This article challenges the notion that kaiju eiga as Japanese pop culture is all about darkness and pessimism in the apocalyptic imagination, derived from traumatized self-reflection under the shade of atomic weapons in WWII and the arms race during the Cold War, as well as the historical vulnerability due to Japanese geographical conditions. But it sheds light to the optimistic side of urban catastrophe and the pleasure that such apocalypses provide to audiences. The unrealistically expeditious self-healing quality proves such fictional destruction is merely a “secure horror”—the evil would eventually be defeated by concerted efforts—or the torn down buildings and screaming living beings are not always the emphasis, which seems to serve as a setoff to the power and scariness of monsters (ranking the capability of monsters in Ultra-man is a fun thing to do for some people). Rarely do audiences really care about the torture or reconstruction to the city. When they watch Tokyo being destroyed, they won’t associate it with their hometown emotionally because the offscreen regeneration is so rapid that the city will be intact in the next episode. On the other hand, the urban annihilation evokes a sense of “dark rapture” and “recreational fantasy” beyond reality. It resembles tremendous real luxury cars being crushed in Fast & Furious that excites some audience. Some producers and readers flavour magnificent visual spectacles of ruined civilization and firework-like mushroom clouds.
Chan Ue Yin Monique
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A good attempt at summarizing Tsuitsui’s argument on the monster genre in film, pointing out the optimistic side that Tsuitsui focuses on. Particularly you’ve pointed out the Japanese monster films’ ability to shift the pessimistic and fear of destruction into an optimistic point of view through the focussed depiction of the unrealistically expeditious self-healing of a destroyed city, the celebration of the collective efforts to defeat the monster, and evoking a sense recreational fantasy. Do you think this type of visual and appreciation of destruction are relevant now? Compared to the post-war Japanese monster films, how did the concept of destruction changed and evolved in monster films to fit our current context?