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R.I.P. Original ‘Godzilla’ Suit Actor Haruo Nakajima
Before CGI came along and allowed for Godzilla to be brought to the screen in recent films like Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla and Toho’s Shin Godzilla, actors in costumes were tasked with bringing the massive monster to life. And nobody is more synonymous with the iconic character than Haruo Nakajima, an icon in his own right.
Today we’re very sad to report that Nakajima has passed away at 88.
The Japanese actor played Godzilla for 12 consecutive films, beginning with the original Godzilla in 1954. He subsequently played the character in Godzilla Raids Again, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah: the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Godzilla vs. Gigan.
The legendary Haruo Nakajima also played monsters in Mothra, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, The War of the Gargantuas and King Kong Escapes.
Nakajima retired from suit acting in 1972.
“She’s mine, and I’m hers.”
The prison movie is a cornerstone of the cinematic landscape. Often adjacent to horror, there’s something inherently horrific about a building full of “convicts” jockeying for power. Criminal masterminds and the wrongfully convicted alike become pawns in a dehumanizing system and struggle to stay alive in the restrictive environment. Claire Denis pushes this genre to its outer limits with sci-fi and horror elements comparing incarceration to the prison of the human body. Her 2018 film High Life follows a group of prisoners turned astronauts who struggle to retain their humanity after the world has cast them out.
When we first meet Monte (Robert Pattinson), he’s raising a toddler on an isolated space station in the galaxy’s outer reaches. His daughter Willow was conceived through assault by fellow inmate Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche) as a part of her mission to reproduce in space. As Denis unpacks the story of this troubled crew, they slowly realize they have been discarded and forgotten. Some find freedom to enact their violent agendas while others try to retain a semblance of normalcy in the extreme environment. Essentially guinea pigs, Monte and his crewmates hurtle through space and grope for a reason to keep existing.
The Lady Killers continue Killer Moms Month with Claire Denis’ beautifully complex film. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, Rocco T. Thompson, and Sammie Kuykendall chart the mysteries of the cosmos in their quest to understand the glacial plot. They’ll chat about screaming babies, space gardens, black holes and spaghetti along with heavier themes like reproduction and bodily autonomy. Why is Dr. Dibbs so obsessed with pregnancy? Why doesn’t Monte partake of the sex box? Does Mia Goth actually have a big booty and what really happened on that spaceship filled with dogs? They’ll approach the black hole and try to withstand spaghettification while zeroing in on the unpleasant themes of this exceptional film.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
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