Shinji Higuchi
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Filmography
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Godzilla (2014)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
influenced Shin Godzilla (2016)
Themes Characters Visuals
In the wake of Roland Emmerich's universally derided 1998 Jurassic Park knock-off and Gareth Edwards’ better-received but still divisive 2014 effort, the king of kaiju returns to his Japanese roots for Godzilla Resurgence (Shin Godzilla in most of Asia), the latest iteration of the world’s favorite rampaging atomic monster.
Directed by Hideoaki Anno (the creator of Evangelion) and Shinji Higuchi (the excellent Attack on Titan ), Shin Godzilla might have been even better with a more 50/50 split on the political satire/monster mayhem, but it still puts a cool, inventive, modern-day twist on the whole concept of a Godzilla flick.
After the success of the 2014 Hollywood studio version of Godzilla (with a sequel on the way), it’s not surprising that Japanese studio Toho, which originated the long-running giant-monster character, would want to get back in on the action.
The pace and perspective with which he unpacks the governmental response to such a threat is so eminently watchable that it doesn’t really matter how chintzy and cartoonish the graphics can be (“Godzilla” has never really been on the VFX vanguard, but bad CG is a lot more garish than the sight of a man in a rubber suit stomping on a city of miniatures).
Working with a fraction of the budget that Hollywood CGI spectacles get, they have created scenes of frighteningly realistic destruction, with a beast that has evolved far from his “man in a suit” origins of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s 1954 original “Godzilla.”
"Shin Godzilla" reassures fans that their version of Godzilla is, unlike the equally tremendous 2014 American "Godzilla," the "true" Godzilla by including and expanding on themes from "Gojira" composer Akira Ifukube's iconic score.