVL00:08:17I'm in favor of the New York Times lib.
Sonny00:08:20Yeah, whatever. I don't know. I like I'm again, I'm mostly just excited to see how insane. And dumb. This is I'm also excited to see the discourse. As you guys know, I am a my favorite thing in life is seeing not a thing itself, but how people react to the thing. You're very like, I'm like, I'm like a second order watcher. It's not the thing. The thing is interesting, but the reaction to the thing is what's actually interesting to me. And the reaction to this thing is going to be insane because you have you have politics, Twitter, and you have film, Twitter, and nobody has worse opinions on movies than politics. Twitter. Nobody has worse opinions on movies than politics. Twitter. They have the worst opinions. And nobody has worse opinions on politics than film, Twitter, film, Twitter has the dumbest, most vacuous take on politics that you can imagine. And when you put those two groups together in a movie that involves politics and film and and civil strife, it's going to be amazing, guys. I don't I don't know what to tell you.
Mike00:09:15Might even call it a civil war.
Sonny00:09:17Well, no, because they're two. They're different. They're two different.
JVL00:09:20Oh, well, it's not Twitter. The biggest budget, a 24 movie ever. Because it looks like a big action movie. I mean, they're like jets dropping bombs and blowing up tanks.
Sonny00:09:32And yeah, but that's all CG buildings.
JVL00:09:34No, it is. But I don't remember a 24 ever having stuff like that in the movie.
Mike00:09:39It definitely once had a lot of special effects. Yeah.
Sonny00:09:43Everything everywhere all at once was like a pretty was a pretty mainstream sort of movie. But no, they they have you know, they tend toward low budget horror, low budget.
JVL00:09:53It's like a real studio film.
Sonny00:09:55It looks like it looks like a cheap studio film. It looks like it looks like it. I mean, again, I I didn't see anything resembling a real like vehicle in any of those trailers. That was all. And and like and a 24 is also undergoing. And look, we pull it back. I can turn off the sarcasm for a second and pull it back. A 24 is trying to move into more mainstream waters. So like just this week, the trailer for Civil War came out. Dwayne Johnson announced that he's making. His first day, 24 movie, a movie about some MMA guy. It's based on a documentary. He's he's playing the life of this, this, this guy. And also a the the Japanese director behind the game Death Standing and a bunch of and the Metal Gear Solid games. Hideo Kojima announced that he is bringing his the the the adaptation of Death Standing is going to be made by a 24. So. They are a Death Stranding, I'm sorry, not Death Standing, Death Stranding. They are moving in more main there. I think they're trying to they're trying to, like, expand their reach beyond what is the typical a 24 range at the box office, which is between five million and 15 million dollars. I talk about this all the time.
JVL00:11:16Why wouldn't they, though? Right. I mean, the studios are pulling back and making less content. There is a hole there on screens where people and why? Why wouldn't a 24 expand to fill that space?
Sonny00:11:29Because when you spend more money on movies, you have a chance of losing more money. I mean, this is this is the thing about a 24. Is it like the reason that they have been a success is because they make ten five to ten million dollar movies a year and you only need one or two of those to hit. And they make up they make most of them will end up making money if they sell foreign rights, VOD, streaming revenues, et cetera. Like they have been very much a low risk media. DM reward company, really low risk, low reward. Again, if you look at the list of highest grossing a 24 films, everything everywhere all at once is by far the highest grossing a 24 film. And that made 70 million dollars U.S. or something. Most of this could make more.
JVL00:12:11Maybe coming in the spring, people hype it up. I could see this getting like in spring where there's a hole, there's nothing else going on. It looks like an action movie. I could see this opening to 70.
Mike00:12:22I get I don't know. I saw this trailer. And was immediately depressed and had kind of no excitement in the movie itself. And that does not mean that that will be reflected among moviegoers. But there was something almost it's like, do I really? It was almost like. If somebody was like, here's the big movie about the pandemic. Like, I don't want to watch that. And that I had the same kind of feeling with this. Like, I don't want to watch a movie about the country being torn. Apart like that could be in our near future.
JVL00:12:57I got, you know, well, I should have made this thing with two endings, one of which the libs win and one of which the cons win. It's like just and just air them, though, in like the zip codes that map to where that ending would be and just advertise them differently. So every it's everybody's fantasy movie, I guess.
Sonny00:13:14So basically clue. That's what I'm saying.
JVL00:13:16It's a clue.
Sonny00:13:17Yeah. But for the but for American Civil War.
JVL00:13:20Yeah. All right.
Sonny00:13:22I do not think this is going to be a big. I'm just going to. I'm going to. I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say I do not. I do not think that this will break out of the like again, the high end of a of an A24 movie is typically about 20 million dollars. I would guess this does in the 20 million dollar range.
Mike00:13:38I'll take the offer.
Sonny00:13:40We'll see.
Mike00:13:41Anything quickly to say about Jesse Plemons, because like a he's popping up everywhere and he's so interesting because he's like he does not look like a movie star or even a like a popular movie actor. And yet here. It's he's like, well, he's not a movie star.
Sonny00:13:56He's a character actor. He's a character actor. I guess he's a bit he's a bit he's a bit he's a bit piece guy. He shows up in, you know, Killers of the Flower Moon at the end. He shows up in the way of the dog or I guess I'm just I'm just praising the dog. Whatever the that cowboy movie was. Yeah. He's he's in this movie, I think, for just a little bit or Game Night. You guys remember Game Night? Yeah, he's like he's terrific. He's he's good. I like Jesse Plemons a lot.
Mike00:14:26I like him a lot, too.
Sonny00:14:27I just sort of Damon as we call him.
Mike00:14:29Yeah, Matt Damon. All right. Well, I'm just praising him. All right. OK, let's move on. JVL, what's going on with you?
JVL00:14:36I want to share something with you guys that I discovered yesterday. A reader sent me an email. He said, look, a year ago, I told you to go listen to this podcast. It's called Dead Eyes. I'm positive that you ignored it because you're very busy and you don't have time to do it. But I am begging you to do this. Because you will love it. He said, it's got 23 episodes, but you can just listen to these nine episodes and that's all you really need. And and so I tried it and it's amazing. So it's an old show came out three years ago. Here is the elevator pitch. The show is written by Connor Ratliff, who is a very minor working actor. He does like, you know, he has a bit part in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He does commercials. He does. He does. He does. But the point is, he doesn't have to wait tables anymore. Like he acts and his acting pays his rent. So this is like already putting him in the top 95% of all all actors. 20 years ago, when he was a young actor starting out, he was cast in a bit part in Band of Brothers.
Mike00:15:45Yes, I've heard this story.
JVL00:15:47The day before his scene was to shoot, he gets called to come back and read in front of Tom Hanks, who's going to be directing his episode. When he does that, they then fire him, recast his role as they put in the industry. And the the reason given to his agent, which his agent then very stupidly tells him about when the agent should have just swallowed it and not said anything was that Tom Hanks thought he had, quote, dead eyes and being told that he has dead eyes basically sends him into a tailspin. And he leaves acting for like 13 years and like goes and works in a bookshop and then finally returns. Anyway, and this whole thing is about it's about excavating this moment, which is a moment that absolutely defined like two decades of his life and which is so inconsequential that nobody else involved in it even remembers that it happened and that these kinds of things happen to everybody, right? Everybody has something like this. You know, there was something. A teacher or a thoughtless person said to them when they were in middle middle school that just stuck with them, right? And made them change the way they presented themselves or, you know, or if you guys like us, we are not actors, but you're writers. We do a lot of pitching, right? And, uh, you know, submit a piece, the piece gets killed and that change. Anyway, it's just, it's about failure and resilience and it is so funny. And here's the weird trick. So this guy called Connor Ratliff. It's a very good writer, but somehow, even though this entire thing is about him and about this little minor incident in his life, it is never self-indulgent. It's just a really nifty trick of writing. And I think everybody would really enjoy it there. There's my pitch.
Mike00:17:45All right. So when you're done listening to the sub beacon, go check out a dead eyes, I guess.
JVL00:17:49Have either of you listened to it? It was definitely enormously popular, but I never heard of it.
Mike00:17:53I've heard him. This guy promote it somewhere, like maybe on a talk show or something. So I had heard about the podcast and, uh, but, but I've never listened to it.
Sonny00:18:04I have to say of all the people to tell you that you have dead eyes, I feel like Tom Hanks would be in like the top 1% of worst people. Yes. Like if like, if like nicest, nicest man in Hollywood, you know, like generally beloved by all.
JVL00:18:19Yes. That's part of what gives him a complex about it is that it's not some like shark, uh, you know, it's not less moon Vez who's like, you know, some creep telling him off. It's like, it's Tom Hanks, a guy that everybody loves. And also everybody reveres as an actor.
Sonny00:18:34You could just imagine Hanks sitting there and saying it to like, you know, like, Oh, the guy's got dead eyes. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. He's got eyes and like, and, and that would just make it a million times. I, that would, I would probably kill myself. But, but of course it wasn't meant to me.
Mike00:18:51It wasn't meant. It's not like he said it to him. It was not meant. It was meant for him. Never meant to get back to him. Right, right, right. That's that adds even more kind of complexity.
Sonny00:18:59The agent, the agent definitely should. Who is this agent? What is the agent on the show? Does he talk to us?
JVL00:19:05So I believe the agent shows up late in the show in one of the later episodes that he's able to get in touch with the agent, but like he talks to a casting director who he's friends with. He, uh, Darcy Carden, who people may remember from the good place, but he has a bunch of actor friends telling their stories about rejection. And how they dealt with it. Uh, he, it's great. John Hamm is on it because he and John Hamm have been buddies since they starred in a stage production production together when Ham was a college senior and he was a high school senior. So they've been friends since he was like 17. They're both from St. Louis, right?
Mike00:19:42I think.
Sonny00:19:43Yeah. Yeah. Both from Missouri.
JVL00:19:44And, uh, any, it's just, again, it's just fascinating, uh, and funny and wonderful. Dead eyes. Dead eyes. Uh, all right then.
Mike00:19:57Um, Michael, how are you? Oh, fine. Uh, it's, you know, people in the house are feeling a hundred percent for the most part. So that's good. Uh, no, no sick kids.
Sonny00:20:09Um, how'd you manage that?
Mike00:20:11Uh, cause they got it all out of their system last week. Um, you know, I don't feel a hundred percent, but that's okay. You know, who cares? Yeah.
JVL00:20:19Um, can only, can only hold out for so long.
Mike00:20:23Exactly. Exactly. Uh, no, I mean, it is, uh, there is really, it's that time before Christmas where there's like a lot to do. There's a lot to sort of plan for. There's a lot, um, to finish work wise and you just don't feel like doing any of it. And that's where I am at the moment. So, um, not great, Bob. Yeah, that's not great, Bob, but that's okay. Let's do, you know what, what I really feel. I like doing though, is talking about the box office. Hmm. I just feel like something was missing last week and the box office box office talk is what it was. And that's what I need right now. Uh, let's look at the box office. So this past weekend, uh, number one of the box office, the boy and the heron. The hell is this? I don't even know what that is. Uh, number two, the hunger games, the ballot of songbirds and snakes. I thought they made the hunger games movies already. Uh, and the number three, the movie we're talking about today, Godzilla minus one, uh, hasn't hunger games been out for like a month already.
Sonny00:21:32Yeah, it is fourth weekend and it's holding at number two.
JVL00:21:36Is that very good?
Sonny00:21:37It's, it's, it's, it's, it's fine. I mean, it's, it's fine. The thing is, there's just nothing. There's no other like big blockbuster thing out there except for what we're talking about today, which isn't in Japanese. And like, I don't know if you know this, people do not like reading their movies in the United States of America. We don't. We don't do that.
JVL00:21:54How much money did, did Godzilla minus one make?
Mike00:21:58Uh, the total, total gross domestic. It's, uh, over 25 million. And how much this weekend? Uh, eight and a half million. Okay.
Sonny00:22:06It's, uh, it's holding very well. I, the trolls three is also holding very well. Um, Beyonce's movie is tanking like a stone because Beyonce is a medium talent.
JVL00:22:17Um, but how much did the number one movie at the box office this weekend bank?
Sonny00:22:22Oh, this was a terrible weekend at. The box. So 13 million, 13 million, the boy in the hair, the boy in the hair.
JVL00:22:28What is this? That is boy endemic times level.
Sonny00:22:31The boy in the Heron is, well, I mean, this is always kind of a slow weekend anyway, but like, this is a, this is, it's a, it's a bad weekend at the box office. Uh, the boy in the Heron is supposedly the last film from Hayao Miyazaki, who's a very well-known Japanese, uh, animation legend. He's basically like Japanese Walt Disney is how I would describe him. He is, he is beloved.
Mike00:22:51And my neighbor Totoro and all that stuff.
Sonny00:22:53Was that, yeah, he made, yeah, he made Totoro spirited away, uh, house moving castle. Like if you, if you have seen an anime, that's not like, uh, Akira or, you know, dragon ball or something, it's probably a Miyazaki film. Um, uh, and he, uh, this is, again, this is supposedly his last movie. It's based. It's, uh, it's, it's, it's interesting to hear people talk about, you know, oh, this is such a great. Success. It's his first number one film in America and blah, blah. Yeah. The movie's putting up half a dragon ball. Like it's, it's, it's fine. Like $13 million is obviously a lot of money for a Miyazaki movie cause they're not, you know, uh, but it's, if you compare it to like what crunchy roll has been doing with their anime movies, um, over the last two or three years here in particular, um, it's, it's, it's a perfectly fine opening, but it's not like this amazing number. And like. Like Godzilla, Godzilla minus one is actually more interesting in a way because it is, it is now the highest grossing live action Japanese film of all time. Uh, and it is in America, in America and, um, and it is, uh, it is in subtitles. I think if you looked at the breakdown of, uh, dubbed versus subtitles showings of the boy and the Heron dubbed is probably outselling subtitles two or three to one, um, because I like, I, that is a guess that's a total guess on my part, but just looking at the, looking at the, I, I was looking at the seating charts the other day cause I was curious to see what was selling more. And at my local draft house, it was like, I mean, it was at least three to one dubbed versus subtitle. Cause again, American audiences, audiences around the world don't like subtitles. This is like, sometimes people look down on Americans for this. They're like, Oh, Americans don't like subtitles cause they're uncultured swine. They can't handle reading their movies. And like, that is, that's true, but it's also true around the world. Like if you go around the world, there's a, there's a voice actor who just does Tom Cruise question in like Japan. Yeah.
JVL00:24:59How close are we to having AI be able to alter just the mouth movements on the screen? Very close. So that when we get a Japanese movie here, if you see it dubbed, the, the voices actually match up with how their mouths move.
Sonny00:25:18We have the technology.
JVL00:25:20It seems like that's the thing we could do.
Sonny00:25:22We have the technology. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it work, not just in, uh, in post, but in real time. Now it's not perfect. Um, and you, you kind of have to, it does, there is an uncanny valley thing kind of, if you really pay attention to the mouth, um, it it's, it's not, it's not perfect, but it's, it's very close. The real question is frankly, how close are we to having technology that can not only change the mouth movements to sound like the, the native, the home language of the film that is being dubbed, but also. Make it sound like the actor, right?
JVL00:25:56So make that actor speak in English.
Sonny00:25:58That is, that's the, that's the bigger question. I think, again, I think it's actually pretty close. It's not, it's we're not, we're not far off from that, which I am. I like, I'm actually, I think that's great. I think that's great. And we should, we should pursue it because, because you are
JVL00:26:13not the Spanish George Clooney. That's why that's the thing.
Sonny00:26:15It's, it's going to put, it's going to put a lot of, uh, voice actors out of work.
Mike00:26:19Question though, but yeah. What is the big deal with subtitles? Why do people not like subtitles?
Sonny00:26:27People don't like subtitles because film is a visual medium. Sure. Film is a visual medium. So if you are watching not only what is happening on the screen, but also trying to read the words, your, your visual attention is split two ways. Your eyes are constantly darting back and forth.
Mike00:26:42You're focusing. I can, I can double, I can multitask.
Sonny00:26:45Okay. Okay. Dickhead. Uh, but the, but like the, the, the most people for most people who are watching it on a big screen, their eyes are going to going back and forth. Uh, they, they have to focus on two things at once. And they are, um, again, like film is a visual medium. There are things that are happening on the film that are not just the two actors talking to each other. When you're paying attention to subtitles, you're not paying attention to camera movement. You're not paying attention to the framing of the shot. You're not paying attention to what's happening in the background. There's you miss all sorts of things.
JVL00:27:16More importantly, you're not paying attention to the acting, right? So putting subtitles in it, me makes it. Absolutely impossible to understand the acting that's going on. Right? I mean, so much of acting is listening to how the actors use their voices with the words, right? The cadences and stuff like that. Once you're in the world of subtitles, all that's lost on you, all you're able to get from it. And it really is like you're getting 50% of a movie, right? You're, you're able to understand the bear plot mechanics, which are being fed to you through the script, but that's it.
Mike00:27:50I guess. I mean, I, I find, I find. I find these AI solutions though, to be so, I mean, literally artificial. I mean, like, like, like what are you getting out of that, uh, by listening to an AI generated dubbed, uh, I mean, you're not looking at actors and listening to actors act. You're, you're watching a computer.
Sonny00:28:12Well, so this is, this is why I think, I think a solution that might be settled on at least for a time is to have your, you still have the, uh, voice actors coming in. And being, you know, Spanish George Clooney or whatever. Um, but their, their words are then the, the mouth of the actor is then, you know, changed so that the words match Spanish George Clooney instead of having the mismatch between. Okay.
Mike00:28:38I guess I, it, it just seems, it seems like the subtitle option preserves the movie as it is.
Sonny00:28:47The subtitle subtitles are a necessary evil, but necessary evils are still evil.
Mike00:28:51I just don't see them. As evil. And I also don't, I do feel like I don't sit there and read all the time.
Sonny00:28:59Look at, look at, look at, uh, fancy pants. Mike Warren over here. It's sipping his tea. Oh, I'm sorry. Going to the draft house.
Mike00:29:06You guys not speaking. I would like, I would like one. I would like one Moscato please.
Sonny00:29:11And I will, I will drink it while I'm, while I'm enjoying my foreign cinema.
Mike00:29:20All I'm saying twirling your, your friend. I did not feel like in this movie that we're going to talk about. I did not feel like I was by the middle of the movie. I was reading subtitles. I was watching the movie. I was watching. I never stopped. Okay.
Sonny00:29:34I never stopped feeling it.
Mike00:29:35All right. All right. Is there anything else to say about the box office before we jump?
Sonny00:29:39Well, the box office on this movie is great. I mean, like this is, this is a genuine hit and I think people are a little surprised by it. And also it like is continuing. They're adding more screens, uh, this weekend. I think it's going to be 2,600 screens or something like that. It's at 2,500. Now, uh, which is, you know, good, good for the people are, people are showing up for it. I, I, you, you can't, you can't be doing something right.
Mike00:30:00Yeah. No, I agree. Uh, Oh, one more box office question I had. Um, what would things look like? I'm asking for a counterfactual here, but what would things look like if Dune part two had been released at this point? It's a great question. Thank you. It's a great question. I add things.
Sonny00:30:22I, I don't know because I am still very torn on, on Dune. Well, I'm not torn. I have a very specific thing feeling about the first Dune, which is that the first Dune is the movie. And I've talked about this before in the show, I think, but I, I really strongly believe that the first Dune, uh, was the movie that was most helped by the pandemic because I thought that movie had a pretty strict ceiling on box office that the people were going to show up for it. We're going to show up for it in theaters anyway, everybody else who was kind of curious but wouldn't necessarily have paid to go see it wound up watching it at home, which creates interest in the next one. Um, and I, uh, I, I think that they, I think we all, everybody who liked Dune really lucked out by all those deaths during the pandemic because, uh, if, if it wasn't for that, it was not a 100% sure thing that they were going to make the second movie here because it did because it did well enough by pan. It did good for a pandemic. If it had come out in not pandemic times, it would have done, I think about the same. And that would have been bad for a non pandemic movie is basically my, the, the short version here. So, so the question then is like, will the people who saw it at home and were like, oh, this is actually pretty fun and good. And I liked it. Will those people show up for the sequel? I think they will. I think it might pop. It's coming out in the, it's coming out in March in what is essentially the 300 slot, the 300. Like, I think there's a decent chance and it's going to be the first big movie to open in a long time. Yeah. I think there's a decent and the Zendaya brings people out. Zendaya is a huge drop. There's a reason I, and I know I've said this before. There's a reason that, uh, Wonka was not held by Warner brothers and Dune was. And because if you don't have Zendaya out there telling all the Zendaya heads, like I'm actually in this one. It's not like the first one where I was in it for like 10 minutes. I'm in this one and I'm going to be there and we're going to be doing things. If you don't have that, this movie suffers greatly because she is an actual draw. She is an actual big draw at the, at the theaters. Uh, so.
Mike00:32:34Okay. Uh, well, we're not talking about Dune. We are talking about Godzilla minus one. It's pronounced Gojira. Gojira minus one. We could call it Gojira minus one. Gojira minus one. Uh, Suddy, you want to give us a big boy review of Gojira minus one?
Sonny00:32:52Uh, so a lot of Gojira movies make a real mistake. They make a mistake in that they want to make Gojira the hero of the film. They want Gojira to be, uh, the, the savior of mankind. And you see that in the new, the legendary Warner brothers movies, you know, Godzilla and Godzilla versus Godzilla and King of the monsters and all that. Like Godzilla is a hero figure and a savior for humanity and et cetera. And there's a, there's a reason for that, which is that the, you know, Godzilla was such a, uh, such a favorite character in all of the Japanese movies that eventually they moved him into hero role because everybody liked to watch Gojira beat up on Mothra and King Ghidorah, et cetera, et cetera, Mecha, Mecha Gojira, um, et cetera. So like, uh, I understand that this movie does not do that. This movie represents, uh, Gojira as he originally was, which is as a terrifying menace. A terror, an absolute terror. And, and I, I guess I knew that he was the villain in this. I like, I was not expecting, but the, the opening sequence. So the opening sequence, uh, is set on the Island of Odo. A, uh, kamikaze pilot has come back to the Island without crashing into an American ship because he's a coward and all the people are saying, we can't find anything wrong with your airplane. And he's like, ah, what are you trying to suggest? And everyone knows he's a, he's, he's a coward. Uh, and so, uh. Uh, when, when Gojira appears out of the water, he is absolutely terrified. Just like thrashing his tail around, smashing things, stomping on people. It's, it's, it's awful and scary. And I was like, this is awesome. This is, this is great. I love this. Uh, I love watching Gojira tear things up. This is great. Uh, and this movie understands, set aside everything else about, you know, people are talking about the, this movie succeeds because it has actual human characters who have actual human emotions. And I'm like, whatever the melodrama of this film is fine. It's a, it is pure melodrama. There's not like, this is not a, not a, we're not, we're not looking at like, this is a
Mike00:35:01karaoke bar music video level. Yeah.
Sonny00:35:05But the, but the, uh, but the reason this movie is succeeding, the reason people are showing up for it is because Gojira is showing up and just smashing things to hell. He is just, he like, you know, so there's the early sequence. And then of course there's the bikini atoll test and he gets nude. He's got nuclear powers and he's big and he starts tearing up warships and stuff. He's just throwing them around like, like little toys everywhere. And he's got his atomic fire breath and it's terrifying. And, uh, there's a, there's a sequence. So I, I like, I don't know how much of the plot we really want to talk about here, but the, the cowardly kamikaze pilot becomes a mind sweeper. And as part of his mind sweeping, they come across Godzilla and Gojira is, is, is, uh, chasing after them on a boat. Like it's jaw-dropping. It's basically jaws, but got Gojira and it's amazing and it's terrifying. It's actually very scary. And then Gojira comes on land and like you get there, there are two basic camera angles for this sequence on, on land in, uh, Ginza, Ginzo, Ginza, Ginza, Ginza, Ginza problem. Uh, the, uh, what is from the ground looking up and again, terrifying because you're a little four, five foot person in Japan, looking up at the awful monstrous hundreds of feet tall Godzilla and his tails just swinging around and smashing buildings and he's stepping on buses full of nuns and it's amazing. And then, uh, and then the other angles from the top, you see them from, from the tops of buildings. Uh, and again, you just get the sense of scale that is sometimes missing from these movies. Like, I don't know if you guys watched the most recent Kong versus Godzilla trailer, but it looks. It, there's this awful, there's this awful shot where Godzilla and King Kong are like running together and they just look like, they just look like dudes running and it's
JVL00:37:01like, it's a buddy cop comedy.
Sonny00:37:02Now there's no size, there's no scale. This movie has size and scale. And again, I think that's why it succeeds. It also succeeds because it borrows very heavily from Christopher Nolan. I don't know if you guys really picked up on that in the last act or so, but there are very strong. There's the Dunkirk. Uh, tugboat the, the, the people sending the ships because the borrowing from Dunkirk,
JVL00:37:28the event is not really borrowing from Christopher Nolan, but also the dark night rises, the
Sonny00:37:37kamikaze, uh, mission that ends up with him getting the secret ejection instructions again, like very, very, and also of course, you know, the joke is that this is the sequel. To Oppenheimer because this is what nuclear man hath wrought giant Godzilla with atomic fire breath.
Mike00:37:58Anyway, uh, it's skeptical.
Sonny00:38:00It's all very well done. It's all very well done. And I, I enjoyed this movie a great deal. I don't think it's, I don't think it's great or anything, but I enjoyed it. Uh, I enjoyed it a lot. And again, I think, I think it really gets to something very important about Godzilla, which is that he's terrifying. He is. It's like, it's like a man of steel. You know what would happen if Superman showed up on earth and started fighting with. General Zod, that would be the scariest shit imaginable. And that is why man of steel is actually a great movie is because it captures what the actual terror of a, the Superman showing up on earth would look like. That's basically what this movie reminds me of. This movie reminds me of the awe inspiring terror of the last hour of man of steel.
Mike00:38:39And I appreciate that JVL. What did you think of Gojira minus one? I liked it quite a bit, but here's a very different reasons.
JVL00:38:50There are. American Gojira movies and there are Japanese Gojira movies and they are, they share a character, but they are totally separate genres. So in America, Gojira movies are disaster movies. Um, it is no different from, you know, the Godzilla or Godzilla versus Kong is no different from, uh, the Poseidon adventure or, uh, twister, any of that, right. Independence day or Armageddon. It's just, it's a, it's a big spectacle. There's this. Thing, it's a battle against humanity and then things look bad and then it all works out. Uh, in Japan, Godzilla movies are all national psycho dramas about like Japan's place in the world and the things that Japan has done and the things that have been done to Japan. And this is very much a movie about that. And it is. It ultimately is a reject. Rejection of Imperial Japan and the entire cultural ethos of Tojo and the emperor. And that, that's, that's what this is, right? It is.
Sonny00:40:03Yes.
JVL00:40:04It is quite, quite literally. Literally. Absolutely. Literally. Yeah. Yeah. And so to give a little bit more. So we have this, our, our protagonist is this kamikaze pilot who, who can't, can't do it. Right. And so he fakes a malfunction with his plane. And when he comes, this is in the waning days of the war. And when he comes home from the war, after his encounter with Gojira, uh, he is, you know, he comes home to Tokyo, Tokyo is leveled and his neighbor thinks that he is a coward and accuses him of being a coward because he shouldn't be home. Everybody's dead. Uh, it's, it's all terrible. And they begin the slow plot pro slow process of rebuilding lives in Tokyo after this. And. And this is freighted with honor and, and that sort of thing. And one of the things that's funny about it is that this character keeps hitting upon Gojira. And so like he's on the island when Gojira shows up the first time, then he's out on his mind sweeper boat. When Gojira shows up the second time, then Gojira comes into Ginza to kill his girlfriend. And I thought to myself, this is a little bit like it follows, except that the demon is Gojira and the sin is not having had sex, but it's having been a coward in your comic. And it's sort of as funny imagining it follows, but that Gojira, right? The thing that's coming after is Gojira and Gojira is going to destroy Tokyo, but only because it's coming after this one specific guy. Uh, anyway, but, but the, the dating mom, we'll just talk about this. The whole third act then is former military men coming together as civilians. Very pointedly as civilians, private, private effort, not, and in so doing, they explicitly reject the empire's view of the cheapness of their lives. And they talk about how, you know, making planes without ejection seats and, you know, talking about the defense of the home island that was supposed to be to the last man, right. Which was one of the things they were, and they just, they just utterly. Reject. And right. And the government is viewed as bumbling and lying and they all malicious malicious, actively
Sonny00:42:28malicious.
JVL00:42:29Right. Yeah. And, uh, I, I just found that interesting and fun and totally, so I'm sorry, but like,
Sonny00:42:38I, I think you're totally right on this and it is fascinating. I w I would read a whole breakdown of this from somebody who knows the history of the series and the history of Japan a little better than I do, but I know a little bit about it. And you know, the first. Godzilla is basically, it's basically like this is the horror that nuclear power has
JVL00:42:57wrought upon us. Nuclear power is terrifying us.
Sonny00:43:00It is. It is. We, we are the only nation in history to suffer this. And this is a manifestation of that suffering and we are, we are, and this movie is very, very different. Totally. Golgira is shown to exist before the nuclear bombing. He is, he is pre he precedes, uh, Hiroshima Nagasaki. He is granted. He has given more powers by, you know, the test in the bikini atoll, but like he is very much a manifestation of, uh, the, the, again, the evils of Imperial Japan and the, the, the, um, uh, the, as you say, JVL, the fight to the last man ethos, like it is, it is very much a, uh, it is the whole movie is very much a rejection of that, uh, mindset, but it's also. It's also an acknowledgement of it, which I think is important because I feel like, I feel like, uh, I think a lot of the times in modern discourse, we really kind of discount the Japanese fanaticism in world war two and the extent to which they not only were going to, but like we're expected culturally to literally fight to the last man Island to Island all the way to the home Island. And like. Uh, that's, I, I don't know what to tell you guys. I don't know what to tell anybody out there who, uh, is listening to this, but that would have led to millions upon millions of deaths, both military and civilian and like.
JVL00:44:37This is a very liberal movie in that way. Like this is, this is a, this is an enlightenment era movie, which, which wants to do away with the autocratic illiberal past. Yes. And project it in favor of like free markets and freedom and, uh, the rights to self-determination. Yes.
Mike00:44:59And, and, and even things like, uh, you know, the importance of building, uh, the domestic, uh, you know, Oasis, uh, away from all of, I mean, th th there's all that sort of imagery in it. Can I just say that the movie works on that level because it works on the level that Sonny was talking about? Totally. It is, it is first and foremost, a movie about Gojira coming to destroy and how fucking scary that is. And it is only, it is the, it is you peel back the onion layers to get the rest of this. And frankly, I even loved the melodrama, like the melodrama was, was so, was, was so unashamed of what it was, uh, that I just like even that level worked, but it, it couldn't work unless it took, uh, Gojira as, you know, seriously. And, um, this movie was scary. This movie was very scary. Like I, from like the very beginning when they show like the dead fish, like popping up on the, from the, from the bottom of the sea, that deep sea fish that rise up to the, to the surface. Like this is a movie that does a fantastic job of not only building the tension and suspense, but like when he's there, he's scary as shit to look at. Like the lighting up of the little scales pop out, right?
JVL00:46:29They pop out.
Mike00:46:30It's like, it's like, ah, and like every single, every single confrontation with him, I was like, I was like on the edge of my seat.
JVL00:46:38And I really liked the, I really enjoyed having it be small scale though, but for Ginza, right? So having like the, the, the best sequence is the sequence when it's the boat, right? I think Gojira versus the boat and they're trying to blow up the mine. Um, I really liked the creature design, especially his eyes because his eyes are very purposefully designed as a callback to the original man in suit Godzilla's and not, sorry, Gojira's not the modern beginning with the Matthew Broderick era where he's much more like just generic monster CGI. This is meant to feel much more tactile.
Sonny00:47:19Well, it's, it's interesting too, because there are. There are almost two, there are, there are almost two conceptions of God Gojira within the movie, which is the first one. He's much more fluid. He's, he's much more fluid and, and animal like, and he's, he's whipping his tail all around and like, and, and, and I, I feel like it's, it's when he, after, after in the second half of the film, after the, after the, he is irradiated, he gets more man in suit like yes, he's, he's a little bit slower and more lumber. And bigger when he's on land and water, he's still, you know, but it's, it's very much like it very much echoes that kind of man in suit field.
Mike00:48:00I think it's great. I loved the use of the, the classic Godzilla score, the classic Godzilla theme, you know,
JVL00:48:08it was like, as soon as that comes up, comes up, you're just like, like, hell yeah. We're watching the God Jira movie. Yeah. Love it. One, one. Disappointment. Yes. Could have stood to have a lot more tentacles in it.
Sonny00:48:26You want more tentacles? More tentacles.
JVL00:48:29I think this movie did not, did not have nearly enough tentacles. There was, there was a.
Sonny00:48:36Maybe some like bait, some, some, you know, some, you could send some of the. That's coming in God Jira. Women out there as bait.
JVL00:48:42Particularly there was a scene in which Noriko played by Minami Hamabe really, I felt like it really called. For her to be in a sort of tentacle situation. I mean, that that's what the subtext was calling for. And it, the director did fail to fail to go there. Didn't take the leap. Maybe in the director's cut. We'll get that. Although.
Mike00:49:08Maybe in the director's private cut of this movie. Yeah, no, it's. So I was thinking about this and then thinking about. So on the Alamo. Draft house pre-reel. They, I don't know if you watched it there, Sonny. They have all this great history about the series and the different eras in which Godzilla was made. And then they have this sort of very tongue in cheek, like, oh yeah. And then that, that 1998 American Hollywood version. And like the less we say about that, the better, but like, we should talk a little bit about how awful that movie was and why it was so bad. I mean. He's like. With Roland Emmerich.
Sonny00:49:53Oh yeah. That was Emmerich, Devlin.
JVL00:49:55Oh. But like. A little low point for them creatively.
Sonny00:49:59Yeah. Well, I. So. I. What happened? I asked Devlin about it when, when I had him on the show. I forgot. I'm like, and he, he just said something very funny. Like, I, the movie that almost ended my career. Like, I don't, I don't. But it's, it's a fascinating movie too, because they, I talked to somebody else about this movie. Kevin Getz, who is the guy who, who runs the. The market testing for ASI screen engine. And he, he, he's the point he made about that movie. It's, it's the only movie that Emmerich and Devlin did not screen test first. They didn't have time. They rushed to like. To. Yeah. It was like, they were like budding up again. So they just, they just put it out there and it, it was not, it was not a success.
Mike00:50:41But like this, this is the first. And so this comes out in 1998. So I was a kid when it came out. It was the first movie that I remember. I'm not saying it was. It was the first movie that happened this way. But the first movie I remember where the promotion of it was everywhere and I could not escape it, you know, from Taco Bell to.
Sonny00:51:02My dad had one of the big Taco Bell cup holder things that you put on the side of your window for years after that movie came out. Just because, I mean, how else are you going to carry around 60 ounces of soda. Exactly. Without your Godzilla cup holder. You have to have.
JVL00:51:15Do you guys have a theory as to why that movie failed? Do I have a theory? Yeah, I have one.
Mike00:51:22I think it's just not good.
JVL00:51:22Because it's not good.
Mike00:51:23Yeah.
JVL00:51:24It's not good. But my theory is twofold. First of all, because Godzilla is the villain and not the hero. And I actually think these movies do work better in America when Godzilla is the hero. But secondly, the marketing, which was all arrayed around the idea of we're not going to show you Godzilla because when you. See him, it's going to blow your mind. And the special effects did not deliver on that promise. I mean, I think that the marketing for this movie made it a very explicit promise to the audience. And the answer was Godzilla looks like a crappy CGI monster in the rain.
Sonny00:52:09Like that. He didn't. He didn't.
Mike00:52:11He was like he was like cut rate Jurassic Park. Like that. That's what I remember.
Sonny00:52:16Well, that's yeah. I mean, that's the other. That's another reason why this movie did fail is because. It came out five years after Jurassic Park and we're all like we saw it better.
Mike00:52:23Yeah, we saw it better in the lost world two years early. Like, you know, give me a break. Go ahead.
Sonny00:52:29I'm sorry. One thing about that Alamo Drafthouse pre-roll that I will take issue with is the suggestion that the Wallflower's Heroes is not a good song. Oh, that is true. I agree with that. That's a good cover. I like that cover.
Mike00:52:41I agree with that. The Puff Daddy song, though. Well, they can't all be winners. No, they can't.
Sonny00:52:46I would say this was also this was a movie that the soundtrack for it was like this. And the Crow soundtrack, I feel like we're two very huge, like soundtracks bigger than the movies themselves. Moment.
Mike00:52:58I could say you could say that for like for Batman Forever.
Sonny00:53:03Oh, yeah. Batman Forever. Ceil's Kiss from a Rose was in that. And that was that song was enormous. Yes, exactly. From a Rose.
JVL00:53:10But that song got him Heidi Klum.
Sonny00:53:14Sounds about right.
JVL00:53:15I feel like they started dating right after that came out.
Sonny00:53:18Maybe there was also a U2 song on that soundtrack. You hold me, thrill me, kiss me. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Mike00:53:24But it just I went back down watching after watching that, like the rabbit hole, like all of the promotional elements of it. It was just I think you're right that that that that JVL that like there was so much about like everybody's looking up, even in the Taco Bell commercial. The little chihuahua was like looking up like like and you're supposed to go. What could he possibly be? Looking at? And then, yeah, it just looks dinky and it doesn't look like Godzilla. That's the other thing. It's like, oh, yeah, you know, it just doesn't generic monster. Yeah. What is this about? Any other thoughts on Gojira minus one on this on the on the box office sort of surprises or anything else to say about that?
JVL00:54:10No, I just like to say that I I like both versions of God. I like. The Japanese psychodrama about what it means to be Japan version, and I also do like the monster disaster movie version we do in America when it's done well. And the first of the monster verse God Gojira's is pretty good. And the Kong versus Gojira is great. I mean, it's it's schlock, but it's great schlock and it's very satisfying and fun.
Mike00:54:47And, you know, the middle one King of Monsters is just.
JVL00:54:50Passable in the new one, Empire Rising or whatever it's called, looks terrible. But but the point is both can be good. They're just like good in different ways. Question like that.
Mike00:55:02Did you guys ever watch the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla? No television show. No. I didn't know this existed. Oh, yeah. I have no idea what this Godzilla was like. So it was like I feel like it was the eighties and Godzilla was like, this was like about these kids and they had like this kind of Godzilla's nephew. He was kind of the scrappy do to Godzilla Scooby Doo. His name was his name was Gadzooki. And oh, Gadzooki. Yeah, Gadzooki.
JVL00:55:33And do you remember this now? But I mean, it's it's hitting. I remember Gadzooki, but I don't remember. Tell me more. Trigger more synapses.
Mike00:55:41Oh, I'm trying to remember it, too. But like when I brought this up with my wife, she was like, I just remember the cartoon where they would call him like to come save the day. It was. Like, all right, we got to call Godzilla. And he would like rise out of the ocean.
JVL00:55:53Pick up the phone. Yeah.
Mike00:55:54It was like they had to do so. They're like, maybe Gadzooki did some. But Gadzooki was like silly and he would like he couldn't fly. Although, you know, he like tried to fly and all this.
Sonny00:56:02I was like, but that was Gadzooki like baby Godzilla.
Mike00:56:05Yeah, kind of. He was like he was like he was the scrappy do to to to Godzilla Scooby Doo. That's like that's the only way I can describe it. But I believe it was I believe it was Hanna-Barbera. Sounds right. And it had that kind of um, had that kind of goofy hero. Hold on. I'm going to effort this. Yeah. 1978 debuted and it continued to air until 1981. It was it it was called the Godzilla Power Hour because it had a half hour of Godzilla and a half hour of Jana of the Jungle. I do not remember that. But yeah, Godzook Godzooki, that was his name, Godzooki. So Hanna-Barbera, there you go. You know, this guy contains multitudes, this monster. All right, if that's all we've got to say, that's all the time we're going to give this episode. Join us at Sub-Beacon dot com. Tell your friends, leave a comment and we will talk to you next time.
Sonny00:57:10But I'm not better.
JVL00:57:12Yeah, you need more tentacles, more tentacles.
Mike00:57:18I I'm glad we restrained ourselves from from saying Gojira in in problematic ways because. Anime.
Sonny00:57:30Is it inappropriate to say Gojira? Do I? I don't think so. I don't think so. But like, that's how it's that's how it's sold in the Criterion Collection.
Mike00:57:37I know, but I feel like it's like the one step and there's like a couple more steps before you're like doing a racially insensitive voice just because the name is so unusual.
Sonny00:57:51I don't know if you want me to do it. I can do it.
Mike00:57:53I mean, no, it's fine. You know.
JVL00:57:58So, OK, I did. I did. I mean, why don't you tell us the name of the director of Gojira minus one?
Sonny00:58:04I don't even know. Hold on. I got to look it up.
Mike00:58:07Keep talking. Gojira minus one.
Sonny00:58:11So Kashi Yamazaki, we go, we go.
Mike00:58:15Were any of these I'm not a buff of Japanese movies, were any of the actors in the movie people that wish that that an American might know who like pays it pays attention to.
JVL00:58:30Oh, I think everybody in America should know about Nami Hamabe.
Mike00:58:34Ah, it's never Noriko Noriko Noriko Noriko Noriko. But like none of the other like none of the other people are like people that are sort of like should be on the radar. Right. I just find that the whole like Japanese film industry is just feel is kind of walled off from, you know, except for Godzilla. Like and I guess anime like we don't like I don't know in the way that like
JVL00:58:58there are certain Chinese actors, for instance, Ken Watanabe and that's right. Or the other.
Sonny00:59:03But he's in the Hollywood system, you know, like it's basically Haruki Haruki Sonata. That's like it. That's like number one, number one Japanese actor in America.
JVL00:59:14Number one lucky Japanese actor.
Sonny00:59:16If he shows up, if he if you have if you're making a movie and you're like, I need an older, regretful samurai figure, I got a guy for you. Everybody's in bullet train, right?
JVL00:59:27Every every actor of every Japanese actor who occasionally shows up in American films is actually in bullet train, including.
Sonny00:59:37The rookies, you know.
Mike00:59:38Yeah, so sort of like the Harry Potter for. Yes. Yeah. But like the guy who played Noda, who played like the engineer, like he's like, I was like, he looks. Familiar, but like, it looks like he should be somebody I know. But then I looked.
Sonny00:59:54Oh, he looks he looks like somebody. All right. You know what?
Mike00:59:57You know what? Cut it off that we've done enough of this show. We're we're we're closing it on 60 minutes. If we just cut it off now, I'm sure it'll be.
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