{"id":10291,"date":"2011-05-28T11:18:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T00:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/?p=10291"},"modified":"2011-05-28T11:21:42","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T00:21:42","slug":"the-god-of-clay-forward-to-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/05\/28\/the-god-of-clay-forward-to-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"The God of Clay: Forward to the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new daikaiju eiga (Japanese giant monster movie) is about to make its world premiere next month: God of Clay<\/em> (Japan-2009\/2011; short [13 min.]; dir. Koichi Kawakita and Nobuaki Sugimoto).<\/p>\n

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God of Clay<\/em> is a short film — the last to be produced at Toho’s studio facility \u201cToho Built\u201d, before it was shut down due to inevitable changes in SFX technology from “old-school’ miniatures to CGI. Made by some of Japan’s greatest SFX monster-makers and produced by Marbling Fine Arts, the short film was a “labor of love”, using old-school 1960s-style monster film aesthetics by way of suitmation and miniature sets. Koichi Kawakita himself has been special effects director on many Godzilla films and Ultraman projects over the years.<\/p>\n

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According to SciFi Japan, God of Clay<\/em> was adapted from a children\u2019s picture book by author Masamoto Nasu (Children of the Paper Crane: The Story of Sadako Sasaki and Her Struggle With the A-Bomb Disease<\/em>), and features an anti-war theme — appropriote for a film following in the great tradition of the original Gojira<\/em> [Godzilla]. The story “revolves around a boy named Ken-chan whose parents are killed in WWII, and who creates a tiny clay god to punish those who profit from war. Fifty years later, Ken-chan has become president of an arms company \u2013 and his forgotten God Of Clay grows to enormous size, wreaking havoc and destruction until it confronts its maker.” (Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The World Premiere takes place on June 23 at the Bigfoot Crest Theater in Westwood, CA (near UCLA), as part of a double feature with the 1966 G-flick classic Godzilla vs the Sea Monster<\/em> — <\/strong>Nankai no daiketto [trans. South Seas Giant Battle] (1966; dir. Jun Fukuda) [aka Ebirah, Horror of the Deep<\/em>]. Go to the SciFi Japan website<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n

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