Got any questions you’d like to ask the director of the new giant monster flick Reptisaurus?
Chris Ray has kindly offered Backbrain readers the chance to delve into the production and to satisfy their curiosity as to the film, where it came from and What It All Means.
Leave your questions as a comment here.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the production, check out the previous Backbrain links.
NEW! The official website for Reptisaurus has just been activated.
Much of the following is mere deduction based on Japanese websites (the text of which I don’t have the knowledge to decipher), the odd video clip and scraps of information found on forums. Hence the accuracy of the account is open to question.
I would welcome any corrections or additions.
Den Ace is a comedy character created by Minoru Kawasaki — director of such weird genre films as Ika resuraa [aka The Calamari Wrestler] (2004), Nihon igai zenbu chinbotsu [aka The World Sinks Except Japan] (2006) and the upcoming full-on daikaiju movie, Girara-no Gyakushuu Touyaku Samitto Kiki Ippatsu [lit. Guilala’s Counter Attack: the Touyaku Summit One-Shot Crisis]. Kawasaki is responsible for many, if not all, of the Den Ace short films.
A satiric, slapstick take on the Ultraman franchise, Den Ace tells of Den Hajime, an ordinary, not-overly competent bloke, who changes into a giant, 2000-metre tall superhero named Den Ace when he feels contentment. Den Ace’s motto: “His power is pleasure”.
Whenever a giant monster attacks the city, Hajime drinks a beer, or, failing the availability of beer, throws himself at a woman. The resulting sense of pleasure causes him to grow large and become very powerful indeed. Of course randomly making love to whatever woman is available at the time causes some tension between himself, his girlfriends and his mate, so beer is the preferred option. But whatever it takes! Heroes must suffer in order to save humanity from the monsters!
As far as I can determine, Minoru Kawasaki himself plays Den Hajime in the short films and sequences, which have a strange habit of turning up in unexpected places.
Above: Minoru Kawasaki as Hajime, transforming into Den Ace
through the pleasure derived from beer.
The Filmology of Den Ace
The original Den Ace TV shows apparently dated from the 1980s and early 1990s, with brand new episodes following in more recent times, including TV specials, straight-to-DVD releases and cameo appearances in at least one other movie. The episodes seem to be short — about 5 minutes — in duration.
I have no idea exactly how many episodes of the TV series there were, but here are the DVD releases I have managed to track down:
Ganso Den Ace (2001 release?): “Contains episodes 1 through 5 originally aired on TV in 1989″, and five newly produced episodes.
Zettai Yaseru Den Ace - Uchu Dai Kaiju Girara Tojo! / Uchu Kaiju Sho Shingeki (2007, title translates as something like Den Ace: “I Will Lose Weight”: March of the Space Monster — Giant Space Monster Guilala Appears): a short promotional film designed to showcase the director’s upcoming Guilala feature film).
Cameo appearance in Nihon igai zenbu chinbotsu [aka The World Sinks Except Japan] (2006).
In Nihon igai zenbu chinbotsu, the Den Ace TV show is an entertainment that has become popular among the Japanese in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe that left Japan as the only nation not drowned by rising waters. It is said that the show lightens Japanese spirits and expresses the native population’s growing impatience at all the foreigners now seeking refuge on their shores (see image sequence below).
Below are what appears to be a few of the short TV episodes:
And another (unconnected) episode:
Sources:
Kaiju Search Robot Avery
August Ragone on the Club Tokyo/Monster Zero Forums
As far as I can tell, Little Lost Sea Serpent (US-1995; dir. Donald G. Jackson) appears to be about a boy who finds a baby sea serpent and takes it home. What I want to know is, does a full-sized sea serpent turn up at any point? Or does the Little Lost Sea Serpent grow up in the course of the film?
Enquiring minds want to know? Has anyone out there seen it?
Vikings vs an alien creature, battling it out among the fjords! How cool does this sound?
An age-old battle rages amongst the stars. Kainan’s people have been fighting the Moorwen, fierce animal-like creatures, for dominance. When his space craft crashes into the fjords of ancient Norway, it’s with dismay that Kainan realizes that he wasn’t the only survivor. A second passenger, a Moorwen, also emerges from the wreckage and into the time of the Vikings, intent on causing harm to those it perceives have wronged it. As the Moorwen kills everything in its path, Kainan has to try and get the feuding tribes to work together long enough to destroy the beast before it destroys them all.
This is Outlander, an epic scifi fantasy directed by Howard McCain and featuring vikings, a crashed alien spaceship and a rampaging monster designed by Patrick Tatopoulos of Godzilla, Independence Day, Pitch Black, Silent Hill and assorted other big-budget monster design fame.
I was naturally wondering about the monster and whether it achieved kaiju proportions. The jury’s still out, but some of these conceptual designs are suggestively positive:
And because it looks so good, here’s a shot of the prow of the viking ship:
And one last image, of the alien spaceship’s arrival:
I’m looking for information on an independent Japanese film called Baguzu [aka Bugs], released in 1997 and starring Ren Yamamoto. It’s about giant insects.
In particular, if anyone knows who the director was, could you let me know?
On a site about King Kong, I came across mention of a film made in India in 1962 under the title “King Kong”.
King Kong (India-1962; dir. Babubhai Mistri)
The film is listed on IMDB, but a plot summary there, written by Michael Barnum, describes the film thus:
No giant apes to be found, but a fun Bollywood adventure film with some fantasy elements. Dara Singh rescues a village maiden (played by KumKum) from a giant dinosaur (!) and is given the name “King Kong” by the ruler of the land who also desires that the hero marry his lovely daughter, the princess. Wrestler King Kong appears as the previously bestowed “King Kong” who is none too happy to lose his title to the muscular young upstart.
As I’m unlikely to ever see the film, I would love confirmation of its status, vis á vis giant monsters; is it a Kong film or a dinosaur flick? If anyone reading this has seen the film, please let me know.
