Month: October 2021

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Posted on by Paul Wilhelm-Aronofsky

What does the 90s superhit American sitcom Friends have to do with Godzilla? Absolutely nothing. But in a small coincidence, our story today starts with a man by the name of Matthew Perry. No, not Chandler, but a naval officer around the year 1853. Known as the “Father of the Steam Navy,” Perry advocated for technical education of naval officers and modernization of the US Naval fleet. Prior to 1853, Japan had implemented an isolationist policy, cutting off all trade from the outside world with the exception of the Netherlands and China, and then only through the port at Nagasaki. The reason being was twofold: they saw what had happened in China with the Opium Wars, fought over trade disputes, and how much British traders brought in contraband opium and the corruption of local officials. (The first Opium War was how China lost Hong Kong to Great Britain by the way). The other was to halt the spread of Catholicism, and if you thought Catholics were pushy today, it’s nothing compared to the Manifest Destiny days. By securing the country against outside influence and controlling trade, the shogunate hoped to preserve Japanese culture and prevent any individual governor from becoming powerful enough to overthrow them. That all came to a halt when Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into what would become Tokyo Bay on his badass upgraded steam-powered battleship, insisting a letter be delivered to the leader of the country at the time, the shogun Tokugawa. After being told to piss off and head to Nagasaki, Perry shelled some buildings and the letter was delivered, outlining demands for Japan to open up trade with the US. Perry returned the following year to sign a lopsided treaty ensuring favorable terms for the US, a result of the “gunboat diplomacy.” Seeing what had happened to China, and following this aggressive strategy from the US, Japan knew it had some catching up to do or else it would be weakened or destroyed by the West. Looking to the global powers of that time, they sought to emulate their models of advancement which included imperialism fueling industrialization. Still with me? Hang in there, this pales in comparison to the plot loops of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.

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Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

Posted on by Paul Wilhelm-Aronofsky

Long time readers will know how much I dig Norman Borlaug and genetically modified crops. His work on the Green Revolution using genetic engineering to increase crop yields has saved hundreds of millions of lives. By the 1980s, there were plenty of critics, and GMOs became, and still are, a cultural boogeyman. Critics derided it as “unnatural” and deemed it “Frankenfood.” As Borlaug once said “They’ve never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they’d be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.” He did take critics seriously though, as some claims held merit. The use of antibiotic resistant genes is used heavily in engineering, and if antibiotic resistance spreads into the biome, it could pose a major public health crisis. The fear of unexpected consequences in the field of genetics has been a common trope in science fiction from The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Boys From Brazil, to Jurassic Park and Gattaca. In updating the Godzilla series for the modern age, tapping into these fears was a logical choice, and fit the original anti-nuclear themes to a tee. While I personally feel the fears are overrated, Godzilla vs. Biollante is hands down my favorite of the series.

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